Question about porting resources

[Helixien]

Oke, I dont know if you know, but there are a lot of nice looking resources in the Oblivion Nexus (or Morrowind Nexus) which are completely custom, but not available for Skyrim. I read that porting things from Oblivion to Skyrim or Morrowind to Skyrim or Fallout to Skyrim is not allowded since Bethesda dont wont us to do it. But can I port custom resources from Oblivion to Skyrim and use them?

For most objects its easy to port them with Nifscope and since the are open for modders from modders I cant see why this shouldn´t be allowded.

So, can I use for example a custom tree made for Oblivion in my Skyrim mod by normally crediting the maker?

 

Thanks for answers,

 

Will

[ZeroKing]

If it's a resource made by mod authors themselves, and are allowed to be used freely (as stated by the author of said resource), then yes you can use them. This is also applicable for porting to other games (if the assets are freely distributed as resources), since they are custom assets which don't belong to Bethesda.

[DrakeTheDragon]

If it was 'created from' anything Vanilla though, like a Vanilla door someone modified and released as a resource, that's a 'no'.

It is limited to only be used inside the game it was taken from before it was modified.

[Helixien]

Oke, but as long as it 100% custom and just mad for another game, there isn´t a problem?

[ZeroKing]

Drake's statement was made for assets where a mod author may have taken Bethesda assets and modified some properties and released it as resources.

 

However, if it's entirely custom, as in there is no modification or inclusion of Bethesda assets involved, then yes it can used in porting for other games.

[DrNewcenstein]

It should be noted that while Bethesda frowns on the practice of using resources from other games (including their own), there's no legal ground to keep you from using those assets in your own personal-use mod that only you will have access to. They're not going to send the Special Ops to kick your door in and drag you away to Federal Prison.

 

Uploading it, however, is where you run into a problem.

[Helixien]

Thank you guys.

 

@DrNewcenstein: I know, I´m working with a lot of ported things privately. Its fun to bring things from other games into Skyrim, but I won't upload them. Still, nice of you to tell me again :)

[AfroGamerNinja]

And if you seek a loophole, recreate the resource from scratch, like InsanitySorrow does.

[DrakeTheDragon]

While we're at it, doing this be also very cautious not to accidentally publish a screenshot featuring any of these materials here either.

It's so easy to get punished for forgetting you used a stolen weapon model when taking a screenshot of your new character build or something.

 

While you technically void your license to play the game you bought, they're right, nobody will send their lawyers after you, if you do.

What you do in your privacy on your own computers is not the Nexus' business. As soon as you involve Nexus (or any other site) in it though, that's when things get serious.

 

And no, recreating resources from scratch is not a 'loophole'. They can send lawyers after you for using a concept of their's, just look up the fate of MERP, no stolen resources, all recreated from scratch, still taken down with all legal might, but only very rarely they do. If you created something 'from scratch', it is your's, no matter how close it looks to something else somebody else created.

But recreating everything from scratch doesn't sound like the OP's intention here anyways, which is 'reuse' not 'redo'.

 

Oh, and for the last line in the OP, normally for modder's resources giving credit is all it takes, but in this case, doing something the original author never intended to be done with it, it can't hurt asking back to make sure there's no objection against it. Some authors even stated "not to be converted for use in other games" in their permissions very clearly. A modder's resource is free for use within the game it was made for and the requirements the author stated on the upload. Using it in a different game is something you'll have to check back for. Giving credits to the original author alone won't fly in all cases.

[DrNewcenstein]

Building your own asset that looks just like someone else's asset is a definite no-no. As a specific example, you cannot create a mesh of Batman's costume for use in a non-Batman game. Doesn't matter that you built it yourself from base primitives or metaballs in 3D Studio Max, it's still considered the same as using copyrighted, ready-made works such as the Batman mesh from its own game.

 

In that event, however, you should feel proud of your skills if you made a Batman costume that looked good enough for their lawyers' panties to get in a twist.