Why don't you let us develop "x btf"?

[nifker]

I would like to talk about the advantages and disadvantages why I want to convince you to open-source x btf.

the advantages
- we can commit a change to fix problems or bugs
- we can port it to other architectures or OSes, Windows or x86 could disappear in the future and so it would be able to port it over, in my case I use only gnu/linux at home and I dont know if wine can run it because of the first point
- we can improve the engine, since 1999 many things change like the engines and X btf still relies upon direct3d9 and other directx components and these are outdated and dont perform like newer game libraries, this would give us the ability to improve the capabilities of the engine, like faster rendering or higher AA.
- it would also fix a problem of mine that in my case I have the original DVD but I dont have a dvd drive to play it (I have the game installed and the file on an usb drive)

The disadvantages
- you would need to take some and tell us which dependencies it has and how the game needs to get compile
- I will take you some time to discuss how you release it and under which license

Another point I have is that I have the game installed and I have the game DVD but I dont have a DVD drive.

I dont talk about explicitly releasing the game assets under a free license, but it is appreciated.

I would recommend using a permissive license like the MIT, BSD or zlib license otherwise a license like the Apache license.

Not sure if this is the appropriate subforum.

[hisazul]

With Ego it is not outside realm of possibilities. Thing is, they support even BtF so argument about fixing bugs, compatibility with future OS is not really valid unless Ego decides they are done.

But discuss away Like I said with Ego, it's not impossible.

[nifker]

But I think that they wont invest much more effort into it, as it is about 18 years old.

[jlehtone]

Note that we have no idea what kind of contract Egosoft has with the publisher. It would not be surprising if the deal sets restrictions.


On DVD ... at least Steam has X:BtF. Diskless.

[nifker]

Yeah steam, but it is a pain in the ass to use as they never update their included libraries and so that I've problems with my gpu drivers.

About the contract - everything can be talked about or dont you think so?

[hisazul]

Not with publishers... penny counters don't care about anything except their pennies. Also they tend to be as illogical as it gets.

[Skeeter]

The then publisher was THQ, they are gone now. I dunno if deep silver bought rights from THQ to make x2 but I don't think they did I think egosoft owns the IP and just had a publishing only agreement. So xbtf possibly might be the only game they could open source since THQ is no more. X2 and above would need deep silver/kosh involvement.