HL2 Ripoff: making the Zero G gun?

[DrPator]

When I came across the "Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube" mod on TesNexus, I got to wonder if it was possible to make the portal gun too. More reasonably: If it is even possible to make a device like the Zero-G gun from Half-Life 2.

 

What Zero-G does:

-Grab liftable items from a distance as a toggle, release the grabbed item (similar to Telekynesis magic w/o the time of effect)

-Throw away said items with strength (pretty much similar to the blow effect of the AOE fire spell)

 

So I wondered if it could be possible to make a device that would stand as a staff (preferable weapon basis for gun-like mods), which would have a telekynesis power you could activate with the attack button, deactivate with the block button, and use the throw away effect by tapping the attack button again when the item is taken?

 

I do have the mind to find ideas like this, but I sure don't have the talents in making the scripts AND for inserting it in Oblivion without exploding my computer in the process. That's why I decided to put this as a modding challenge for you to chew on.

 

 

ZeroG gun and a garden dwarf! (HL2, ep1&2)

[ub3rman123]

I've seen a mod very much like what you ask for. It's called "GM Metrick's Sci-Fi Weapons", or something like that. I'm fairly sure there's one with telekinesis, but one could always just alter it with the CS, which is easy to do, even without an iota of knowledge on the CS.

-Sal

[Lord Slyther]

DrPator, what you're asking is illegal. We can remake the gravity gun, but taking ripoffs of other assets is against copyright infringement.

 

But you're ok with the re-makes of the gun. I didn't say you weren't.

[roquefort]

DrPator, what you're asking is illegal. We can remake the gravity gun, but taking ripoffs of other assets is against copyright infringement.

 

An idea cannot be copyrighted. There would only be copyright infringement if code was copied, or actual design/artwork was. Using the actual idea of a gravity gun would be perfectly OK to imitate.

 

And of course if this was a real life device there might be patent infringement to consider, but it isn't. I don't see legal problems here ;)

[Lord Slyther]

DrPator, what you're asking is illegal. We can remake the gravity gun, but taking ripoffs of other assets is against copyright infringement.

 

An idea cannot be copyrighted. There would only be copyright infringement if code was copied, or actual design/artwork was. Using the actual idea of a gravity gun would be perfectly OK to imitate.

 

And of course if this was a real life device there might be patent infringement to consider, but it isn't. I don't see legal problems here ;)

 

No, I agree with you 100%. I was saying taking assets from the other games is illegal. Ripoffs is also followed in the assets. But remaking the gun is completely ok. As you can see if you look at the RotHK title screen, I remade Link's tunic on the far right. That goes for ideas as well.

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/14317-1-1219429559.jpg

 

If I have some time later on, I might re-make the gun for him. For now, I got some work in my project to do. :wink:

[DrPator]

Well of course it's illegal, only if Bethesda's team themselves want to make an official mod to get the Zero-G gun, so-named after the original Zero-G gun from Half-Life 2, having the same darn look and the same darn scripting methods (TES4:Oblivion doesn't work with the same engine as Half-Life 2, by the way. Using the same script would require to adjust many variables and crap so it doesn't crash in TES4:Oblivion.).

 

It's a bit less illegal since I'm just stating the idea to make a weapon doing basically the same attributes as the Zero-G gun, the modders are free to do what the hell they want with it, like making a staff of "Fetch and Throw", doing the same thing as the Zero-G gun basically, but looking nothing like the Zero-G Gun. IF it so happens that the modders do the exact same copy of the design of the Zero-G Gun, they should however name it differently, like Zero-G Staff would seem obvious to Valve, but they could do nothing about it since it's a freeware mod, it's non-official, and it doesn't use the same name.

 

Have you played Doom3 Ressurection of Evil? They use the same type of weapon there. Only it doesn't look the same, and it has a superior asset as to be able to grab energy projectiles thrown at you and throw them back at the monsters. The difference between my idea and D3:RoE is that D3 is official, software, IDSoft is making money with this, and I am not doing anything else than stating an idea.

 

 

 

It is true though I wouldn't recommend making a full-copy of the gun itself. If so, the modder should give full credit to Valve's Half-Life 2 team, and keep the credits for making the replica. As long as you change the appearance at some points or even change the name, I guess you're okay. If it so happens the modder decides to make the gun go SuperPower and able to grab any big object when you enter -say- a plane of Oblivion, I'm sad to announce THIS would make it plagiate, and illegal. Making a fan-made replica is not illegal, though. It would be like asking to empty half of TESNexus content because some are afraid to be sued. Just to tell, you can find an Aperture Science Companion Cube (Valve's Portal), the many swords of Final Fantasy, clothing ripoffs from Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children, clothing and weaponry ripoffs from World of Warcraft, YuGi'Oh cards, Elves and Dark Elves from Lineage II (NCSoft, MMORPG), Ape-men from Planet of the Apes, Chocobos from Final Fantasy... I missed a few, but you get my point.

 

 

I would ask about legality and fan-made freewares to professionals, if any of you really KNOW the gears and facts about that, because I doubt opinions based on self-reflections or fears of legality issues would be of any use here, thank you in advance.

[Lord Slyther]

No, I understand where you come from, even you'll find re-makes of Final Fantasy weapons and characters on here. As I said, you're ok with the gun re-model as long as it's not a ripoff. Not trying to keep you down, just pointing a heads up.

 

And don't mention it! Just lookin' out for the community, and givin' 'em heads up in case if they might take ripoffs. It's not just you. There are quite a few, even I notified Triforce1 of Ganon's sword. :thumbsup:

 

I believe it's actually possible to make the gravity gun as a staff, and then use unlimited telekinesis spell effects, and there you go!

[DrPator]

good to know lol

 

I know using the term "rip-off" in my topic was quite alarming for some people, but then again... If I called it in a different way, it would still be a rip-off, wouldn't it?

 

Of course if I had the slightest idea on how to make mods for Oblivion, I would've skipped that forum part and do it myself .__.

But all in all, I use 3DSMax 9, and the plugin they give me on the official website is for 3DSMax 4, so it doesn't work. Plus my biggest programmation so far was to change some item's basic value to make a uber version of them. It didn't work out well, since I have a bow who shoots so fast it just forgets to shoot at all.

 

So back to topic: Zero-G Staff.

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=195073

 

niftools plugin, installs on all versions of max. Covers all of your importing/exporting needs.

 

Except for exporting particles.

 

But that's a different story.

[DrPator]

thx for that, I tried it and it worked. I also downloaded plugins from NVidia for both 3DSMax and Photoshop, altough I didn't try those yet.