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Carmack Discusses Delay of Q3A Source
Time Doctor writes "John Carmack moved to a blog format, and updates everyone with his thoughts on graphics and why licensing delays the (still) inevitable Quake 3: Arena source, when it was expected before the end of 2004."
Just be thankful that they DO release the source for these games. It keeps them alive. I don't know anyone else still playing network games from 1996 except for Quake.
By releasing the code for these games it increases their worth and their life for quite some time.
I'd be pissed if I just paid $500k and they released the engine GPL a week later too. Carmack has to keep his clients happy first, the free/gpl scene can wait. The fact that he/id is one of very few that release anything related to old software means we should hold him in very high regard.
Even with the delay, I would say hats off to Carmack and id for continuing to release code like this. As others have already mentioned, it really does help keep the fps genre in particular alive and progressing because it seeds the next generation of development talent. This is good not just for fps games, but anything where a good 3D engine is needed. It's easy to think that there may not be any need to further develop 3D engines, but with new hardware and software coming out all of the time, along with new ideas on how to do things, there's always more that can be done.
Contrast this openess to a company like EA which as far as I know has never released any source code. As many here already know, EA just sewed up an exclusive deal with the NFL for NFL branded football games which essentially puts competing games from ESPN or 989 off the field since they can't use NFL players or stadiums. There has never been any source code for sports games like this released to the public, which means no mods or clones. And it also means that learning how to write these types of games has an enormous learning curve. Well I'm rambling now, but I think the point has been made. Oh, and of course EA is not the only company tight with source code, most are!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
What would have happened if Albert Einstein had worked creating amazing pinball games instead of creating the theory of relativity? Humanity would suffer! Jon carmack is unfortunately doing JUST THIS, using his gifts at computer coding to create games instead of furthering the knowledge of humanity.
It's an obvious troll, but I'll feed it to stop proliferation of a dangerous meme. Geniuses never work alone with their thoughts - they need to relax and concentrate in order to pursue their own ideas. Deprive Einstein of his famous pipe, his even more famous violin or his (slightly less) famous yacht and you won't get a genius, you will get someone who is too frustrated to work anymore. The old proverb about geniuses "standing on the shoulder of giants" is only partially true - they also stand on the shoulders of anonymous persons who satisfy their daily needs, just like Einstein stood not just on arms of Poincare or Newton, but also on the shoulders of anonymous guy in some Long Island marina, who kept his yacht ship shape, so Einstein could safely sail and think. You never know who is relaxing his tired mind fragging monsters in Quake this very moment. It could very well be this century's Einstein.