32 votes

To help support modding, alongside the launch of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, EA will be releasing the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll and their source code under the GPL3 license

Posted by Deimos
Tags: open source, command and conquer, petroglyph, modding, gpl3, rts, ea
https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-remastered/news/remaster-update-modding

Link information

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Title
Remaster Update and Open Source / Mod Support
Authors
Electronic Arts
Published
May 20 2020
Word count
824 words

8 comments

  1. [2]
    LukeZaz
    (edited )
    Link
    Good lord, it is constantly blowing my mind just how well this remaster effort has been going. I would've expected EA to fuck this up long ago similarly to how they bungled the last few C&C...

    Good lord, it is constantly blowing my mind just how well this remaster effort has been going. I would've expected EA to fuck this up long ago similarly to how they bungled the last few C&C titles. And yet, here we are — a remaster that looks to live up to every expectation, reasonable business practices across the board, and comes with FOSS from EA of all things.

    9 votes
    1. Death
      Link Parent
      I wonder if they're taking a page from Microsoft and committing more to Open Source now as exec are realizing doing so garners good PR and doesn't really hurt their bottom line all that much.

      I wonder if they're taking a page from Microsoft and committing more to Open Source now as exec are realizing doing so garners good PR and doesn't really hurt their bottom line all that much.

      5 votes
  2. [5]
    heady
    Link
    Why only open source a dll file instead of the whole thing? especially given it's an antiquated engine and there are already popular open source clones of these particular games.

    Why only open source a dll file instead of the whole thing? especially given it's an antiquated engine and there are already popular open source clones of these particular games.

    2 votes
    1. [3]
      Death
      Link Parent
      Isn't releasing it alongside the source code functionally the same thing?

      Isn't releasing it alongside the source code functionally the same thing?

      5 votes
      1. [2]
        heady
        Link Parent
        Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it appears like they are only releasing the source code for one of the games files, not the whole game.

        Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it appears like they are only releasing the source code for one of the games files, not the whole game.

        1 vote
        1. LukeZaz
          Link Parent
          I'm pretty sure you're right actually — heard a bit of this same question from the /r/games reddit thread. Speculation was that the engine itself might have proprietary software that EA doesn't...

          I'm pretty sure you're right actually — heard a bit of this same question from the /r/games reddit thread. Speculation was that the engine itself might have proprietary software that EA doesn't actually own, and so releasing it would get them into a heap of legal trouble if they didn't edit all that out.

          2 votes
    2. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Could be IP related. I.e. they're concerned that if they opensource the whole thing it may be harder for them to retain the rights to the engine, brand, etc in the future.

      Could be IP related. I.e. they're concerned that if they opensource the whole thing it may be harder for them to retain the rights to the engine, brand, etc in the future.

      1 vote
  3. Deimos
    Link
    The code was released on GitHub now: https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection Haven't seen too much discussion of it yet overall, but there's some more info and some interesting...

    The code was released on GitHub now: https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection

    Haven't seen too much discussion of it yet overall, but there's some more info and some interesting observations about it in this thread on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/gupamy/tiberiandawn_and_redalert_remasters_dll_source/

    2 votes