How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

[King of Worms]

Is it locked or anyone can dive in and pillage?
Id prefer the 1st option. If anyone wants anything, he should ask the mod author. We should have some option to lock it, if it isnt the case already.

I ask because Ive received such a question, like "How can I open the DFMOD to get the textures for my project" instead of "Hi, can you pls share your textures for my project XYZ?"

Some ppl have it all confused........

Thank you!

[XJDHDR]

It's not straightforward but it can be done. There are special programs that can be used to extract data from Unity packages. I tested UtinyRipper on your mod and it was able to extract the textures.

I'm not sure I understand M1a2Xel's reasoning though. On top of asking for permission being nicer and probably faster than trying to extract files behind your back, I'm not sure why he needed your textures as placeholders and can't use the ones from vanilla DF instead.

[Baler]

There is no way to 100% lock things like images in any software. There are dedicated tools to finding images in files or memory and dump them. However these are extreme measures that are rarely used by the average person.

In regards to people wanting to use your work, tell them to buzz off. But keep in mind DREAM is one of the highest rated mods available for DFU you're going to get messages from goofy people.

Also on Nexus Mods you can report mods that stole your work.

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I have mixed feelings about non-open source additions to an open-source project.
Some people feel their work should be protected from others who want to steal it.
Some people feel their work should be preserved for future contributors to fix or improve.

[King of Worms]

I'm not sure I understand M1a2Xel's reasoning though. On top of asking for permission being nicer and probably faster than trying to extract files behind your back, I'm not sure why he needed your textures as placeholders and can't use the ones from vanilla DF instead.

Because most likely he is lying about the placeholders. If you want a placeholders, you dont search for high quality textures.

Thanks for the rest of the info

[King of Worms]

Also on Nexus Mods you can report mods that stole your work

I know, and Ive seen it happen in the past, when someone stole others work for Mass Effect 2...

And thanks for the rest of the info

[King of Worms]

Now I think... the "textures" are more like a materials. So if someone digs deep, can he get the full materials? Like albedo, normal, height, smoothness, shader setup etc? I dont think I will like the answer...

Anyway... whatever.

[TheLacus]

Dfmod packages don't contain png or other files as you have them on disk, assets are built to a format usable by engine on target platform (i.e. DXT or other compressed texture format). People don't have access to your original files, but they can still retrieve assets with the Unity Editor and potentially have the ability to export them.