Most of you're aware of anti-hacks utilized for Sniper maps; for the most part these have all been countered by Oblivion and other maphacks at this point. We think we have a new counter to the current public version of the hack but if we release the map with protection that is substandard (everything public that I'm aware of), we might as well just tell him what we're doing to counter the anti-anti-hack.

Are there any very old or perhaps very new and private map protectors which could help to keep this private, and if not, would anyone be interested in making mods to the .chk file (I believe this is how it's done? Can't recall at the moment.)

Also, is this even worth our time, or will be it be a simple matter for him to detect the cause of the crash no matter what we do to hide it? It's rather pointless for us to release an anti-hack that's just going to be countered in a week or so.

Thanks for assistance,
FaZ-

If StarCraft can read it, so can Unused Unprotector, even if it manages to beat OS Map and OS Map 2. There honestly is no way, although there are other anti-hack methods, that use triggers, and that could easily get them, as they can't easily find the anti-hack.
Some of the anti-hack methods would actually be even better, as a few of the trigger related ones just crash when you see them on the minimap, like enabling disabled sprites, so doing it this way can crash them without even having to center the screen.

I was under the impression that Oblivion had countered virtually all of the doodad state sprite tricks... if this is not the case it's just a battle of attrition for us.

I'm not aware of how the anti-anti-hack works. My assumption is that instead of displaying the sprite that cannot be seen and thus crashes the game, it will display a different sprite which StarCraft accepts. If this is the case, would editing the doodad state of a ghost or ghost sprite in order to cause a crash be successful?

I doubt he'd be able to change the ghost, seeing as it's the only unit in snipers...

Basically, Oblivion is currently set up to make sure that when SC hits an invalid unit that it does not have an image, it doesn't print it, rather than crashing. So he doesn't brute-force in different methods, it's a pretty good blanket sweep, but he hasn't covered all sides, and so different methods, like disabled sprites, and other such things still manage to crash it, he's just managed to get basic crashing sprites and unused units to be covered.

I browsed through a lot of korean Naver sites and I couldn't find the protector they use to completely block off UU2 and OSMAP2... But Starforge said there are more triggers than 2048.

I don't think it was any certain protector, I'm almost certain it was just the map you found, otherwise we'd be seeing maps protected like that a lot more often.

To stop it, you must understand it.

(From what I understand) OSMAP works by isolating the corrput part (making it unopenable) and rewriting the rest of the map into a new file.

So, unless you can find a way to corrupt the WHOLE map, but make it playable, then theres not much you can do...

But, what I'm trying to find out right now, is ifthere is something that OSMAP can't move over, or when you open it, that thing is no longer there. Then you can add that thing into every condition, to make it very tedious to go in and delete that condition.

Well, Shadow Protector used Storm.dll to protect the maps, and that actually beats the latest version of OS Map, however, OS Map 2 allowed the option to open using Storm.dll, so it can beat it if you change that option to on, and Unused Unprotector beats it by default.

I have 2 of them - Athlit and WoE.

Zynastor is an amazing programmer, and I don't know of anyone who has better knowledge of SC's code than him. He can easily unprotect anything, not to mention anyone can with unused.

Zynastor knows a lot about Starcraft, and not Starcraft MAPS.

Go unprotect ATHLIT, Anon.

Edit: Perhaps we have a miscommunication? If you say he knows nothing about making maps, i would agree. If you meant he knows nothing about the unprotection of maps, i would disagree.

Zynastor has done nothing truly related to map making, he hasn't made any unprotectors, and at most just has figured out some things that crashed and blocked them.

The ignorance exhibited in many posts regarding the mechanics of protection is astounding.

You can't have "entire parts" of the scenario.chk file corrupt. Basically when the editor was created, the programmers made assumptions that certain values would be entered. Simplified, all a protector does is fill in these entries with values that are not expected by the editor so it causes an error when the file is opened.

Of course there are other things that a protector will do. For instance, PROEdit fills in empty trigger actions with comments referenced to random strings to make it difficult to make sense of the map if you do get it unprotected. Rearranging the sections is also done by many protectors which shouldn't throw too many editors off.

Removing a large amount of section data that is unused and wasting space (compression) is automatically done by protectors as well, and is what really throws the classic editor off (because the original programmers didn't expect it!).

All OSMAP does is look for values that would throw the editor off and change them. At the same time it cleans the sections up by deleting fake ones that some protectors add (doesn't do much), and rearranges them in the default order as written by Staredit. It fills out the compressed sections with additional data to make it similar to how it would have looked originally.

Basically, the only mainstream editors you are going to throw off is going to be Staredit and Starforge. SCMDraft2 is written in a way that it will open anything you throw at it, but detects to see if it is protected or not, and will fail to open it out of respect for protection.

Any protectors that slip by current unprotectors just use additional invalid values that the unprotectors looked over. Or they split the sections into multiple pieces.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 10 2008, 12:41 pm by MindArchon.

Wow that's interesting. Finally X-tra editor has become useful again. Maybe that will even make me try FartyEdit.
And you're saying nothing you ever gonna do is stopping X-tra (and possibly others) to open a map (as long as StarCraft can still read it)?

And to contribute to the topic: Reading MindArchons post it would seem pointless to try and find the "uber-protection" that is never broken. Everything you do to a map can be pinpointed and will eventually be added to the unprotectors.
So you could as well release your map and hope noone will care to crack it too soon.
But with that topic you could just have sped up that process inadvertently by bringing it to attention of one of those crackers.

Nude, I don't quite understand the question. Xtra and FartyEdit are all derivatives of the original Staredit (via modding, etc) which is the least resilient to map protection. Whenever I mention "Staredit", I am referring to any kind of modification of it as well.

I thought OSMAP and UU2 read the map like Starcraft would and rewrites the whole thing. I guess not.

Ah ok. I knew they are mods of the original Staredit. Just thought they had fiddled with the way it opens maps too.
Or isn't that possible through means of modding? Sry, I don't know much what is possible with modding and what not.

So basically there's only one editor around (ScmDraft 2) that could open any protected map, but it doesn't?
Ok well doesn't matter much. UU2 is yet to fail me. Would have just been more convenient to open such maps directly.

EDIT: I just tried to open a protected map. ScmDraft refused it but X-tra and Staredit opened it. wtf?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 10 2008, 3:46 pm by NudeRaider.

Why doesn't anyone read my comments about how you should try unprotecting ATHLIT or The War of Emperium with UU2??? It's pretty annoying that no one gives a fawk. >.<

In this topic? I don't see any instructions. (Neither do I have the maps)