MoleBox, anyone?
Community Forums/Developer Stations/MoleBox, anyone?
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| www.molebox.com Anyone used this? I tried the demo and I think its bloody good, especially as it lets you squash all your media files/folders up into one file, you have the option to put 'em all into the EXE or leave it as an external file, all with optional compression. The best part is, there is no noticable increase in loading times even when you're loading large, compressed files. Also, it doesn't unpack to hard drive - its all done in memory which has for a long time been your average Blitz user's biggest problem with Terabit's Pak program. My only gripe, is that I think the price tag is a bit on the high side, for what it does. I'm toying with the idea of buying it, but at $99 (£55)...?... If it was $50 I wouldn't have to think twice. Thoughts? |
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| http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=28301 http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=28049 |
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| It's excellent, very easy to use and works fine with Blitz. Total price with vat is £67.59 |
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| 99 USD = 77,62 EUR - Gotta love the declining US economy ;P I'm getting my (bought & registered) copy of Molebox this month. I've been meaning to get it for few months now, but didn't have need for it (nothing worthwhile to show off). And of course last months game making tool fund quota was used for gile[s]! |
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| just bought it. packed the latest demo with it. seems like it worked with all machines. this is protecting the media pretty good. |
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| I just ordered it. Seems I now have to wait "up to 36 hours" for the vendor to get off his arse and manually send it to me. I bet it takes at *least* 35 hours. :/ |
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| Don't get too worried, mine took less than 2 hours. |
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| Took 7 days for me from the daye I stufk the order in the snail mail. |
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| 99 USD = 77,62 EUR - Gotta love the declining US economy ;P uhh.. the economy of the USA hasn't grown this fast in decades... The low USD is actually VERY good for the USA right now. Tracer |
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| I thought the price was pretty high too... Probably still buy it tho, when the time comes :) |
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| If I used this MoleBox thing and put everything into one .exe, I'm guessing there isn't a way for me to allow mod makers to make mods for my game where I can add/delete files from the molebox'd .exe file? |
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| yes, but that is not the goal. If you want some files to be editable, simply don't pack them, so there is space for selective protection. tho in the ram everything is hackable... |
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| 99 USD = 77,62 EUR - Gotta love the declining US economy ;P Not every country gets to wipe the slate clean and start over. |
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| LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL 99$ here is my free source: http://www.blitzbase.de/quellcode/exepacker.bb (but without compression - can be done with LZ-API) should i write a gui with BB+ in few days and sell this program for 9$ ^_^ OOPS Sorry - comments in german ACHTUNG BEISPIEL 1 = EXAMPLE 1 ACHTUNG BEISPIEL 2 = EXAMPLE 2 |
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| Ah, I was hoping to have that pak file feeling like quake pak files where I can zip it them up. Obviously, this aint for me then. |
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| Well, it arrived at 8:30 this morning. Don't suppose 9 hours is *that* bad. :) LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL 99$ The obvious differences being:here is my free source: www.blitzbase.de/quellcode/exepacker.bb 1. Molebox handles all type of file, from WAV to DLL - even subfolders. Yours just seems to do images. 2. Molebox compresses, yours doesn't. 3. Molebox has an easy to use GUI. Yours doesn't. 4. Molebox unpacking/decompression is very fast. Your is slow and will be even slower the bigger the files are. 5. Molebox encrypts. Yours doesn't. 6. Molebox allows external data files. Yours doesn't. 7. Molebox requires no additional coding/re-compiles. Yours does. No offence, but slapping a GUI on the front of that won't make it worth $9. Perhaps you should explore what exactly Molebox does before you dismiss it as inferior to your Blitz efforts? Because Molebox really is far superior to your code, and to Terabit's Pak utility. |
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| *Every* "packer" done with Blitz suffers the same security flaws because Blitz can't load to banks... so there will be temp file totally unpacked on your HD - bit too easy if you want the packer to protect your files! So MrCredo, no offense, but MoleBox is bit more pro solution... If I wouldn't want to protect my files, I'd use TeraBits excellent packer. |
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| Hmm. How does molebox work then? I don't get it... How can you have blitz load a model without a file existing? |
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| MoleBox examines the functions that your game uses and identifies which of them are loading things from disk. It then replaces these functions in the .exe with its own which load your data from the .exe or attached boxed media file. |
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| http://www.molebox.com/faq.shtml Q: How does MoleBox work? A: When you're packing your application, MoleBox scans its import table, locates WinAPI functions operating with the files being packed, and replaces them with its own functions. Clever... I'd imagine that because they use their own load code it's also teensy weensy more difficult to crack. Or not. But anyways cool - at least stuff gets to the memory safely... I guess that you COULD write a grabber that then takes it from there but nothing is non-crackable anyway. For me it's enough if I can stop casual pokers and wannabe-gamemodders. |
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| Todd - there is a zip handler for blitz, seen on blitzcoder once upon a time. |
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| >>1. Molebox handles all type of file, from WAV to DLL - even subfolders. Yours just seems to do images. you can modify this code - imageloader is only a example >>2. Molebox compresses, yours doesn't. this is easy - use LZ-Api 3. Molebox has an easy to use GUI. Yours doesn't. >>TRUE - But i can write this GUI in few days/hours 4. Molebox unpacking/decompression is very fast. Your is slow and will be even slower the bigger the files are. >>>NO!! ONLY IF I USE CRYPTION 5. Molebox encrypts. Yours doesn't. >>>NO! 6. Molebox allows external data files. Yours doesn't. ??? 7. Molebox requires no additional coding/re-compiles. Yours does. YES THIS IS HANDICAPE #1 |
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| >>1. Molebox handles all type of file, from WAV to DLL - even subfolders. Yours just seems to do images. You can (although I can't see how you can handle compressed DLL files), but then you'll need to use temporary files on HD which will in turn make the whole encryption thing entirely pointless. Molebox doesn't do that. In fact, your code as it stands, seems to write the file to HD. If you plan on protecting your media at all, this method is totally unsafe.you can modify this code - imageloader is only a example >>2. Molebox compresses, yours doesn't. More DLLs? I don't think so.this is easy - use LZ-Api 3. Molebox has an easy to use GUI. Yours doesn't. In order to justify adding a GUI, you'd have to have an underlying, USEFUL program - which at the moment you don't have.>>TRUE - But i can write this GUI in few days/hours 4. Molebox unpacking/decompression is very fast. Your is slow and will be even slower the bigger the files are. I'd suggest that you try it. Any pixel/byte reading/writing operations are naturally going to get slower the bigger the file gets. You don't need to type in capitals.>>>NO!! ONLY IF I USE CRYPTION 5. Molebox encrypts. Yours doesn't. No what? I saw no evidence of any form of encryption in your program.>>>NO! 6. Molebox allows external data files. Yours doesn't. Your program seems to add image files onto an EXE. Molebox can do that too, or you can create an additional .BOX file with a name and extension of your own choosing.??? I'm not going to get into an argument about this, but I do put this challenge to you - If all of this is so easy to do in Blitz, why not put your money where your mouth is and prove it? |
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| this was a experimental program - demonstrate only how to do it - it's "unfinished" - no GUI etc... MOLEBOX is 100x better But i don't undestand - if you use LOADIMAGE "test.jpg" in your BB-programm - here should exist this file = MOLEBOX create tmp-files? or how work this - BB can't load images from memory |
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| It wouldn't be too hard to modify TeraPak to compress. Then all that's lacking is the need for temp files. All that it would require then is for blitz to be able to use either filenames or bank handles with the data in, then you would have a molebox equivalent. I trialed molebox but found that it didn't do enough more than TeraPak to make it worth my while.. at £20 maybe, but at £50+ not worth it for my current projects. Those with more media seem much more interested though. |
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| Then all that's lacking is the need for temp files. All that it would require then is for blitz to be able to use... ...bank handles with the data in, then you would have a molebox equivalent. With all due respect, Lee, some Blitz users have been waiting for over three years for such functionality to appear in Blitz. |
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| That's true GfK. Personally I don't actually expect it to be added until BlitzMax toward the end of this year maybe? Who knows. My point is not that people shouldn't buy Molebox which does everything they want (I think it's great for those that need it). My point is that it is a shame blitz users have to resort to it, when it would be within easy reach if something simple were added to the core language. But that's life I suppose :) |
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| here are mass of compression-dll's you can compress/uncomress pak-file (using tmp-file) |
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| molebox is the only solution I know which is capable of these things, I tested about 50 exepackers. There is "Thinstall", which claims to be capable to pack mediafiles into exes, but when I tested it it failed to do so, and it is also much more expensive than molebox (several hundreds of $ - tho it offers much more: installer, serial registration system, trial installs etc.) The price of molebox is pretty high (remember ics-packer on the Atari ST: Freeware, did the same), and I think the reason why is there ain't no alternative product on the market. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Thought molebox works with some kind of virtual file host that will create a temporary ramdisk or something - however. MrCredo - of course there are compression DLLs. But this is not the question. In the end you cannot load a mesh from the compressed file. That's the point. |
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| Molebox it's a good Packer, he not working for Blitz only (for that he cost $99), and the support it's good too. Regards, |
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| What happens when you load a 3D file from boxedmole ? |
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| Il marche sans probleme Eddy. J'ai fait des tests de fou avec :) ce truc gere tout auto... Niveau securité pas de soucis c fait par des russes ! Cordialement, |
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| Moi j'avais testé PEBundle et PEcompact. J'hésite MoleBoxe coute 3 x plus cher. C un dilemne |
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| Prends Molebox si tu peux, c'est un très bon choix et investissement pour tes futurs projets. Leurs system reste incassable jusqu'à ce jour. Même SoftIce n'y peut rien contre lui. Cordialement, |
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| (BAD) Translations: 1) It goes without problem, Eddy. I made insane tests with it :) this trick gere any car... Level security not of concern C made by Russian. 2) Me I had tested PEBundle and PEcompact. I hesitate MoleBox because its 3 X more expensive. It's a dilema. 3) Take Molebox if you can, it is a very good choice and investment for your future projects. Their system remains unbreakable so far. Even SoftIce can nothing against him there. |
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| Ty MasterBeaker :) You have a good translate system :) Regards, |
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| I tried PEBundle too. It seems to use some .NET Components and for this reason it forces an internet connection when you start the packed exe (to download and execute some latest stuff)... Not exactly what I like :) |
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| Molebox is now only $49. Whereas the new PRO version is $99. Check it out here: http://www.molebox.com/ |
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| Uhm, just posted the other thread :) however, it was 49$, not pound. Or was it 49 pounds dollars ;) |
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