Hello,

I know there are at least a dozen of map protectors out there and some unprotectors with that. My question is how can you protect your own maps without the use of any third-party tool? Can it be done manually? Which bits of memory do I need to modify/delete in order to get my map protected? I have analyzed both an unprotected and a protected version of a map with a HEX editor but I can't tell which part corrupts the file so that Staredit won't be able to open it.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Doing it manually really won't do much different than a protector/compressor would, it's a pretty easily automated system.

Yeah protection is not like a switch or an encryption.

Some smart people have analyzed map files and how they get read by sc and various map editors and devised methods to screw these editor's map parsers (map loading subroutine) without moving/cobining/whatever sections of the map that would make sc unable to read it.

So if you want to do it manually you'd have to analyze how map editors (and unprotectors) load maps and find out ways to confuse the algorithm, then check back to sc if it still can read the map.

you can probably just change one bit somewhere which will render an error in staredit. I had previously wanted to do this (just to keep pubbies for editing a map), but not from anyone who seriously wanted to edit it. Unfortunately, I think compression is the best way to protect a map now, and the only way to do that is with 3rd party programs.

haha, It's just out of curiosity really. Since there are different ways to protect a map, I thought it would be interesting maybe to develop my own.


How can I analyze that?
I assume it's not something easily done.


I tried that a few times but everytime I do it, it invalidates my map and I can't even play it.

I'd start by reading up on scenario.chk and MoPaQ. A .scm or .scx is really a .mpq, a storage format that in this case holds the scenario.chk and any .wavs you attach to your map.