.OBJ to .MESH CONVERTER, HELP!!!

[avancinirodrigo]

Hi!!!
I´m trying to create an application. obj to .mesh converter, I am having the following issue, I have to read that .obj file, create a ManualObject and then convert to .mesh (that was the solution found by now). What is preventing me from continue is that I cant find anything about how to create applications using ManualObject, for example: how to create a cube and apply a texture that is in a .jpg file?
someone I could help me?

Thanks

[xavier]

1) Load .obj in Blender or other 3D app
2) Texture to taste
3) Export mesh in .mesh format with associated .material file
4) Enjoy not having headaches

[avancinirodrigo]

Sorry, I forgot to mention, I already have the files .mesh, I use the 3DSMax to convert the .mesh to a file .obj, now I want to read this .obj generated and generate a mesh with the API Ogre, my goal is to make an application that read .obj with an encryption applied, decrypt and create the .mesh through a ManualObject, used this solution because I do not know how I would encrypt a binary file.

[jacmoe]

What a mesh!

You do realise that the users will be able to grab your resources in memory?

[jacmoe]

You could use XTEA.

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=29005&highlight=encryption

But there's pros and cons to encryption.

[avancinirodrigo]

After a little more depth in the subject, I discovered that the best solution is to load a file in password protected .zip, but unfortunately I do not see any example of how to work it out, someone could help me?

[Azgur]

You can't secure it. You can put loads of restrictions on the resource files and people will just fetch it from memory.
Encrypt it in memory and people will inject into your process and hook a few DirectX calls and obtain the model anyways.

[avancinirodrigo]

Azgur, thank you, so how can I ensure my data? or better, there is some
way to do this?
I would like to have at least a minimum of security.

[darke]

The conversation has pretty much been covered in this other thread, which strangely enough started on the same day this thread did: http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45634

As I mentioned there:

The only game I can think of recently that actually did do wholesale ripping of content is this one: http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost_Wiki

And their primary method of attack seems to have been using the wonders of the "print screen" key.

They ripped assets from well known engines, with well known content formats (Unreal and the like), and they did so with the wonders of the "print screen" key, not even bothering with ripping the mesh/texture assets.

You're attempting to solve a social problem with a technical solution, and that won't work. The best way to solve a social problem, is by a social "solution", aka, lawyers, should someone decide to go to the effort to rip off your work.

[Azgur]

Azgur, thank you, so how can I ensure my data? or better, there is some
way to do this?
I would like to have at least a minimum of security.

Reality is, you can't fully protect it. (well, given enough money you could fight it out in court)

I'm not really sure how Ogre's file access is abstracted and implemented, but maybe that's a good place to start looking.
If you could rewrite some parts of how files are accessed you could design it in such way all data is pulled from a large encrypted pack that wraps your data.
My guess is Ogre has abstracted this somewhere in a single location.

This might be a somewhat reasonable solution to prevent people from just copying your mesh files.
Changing the file format is probably a whole lot of more work.

[reptor]

I think more important is that if your game has a multiplayer mode, then how to protect the game so that every player is running the same data.

The "server is authoritative" model doesn't work for everything (depends on the type of the game and on the size of the game), so it is necessary to detect if a player has loaded modified data into the game.

I would be more concerned about that. Who wants to play with cheaters. I definitely don't want to play with cheaters.

In this, it doesn't matter if the player is able to see the game data files, but it matters what is loaded into the game. So it would be file signature checking most likely. I've seen it (when enabled on the server settings) reduce cheating *significantly* on a game which I've played online quite a bit. So the claim "it will be hacked, don't bother" doesn't stand for this use, as I can verify with my own eyes that it reduces most of the worse kind of cheating on a game which has a scripting language and is open to modding.

[Azgur]

Probably the easiest way is just to have the client send hash values for relevant data files to the server. If the server detects an incorrect hash it'll simply disconnect the client.

There are workarounds to this, but then again, there are workarounds to everything.

[avancinirodrigo]

guys, this lot of discussion about the pros and cons of how it would be the best way to protect my data ta becoming a vicious circle and is not leading to nothing, if someone is in order to help me in truth, tell me how and where do I find an example (source code) of how to protect my data at least a minimum security?

[Azgur]

I've given you at least 2 possible solutions I find somewhat viable. It's up to you to implement them.

Point is, there is no best way nor perfect way.
I was merely stressing this will keep out some people, but not those who are really keen on cracking your security. I'm sorry you find this leads to nothing.
At some point you need to balance out the effort it takes versus the gain in security.

Companies like Blizzard spent a fortune on protecting their game and they still fail at times.