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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Open Source Engine

I have been playing some classics lately, to be specific, Doom, Doom II, Hexen, Heretic, and Duke Nukem 3D.

they run smoothly, and play like a brand new game. i play them on my wide-screen monitor and the games will play it without stretching. I can play them online co-op, i can organize a LAN party and enjoy them with my friends, i can re-enjoy these games without having to install DOS or Windows 95 to do so.

ID software released the Doom engine binaries as Open Source software. this has lead to Doom Engine upgrades such as Doomsday which is a collection of the latest updates to those said Open Source DOOM engines and lets you play them on Windows XP without a hitch, and offering new features like wide-screen support, and net-play. There are even add-on packages that will give the game new, higher resolution textures to make it seem like a new game (Ok not DOOM3 graphics, but maybe something from late 2003 graphics)

I love this, all of a sudden these games are fun to play again as i re-live the first time i played these games. while at times the new graphical options can be irritating, turning them off and playing it as it was is just as fun, if not more.

the interesting thing, and maybe the best part about it is this: You are required to own the original games to play them with the new engine, the game data is still propritory and is only available by purchasing the game. the reason this is good and not a bad thing (aww, no free game? there like $5 go buy it seesh) is due to that since you are still required to own the game, makes this appealing to companies with older games that dont want to release them as free-ware.

So why don't other Genre Defining games release their engines as open source? the best example i can think of is Baldur's Gate's 'Infinity Engine' which powered MANY games (Baldur's gate I&II, Icewind Dale I&II, Fallout Tactics, Planescape, i believe i might be missing a few) If Bioware released the Infinity Engine as Open source those of us who bought the game would beable to update the engine to support new features and support new hardware and OS's without any money spent on Bioware's part (it might even give them a little income from purchases of the collectors series which is available for purchase and has BG I&II, and IWD I&II)

I do not see any way for this to hurt Bioware's sales or IP. while new games like Unreal Tournament license its engine as part of revenue, the Infinity Engine is quite old and is VERY unlikely to have a prospector looking to make a new game with the engine. it would in no way impact the launch of Dragon Age (their new game) and infact might even get more interest in Dragon Age as gamers start replaying Baldurs Gate remembering why they fell in love with the series to begin with.

To re-examine, i am NOT in the industry, and there may be some other reason why they would refuse to release the Engine as Open Source that is not apparent to me. maybe they are planning on doing a Baldur's Gate I&II remake. i am not certain, i am only speeking from fandom and my love for the series.

The timing of releasing the engine as Open Source would be perfect as well. Windows Vista is just around the corner, and is BOUND to not support the game. Linux is ever gaining in popularity and could very soon be the operating system of choice above windows. and in this day and age how much advertising a company has determines how well the game sells not by the quality of the work.

My efforts and ideas about the Infinity Engine being released as open source may be in vain, maybe Bioware wishes to leave it alone entirely. Lets just hope we will all soon be playing our favorite classics again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn good idea. 100% agree. In some cases the Infinity Engine is looking pretty ancient now, and despite being a nicely designed UI at the time is horribly cramped by more modern standards. As you say though, the games are absolute classics and really deserve to be given the extra lease of life that open-sourcing the engine would allow them. I'd be pretty sure that this would translate to extra revenue for BioWare in game data sales as well. Somebody get on the case and put a petition up!

Anonymous said...

Great work.