About protecting sprites and other image assets

C

clondy888

New member
hello everyone. I have studied openbor for three months, and now I am making an original game with my art friends, but I want to know whether the source code of borpak.exe can be provided I want to add a password to my game. I don't want anyone to get my genie or other image assets
 
Welcome to the community @clondy888.

Unfortunately, we don't have the source to borpack. Technically it has nothing to do with OpenBOR and AFAIK the source to that tool was lost before I came on staff.

We'd have to build a new one from scratch to replace it, but frankly that's never been a priority. There are lots of third party apps that can package up your module to make its assets inaccessible.

DC
 
clondy888 said:
I understand your work. Can you tell me what third-party tools are available?
Click to expand...

I'm not really the guy to ask. The only one I know of personally is Molebox and I've never actually used it. @DD Tokki and @bWWd both know more than I do about it. Hopefully they can chime in with some answers for you.

DC
 
Hi @clondy888
You can try a modified version of the Molebox developed by Sudachen.

github.com

GitHub - sudachen/Molebox: MoleBox lets you convert your application into an all-sufficient stand-alone executable, containing everything needed: components, media assets, registry entries.

MoleBox lets you convert your application into an all-sufficient stand-alone executable, containing everything needed: components, media assets, registry entries. - GitHub - sudachen/Molebox: MoleB...
github.com github.com

Molebox Virtualization

Molebox Virtualization : MoleBox lets you convert your application into an all-sufficient stand-alone executable, containing everything needed: components, media assets, registry entries.
sudachen.github.io

This app will mix folders+executable into one .exe only. The OpenBOR will not read packed game files in this method, but you can put the entire unpacked "data" folder inside the .exe and use an empty .pak file outside.

I don't know if there's a way to revert the process, but at least the Molebox app doesn't have this kind of function. So, I think that once the files are mixed, it will stay forever.


@DCurrent , this topic sends me to another question. Is there any difference in the game performance between packed vs unpacked files?
 
@Kratus,

No. Assets have to load into memory first either way, so gameplay performance is the same.

There might be minor load time differences, but we're talking about a scale of milliseconds.

DC
 
We are not interested in the PC market. We want to target Android users and some Linux users

I've been too busy in the past week. I'm sorry I didn't reply
 
@DCurrent,

Hello, dc I would like to ask where the engine loads the game in the code? Now we want to develop a set of tools for packaging and unpacking by ourselves. So we need your help
 
Last edited:
Molebox isn't a reliable tool anymore (and since long time), because there are many tools to open moleboxed stuff.
Dunno if they had changed it later, but molebox basically creates a hidden drive where it expands the content and read from there.
Once people figured this out, the tools started to pop up.
 
O Ilusionista said:
Molebox isn't a reliable tool anymore (and since long time), because there are many tools to open moleboxed stuff.
Dunno if they had changed it later, but molebox basically creates a hidden drive where it expands the content and read from there.
Once people figured this out, the tools started to pop up.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply. So we want to develop a set of tools by ourselves. Now I want to ask where is the entry for DC engine to load files
 
clondy888 said:
Thank you for your reply. So we want to develop a set of tools by ourselves. Now I want to ask where is the entry for DC engine to load files
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I can't do that for a couple of reasons. The following is going to seem harsh - I don't mean it that way, just being matter of fact:

First, asking where to find the loading code is like asking where to find the gameplay code. It's interlaced in multiple functions throughout the engine. There's no cut and dried answer I can give you.

Second, it's not possible to build your own tool without also modifying the engine to use it. In other words, you'd be building an unofficial OpenBOR offshoot. I don't personally support custom branches for a number of reasons.

Lastly, and the biggest reason, I just don't have the time. Between this forum and working on the next release (over five years overdue now) I'm at the absolute limit of my personal resources for OpenBOR. When the next release is out, I will look at adding support for secured modules. Until then, I would again suggest looking at third party tools. I only brought up Molebox as an example. I'm sure there are better ones out there.

DC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom