CGTextures VS Open Source

mortalhuman

At CG Textures it says:

It is NOT permitted to:
- Release the Textures or derivative products under Open Source Licences

So, does that actually mean Mass Effect 2 can use them almost exclusively, but my friends and I can't use them in our lin/win game engine?!

Does anyone know alternatives? Because most of us don't even own cameras or know how to do that stuff.

Are we able to use this as long as we say something like "the art is not open source - but the engine is" something like that?

Please help, because, this is pretty sad.

Rhinokey

it means you cant buy them and use them in a project that gives anyone freedom to take the textures from your game and reuse them skipping cgtextures, perhaps you could contact cgtextures and ask them for details, and explain your situation, it could be enough to state in the games eula that art is not opensource.

mortalhuman

I was saying the same thing, our lead programmer is very dead-set on the art being open source (for some reason) on one hand, I support it, on the other hand, I find it kind of funny to imagine who would actually model a bit gta-style open world open source.

I am thinking about starting an open source cg textures. Would anyone in polycount help? It would be exactly like CGtextures, without rules like those. There would be no restraints on use, only on quotas, people who want to download a lot will simply help to keep the site alive with a premium account.

Anyone like this?

We need some place to source for our textures that isn't against its users :x

commander_keen

Generally when you use photo source in a texture you should be able to show the texture to the person who took the photo(s) and ask them if the image looks familiar and they should say no. If that is the case then you have nothing to worry about

mortalhuman

is that like, that is "standing" per say?

The concern is this: Does that test of visual appearance apply legally, for certain? Our SVN is at SourceForge, and we hope to also be in APT one day and other package repositories, and also to be able to say "If you dont want to make art, you can make just the roads and unique buildings and make open source games from what we built here too - common assets are community use".

If we pull a rust layer from a CGtextures image and use it to put streaks on our metal or whatever, is it still a CGtexture?

Or, as it seems implied, can we literally use those with no worries about C&D's or becoming endangered at SF etc?

I found a lot of tex from there in commercial games, but those are not open source. As long as it isn't the original image, it is okay?

Rhinokey

i dont see an issue then, you want opensource art, they dont allow it, so you either be a crook and do it anyways, or find some other place to get your textures,

I'm still confused what mass effect had to do in your first post, since the issue you are facing is wanting to release the art opensource.

r_fletch_r

If your final textures are at the point that keen describes then you should contact them and ask for permission. You might find that they are just trying to stop folks from repackaging their work with minimal changes and giving it away for free. Im pretty sure once the textures are beyond the point of directly being reusable they might be more flexable.

mortalhuman

They are awesome, and Rhino about ME2 I mean they can be sold altered, but we cant make a game with them that we probably could sell one day but choose not to. It's just major butthurt and kink in our path, that's all :P

We threw around the idea of contacting them, I would like sort of proudly link them in our technologies links and credit them fully even. We're not just cropping these things and passing them off either, so they will look totally different. But we want to be on the up about things, and A LOT of people rely on that site for obscure or quality elements.

Will probably drop a mail, we might start an open source library similar, but it would still be nice to get the clearance to allow those to be contributed.

I mean, how will we have a game dev community/launchpad without being able to source from a major source? I don't even know that this even counts as denied by their license. Wish us luck :P