Using TDM resources in T2 missions

[Haplo 0]

Hello all,

 

I am working on a Thief 2 mission (sequel to Unholy Vivid Innocence). There are a couple of ambient music tracks in TDM that I really like; I was wondering what are the terms of using TDM resources in T2 missions (proper credit will be given of course). Is it allowed? Thanks.

[Serpentine 127]

All non-software assets (models, textures, supplied maps etc) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

 

So yes, all you have to do is give credit and make avaliable any changes that you make under the same license - you dont have to use the textures etc as they stand!

 

Good luck and it'll be interesting to see your fm in action

Edited January 12, 2010 by Serpentine

[stumpy 242]

I think it would not be a good idea, eveything you use in a thief mod which eidos or whatever they are called now owns, become legal property of theirs, which means if you use tdm things in a thief 2 or thief gold mod, then eidos would then own those things and you would not.

[Komag 20]

or not

[Melan 1809]

stumpy: No, that's very unlikely. Just consider, if I, as a mapper, used textures from Return to Castle Wolfenstein in T2, that wouldn't make Eidos own them even if RtCW's copyright holders allowed the use of their assets outside their game (which they almost certainly don't, mind you).

[Crispy 8]

The CC-BY-NC-SA Unported 3.0 licence used for most TDM art assets allows you to use them for other stuff for free, subject to the specified conditions (do read them, they're important). However, it's possible that it may not be compatible with the EULAs for various games. Best to check the EULA first. If in doubt, avoid.

 

Note that TDM assets may not be suitable for use in Thief 2, at least not as-is, because all TDM models and textures use normal maps and specular maps, which Thief 2 doesn't support. So textures will look flat unless you bake the normals into the diffuse texture first (which is possible).

 

@Melan: The issue as I understand it is that the T2 EULA requires you, as a modder, to assign copyright of your mods to some third party (probably LGS or their publisher originally; I'm not sure if that transfers to Eidos now or not, but probably safest to assume that it does). You are not allowed to assign copyrights you don't own, so it might be constituted as fraud or something on your part. I'm speculating here; IANAL, this is not legal advice, YMMV, take or ignore my advice at your own risk.

[Haplo 0]

I'm planning to use one (or two) ambient music tracks. I will not be using any textures or objects.

[Melan 1809]

Crispy: many of the blanket paragraphs publishers put into their EULAs would be absolutely unenforceable in a serious court. Coincidentally, this is one of the main reasons publishers usually don't try to enforce them. (The other is that in almost all cases, doing it would be a serious waste of lawyer time and money, which doesn't come cheap.)

[Crispy 8]

@Haplo: Oh, right. I forgot about that. Shouldn't be any technical problems then (although you may need to change the audio format, I don't imagine Thief 1/2 reads OGGs).

 

@Melan: Perhaps. I'm always wary of second-guessing the legal system, personally. But if you want to rely on that assumption, that's your call/funeral.

[Baddcog 114]

As to ease, sounds would be easy to convert.

 

Models are harder (I know you said you don't want to use them, just for the record), need to convert tex to useable format/size. Need to actually convert most models to use correct textures (as they use material paths in TDM), need to convert models to useable format (depending on format/available program/converters only some can/can't be converted). Most are higher poly but would work in T2 anyway, but you'd also need to remove collision/shadow meshes.

Then there are tex details like Crispy stated.