Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate This Thread
Hop To
Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4
#4420670 - 05/14/18 11:44 AM EECH Source Code Access - now Public  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
SOURCE CODE ACCESS

The source code is hosted on Github. It remains under Licence, although it has been amended to make it relevant to the current repository.

You can find the repo on Github

The code repo has now been made public. The reason for doing so was that there was an ongoing cost to keep the repo private, which I didn't think was necessary any more. I'm also hoping that with it being public, it might encourage others to get involved in modding it.

Some old branches have been removed, and it's just the latest that remain, plus a few historic ones - like Arnehs Apache avionics that was too good to remove - maybe some day it'll be made to work.

Contact the repo owner via their email on Github to be added as a contributor, that way you don't have to form the repo.


Instructions on how to get the source can be found in the EECH Wiki;

EECH-Wiki - Source Code Access


For source code access discussions, use this thread;

EECH Source Code Discussion

Last edited by messyhead; 05/14/21 10:17 PM.
#4422823 - 05/26/18 07:50 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 5
Woozle24 Offline
Junior Member
Woozle24  Offline
Junior Member

Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 5
I have read and agree to the terms and conditions of the EECH licence
at http://eechcentral.SimHQ.com/index.php?title=EECH_License

Reason: I intend to try my hand at fixing some issues I've been having with yaw controls. I've also been having some crash to desktop issues, I may try to reproduce those with a debugger attached. And, possibly to admire the dynamic campaign code

#4422891 - 05/27/18 05:45 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
Hi Woozle24,
I've had some crash problems too, I've watched carefully as I've been testing my own mods and one of the issues seems to have something to do with selecting a specific Session. If you attempt to switch to another scenario after picking one already, it crashes. If you select a Session, play a round, then go back in to select another Session, it crashes. I've learned to simply shut down the program and restart if I want to select a different map or scenario. It would be nice if someone fixed that.

I've also had it crash when going through the menus setting up a session if I double-click on a selection. Single-clicking works, double-clicking doesn't.

I can point you into the block of code where the input controls for yaw are processed, if that would help. Go into:
...\EECHSourceCode\aphavoc\source\gunships\dynamics\

I'm working on dynamics.c, and in \dynamics\common\co_force.c and co_event.c

What kind on problems are you experiencing with Yaw? I'm not happy with the code not addressing the yawing moments the tail surfaces put on the airframe, only a tail rotor is addressed in the code. I intend on adding in something to simulate the vertical stabilizer. I've got an equation I've used before for a similar sim, on an airplane.
Javelin

Last edited by Javelin; 05/27/18 05:47 AM.
#4422965 - 05/27/18 05:43 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 486
XIII Offline
Member
XIII  Offline
Member

Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 486
Yes i have this problem. easy to replicate:When you choose campaign, or mission, start mission, and back to main menu,and choose another campaign, game ALWAYS ctd when yuu click mouse button on specific campaign.
Also doubleclick on campaign cause ctd.

#4435640 - 08/24/18 04:23 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
Hi Guys, I did a search on the web to track down the license holder for EECH, It ended at indiePub Entertainment, Inc. which closed it's doors in 2013. I don't think there IS a license holder anymore. There is also no way to tell if EECH ownership even transferred with each company change, or if it was dropped somewhere along the line from the properties list.

Here is the chain of companies that have (possibly) held the license. (Each company closed and sold out to the next Co. in line.)
Razorworks
Empire Interactive
Silverstar Holdings
New World IP
Zoo Games
indiePub Entertainment, Inc.

Nobody bought the rights to games owned by IndiePub when they closed in 2013, so there isn't a license holder anymore.
I vote we set up the codebase on GitHub and make it easy on everyone.

Last edited by Javelin; 08/24/18 05:44 PM.
#4436276 - 08/29/18 07:43 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: Javelin]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
Originally Posted by Javelin
Hi Guys, I did a search on the web to track down the license holder for EECH, It ended at indiePub Entertainment, Inc. which closed it's doors in 2013. I don't think there IS a license holder anymore. There is also no way to tell if EECH ownership even transferred with each company change, or if it was dropped somewhere along the line from the properties list.

Here is the chain of companies that have (possibly) held the license. (Each company closed and sold out to the next Co. in line.)
Razorworks
Empire Interactive
Silverstar Holdings
New World IP
Zoo Games
indiePub Entertainment, Inc.

Nobody bought the rights to games owned by IndiePub when they closed in 2013, so there isn't a license holder anymore.
I vote we set up the codebase on GitHub and make it easy on everyone.



Could you post links to show your findings?

Enemy Engaged 2 was published by G2 Games, which isn't on your list. They would have held the licence to the source code. I think I tracked them down to a company in Canada that still existed.

Edit: Actually, the company I found was Strategy First, that was owned by Silverstar Holdings. When I was looking into it, they were still going.

Last edited by messyhead; 08/29/18 07:47 AM.
#4436332 - 08/29/18 04:44 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
Razorworks

Razorworks was a video game developer based in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Razorworks was founded in August 1996 and was owned by the video game publisher Empire Interactive. The Razorworks studio was closed in July 2008 due to Empire Interactive's poor financial situation (Empire Interactive subsequently went into administration (bankruptcy) in May 2009).

G2 Games

Game: Enemy Engaged 2
Developer: G2 Games
Publisher: Strategy First
Release dates Windows, 25 May 2007

Strategy_First

In 2004, Strategy First Inc filed for bankruptcy protection. On April 21, 2005 it was acquired by Silverstar Holdings. Terms of the acquisition included "cash consideration to the creditors of Strategy First of $609,000; we issued 377,000 shares of our common stock; warrants to purchase 200,000 shares of our common stock; and assumed approximately $400,000 in existing bank debt, as well as contingent consideration based on the future profitability of Strategy First."[3] Silverstar Holdings Ltd. was a publicly traded company registered in Bermuda (traded on NASDAQ under symbol SSTR), with their web home page stating that they are "focusing on acquiring controlling positions in high-growth retail-driven and fee-based electronic game businesses that could benefit from the economies of scale generated by the Internet and other technology-related platforms." Silverstar completed a purchase of game developer Empire Interactive on December 4, 2006, and claimed in a same-day press release that with the addition of Empire Interactive titles to the Valve 'Steam' service, "we are delighted that in this short time the first collaborative effort between Empire and Strategy First has born fruit."[4]

Subsequent to the SEC 10-Q filing, Silverstar reported that on May 1, 2009 their Empire Interactive division filed for "administration" (bankruptcy) in the UK, and that "Empire has sold its intellectual property assets to New World IP, LLC ",[7] and all 49 staff were laid off.[8] New World IP then leased the rights to publish Empire's entire catalogue to Zoo Games.[9]

Empire_Interactive

Empire Interactive
was a publisher of interactive entertainment software for 22 years. Headquartered in the UK, they also had offices in the U.S., Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The company developed and published a varied range of titles for all contemporary platforms in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Games such as Starsky & Hutch, Big Mutha Truckers, the Ford Racing series and FlatOut were some of their major successes.[2] They also operated the "Xplosiv" and "eJay" imprints, focusing on budget titles and music creation tools respectively.

After struggling financially for several years, they were purchased by Silverstar Holdings in 2006 and became a wholly owned subsidiary. On 4 May 2009 it was announced that the company had gone into administration (bankruptcy) and would be shutting down permanently. Their intellectual properties were sold to New World IP of the United States and all 49 staff were laid off.[3] New World IP then leased the rights to publish Empire's entire catalogue to Zoo Games.[4]

IndiePub

On May 7, 2009 it was announced by Zoo Publishing that the company had acquired the rights from New World IP to publish and distribute Empire Interactive's entire catalog which includes titles such as Big Mutha Truckers and Flatout Head On.[2] The rights were acquired from New World IP who had recently purchased Empire's intellectual property as the company went into administration.[2] In June 2009, Zoo Games created a wholly owned subsidiary, Zoo Entertainment Europe Ltd., in order to move into the European market however, operations were discontinued in December 2009.

indiepub-entertainment

indiePub Entertainment, Inc. was a US company initially founded as Driftwood Ventures, Inc. on 12th February 2003. The company was renamed Zoo Entertainment, Inc. on 3rd December 2008 after the acquisition of Green Screen Interactive Software, Inc. (renamed Zoo Games, Inc.), Destination Software, Inc. (renamed Zoo Publishing, Inc.) and also briefly Supervillain Studios, Inc. and ZOO Digital Publishing Ltd., along with the short-lived Zoo Entertainment Europe Ltd. The company mainly conducted its operations through the wholly-owned subsidiary Zoo Games, Inc., which in turn had Zoo Publishing, Inc. as a subsidiary.

Between 2009 and 2011 the company was best known for publishing games mainly for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, but also a few for Windows, PS2 and Xbox 360. In 2009 2Bee Games was launched, as a sponsor who also organized competitions for independent developers. In 2010 2Bee Games was renamed indiePub. The company eventually focused entirely on this operation and in September 2011 it was announced the company had been working for a year on an indies-only game and application (apps) distribution or publishing platform where developers using indiePub would receive 75% of all royalties. On 1st February 2011 indiePub Mobile was announced to branch out to mobile iOS and Android games. The name of the parent company Zoo was changed to indiePub Entertainment, Inc. on 15th May 2012. Although Zoo Games and Zoo Publishing continued to exist, but with no further output beyond 2011, most of the operations were most likely handled through the Delaware company indiePub, Inc. In 2013 all activity was halted and all indiePub and Zoo companies were closed. The last indiePub-published game was Vessel in September 2013.

---------------------------------------
I also looked up "New World IP, LLC" Delaware file number 4681219, which was filed in 4/28/2009. The company filing no longer exists in the system, it is no longer registered as a company. I also checked the address, which is now occupied by Harvard Business Services. I called Harvard Business Services and they don't represent New World IP, nor could they find it in their Delaware company database. From what I can tell New World IP doesn't exist anymore. I think they were the last holder of the license after Zoo Publishing/IndiePub closed their doors. All license leases reverted back to New World IP after Zoo Publishing defaulted on their lease of the licenses. Since we don't have a list of the 69 properties they leased, it's not clear if Enemy Engaged was even in the collection. There are 75 games listed on wikipedia for Empire Interactive, a few more than the lease agreement, and it does include EECH and EEAH.

Court Case against Zoo Publishing

New World IP LLC v. Zoo Publishing Inc. et al
United States District Court, Southern District of New York
Case No.1:11-cv-02532, Filed on April 13, 2011
In April of 2011, New World brought suit against Zoo for violation of a licensing agreement between the two companies. Law360 reported that under this licensing agreement, New World granted Zoo the rights to produce more than 60 games it owned in exchange for a royalty payment. New World alleged that Zoo had not provided it with any of the royalty accounting and thus the licensing agreement had been breached. Moreover, New World believed that Zoo owed a minimum royalty payment of around $1.9 million. When Zoo refused to pay the minimum royalty payment, New World ended the licensing agreement between them. After this termination, New World determined that Zoo had not ceased the use of its trademarks. In its defense, Zoo alleged that 65 out of 69 games covered by the licensing could not be sold or produced since they were not complete. Zoo further claimed that it had already spent $500,000 on finishing the games so that it could sell them. Besides, Zoo alleged that it had already paid royalties to New World in the amount of $500,000.

In August of 2011, the case was dismissed since the parties reached a confidential settlement agreement outside of court.

Empire Interactive games list

Last edited by Javelin; 08/29/18 07:46 PM.
#4436416 - 08/30/18 11:36 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
That's some great detective work. I think I'd followed that trail before, but didn't have it all written out like.

So it seems that the licence holder is closed. My only concern is if New World IP, LLC exists as some legal entity that someone could acquire in the future, and therefore acquire the licenses it held.

I'm no legal expert, so not sure if them being closed means they're gone, and all the licenses with it, or if there's some legal status that they're in. Effectively not operating, but still an entity that could be purchased. That would be the only thing that could jeopardise the licence in future.

I think that it's probably the case that the licence was void some time ago, but noone in the EECH community has ever had the legal knowledge to look into it properly, or sought any legal advice on the licence status.

I wonder if we'd be able to engage with anyone at GoG.com to ask their advice, as they sell DRM free games, and must have come across licence issues in the past.


As for putting the code on an open repository - it would get around the current access issue. However, as a community we'd have to accept that their could be a possibility of multiple versions of the game being distributed, and all of the headaches that would cause. There's no requirement for anyone working on the code to be a member of this forum, or even communicate what they're working on. In fact, I remember a couple of years ago, there was someone posting videos on youtube of work they were doing, but there was nothing on the forum about it. I think that might have come from the current Github repo.

I've recently got back into playing IL-2 1946. There are many mod packages available for that, some of varying quality, and some of varying requirements. It was actually a bit of a headache to get them working.

#4436418 - 08/30/18 11:51 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
I found this as well about trademarks, which is cancelled...

https://trademarks.justia.com/755/97/enemy-engaged-75597835.html

#4436420 - 08/30/18 12:03 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
I'm just reading through the licence again. When you buy the game on GoG.com, I think it's already patched to v11, so it already includes mods added by the community. So would I be right in saying that GoG.com would be in breach of this line in the licence?

Quote
3.1.4 not (and not to allow any third party) to profit or make any charge for the Source Code, or Executable Code, any Exploitation of the Source Code or Executable Code, or for any Derivative Works;


In which case, as I would think GoG.com would have checked this, maybe they know that the licence is void?

#4436453 - 08/30/18 03:31 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
It sounds like GoG has figured out the status of the license, that it's basically void since no one owns Empire Interactive's IP anymore.
I agree, they wouldn't be able to sell for profit as it's a breach of the license when the mods are included.
I'll email GoG and see if I can get an answer from of them.

I've queried GoG's legal department.

As to distributions, I think we can still control the 'official' distribution on EECH Central on SimHQ without much trouble. It won't be any different than it is now.
A person could still release something on their own, but it wouldn't have the Forum's oversight.

Last edited by Javelin; 08/30/18 04:50 PM.
#4436567 - 08/31/18 08:30 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
In anticipation of us putting this on Github, as I think that will happen, I've created a repo...

https://github.com/enemy-engaged-developers/eech_source_code


I added a GPL3 licence to it, which (I think) means anyone can change the code, but they're not allowed to distribute closed versions of the source code.


If we hear back from GoG, or if we don't but decide to just do it, I'll upload the repo that I cloned on AWS as that was the latest version of all branches (although I think you had changes to add Javelin)

#4436592 - 08/31/18 03:55 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
That sounds good.
I haven't heard back from GoG yet, not sure if they will reply. Legal departments tend to be closed mouth until threatened.

Yes, I have a couple of refinements to the code. I can add them in if you don't.
I'm working on the exported mfd's for the Hind right now. I have the map one back up and I want to do a Flight one for the left side.
I might tackle the Ka-50 exported mfd's after that, but that will take more work.

#4436594 - 08/31/18 04:18 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
The more I think about this, and read back about the licence holders, the more I'm convinced to just put it on Github. All the evidence points to there being no licence holder. If there was one, we would have found it from the trail of companies.

And the licence basically said that if you make changes to the code, then any licence holder could use those changes as their own. So we (as in the eech community) don't own the code. But as there's no licence holder that we can find, noone owns the code. Also, the licence explicitly states that the agreement is between You as a user and Empire, which no longer exists. Silverstar holdings or New World IP never issued any update to the licence amending who the agreement was between, and I can't see anything in the licence stating that the ownership of the code would pass on. Although I suppose there might have been some legal proceeding that passed ownership on when Empire got taken over.

The licence doesn't really say anything about where the code should be hosted. I seem to remember that the reason it was put on a private repo, was so that they could control who accessed it after agreeing to the licence terms.


So basically, with my layman's knowledge, the licence looks to be void. And based on everything you traced about the companies, there's no licence holder in existence.

So..... I'm off to upload the repo to Github.

Be right back.....

Last edited by messyhead; 08/31/18 04:20 PM.
#4436601 - 08/31/18 05:14 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
And done.


If you PM with your Github username, I'll add you as a collaborator

#4436616 - 08/31/18 08:19 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
Excellent! Done.

Last edited by Javelin; 09/03/18 05:23 AM.
#4436796 - 09/02/18 09:08 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
I've done a bit more digging into this. I had added a GPL licence to it, but I don't think that it can be truly made open source. The Copyright is still with Empire / Razorworks. From what I've read, copyright can last for 70 years, even after the copyright holder no longer exists. It seems complicated, so I thought it would be best not to mess with it.

The licence holder or holder of the intellectual property, and copyright holder seem different things.

So I've edited the original licence so that it doesn't refer to downloading a Zip file, or agreeing when you click a button. That was the method under which the original source code was distributed.

The original modders put it on a private repo so that they could ensure that modders agreed to the licence before getting access. This was to please Empire when they were still around.

But the licence actually states that Empire wished to make the source code publicly available. So having it in a private repo went against that, and having it on Github goes with the intention of the licence.

The rest of the licence seems kind of similar to the intent of the GPL licence, in that anyone can modify it, and distribute it, as long as the licence is included. The difference being that Empire could use any modifications in future releases. So it actually still serves our needs by keeping it there.

#4436943 - 09/03/18 10:25 AM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
I need to resolve one part of the current licence. The Acceptance Date. At the moment, it's set as the date when click on Agree, as in the button that at some point existed on a web page, to allow you to download the code. This hasn't existed for quite a while, and even when we had it on a private repo, that part of the licence didn't match up.

So I was thinking about what to change it to? Anyone can clone or download the code now, and there's no traceability of who does it (I can see how many times it's been cloned, but not by who). The only traceability is when someone commits.

So do I change the Acceptance Date to the date that they make a commit, or just make it when they clone or download the code?

#4436998 - 09/03/18 04:11 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: messyhead]  
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Javelin Offline
Member
Javelin  Offline
Member

Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
It makes more sense to use the Clone date to me.

#4437006 - 09/03/18 05:17 PM Re: EECH Source Code Access - now Public [Re: Javelin]  
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
messyhead Offline
Member
messyhead  Offline
Member

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,883
Originally Posted by Javelin
It makes more sense to use the Clone date to me.


I was thinking that.

Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4

Moderated by  RacerGT 

Quick Search
Recent Articles
Support SimHQ

If you shop on Amazon use this Amazon link to support SimHQ
.
Social


Recent Topics
Carnival Cruise Ship Fire....... Again
by F4UDash4. 03/26/24 05:58 PM
Baltimore Bridge Collapse
by F4UDash4. 03/26/24 05:51 PM
The Oldest WWII Veterans
by F4UDash4. 03/24/24 09:21 PM
They got fired after this.
by Wigean. 03/20/24 08:19 PM
Grown ups joke time
by NoFlyBoy. 03/18/24 10:34 PM
Anyone Heard from Nimits?
by F4UDash4. 03/18/24 10:01 PM
RIP Gemini/Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford
by semmern. 03/18/24 02:14 PM
10 years after 3/8/2014
by NoFlyBoy. 03/17/24 10:25 AM
Copyright 1997-2016, SimHQ Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.6.0