Protecting 24p Maps

[pr114]

Hi guys,

I couldn't found this anywhere.
How to protect 24p maps these days? Vexorian's optimizer doesn't work with 24 player maps unfortunately.
I've heard there is the possibility to delete world editor info so maps cannot be ripped, but I don't know how to do this.

 

[Halithor]

While I'm all for leaving maps unprotected, I think currently the best solution is to use this tool: sumneko/w3x2lni. This tool can optimize and protect a WC3 map. It's actively worked on, so I'm guessing they support the 24 players. Read the english docs for more information.

 

[pr114]

Thank you for this, I will try this and report back my experience with the tool.

To be fair, I'm also generally for leaving a map unprotected, but as of late I noticed alot of reuploads of the map with slight edits, which makes it more difficult for the players to recognize which is the most up to date version. I don't mind it too much if people prefer an older version because they didn't like some of the updates, but most of these spin-off versions have been badly done and they don't make an improvement for the player experience. Also, it is nice to have better load times on the map.

 

[pr114]

Tool doesn't seem to work, if I run it, nothing happens.

 

[Halithor]

I cloned the repo to my machine. Double clicking the `W3x2Lni.exe` file brought up a UI, into which I could drag a map and select the output format I wanted. Selecting `slk` allowed me to protect the map. Did you clone the entire repo?

 

[Dr Super Good]

I am pretty sure Vexorian's Optimizer still does work, just you need to disable some of the JASS script optimizations as they make implicit code transformations that are no longer correct.

Also, it is nice to have better load times on the map.

These tools should barely be making any difference to load times. Just Blizzard is doing something very silly when loading Warcraft III maps. I have hopes that future patches might finally optimize map loading so that "optimizations" like these no longer make a difference.

Tool doesn't seem to work, if I run it, nothing happens.

I cloned the repo to my machine. Double clicking the `W3x2Lni.exe` file brought up a UI, into which I could drag a map and select the output format I wanted. Selecting `slk` allowed me to protect the map. Did you clone the entire repo?

It is possibly built with MSVC so will need an appropriate version of the MSVC runtimes to run. As it is not being installed, this will not be installed automatically and may not be already installed depending on what year it requires.

 

[pr114]

@Halithor - No I didn't, just downloaded the UI.

@ Dr Super Good - Thanks for the tip. It is probably this functionality that converts player 13 to neutral passive etc (which is the thing that ruins the map). Ill try it like this.

Indeed I don't really feel like load times are affected that much, but at least the download times of the map in lobby are reduced by a decent chunk.

A built in optimization/protection functionality from blizzard would be great!