Open source game
by baylor wetzel · in Torque Game Builder · 07/07/2006 (8:32 am) · 2 replies
TGB seems like it would work pretty well for building a game, which i might do some day. But right now i'm a university researcher building software used in academic experiments paid for by the government. Part of taking public money, as well as the academic ethos, is that i have to make my source code available to anyone who asks so that they can study my work and run their own tests to verify my work
This is one reason why i don't want to modify the game engine's source code, since there's no way i'm going to give anyone the TGB source. Obviously i wouldn't give anyone the editors
Is there a way to build software with TGB where i could distribute the parts i wrote and where others could compile them?
As a note, while i have to provide other researchers my source and data, i don't have to give them the tools they need to compile or run it. As an example, much of the work in my field is done with Unreal Tournament and the UT scripts/mods those groups write are freely distributed but the other researcher is expected to own a copy of UT so that they can run it. Likewise the groups that write mods in Neverwinter Nights (i know of two university projects using it) distributes their NWN code but no one can use it unless they own NWN. Same goes for C++ - we can give the code but if they don't own a compiler...
So i suppose, to answer my own question, i could distribute my scripts but they would be worthless unless the other person owned a copy of TGB to compile and run them (i assume you can't compile the TGB files/create an EXE unless you have TGB). Would the same be true of any C++ modification i made to the engine if i distributed only my changes and not any of the source written by GG? That one seems more iffy because it would expose the TGB class heirarchy and perhaps that's meant to be a secret
This is one reason why i don't want to modify the game engine's source code, since there's no way i'm going to give anyone the TGB source. Obviously i wouldn't give anyone the editors
Is there a way to build software with TGB where i could distribute the parts i wrote and where others could compile them?
As a note, while i have to provide other researchers my source and data, i don't have to give them the tools they need to compile or run it. As an example, much of the work in my field is done with Unreal Tournament and the UT scripts/mods those groups write are freely distributed but the other researcher is expected to own a copy of UT so that they can run it. Likewise the groups that write mods in Neverwinter Nights (i know of two university projects using it) distributes their NWN code but no one can use it unless they own NWN. Same goes for C++ - we can give the code but if they don't own a compiler...
So i suppose, to answer my own question, i could distribute my scripts but they would be worthless unless the other person owned a copy of TGB to compile and run them (i assume you can't compile the TGB files/create an EXE unless you have TGB). Would the same be true of any C++ modification i made to the engine if i distributed only my changes and not any of the source written by GG? That one seems more iffy because it would expose the TGB class heirarchy and perhaps that's meant to be a secret
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#2
However, there are plenty of C++ modification scripts all over this site for people to use within TGB. So, that tells me that it would be just fine to give away your source since it doesn't contain any of the engine stuff. But it could be used if someone had a source version of the engine. Just like the rest of the code snippets around here.
07/07/2006 (12:34 pm)
Baylor, you are correct I think. The basic rule of thumb is that if it is part of the engine, you can't give it out.However, there are plenty of C++ modification scripts all over this site for people to use within TGB. So, that tells me that it would be just fine to give away your source since it doesn't contain any of the engine stuff. But it could be used if someone had a source version of the engine. Just like the rest of the code snippets around here.
Torque Owner Thomas Buscaglia