It’s finally here! The biggest update to RPG Maker Cook Tool Deluxe has arrived! A lot of quality of life updates, technical improvements and bug fixes have been added to the release, alongside the introduction of the all-new Deep Level Encryption. Let’s take a closer look. 

Overhauled Asset Pipeline 

As part of a major overhaul, the Asset Compressor, Deep Level Encryption and Source Code Protection has been merged into the Asset Preparation. The new pipeline streamlines the build process, while providing robust encryption for both RPG Maker MV and MZ. This improves the user experience immensely, as it provides a one-click process to compress, encrypt and protect the game’s assets and code. Simply point to the project folder and it will do the rest. And thanks to the new caching system, subsequent builds will be even faster. Plus, it’s highly customizable. 

Deep Level Encryption 

Complimenting the Halva Packaging System (if you use it), Deep Level Encryption is the biggest addition to the tool. Built on modern web encryption, it provides a robust encryption to the game’s assets (images and audio for now). Simply give it a password and it will take care of the rest. Not only is it fully compatible with existing versions of RPG Maker MV and MZ that support encryption, but it also utilizes NW.js’ JavaScript Source Code Protection, to ensure near perfect protection. 

Quality of Life Improvements 

Finally, a lot of under the hood changes, mixed with merged tools, re-works and minor overhauls went in, to improve the user experience. Tidying up the settings, the overhauled recipe spec, and various tweaks provide a more streamlined, better experience to both you and the players. 

Changelog 

• Added Deep Level Encryption. 
  • Provides a robust encryption for individual assets (images and audio for now). 
  • Deep Level Encryption is skipped, if there are assets already encrypted via the editor. 
  • Note that if this option is on and no encrypted files are detected, JavaScript Source Code Protection will be turned on as well. This is a necessity, to ensure that the password is well protected. 
  • [RPG Maker MV only] You can specify which images to skip for encryption. 
  • [Bootstrap] When you switch DLE on or off between builds, the cache will be rebuilt. This only applies if you turn off the option to clear the cache when the game closes. 
• Merged Asset Compressor, JS Source Code Protection and DLE into “Asset Preparation”. 
• Merged Halva Settings and Player Services into “Packaging and Player Services”. 
• Implemented a caching system, speeding up subsequent builds. 
  • The build cache will also update the relevant files, if the compression and/or the encryption settings are changed. 
• Overhauled the recipe file spec, allowing better extensibility. 
  • The tool will migrate the old defaults to the new spec automatically. 
  • For the existing recipe files, a filter was added to the file picker that makes it easier to select them. Once opened, migration is done automatically, saving the migrated file on the same place as the original. 
• [Bootstrap, Windows] The non-Proton compatible build is now built with Windows SDK 10.0.26100.0, improving compatibility. 
  • Lowest version that the game can run on is Windows 10, version 1903. 
• [Bootstrap] Slight visual tweaks when a splash image is present. 
• [Linux] Improved decompression performance when decompressing the tar file for the NW.js binaries. 
• Added a utility to retrieve the logs for the tool. 
• Tweaked some of the logic that determines if the output folder is the same as (or related to) the source folder. 
• Tweaked the logic that gets the temporary location for the work folder (when the output folder is not set). 
• Streamlined some of the checks for certain strings. 
• Minor performance and memory usage improvements for both the tool and the bootstrap. 
  • Note that due to these changes, the bootstrap manifest and the file catalog generated from this version aren't compatible with older versions. 
• Re-worked the path construction logic used when creating the Halva packages. 
• This fixes an issue in Linux, where paths were malformed. That would cause an error due to a non-existent path. 
• Font Compressor is removed. 
  • I am planning to spin this off into a standalone version of Asset Compressor. 
• The Migration and Diagnostics Assistant is no longer available, as all functionality is now integrated to the tool.