[ut3] Legalities

[Cube sis]

so are you confirming that the delay is due to gamespy?

On Dec 17, 2007 2:00 PM, Ryan C. Gordon <icculus at icculus.org> wrote:

>
> I'm going to answer a few emails here, but I haven't got anything to
> announce at the moment. I also haven't read most of this mailing list in
> the past week or so; I don't need to be reminded that people are still
> waiting for Linux binaries. You'll get them as soon as possible, honest.
>
>
> > Questions:
>
> (I don't speak for Epic, and have no real insight into why technical
> decisions were made. But here are my best insights.)
>
> > Why did Epic choose GameSpy this time?
>
> My guesses would be a) because the master server was a huge pain from
> ut2003 onward (and maybe as far back as Unreal 1), and b) GameSpy gives
> them cross-platform tech roughly analogous to Xbox Live or Games For
> Windows Live.
>
> This is about more than just getting a list of servers. There's a lot
> more competition for a baseline feature set nowadays. The fact that
> Valve added "achievements" to the Steam version of The Orange Box titles
> suggests that this competition is only going to get more fierce. If I
> were you, I'd go figure out who the major competitors are, and get the
> login name you like on their services before someone else takes it.   :)
>
> > Why did Epic choose Bink for videos? (Even the load screens!)
>
> Almost every game you'll see on a console uses a prerendered movie for
> load screens (including static copyright text, like ut3 does).
>
> Partially because it's quick to throw in contractually-obligated logos:
> usually there's a prebuilt movie from these companies they just have to
> convert to Bink. Also, it's probably easier to put a movie together in a
> movie making tool, than make the equivalent set of pixels light up in
> the engine...especially since, say, Intel Corporation doesn't keep
> people with UE3 mapmaking experience around to make logos.
>
> Also, rendering a movie is dirt cheap from a CPU viewpoint; lots of
> games show them because Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo won't certify your game
> if the load time is more than X seconds...but the stopwatch doesn't
> start until all the logos are displayed. Many games show the movies on
> one thread, and then use this extra time to load the game on another. I
> don't know if UT3 does this, but lots and lots of Unreal licensees have
> done just that.
>
> Also, darn near every UE2 licensee tends to license Bink, and uses the
> same piece of third-party code off the Unreal Developer Network to
> integrate it, so it probably made sense to just do the integration in
> the official UE3 codebase, since Epic would still get bug reports from
> it anyhow.
>
> > As for PhysX I won't comment.
>
> It's amazing to me how much hatred there is towards Ageia...I wonder if
> that's just spillover from ut200x's MathEngine contracts.
>
> Then again, there's a lot of hate towards every piece of middleware,
> depending on what a given forum's personal conspiracy theory is. Someone
> posted a petition on this mailing list about removing GameSpy. You don't
> have to _like_ GameSpy, and I've certainly had my problems with them in
> the past, but I don't think it's fair to play Kangaroo Court with them
> when there's really no actual evidence that they are the problem.
>
> Likewise for Ageia.
>
> Likewise for Bink.
>
> > Lots of other routine middleware floating around in there too probably.
>
> I have no doubt that people will compare the final binaries with the
> beta demo server for differences. It'll be interesting to see if the
> incorrect parties will amend their petitions and apologize to those they
> slandered.
>
> --ryan.
>
>
>
> ---
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>
>
>
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