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Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

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Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Carmack did a stellar job in that respect. Doom and Quake are still very much alive thanks to his decision.

Even he had some challenges with releasing Doom: > The bad news: this code only compiles and runs on linux. We couldn't release the dos code because of a copyrighted sound library we used (wow, was that a mistake -- I write my own sound code now), and I honestly don't even know what happened to the port that microsoft did to windows. I would assume it's a lot more complicated today. Even the most simple programming p…

Still waiting for them to release RAGE 1 source code.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Carmack did a stellar job in that respect. Doom and Quake are still very much alive thanks to his decision.

Even he had some challenges with releasing Doom: > The bad news: this code only compiles and runs on linux. We couldn't release the dos code because of a copyrighted sound library we used (wow, was that a mistake -- I write my own sound code now), and I honestly don't even know what happened to the port that microsoft did to windows. I would assume it's a lot more complicated today. Even the most simple programming p…

> And it doesn't even account for the fact that you might be killing future projects by handing out the blueprint of old games. Would Assassin's Creed Valhalla exist if we had 100 clones of Assassin's Creed III?

Releasing the old doom source code doesn't stop id software from making sequels all the way up to doom eternal.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#44
post #2

I wish companies would just opensource really old engines for educational purposes. Maybe take game assets resize everything to 1/10th so that it looks like sht but can still be used as placeholder. Would boost the pipeline of talent for the entire industry

> Maybe take game assets resize everything to 1/10th so that it looks like sht but can still be used as placeholder.

The assets are commonly licensed, so you can't include them at all, or in large parts. Commonly the game data is not part of the release either.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even he had some challenges with releasing Doom: > The bad news: this code only compiles and runs on linux. We couldn't release the dos code because of a copyrighted sound library we used (wow, was that a mistake -- I write my own sound code now), and I honestly don't even know what happened to the port that microsoft did to windows. I would assume it's a lot more complicated today. Even the most simple programming p…

Elder scrolls games are very moddable and people have made total conversions and map extensions. That didn't prevent the sales of newer TES games based on slightly improved engines and slightly better assets (fan-made assets are often still ahead of the official ones, but it takes years of refinement to get to that point).

That and things like Counter Strike / Day of Defeat that started as mods had a large number of maps back in the day. 99% of them were shit and weird experiments. The ones that did rise to the top eventually got incorporated into newer versions, and indeed became games in their own right.

DOTA as well, started as a mod for Warcraft 3 and eventually spawned a franchise.

Trying to capture ALL the value (in this case the game developer/publisher) is a mistake anyway. The healthiest game franchises have broad ecosystems around them. Releasing the source code of old games just encourages that.

If there is one set of games I wish were released it is Ambrosia Software's catalog. Of all their games the only one I can find that is open source is Maelstrom (It's the Escape Velocity series, I'd love to see opened).

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#46
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old engines are very far from the current way is doing things. You might learn a lot, but you won't learn what you need to program modern games

It‘s still interesting to see how certain challenges have been solved back in the day. Or as a case study in what _not_ to do today. For example, Quake‘s ingame console commands were stored in a linked list. I believe looking up a command was a linear search through that list. You wouldn‘t do it like that today.

I don’t know about quake, but in quake 2 it consisted of a big list of:

    else if (strcmp(cmd, “somecmd”) == 0)
        somecmd()
I remember reading it at the time and being inspired by the simplicity of it. It didn’t need to be more complicated than it was, and so Carmack didn’t make it more complicated. That was in stark contrast to a lot of the object oriented c++ design stuff that I was also reading at the time.

So much of the quake 2 game source was like that. Beautifully straightforward code.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#47
post #13

One of the most beautiful games of its time. Stopped gaming years ago but saw my cousin playing Far Cry 6 the other day and it looked better but not that much better. After 17 years. Crazy.

Have you compared it to screenshots from Far Cry 1, or to your memory of the game? Far Cry 1 was a beautfiul game, absolutely, but the new iteration clearly does look a lot better than the original.

Yeah, take a look at this photo: https://i.redd.it/rfvm4j1j9m391.jpg

Looks like a lot of improvement to me.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#48
post #15

maybe someone is trying to cause trouble for archive.org by putting such clearly violating content on there

I think that's unlikely, it's a drop in the bucket at this point. Last I heard they were hosting Nintendo ROMs, in unarguable infringement of the copyrights.

Well that sounds bad. Are they all-in on piracy like their server is hosted on international waters or rotating between some whack-a-mole servers from like kazakhstan and mongolia and eswatini?

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#49
post #45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elder scrolls games are very moddable and people have made total conversions and map extensions. That didn't prevent the sales of newer TES games based on slightly improved engines and slightly better assets (fan-made assets are often still ahead of the official ones, but it takes years of refinement to get to that point).

That and things like Counter Strike / Day of Defeat that started as mods had a large number of maps back in the day. 99% of them were shit and weird experiments. The ones that did rise to the top eventually got incorporated into newer versions, and indeed became games in their own right. DOTA as well, started as a mod for Warcraft 3 and eventually spawned a franchise. Trying to capture ALL the value (in this case the…

dayz and the arma series aswell they would not have sold nearly the amount of copies without it, it also ended up as a standalone however controversial it might be.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#50
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Carmack did a stellar job in that respect. Doom and Quake are still very much alive thanks to his decision.

Falcon 4.0 (1998) had a source code leak after Microprose went bankrupt and just like Doom it also had many community forks. Its still alive and kicking today as Falcon BMS.

25 years and ultima online is still alive and kicking in the community shards.
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