[Solokiller]

As some of you already know, for the past few weeks some Half-Life community developers and players have been discussing getting access to the engine. We're planning to ask Valve to open source it so we can deal with bugs and other issues in the engine, of which there are many. Some public discussion has taken place on Valve's Half-Life Github repository: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/issues/1712

We've also been writing a letter that we'll be sending to them. We'd like anyone that supports this endeavor to sign the letter so we can show Valve that a large number of people want to make this happen.

This is the letter: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

This is a copy of the document we're using, without names.

[Arkshine]

That would be nice for sure. Trying doesn't hurt. Though, I'm kind of pessimist on it, because this is too much hassle for them with likely unwanted consequences.

EDIT: Where to sign?

[Solokiller]

I can invite you to the Google doc to grant you write access to the version that has signatures. I'll need your Google account name for that. Otherwise, we're going to make some kind of petition where you can sign.

[klippy]

I do love the idea, but I'm still a bit concerned.

Open-sourcing engine code and letting people change it will also mean that you have to support existing Valve's mods that are on Steam, and that would also mean that all of their mods and Half-Life will have to go free to play, right?

While lifting limitations and fixing *some* bugs will be possible, I don't know how safe it would be to change the engine interface for mods. Keep in mind that changing some parts of the code could break hundreds of mods.

Also, who would be in charge of the repository? Who will review those changes? It's unlikely that Valve will dedicate some of their developers to that.

[Solokiller]

Those concerns have been known for some time. I'd use a 2 stage approach where backwards compatible changes are made first, and only when those have been exhausted will breaking changes be made, for mods that can adapt only. It would probably result in having 2 branches to support both old mods and new ones.

Quake's engine source is available online, but it's still sold in stores. Open sourcing the engine doesn't mean the assets themselves should become free as well.

Valve doesn't have to apply the fixes to their engine branch, as long as a community managed version can be freely worked on and provided, it should be good. Sven Co-op does it that way, it just isn't open source.

[klippy]

I like the approach you proposed. Well, I'm all for it then.


P.S. It's cool to see you hanging around AM forums recently.

[gabuch2]

What I'd like to see it's a "Half-Life SDK Base" in Steam which allows you to play HL mods without the need of owning Half-Life, pretty much like the Source SDK bases.

[meTaLiCroSS]

Totally agreed. Where to sign?

[Solokiller]

Originally Posted by KliPPy I like the approach you proposed. Well, I'm all for it then. P.S. It's cool to see you hanging around AM forums recently.

Well, it's nice around here.

Originally Posted by meTaLiCroSS Totally agreed. Where to sign?

I can invite you to the Google doc, or you can wait until we've set up a petition. We're probably going to make a Steam Greenlight concept page for this.

If anybody's interested, i've been working on a mod that cleans up the SDK codebase. I made a thread about it on TWHL: http://twhl.info/forums.php?thread=19070&page=last

So far i've dealt with a lot of code conflicts, the directory structure's a lot cleaner too. It's sorta related to the engine since i'm bumping into the limits every other time i try to improve something.

[meTaLiCroSS]

Originally Posted by Solokiller Well, it's nice around here. I can invite you to the Google doc, or you can wait until we've set up a petition. We're probably going to make a Steam Greenlight concept page for this. If anybody's interested, i've been working on a mod that cleans up the SDK codebase. I made a thread about it on TWHL: http://twhl.info/forums.php?thread=19070&page=last So far i've dealt with a lot of code conflicts, the directory structure's a lot cleaner too. It's sorta related to the engine since i'm bumping into the limits every other time i try to improve something.

Wonderful, it's everything ordered, nothing to say