Protecting assets.jar?

Hello,

I noticed that you can easily open the assets.jar files with Winrar or another archiving tool which leads to easy access to the sound/model files of the game, is there a way to prevent this? I’m sorry if I’m asking a stupid question, I’m currently learning the ins and outs of the engine and how it works, so this puzzles me a bit on how it deploys its executable files. I would like to hear how you guys handle this issue. =D

Thank you for your time

Prevent, no make it harder, yes.
But this is more or less a basic java question then, basically you want to somhow encrypt that jar, and use a special classloader that encrypts it on the fly.

Eg xor all files with a specific byte, that way all standart tools will fail, and one has to write a custom tool to extract the data.

You can run around in a bullet proof west to keep people from killing you… Or you just trust the legal system. In any case, if somebody wants to kill you theres not much thats gonna stop him.

@Empire Phoenix said: Prevent, no make it harder, yes. But this is more or less a basic java question then, basically you want to somhow encrypt that jar, and use a special classloader that encrypts it on the fly.

Eg xor all files with a specific byte, that way all standart tools will fail, and one has to write a custom tool to extract the data.

I was thinking about something like this, but it would be to much of a hassle, like securing a 10 dollar item with a 100 dollar security system, it doesn’t pay off in the long run.

@normen said: You can run around in a bullet proof west to keep people from killing you.. Or you just trust the legal system. In any case, if somebody wants to kill you theres not much thats gonna stop him.

Ah, I see what you mean.

Thanks for your input guys, I had some misconceptions about the matter, thanks for the advice.

Your best bet is to sue the hell out of the first one trying to rip content from you, to establish a certain auro of fear for others ^^

@Empire Phoenix said: Your best bet is to sue the hell out of the first one trying to rip content from you, to establish a certain auro of fear for others ^^

LOL. :slight_smile: That never back fires, ever. :slight_smile:

also consider the fact that most people dont really want to rip off your game. “protecting” your ideas is big corporation mentality, not entrepreneur mentality. Most successful indie games are successful because they broadcasted all their ideas, not because they kept them locked away. People using your art assets (though i cant imagine why, maybe theyre in a real need of test assets?) are just promotion for you and your game.

@icamefromspace said: People using your art assets (though i cant imagine why, maybe theyre in a real need of test assets) are just promotion for you and your game.

Yes, there were incidents where games on the AppStore actually used the assets of another game but in the end that only resulted in the copycat game being kicked out and the sales for the original app rising :slight_smile:

@icamefromspace said: also consider the fact that most people dont really want to rip off your game. "protecting" your ideas is big corporation mentality, not entrepreneur mentality. Most successful indie games are successful because they broadcasted all their ideas, not because they kept them locked away. People using your art assets (though i cant imagine why, maybe theyre in a real need of test assets?) are just promotion for you and your game.

That’s a pretty good point. I’m pretty new to the publishing part of game development, so I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong, for example I never really considered any kind of DRM since in most cases it just pisses your fans off, and I want to have a relationship based on respect with my fans. I think I just got tunnel vision from hearing all the news about big league players suing the pants off of each other for the smallest things. To be clear, I never really liked this approach either, and it’s nice to see that there are people who still enjoying doing their hobby/craft for the sake of creating something new and interesting. You are all wonderful people, thank you for your kind advice :slight_smile:

´Just dont forget, if you don’t defend your intelectual stuff, you loose your some rights in certain countrys.

@Empire Phoenix said: ´Just dont forget, if you don't defend your intelectual stuff, you loose your some rights in certain countrys.

Trademarks have to be defended. Pretty much everything else you can be selective about.

…though taking law advice from jMonkeys is probably as good as asking a lawyer how best to generate normals for a mesh. :wink:

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If you want to be 100% sure, leave your original art with a notary.

@pspeed said: ..though taking law advice from jMonkeys is probably as good as asking a lawyer how best to generate normals for a mesh. ;)
LOL
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