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EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

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Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#111

Post by jimnotgym »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #58
Macha wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've heard from videos by Microsoft devs on why it was dropped between XP and Vista, the source code is obtuse and very difficult to port/work on.

Microsoft devs also claimed that making cmd faster would require years of research, but someone did that in a weekend by making it run on a GPU. I'm sure there's someone out there that would solve every problem Space Cadet has within a week, just for fun.

I'm sure there are lots of large groups of devs who are undone by an upstart kid with a fresh perspective and no fear

Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#112

Post by nottorp »

sumtechguy wrote: post #86
nottorp wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm there's also a c&c remastered bundle. Anyone knows if either of them includes stuff that requires an EA account?

The remastered bundle does not need it.

Well I hope you're right, I just bought both bundles.

This is the first time I give money to EA since Mass Effect 2* :)

* Technically i also paid for the Mass Effect collection for playstation, because Sony doesn't allow them to require a login on there. But it's the first time for a PC title since ME 2.

Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#113

Post by jimnotgym »

aflag wrote: post #104
colechristensen wrote: post #91

25 or 30 years would be a good amount of time for software copyright to expire. It would be fantastic if there was a way (somewhat like patents) where IP protection could be linked up with publishing materials so that in order to get the law to protect your software from copying, you had to have it published at the end of the protection period. (like on release you had to store the source code at the library of congr…

Even if it expires after 30 years, if the company doesn't publish the source code, what good does it do?

Perhaps to get the copyright you should put the code in escrow? Not really, it costs a fortune

Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#114

Post by pcwalton »

bee_rider wrote: post #74

I only glanced at the code in ANIM.CPP but for a C++ program from 1997 it looks kinda nice, right? The methods are all short, with some descriptive comments at the top of each one. Inputs and outputs described. Nice index at the top of the file. I’ve seen worse!

Yeah, I was looking at infantry.cpp, and the quality is actually very good for 90s game code. The documentation is good, it's decently well-formatted, and there are assertions. Nice counterexample to the "all successful games have terrible code" conventional wisdom.

Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#117

Post by colechristensen »

jimnotgym wrote: post #113
aflag wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it expires after 30 years, if the company doesn't publish the source code, what good does it do?

Perhaps to get the copyright you should put the code in escrow? Not really, it costs a fortune

This is exactly what I meant though, put the code in a private third party library in order to gain IP protection.

Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#118

Post by klaussilveira »

> If you wish to rebuild the source code and tools successfully you will need to find or write new replacements (or remove the code using them entirely) for the following libraries;

Take the hint, Valve. And Epic (UT99). Having third-party code is not an excuse.

Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

#120

Post by SXX »

harshreality wrote: post #36
ageitgey wrote: post #13

Who's going to be the hero that builds a modern update of C&C Generals/Zero Hour with 4k rendering, raytracing, etc?

Converting the assets to use the Spring engine (or BeyondAllReason's active fork of it) is probably easier than writing a new engine from scratch for the existing assets. And then it'll feel like BAR but with C&C's assets. The UI is what gives the game most of its feel.

C&C Generals plays completely different compared to Total Annihilation like games with streaming economy that Spring was built for. I like both subgenres of RTS, but they are very different.
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