Heh, RelayeR, using the files for none commercial use is one thing, saying in public how to get at those files is another. Though there is enough EULA breaching in the game for nobody to care, heh.

I mean at one time (maybe still does?) it did say that you were not allowed to target another player. heh

We rolled all the data into the RLB for two reasons. Primarily to compress it further and make it easier to manage (doesn't use a lot of file clusters on the user's harddrive, etc). Second.. to obscure our art and other data, to a limited extent. We knew it wasn't very secure (hell, absolute security would be kind of impossible, since the game has to read it), but doing further encryption of the data would have made it slower to load, so we didn't encrypt it to reduce the performance hit.

Yes, as far as I can tell, this does constitute a violation of the "reverse-engineering" aspect of the EULA. The license does not include re-use of the individual images by the user. Legalities are always debatable and open to interpretation, but I think this is the sort of thing that is specifically prohibited by the licensing agreement.

I'm posting this as a legal clarification, since a response was requested. People reverse engineering your software is an inevitability for a game company, but it is generally not encouraged.

On an engineering level, we didn't expect the compression to be much of a barrier to someone who really wanted to read the data; but I'm a little surprised there was a program available that did it.

those programs just look for signatures of media files and dump whatever they find. they don't really uncompress anything. the same could be done with a hex editor and dd.

Ahh. Yeah, I guess we don't compress certain files where there would be no advantage to doing so, so those would be easier.

Also, hachoir (previously mentioned in the thread) merges most of the .ogg files into larger 'batches' that have several sound effects clumped into one file. The music seems to be mostly left around -- either hachoir is being dumb for some reason, or the sound effects' filenames are really just aliases/pointers to certain locations in these batch files.

Sorry, John.

I searched the archives trying to find where I was told how to unpack media.rlb but the archives only go back to 2002. I know I was into that file much sooner than that.

The problem you're having with REI is due to the fact that I placed a rather large sound file in the heading and have been unable to go in and remove it since updating to 10.5. Basically, I took the .jpgs you use for your maps, made them 50% transparent and superimposed them over an excel spreadsheet to create my own maps with additional data in the squares.

I'll try to get the site working and advise you.

[edit] try it now, John. [/edit]

Incarnate wrote: I can see about putting the original poster online in some form. Maybe PDF would be easiest for people?

How's it going? :)

Er...that was like a week ago. I don't think he's had a chance at it, because:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/h/news.html

I'll try and get that online this week.

Well, about using one file to "avoid using lots of clusters" well, most windows users (not picking at THIS community) prolly don't even know what defrag is, but let me say http://vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/4/17896 still is happening every time I update, not as bad as it used to be, but Windows folk, when they run the updater *and have it take ages to verify* are prolly having a fragmented media.rlb too :P

Windows is dumb when its trying to allocate a file that it does not know what size its going to be, like ray says. I know this already, because most file sharing apps now have the feature to pre-allocate files. (after much whining from me).

I'm having to defrag media.rlb manually every update!

Yoda: Hmm. When I use filesharing programs that do a lot of chunking, I usually end up with really fragmented files until the next defrag cycle. At least, I've experienced that in the past.

Anyway, yes, if we can find some way to work around that, without major repercussions, it'd be cool to do so.

----

Getting back to the topic at hand, I've done some hunting around our stored media, and I'm having trouble finding the graphics for the original poster. I have the actual poster data, and of course our logos and other stuff that were used on it, but not the combined image. I can basically re-make the poster, but then another question comes to mind:

How would people feel about me putting it on CafePress as an actual.. poster, that you could order? I've been meaning to offer some VO "merchandise" for ages, and haven't really put in the time/effort to make it happen. Just thought it might make an interesting test use, not making any profit on it (no markup), just seeing how it would work for us. It looks like their 23"x35" poster is about $18, and their 16"x20" poster is about $14. And I imagine there's a shipping charge of some sort (?).

If people would much rather just print it out themselves, I can see about just putting something online for download. Or both, for that matter. Just an idea. Either way it'll take me a little while to basically.. re-make the poster, but it should print out much better than anything you could rip out of the game.. since our offline source material is much higher resolution.

I'd totally buy a poster, as would a fair number of the userbase, I think... go for it!

... and see if you can get ctishman/Ku to get you the designs for those mugs... those'd be super-sweet gifts too...

DO WANT
yes a vo poster and other kinds or propaganda i would love to put money into

T shirts, hats, posters, goodies and computer accesories mouse/keyboards.

I'd gladly buy a poster, but then comes the shipping cost from US to EU which is about what the poster itself costs, usually. So a "download here" option would be very grateful :)

Just an idea btw; I'd love to see some kind of In-Character book, one from all of the three nations in Vendetta Online. In the book (which ofcourse comes complete with a good-looking rugged spacy look) there's facts about the nation, how they look on the other nations, politics. Lore related to the nation to be precise. Maybe a story or two or more. Oh, and pictures in it too!

And as Lord Spidey said, T-shirts, posters, goodies, computer accessories (mousepads?) and so on...

I'm game for some stuff and if this many like to buy VO products then GS might as well make some form of profit from this and to assure some of us that we are not only buying stuff we want but know it is helping instead of covering the cost to make it.

Why don't you just make an 11" x 17" version of the map that will be, oh, say, 300 dpi at that size, and make it available for everyone for download? Perhaps at a small fee? ($1 ?)
(The equivalent would be a 5100 x 3300 pixel map)

If Inc will get me the artwork I will turn it into a PDF, no problem. (And no charge, too! Merry Xmas!)

I'm currently recreating the "Galaxy Map" poster at 7000x4600 (23"x35" @ 200dpi), once it's ready I'll post that to Cafe Press and offer a downscaled version on here via PDF or some such. I may take you up on that, Leber.

I also realized why I couldn't find the original poster.. it was made by Strategy First, not by us. Right before launch, we were insanely busy trying to get the game ready, and Strategy First handled a lot of ancillary art stuff, like making the poster and box art. I have approval proofs for the box art.. and I should have them for the poster, too, somewhere. But I'm not sure if I'd even have the full-resolution originals, and certainly not in an unflattened format. If I can turn up the original poster, I'll put that online too.

I could mail y'all my poster if you wanted... so long as I got it back.

Autographs optional, but preferred. :P

We have the printed poster, thanks :). Scanning in a printed version would kind of suck. Also, upon further thinking.. there would be some copyright ramifications of releasing SF's poster for free.

Yer right about the copyright infringement, Inc. When you have your version done, lemme know and I'll PDF-ify it for yas.