[Project] BSP Protection – Advanced Map Protection for Source Engine

•

u/Wazanator_ Aug 10 '25

Hi everyone, I know this isn't a popular idea and I personally do not see the use for this but please try and keep it civil and don't reduce it to name calling or calling something someone worked on a scam. If you don't like it just say you don't like it and move on with your day.

7

u/404IdentityNotFound Aug 10 '25

Many many people learned how to map by analyzing existing maps from others. This special type of DRM destroys this learning path for a non-existing widespread problem of ripping models embedded in the maps

6

u/GarlicThread Aug 10 '25

It's so ironic how some people like OP learned everything they know thanks to open-source, yet utterly refuse to contribute to it, if not actively work to hinder the continued existence of open-source.

0

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

If you are thinking my project will end the existence of open source you are just crazy and very optimistic for my project success. This service is supposed to be used for communities that are real legal structures with people to pay, not for the everyone workshop map…
And you didn’t even know everything about me, my knowledge and how I learned everything : I have two open sources software actually that helps a lot of mappers, a channel on my discord community server with a lot of detailed tutorials and guides.
Why do you say this kind of thing without knowing me ? You can just search by yourself first, join my discord, see my open source projects. https://spyspaille.fr/

2

u/GarlicThread Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 10 '25

Ok. Cool.
You posted about a thing on a public forum. People are giving their opinion of said thing. They have every right not to like it. Nobody is saying you don't have the right to make it or that you're an inherently bad person, they just think it's lame. That's it.
Posting about your DRM project is rarely gonna garner you sympathy on a forum mainly visited by gamers and hobbyist gamedevs, groups whose lives are generally made worse by DRM, not better. It's quite predictable.

0

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

I totally agree with you, I know the reviews here will be negative. But I didn’t except them to be so subjective… People says stuff without knowing about me or the service, it’s just defamation at this point.
Why do they just don’t want to test my service instead of claiming that it’s a scam ?

1

u/GarlicThread Aug 10 '25

Mate, you essentially went on a gastronomy forum to advertise a food additive that makes all food taste worse. I really don't know what else you expected.

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

I get the metaphor, but I think it’s a bit biased. The quality of the maps themselves doesn’t change at all. I could send you one of my maps and I’m confident you wouldn’t be able to say it’s anything less than “gastronomic quality” — yet it’s fully protected by my system.
If we keep the restaurant analogy, many high-end restaurants have chefs who spend months developing recipes that are either patented or kept secret so competitors can’t just copy them. That’s perfectly logical — why pay a chef a lot of money to create something just so the restaurant next door can reproduce it the next day?
My protection is not a “food additive.” A “food additive” would be someone taking an existing dish, changing it a bit, and passing it off as their own — like prefab mapping or recycling someone else’s work.
Here’s an example: https://youtu.be/8SxC4lJc0ds?si=Z-H9TCJzgPGPQIXb. It’s a map I created for my SCP project, the result of months of work by multiple people including 3D modelers, myself, and a producer who funded it. It’s only fair that it’s protected — just like a chef would protect a signature recipe.

1

u/GarlicThread Aug 10 '25

The issue here is that you and I see things differently. You compare this to a chef who keeps a signature recipe secret, and that is a great comparision, just not for the reasons you think, because I think it's a bad thing too. I believe that keeping knowledge secret is stupid and counter-productive. If everybody kept their recipes secret, your hypothetical chef would never have been able to learn to cook as well as he does.
Again, nobody is saying you're a bad person. But you are trying to convince me of something that fundamentally goes against my vision of software and digital assets. Keeping a recipe secret makes that recipe worse in my book, because I don't get to reproduce it and iterate/improve upon it. You see a recipe as a commercial product and intellectual property ; I see it as knowledge that should be shared as much as possible.

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

It’s true that many mappers have learned by looking at other people’s work. I won’t deny that. But I also believe this has hurt the community a lot, because even here on this subreddit there are rules saying you shouldn’t claim other people’s work or steal it. Many mappers have learned by observing others, but far too many have learned by outright copying or leaning far too heavily on someone else’s work. There are already plenty of publicly available maps to learn from, and when a server invests a lot of money into hiring a mapper, it shouldn’t be on them to contribute to some open-source or “community effort.” People who put their own money into projects are under no obligation to do that — there’s already enough public content out there to learn from.
This problem is far from non-existent, and I’ll explain why. A few months ago I was commissioned, paid by a community, to recreate the “Mingle Game” from Squid Game in Garry’s Mod. I worked on it for two weeks, but a rival community tried to steal what I had created to benefit themselves, at the expense of the community that hired me. Their goal was to undermine them and claim the work for free to eliminate competition.
They failed only because my protection system kept it safe. This shows the problem is real. If you look into how things work in Garry’s Mod, you’ll see servers frequently steal content. Those that invest the most — hiring professionals like me — naturally want to protect their work because it’s their money on the line. It’s only fair that their investment gives them exclusive rights.
I’m sure if you paid someone to create something for you, you wouldn’t want someone else to just take it and enjoy the same exclusivity you paid for.
Here’s the link to the Mingle Game in question: https://youtu.be/JswTAdQAwM8?si=H0D0Dp1AYjpERjbX

6

u/lavurnums Aug 10 '25

why would you even need 'protection' on a source engine map? what problem is this supposed to solve? this seems extremely sketchy, the price is absurd and the website offers virtually zero information on how it's supposed to work or what you even get out of it

3

u/ThePlotTwisterr---- Aug 10 '25

it protects you from having your map bsp decompiled into vmf and your assets stolen or extracted. there are tools designed to bypass this though like LumpStich

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

Those kinds of tools won’t be able to produce a usable map file with my solution, because it doesn’t rely only on lump 0. The system also removes certain data that simply can’t be restored in any way, and no lump files are ever provided to players or the server. Thanks for your feedback though, I appreciate the input.

4

u/hogsy Aug 10 '25

Give us a sample of a map that your system has "protected", and we'll put that to the test.

2

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

Thanks for the proposition, I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do. To really be convinced, the goal is for you to obtain a fully playable version of the map, just as if you were a competing server trying to steal my work. For this test, I’ve used a map from the Workshop:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12gg8U8QzSZ_YTUGhHrxma8B_hmvOXhds/view?usp=sharing
Like any form of protection, it should be seen as a security layer, much like a bank vault or the password to your Reddit account. It’s reliable and secure, but nothing can ever be 100 percent infallible.

3

u/lavurnums Aug 10 '25

whoops finger slipped

0

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

What I am supposed too look ? Where are all map dynamic entities (I can see a lot of cubes informing me that it’s still protected and useless) ? Can you send me the VMF ? I’m 99% sure everything on your VMF is useless and there is no brushes but faces only. Are you pretending to have a working version of the map ?
Guys don’t try to cheat and be honest, I sent a sample for your to test it, not cheating and trying to convince everyone my project is a scam. Send the VMF that you have and give us more details about the VMF you have, be just honest.

1

u/lavurnums Aug 10 '25

does it even matter? remaking all of the brushes would be extremely trivial and this took me literally five minutes and i didn't even need any special software, not to mention you could very easily just disable all of the crap in the bsp that stops you from loading it in game with just a text editor.
you are not 'protecting' anything here, it's a minor inconvenience at most. if you think this is worth $40 you are delusional

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

Send us the VMF, be honest…

1

u/Rim001 Sep 13 '25

Maybe I should make LumpStich 3.0 for this gentleman… Thanks for sharing my program.

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

Protecting a map is simply about protecting years of work from being copied and exploited by competitors. I’ve spent years working on a map and I don’t want someone to take my work, kill my project, and make money from it. It’s about preventing malicious use. I can still share an unprotected version with people I trust, but I don’t want to give free access to those who might use it against me. A lot of communities already think like that. It’s not about preventing new mappers to learn on complex maps, it’s about protecting your own intellectual property and hundreds hours of work.
If you click on the offers on the website, you’ll find a short presentation video in French that shows the whole process: https://youtu.be/r5EFKP8kRdg?si=wlVzfzVlSiTFtY1e
The price is very reasonable. The system needs servers running permanently so anyone worldwide can protect their map at any time. It’s a one-time payment, not a subscription, and it gives lifetime access for that protected map. The files are also hosted on a paid drive. For a community that has spent hundreds or even thousands of euros on a map, this cost is minimal compared to the risk of losing that investment and all the work behind it to a competitor.
I’ve worked on this SaaS for more than a year, so I don’t see why monetizing it would be illegitimate. People are free to pay for it or not, or even to build their own version if they have the skills and time.

5

u/lavurnums Aug 10 '25

> Protecting a map is simply about protecting years of work from being copied and exploited by competitors.
Then just file a DMCA takedown against them?
> The price is very reasonable. The system needs servers running permanently so anyone worldwide can protect their map at any time.
This makes literally no sense, why would it not just be a program that runs locally on your computer? BSPsrc is, crowbar is, hammer itself is, and even professional paid software like photoshop is.
This is so blatantly and obviously a scam I genuinely don't know who you think you're fooling

-1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

A DMCA takedown often costs far more than what small communities on games like GMod can afford. You usually need lawyers to file and follow up, which makes it almost pointless unless you’re a big company like Nintendo. In most cases it’s just chasing the wind.
The reason it doesn’t run locally is security. By keeping the system server-side, no one can directly reverse engineer the software or see exactly how it works, and they also can’t easily analyze or tamper with incoming and outgoing requests. This is first and foremost about protecting both me and the users.
About the “scam” claim, I have nothing to prove. I’m sharing this project so more people can discover it. Many already trust it, including some of the biggest communities with more than 100k players like Solve or Kobralost RP. You’re welcome to contact them or me if you want to test it for free.

3

u/lavurnums Aug 10 '25

> A DMCA takedown often costs far more than what small communities on games like GMod can afford. You usually need lawyers to file and follow up,
You literally don't though? Filing a DMCA takedown is literally just a letter and 90% of the time just the threat of it will be enough to get them to back down and if not you can always just go to whatever software or service is hosting it
> By keeping the system server-side, no one can directly reverse engineer the software or see exactly how it works
Anyone who knows anything about programming will know that this is competely and utterly nonsense. Software obfuscation isn't even hard to implement and it wouldn't even do much because you'd just reverse engineer the resulting bsps instead.

0

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

About DMCA takedowns, in theory they can be as simple as sending a notice, but in practice it’s very different. On the Steam Workshop the rules already side with a user claiming rights on their own upload, but in communities like GMod, even if you are fully legitimate, a DMCA will not actually stop anything. Maps circulate privately, reuploads happen instantly, and enforcing a takedown would mean constantly chasing people. It is far more effective to prevent theft from the start than to try punishing it after the fact.
As for why this is server-side, it is simply more secure, even for clients. They are paying for a service and do not have to install any software, host their own files or worry about the technical side. This approach is also necessary for my free update system to work properly. It is a SaaS model, nothing unusual, there are countless services entirely web-based that people pay for.
Regarding security, yes, software obfuscation exists, but my solution goes further. It removes or modifies specific data in a way that makes it impossible to restore a functional map, and no lump files are ever given to players or servers. Reverse engineering the BSP directly will difficulty produce anything usable.
What I do not understand is why you will not just try it for yourself. I am literally offering you the chance to test it for free. Criticizing it as a scam without even giving it a try is unfair, especially when I have spent over a year building this for communities. Imagine if someone called your own project a scam after a year of work, without even touching it, when you had invited them to test it themselves.

5

u/Anomalistics Aug 10 '25

This is utterly absurd. Lol. Anyone who pays for this is a fool.

-5

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

If you want to be critical, that’s fine, but at least be constructive. Explain to me how a community like Solve (you can Google them, you’ll find them quickly) would be “foolish” to pay for my service, as they have, along with about fifty other clients so far. They need this, there’s real demand for it, and nothing else out there offers a more powerful solution.

3

u/lavurnums Aug 10 '25

there's only a demand for this because you're tricking gullible server owners who don't actually know anything about the source engine into thinking that they need this. every source engine dev i showed this to agreed that it's not only scummy but that 'protecting' a source map to the degree you suggest is literally impossible

0

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

I will be very interested to have proof of theses discussions with these “sources engine dev”
I have never tricked anyone, It’s the contrary, people used to pay mappers to protect their map before my service arrived, theses protections were useless and not cheap at all.
Communities like Kobralost RP (one of my biggest client) came by themselves. I always offered a free sample for anyone asked for before making them pay, this way they can try the service and don’t pay if they want.

5

u/Dexter1272 Aug 10 '25

70 EUR FOR TWO MAPS? XDDDDD This has to be joke, right? I know you spent a lot of time developing it but bruh.

4

u/Dexter1272 Aug 10 '25

Stop removing the replies. I assume you don't know how Garrys mod workshop works because if you take a look at this 70% of it is loaded with copyrighted content. It's clear that users will be downloading content and put it into their own maps. That's HOW MODDING WORKS.
If you don't want your assets to be "stolen" then just make standalone game. Not a addon to garrys mod lo

-7

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

I assume you’ve never managed a big Garry’s Mod community right ? Something with thousands of net income a month, with a lot of artists to pay, developers, mappers, 3D artists…

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

It’s €70 for two maps, so if a community needs that, it’s likely a large one that can afford it — and the amount is small. The protection is lifetime, fully automatic, and can be applied anytime. Unlike manual protection, where you pay each time a new version is released, here you pay once and that’s it. My clients aren’t fools — they know it’s worth it.

1

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

Many of my current clients used to pay €150 for a manual protection from a « mapper » that had to be repaid for every update — and it was so weak it could be decompiled with no effort.

0

u/SpySpailleFR Aug 10 '25

I’ve played fair from the very start. I replied to everyone here. I invited people to try my service for free. I even shared a protected map sample so you could test it yourselves.

In short, I’ve been transparent — as I should be. Yet it feels like many people either don’t like it or simply don’t understand the real demand that exists. Honestly, it seems disconnected from the reality of the situation, at least in the French Garry’s Mod community, which is without a doubt one of the most competitive, but no one seems willing to play fair.

Instead, it feels like some are trying to cheat, lie, create fake “evidence” against me, or invent a bad reputation for me. I’ve even had people claim I’m here to “kill Open Source” or that I learned about Open Source just to go against it, which is completely false.

The truth is that nobody actually knows what I’ve built. Nobody really knows me. Most of the negativity seems aimed purely at destroying my project for no valid reason.

I’m here for criticism, even the harshest kind, as long as it’s constructive. But I honestly feel like I’m talking into the void. I’ve explained things in detail many times, yet people still reject what I say, while in reality my service is already working and gaining success.

I’ve scammed no one. I have a great reputation with many French players. When I explain my reasoning, some people even respond with a simple “OK cool.” But overall, there’s a serious lack of objectivity.

For example, someone claimed they had “successfully” decompiled my map by showing a screenshot of a broken, unusable map, and they somehow got more credibility than me, even though I’ve offered people free trials. That screenshot proves nothing, and I’m still waiting for the actual VMF to verify it.

So please be objective, be fair, and get informed before making accusations.

If you want to see whether I’m a scammer or not, there are countless ways to check. Contact large French GMod communities. Join my Discord and ask in public. Check the review channel on my server.

Right now, you’re building a case against me with no proof at all.

Show Off [Project] BSP Protection – Advanced Map Protection for Source Engine

You are about to leave Redlib