Porting content from other games

[eltucu]

I don't think Robin's reliability is in question here, but rather, BethSoft's honesty.

Exactly. I wasn't joking when i said i assume they're jerks.

and you've got a point that it's really a moot point because their rules are essentially law when it comes to this matter.

No no, i'm not saying they can't make the rules, I've already said they can do whatever they want. My point is not trying to negate their right to say no, I'm not questioning the morality of the issue. They are allowed to say we cant just because. Thus you cant say its moot because of what you've said.

 

My complain goes more to the "ethical" side, that they're not telling us the full story and possibly don't even try to open up for porting assets between games. My point stands until either they open up their content a little or they show us some evidence that they actually can't allow us to do such thing (like, "See the elven armors? We can't share that because [insert company] was contracted to do it so while we can use it, you cant" ) and/or they tried to but something happened in the middle .

 

I'd be set with an explanation of the situation instead of saying "cuz legal stuff" and leaving us to imagine/assume the rest. I dont know, like showing us the kind of outsourcing they do, maybe pointing to some specific thing they cant share, maybe its some licence of some middleware that its screwing up things, maybe it has to do something with ZeniMax owning the whole thing, any more specific lead would be great.

 

Of course this kind of information tends to be located strictly inside the company, whereas I can't legally force them to tell me, they could be nice about it, specially knowing the kind of modding community their titles enjoy.

 

Bethsoft has actually been very supportive of modding in the past.

See, here is where i disagree (not in the facts but rather on the interpretation). I dont see that very supportive=making few demands. I see it more like making few demands=being less annoying. Supportive=letting us use the CK. And there it ends their supportiveness for me.

 

Lack of (relatively) bad attitudes doesnt looks like supportiveness to me. Supportiveness is the CK wiki, the official CK videos, some of the devs answering forum posts (and that's supportiveness of those particular ppl rather than the entire company) , the CK itself, but lack of demands isn't supportiveness to me, it's just not being a dck.

 

And even some of those things are questionably attributable to Beth as a company. Who knows how much of the official modding tutorials/wiki/CK features are made by some developer in their spare time and not because is part of their job and thus, not part of what Beth as a whole is doing for the modder community?

Edited July 23, 2012 by eltucu

[Deleted2547005User]

Did you stop to think one of the reasons why they don't tell us the "Truth" is because they are legally bound too? In their contracts with other companies that they are not allowed to divulge such information?

 

If you really want to know, why not ask GStaff over at the BethForums?

 

The "truth" of the matter is, they can tell us what they want to, they don't owe you, me, or this community anything. Money speaks louder than words.

 

I agree with bben46, Bethesda has been very supportive. You have seen all the mods that have pushed the line with nudity, gore, and controversial themes no? They can come in at any minute and force Robin to take them all down, just to prevent any sort of blow back that it could cause in the public spotlight. They allow us to make mods for their games, support us in that endeavor, when so many other companies out there don't. It is best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

I suggest you talk to the guys at Bethesda. Not much can be done about it here anyway, you're better off talking to the folks that can actually tell you the information you want to know.

[bben46]

You can demand to see the 'proof' all you want. But a corporation is not going to disclose their secrets just on the demand of a very few users. They are not (as has been said) required to tell us anything. Much of the 'facts' we get are really speculation based on what little has actually been leaked. And if (as has been speculated) they do have signed confidentiality agreements then they are legally bound to NOT reveal anything.

 

My own guess (speculation) is that Beth instigated the confidentiality agreements themselves so the third parties cannot resell the assets they created under contract for Beth to another game company. However, just because Beth instigated the agreement, Beth is still legally bound by it.

 

Now, if there were not compelling legal reasons, why would Bethsoft bother to forbid using assets from one Beth game in another? In order to make modding easier, Beth actually included ALL legal to use assets from FO3 in the CK for New Vegas, even those assets that were not part of the New Vegas game. :thumbsup: Of course, some of the people who wear funny metallic looking hats claim that this was by accident and those assets were never intended to be released. If it was accidentally, then why are certain entire sets of assets, less one or two specific assets, plus some single assets out of other sets not included?

 

How would you feel if you were a third party contractor and Beth allowed the assets you created and licensed to Beth specifically for a single game to be used indiscriminately in other games? Some will let it pass, others will be demanding compensation - either a lump sum for each game the asset was used in, or royalties based on the sale of the other game. It's cheaper for Beth to just not allow that than to pay a law firm to defend against dozens of lawsuits brought by third party developers for breach of contract. In this kind of lawsuit, even if you win you lose. because those developers and any others that know about the suit will never do any work for you again - and you still have to pay your lawyers.

 

Using Occam's razor (look it up if you don't know) The simplest explanation is they are legally bound in some way. And until some proof otherwise is available we should operate on that assumption.

 

Having been involved with confidentiality agreements (in a completely different industry) I do know a little (probably very little) about them. :tongue:

[Kataspie]

So, if I understand it correctly there is no problem to use a pic as reference to an armor as long as the mesh and everything else is made from scratch (and you can show that it wasn't just ripped). Is that the case even if the pic is of an armor from DLC?

 

Reason I ask is that I liked the concept of the "fugitive armor" DLC for DA2, but would like it for DA:O. I know how to do it from scratch myself, but could I later release such a mod to the public without getting yelled at?

 

EDIT: Usually I don't mind at all if the developers wishes to earn extra money by putting up new armor as DLC. Its just that I want to use it in DA:O, not DA2.

 

 

Thank god I found this post and thread. I was wondering a similar thing. So I did search on the rules or porting etc before I made any suggestion. I'm interested in the concept of the armors that AFO Neptune in Medal of Honour wear as a mod for New vegas.

 

But, due to the fact that

I do NOT advocate plagiarism/piracy

And I don't want to get myself banned, I realised I'd have to word it specifically.

 

Or am I actually better off just dropping the idea all together?

[Thandal]

@Kataspie; Using another work as a reference and creating a new, "look-alike" asset in a mod is perfectly acceptable. Using another work directly as the digital foundation is not. :thumbsup:

 

(Unless of course the author/publisher/rights holder has given permission!)

[Kataspie]

@Kataspie; Using another work as a reference and creating a new, "look-alike" asset in a mod is perfectly acceptable. Using another work directly as the digital foundation is not. :thumbsup:

 

(Unless of course the author/publisher/rights holder has given permission!)

 

I should also ask has anyone made a master copy of the armour from MoH for FNV. I ask because a) I worry about getting both the other person and my self in trouble, B) I severely lack the skills to do so myself, C) I will not ask someone to make it if it does not exist for fear of getting them into trouble.

[ladyvailen]

I want to be clear on something to avoid any trouble, so let me just check: Say I imported a free hair from a free sims 2 mod (example, like the coolsims hair or cazy hair pack on here) for my own personal use with no intention of sharing without the original author's permission, and a character of mine wearing said hair showed up in a screenshot, that would be fine as long as I don't share the mod without permission from the original author? Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but the last thing I want do is want to get in trouble for accidently doing something wrong.

[Deleted2547005User]

Technically it's wrong as it breaks EULA, but like Dark0ne said in the first post on this thread, no ones going to kick down your door for it. Just don't share it (or post screens of it) here and you'll be okay.

[Stemin]

Sorry if this has been asked or answered already, but this thread is 10 pages already....

 

How are DLC's handled? Are you not allowed to make mods based on DLC content? I mean you can't ever really guarantee that the downloader will have the DLC, even after GotY comes out, so if you do a texture mod on say the vampire armor that was recently released with Dawnguard, you can't ever upload that?

Edited August 5, 2012 by Stemin

[micalov]

Sorry if this has been asked or answered already, but this thread is 10 pages already....

 

How are DLC's handled? Are you not allowed to make mods based on DLC content? I mean you can't ever really guarantee that the downloader will have the DLC, even after GotY comes out, so if you do a texture mod on say the vampire armor that was recently released with Dawnguard, you can't ever upload that?

 

 

There are many ways, textures, they would obviously need the DLC meshes anyway, or if its a remesh the default texture and if it has an ESP make sure the DLC is in the master list in the file header of the ESP.