Legallity question and ALPHA test

[Bert]

First up I got a question. I'm not sure who to ask it to so I'll just post it here.

I'm building BSP trees from the ROTT level files and this takes quite some time. It's only a couple of seconds on my computer, but it takes a while on a p2 300 (around 2 minutes or so). I figure it'd be faster to generate these beforehand and offer those as part of the download. So how legal would it be to distribute those BSP files with my program?

I put together a little release, so I can hope to find out if the load times bother you guys (and if this thing actually runs on more than just my computer). If the loadtimes are fine for everyone, I won't bother with the BSP files to keep the download size down. You can find some stats in your clLog.log file (look for "Tree built in").

THIS VERSION IS NOT PLAYABLE, but simply a level viewer. You can download it here: http://www.bertstevens.be/ROT1.rar

Be sure to read the readme file for know issues and installation instructions. This thing is setup for the shareware version by default, change it in the configuration file.

[Bert]

Note to self: don't do this at 11pm. I forgot to include how you load a map:

Bring down the console and type: map <mapnumber>

I've uploaded a new version that scales the font sizes and fixes a small bug with loading a non-existant map.
It's the same URL as the last one.

[ADM]

Originally Posted by Bert

So how legal would it be to distribute those BSP files with my program?

Not very legal at all.

[Bert]

I figured that would be the case. No harm in asking right ?

I forgot to mention that you'd still need the RTL and WAD files to play even with the BSP files. Also I respect the shareware version by not allowing user levels/modified levels when using the shareware WAD.

These are the loadtimes for the first 5 levels of the registered version, along with the ones when using the saved BSP files. They're quite reasonable, but using the files is alot faster.

Tree built in 0.547000 seconds
Tree built in 1.053000 seconds
Tree built in 3.025000 seconds
Tree built in 1.505000 seconds
Tree built in 1.993000 seconds
******************************
Read BSP in 0.087000 seconds
Read BSP in 0.069000 seconds
Read BSP in 0.105000 seconds
Read BSP in 0.118000 seconds
Read BSP in 0.120000 seconds

As a side note, I fixed a bug that stopped animations from playing when loading a BSP file. Link is still the same.

[Plagman]

I would suggest building your BSPs at installation-time, just once. That would suppress the computing issue on lower-end computers as well as the legality issues.

[H.Smits]

well, it's probably just legal. I mean, the BSP files aren't part of the WAD or
GAME. So there isn't any copyright issue involved. And you still need the
original files to play the game, so it doesn't really interfere with any
rules/policy of 3D Realms AFAIK.

But, if you want to keep the download size limited; you might want to do
it while installing the game, like Plagman said.

[Bert]

It's not really an issue anymore. I've added compression to the BSP files and that cut down the size alot (from 15 to 2 MB for the full registered level files). As long as you have a somewhat decent cpu generating the BSPs won't take that long either. I wouldn't recommend doing it on, say, a p2 350 (around 2 mins for a medium sized level).
As a side note, I'm still working on this thing whenever I can find the time. However still a long way to go, but I'm getting there .

[moron]

keep it up

[ADM]

Originally Posted by H.Smits

well, it's probably just legal. I mean, the BSP files aren't part of the WAD or
GAME. So there isn't any copyright issue involved. And you still need the
original files to play the game, so it doesn't really interfere with any
rules/policy of 3D Realms AFAIK.

Uh no. Like I said before it's NOT legal AT ALL. This has been 3DR's policy on this type of thing for a long time now.

[Joe Siegler]

Our policy states that you cannot use our art / level design / materials / whatever in any mod or TC - even for one of our own other games. I really don't want to get into that here, however.