RTCW is not dead - RIND for short :)

[pinkname Profile]

Imo the technicals are not difficult, q3 is an old, well known system, and it doesn't have any of nowadays rendering concepts (afaik). Basic opengl stuff, poligons, poligonized ncurves (maybe? "rmse" makes me think - I don't know), but no special shading, programming whatever. Ofc. the techniques can be looked up, q3 is very well documented already I guess.

BUT:

I never made a remake of anything, I have absolutely no idea, what can be done legally and what can be not. It seems to me, that the "asset" issue is not as simple as recreating everything. It seems to me, that a new game has to be created, including ALL the design aspects from the ground up.

If I'm right (hope not!), only a new game could be created on the basis of rtcw. It is a lot of work (much more than just drawing some stuff), maybe a year worth for a couple ppl, and I still know nothing about legal issues related to the game concept itself, not even speaking about the possible popularity of it. If anyone has any experience in the matter pls enlighten me. The only thing I'm sure of is that no money could be made by it directly (not a problem for me, might be a problem for others). And it isn't a one man job. Game design is khmmm... a profession not done well by many. Having ideas and some theorethical knowledge is much less than enough.

EDIT: ahh, forgot to mention: I'm absolutely not interested in SP.

J.

['L0, Profile]

My opinion is that it's all about presentation - as how you present it. If you write something like "RTCW Live " and underneath it "A community based standalone mod" you clearly state that it's not official and do not in any way deceive client to think it's anything but an enthusiast mod you're quite on the safe side - as long as you naturally comply with all other tems.

I mean TOS or license doesn't disallow a remake as long as all other factors are filled - non commercial, no property assets etc. If you draw from existing projects then ioQuake is a great example, it's a complete remake but it does differ in a sense it's code based so assets is not addressed there. But on the other hand, if you look at some of the derives from ioq then you can clearly draw the line as being completely identical with just different models.

The way I envisioned it is, asset will never look the same as rtcw IQ port offers different format and an updated render so you naturally work with somewhat better foundations. And idea is not to create an identical rtcw model but rather a typical WW2 soldier as MP in concept doesn't feature anything occult related (besides some indices on maps) so it's a simple WW2 game.

In my opinion (but I'm not a lawyer), one could "get away" with it because whole concept is so generic and as long as you comply with TOS and license (new logo, different name, clear intentions, license complying) I think it shouldn't be an issue.

[pinkname Profile]

I'm very far from being a lawyer as well. But _maybe_ it isn't only about the assets, but timings (how long a reload is etc etc), chat construction, casts, whatever. These are the foundations of why we love rtcw so much (and ET not so much), and as so part of the game design "property". I'm just worried, because I don't _know_ enough. But it is another topic already :D

I'll look around what mods/versions/remakes of q3 exist, I didn't yet try any.

J.

[pinkname Profile]

for some eu vs us matches even induced lag could be added for the sake of being fair

For starters you could stop cheating the players you do have with packetloss and other hacks. You will never attract new players with your egregious gayness. Pls take my advice mmmkay and then ECGN will be a glorious place to play. Pls do that as a first step or forget about it mkay.

Thanks for your opinion! :)

J.

['L0, Profile]

Just a little update;

-GPL allows cloning of the game, in sense it in essence promotes it as long as EULA is not broken.
-EULA or TOS serves as additional terms one has to comply in order to use whatever is released under.

So yes, you can clone it as long as you comply with all the terms, which in this case are;
- title has to be changed (trademarked),
- source has to available (GPL license) along with appropriate information (original owner, license..),
- property asset is not allowed so it has to be;
-- recreated or,
-- obtained by other means but with license that allows distribution of it (PUB license, GPL, some versions of CC etc).

You can sell the game as GPL doesn't prevent that but you need to provide source code with it so it's unsuited as business model in that sense.

I don't know what's their policy about earning money from ads as I cannot find their commercial/non-commercial distinction. GPL doesn't prevent that but it's ambiguous and generally falls in commercial realm. For example, UDK or Unity have clarified what's the distinction between two worlds but ID did not (or I could not find it) and as such, it may be a legal black hole for anyone trying to earn money with ads- but don't hold me by my word as it's just a general assumption and I'm not a lawyer.

[pinkname Profile]

Thanks for the clarifications!

(I still have to do my homeworks, this week I had plenty other stuff to do, I'm still braindead...)

J.

[MAN-AT-ARMS]

The IQM support in iortcw is pretty limited to just map objects etc, there isnt really any animation support, etc.

['L0, Profile]

Wasn't aware of that, although I never really looked into it. Xreal and/or openWolf have animation support if I'm not mistaken so porting it should be somewhat simplified if there's ever a desire for it.