[RM2K3] HOW CAN I CREATE A RELEASE VERSION OF MY GAME WITH ONLY RUNTIME APPLICATION VISIBLE?

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Topic. I want to avoid having resource files, map files, etc. be visible inside the same file directory as my game. Thanks for the help!
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
You can't. Sorry.

Well, you can by using third-party software, but that software is almost exclusively used by hackers to hide viruses, so your game will be flagged as a virus, and anyone who has any sort of antivirus software (i.e., 99.9% of players) will be unable to play your game.

However, if all that really bothers you is that the player has to go into the game directory full of all those files and track down RPG_RT.exe to play, I recommend creating an installer for your game using a program like Inno Setup (which is free). You can make a proper installer, which will put the program in its own folder in Program Files and create shortcuts on the start menu and desktop, so the player never sees the folder and the game works like any other program. You can even make it install the patched font directly into the player's C:\Windows\Fonts folder, so they don't have to download the font patch seperately.
Just include your own shortcut next to a folder with the game inside it. When they download your .zip and extract it, they will see 2 things. A shortcut and the game folder. They can run the shortcut and success!
author=LockeZ
You can't. Sorry.

Well, you can by using third-party software, but that software is almost exclusively used by hackers to hide viruses, so your game will be flagged as a virus, and anyone who has any sort of antivirus software (i.e., 99.9% of players) will be unable to play your game.

lol wat. I've been moleboxing my game for years and have had no complaints. Usually that's only the case if your virus-scan software is really shitty and triggers false-positives to everything.

@Shoob: Find Molebox 2.2981. It does NOT pack any viruses. Later versions don't work with 2k3 for some reason, so you'll need that exact one. I had problems running it in windows 7 though, so I had to install Microsoft's Windows XP Mode virtualization environment (which is a free download) and install it to that. It's a little annoyance, but once it's setup, it's easy to use from there. Your game will not have this problem when it's packed fortunately. Oh, and the only other thing I'll add is that when you molebox your project, do not include warp.dll or dynloader.dll. Just keep those separate in your final folder.

@Link: That's assuming your shortcut is in the same location that the extracted folder. That'll trip people up. IMO Moleboxing is the definite way to go because it reduces your distro from 500+ resource files down to like 4 or 5. Molebox is very flexible too in that you can make packages for certain types of resources if you wanted to.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I've heard nothing but horror stories about Molebox, but maybe the newer versions are better?
Separate question, but does Microsoft's Windows XP Mode virtualization environment remove flickering that can sometimes be seen in RM2k3's Fullscreen Mode?
Did you try AnotherFullScreen thing?

author=PepsiOtaku
@Link: That's assuming your shortcut is in the same location that the extracted folder. That'll trip people up.
I don't understand what you mean. If you create a shortcut it doesn't matter where it's located, it will still run the game. And if you create the zip a certain way it will look the same when it's extracted.
author=Shoobinator
Separate question, but does Microsoft's Windows XP Mode virtualization environment remove flickering that can sometimes be seen in RM2k3's Fullscreen Mode?


No. It doesn't really run at all. XP Mode is just intended for bare-bones applications (like molebox), not anything with directX rendering. I know what you mean though. That's an annoying issue with 2k3 in Win7+. Chrome used to cause it flicker a lot for whatever reason, but anything that highlights the taskbar (like if you get a notification), will cause a flicker. Try closing some applications before running your game. You could also try this: Right-click your RPG_RT.exe and go to properties > compatibility and check off "Disable visual themes" and "Disable desktop composition." That might help too.

@Link: That's only true if you create an installer for it. A Shortcut just a local link to the application (local meaning your computer). It still doesn't address the core issue of condensing the project down to less files.
author=LockeZ
You can't. Sorry.

Well, you can by using third-party software, but that software is almost exclusively used by hackers to hide viruses, so your game will be flagged as a virus, and anyone who has any sort of antivirus software (i.e., 99.9% of players) will be unable to play your game.

However, if all that really bothers you is that the player has to go into the game directory full of all those files and track down RPG_RT.exe to play, I recommend creating an installer for your game using a program like Inno Setup (which is free). You can make a proper installer, which will put the program in its own folder in Program Files and create shortcuts on the start menu and desktop, so the player never sees the folder and the game works like any other program. You can even make it install the patched font directly into the player's C:\Windows\Fonts folder, so they don't have to download the font patch seperately.


InstallCreator is better. You can make a high quality install file, complete with icons (which can shortcut the file), a picture background with the game title, and update description and the copyright disclaimer. All of this btw is also free.
Link_2112, that flickering can also be caused by a graphics card. When I moved to my new computer—same operating system—I was suddenly experiencing flickering in full screen mode, where before I had been experiencing none.

As to the problem of hiding resources, as understood, it isn't possible. What I tried in order to get around this problem, was I "encrypted" them by breaking them up into mostly unintelligible chunks, which I then reassemble in-game. (This only works if developers devise their own game systems.) It's also helpful to give your resources obscure names. Don't name the graphics sheet for the ultimate magic "ultimatemagic".

What did Yume Nikki do? If I remember correctly, that game ran off of an lone .exe in the game folder, which then somehow activated the RPG_RT.exe a folder below it.
author=Zachary_Braun
As to the problem of hiding resources, as understood, it isn't possible.

As I said in my previous posts... it is very possible. Molebox is the answer, but it has to be the right version--2.2981. I forget why exactly... but I think later versions just produced a corrupted exe or something.

There's also a program called EXEfusion you could try. It basically does the same thing but at least back in like 2008-ish when I last used it, it had a stupid method of packing everything. It's hard to explain, but when you ran your packed game, it unpacks all the folders and gives them the Windows "hidden" flag, so if you have explorer set to show hidden files, you could still see all the unpacked content. Again, this is only if the packed exe is running. EXEfusion also has an annoying splash screen when you quit the game. It's not ideal at all...
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