like removing the header files right? but how? thanks! :)
like removing the header files right? but how? thanks! :)
You could split the *.bmp into 2 seperate files then combine them at runtime (of course, deleting the combined file when the program ends).
Read file header data into a FILEHEADER struct and read the remaining pixel data into another object. Write the FILEHEADER to file one, and all the pixel data to file two. During your game's initiliazation read the data in from both files and then write it combined to a temporary *.bmp file. During your game's clean up routine delete the temporary *.bmp.
Oops! Forgot to mention the BITMAPINFOHEADER. You could either load write this struct at the end of your BITMAPFILEHEADER file or have it split into 3 files.
...or simply rename it to something like FILENAME.PIC, instead of FILENAME.BMP. This will stop the real noobs at least :)...
I believe the proper extension is .faq.
Seriously, go with jdinger's plan, it's probably the simplest and easiest to implement. Otherwise you could go with a slightly custom file format but that's more work.
you could add something like "123456789asdfghjkl" at the top of the file and take it out a runtime.
just give it a .DAT extension.
Windows does have a function called LoadBitmap() which makes the bitmaps part of the exe you could look into that. People still can press print screen in you are using BMP formated bitmaps so you would want to try some other format.
Windows is evil.
or you could do the technique that never fails
save the file in c:\windows\system with the extension being .ocx and some freaky sysfile name - like bgmsvxd32.ocx, use directory routines to get the file during exec
nobody ususally goes in that part of the woods ;)
accept that
1. People can look through recenlty installed files and find it also some install programs say which files are being installed and where.
2. If people loose the unistall program then the files will still remain there when they unistall the program.
3. There is something called a copy right which works better then any of those techniques.
4. Why would anyone want to steal your art anyway, thousands of games around the world have their art easy to "borrow" and they don't act all parinod.
5. It doesn't matter if you can stop the noobs if one person is able to steal your grafics they can just put it up on the web along with instructons on how to steal them. By making the grafics harder to steal people will just wan't to steal them more because they concider it a chalange
i think hes more worried about ppl editing his art, so in the game, they will look different.
That's understandable. I've heard of a couple of indy game developers (read: garage) that posted their games on their geocities/aol/whatever web site only to have some one change the graphics and re-release it as theirs. Both were put out as freeware, so it came down to more of a pride thing.Quote:
Originally posted by Flikm
i think hes more worried about ppl editing his art, so in the game, they will look different.
There is no real way to keep you graphics (or anything else) from being changed.
The best way to hide your images is to write them in as a resource when you compile your program. You could also place them into a DLL file and retrieve them as needed. The latter also makes it a little easier to make changes and updates.
...or make your own graphics file format... I did :).Quote:
Originally posted by Nor
The best way to hide your images is to write them in as a resource when you compile your program. You could also place them into a DLL file and retrieve them as needed. The latter also makes it a little easier to make changes and updates.
Sure there is. Your own file format (as Magos uses), for one.Quote:
Originally posted by Nor
There is no real way to keep you graphics (or anything else) from being changed.
There are also several ways to manipulate the original *.bmp to
keep it from being modified. You can either "carve" it into several
pieces (as I've explained above) then rejoin them as a temp
*.bmp at runtime (deleting the temp at the end) or you could do
the reverse and load several *.bmp's into your own file format
and then remove them to temp *.bmp's at runtime.
You could also try looking up some simple encryption/decryption routines. XOR's always good :)
fishybawb
Saving it as a resource wouldn't help, there are a few programs freeware progs that can extract resources from exe files.
just get some encryption one it, may take longer to load, but then again it is more impressive when your program takes a few seconds to load, people think they are getting something really cool.
...I hate loading times... Takes several minutes to load one level in Renegade... blesch...Quote:
Originally posted by compjinx
but then again it is more impressive when your program takes a few seconds to load, people think they are getting something really cool.