Be Aware, VideotMaps Mod Tampered With

[Solarverse]

So apparently back in 2004, a little gem was added to the VideoTmaps mod and has carried over to today's mod. It's not a vicious mod, however, what it does do is turns the Eden costume option and bikini 3 option in to full nudity of a female character. Some of you may not care, others may not approve of your kids seeing such things in a video game, it's your choice. However, if you are a parent who does not approve, or don't want the tackiness of that mod on your game, then this post shows you how to delete it from your videotmaps without losing your maps mod.
 

 

Hope this helps for anyone to whom it matters.

 

Full Update

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by Solarverse

[Solarverse]

Update, it would seem that nasty little side-mod that came with the videotmaps mod was removed before it was transferred over to the new CityMod. so the only way you could possibly have that mod is if you downloaded it during the CoHModTool days. @Captain Fabulous has helped verify that the newest version of the videotmaps mod is free of the side-mod. Thanks for checking it out, Captain.

[Luminara]

That was never integrated into Vidiotmaps.  Neither the version @Blondeshell maintained nor the one @AboveTheChemist is currently maintaining.  I installed @Blondeshell's five minutes after I finished installing the game, and switched to @AboveTheChemist's when he picked it up.  I installed both manually and updated them manually and the nude mod was never there.

 

I don't use the mod installer tools, never have, so I can't say whether something else automatically installed that mod when you were installing something else via one of those tools.  But I can say that I know for a fact that Vidiotmaps was never compromised.  Eden is one of the tops I check when I'm creating or adjusting a costume, so I would've seen it within hours of installation.  I've been keeping my copy of Vidiotmaps up to date with every release since June 2020, not once did I see boobies.

[Snarky]

any mods that create a blood seeping from this side of a neck?

[Frostbiter]

23 minutes ago, Snarky said:

any mods that create a blood seeping from this side of a neck?

 

Two nails and a 2x4?

[Scarlet Shocker]

"show me on the naked superhero where the vidiotmaps touched you..."

[Glacier Peak]

I for one welcome our new overlords.

[SeraphimKensai]

The nudity mod I remember a few old SG members talking about it back in like 2005. I always thought it was a lesser known about standalone mod. I don't recall seeing it integrated into vidiotmaps, but I tend to put clothes on my characters and don't need their ass checks flapping in the wind while they're fighting super villains, superheroes, monsters, criminals, police forces, or robots.

Edited September 30, 2023 by SeraphimKensai

[High_Beam]

After the Symphony sound mod I have been trying out the various mods (all of them) to see if any catch my eye or ear.   I saw the Eden costume nude mod as a separate item.  I had two characters where the concept of being au natural might work; my plant/earth dom because NATURE and my truly liberated Runeslinger as an alternative to her bathing suit (all of my toons have slot six set for bathing suit, its an old Babes of War habit).  Since only I (or anyone else who has the mod installed) would see the nude I wasn't sweating it.

 

But its good that the OP was putting this information out and that the clarifications have followed.  Now to be fair, someone should have a nude swinging bat mod made.

[AboveTheChemist]

I (unofficially) took over maintenance of vidiotmaps in February 2021. I can assure any user of vidiotmaps that no such files that modify costume parts have been included in the vidiotmaps mod during my tenure as curator of vidiotmaps.

 

Further, I've checked my fairly extensive library of older vidiotmap installs and can find no trace of any files which modify costume parts. I've spent a good bit of time digging around in the files that make up the vidiotmaps mod and if any such files were in there, I would have noticed them long before now.

[Greycat]

Yyyeeeeaaahhhh.... used Vidiotmaps since live. Eden's always been Eden (and fairly niche use, for me.) It's only modified the map, not a costume piece. No idea what *you* found, but I've never had Vidiotmaps turn characters - well, as close to nude as blocks and pixels can be.

[Tiger Shadow]

Well Solarverse did spell it "Videotmaps" 3 times, so might be a different mod.

[Solarverse]

6 hours ago, Luminara said:

That was never integrated into Vidiotmaps.  Neither the version @Blondeshell maintained nor the one @AboveTheChemist is currently maintaining.  I installed @Blondeshell's five minutes after I finished installing the game, and switched to @AboveTheChemist's when he picked it up.  I installed both manually and updated them manually and the nude mod was never there.

 

I don't use the mod installer tools, never have, so I can't say whether something else automatically installed that mod when you were installing something else via one of those tools.  But I can say that I know for a fact that Vidiotmaps was never compromised.  Eden is one of the tops I check when I'm creating or adjusting a costume, so I would've seen it within hours of installation.  I've been keeping my copy of Vidiotmaps up to date with every release since June 2020, not once did I see boobies.

 

After lots of discussion on the Tools section of the forums, it was discovered that my version either came from the original site or a mirror site. I got my version before the original CoH Modder Tool was created by Philotic Knight. I'm sure I am not the only person who downloaded this version, anyone who had file knowledge could have done so.

 

[Solarverse]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

Yyyeeeeaaahhhh.... used Vidiotmaps since live. Eden's always been Eden (and fairly niche use, for me.) It's only modified the map, not a costume piece. No idea what *you* found, but I've never had Vidiotmaps turn characters - well, as close to nude as blocks and pixels can be.

 

As you can see up above, those files were made back in 2004 and as you can see from the screen shot that I took before removing those files, it was indeed part of the vidiotmaps I had downloaded. I wish I could remember where I downloaded it from, but unfortunately I cannot. I thought it was from the Mod Tool, however, the date that shows when I downloaded it was before the Mod Tool, so it would have been from a web site, either the original or a mirror site or some other method.

[Clave Dark 5]

Do uh we have any screen shots of this mod in action?  Asking for a friend...

[Luminara]

9 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Do uh we have any screen shots of this mod in action?  Asking for a friend...

 

Tell your friend that it's a waste of time.  I looked into it a few years ago, the textures are low quality and very poorly done.  It's less erotic than a concrete stress test analysis.

[High_Beam]

But its a fairly well groomed landing strip and Areola color does seem to blend well.  At least that's what I have been told 🙂

 

Quote

It's less erotic than a concrete stress test analysis

That is effing funny.  I am using that the next time my spouse wears that one wretched bathrobe.

Edited September 29, 2023 by High_Beam

[AboveTheChemist]

9 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

I got my version before the original CoH Modder Tool was created by Philotic Knight.

 

The Philotic Knight (PK) contacted me via private message (PM) on August 6, 2020, to let me know about the launch of the CoH Modder tool, as he wanted to include a couple of my early mods within it. So I think CoH Modder was launched sometime in August of 2020 and looking at the dates on your folders, it's possible that your version might have come from PK's CoH Modder tool.

 

Unfortunately, PK himself told me later in the same PM conversation that the CoH Modder tool was not secure from tampering. Here's a screenshot from that conversation wherein I raised the question about tampering. This was about a day or two after I began actively using the CoH Modder tool to update and maintain my own mods (but before I became involved with vidiotmaps). Note for general readers that PK has since changed his username to _NOPE_.

 

I would not have posted this while CoH Modder was still available, but since the tool is defunct and no longer available, I don't think there is any danger in revealing this info.

 

The most likely cause of the nude costume texture issue seems to be perhaps vidiotmaps was tampered with, and perhaps there was a tampered version available on the CoH Modder tool for a brief time, but when I took vidiotmaps over, I overwrote the tampered version with a clean version. It's just a working theory but it seems to fit the facts as I am aware of them.

 

@Solarverse (apologies for the ping, just wanted to make sure you saw this part), I've got a couple of questions that might help provide further info. In one of your screenshots you show the contents of a file called vidiotmaps_i26_coh_modder.zip.

1. Can you please check the modified date for that zip file? That will pin down at least one date when the tampered mod could have potentially been available on CoH Modder. I assume it's roughly the same date as that shown on your mod folders (12/22/2020) but just want to be sure.
2. If possible, can you please make that zip file and its contents available via Google drive or Dropbox or something? I've got some older archives of the mod, but there are certainly gaps in my library. If it does turn out that a tampered vidiotmaps was uploaded, I'd like to run some checks against known good maps to make sure that there weren't map texture files that were possibly tampered with on a more subtle level that are still kicking around in the current version of vidiotmaps.

Thanks for the help, and sorry you went through this. Mod tampering is something that I've been concerned with for a while so I take this type of thing quite seriously. It makes me a tad sick to my stomach to think that someone might take something meant as a gesture of good will to the community and hijack it for nefarious purposes.

[Shenanigunner]

6 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

Two nails and a 2x4?

 

"...same as in town!"

 

The claim here sounds like a mistimed April Fool's shen.

[Solarverse]

8 minutes ago, AboveTheChemist said:

 

The Philotic Knight (PK) contacted me via private message (PM) on August 6, 2020, to let me know about the launch of the CoH Modder tool, as he wanted to include a couple of my early mods within it. So I think CoH Modder was launched sometime in August of 2020 and looking at the dates on your folders, it's possible that your version might have come from PK's CoH Modder tool.

 

Unfortunately, PK himself told me later in the same PM conversation that the CoH Modder tool was not secure from tampering. Here's a screenshot from that conversation wherein I raised the question about tampering. This was about a day or two after I began actively using the CoH Modder tool to update and maintain my own mods (but before I became involved with vidiotmaps). Note for general readers that PK has since changed his username to _NOPE_.

 

I would not have posted this while CoH Modder was still available, but since the tool is defunct and no longer available, I don't think there is any danger in revealing this info.

 

The most likely cause of the nude costume texture issue seems to be perhaps vidiotmaps was tampered with, and perhaps there was a tampered version available on the CoH Modder tool for a brief time, but when I took vidiotmaps over, I overwrote the tampered version with a clean version. It's just a working theory but it seems to fit the facts as I am aware of them.

 

@Solarverse (apologies for the ping, just wanted to make sure you saw this part), I've got a couple of questions that might help provide further info. In one of your screenshots you show the contents of a file called vidiotmaps_i26_coh_modder.zip.

1. Can you please check the modified date for that zip file? That will pin down at least one date when the tampered mod could have potentially been available on CoH Modder. I assume it's roughly the same date as that shown on your mod folders (12/22/2020) but just want to be sure.
2. If possible, can you please make that zip file and its contents available via Google drive or Dropbox or something? I've got some older archives of the mod, but there are certainly gaps in my library. If it does turn out that a tampered vidiotmaps was uploaded, I'd like to run some checks against known good maps to make sure that there weren't map texture files that were possibly tampered with on a more subtle level that are still kicking around in the current version of vidiotmaps.

Thanks for the help, and sorry you went through this. Mod tampering is something that I've been concerned with for a while so I take this type of thing quite seriously. It makes me a tad sick to my stomach to think that someone might take something meant as a gesture of good will to the community and hijack it for nefarious purposes.

 

Sure thing, it might be a bit before I can though, in the middle of a Synapse run and have to work after that, but I will for sure do that for ya. Appreciate you.

[Solarverse]

15 minutes ago, AboveTheChemist said:

 

The Philotic Knight (PK) contacted me via private message (PM) on August 6, 2020, to let me know about the launch of the CoH Modder tool, as he wanted to include a couple of my early mods within it. So I think CoH Modder was launched sometime in August of 2020 and looking at the dates on your folders, it's possible that your version might have come from PK's CoH Modder tool.

 

Unfortunately, PK himself told me later in the same PM conversation that the CoH Modder tool was not secure from tampering. Here's a screenshot from that conversation wherein I raised the question about tampering. This was about a day or two after I began actively using the CoH Modder tool to update and maintain my own mods (but before I became involved with vidiotmaps). Note for general readers that PK has since changed his username to _NOPE_.

 

I would not have posted this while CoH Modder was still available, but since the tool is defunct and no longer available, I don't think there is any danger in revealing this info.

 

The most likely cause of the nude costume texture issue seems to be perhaps vidiotmaps was tampered with, and perhaps there was a tampered version available on the CoH Modder tool for a brief time, but when I took vidiotmaps over, I overwrote the tampered version with a clean version. It's just a working theory but it seems to fit the facts as I am aware of them.

 

@Solarverse (apologies for the ping, just wanted to make sure you saw this part), I've got a couple of questions that might help provide further info. In one of your screenshots you show the contents of a file called vidiotmaps_i26_coh_modder.zip.

1. Can you please check the modified date for that zip file? That will pin down at least one date when the tampered mod could have potentially been available on CoH Modder. I assume it's roughly the same date as that shown on your mod folders (12/22/2020) but just want to be sure.
2. If possible, can you please make that zip file and its contents available via Google drive or Dropbox or something? I've got some older archives of the mod, but there are certainly gaps in my library. If it does turn out that a tampered vidiotmaps was uploaded, I'd like to run some checks against known good maps to make sure that there weren't map texture files that were possibly tampered with on a more subtle level that are still kicking around in the current version of vidiotmaps.

Thanks for the help, and sorry you went through this. Mod tampering is something that I've been concerned with for a while so I take this type of thing quite seriously. It makes me a tad sick to my stomach to think that someone might take something meant as a gesture of good will to the community and hijack it for nefarious purposes.

 

Do you want files that I deleted as well? I would have to put them back in to do that. The unwanted files have been removed.

[AboveTheChemist]

3 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

 

Do you want files that I deleted as well? I would have to put them back in to do that. The unwanted files have been removed.

 

If you can include them easily, then that's fine, otherwise I am not too worried about those two files as I don't think much info would come from them. I'd love to see everything else that was in there, though, including any non-texture files. There may be some clues in the metadata somewhere that help narrow down a window for when a tampered file might have potentially been available.

[Solarverse]

1 hour ago, AboveTheChemist said:

 

If you can include them easily, then that's fine, otherwise I am not too worried about those two files as I don't think much info would come from them. I'd love to see everything else that was in there, though, including any non-texture files. There may be some clues in the metadata somewhere that help narrow down a window for when a tampered file might have potentially been available.

 

I'm going to send this to you in private chat.

[biostem]

Does this just make those little slivers flesh colored?  I mean, people have done something similar since like launch, by using other skin tones that are easier to match with the colors available... 

[WanderingAries]

10 hours ago, Luminara said:

That was never integrated into Vidiotmaps.  Neither the version @Blondeshell maintained nor the one @AboveTheChemist is currently maintaining.  I installed @Blondeshell's five minutes after I finished installing the game, and switched to @AboveTheChemist's when he picked it up.  I installed both manually and updated them manually and the nude mod was never there.

 

I don't use the mod installer tools, never have, so I can't say whether something else automatically installed that mod when you were installing something else via one of those tools.  But I can say that I know for a fact that Vidiotmaps was never compromised.  Eden is one of the tops I check when I'm creating or adjusting a costume, so I would've seen it within hours of installation.  I've been keeping my copy of Vidiotmaps up to date with every release since June 2020, not once did I see boobies.

 

All the mod tool did was take the existing Vidiot file and simply unpack it in a slightly different way so that it worked with the mod installer he made. Extra work for the same effect except it helped you keep track of what you were installing.

Edited September 29, 2023 by WanderingAries