Exporting encrypted game

Godot Version

4.5.1 C#

Question

i’m getting the error alot of people seem to get when exporting with encryption, the “Error: Couldn’t load project data at ‘.’ Is the pck file missing?” but every time i’ve seen someone ask the question it’s always ended with a dead end so i don’t know what else to do here.

i did do compile a custom export template and put it under release with the correct encryption key and for whatever reason this error still appears. even if the pck’s embeded or not, and the pck is the exact same name as the exe

Are you sure you have compiled the export template correctly? You need to include the encryption key inside the compiled template as well, not just when you click on Export (Where you also have to include the SAME key!)

yep i did that using set set SCRIPT_AES256_ENCRYPTION_KEY={and then my encryption key}

And I’m sorry for asking just ruling things out, but you have pointed Godot at the correct export template that you have created right?

Also, if you do not enable encryption does the game run with your custom export template?

don’t worry about it, and yeah i have. and weirdly enough, as it turns out, trying it without encryption made the game open to the splash screen then crash. switching over to my previous template works without encryption, then turning on encryption and pointing to the template makes it crash after showing the splash screen, but at least that error’s gone? i’m not sure why it does this

it’s crashing, still. i’ve recompiled the export template and still, using it just seems to make the game crash on opening so it still doesn’t work. do you have any idea why?

I had a similar issue before, but in my case I had a bug in my game that didn’t really come out in the debug build, only in the release build. Try to log a bunch of stuff or launch your game from the terminal / command line to see if it throws any exceptions you can’t see.

doing that shows that it basically can’t find anything, just a bunch of “fail loading resource” or “failed to instantiate” on everything in that scene. i’m even more confused now

The pck can be decompiled quite easily, even with encryption.

So it is really not worth it.

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It’s also quite easy to break someone’s windows and go in their house, yet we still lock the door to make it harder to get in.

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The decryption and decompiling take only minutes, way easier than go out and break someone’s window. The OP has probably already spent more time reading the replies.

I think this is relevant to his question, in case he is not aware of it.
And then he can make an informed decision.

Sure! Let’s turn this place into Stackoverflow and not actually answer questions but tell people they are wrong!