asking for open source

[LeBob]

Should we collect "signatures" to ask CA to release the open source for VI?

Lord Le Bob

[Marshal Murat]

What is a Open Source? Modding assister or what?

[kiwitt]

Do not make this Open-Source. The creators of the TW deserve all the money they get.

However, making it run on Linux would be better. I would pay to have MTW:VI run on Linux. I would dump Windows, if it wasn't for this fact.

[Lord Xelous]

YES Source ( I drool )... I wann it, I wann it.. I wann it....

I mean unless they're planning on milking the MTW game to death there'll be no point in not making it open source with the release of RTW.

And lets face it, ID released the code for DOOM, DOOM2 and QUAKE, never impeded their sales, and the code was pretty incomprehendable http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-computer.gif without a 38ft white board and 30,000 pages for making notes on http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-book2.gif ... but we'd like to see how to tweek things...

So come on CA, dig deep.... we promise we're all buying RTW already...

Regards

Lord Xelous.

[Lord Xelous]

P.S. for those who aren't sure, Open Source is really a concept, or releasing the source code (but probably not the build information) for a program. So that the public can run their rubby fingers through it... and optentially unlock the tricks, tips and methods behind how a program works.

There are many sites on the net which support Open Source projects, but the most notable is probably the Apache Organisation, not only are all their products free for download, but the code can also be downloaded.

If you go to the right places you can find many notable games available as source as well, such as the ID Series up until Quake 2 (I believe).

Generally A program becomes open sourced once sales tail off, or it is superceeded by a new revision, and I feel that with the advent of RTW the MTW sales will tail off, from experience there'll be a plethora of budget packages sales of it until it hits the gold/platium labels, then it'll be shelved... that would be when I'd properly pester CA for the code. When they cease receiving large revenue, and when they're well on their way to the (hopeful) sequal of RTW.

NOTE to the wise: If you see any of my tools online, and you would like the source, you just got to ask.

Hope that helps

Lord Xelous.

[rejectedhousecarl]

Hi,
I total agree on the whole Open Source thing, however at the .com forum i was greeted with one reply which basically told me i was
a) being a bit foolish
b) That it shouldn't happen and that the designers deserve all the money they could get.
It makes me wonder if that the people that want the source code to be available are in the minority, which seems silly really, i'd rather we didn't end up like the Total Annihilation community in which they are STILL campaigning for the source code to be released and it's what...almost five or six years since that game was released and it went to budget...besides what made Half-life really good was that the code was released and you ended up with things like Counter-strike which is now sold as a seperate entity in itself despite having been made by modders in the first place.
Count me in for being one of the signatures.

[Kaatar]

It's like the grail ...

I don't think they should do it. It wuld be good for us minor modders but what if their competitors got it? Now don't get me wrong, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I had you going for a minute there. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[barvaz]

Releasing the source code of MTW or any other game we are passionate about would be indeed sweet. I can only imagine what the talented people around here could do with it, no doubt it will benefit the entire community. It also doesn’t have to put sales or profit in danger and even the opposite, as some cases have shown, encouraging the modding community can make the life of the original product last longer.

However, as anyone who ever worked on commercial software could tell you, there are plenty of reasons why a company wouldn’t even consider doing this:

- The professional pride of developers and their managers will sometimes prevent publicly exposing something they perceive as ugly, messy and undocumented code. Even if this code results in a wonderful and bug free product, they sometimes feel guilty their code is not clean enough.
- Often even older products still contain tricks and techniques they would like to continue keeping secret. Maybe some algorithms, ideas, hacks or even complete pieces of code will be reused in the next project and they don’t want to expose it to the whole world.
- Sometimes developers do illegal stuff in their source code, use 3rd party components they don’t legally have license to or shamelessly copy code from other open source projects without respecting the source license (and some open source licenses can be very strict).

But the most obvious and common reason is pretty simple: these companies are run by businessmen, many of them don’t think about communities, fans and modders and most of them are terrified about open source concepts and the people who participate in it are considered warez criminals and potential pirates. They think about making as much money as possible with minimum efforts and risk. Fostering a community for years to come doesn’t necessary fit into their business plans.

And I am not saying the management of CA is like that but I am not so sure about Activision. Besides the good will you can often find among the developers themselves, these issues are greatly affected by parent companies of the development houses or their publishers with all the legal crap that comes with it.

- barvaz

[metatron]

Would it really hurt them though? They're going to be pushing Roma's engine, not this one.

[Lord Xelous]

One thing that Valve did with the Half-Life source was they left some of their tricks and tips inside custom DLL's and required libraries which you couldn't altar.

That's how they got around releasing the half-life code... and we got DoD out of it... my favourite 3rd person multiplayer game ever

As for the comments about their deserving all the money they get.. I surely agree... but also when RTW comes out they sales of MTW will dry up, just as they did to shogun when MTW came out.

And recently CA released a prepackaged set of MTW & VI together (The Battle Collection), so it seems their sales strategy is a rational one, and I'd see no reason (other than secret bits of code) for them to release the source code around a year after RTW hits the shelves..... or when the MTW sales come down...

Maybe if the CA big eye in the sky is watchin... release the source, or hire me... either way I'll be a happy bunny http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-smile.gif

[kiwitt]

I would like to a release of MTW on Linux, using OpenGL not DirectX.

Alpha Centauri is on Linux as a lots of other FPS 3d games, why not MTW. This would extend the francise.

[barvaz]

Quote[/b] (kiwitt @ Jan. 27 2004,22:16)]I would like to a release of MTW on Linux, using OpenGL not DirectX.

Alpha Centauri is on Linux as a lots of other FPS 3d games, why not MTW. This would extend the francise.
Why not ? Think about investing into re-implementing most of the graphics engine to use a different API, code a new sound system and port countless native Windows call to linux, among other things, for what, 1% of the installation base?