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LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

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Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#61

Post by StMichael »

bitwize wrote: post #27
poly2it wrote: post #6

Best wishes, this is really neat. I hope it won't get slaughtered by Roblox's legal team. A potential use-case might be to create a Linux-native client. The one used by most right now (Sober) is proprietary, after the previous (Vinegar) got shut down because of Linux haxxors.

I have a feeling projects like this rank higher on Roblox legal's priorities than does the rampant child predator activity on Roblox's platform.

You are wrong. Child predator activity is a priority for Roblox. Their corporate team has stated that if you investigate child predator activity, you will be banned immediately.[1][2]

The virtual world called Second Life, considered similar to Roblox, also has a rampant child predator problem[3]. It is interesting because Second Life and Roblox are similar 3D worlds. Both experiences have a similar visual feel. Both experiences do very little KYC, resulting in a rampant alt problem. In fact, Second Life will begin using the same version of Lua used by Roblox, so in some ways they are even technologically-related 3D experiences.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roblox_Schlep_ban_controversy

[2] https://corp.roblox.com/newsroom/2025/08/more-on-removal-of-...

[3] https://archive.is/yjprF (Feb 2024)

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#62

Post by Muromec »

DANmode wrote: post #51
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, no society has ever overcome “might makes right.” Or, arguably, ever will. The good news though; it’s lawyers shutting down your project. Yesterday, it was hiring someone to break your knees.

The Pirate Bay, SciHub. The Internet interprets censorship (legal, moral, or otherwise) as damage, and routes around it.

The actual piracy also existed, until it wasnt

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#63

Post by MobiusHorizons »

Belopolye wrote: post #57
hnlmorg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know of any country where emulation is illegal? Do you? As the GP pointed out, OEMs use copyright and encryption to protect against unapproved execution. But that doesn’t apply to all systems. Given countries like the UK and US have the strictest intellectual property and computer misuse laws, and emulation is legal there (bar the aforementioned caveats), I’d be surprised if there was a jurisdiction where emu…

To my knowledge emulation is illegal in Japan, as is modding consoles. Edit: I looked into it a bit more. As it is against the law to dump ROMs from games you have legally purchased, as well as acquiring them through other channels, there is no way to emulate games in Japan in a legal manner.

What about games that come on cd or dvd media? Some emulators can run directly from the disk without creating a rom.

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#64

Post by poly2it »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #35
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope it won't get slaughtered by Roblox's legal team. I'm not saying Roblox won't try, but this project strikes me as very obviously legal. If legality was a spectrum, I'd rank this higher than VLC Media Player (patents) and way above an NES emulator. I suppose it'd be below Android, and Oracle did sue over Android. (Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, etc.)

The supreme court ruled against oracle that an API cannot be copyrighted, but Roblox can still ban you for using an unofficial client (like discord does)

For what it's worth, I don't think there is any known case of a Discord user being banned for using an unofficial client yet.

https://vencord.dev/faq/#Will-I-get-banned-for-using-Vencord...?

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#65

Post by daft_pink »

sejje wrote: post #33
daft_pink wrote: post #31

The Roblox debacle really reminds me of the 90’s where almost every arrested child predator was using AOL, but the news media would use the word “online service” or some really generic term as AOL spent so much money on advertising. A 5 year old isn’t going to be using IRC after all.

This is about an open source coding project

Is it an accident that they are releasing an open source Roblox, when the for profit company is becoming such a pariah in the news this week?

I’ve heard more about Roblox and their poor position on child safety this week than total mentions of roblox for years.

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#66

Post by Wowfunhappy »

RealStickman_ wrote: post #44
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope it won't get slaughtered by Roblox's legal team. I'm not saying Roblox won't try, but this project strikes me as very obviously legal. If legality was a spectrum, I'd rank this higher than VLC Media Player (patents) and way above an NES emulator. I suppose it'd be below Android, and Oracle did sue over Android. (Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, etc.)

VLC is French, so the US law on software patents doesn't apply to it.

I want to be very clear that I'm not saying either VLC or emulators are illegal. I'm just saying, to the extent that it's possible to make a strained case that something is illegal, TFA strikes me as being on even firmer footing.

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#67

Post by zip8370 »

Muromec wrote: post #62
DANmode wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pirate Bay, SciHub. The Internet interprets censorship (legal, moral, or otherwise) as damage, and routes around it.

The actual piracy also existed, until it wasnt

It still does

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_21st_century

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#68

Post by fallpeak »

Belopolye wrote: post #57
hnlmorg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know of any country where emulation is illegal? Do you? As the GP pointed out, OEMs use copyright and encryption to protect against unapproved execution. But that doesn’t apply to all systems. Given countries like the UK and US have the strictest intellectual property and computer misuse laws, and emulation is legal there (bar the aforementioned caveats), I’d be surprised if there was a jurisdiction where emu…

To my knowledge emulation is illegal in Japan, as is modding consoles. Edit: I looked into it a bit more. As it is against the law to dump ROMs from games you have legally purchased, as well as acquiring them through other channels, there is no way to emulate games in Japan in a legal manner.

People still make games for old consoles occasionally as hobby projects, and those are usually released freely as ROM files. I'm not familiar with Japanese law, but in most countries that would constitute a fairly solid proof that there are legal uses to which an emulator can be applied and thus that emulation itself isn't inherently illegal.

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#69

Post by [deleted] »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #54
lukan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to. But anything too succesful should be ready to be brought down any moment.

pokemon showdown is insanely and I mean insanely successful but it seems to have been almost blessed by the pokemon company. I genuinely don't know how its legal, when I shared the link to pokemon showdown to one of my friends, his first thoughts was, wait how is this legal? This is such a good thing, I wonder why this is free. Only for me to tell it its open source and bro was flabbergasted to say the least.

[deleted]

Re: LunarEngine: An open source, Roblox-compatible game engine

#70

Post by zeta0134 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #37
LocalH wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NES itself contains no code. Any NES emulator that ships with no software, or software under proper license (such as homebrew) is unambiguously legal. Does your PC, and the OS that drives it, suddenly become inherently illegal if you, as a user, installed pirated software? No, of course not.

No firmware, no microcode? It's all completely hard-wired? (Genuine question, I've no idea what chips it uses or anything - was never rich enough to have a game console until I started work myself.)

Nope! The system does include a CIC lockout chip, but emulators pretend it doesn't exist. The CPU immediately begins executing game code at power on. There is no BIOS or operating system, and indeed no fixed ROM inside the console at all.
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