Custom Zones...?

Windcatcher · #1 02-19-2007, 03:35 PM

The reason I don't allow the client to load Sony's files is because of what would happen -- 99% of servers would be exclusively using their files. Though I would technically be blameless, it still wouldn't stop Sony from shutting not just those servers down but possibly all of EQEmu. I'm not prepared to take the risk that either a well-groomed lawyer could convince a judge to shut this entire project down nor am I prepared to tempt a lawsuit. They would have every right to shut the servers down, but I'm pretty convinced that they could also take a page from Blizzard if they wanted to and decide to be a little more predatory. If the client can't touch their files then they really can't go after it or EQEmu in general. I've built SimpleClient to what I consider the "Blizzard standard", meaning it has to survive even the most baseless and unscrupulous attack. Perhaps this is a bit unfair since Sony hasn't acted nearly that badly but I prefer to be careful.

I think SimpleClient would be at greater risk if it tried to filter out use of Sony's zone names rather than less. As long as it can't read their file format, I'm no more obligated to preclude use of names like "Qeynos" than Id Software is obligated to prevent someone making a DOOM .WAD with the same name. Just because I'm not a corporation and don't have legions of lawyers in my employ doesn't mean I have less rights than one. SimpleClient can't read their zone files, and as far as I'm concerned, since OpenZone can make files that it *can* read, I've done my bit legally speaking. I've been tempted to prevent it from reading their spell files as well, but since their file is nothing more than a ^-delimited text file there's pretty much nothing I could do to prevent someone from using their spell files if they really wanted to (and the server requires that format anyway). When the client is released, it will come with at least a simple slate of spells, and people can make more with OpenSpell. Game text files are even worse (just a number and some text). I'll have to come up with a reasonable substitute. I might add an alternate export mechanism to OpenSpell to save spells in another format, like XML, for instance, but as a legal protection measure it would be a farce since converting Sony's spell format to anything I might invent would be a trivial endeavor no matter what I did.

I'm aware that if people *really* wanted to, they could convert all of Sony's zones to .XWF and use them with the client. Both file formats are open at this point, or at least open enough that it's possible. Of course, people could convert EQ zones to Quake 3, Half-life, or lots of other formats, too. Id Software is in no danger from Sony because of this. Their software isn't built specifically to use Sony's zones, and that gives them plenty of legal cover. I have the same rights as Id in this regard. I just have to make sure that using their files isn't the only way to play -- I've released five zones and eight creature models so far, and I'm told that the community could field 20 zones later this year if we had to).

Basically I coded SimpleClient so that servers would be safe from being shut down, but that means that those servers have to completely stay away from anything belonging to Sony (including names, if their action against S2k is any indication), and it means that such servers have to exist in the first place. I don't think that would ever happen unless the bar to use Sony's stuff is pretty high.

SC is coded in Delphi, of course! I could have never done it so quickly without plagiarizing the heck out of everything I've written so far (it's also part of my diabolically evil plan to convert the world to Delphi....mwahahahaha).

Windcatcher · #2 02-19-2007, 04:33 PM

Actually, one final note on file formats -- SC is file format agnostic. The zone-loading code is in a DLL. Want to load another format? Write a DLL for it. There is no reason for me to keep the DLL interface closed; there are probably much better formats out there than .XWF and no reason why SC shouldn't be able to use them. Eventually I want to add hardware shader support, for instance, and XWF might not be the best vehicle for it -- Quake 3 format might be better, for instance. If you decide to load Sony's files, IT'S ON YOU. I'm not going to provide the means, but I don't have to go out of my way to make it absolutely impossible, either.

Richardo · #3 02-20-2007, 02:27 AM

I'm still waiting for people to give me plans to make new zones for this client. *evil snarl*

Shadow-Wolf · #4 02-20-2007, 06:31 AM

Ok heres one question for you, since the client relys on EQEmu for now does that mean that EQ plays and SC players could players on the same server so long they had the same zones?

Windcatcher · #5 02-20-2007, 12:00 PM

Technically, yes, but it's the "same zones" part that's the problem. The only way I can see it happening without using ZoneProxy is if you replaced SOE zones with your own and then exported the same zones as .xwf, with the same zone names. The problem is that you'd be using Sony's zone names. I can't stop you from doing that (and I have neither the desire nor the legal requirement to attempt to), but I'd advise against it.

link2009 · #6 02-20-2007, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windcatcher

Technically, yes, but it's the "same zones" part that's the problem. The only way I can see it happening without using ZoneProxy is if you replaced SOE zones with your own and then exported the same zones as .xwf, with the same zone names. The problem is that you'd be using Sony's zone names. I can't stop you from doing that (and I have neither the desire nor the legal requirement to attempt to), but I'd advise against it.

So, in the end this is a license problem but theoretically, we could write our custom-coded .DLLs to load Sony's zones.

Windcatcher · #7 02-20-2007, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by link2009

So, in the end this is a license problem but theoretically, we could write our custom-coded .DLLs to load Sony's zones.

Or Half-life, or Quake 3, or anything else that has a BSP tree. SC can't do everything that a Quake 3 zone calls for, but it can do enough. The reason for the DLL abstraction layer is because I don't want it tied to any particular format, even XWF. Every file format becomes obsolete eventually. The choice of using an abstraction layer really has nothing to do with Sony at all -- I simply consider it good design.