Chittering Clawbug jamesmcm Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Will Blades Of Avernum ever be released under the GPL like Blades of Exile was? Perhaps when we move to the new engine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Enraged Slith Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I hope so, because I know there are some certain things people want changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Niemand Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Assumedly, BoA will never be rewritten using a different engine (I assume that by new engine you mean the Geneforge based engine that has gone into A4 and A5). Jeff has no reason to take the time to. Jeff has also not stated that BoA will ever be open sourced, but we hope that BoE has set a precedent which he will eventually follow. Obviously, the main requirements are that Spiderweb no longer be making money from selling BoA and BoA not containing any code similar enough to the games which are making money to be a threat. The latter may actually be fairly well met, as obviously BoA uses an older game engine than the newer Avernum games, and as I understand it, Jeff has also written a new graphics layer in the newer games which can use OpenGL and DirectX, rather than Quickdraw and whatever it is BoA uses on Windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Check back in 10 years since that seems to be Jeff's current time frame for revisions (at least for the remakes of Geneforge 1 to 3). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Originally Posted By: Niemand Jeff has also not stated that BoA will ever be open sourced I thought he said he probably would eventually... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Ishad Nha Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 If it does become open source I can't wait to stick in a Return to Start function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 I'm pretty sure that he said that open-sourcing BoA was part of the plan for the distant future but not any time soon. He said this some while ago, so the distant future is nearer than it was then, but I think we're still not there yet. How's that for specifics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast *i Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 I agree it would be nice to get this into open source. The problem with Blades of Exile is that we pretty much reached very significant barriers porting things reliably. While it is still possible, it would require rewriting very significant parts of the code. Perhaps there is a middle ground somewhere. If the engine is now obsolete, but sales are still being made, perhaps it would be possible to get a few experienced programmers with proven track records here access to the source code under a non-disclosure agreement. It may be tricky, but I'm sure some contract could be worked out. That way Jeff still gets to sell and the product continues to improve at the cost of a risk of compromising the source. This would really benefit everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Doubtful. I wasn't involved when Blades of Exile's source was released, but I remember that a lot of the initial problems were related to tracking down the source. That, and OBoE was viewed as a gift to the community, where Jeff could wash his hands of it afterwards. A closed development would require more effort from him, not less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd Zalatar Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Originally Posted By: Niemand ...and as I understand it, Jeff has also written a new graphics layer in the newer games which can use OpenGL and DirectX, rather than Quickdraw and whatever it is BoA uses on Windows. Most likely WinGDI. Either that or a custom graphics engine that merely blits a preset bitmap to the screen, which really speeds up the drawing, especially with GDI+. I also hope it will be GPL'd. The GPLing of BOE was wonderful. It really caught me back on to Spiderweb Software. If BOA is opened, I hope it will be intelligible and not use too much directx or opengl because those don't work so well on my compiler for some reason (Dev-C++). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Niemand Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Quote: . . . I hope it will be intelligible and not use too much directx or opengl because those don't work so well on my compiler for some reason (Dev-C++). I would not count on the former, given what I've seen of the BoE and BoA Editor code. Not only was Jeff in a hurry while writing most of this code, I suspect, but he also seems to habitually use an indentation style that is, er, unlike any other I've ever seen. On the other hand, I think you can be pretty sure there would be no OpenGL or DirectX code, although I think this would be something we would work to change, as good, fast graphics for end users is a generally more important goal than ease of development. (Tridash is doing some tinkering in this direction with the 3D Editor, but it's still at an exploratory/experimental stage, I believe.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Originally Posted By: Niemand he also seems to habitually use an indentation style that is, er, unlike any other I've ever seen. Heh, yeah, I've noticed that in the BoE code... though I'm gradually changing it over to my own preferred style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Ishad Nha Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 All the long-overdue improvements we could make if we got the code... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Swimmin' Salmon Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Does any of the stuff you folks are doing on ObOe ever make it to Jeff's oBoE page? That might be something to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I emailed them a couple weeks ago, and there's now a link to the Google Code project on his page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Swimmin' Salmon Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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