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Monday, September 24, 2012 - 15:07

So long as the author(s) give you permission to use their work under licence X, you can. They hold the copyright, and so they can choose to re-licence is as they choose.

Just because a licence isn't listed on OGA doesn't mean that an author can't dual-licence their own work under some other terms, should they decide to.

Sunday, September 23, 2012 - 04:41

I've noticed that a few of the files you are using are licensed as GPL v3 or CC-BY-SA 3, which will require you to release the source code for your game, as mentioned in the FAQ. Since the Apple Store licence prohibits GPL-like licences from being used, I think that you'll have to remove them from your project. See the VLC story for reference.

Saturday, August 13, 2011 - 08:13

> Besides anyone paying them for those patents? Do they defend their patent?

id Software for one. It's one of the reasons why Doom 3 uses Creative's audio technology:

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2004/07/4048.ars

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 08:03

This reminds me of RPGJS. It's an open-source project, using HTML5 and Javascript to create an RPG-Maker-esque game online.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 07:19

I'm not sure that id are able to release the source code at all, due to software patents.

 

id Tech 4 relies on a technique called Carmack's Reverse for rendering stencilled shadow volumes. This technique is patented by Creative Labs in the US and so it cannot be used without a patent grant. Since id Software do not own the patent, they cannot release the code under the GPL:

 

Distributors under the GPL also grant a license for any of their patents practiced by the software, to practice those patents in GPL software. - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/GPL#Terms_and_conditions

 

Ideally, Creative would allow the use of the technique in GPL'd software and the problem would be solved. Otherwise, there are three choices:

 

  • Don't release the code at all.
  • Release it without the lighting functionality.
  • Release it under some other licence (one without the requirement for a patent grant) leaving any derived versions on uncertain legal ground as to whether or not they can actually use the code.

 

This is just another example of software patents being a hinderance rather than a help - there are other ways to implement stencilled shadow volumes, but they are either less efficient or less robust.

 

Sunday, July 17, 2011 - 08:44

The text file included with the RAR file indicates that this work is under a Creative Commons 3.0 Licence, but OGA lists it as being Public Domain... which is it?

Sunday, May 29, 2011 - 06:28

I'm guessing that the FSF would object to Google ads and the "CentOS, RedHat, or Fedora" requirement.

If the Google ads were replaced by Ad Bard ones and you don't mind using a Fully Free distribution (such as Trisquel GNU/Linux) then this will not be a problem.

Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 16:03

Since it seems that no-one has documented the .MAX file format before, I thought that I'd have a look at it. I'll let you all know if I get anything useful out of my research.

EDIT 1: Work-In-Progress MAX file format specification (PDF format): Download.

EDIT 2: Got rid of the View Online option because it breaks whenever a new version is uploaded (like just now).

 

Sunday, April 3, 2011 - 17:51

would i be able to use this in a video game??

It's GPLv3, meaning that it qualifies as Free/Open Source "Software" - just with a mesh file instead of source code. As such, you should be able to use it in any of your own projects, just so long as those projects are also licensed under the GPLv3.

If your game is licensed under (for example) a BSD-style licence, GPLv2 or a closed-source licence, then I don't think that it is possible for you to use it.

Sunday, April 3, 2011 - 17:38

The mapping of buttons used by PlayStation 2 USB adapters varies, depending on the adapter/driver used and how it is configured. This is because they are all unofficial, third-party devices, meaning that there is no set standard to define how they should function.

XBox 1 pads are actual USB devices - they just have an over-sized, non-standard cable. With the correct cable adapter, it is possible to plug them into a normal-sized USB port. As with the PS2 adapters, though, the button mappings depend on the driver used - and no "official" drivers exist for them.

I believe that they are supported on GNU/Linux systems, probably due to Xebian. I investigated them a while ago and, strangely, there appears to be more than one type of XBox pad - lsusb shows different pads as having different device type identifiers.

As for the idea of a "standard" game-pad controller for PC systems, this seems to be what Microsoft was aiming for with XInput, since as far as I am aware it currently only supports XBox 360 pads (though SIXAXIS controllers do seem to fulfill all of the requirements).

One way of going about this currently is to determine which of the four "driver types" a pad is (GNU/Linux SIXAXIS, GNU/Linux XBOX, Windows XBOX, Other) and then use some clever coding to remap/unify the joypad input events in a way that allows them to be treated in the same manner - except for the "Other" joypads of course, since there's no set standard for those.

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