Re: [tuxracer-main] Tux Racer 1.0 and the GPL

[Patrick G. <pog...@cg...>]

Steve Baker wrote:
% 
% Jasmin Patry wrote:
% 
% What is generally meant by "embracing open source" is what ID do with Quake
% (where a commercially developed game is released into OpenSource after a
% couple of years)...what you are doing is the complete opposite.

I think this misunderstanding is the crux of your disenchantment, and
perhaps that of other open source developers, with Sunspire Studios.
You feel that Sunspire has "locked up the code" forever.  My understanding
is that the code is being held back for a year or so, while Sunspire
tries to earn some money from it.  I believe that after that time
TuxRacer 1.0 will be GPL'ed, much like id has done with the Quake line
of games.  My understanding is that this has been Sunspire's intent
since they branched off of version .61.  But, of course, this is just
idle gossip until confirmed by Eric or Jaz.

On an aside, I have not heard if all the art work (i.e. courses, textures,
and models) will be released as well.

% I'm also pretty skeptical about the claim that all four of you put in over a
% year of effort each.  I could perhaps believe that you (Jasmin) did - but as
% for the rest?  We see a couple of textures (very nice ones - but no more than
% a couple of days work each) - some simple sounds and one tune.  Version 0.6
% has under 35,000 lines of code - 8,700 per person means that if you worked
% 200 days per year, you only wrote about 5 lines of code an hour!  I hope you
% don't expect to get paid *much* for working at that snail's pace!
% 
% Your copy of Maya was clearly an utter waste - all of the modelling in TuxRacer
% up to 0.61 is done with the automatic terrain skinner - apart from Tux himself
% who was clearly modelled before you bought Maya - and a couple of trees and
% things that I could have put together in an hour using a $40 copy of AC3D!

You should realize that we are talking apples and oranges.  Jasmin stated
that there was a year's worth of work in TuxRacer 1.0 and you looked at
the amount of code in 0.6.  Jasmin stated that Sunspire was trying to recoup
money spent on Maya for 1.0, and you complained about the poor quality of
the texturing and modelling in 0.6.

TuxRacer 1.0 is a much prettier game.  Tux is no longer a bunch of spheres,
the trees are no longer two planes.  There are proper collisions between
objects instead of loose approximations.  A lot of work has gone into this
version.

% I still maintain that your best course of action when you formed SunSpire
% would have been to start from scratch with a new game using your reputation
% and experience gained from TuxRacer.

Well, this is somewhat of a contentious issue.  Not every game is to each
developers taste.  Put simply, Sunspire Studios is still debating what
they'll work on next.

Patrick