Evolution of SPMBT and open source release

GALLIEN_Matthieu · #1 August 28th, 2006, 10:07 AM

Hi everybody, sorry for my bad english.
Maybe some people here does not the story of SSI better than me, but I expect that these peoples can just indicate me who are the copyright holders of the actual source code of steel panther 2 for example.

In fact, I bought several years ago a copy of sp2 for maybe 50 french currency (about 10 euro now). I played for several hours or days.
One day I discovered spmbt and enjoyed playing it. But has many here I want to change a little something to have a better experience with these great games.
After, spenting some years learning computer science, I discovered a thing: free software (the meaning is not free of money but open access to all the game and free development of any people who want to do that).
Maybe some of yours customize your computer desktop, many other people customize the games that they are playing.

Some years ago I have asked the question, why spmbt is not free, and the answer was that ssi did not do it. Why the people who can ask for it or know the people to ask does not do it ?

Just my question

narwan · #2 August 28th, 2006, 12:43 PM

Hi, the current developers of the SPCAMO games were given access to the source codes by SSI under the strict condition it would not be released to others. So it won't be made available.

Narwan

GALLIEN_Matthieu · #3 August 28th, 2006, 12:44 PM

And the so called developpers know who to contact to change this fact

narwan · #4 August 28th, 2006, 12:52 PM

You're not the first one to ask about the source codes so it is an issue that has been previously adressed. In fact it has come up regularly over the years. The answers were very clear; NO release. There's no reason to assume anything has changed.

Narwan

GALLIEN_Matthieu · #5 August 28th, 2006, 01:02 PM

I asked for the release some years ago onto the yahoo group, at a time were ssi was still alive I thought.

Correct my possible mistakes, but ssi is dead so the developpers may know who are the actual copyright holders and give me their names. I will then ask directly to them because they are the only one that can say yes or no. And this is the point.

If they release sp2 as bsd licence (not GPL one), the work on winspmbt will still be closed or open (spCamo work will not be magically released as open source with bsd licence. It depends on spCamo).

narwan · #6 August 28th, 2006, 01:19 PM

The game has been enormously improved from its original SP2 beginnings so just having those codes won't help you in improving this game, only in modding SP2 yourself.

Changing this game is NOT easy. In fact it is very, very hard. Se this thread for some indication of what's involved even for minor changes:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=wspww2&Number=427862&Forum =c17&Words="source%20code"&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=427862&Search=true&whe re=bodysub&Name=&daterange=1&newerval=5&newertype= y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post427862

Now if the code for the SPCAMO games were to be opened, people will go modding and run into problem after problem after problem after problem after problem.... And guess whose door they'll knock on for answers, advice, explanations, etc? It is already taking (too?) much time and effort as it is to improve on the games as is without the added weight of those questions. So I very much doubt there will be any release. But as the developers do frequent these boards I'm sure one or both of them will soon give you a clear answer.

Narwan

GALLIEN_Matthieu · #7 August 28th, 2006, 04:16 PM

I read the thread and for sure I know that. During my phD that I started two years back, I work on a software of about 67000 lines of code. It is C++, and I started to modify some parts and experienced some common problems to Don and me.

The idea is that in general in open source project as in the spCammo work, many many people are just normal users, some make bug reports or feature requests and very few ones develop the software.

My idea is that some part of the work may be done by other than core developers:

_translation in other languages

_port to other architecture when possible (for example powerpc for mac users). I presume that the possibility to switch from different rendering engines implied the creation of an abstract rendering engine, that is implemented in two fashions (DirectX and GDI). Maybe a third one is possible for linux or just unixes (MacOS X, linux ...)

_submit patches to correct bugs or new features to core developers

But for the two last things, the source code must be open, and I agree that working on spmbt means opening all the code and that sp2 is far away from spmbt, but it might be interesting for me.

I agree too that spCammo did a lot of work, but I presume that some help can be found in the community of player if somebody tried to contact the copyright holder in order to change from abandonware to openware.

Mobhack · #8 August 29th, 2006, 05:14 AM

The same answer you got on the old Yahoo list applies.

The code is proprietary to SSI, and it was released to us to use under a Non-Disclosure Agreement. There is no way it will be released to the public under any sort of "open source" agreements.

Cheers
Andy

GALLIEN_Matthieu · #9 August 29th, 2006, 01:11 PM

So if I well understand your answer and what I found on wikipedia, I must contact by myself UBISOFT and will not have any help from you

.
At least, I will try to contact Ubisoft

GALLIEN_Matthieu · #10 August 30th, 2006, 04:16 PM

Just to close the subject,
I asked by internet, and ....
The answer was no.
Sure, if an unknown french people ask for something like that the answer will be negative.
In the past I hoped that some people here can support this idea, especially the author of winSPMBT.

Hey, some help to make translation of the interface to french is still something of my great interest !!!