Encrypted Ship Export

[MarkoBarthel]

Exporting your ship

1. Keep your original FBX, textures and authoring files in a separate working folder.
2. Open your original FBX-based ship in **Ship Setup**.
3. Finish your changes and click **Save JSON**. Unsaved settings must be saved before export.
4. Choose the export setting:
   - **Export settings: editable** (default): recipients can adjust the ship configuration, including equipment placement and handling.
   - **Export settings: locked**: the game uses an authenticated copy of the exported settings inside the protected model. Changes to the external JSON do not replace those settings, and Ship Setup cannot save them.
5. Click **Export protected ship**.
6. Read the status message for the new export folder. Share that complete folder, rather than your original authoring folder.

 

Exports are created in: <game project directory>/Saved/ShipExports/<ship-id>-export-<unique-id>/

Every export creates a new directory. The original FBX ship and earlier exports are preserved.

 

What to distribute

A typical export contains:

```text
my-ship-export-.../
    boat.json
    model.atsship
    preview.png       (if present)
    Sideview.png      (if present)
    Audio/...         (only configured audio files, if present)
```

The exporter copies the configured preview, sideview and audio files. These supplementary files remain ordinary files. The original FBX and loose model textures are not copied; texture pixels needed by the model are embedded in the encrypted model.

Do not add the original FBX or source textures to the export folder yourself if you want to keep them private. Review any other personal information in your ship configuration before sharing it.

 

Installing a protected ship

Recipients place the complete exported folder under:

```text
Mods/Boats/<ship-folder>/
```

The folder must contain `boat.json` directly, alongside `model.atsship`. Reload the custom ship list or restart the game as usual. The JSON references the local protected model:

```json
"model": "model.atsship"
```

Do not rename that model file without rebuilding the export. Keep the exported ship ID. A source version and its protected export share the same ID, so install one version at a time to avoid duplicate-ID conflicts.

Recipients need a game build that supports `.atsship`. Older builds that accept only FBX cannot load these exports.

 

Equipment and controls

The format preserves the static geometry's object names, hierarchy, pivots, material sections, vertices, triangles, normals, UVs, vertex colours and tangents. Object-name assignments for propellers, rudders, radar antennas, lamp lenses and bridge controls continue to use those names.

With editable settings, recipients can use the existing ship editor and save JSON changes. The protected model remains protected. The game does not provide an FBX export or a protected-model re-export command.

With locked settings, Ship Setup is for viewing the model and placements. The creator needs the original FBX authoring version to change settings and create a new release. The lock is enforced by the game; it is not a guarantee against a modified game or reverse engineering.

 

Updating a protected ship

Edit the original FBX-based version, update its configuration/version, save it and export a new protected copy. Distribute the complete new folder. Keep backups of your original project: the protected distribution is not an editable source backup.

 

Format and limits

- Static imported ships only; skeletal models are not supported by this export format.
- Maximum 2,000,000 section vertices and 6,000,000 triangle indices per model.
- Maximum 8,192 nodes and 8,192 material sections overall, with up to 512 sections per node.
- Maximum texture dimensions: 8,192 × 8,192 pixels.
- Prepared model data and expanded texture references have memory limits of 512 MiB. Very large or heavily repeated textures can exceed these limits even when the source FBX is small.
- The model uses a versioned binary format, compression and authenticated AES-256-GCM encryption. Damaged or modified encrypted data is rejected.
- Geometry is decrypted in memory. The loader does not write a temporary plaintext FBX or an unencrypted model cache.
- Existing FBX import remains unchanged for creators who choose not to use protected export.