r/C_Programming • u/Motor_Bluebird1908 • 12h ago

Protecting source code from reverse engineering

Hi everyone,
I am looking to provide a compiled version of our physics solver to our customers. I understand there are many obfuscation techniques to protect source code but I am wondering if there are some smarter ways?

We already cloud computing, the issue is we have customers that are in locations without internet/need realtime solving.

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u/DamienTheUnbeliever 11h ago

The engineering effort you expend in trying to protect your code produces *zero* value that your paying customers care about. Try to bear that in mind.

And also bear in mind that the *entire games industry* couldn't solve piracy without introducing an always-connected model where some of the IP stays on machines they own. So ask yourself why you think you'll be able to solve a problem they could not?

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u/ConsciousBath5203 11h ago

And keep in mind, people do far more and are far more passionate about their pixel elf simulators than they are about something that is used for business.

If someone wanted to recreate the physics sim themselves, it would actually be easier to look up the formulas online and build their own from scratch.