[Kazan]

hey, we theoretically shoould be able to locate the MVE decompression routines and what not in the origional executeable correct?

[an0n]

The words "Needle in a flaming haystack" spring to mind. You could get something like the abel-gratis patch maker to compare the files and make a patch, then pull the patch apart and see what was different about the two exe's.

[Kazan]

it woldn't be that hard

ever heard of SYMBOL TABLE


besides, we could always run it through a deassembler if we find someone who reads asm

[Bobboau]

I think it isn't worth the effort, but if you want to and can get it done, theres no reason not to (other than it would probly violate some silly copywrite law)

[Unknown Target]

.MVE format was copywrighted by Intercrap.

[Kazan]

so if we dllink() to the freespace 2 executeable

[an0n]

Originally posted by Unkown Target
.MVE format was copywrighted by Intercrap.

Yeah, which means we can't alter, reproduce or redistribute the MVE stuff, but seen as all that will be happening will be the finding of the actual code and doing nothing with it (), no breaches of copyright have been made.

[an0n]

Refresh my memory, why do we want the MVE decompression thingies?

[Kazan]

to play cutscenes

[IceFire]

And wouldn't it be much cooler to do cutscenes in something like DivX?

[Kazan]

yes, but we still wouldn't be able to play the originals

[Darkage]

Originally posted by Kazan
yes, but we still wouldn't be able to play the originals

So?

I already seen the originals 20.000 times, they get kinda boring:)

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by Kazan
yes, but we still wouldn't be able to play the originals

Not too big of a deal, just have two copies of FS2 stuff-the source and the real one. All that's needed then is some way to share the VP files

I don't see MVE support as being that big of a deal. We can't write MVE files, and if we could then it's very likely Interplay would not be happy, and might take such extreme measures as asking GameSpy to shut down HLP.

[IceFire]

yes, but we still wouldn't be able to play the originals

Point taken.  If I had to choose however, I'd probably say DivX or like open format.  Then we could have our own proper cutscenes...in a tenth of the size.

[Kazan]

i didn't say we had to support only MVE

[IceFire]

Fair enough

[penguin]

decompiling (or whatever -- hacking the EXE) is a big no-no AFAIK.

We have a fairly liberal license agreement w/ the source, but there's probably a lot of stuff we're not allowed to do w/ the V-Interplay program.  (You know, when you installed there was all that stuff you didn't read, but clicked "I AGREE" at the bottom anyhow )  I'm pretty sure that having the source doesn't change the license for the EXE program, but IANAL.  Plus we run the risk of "poisoning" the open version if we add copyrighted stuff that was lifted w/out permission.

As far as DIVX goes, it's a nice idea, but is anyone really going to make new cutscenes for their campaigns?  This point was made at the developer's chat last weekend.  The consensus was that making a cutscene would probably be a lot tougher than making a mod...

[Kazan]

you do not have to decompile an executable to look at it's symbol table and fetch functions out of it

[penguin]

Originally posted by Kazan
you do not have to decompile an executable to look at it's symbol table and fetch functions out of it

Symbols have been stripped.

Ummm not like I used dumpbin or anything like that on the EXE

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by penguin
As far as DIVX goes, it's a nice idea, but is anyone really going to make new cutscenes for their campaigns?  This point was made at the developer's chat last weekend.  The consensus was that making a cutscene would probably be a lot tougher than making a mod...

That depends on a lot of things. From what I hear it's relatively easy to do, as compared to in-game cutscenes; I see either of these as being a bigger help to campaigns than specular maps or bump mapping and other graphics improvements-it gives a lot more room for plot development. Plus, it helps restore Freespace to what it was before the multiplayer and cutscenes were stripped out.

Back to the topic, if all that's needed to restore functionality of MVE playing to Freespace is to call the function from the executable, I doubt it will have any legal repercussions. On the other hand, if the function actually has to be extracted from the Freespace executable and included with the source, there's a much, much, greater chance of action being taken (legal or otherwise).