DRM Issues

How can i stop my exe simply being replaced with another rpg maker game's exe to kill the drm security? (armadillo)

Well if your talking about Steam DRM then your not going to get by that. Why would you want to get pass the .exe anyway? 

He doesn't want to get past the .exe - he wants to stop others from doing it to get around the DRM.

I recently got registered copy myself by E-mailing them first about how I can get/buy SoftwarePassport.


Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to stop people from doing that or at least I haven't figured out a way.

Wow.


That kind of DRM doesn't work if the original executable was easily obtainable.

There are ways around it, but those are also open to abuse.

That squirrel with a nut is right.


To really protect your game you would need to do it like what Blizzard did with Diablo III. Basically you would need to have a own server that somehow supplements all needed data for a client as needed which is also obviously super bad DRM solution due you can't play offline.

^This

Once you give the code to the client, you no longer have control over what happens.

Given enough time and interest, even things like Diablo 3 servers can be reverse engineered (legally even). That's how and why you see Everquest and SWG emulators here and there across the internet. I doubt they'd go through that much trouble for an RPG Maker game, but I'm also not sure a customer would go through that much hassle for an RPG Maker game.

Can't i somehow link my exe. to unique file? Which means when the .exe gets replaced the other file will notice it and corrupt itself?

It would work maybe against casual computer user potentially but one who understands how to get to folder and launch your game from there, not so much.

I don't know how you'd do it from within RGSS - I suppose you could make a 'wrapper' around game.exe.

There you could verify the checksum hash of the pertinent files.

That's just kicking the can down the road a bit though, since if they get past the wrapper they're in.

I know it was already discussed that the OP was trying to protect their own Game.exe file, and not trying to pirate RPG Maker software of a game created with it. That said, Steam DRM is laughably easy to crack in a lot of cases.

Now, in response to the OP - one method you might want to try is going the virtualization route. What this means is that you package the Game.exe file along with any additional files you'd like (for instance: .rxdata/rvdata/rvdata2 files) into a single executable file which unpacks the contents and runs them in memory without ever having to need those packaged files in your project/game folder.

Example Scenario: You take Game.exe and package the entire Data folder within it. You may now delete the Data folder, so that if someone replaces your Game.exe with another one, it will not run, as it will lack the scripts, actors, mapinfo, etc. databases. Your unique Game.exe will continue to run fine as it loads them from an embedded section inside the executable into memory when you run it.

So, how do you go about doing this exactly? Well, you'll have to utilize specialized software to aide you in this task. There are many different routes - but you should be careful which option you go with, as some of them will cause Antivirus software to emit malware warnings as false positives. They don't pack your legitimate software with malware, no. It's just that AV software often uses heuristics to search for certain signatures or behavior which leads it to believe that some software could be dangerous. I know that Molebox sets off all sorts of warnings.

If I were to recommend something personally, it would be the following.

Paid: VMWare ThinApp

Free: Enigma Virtual Box

Now, using virtualization software does not act as any sort of DRM. I should make that clear now. It can however be used in conjunction with a chosen DRM method so that in this case, it isn't broken with simply switching in a clean Game.exe file.

Thank you very much for your help Esrever.

I've tried Engima Virtual Box many time's but when i run the new .exe nothing happens.

Did you have success with it before?