malau on 16/8/2011 at 08:39
Quote Posted by R Soul
".................And speaking of anonymity, if someone has registered on the forums after the source code was released, that person could be an Eidos spy :joke:
Or anyone who registered after 29th February 2000 could be a Manchurian Candidate ! :cheeky:
ZylonBane on 17/8/2011 at 16:28
Quote Posted by Warren's Spectre
God damn it they got me! Well I guess those crappy Epic Mickey games won't churn themselves out, beam me back to base Scottie!
That's "Scotty", you son of a bitch.
Sticky Fingers on 18/8/2011 at 04:12
:D Makes you wonder what he'd do with Jean-Luc Picard.
(damn, I gave it away.....)
doubletap85 on 2/9/2011 at 16:57
Pretty disheartening that it's been this long with no word. I'm not really sure what the big deal with releasing the code would be, aside from making an entire community very happy. I mean, the source code for far more commercially successful games and engines have been released, what's the big deal here?
I've been patiently following this for quite a long time, and I can't say I'm very hopeful at this point unfortunately. If LGS were still together I'm sure they'd have given us the code by now...
wonderfield on 2/9/2011 at 19:18
I don't think anyone is particularly hopeful. Unfortunately, releasing source code for past products is not always a straightforward affair, legally speaking. There are risks when doing so, and companies like id have always taken those risks when releasing source code. For the most part, every major piece of software is probably violating one or more patents, and with source code in the open, it's possible (though extremely unlikely) that someone will pour over it, discover a particular method that's been patented and was never licensed and take whoever is liable for the violation to court over it.
It does require a very slight amount of risk for Square Enix, and it's not a risk one can expect a company can really take without some sort of financial payoff. What's necessary is for Square to be made aware of what those payoffs could be for them if they give a legal O-K on the source, but I find it very unlikely they care enough to even begin considering looking into the matter (just from the perspective of "they're a business; they operate for profit and not for charity").
At this point, though, I'm not certain that simply compiling existing source files and tacking on whatever additional features is desirable is the right approach considering the version of DirectX the engine's been written to. The renderer would really need to be completely re-written anyway to be at least marginally future-proofed against potential major impending changes in Direct3D (and just to run on reasonably modern hardware at a reasonable speed), and the renderer's a fairly significant chunk of the code there. Ditto for audio, to some extent. At this point it seems more sane to take the project in from scratch, utilizing the existing source code merely as a reference for certain specific gameplay aspects (without actually copying any major components) and filling in any gaps as necessary, with a best-guess approach if required. While this isn't something that someone would define as being legal, it is, however, significantly less likely to raise any alarms at Square Enix than simply releasing binaries compiled from the original source. It also provides the opportunity for a different, more liberal license to apply to the project than the license Square would probably apply to the source, were they to release it (some version of the GPL).
sNeaksieGarrett on 3/9/2011 at 16:33
While what you suggest is not a bad idea per se (that is, on paper), it's not likely to happen on a community effort, as it'd be too big of a project and would require heavy dedication which I don't see happening. I know that's not putting faith in our community here and sounds negative, but it just doesn't seem likely to me is all. Feel free to prove me wrong, fellow thief fans.:sly:
And actually, similar to what you speak is already in development (or was). It's called OPDE, Open Dark Engine.
wonderfield on 3/9/2011 at 19:18
Yeah, the unfortunate word there is "was". Volca appears to have transitioned away from the initial goal into something else, from what he's hinted at. Something else that apparently draws so heavily from the original source files to be legitimately unreleasable at this point (just guessing from what little he's said about it). Given the unlikelihood of anything on Square's side ever coming to fruition, I'm not sure what future that particular project has if its eventual release is contingent on the legal okaying of the original source. Suffice it to say I don't really think that's a viable direction at this point.
Still, a good deal of the work Volca et al did would be useful to any other engine projects, so to say that it was all a wasted effort wouldn't be accurate.
John5zimzum on 4/9/2011 at 20:49
OPDE was like 30% finished and still quiet impressing. The missing 70% were physics and game mechanics, while nearly all of the graphics stuff worked. So you were able to load a mission and move through it - just without sound and "living" guards.
I wonder what Volca is working on at the moment.
MoroseTroll on 5/9/2011 at 06:10
AFAIK, Volca has became a father about year ago, so I personally don't wonder that he is little busy now.
nbohr1more on 5/9/2011 at 21:54
To my knowledge, the summary of OPDE's current condition is this:
Any time a coder sees the source code of something they are trying to "reverse engineer" they become more susceptible of being accused of infringing and distributing code without authorization. I can't blame Volca for looking at the code he's been trying to fathom for ages, and who would believe him if he said he never looked at the source code anyway? So there's no getting around it. OPDE cannot make any "legal" progress.
What can happen is that the knowledge gained both from OPDE and the Dark Engine code will allow better engine patches to be deployed. In fact, they could release a "patch" that essentially guts the whole Dark Engine executable and replaces it all with new stuff leaving behind a few token remnants.
It hasn't been said explicitly but I have inferred that this is the plan:
1) Get the Dark Engine source to produce a working executable
2) Upgrade the executable for better OS and hardware compatibility
3a) Derive a patch from that work and distribute to the community
3b) If Eidos blesses the release then release the fixed Source Code
