Ncsdis

BioWare NWScript bytecode disassembler.

Synopsis

ncsdis [<options>] <input_file> [<output_file>]

Description

ncsdis disassembles NCS files, compiled bytecode of the NWScript scripting language used by every single Aurora engine game, except for the Nintendo DS game Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. The output, while not as clear as the C-like source code that produced the bytecode, is human-readable.

ncsdis is meant as a better maintainable and more complete replacement of the disassembly mode found in the OpenKnights nwnnsscomp tool. As such, it fixes provides these enhancements:

• Compilable in 64-bit mode
• Out of the box support for all Aurora engine games
• Support for array opcodes added in Dragon Age: Origins
• Support for reference opcodes added in Dragon Age II
• Knowledge of additional variable types
• No need to provide an external nwscript.nss file

Additionally, ncsdis can create a dot file specifying a control flow graph of the disassembly. It can be plotted into a graph by the dot(1) tool of the GraphViz suite.

WARNING: these graphs can get very large very quickly. To keep the resulting image small, set a small font and font size when calling GraphViz, and decrease the nodesep and ranksep values.

Since there is no way to automatically detect for which game this script is, this information must be provided on the command. If no game is specified, the ACTION opcode that call an engine function, such as "GetModule" or trigonometry functions, will only display a number instead of a function name.

Options

-h
--help

Show a help text and exit.

--version

Show version information and exit.

--list

Create a full disassembly listing, including byte addresses and the raw bytecode, similar to the disassembly mode of nwnnsscomp. This is the default mode.

--assembly

Only create the human-readable mnemonics part of the disassembly listing. Useful for modifying and extending the script.

--dot

Create a flow control graph in the dot language, to be plotted by the GraphViz suite.

--stack

Print the stack frame for each instruction. Only available in list or assembly mode, not in dot mode.

--control

Print detected control structures inside block nodes. Only available in dot mode.

--nwn

Use engine function tables of the game Neverwinter Nights.

--nwn2

Use engine function tables of the game Neverwinter Nights 2.

--kotor

Use engine function tables of the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

--kotor2

Use engine function tables of the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords.

--jade

Use engine function tables of the game Jade Empire.

--witcher

Use engine function tables of the game The Witcher.

--dragonage

Use engine function tables of the game Dragon Age: Origins.

--dragonage2

Use engine function tables of the game Dragon Age II.

<input_file>

The NCS file to disassemble.

[<output_file>]

The disassembly will be written there. If no output file is specified, the disassembly will be written to stdout.

Examples

Disassemble the script file.ncs:

ncsdis file.ncs file.lst

Disassemble the script file.ncs and write the listing to stdout:

ncsdis file.ncs

Disassemble the Jade Empire script file.ncs:

ncsdis --jade file.ncs file.list

Disassemble the Jade Empire script file.ncs in pure disassembly mode:

ncsdis --assembly --jade file.ncs file.asm

Create a dot graph file of the Neverwinter Nights script file.ncs:

ncsdis --dot --nwn file.ncs file.dot

Create a dot graph file of the Neverwinter Nights script file.ncs and plot it:

ncsdis --dot --nwn file.ncs | dot -Gnodesep=0.1 -Granksep=0.1 \
-Gfontname="Courier New" -Nfontname="Courier New" -Gfontsize=10 \
-Nfontsize=8 -Earrowsize=0.5 -Tpng > file.png

References

• http://www.graphviz.org/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT_(graph_description_language)
• https://sourceforge.net/projects/openknights/files/NWNTools/