TMX Map Loader for SFML version 1.1.0
I've recently published version 1.1.0 of the Tiled map loader on Github. This release includes the changes from the previous update, as well as bug fixes, and the ability to load tmx maps from xml strings stored in memory.
I was asked recently over on the SFML IRC channel about the possibilities of obfuscation of tmx maps. It was pointed out that any end user of a game can easily cheat by loading the game's map files into Tiled and editing them to make them easy to complete. I guess this is technically true of any game, whatever the map format, although with varying degrees of determination needed to make it happen. With tmx map files, however, it is incredibly easy. I guess you could argue of someone wants to cheat to make the game easier, then it's their loss anyway, but I saw no harm in offering a bit of flexibility to devs who want to obfuscate their map files. The idea is that tmx files output by Tiled can be run through an obfuscator of choice, making them immediately difficult to load directly into Tiled - although it's not of course bullet proof. The game using the maps would then need to internally unobfuscate the map data before passing it to the map loader - hence the new ability to load files directly from xml strings. I've not implemented and obfusation routines myself, and it's not part of the map loader. Offering such things as open source would probably undermine their use anyway. Hopefully this will find some use with developers. In the future I'm also planning to support other formats such as json, and possibly even binary tmx files - so watch this space.
I was asked recently over on the SFML IRC channel about the possibilities of obfuscation of tmx maps. It was pointed out that any end user of a game can easily cheat by loading the game's map files into Tiled and editing them to make them easy to complete. I guess this is technically true of any game, whatever the map format, although with varying degrees of determination needed to make it happen. With tmx map files, however, it is incredibly easy. I guess you could argue of someone wants to cheat to make the game easier, then it's their loss anyway, but I saw no harm in offering a bit of flexibility to devs who want to obfuscate their map files. The idea is that tmx files output by Tiled can be run through an obfuscator of choice, making them immediately difficult to load directly into Tiled - although it's not of course bullet proof. The game using the maps would then need to internally unobfuscate the map data before passing it to the map loader - hence the new ability to load files directly from xml strings. I've not implemented and obfusation routines myself, and it's not part of the map loader. Offering such things as open source would probably undermine their use anyway. Hopefully this will find some use with developers. In the future I'm also planning to support other formats such as json, and possibly even binary tmx files - so watch this space.
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