Carmageddon Source code

ManIkWeet · Post by **ManIkWeet** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 12:18 am

Thing is, I don't think we really want upgraded graphics, just a higher resolution...

That is more-or-less possible at the moment (I'm working on it) but it takes a lot of CPU and cockpit mode is giving headaches...

Simply patching the game & rereleasing it is probably not an option either... Might be easier than stripping the copyrights off the source though...

nobby · Post by **nobby** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:24 am

Trent wrote:That's not true, the amount of games which have had their source code released is relatively tiny compared to the amount of games which have been released. It's not just a case of uploading the source code and saying "there you go", developers have to make sure they actually own all the source code, that none of it infringes any patents and that their legal department has cleared the open source license it will be released under.
Even when ID released the source code to Doom 3, which was 100% their own code, Carmack had to do significant changes to the projection shadowing system as the system he had devised for it (known as Carmacks Reverse) off his own genius in 2000 had been discovered by someone else and was filed for a patent in 1999. That's a complication on source code entirely written by the company.

Stainless, on the other hand, used the BRender engine for Carma 1, they didn't write the entirety of the source code themselves. BRender was made by Argonaut and when they went bust in 2004, Jez San (the company's founder) bought the rights to the engine (along with the Just Add Monsters dev team who would later become Ninja Theory) off the company. That means, despite being almost two decades old, stainless would have to negotiate an open source license with Jez if they wanted to release the C1 source code. Even if they just released the parts stainless wrote purely for fans' reference, they would have to triple check every line to make sure no BRender code got left in. It's far from a simple situation.

Sorry to quote his post again in its entirety, but in doing so I'd like to thank Trent for (once again) answering the core question here far more comprehensively and accurately than I probably would have myself!

We really cannot just release the Carma source code out into the wild, for exactly the reasons he's explained.

Please excuse me, ManIkWeet - my famously poor memory is responsible for me spreading misinformation, so I hope you will understand that I wasn't deliberately lying to you!

ManIkWeet · Post by **ManIkWeet** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:05 pm

nobby wrote:
Please excuse me, ManIkWeet - my famously poor memory is responsible for me spreading misinformation, so I hope you will understand that I wasn't deliberately lying to you!

Apology accepted :)

Kailen · Post by **Kailen** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 6:02 am

When Id released the source code for Doom 1 and 2, they had to leave out the entirety of the sound code, as they had licensed it.

But sound is a different animal than here. I have no doubts that, if they managed to release this code with the BRender code stripped out, people would easily be able to replace it in their source ports. But that's gonna be a good deal of work to go through and make sure.

Still, it would be awesome if it happened, and we as fans can always dream.

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