[News] Microsoft opens game IP for non-commercial projects

[yaustar]

Original source from Develop Magazine | Game Content Usage Rules

Before anyone posts, please can I request you read the full article linked above.

GAMEFEST: Landmark legal move allows consumers free use of Halo, Forza and Viva Piñata assets in homebrew works

However, despite the title of the news, there is something in the rules that has left me slightly confused:

You can’t infringe anyone’s IP rights in your Item, even if the IP rights being infringed don’t belong to Microsoft. Among other things that means you can’t use any of Microsoft’s trademarked logos or names except in the ways described in the pages linked from www.microsoft.com/trademarks.

This to me implies that while you can use the assets, you can't use the name. E.g. You can use the Master Chief model from Halo but you can't call the game or refer to the name Halo in the game. It also means that you can't create derivative work of Halo assets.

[nugget93]

nice find! but would this only be for Xbox 360 programming?

[Anti-QuickJay]

Nope.

[_dysfunctional]

Does anyone know what model format they use? DirectX models, maybe?

[pspballer07]

Originally Posted by nugget93

nice find! but would this only be for Xbox 360 programming?

sweet
I think its for anything microsoft [like a computer]

[nataku92]

Originally Posted by pspballer07

sweet
I think its for anything microsoft [like a computer]

No, I think you're missing the point. This allows people to use the content from some of microsoft's games for their own uses, anywhere and in any way (with limitations of course).

[Anti-QuickJay]

So I can make a homebrew game with a Master Chief model as long as its not named halo or goes along the line of the story of halo, Correct?

[pspballer07]

Originally Posted by Anti-QuickJay

So I can make a homebrew game with a Master Chief model as long as its not named halo or goes along the line of the story of halo, Correct?

you can make a homebrew game using the halo's assets[like master chief model] and it can be published as long as you include the what they say to[like credits]

[yaustar]

Originally Posted by Anti-QuickJay

So I can make a homebrew game with a Master Chief model as long as its not named halo or goes along the line of the story of halo, Correct?

That is how I am reading it at the moment.

[eldiablov]

hmm interesting move ...

[yaustar]

**** I jumped the gun:

We know that people like you love our games and sometimes want to use things like gameplay footage, screenshots, music, and other elements of our games (“Game Content”) to make things like machinima, videos, and and other cool things (your “Item” or “Items”). We’d like to make that easier for you. So long as you can respect these rules, you can use our Game Content to make your Items.

Either this was added last night or I should heed my own advice in reading. This means that they don't give you access to the assets (i.e. model files) but you can grab screenshots/videos/etc from the game to use. For example, you can make a sprite sheet of Master Chief from screen grabs.

[eldiablov]

meh

[headlesslizard]

Oh thats not so great.

[Raphael]

"Game Content" doesn't exclude the models/textures/etc. used in the game. The only problem is getting the data out of the game (if they're compressed together into a single file/the executable or reversing the file format used to store the data).
Same way an "item" could be your own game (as long as you don't infringe the copyright on the names/other IP that's non-disclosed [which most likely is the engine code itself and the game story]).

BTW: I really like that move of Microsoft. I wish more game companies would open up their game content to hobbyists. If Lucasarts Game content were opened up, I'd already have made a Tie-Fighter/X-Wing clone for PSP :P

[yaustar]

Originally Posted by Raphael

"Game Content" doesn't exclude the models/textures/etc. used in the game. The only problem is getting the data out of the game (if they're compressed together into a single file/the executable or reversing the file format used to store the data).
Same way an "item" could be your own game (as long as you don't infringe the copyright on the names/other IP that's non-disclosed [which most likely is the engine code itself and the game story]).

BTW: I really like that move of Microsoft. I wish more game companies would open up their game content to hobbyists. If Lucasarts Game content were opened up, I'd already have made a Tie-Fighter/X-Wing clone for PSP :P

The part that really confuses me is this:

You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.

So where will the actual assets come from?

[pspballer07]

Originally Posted by yaustar

So where will the actual assets come from?

I guess u have to rip them from the games. For some games it would be harder tho.

[MaTiAz]

Originally Posted by pspballer07

I guess u have to rip them from the games. For some games it would be harder tho.

You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.

[eldiablov]

Originally Posted by yaustar

The part that really confuses me is this:

So where will the actual assets come from?

Exactly ...

With that statement it just voids everything they said in the first place ...

[Raphael]

Humph... either they provide Kits that contain the game data then.... or they're just talking trash.

How is data for Halo for example stored? Zipped .X models and .dds textures? In that case it wouldn't be reverse engineering.

[pspballer07]

Originally Posted by MaTiAz

quote:You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.

what raphael said is what i mean't about using their files. nothing reverse engineering about that

[yaustar]

Originally Posted by pspballer07

what raphael said is what i mean't about using their files. nothing reverse engineering about that

How are you going to get those files? They aren't exactly easily readable discs. Unless you have an official reader (if one exists), you have to use something that has reversed engineered their DVD format to be able to get to the data in the first place.

The assets are probably in some compressed binary format, most likely proprietary format. It wouldn't be that easily readable.

[pspballer07]

Originally Posted by yaustar

How are you going to get those files? They aren't exactly easily readable discs. Unless you have an official reader (if one exists), you have to use something that has reversed engineered their DVD format to be able to get to the data in the first place.

The assets are probably in some compressed binary format, most likely proprietary format. It wouldn't be that easily readable.

well if u install a game onto ur computer, you can easily get the files from where it was installed from. Then do what you want with them, and I'm sure something's in .X format[which u can use]

[yaustar]

Originally Posted by pspballer07

well if u install a game onto ur computer, you can easily get the files from where it was installed from. Then do what you want with them, and I'm sure something's in .X format[which u can use]

That much is true, but I highly doubt that all the assets are in the .X format and more likely they are in a proprietary binary format. Then it comes down to where the line is drawn between conversion and reverse engineering of data formats.