If a game engine uses model formats such as MD2 or MDL which as we all know are from Quake and Half Life technoligies, does it strip the engine developer of any rights to sell his final game product at completion, without a license or some kind of written permission from the original developer (iD / Valve)? Even with permission, can the engine developer still make a royalty free profit without paying up loads of money to the original technology developers? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated, Ad

This question comes up a lot.

In the case of the two formats you mention, there are no legal protections. Feel free to use them. Be alert for restrictions on the tools, though. Use a valve or ID supplied exporter and you may get in trouble.

File formats in general can only be protected via abuse of the patent system (like .GIF files used to be.) As far as I know, no one''s done that kind of thing to 3D formats, but you do need to be alert when you pick a format for textures or sound files.

So as long as I write my own code for implementing the file format I should be okay?

I don''t intend to actually produce any models and use exporters in conjunction with a 3D Modelling program like 3D Studio Max, to produce MD2 or MDL files, I''m hoping to get people from the respective games MOD Communities to develop the model files for me, is that all above bored or will legal issues tie me down?

Thanks for the help,
Ad

Legal issues could potentially tie you down.

If some modder built you an MD3 file using the Gmax exporter, for example, they''d be violating the exporter''s EULA.

You might be better off with a different format that''s more or less guaranteed to be free of entanglements, though. Milkshape files, or perhaps DirectX''s .X files are both easy to produce.