/CH-Steg-Reader

Read the metadata from in-game CH screenshots!

CH Steg Reader

A program to read the steganography data contained in Clone Hero's screenshots.

Usage

Windows-only for now, at least until I work out some way to cross-compile it. Run it from the command line like so

> ch_steg_reader.exe clonehero-Angel-of-Salvation-20220422060015.png

and it'll print out the information saved in the image.

Arguments Action
-h, --help Print help information
-j, --json Output result as JSON (useful if you intend to integrate this with another program)
-r, --recurse Recursively check all images in directory
-v, --version Print version information

Frequently Asked Questions

  • When are you releasing the source code?

    • No.

  • Why not?

    • The Clone Hero dev team does not want the details of the steganography made public, which is fair enough. So no public source code. I've talked about it with Matt and he is cool with me releasing something though, so long as it's not something trivial to get usable source from like unobfuscated C#.

  • How solid is this as a means of proof?

    • Not as reliable as you'd like. The song hash does enable you to check the chart (it's the MD5 hash of the notes.chart or notes.mid file). But suffice to say there are ways to trick Clone Hero. If you want a stronger means of proof, look to ScoreSpy.

  • What versions does this support?

    • Principal testing has been on the PTB v3493 and v23.2.2, but I have put a bit of effort into versions since the first v22 release, which added the steganography. The latest version I've checked is v1.0.0.4080-final.

  • My v3075 screenshot is missing player data, why?

    • Clone Hero bug, nothing I can do.

  • My ancient v22 screenshot has lots of extra player data, why?

    • Clone Hero bug. I do not know if there is a reliable way to find out which score is intended, nor have I put any time into trying to work one out.

  • Any other relevant Clone Hero bugs?

    • Off the top of my head, early score-saving PTBs failed to add the solo bonuses to each player's score. I check on the version and handle this for you, so you don't have to worry about it.

Contact

Bug can be reported on the GitHub page or DM'd to me on Discord (GMS#5303).