Don't always PushToConsole

[Phot0n]

I'm fairly new here and just got some of my own initial hacks working with help from the amazing source of information I've found in the forums. One thing I'm noticing a lot are unnecessary PTC in while loops so I thought I'd call it out since I noticed my CA would crash/exit until I fixed it.

Example of what not to do:

while(true) {
   PushToConsole("...");
}

Some of this can be mitigated by detecting if the Console shell exists before pushing a command to the LTC. This type of checking is always good:

void __cdecl PushToConsole( const char* szCmd )
{
	DWORD dwCShell = (DWORD)GetModuleHandleA("CShell.dll");
	if( dwCShell != NULL )
	...

Another case of the never-ending pushes that I see floating around the forums are when you set a flag based on a key-event (or whatever), and then either always push the command to be active or inactive:

   bool chams = false;

   while(true) {
	// Chams
	if(GetAsyncKeyState(VK_NUMPAD1)&1) {
		chams = !chams;
        }
        ...
	if(chams) {
		PushToConsole("SkelModelStencil 0");
	} else {
		PushToConsole("SkelModelStencil 1");
	}
	Sleep(100);
        ...
}

Those "Sleep" commands can only do so much, but you are essentially constantly pushing commands (either chams-on or chams-off) all the time. Rather, if you want something simple, then just do the command push and flag update on the key event:

while(true) {
		// Chams
		if(GetAsyncKeyState(VK_NUMPAD1)&1)
		{
			if(chams) {
				PushToConsole("SkelModelStencil 0");
			} else {
				PushToConsole("SkelModelStencil 1");
			}
			chams = !chams;
			Sleep(100);
		}
     ...
}

So far I've seen better hack success and less CA exit/crashes.

On a slight side note, I'm also seeing less exits when doing "Release" quality builds from VS2008 and packing the DLL through UPX.

Anyways, I hope this helps. If not, then... well... hello.

Regards,
--Phot0n