Bytecode compilation is not completely useless. Pre-compiling the bytecode increases the startup speed of the program. This is espessially true when there is a lot of code. If the code isn't precompiled then it needs to be for every file that is loaded. If it important to someone, they can also shrink the size of their game somewhat too. The byte compiling part of lua/luajit can also be omited when compiling Love...NightKawata wrote:Considering that helps Minecraft more than hurt it.Rickton wrote:I don't get why people are so scared of the source code being accessible. It's not like something being closed-source is any harder to pirate. What exactly do you think people are going to do with the code?
The one legitimate reason I could see to worry would be with a multiplayer game, you might not want the source code to be very accessible because it'd be easy for people to cheat. But if you're that worried about it, there should probably be other anti-cheating mechanisms in place, like many multiplayer open source (and closed source) games have.
As a side note, Minecraft is apparently pretty easy to decompile to source (it's how a lot of the more in-depth mods were/are made), and it doesn't seem to have prevented them from making millions of dollars.
Personally, I think you're kind of beating a dead horse with bytecode compilation, but I can see why people would want to do it. If it makes you feel safer, feel free.
Moreover licensing is what protects your game.
Think of it this way. If someone wants to break your game, they will break your game. That's just how it is.
For multiplayer and the like, server-side protection is indeed a thing, so are anti-cheat detections.
On a more relevant note: Kudos for the author for creating this. Definitely a tool people could use if they wanna try bytecode compilation.
But I agree. There isn't much point of trying to pre-compile byte code if your goal is to make it more difficult to prirate the program.
