So,... what's the situation on the Dark engine source code? - by Cliftor
Cobak on 8/5/2009 at 21:49
Quote Posted by New Horizon
How can they announce the release of something that might not even exist anymore? We're all hoping the dark engine still exists, but it may not.
I'm just being hopeful and throwing out crazy ideas :P
even better marketing idea:
at E3 they announce that there will also be a collector's edition available:
Thief IV: The Builder's Edition
including thief IV, thief IV editor, source code for the dark engine and dromed, and whatever else they want to include to justify the enormous sum of money they will charge us for it (which we will gladly pay)
and of course it would all come in a classic Eidos trapezoid-shaped boxeidos, feel free to use my ideas free of charge :)
Cobak on 9/5/2009 at 03:16
(
http://mahk.8kindsoffun.com/)
can we email Marc LeBlanc's mom and ask her? :p
Also, add Tom Leonard to the list of people who worked on the dark engine, but have no info on the whereabouts of its source code:
I'm afraid you'd probably have to contact Eidos for the source code, I don't have anything to give you. I applaud your efforts, though! It actually was pretty high quality stuff, and if the community had a strong graphics guy it could certainly be modernized to good effect.
-TomMoroseTroll on 9/5/2009 at 07:59
Cobak: I think that at first we should get an official response from Eidos/Square Enix. Without it we cannot proceed to find Thief 1&2 source. Every ex-LGS tell us that they don't have the source, but the situation could be changed if Eidos would say:
Plan A) "Sorry taffers! Thief 1&2 are most valuable our assets, so forget about their source!"
Plan B) "Sorry taffers! We've lost their source last millennium. If you wish, you may try to find it among ex-LGS."
Plan C) "Ok."
So we could continue source searching only in Plan B.
Cobak on 9/5/2009 at 14:50
Quote Posted by MoroseTroll
Cobak: I think that at first we should get an official response from Eidos/Square Enix. Without it we cannot proceed to find Thief 1&2 source. Every ex-LGS tell us that they don't have the source, but the situation could be changed if Eidos would say:
Plan A) "Sorry taffers! Thief 1&2 are most valuable our assets, so forget about their source!"
Plan B) "Sorry taffers! We've lost their source last millennium. If you wish, you may try to find it among ex-LGS."
Plan C) "Ok."
So we could continue source searching only in Plan B.
Very true, that is probably the correct steps to go, though there is always the "So, we found a copy of the source for you... can we have it?"
By the way, I got another response from Tom:
Eidos Montreal has contacted me with similar inqueries, so I suspect they're on board with you.
You should reach out to Warren Spector, he must know where the original source is.That's awesome news that EM has contacted him and gives me hope that if it's out there then hopefully we can find it. Anyone know if Warren Spector has been contacted?
jtr7 on 9/5/2009 at 14:52
No, but that's confirmation that René is asking on our behalf, or made has made it happen on his end.:thumb:
No idea if somebody here is still in touch with Warren.
Cobak on 9/5/2009 at 20:27
*ahem*
The fate of the Dark Engine -- which Looking Glass used to create Thief and Thief 2 -- is a mystery to me. I'd guess Eidos has the source code stashed away somewhere but it'd surprise me if anyone there even knew they had it, let alone where it was.
As far as the Thief 3 source code goes, it was turned over the Crystal Dynamics when Ion Storm shut down. There are some folks from Eidos Montreal trying to track it down even as we speak. They -- or someone from Crystal -- would be your best bet.
Warren
so we're back to EM... hopefully they can find something
Yandros on 9/5/2009 at 20:41
Well, that sucks. Let's hope since EM is fervently looking for old Thief engine code, that they'll come across the DE source sitting on an old desktop and do the right thing.
jtr7 on 9/5/2009 at 20:50
That's what I've been thinking was the case, except I didn't know about Crystal Dynamics and the T3 source code.
Thanks Cobak.
You know, Taffers, this is actually a great sign for us, and a lovely gesture that EM is looking for this--both source codes. I think that alone is wonderful. Kudos!
MaxDZ8 on 11/5/2009 at 05:25
Quote Posted by Volca
Yes, there sure is some space for performance improvements (Although I hardly get below 100 FPS most of the time on one AMD core at 2100MHz with 8800GTS). The current performance mostly depends on CPU speed, as with the original engine.
Thank you very much.
Quote Posted by Volca
But you're invited to analyse the problem and/or improve the rendering if you'd like ;)
You can bet I'll do as soon as I finish the thing I am working on now! I hope to be able to finish it for this autumn. The results could be useful: it's meant to investigate in detail pipeline performance when dealing with complex environments with high Z-overwrite.
