Asset licensing

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Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Asset licensing

Post by Viech »

How to license your assets

In order to be able to ship your work as a part of the game (and attribute you as the author properly), we need you to release it under a free public license that allows distribution and further modification to the general public. In order to do so, just leave a line like this in the relevant thread in the Assets & Artwork section:

This work is licensed under a <license> license, attribute it to <name>.

As the <license>, we prefer one of the following:

You may also choose any newer version of any of these licenses or choose another license that is atleast equally permissive as CC-BY-SA. If you are unsure which license is best, choose CC-BY-SA 3.0 (since it is the least permissive that works for us and you can always decide to release under a more permissive license later on).

There are a few exceptions where we accept a less permissive license:

  • Concept art isn't shipped with the game and doesn't need to be licensed, except when we need to modify or distribute it further (e.g. a logo or promotional material).

  • Artwork that isn't shipped as a part of the main game but downloaded seperately may also choose CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0. This applys to maps and texture sets. However, this license is considered "unfree" by some linux distributions (e.g. Debian), so we can't put any asset with it in the core game if we want it to be packaged inside their official repositories.

As your <name>, you can write your nickname, your full name or both (or whatever else you desire).

Note that by issuing a public license other than CC0, you are not losing copyright over your work, you are just granting certain usage rights to the general public.

If you can, keep the wiki up to date

If you know where in the directory tree your artwork will end up or if you are the person adding something to the game for a release, please update this wiki page. It is currently rather empty but I want it to cover every file shipped with our game at some point, so please help me on this.

Maps have to maintain their own license listing

Maps don't need to be released like this on the forums but have to ship a complete listing of all files inside the map pk3 with their respective license and author. Read the COPYING section of Parpax' readme file for an example:

Code: Select all

about/parpax.txt
layouts/*
levelshots/*
maps/*
scripts/parpax_custom.shader
scripts/parpax_trak4.shader
scripts/parpax_trak5.shader
scripts/parpax.particle
sounds/parpax/crane.wav
sounds/parpax/humming.wav
textures/parpax_custom/*

Author : Maximilian 'Viech' Stahlberg

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

         You may apply (at your opinion) the terms of any later version of
         this license.

Notes  : The turret model which is baked in maps/parpax.bsp is made by Dark
         Legion Development and was licensed under the
         Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Unported License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/)


scripts/parpax_evillair.shader
scripts/parpax_ex.shader
textures/parpax_evillair/*
textures/parpax_ex/*

Author : Yves 'evillair' Allaire (http://evillair.net/)

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)
         
         The author also grants the following modifications:
         - You may edit any shader/material file (.shader/.mtr file) as you
           see fit.
         - You may change the color of any "texturename.blend.tga/.jpg" or
           hue to fit the style of your map.

Notes  : scripts/parpax_ex.shader is a modified .mtr file.

Changes: The .shader files have been merged together and modified by Viech
         eq2_baselt03_blue.jpg is a copy of eq2_baselt03.jpg with modified hue
         eq2_baselt03_blue.blend.jpg is a copy of eq2_baselt03.blend.jpg with modified hue
         eq2_baselt03b_blue.jpg is a copy of eq2_baselt03b.jpg with modified hue
         eq2_baselt03b_blue.blend.jpg is a copy of eq2_baselt03b.blend.jpg with modified hue

Source : http://www.evillair.net/v2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=43


textures/parpax_exm/*

Author : Yves 'evillair' Allaire (http://evillair.net/)
         Modifications by Unvanquished Development (http://unvanquished.net/)

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

         The author granted Unvanquished Development to make derivate works
         of his textures.

         Unvanquished Development claims no copyright for these textures.
         
         If you use them in your own project, atrribute the original author
         but also leave a notice that says that they have been altered with
         his explicit permission.

Changes: The textures in this set are merely mashups of evillairs ex
         textures that should resemble textures in his eq2 set.

Source : http://www.evillair.net/v2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=43


textures/parpax_ydnar/*

Author : Randy 'ydnar' Reddig (http://shaderlab.com/)

License: Usage and redistribution policy: Textures may be freely downloaded,
         modified, and used in free maps, mods or total conversions provided
         this copyright notice is left intact and a link to Shaderlab is
         provided in the credits or read-me file. Other non-commercial
         applications are considered on a case-by-case basis via e-mail. All
         other usage requires written permission. Bulk redistribution or
         archival of the textures in any medium, digital or otherwise
         (except mapping packages for mods) is prohibited.

Source : http://shaderlab.com/slrl/textures/


scripts/parpax_pk01.shader
scripts/parpax_pk02.shader
textures/parpax_philipk/*
textures/parpax_pk01/*
textures/parpax_pk02/*

Author : Philip 'Blazeeer' Klevestav (http://www.philipk.net/)

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

Changes: The textures in parpax_philipk have been converted from bmp to jpg
         by Viech.
         The .shader files have been modified by Viech.

Source : http://www.philipk.net/


textures/parpax_trak4/*
textures/parpax_trak5/*

Author : Georges 'TRaK' Grondin (http://trak.mercenariesguild.net/)

License: MIT("X11") license

Changes: The normal maps (*_local.tga) have been converted by using the
         inverted alpha channel as the blue channel and removing the alpha
         channel. The imagemagick command was:
         convert <old> -channel b -fx "1.0 - u.a*1.0" -alpha off <new>

Source : http://trak.mercenariesguild.net/node/3


sounds/parpax/beep.wav

Author : JustinBW (http://www.justinwasack.com)
 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
 
Source : http://www.freesound.org/people/JustinBW/sounds/70106/


sounds/parpax/elevator_stop.wav
sounds/parpax/elevator.wav

Author : TwistedLemon (www.twistedlemon.nl)
 
License: Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License
         (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/)

Changes: The sample has been cut and slightly modified by Viech

Source : http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=563

If you want to discuss this guideline or its content

Please refer to the discussion thread to keep this thread free of inconsistent instructions. I'm no lawyer, so if my propsed release stances are imprecise or misleading please correct me there, too.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

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