Does anyone know a way of hiding files, or changing their extensions during or after compile time? Basically, I would like my game to use files that aren''t easily tampered with. After all, I''m thinking of the little children who might scribble with microsoft paint all over my pictures which would then be loaded into the now ruined game.

don''t use a standard file format. you can use a bitmap like format, by just screwing with the header information enough so that MS paint or photoshop doesn''t know what it is, and then when you read it in, you just strip out that extra info and use it like a normal bitmap.

--michael

Well, the way chiuyan mentioned would work, or if you wanted to you could write your own image format, that way only your program would be able to read the file.

Hi, I was just wondering how you edit the headers on *.bmp files?

This question comes up quite often.

There''s no fool proof way to protect your images.
If someone really wants to reverse engineer your formats, they will. And it will likely be some 14 year old with a lot of free time.

The more important factor here is that you shouldn''t even bother trying to obscure your graphics. Who cares if someone messes with their local copy of the graphics? It only hurts them, if anyone.

The vast majority of games you buy today have graphics stored in known formats. The images in Quake3 are all JPEGs and TGAs. The images in Tribes 2 are PNG. Anyone can easily alter the images. So what? If they want to, let them.

Actually these games have shown there''s actually added value in having your game be as easily modifed as possible. In most FPS games you can even change most of the game logic if you want, through scripting...If people want to do it, let them! The only good reason to try to stop pieces of a game from being modified is if the modifications can somehow be used to cheat in a multiplayer version of the game, which shouldn''t be an issue with the vast majority of games/renderers (one exception: hacking alpha maps to let you see through walls and such could be possible if not specifically avoided by the game programmer. Not too hard to code a fix for that one specific problem).

Generally, your loading routines will work on a file regardless of its extension, so you can happily change a .BMP into a .GFX or whatever you like, and it''ll probably still work. You could also add some sort of checksum or date-checking routine, to ensure they haven''t been altered. But as others have pointed out though, if someone wants to work it out, they will do, so I wouldn''t lose any sleep over it.

I might try one or two of those methods for my own curiosity, but I guess you are right...if those meddling wee-uns want to foul things up for themselves...let em. Thanks all.