Script obfuscating

[gc8 977]

Hey

I'm looking for free script obfuscating tool, does anyone know if such exists?

 

I need that so no one can steal my mission.

 

thx!

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

If you're that worried about protecting your IP you might as well get a lawyer handing out DMCA takedowns.

 

Cheers

[zagor64bz 1225]

52 minutes ago, gc8 said:

I need that so no one can steal my mission.

I always wonder why peoples are so afraid of others "stealing" their work/missions/scripts. If so, DO NOT PUBLISH IT!!!

Keep it for your personal use, or share it with trusted friends. End of story. The essence of Arma community is sharing things so you can learn.living in a bunker is not gonna make you a better person/scripter/mission maker.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Cheers, Zagor out!

 

[pierremgi 4852]

You're looking for a free script... Strange idea.

[Harzach 2517]

Just now, pierremgi said:

You're looking for a free script... Strange idea.

 

Exactly. "Gimme your stuff so no one can have my stuff."

[ProfTournesol 956]

Yeah. Moreover, obfuscating is a good way to hide stolen content.

[johnnyboy 3791]

gc8's code is already obfuscated from me as it is.  His OO scripts seem totally badass, but beyond my understanding!

 

Edit:  I had gc8 confused with code34.  Its code34's scripts that are beyond my understanding...lol.

[HazJ 1289]

Most of you are looking at it in a negative way. Think of all the FREE time we invest into making stuff. It isn't always that we don't want to share. As I help on these forums when I can and have released stuff. It is the fact that people come along rip, steal and claim as their own. Just because A3 has a community and a lot of people share, help, etc doesn't mean we aren't allowed to protect our stuff, within reason and within the license, etc. @gc8 - I don't know of any. I use my own private obfuscator to obfuscate the code. I then use ObfuSQF to "lock" the PBO. Additionally certain things are moved server-side.

 

https://obfusqf.com/

 

 

[gokitty1199 225]

6 minutes ago, HazJ said:

Most of you are looking at it in a negative way. Think of all the FREE time we invest into making stuff. It isn't always that we don't want to share. As I help on these forums when I can and have released stuff. It is the fact that people come along rip, steal and claim as their own. Just because A3 has a community and a lot of people share, help, etc doesn't mean we aren't allowed to protect our stuff, within reason and within the license, etc. @gc8 - I don't know of any. I use my own private obfuscator to obfuscate the code. I then use ObfuSQF to "lock" the PBO. Additionally certain things are moved server-side.

 

https://obfusqf.com/

 

 

commenting for later use

[Harzach 2517]

30 minutes ago, HazJ said:

Most of you are looking at it in a negative way. Think of all the FREE time we invest into making stuff. It isn't always that we don't want to share. As I help on these forums when I can and have released stuff. It is the fact that people come along rip, steal and claim as their own. Just because A3 has a community and a lot of people share, help, etc doesn't mean we aren't allowed to protect our stuff, within reason and within the license, etc.

 

This has been a point of contention on the forums for a long while, with a wide variety of motives driving the opinions being expressed. I think I understand where you are coming from for the most part. If you write a fairly serious piece of code that could drive a mission type or otherwise create a real impact on gameplay, it's fair to want to see that protected from abuse by the unscrupulous. I'm sure Tonic has plenty to say on the subject. But protecting the bits and bobs that a hack like me manages to assemble isn't worth the time or stress. I guess if you really see it as an investment of your time and intellect, you should find a way to legally capitalize upon it. Otherwise, it might begin to sound like "I want to share, but not with everyone." With the utmost respect to everyone here.

 

 

 

 

 

[HazJ 1289]

I share what I want to share, simple as that. Big projects that I work on for quite a long time on I usually protect and don't share/release, I just host them myself on public server sometimes. As I said, I do create things and share them as well as you can see:

 

[pierremgi 4852]

Usually, the best obfuscation is your own mind. I can't count how many times I thought: "why the heck I wrote these lines months ago".

Complex, sophisticated scripts are your best friends.

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

9 minutes ago, pierremgi said:

Usually, the best obfuscation is your own mind. I can't count how many times I thought: "why the heck I wrote these lines months ago".

Complex, sophisticated scripts are your best friends.

 

Cheers

[NeoArmageddon 958]

1 hour ago, pierremgi said:

Usually, the best obfuscation is your own mind. I can't count how many times I thought: "why the heck I wrote these lines months ago".

Complex, sophisticated scripts are your best friends.

 

This. One of my larger missions is played, hosted and downloaded thousand times per month and I have only seen slightly modfied versions were people exchanged weapons and units (allowed per license) but I never encountered someone who has ripped stuff out of the mission for use somewhere else. I assumeit is too time consuming to unravel all the modules, scripts and parts to make use of them in other missions.

 

The default "script kiddie" wants fast results, so he looks somewhere else. The serious modder writes me a PM with "Hey, I really like that one script in your mission, mind if you can send me a sandalone version?".

 

Also something that was not mentioned here, and in my opinion it is the biggest objection towards obfuscating script: In a few years you look for that one script you wrote back in A3 (maybe to use in A4 or something like that) but you can't find it on your HDD/backup. So you search it online, download it and unpack it. If the code was obuscated, you are out of luck. Releasing something is actually the second best backup method (after having a real backup of course).

[HazJ 1289]

16 minutes ago, NeoArmageddon said:

 

This. One of my larger missions is played, hosted and downloaded thousand times per month and I have only seen slightly modfied versions were people exchanged weapons and units (allowed per license) but I never encountered someone who has ripped stuff out of the mission for use somewhere else. I assumeit is too time consuming to unravel all the modules, scripts and parts to make use of them in other missions.

 

The default "script kiddie" wants fast results, so he looks somewhere else. The serious modder writes me a PM with "Hey, I really like that one script in your mission, mind if you can send me a sandalone version?".

 

Also something that was not mentioned here, and in my opinion it is the biggest objection towards obfuscating script: In a few years you look for that one script you wrote back in A3 (maybe to use in A4 or something like that) but you can't find it on your HDD/backup. So you search it online, download it and unpack it. If the code was obuscated, you are out of luck. Releasing something is actually the second best backup method (after having a real backup of course).

Yeah, if everyone did that, maybe I / others wouldn't feel the need to be so protective. I don't care for minor stuff but whole projects that I've spent so long on, I do. I always keep a backup, locally and on repos (private). Since my app doesn't reverse-engineer.

[Belbo 462]

54 minutes ago, NeoArmageddon said:

This. One of my larger missions is played, hosted and downloaded thousand times per month and I have only seen slightly modfied versions were people exchanged weapons and units (allowed per license) but I never encountered someone who has ripped stuff out of the mission for use somewhere else. I assumeit is too time consuming to unravel all the modules, scripts and parts to make use of them in other missions.

To be quite honest: I've taken countless inspirations from scripts from your escape mission. I'm always trying to give credit where credit is due and if I directly take something from someone, I will give credit or acknowledge and follow the license. But with an obfuscated mission script, I wouldn't be able to take a look at code that offers something that I might want to do and try to create my own version of it.

 

That's how I look at it: Protect your stuff with a licence, but don't punish the whole community because of some people who are too retarded to come up with something of their own. In most cases simple scripts will just not have something that the german Urheberrecht calls "Schöpfungshöhe" or... roughly translated... value of creation that justifies protection beyond copyright (models, textures and complex script structures excluded). Someone who still feels the need to scrumble his code, might suffer from a serious case of self-overestimation.

[HazJ 1289]

2 hours ago, Belbo said:

To be quite honest: I've taken countless inspirations from scripts from your escape mission. I'm always trying to give credit where credit is due and if I directly take something from someone, I will give credit or acknowledge and follow the license. But with an obfuscated mission script, I wouldn't be able to take a look at code that offers something that I might want to do and try to create my own version of it.

 

That's how I look at it: Protect your stuff with a licence, but don't punish the whole community because of some people who are too retarded to come up with something of their own. In most cases simple scripts will just not have something that the german Urheberrecht calls "Schöpfungshöhe" or... roughly translated... value of creation that justifies protection beyond copyright (models, textures and complex script structures excluded). Someone who still feels the need to scrumble his code, might suffer from a serious case of self-overestimation.

removed

 

EDIT: Maybe we don't want you to take, even if you credit. Maybe we just don't want to share because it is a good idea and want players. I know @fn_Quiksilver did this at first with his I&A Apex Edition. Maybe we just don't want to share it at all? A license with SQF code isn't gonna do much, at least I haven't heard anything about it. And by then, it is done. They took and shared already. People see "protection" and "obfuscation" instantly as he is not sharing with the community, cry, cry. That isn't the case, not always at least, and especially not with me.

EDIT2:  Should I go on to Server Monetization subject?

[Belbo 462]

The question is, if sharing is thought of as a value in itself (which it isn't, because it's about offering examples for further development from the community - sharing has a purpose that goes beyond just being nice), what's the value in itself of protecting viewing access to the code base of game scripts?

 

I mean, I get it if people don't want certain users to use their scripts - I don't like LIFE-like gamemodes, hence I add it to my licences that I don't want my stuff to be used on life servers. But I know that that's basically just a question of a subjective preference on my side. It's not based on something concrete, like monetary interests. But since a priori valid reasons for obfuscating something don't exist beyond "I don't like YOU changing MY stuff!", I can't see the reason for it.

[Harzach 2517]

1 hour ago, HazJ said:

lol. Clearly you didn't read what I said or maybe you don't have the brain capacity to understand that there is more to it than that.

Haz, I've been banhammered for less. Consider retracting and apologizing.

[HazJ 1289]

@Belbo - Sorry.

[Harzach 2517]

1 hour ago, HazJ said:

Like he indirectly called us retards?

No, he was referring to those who "borrow" code.

Quote

but don't punish the whole community because of some people who are too retarded to come up with something of their own.

 

[HazJ 1289]

Alright, my bad. Post edited, above. I still stand by my points about there being more to it. I just don't understand why people are so against it? I stated earlier in the thread that I release stuff and help. I even stated multiple reasons why I do it and maybe why others do.

[Harzach 2517]

It's a complex subject, and one that I can only truly approach from my own position, where it seems counterproductive.

 

There is no question that you are one of the good ones here, Haz. If you feel it's in your best interest to obfuscate some of your work, that's your decision to make and I can absolutely respect that. I think the practice gets a bad rap from those who gladly take assistance from those like you, and maybe even "borrow" code from other people's missions, but have no intention to be a part of this fine little community.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

5 hours ago, HazJ said:

removed

 

EDIT: Maybe we don't want you to take, even if you credit. Maybe we just don't want to share because it is a good idea and want players. I know @fn_Quiksilver did this at first with his I&A Apex Edition. Maybe we just don't want to share it at all? A license with SQF code isn't gonna do much, at least I haven't heard anything about it. And by then, it is done. They took and shared already. People see "protection" and "obfuscation" instantly as he is not sharing with the community, cry, cry. That isn't the case, not always at least, and especially not with me.

 

i typed a longer reply but it disappeared :(

 

but yes we stored many script components serverside to prevent re-hosting. we wanted a full 60-player server during development for balancing and tuning gameplay, and allowing re-hosting would probably have bled some of that community away. we ended up having a great community and a great 18 month experience and we were all sad when the time came to shut the server down, though running a community with hundreds of people does take its toll (and also takes away from dev time).

 

modders already get close to nothing for their time (from the users of their mods), and people who have run populated arma servers would understand how scummy the arma community can be with respect to modders time/effort. thankfully there are enough good people in the community to make it usually worthwhile.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

1 hour ago, Harzach said:

It's a complex subject, and one that I can only truly approach from my own position, where it seems counterproductive.

 

There is no question that you are one of the good ones here, Haz. If you feel it's in your best interest to obfuscate some of your work, that's your decision to make and I can absolutely respect that. I think the practice gets a bad rap from those who gladly take assistance from those like you, and maybe even "borrow" code from other people's missions, but have no intention to be a part of this fine little community.

 

we see this in torrents as well. 5 seeders and 50 leechers. the number of people who take but give nothing in return far outnumber those who give too