Unprotect

[aimcrack]

Hey i was wondering if there were any unprotectors around other than the one at zerogamers.. you don't have to give me a link or flame me for begging i just want to know if there is one and i'll google it.. dont want to waste my time looking for what isnt there

 

[Lord of Nukes]

There only public unprotector I'm aware of is SC Unprotect which I believe in the one at Zero Gamers. You'd have to learn about how the CHK works and hex edit it yourself if you wish to unprotect recent protection types, it's a waste of time for most people.

 

[Lwek]

These days, the map protection on present day maps is hard/nearly impossible to unprotect.

 

[aimcrack]

Thanks guys.. damn that sucks though lol..

 

[ArmeDMonkey]

actually,SCMDraft and Starforge get most of them... they COULD get all of them, but due to the ethics of the creators (if someone were come up with the source...) that has been disabled... you just have to compile it with the -ignore switch or something

 

[DeathClaw]

actually
i think that theres a way to unprotect guedit maps without any nprotectors
id have to test it
so if anyone would so kindly post a map that you can make in about five minutes, protect that, then ill see if my sources are correct
if youve already verified this plz trell me...i dont really feel like testing it if its confirmed to work or not

 

[Lord of Nukes]

I can unprotect GU Edit, SCM Toolkit, SCUP, MapSide, StarForge, ProEdit 1 to 1.4.1, ToGi, etc, but it's a waste of time. GU Edit is one of the easiest, i bet I could do faster than five minutes, , plus there are programs for GU Edit/SCM Toolkit/SCUP.

As for StarForge/SCM Draft, Heimdal and SI I would assume have their own special copies of their respective programs and wouldn't release one with the protection just disabled. There are programs that can unprotect more recent things than most unprotectors, but they're private, and I won't provide the information to manually unprotect the maps.

Right now it's easier to try to recreate a map than to unprotect them, and you can steal them without unprotecting, but I won't go into that. If you accidentally unprotected one of your own maps, you'd be pretty daft to not have a back-up, be using StarForge 2.2 or SCM Draft for automatic back-ups, and/or completely ignore back-up offers from map protectors.

If you're intent on finding out how to unprotect maps, there are indeed some scattered incomplete spec sheets of the CHK that can help you unprotect. Most of the direct guides to unprotecting were on sites that were removed by Blizzard (like Blizzhackers), but I'm sure there is some stuff possible to find. As for programs, don't expect anything more advanced SCU in English. I don't know if there are any more advanced German or Korean unprotectors.

 

[DeathClaw]

see lord of nukes? you do know too much

anyway
i just discovered that i do have a copy of SCU but i have no idea how to use it
any help?

 

[Lord of Nukes]

No, I was just tired and hadn't realized how much i was rambling on with useless information, :\

Basically, you run it and go to Open, and choose a map. Once you've done that and it says it has completed extracting the CHK (it does it in the program, don't try unprotecting an already extracted CHK), then press Detect. That'll tell you the protection type if it's recognized. Then you press the corresponding program button and save it as something else.

 

[DeathClaw]

Basically, you run it and go to Open, and choose a map. Once you've done that and it says it has completed extracting the CHK (it does it in the program, don't try unprotecting an already extracted CHK), then press Detect. That'll tell you the protection type if it's recognized. Then you press the corresponding program button and save it as something else.

that kinda sounds like what it says in the 'help' thing
anyway
thx
when i tried it after you said it, it actually worked!!!
not only do you know a ton of stuff youre like magical!!

-EDIT-
when it says error that measn that it waws protected with proedit right?

 

[aimcrack]

When it says error it means your screwed...

 

[Lord of Nukes]

ProEdit, uBeR@TiOn, ToGi, or not protected. Sometimes when unprotecting complex protection forms, you must use SCU and you get errors (unless you change 2000 hex values to something else) but it still works. if it's ProEdit, uBeR@TiOn, ToGi, unprotected, though then you can't do much. It could be MapSide, but that's easy to unprotect....

 

[aimcrack]

didnt quite catch what you're saying...

 

[Lord of Nukes]

Basically, SCU will give you errors and not unprotect if you open a ProEdit, ToGi, uBeR@TiOn, or Mapside protected map, as well as one that's unprotected. Sometimes it's easier to use SCU to unprotect parts of certain protection types, but it still requires some manual hex editing.

 

[R1CH]

If you guys can give me some tech info on how protectors work, I have my own map unprotector that is just waiting for more data on how protection formats work - I can already rebuild a protected map about 90%+, but I can't figure out what I'm now missing.

 

[R1CH]

After much haxing, my unprotector just successfully unprotected its first map . If you guys have any map files you want unprotecting, please post the raw map (.chk) file and I'll look into how it's protected and add support to my app before I release it. Currently the only protected maps I have are from GUEdit, I guess there are more advanced protectors out there... so bring em on!

 

[Venice_native]

I'm surprised nobody has posted the infamous "OMG THEY ARE PROTECTED FOR A REASON" comment.

 

[DoYouPie?]

I'm surprised nobody has posted the infamous "OMG THEY ARE PROTECTED FOR A REASON" comment.

Yes, they are protected for a reason. That reason is for them to be unprotected.

I think its stupid on how people are so paranoid about people "stealing" their work. If someone has to open the map up and edit, there must be something wrong with it, or something that needs fixing, or its made poorly... I have to say that I have opened up maps and edited, then released with "Edited by: blahblah" in the breifing. I find it hard to sit there and make all the triggers, although I understand them

 

[R1CH]

Exactly... if you don't want people editing your map, make it perfect first time . Release multiple versions of difficulty if you don't want people editing money/upgrades/etc, make sure your map revealers are placed as not to waste the scarce unit limit (had to fix 2 maps that spammed map revealers so bad that nothing would fire), etc. The only reasons I want to edit maps are to either make them easier since I'm terrible at SC, or to fix bugs.

 

[Lord of Nukes]

I think its stupid on how people are so paranoid about people "stealing" their work. If someone has to open the map up and edit, there must be something wrong with it, or something that needs fixing, or its made poorly... I have to say that I have opened up maps and edited, then released with "Edited by: blahblah" in the breifing. I find it hard to sit there and make all the triggers, although I understand them

Many people unprotect maps to steal them. That is if they can't make their name fit the string of the original creator's name.