Softmod
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A softmod is the act of using software to modify hardware, such as video cards, sound cards, or game consoles in a way that can unlock or enable disabled features.
[edit] Video card softmods
Video cards that can be modified using software to faster versions (without regard to clock speed) usually contain mostly the same hardware. Softmodding a card should not include changing the video card's BIOS, as that is a BIOS flash. Currently only four softmods are known[citation needed], a Radeon 9500 NP to a 9500 Pro (128 bit) or 9700 (256 bit), a Radeon 9800SE (with 256-bit L-shaped memory layout on the PCB) to a Radeon 9800 Pro, a GeForce 6200 to a 6600, and a GeForce 6800NU to a 6800GT. The act of a softmod usually enables pixel rendering pipelines, though may also include other enhancements. A softmodded card may not always reach the same performance as the real card it has been changed to, but the difference should be very little; and generally not noticeable. The softmodding is not guaranteed to always work; sometimes the pipelines have been disabled for a reason, e.g., a defect that produces artifacts when enabled.
[edit] Xbox softmods
Softmod is also a term used to refer to modifying a Xbox without the use of a mod chip.
Softmods for Xbox used to include a font exploit installed through exploits in savegame code for MechAssault, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and 007: Agent Under Fire. Originally, via a piece of software called "MechInstaller" created by members of the xbox-linux team, an additional option could be added to the Xbox Dashboard for booting Linux. The Font-hack works by exploiting a buffer underflow in the Xbox font loader which is part of the dashboard. Unfortunately, since the Xbox requires the clock to be valid and the dashboard itself is where you set the clock there is problem if the RTC backup capacitor discharges. The Xbox will detect that the clock isn't set and therefore force the dashboard to be loaded which then promptly reboots due to the buffer overflow exploit. Upon restarting, the Xbox detects the clock is invalid and the process repeats. This became known as the infamous "clockloop".
Another exploit, released on the same day as the font hack, relied upon a mishandled music indexing file. The exploit is triggered by going into the audio menu which avoids the problem with the font exploit, though this produced problems for in game music, the extent of which varied from game to game. The Audio and Font Hacks are mostly outdated as Microsoft has made efforts to obsolete such exploits. The favoured exploitable dashboard (version 4920) in fact no longer even runs on the latest kernels.
A further exploit, colloquially known as "doubledash", solved the clock loop problem for the earlier kernels. It was shown that earlier dashboards loaded their font files from different locations to the later ones. A program that the dashboard launched (xonline.xbe) was replaced with an earlier dashboard. This meant the first loaded fonts could remain untouched, but when the xbox live tab was selected, the dashboard would attempt to run xonline.xbe. Having been replaced with one of the early dashboards, and with appropriate fonts in the alternate loading location, the font hack would run. When this was prevented, by having the dashboard check the xonline.xbe, an easter egg left within the dashboard was exploited. It was found that a secret easter egg would launch another program. Once replaced, this could act in the same way as the doubledash exploit.
Later kernels prevented such an attack, but it was found that during the xbox live update from an early dashboard, an intermediate dashboard would be loaded that wasn't blacklisted but was susceptible to all the same hacks as the original 4920. Not only this, but it was found that some exploitable programs that lay within it had alternate font loading locations. The potential was limitless, and this is from where both the now almost unanimous UXE and nDure softmods came.
With new technology and installers, softmodding has become an easy and reliable way to mod an xbox. It is now considered an everyman's solution to a modded xbox.
An alternative to softmodding is to actually reprogram the onboard flash chip in older revisions of the Xbox. On earlier models, it is possible to overwrite the stock BIOS with a modified one by using one of the gamesave exploits. However, Microsoft is more easily able to detect such softmodding due to the inability to disable the modified BIOS and also will ban the user's Xboxes (not their accounts) from Xbox Live.
All softmodding of Xboxes is considered a violation of warranty and runs the risk of rendering an Xbox almost unusable if not performed properly. There are still lingering questions of legality.
Softmoding guides can be found at Softmod Depot, and all required software tools can be found via IRC (#xbins on EFNET) or at Xbox Net or Eurasia.
