But ID also licenses their engines. That's step number five on the list I
made for you.
It looks like Unreal Engine is on version 3. As such, why isn't version 2
under the GNU GPL? Or version 1?
Tell me, how many new games out there are being released on Unreal Engine
versions 1 and 2?
So, unless the truth is that Unreal 3 isn't that different (basically a
crappy job) of an improvement over Unreal 2 and 1; then what harm could come
from Unreal releasing it under the GNU GPL?
The only harm that could ever come from releasing old versions of your engine
and old engines under the GNU GPL is the fear that commercial companies might
take that code, advance it themselves, and out-compete your new engines and
newer versions of your engines. Which, again, simply means that your new
engines and new versions weren't that new or that innovative after all if
some company can so quickly build off of your old work and catch up to your
new work like that.
This is the gorilla in the room that no one wants to mention. Most video
game engines haven't changed in any hugely meaningful ways in ten years.
Your PS3 games are working on mostly the same engines (I'd guess about 90%
the same) as your PS2 games did. Outside of updating shadows and lighting,
the rendering process for graphics and the game play mechanics of a game
engine haven't changed much, nor needed to.
The character still collides with objects to pick them up, the keyboard,
mouse, and controller input is still one the same. Game objects act the same
way.
The only true advance in game engines are rendering larger worlds and larger
resolution of graphics. Which is not as much of a engine limitation as a
hardware limitation. The engines are written to maximize what the hardware
allows them to do. Once hardware advances and limitations are removed, some
re-writing is needed to open the engine up a bit. But this is nothing major.
The shadow and lighting features of Doom 3 are the most advanced thing any
engine has really seen before and sense.
ID Tech isn't really that different than ID Tech 4. Mostly, it allows for
bigger worlds that ID Tech 4 didn't. Also, vehicle usage is up because of
the bigger worlds.
Because so few games have advanced even this much, game companies are not
likely to release source code of their old games for the fear that other
companies will out-compete them.
The truth is, outside of prettier graphics and larger world areas, games have
not really advanced in any hugely meaningful way for about a decade. It's
like movies really. HD and 3D are the only 'major' advances now; and they
are pretty minor.
The content of films, as with the content of games, will be what people care
about. And, with or without advanced engines, Free Software typically
doesn't have the 'man power' nor the money to purchase the 'man power' to
develop enough content to make a 'finished' game.
Everyone company on Earth could release their engines tomorrow and
independent Free Software game development wouldn't really spike up that
much. There is no income stream to fund content development. Content
development is what makes or breaks the success of a game; not its engine.
This something that makes games different than regular software tools. And
this is where I am not sure of how, in the near future, independent Free
Software games will be able to 'compete.'
