nick:MightyPea

i can''t believe you people are so blatantly blind to this.
Art is always intelectual property of whoever created it, or in this case, whoever runs the company it was created for.

and as far as even SUGGESTING to take anything from polycount, without even giving something as simple as "asking permission" a thought, i don''t think you ever put hard labour into something, or put your soul into a piece of art.

if you had, you''d realise you''re using someone''s emotional creation (all art carries emotions) for your own devious, and most likely, terrible game.

strangefate: hehe, cool to see a fellow skinner here, be it a better and more accomplished one

*m

quote: Original post by eng3d
Original post by Anonymous Poster
>>>
b)get someone to do it for me and email the model to me?
>>>

That would be illegal.


Not necesary, because if you take a models, we are game development, so have a models for study purpose is not strange.. in fact my project used a polycount project only for test purpose (not public).. and now i want to made this project more public, then i need to made some models.

For the legal stuff, remember, GAMES are not sold for you, LICENCES are sell for you!.. what''s the difference?.. you have the licence for play the game, not for modify, sell, take artist/programmer job... So, using a models from a game is illegal, but for study purpose (or for test), it''s not illegal.

That''s true. It _is_ legal to use the models for a game on your own machine for any purpose. But if you have someone else extract the model and send it to you, that''s unauthorized redistribution, and is illegal.

Yartrebo:

StrangeFate is absolutely correct. Ripping content off of the media is illegal. Are you going to get caught? Probably not - unless you are foolish and bring attention to the wrong people. Licenses are slightly different depending on the media. PC games usually state that you accept the EULA when you install. Console games probably have a similar mechanism that constitutes "use". Just to cement the point:

From a well known game -

3. Responsibilites of End User
A. Subject to the Grant of License hereinabove, You may not, in whole or in part, copy, photocopy, reproduce, translate, reverse engineer, derive source code, modify, disassemble, decompile, create derivative works based on the Program, or remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Program without the prior consent, in writing of *****.


That pretty much sums it up. Basically your license allows you to ''execute'' the game. Not hack, modify, copy, "RIP", etc. If you privately do any of the above in our own home and it never goes anywhere you will probably never get caught - that doesn''t mean it isn''t illegal. Take Napster for instance. Definitely illegal, but the recording industry could have busted millions of people for "taping" albums throughout the late 70''s and 80''s. Did they? Not practical. Napster is much easier to prosecute because Johnny Law has an entity to go after. Same with speeding on the highway. Most people never get caught - doesn''t mean it''s illegal.


I would advise just not getting caught.. Seems like an awful big headache for some polygons...

But is it possible to get actual polygonal models from existing games whether it be from PC or console games?

I don''t know how it''s illegal if it''s from a game you already own. By owning and playing the game you are seeing those models all the time. What is the difference if you are playing as those characters in another game? And if you''re doing just for test purposes that should definitely be fine. I mean, think about it this way. There is that Sonic model that was made for Quake 3 and it was also converted for use in Elite Force. Now already that is probably illegal to be using someone else''s character and put it in another game. But if that''s not illegal and if it''s so common, than I don''t see what the problem is about completely ripping models from existing games that you already own. All this does is make sure the model is going to look professional so the character is not poorly represented. This shows that fans love and appreciate the franchise that character came from. Also, I don''t see Sonic Team making a Sonic-based shootemup anytime soon, so if you want use your favourite character to frag maybe another character, this should be perfectly alright.

It goes without saying though if you rip a character from a game and take the credit as making that model from scratch, you''re lying and probably being illegal and in risk of being sued. However if you make your own version of the character or add animations to the existing model, you can take credit for the editing you have done. Atleast I think so.

But past how legal it is, is it technically possible to get a model from one game and put it in another? Is it particularly hard and technical - something only programmers can do?

However Sonic from SA2 is not my only idea. And yeah, I''m just talking about adding them as models for PC shootemups. And that in itself may be a problem. See, the newest shootemup I''ve played is Elite Force (or I will get it - I''ve played the demo), and I haven''t played that many shootemups. Not Half Life, not any Quake, not the new Wolfenstein of Metal of Honour. So I''m a bit out of touch in the genre as far as how far they''ve come in gameplay and visual aspects. As far as I know FPS are made to have a very high fps even on not as good PCs, so that also means the models are always kept low poly so the frame rate will not suffer no matter how many people are playing against each other online. So taking a model from SA2 or another newer non-shootemup game may be impossible because they are made up of a lot of polygons.

So what more can you tell me now that I''ve said all that?

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
nick:MightyPea

i can''t believe you people are so blatantly blind to this.
Art is always intelectual property of whoever created it, or in this case, whoever runs the company it was created for.

and as far as even SUGGESTING to take anything from polycount, without even giving something as simple as "asking permission" a thought, i don''t think you ever put hard labour into something, or put your soul into a piece of art.

if you had, you''d realise you''re using someone''s emotional creation (all art carries emotions) for your own devious, and most likely, terrible game.

strangefate: hehe, cool to see a fellow skinner here, be it a better and more accomplished one

*m

Well, I must have missed this post! Actually I am an artist myself - I''m in school to get my animation education. I have always loved to create my own characters, and only after I really got into games did I even CONSIDER trying to draw a character that didn''t belong to me just to see how I could draw it. And actually, there was a mis hap with one drawing...

My aunt had asked me to draw a Pokemon character for her son''s hockey team. It would be based on a recognisable character, but different enough to not infringe any copyrights. Well, it was hardly different or else the kids would complain. Anyway, they didn''t use my character and I wondered why. Almost 2 years later I found out. Someone had seen the drawing and somehow got a copy for himself. He changed it a bit and my aunt saw it. The guy said it was his own creation. I don''t know the details, but that character is out there somewhere even though I drew it! And actually, I''m glad it happened with a Pokemon character that I just drew in a different style rather than my own character. If that happened to my own, my hard work would be wasted and I would never be able to use my own character in future games when I get my career started.

And with that said YES I would ask for permission first, but I don''t know how easy it would be to get a reply from any major game companies. With this model idea I''m not trying to "steal" anyone''s work - just be able to play as my favourite character in a game he wasn''t designed for because I know Sonic (and other characters I love) will probably never be in a shootemup - or atleast I want to frag friends and I''d be advertising that series and character for free for the creators.

You know, there are different aspects of the situation. Ofcourse I respect the artists and modellers, especially because I have no knowledge in modelling characters (yet). If I knew how to maybe I would just make it myself, but I really don''t know how, and 3D modelling programs are EXTREMELY expensive. I do respect the artists, and actually, I am so afraid of people stealing my characters that I don''t want to put pics of them online for people to see. As much as I would love feedback from good-natured people on what they think, I know nasty people would steal my characters, as some of them are very unique and I don''t have any way to protect my work.

Whew! I''ll tell you, it''s rare to get a short post from me. If I post, I have a lot to say!