Tales of GPL Development
by Prairie Games · in General Discussion · 07/16/2004 (9:08 am) · 7 replies
.....
#2
I for one hope this idea turns out very well for you. Good luck on your adventures.
07/16/2004 (3:42 pm)
Josh,I for one hope this idea turns out very well for you. Good luck on your adventures.
#3
All the source is released under the zlib license. What they have done to stop the type of scenario described above, is to alter the source that they release, from the source that was used to make the release build. They have simply replaced the netcode with an alternate implementation. This means that anyone who builds their own binaries from the 'official' source release, won't be able to play with the 'official' releases of Cube, but they can still play with other builds using the same source for testing purposes or whatever.
I saw that you had multiplayer support planned for MoM. So I'm wondering how you will be tackling the possible problems that might arise from people being able to pick-apart your network code with impudence, and secondly, the perhaps more likely problem of people creating 'improved' clients.
If the game became a successful multiplayer game, then it is easy to imagine that some bright spark will modify a client to give an advantage in multiplayer, and that it would be made available for others to download. Under the GPL, I can't see how you would stop someone from releasing a custom client, and potentially ruining the multiplayer aspect for regular players. Even if everything were handled by the server, and the client only sent truly relevant information, the slightest slip/bug/hole in the code WILL be taken advantage of.
To finish off, even if this doesn't apply to MoM directly, isn't this something for all game developers to think about if developing under the GPL?
07/16/2004 (4:37 pm)
Josh, I don't know if you have heard of the Cube game/engine, it's an open-source FPS. I remember reading on their site that they had concerns with the netcode being on show for anyone to abuse, the main concern was people building modified clients that use the same netcode, but (as an example) have the display code altered so that they can see through walls.All the source is released under the zlib license. What they have done to stop the type of scenario described above, is to alter the source that they release, from the source that was used to make the release build. They have simply replaced the netcode with an alternate implementation. This means that anyone who builds their own binaries from the 'official' source release, won't be able to play with the 'official' releases of Cube, but they can still play with other builds using the same source for testing purposes or whatever.
I saw that you had multiplayer support planned for MoM. So I'm wondering how you will be tackling the possible problems that might arise from people being able to pick-apart your network code with impudence, and secondly, the perhaps more likely problem of people creating 'improved' clients.
If the game became a successful multiplayer game, then it is easy to imagine that some bright spark will modify a client to give an advantage in multiplayer, and that it would be made available for others to download. Under the GPL, I can't see how you would stop someone from releasing a custom client, and potentially ruining the multiplayer aspect for regular players. Even if everything were handled by the server, and the client only sent truly relevant information, the slightest slip/bug/hole in the code WILL be taken advantage of.
To finish off, even if this doesn't apply to MoM directly, isn't this something for all game developers to think about if developing under the GPL?
#4
07/16/2004 (4:59 pm)
Security by obscurity is never the answer. I don't think there is a (good) reason why an OpenSource MMO game couldn't be secure.
#5
07/16/2004 (8:23 pm)
Security through good architecture and design is an excellent plan.
#6
07/16/2004 (10:22 pm)
Er... what?
#7
Anyway, best of luck getting people onto your forums. I myself don't have time to participate on non-GG forums except for the occasional guest-thread.
07/16/2004 (10:38 pm)
Ah, I see. I think some sarcasm didn't make it down the wire, so I was trying to figure out how "secure and robust networked game architectures" fit under "really scary radical stuff."Anyway, best of luck getting people onto your forums. I myself don't have time to participate on non-GG forums except for the occasional guest-thread.
Torque 3D Owner Eric Forhan