If you want to see what can be done with a donated codebase, look up Freespace Open[1], which, from the original code of Freespace 2 from Volition (a game I loved, but that wasn't very successful) was improved a great deal by the community around it, with several improvements to assets, game engine, and even generated several total conversions.
EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
61–70 of 263 posts
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#62I am really impressed that EA went with the GPL v3 license. I would have expected them to use the MIT license.
What is impressive about it? The MIT license is more permissive, so using that would accomplish everything GPL does and more, no?
I'm not a lawyer.
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most likely the whole engine and the bare metal game without the arts/graphics and music/sound. That's how a lot of opensource clones work. For example OpenTTD [0] was reverse engineered and you have 2 options to actually play the game - either have the original game and use the arts/graphics and music/sound data from the original files - use the open source remake of the arts/graphics and music/sound The 2nd option…
To just make it playable you can just have any bunch of people with suitable tools make placeholder art, a sprite that says "TANK" on it is good enough for the tank moving code to run. But that looks really bad, and to make it look good (as almost any even mid-budget video game looks) you need an art director who can deliver consistency. For a small game that art director might also just make all the art, so it ends…
>Or maybe you've run into somebody who believes code should use character U+0009 for indentation
"The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." John 3:8
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#64Whoaaaa
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#65[deleted]
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#66Hey EA, how about the Bullfrog games next?
I'd love to play Syndicate again. Does anyone know if there are any similar modern games btw?
https://osgameclones.com/#syndicate-games : aside from FreeSynd, there's ‘Syndicate Wars Port’, but both are halted.
Satellite Reign is considered to be a modern take on Syndicate.
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#67If you're looking to just play the classic C&C games including Red Alert, either single player or multiplayer, check out cncnet.org.
I've been playing old classic multiplayer games with some friends while we're isolating. Halo 1 for PC, BF1942, Battlefield II. All free or like 5$.
Red Alert mostly ok under WINE on OSX or Linux but it prompted me to get windows running on a machine.
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#68What does a "RedAlert.dll" actually contain? I guess it is not the remastered engine, it is not the models, animations or textures. It won't contain the mission briefing videos, the mission briefing texts or even the mission maps. It is likely not the multiplayer maps, the net code, and especially not the multiplayer server. And it sure is not the awesome music. That dll file might be mostly unit config, like the old…
Most of the rest of the game is already probably visible in plaintext. And the big thing is, they're not releasing the copyright to their intellectual property around Command & Conquer: So to legally use this, without providing your own assets, you have to own a copy of the game. But presumably, if you own the game, you now have everything you need to modify it however you like.
That is my point.. reusing or remixing the assets, like their "mammoth tank but with another turret" example, is just barely fair use, provided it is a free2play mod on their engine. All this talk about "open source" sounds nice, but 95% of the game is still "proprietary" and most of the code is still closed and the whole thing is still mostly about selling the enhanced edition. Which is fine. The news is just very misleading until you read the fine print.
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#69I am really impressed that EA went with the GPL v3 license. I would have expected them to use the MIT license.
What is impressive about it? The MIT license is more permissive, so using that would accomplish everything GPL does and more, no? I'm not a lawyer.
Technically yes, but it's understandabe that they don't want someone else to take the code, add functionality and make it closed source.
Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
#70One of the best things that could happen to the gaming landscape would be if companies like EA and similar learned from Microsoft's move to open sourcing more software and involving the community more gives them a lot more goodwill and business as a side-effect. And then us gamers get more long-lived games as a benefit as well.
Well, the first thing I thought while reading this was that it would have been great if Microsoft had released the source code of Age of Empires with the release of the Definitive Edition, as well as considered a LAN mode.
Unfortunately, while AoE2:DE is an awesome game, they have done neither…
Good thing that there are projects like OpenAge going on!