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Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

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Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#181
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to remove all the calls to the SDK too.

Surely that part of the code is AT LEAST fair use? Or one has to be at the wrong part of THAT historical argument (not necessarily pointing at parent)? (Yes, I would argue that this is exempt following the ‘functional’ argument)

"Oracle would like to know your location."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America....

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, open-source all abandonware. Here's a few examples of non-game old software that would benefit the society if open-sourced: Windows 9x and classic Mac OS. No one has sold these OSes for 20+ years and they turned out to be evolutionary dead ends. It would make sense to release their sources so people could learn from them and run them on new hardware more easily. Flash Player. Adobe has stated in no uncert…

Is there a risk those closed source projects would be sued following the release because they disclosed some forgotten sin? I'm thinking mostly of anti competitive practices from Windows.

> Is there a risk those closed source projects would be sued following the release because they disclosed some forgotten sin?

I know nothing about law, but I guess software companies would protect themselves in advance by mandating that all their developers use only software and sources that belongs to them anyway. That would be useful in case of a lawsuit where a court could force them to show the sources to prove they don't come say from the claimant's reverse engineered software, or some other FOSS project. Things might be different with 3rd party modules and libraries, where an obscure module was licensed from a company that went out of business ages ago, but all their assets were acquired by another party who finds the module in the wild and decides to sue. Just speculating, but although I'm 100% in favor of FOSS, if the above were real possibilities, I couldn't but understand why some companies are so reluctant to release even old code they couldn't profit from anymore.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can just “ERROR file physicslib.h not found”. Nobody says open source code must compile or work.

You need to remove all the calls to the SDK too.

Absolutely untrue. It's legal to reimplement a third party API, as upheld by the highest courts in both the US and the EU.

So of course you don't need to remove your lines of source code which call into an API.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#184

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…

Looping back to doom, here is a free library of doom mods.

https://freedoom.github.io/

According to Doom Eternal's wiki, it sold 3 million copies in spite of all these free to play doom games.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Eternal

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd guess something big as Windows 9x contains A LOT of licensed third party code which would be a nightmare to get permission for. Try finding five dozen rights holders after thirty years...

This is the usual argument you hear when it comes to old Games. It often would take way to long time to "clean" them up from 3rd party contributions/licenses etc. For a OS this is a impossible task.

Usually the argument goes that it would take time/money to rewrite the parts they don't have rights to, but simply deleting those parts and releasing the (now broken) code would be much better than nothing. Of course this assumes they kept track of who owns what code in the first place. Probably a bad assumption in the case of games particularly.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#186
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).

There's no way I would have purchased Morrowind, if not for OpenMW.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#187
post #12

I remember when Far Cry came out. Around the time, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 were the most anticipated games for quite a while, mostly because they promised graphics far ahead of anything released so far. But as they were delayed multiple times, Far Cry stole a lot of their thunder when it came out months before them, with similarly impressive graphics. We don't see technically ambitious PC exclusive games like this any…

Huh? That doesn't seem right. We absolutely have ambitious games on pc that bring generational leaps in graphical fidelity. Like the Witcher 3, which was absolutely stunning when it first released. Similarly (although originally a console exclusive) Red Dead Redemption 2 looks incredible on PC. We also have releases like Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice which pushed the limit of what was possible to achieve with limited r…

Witcher 3 caught a lot of flak when released for looking worse than what was shown at E3. Why gamers still pay attention to early-access peeks of games at E3 is beyond my comprehension, it seems like a recipe for disappointment every time..

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#189
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? That doesn't seem right. We absolutely have ambitious games on pc that bring generational leaps in graphical fidelity. Like the Witcher 3, which was absolutely stunning when it first released. Similarly (although originally a console exclusive) Red Dead Redemption 2 looks incredible on PC. We also have releases like Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice which pushed the limit of what was possible to achieve with limited r…

It depends what your reference point for the rate of progress is. The release date of Crysis is closer to release date of Doom than today, but visually Crysis holds up dramatically better than what Doom did at the time of Crysis release.

On the other hand I bet there are more people playing Doom 1 & 2 today than Crysis. Doom's gameplay held up better, and 3rd party WADs (in large part facilitated by the primitive graphics making it easy for one-man creators) gave Doom a life of its own.

Re: Far Cry 1.34 source code (2006)

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They peaked at far cry 2 and it has been down hill ever since

I liked Far Cry 4's setting and characters, but the game otherwise seemed very lazy and uninspired. Bland map and very little do to in between outposts. Little emergent fun to be had, except for doing missions or clearing outposts. Same complaint with Far Cry Primal; really neat idea but lazy/rushed execution.
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