How to lock/password protect mods?

[LeeC2202]

Sounds to me like "Security by Obscurity". No, I didn't invent that term, and it isn't directed to you. Rather to such an approach.

The technical term for that is obfuscation. Most J2ME IDEs (Netbeans, Eclipse etc...) have it as an option during the build process, it helps to protect your class files against being decompiled.

[Reinhard]

(click for bigger size)

I see. What an effort. Admire it.

Not so much admiration for not getting that it would need only one other skilled person, motivated. Analyzing this, and writing a few scripts to revert the process. If the game engine can understand such gobbledygook, a gifted brain could as well.

What I really admire is what people like Oleg (Zmodeler), another Oleg, Lexan, Av_mark and, last but not least, 50Keda did. The many, many hours spent to analyze how the closed SCS file formats worked. To support modding, and for the fun of it.

The technical term for that is obfuscation.

Sorry, I've left that building long ago. Speaking of times I remembered compiler or linker options. And understood what these are for. Can't say I miss it.

I was talking of the concept in a broader sense, though in terms of software.

[Mohegan13]

Why I lock my mods:

Because the majority of people that actually steal skins/work and try to claim it as their own are also dimwitted and can't figure out how or where to find unlockers.

Most of the people who do know how to unlock mods are also capable of making their own work, so generally aren't likely to claim it as there own any way.

There's always exceptions.


That said; what people do with my work on their own HDD for their own game is entirely up to them. I only take umbridge when people re-up my work and claim it as their own or "for their son".

[MacGruber]

Reef, ohaha and many more including myself have made some very popular mods that we've shared among our fellow ETS2 players and they have all been unlocked. We do it for fun and sometimes because we think there's a need of that particular mod. Of course, sometime you'll get a bit p*ssed seeing your mod being uploaded somewere elese were the uploader makes money from your work. But what a heck, this is all for fun so lets keep it fun

But some SCS's archives are locked (locale.scs for example)
so I will say that it's impossible to open them (but I'm not sure now, maybe there is a way of opening them that I don't know)

[Axel Slingerland]

Why open a two year and three month old dead thread just to say something you're not sure about? [ external image ]

Just kidding...

It can be done. Start Here and read the rest of that thread.

[marcel-dutch]

Hello everyone, Could anyone explain me how to make a protected zip and still keep it readable?.

Not and don't.
I hate it.

Why open a two year and three month old dead thread just to say something you're not sure about? [ external image ]

Whoops! I didn't read. Sorry

[MacGruber]

Why open a two year and three month old dead thread just to say something you're not sure about? [ external image ]

Just kidding...

It can be done. Start Here and read the rest of that thread.

Well. Everyone has a different knowledge. I know something that you may not know and vise versa...
"...you're not sure about?" as I tried to open SCS's archives - nothing helped (but I suppose, that there should be a way, nothing is impossible) - just an assumption

[bobgrey1997]

The best way to lock any file: create a locked profile on your computer and move the file to that profile's private documents, then never move it back or upload it to the web anywhere... Just leave it on that isolated lonely section of hard drive.
Better way: get a separate hard drive and put the file on it, then encrypt the hard drive so that it cannot be accessed...

[Reinhard]

as I tried to open SCS's archives - nothing helped (but I suppose, that there should be a way, nothing is impossible) - just an assumption

To really understand what this is all about you got to know a) some experience in programming and b) some basic knowledge about how archives (like ZIP) are done. Not necessarily in detail.

So if a) and b) is true for you, and you are interested, you will find some technical discussions about what is what on this very forum. With the help of google, better forget the forum search function.

If you aren't interested that much, the situation described in a nutshell: the files provided by SCS are stored in a different manner than the usual mod is. So the programs used for open classic mods simply don't know how to fetch data from them. Wrong format. The game of course can read both the open mod format (ZIP) as well as the proprietary format from SCS.

Some people have analyzed that new, proprietary format from SCS. And made themselves tools, for own mods not to be opened by others. So when you can't open a mod with WinRAR or alike, it is either stored in that proprietary format, and indicates an error. Or it is artfully damaged in a way that let any tool assume that a password is needed, and refuse any attempt to open such file(s).

[MacGruber]

as I tried to open SCS's archives - nothing helped (but I suppose, that there should be a way, nothing is impossible) - just an assumption

...
Some people have analyzed that new, proprietary format from SCS. And made themselves tools, for own mods not to be opened by others. So when you can't open a mod with WinRAR or alike, it is either stored in that proprietary format, and indicates an error. Or it is artfully damaged in a way that let any tool assume that a password is needed, and refuse any attempt to open such file(s).

I understand this, and I need that tool (if it exists in public access) - I want to find a string that will allow me to change a name of my truck