Xash 3D[engine]

hello all,
Can anyone else to do porting of this engine for the PSP
it is a game engine that is compatible with the engine GoldSource from Valve LLC, which, in particular, is based game Half-Life, Counter-Strike and many other games.
engine is open source and distributed under the LGPL
this is archive with documentations
http://www.hlfx.ru/xash/xash_extras.rar

engine is open source and distributed under the LGPL

Seems suspect, here's a header from the many files in its code:

  Code:

/***
*
*   Copyright (c) 1996-2002, Valve LLC. All rights reserved.
*   
*   This product contains software technology licensed from Id
*   Software, Inc. ("Id Technology").  Id Technology (c) 1996 Id Software, Inc.
*   All Rights Reserved.
*
*   Use, distribution, and modification of this source code and/or resulting
*   object code is restricted to non-commercial enhancements to products from
*   Valve LLC.  All other use, distribution, or modification is prohibited
*   without written permission from Valve LLC.
*
****/


That said, anyone here would not help you due to the legal issue potential

there's also plenty of id code, but no id software reference at all


on top of that there's the ever-so patent violating mp3 playback.

If it has a Valve copyright notice on it you should avoid it like the plague. Run from it. Turn your back on it. Never let it darken your doorstep again.

Valve have restrictive licensing. Did you know that it's illegal to use the HL tools for any game other than HL? Want to get a nice little C&D in the mail? Want to attract the attention of scary legal people? Then use the Valve/HL stuff, by all means. Otherwise - don't.

I know a little this engine. Rendering part based on source code q1-2
compatibility with hl1 is ensured through hl1 SDK

the hl1 sdk prohibits use outside of halflife, which is incompatible with the gpl.
valve's headers are included from the engine and distribution of the engine is only permittable if those headers are gpl-compatible.
so you could get a C&D from either valve or id.
also note that the hl1 sdk has a license termination date after which you're no longer allowed to use it.

the only legal solution is to clean-room reverse engineer, and to live in a country where that's actually legal...

the hl1 sdk prohibits use outside of halflife, which is incompatible with the gpl.
valve's headers are included from the engine and distribution of the engine is only permittable if those headers are gpl-compatible.
so you could get a C&D from either valve or id.
also note that the hl1 sdk has a license termination date after which you're no longer allowed to use it.

the only legal solution is to clean-room reverse engineer, and to live in a country where that's actually legal...

When is this licence termination date?

While I have no vested in interest in Xash, I am wondering: is this technically "outside of" halflife? Pretend, if you will, it requires a Half-life game directory, and hypothetically the Xash source is somehow linking in a GPL compliant fashion (i.e all the SDK stuff is inside of a DLL) and is functional without having to load said DLL on some level - could the trivialities in the EULA be sidestepped?

Also, PSP projects are really dumb. The iPad 3 is coming out soon with groovy iris resolution, why isn't anybody targeting that for their Quake projects?

the hl1 sdk prohibits use outside of halflife, which is incompatible with the gpl.
valve's headers are included from the engine and distribution of the engine is only permittable if those headers are gpl-compatible.
so you could get a C&D from either valve or id.
also note that the hl1 sdk has a license termination date after which you're no longer allowed to use it.

the only legal solution is to clean-room reverse engineer, and to live in a country where that's actually legal...

When is this licence termination date?

While I have no vested in interest in Xash, I am wondering: is this technically "outside of" halflife? Pretend, if you will, it requires a Half-life game directory, and hypothetically the Xash source is somehow linking in a GPL compliant fashion (i.e all the SDK stuff is inside of a DLL) and is functional without having to load said DLL on some level - could the trivialities in the EULA be sidestepped?

Also, PSP projects are really dumb. The iPad 3 is coming out soon with groovy iris resolution, why isn't anybody targeting that for their Quake projects?

http://twhl.info/articulator.php?art=1

One year after you download it.

Compliance with the GPL is only half the story, and even if a non-HL work was using the SDK in a manner that was compliant with the GPL, it's still breaking the HL SDK license - if it's not HL, not running only on the HL engine and not only for use by a licensed user of HL itself, it breaks the SDK license, period.

I really do not like all those wars around of the license GPL, because I think that its main task to protect the work of the authors. Free for modernization, for the fans, which create new versions of the game. But not for commercial use. Can be understood a license as is, but you can understand that it protects in real life. In any case, simply ask the same Gabe Newell, what he thinks about this situation. How do I know it is quite adequate and going to the understanding man. But it must come from the author hash3d.

2. Term.

2.1 Term. This Agreement shall become effective as of the date Licensee downloads or installs the SDK and shall expire 1 year after such date.

2.2 Termination. Valve may terminate this Agreement immediately upon written (including email) notice to Licensee. The Agreement will terminate automatically upon Licensee's breach of any term of this Agreement.

2.3 Survival. Sections 1.4, 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, and 3-5 shall survive any expiration or termination of this Agreement.

1. License.

1.1 License Grant. Valve hereby grants Licensee a nonexclusive, royalty-free, terminable, worldwide, nontransferable license to:

(a) use, reproduce and modify the SDK in source code form, solely to develop a Mod; and

(b) reproduce, distribute and license the Mod in object code form, solely to licensed end users of Half-Life, without charge.

The EULA expires after said date. Section 1.1 isn't listed. It doesn't say you can't use it after "expiration" to develop a mod. And what's stopping you from downloading it a year later again?

How do you define what is Half-life? The end user is running the game inside a HL directory, installed using a purchased Half-life CD, and Half-life DLLs. Xash3d is targeting licensed end users of Half-life, without charge. Excluding the GPL issues, Xash3d looks surprisingly kosher to me. Couldn't it be argued that taking the Quake 1 code (again, ignore GPL issues) and mashing the SDK code down ontop of it, constitutes the Half-life engine? The parts are essentially the same (yes excluding GPL and community contributions such as from Darkplaces, and actually getting a non-GPL version of the code a-ha!).

Argue all you want, but it will be Valve's lawyers you'll be arguing with.

tbh i hate it as much as any developer but as long as you have to apply to US developer rights its going to hit you in the face (and hard!) unfortunatly untill someone wakes up and smells the ashes theres not much you can do.
i hope someday they see the benefit of having several free working coders crunch remaining bugs and adding improvements hey it works in EU

Argue all you want, but it will be Valve's lawyers you'll be arguing with.

1) I doubt they care.
2) As far as I know the project hasn't received a Cease and desist notice yet.
3) Gabe Newell / Valve seem like pretty community oriented people. I recall reading in a interview that they considered GPLing Half-life 1 but decided against it due to Cheats / Laziness - wallhacks for instance. They might have also suggested that the engine would eventually get reverse engineered anyway, who knows. I don't have the interview on me.

Either way I think Valve should be contacted over this.

I think the real issue is GPL violations, not Valve EULA.

Are you an attorney?

Argue all you want, but it will be Valve's lawyers you'll be arguing with.

1) I doubt they care.
2) As far as I know the project hasn't received a Cease and desist notice yet.
3) Gabe Newell / Valve seem like pretty community oriented people. I recall reading in a interview that they considered GPLing Half-life 1 but decided against it due to Cheats / Laziness - wallhacks for instance. They might have also suggested that the engine would eventually get reverse engineered anyway, who knows. I don't have the interview on me.

Either way I think Valve should be contacted over this.

I think the real issue is GPL violations, not Valve EULA.

The thing is - you're not the person who gets to decide. Nor am I. Doubting if they care doesn't suddenly make it legal. On the one hand we have a whole load of suppositions, assumptions and doubts. On the other we have a legally enforcable EULA that has been legally enforced in the past.

I'm completely ignorant about the thread, but I can't understand where's the problem.
It only takes to contact Valve, explain the porting intention and wait for a reply.
If Valve Team should accept the porting, the permission will be added to the header with the name of who has benefited of the license agreement.
That's it. Valve, Epic, Id, are companies. Not evil pits full of demons located at the center of earth (well, maybe id has a closet with brooms and demons, but that's another story! ). Their scope is profict, like every company else in the world. Talk with them is the only method to do things correctly.