Horses

[scrivener07]

Would someone, a good texture, mesher, animator, be able to make a new horse by tracing over the oblivion one?

Like have the mesh for the oblivion horse open in one program and then build it from scratch in another program, or same program, just by looking at the completed product. Would that be legal? Texturing and animating would be a different issue.

 

That is what I had in mind. Just disect Oblivion horses and do what they did. As long as you dont directly copy over ANYTHING should be okay.

[crossfirex]

Would someone, a good texture, mesher, animator, be able to make a new horse by tracing over the oblivion one?

Like have the mesh for the oblivion horse open in one program and then build it from scratch in another program, or same program, just by looking at the completed product. Would that be legal? Texturing and animating would be a different issue.

 

That is what I had in mind. Just disect Oblivion horses and do what they did. As long as you dont directly copy over ANYTHING should be okay.

Genius. Seriously, I think that's a genius idea. That would rule out copyright, and any other problems like it.

[Savage117]

The only problem with that idea is I have no talent in any of it and it would need to be someone pretty good at that sort of thing to get it right.

[frank lee]

If you were going to rev-eng another model you may want to look at this;

 

Daz3d-developers-horses

 

Possible advantages include, its a lot more modern than something written for Oblivion, Its probably a nicer model and will almost certainty come with multi poly-count options.

[scrivener07]

The only issue I see with that is what the licensing policy may be with those models. They must be legal to distribute or its not worth the effort or cash imo.

 

edit- or maybe a license would be worth it Game Developer FAQ.

[DarkeWolf]

The lo-rez horses would actually be better to try to use, IF you purchase the developer's license, or otherwise obtain in writting permission to use and distribute the material.

Less work that you'd have to do in lower the polycount, so to make it better for game usage. http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/-/lorez-horse?item=11544&_m=d

might still need to reduce the resolution of the textures a bit for less beefy computers, but still less work to do on the models.

[crossfirex]

The only issue I see with that is what the licensing policy may be with those models. They must be legal to distribute or its not worth the effort or cash imo.

 

edit- or maybe a license would be worth it Game Developer FAQ.

Ok, copying a horse is not a illegal, so long as you make at least a few minor changes (Maybe a tail stripe or something)

[HugePinball]

The only issue I see with that is what the licensing policy may be with those models. They must be legal to distribute or its not worth the effort or cash imo.

 

edit- or maybe a license would be worth it Game Developer FAQ.

Ok, copying a horse is not a illegal, so long as you make at least a few minor changes (Maybe a tail stripe or something)

Sorry, but your understanding of these issues is still lacking. Taking something and modifying it, reverse-engineering it, "tracing" it (using as a template), is all considered derivative work which is covered by the original copyright. A license (meaning "permission") is an agreement between you and the copyright holder that allows you use the work in any specified ways that would otherwise violate the set of rights protected by copyright.

 

Scrivener07 asked a proper question about the license for this model. The Developer license from that site allows the use of those models, including (not only) modified/derivative work, within game projects, and includes distribution rights needed for those projects. I think it would be a bit odd for this type of license to allow only modified work, but this is not really my area of experience.

 

But I was really surprised at the low cost of these developer licenses, enough that I was skeptical that they did allow use and distribution within games and such. Actually, I wasn't able to find the their full Developer EULA anywhere, only FAQs about it (if interested, more reading here and here) - but all that does seem to indicate those rights. You should also compare that to their regular license (most relevant bits are 4 and 6) and to other licenses on similar sites.

 

And on the DAZ 3D site, note that the Developer licenses are only available when going through their Developer Center frontend. You'll see that if you find the same model through the standard site, the price is lower because it's for the more limited, standard license. Also, not all of their products are available for Developer licensing (this is the lo-rez horse mentioned by DarkeWolf above).

[crossfirex]

The only issue I see with that is what the licensing policy may be with those models. They must be legal to distribute or its not worth the effort or cash imo.

 

edit- or maybe a license would be worth it Game Developer FAQ.

Ok, copying a horse is not a illegal, so long as you make at least a few minor changes (Maybe a tail stripe or something)

Sorry, but your understanding of these issues is still lacking. Taking something and modifying it, reverse-engineering it, "tracing" it (using as a template), is all considered derivative work which is covered by the original copyright. A license (meaning "permission") is an agreement between you and the copyright holder that allows you use the work in any specified ways that would otherwise violate the set of rights protected by copyright.

 

Scrivener07 asked a proper question about the license for this model. The Developer license from that site allows the use of those models, including (not only) modified/derivative work, within game projects, and includes distribution rights needed for those projects. I think it would be a bit odd for this type of license to allow only modified work, but this is not really my area of experience.

 

But I was really surprised at the low cost of these developer licenses, enough that I was skeptical that they did allow use and distribution within games and such. Actually, I wasn't able to find the their full Developer EULA anywhere, only FAQs about it (if interested, more reading here and here) - but all that does seem to indicate those rights. You should also compare that to their regular license (most relevant bits are 4 and 6) and to other licenses on similar sites.

 

And on the DAZ 3D site, note that the Developer licenses are only available when going through their Developer Center frontend. You'll see that if you find the same model through the standard site, the price is lower because it's for the more limited, standard license. Also, not all of their products are available for Developer licensing (this is the lo-rez horse mentioned by DarkeWolf above).

Dang... talk about blocking mod rescources. xD

[DarkeWolf]

The only issue I see with that is what the licensing policy may be with those models. They must be legal to distribute or its not worth the effort or cash imo.

 

edit- or maybe a license would be worth it Game Developer FAQ.

Ok, copying a horse is not a illegal, so long as you make at least a few minor changes (Maybe a tail stripe or something)

Indeed, as Pinball states, simply modifying an existing piece of work does not count as making the piece yours. This has been a huge issue in misunderstanding in the FO and FONV mods. And a lot of people have gotten into trouble for it here on the sites.

In order for it to be considered yours, it has to be made completely from scratch. With None of the original author's work included in it.

Now its a slight bit different with mod created items, but you still HAVE to have permission from the original creator.

 

Yeah, it does kinda suck from a modder's standpoint. But if a person creates something that they want to sell, its not fair of us, to steal from them.

Now granted, I am sure that somewhere on the net there's a source of free, royalty free material, without it being pirated. Where people donate their work for resources. sharecg.com is one such site.

 

And agreed, the lorez horse inst included in the developers license. That model would need to be discussed with the person that made it.

Edited December 9, 2010 by DarkeWolf