sms code public domain?

Jontan · Post by **Jontan** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:41 pm

Hi,

For my engines that are bound for public release I'm stuck with the scotsman sms files, using them to alias to the scotsman sounds (cept whistle and bell) so they're ready to run without having to download additional files.
Not wanting to infringe on copyrights I stay with using default MSTS sounds but I get sick of the chuff rate not being right for my engines, I'd like to have the chuff like the K36's that sync to wheel rotation but using the sms code isn't possible as it's copyrighted, same goes for features like random compressor beats, etc.

What I want to know is, is it realy possible to copyright the sms file code, well except for Kuju/M$? With me not being able to figure out how to add these features properly without nicking someone elses code I'm stuck using the basic scotsman sms files. And that gets tiresome real quickly.

Couldn't there be, say, a public domain database for various sms tags and streams availible for anyone to use to customize their sms files? It would make it alot easier. Now, I could ofcourse go down on my knees and ask if I can use others code but that won't do, I like my models to be independednt of others materials.

/Jonatan

scefhwil · Post by **scefhwil** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:22 pm

Jontan wrote:What I want to know is, is it realy possible to copyright the sms file code, well except for Kuju/M$?

Are you asking if you can plagiarise sound sets that have been released as freeware?

Jontan wrote:Couldn't there be, say, a public domain database for various sms tags and streams availible for anyone to use to customize their sms files? It would make it alot easier.

Well, yes, but who do you think is going to be willing to create it for you?

Jontan wrote:Now, I could ofcourse go down on my knees and ask if I can use others code but that won't do, I like my models to be independednt of others materials.

Go down on your knees? Is that what you consider politely asking permission to use someone else's work amounts to?

Now let me ask you this. Are your texture and shape files going to be released as public domain? So that sound creaters can do what they like to them then make them available with their sound sets without any acknowledgement of your original efforts?

Jontan · Post by **Jontan** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:31 pm

*sigh* Ok just forget I said anything, damn. My posts are waste of bandwidth anyway with me being a half arsed drunk at the keyboard.

/Jonatan

hollywood1340 · Post by **hollywood1340** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:04 am

I've wondered this as well. Say I do a full on 'my' version of an existing engine, using TGAtool and the like, redo the .eng file, and trick it out with the sounds I think it should make, cobbling it together from various stock. What does it take to release it, if I wanted to? Stuart, your sound system is brilliant, and sits on many of my engines. If I wanted to release an engine with your work as it's base sound set, what would it take? Not that I'm about to release any of my tweaks mind you, just curious.

Jontan · Post by **Jontan** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:26 pm

OK, I'm back now, with a fresh hangover and a little pissy mood. All I can say is, when I'm dunk, I don't think, and when I don't think I write this kinda I did yesterday.
So lesson to all of you, when being drunk, don't even turn on your computer. :drinking:

/Jonatan

dforrest · Post by **dforrest** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:58 pm

Jonatan, I had a look at your web site and like "sears". Can I have your permissions to use it as a freight animation in some of my crew downloads? Full credit will obviously be given to you.

David

Jontan · Post by **Jontan** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:52 pm

Why ofcourse. <3 The more Sears clones that get out there the faster I can conquer the world! >=D

/Jonatan

CaptainBazza · Post by **CaptainBazza** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:07 am

Nothing really to you prevent you tweaking the .sms because the code/language is proprietry to Kuju. Obviously the code/language is free to use, otherwise MSTS would go nowhere. You can manipulate the language until you achieve the desired result even if it looks like something that someone else has done, which is probable given there is a limit to the number workable sound configurations you can have.

I believe the relationships between modeller, sound editor and cabview makers is symbiotic; we need each other in order to present users with a good end product.

However, copyrighted sound files are a different story.

We certainly have to acknowledge scefhwil's valuable contribution to making the sim sound as close to reality as the sim mechanism allows. Who can forget the horrors of the original default steamers unsync'd soundsets.

Cheers n regards
Bazza

CaptainBazza · Post by **CaptainBazza** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:09 am

Jon, lay off the Turborg, it's got a kick like a drunken mule.....

Cheers Bazza

PS Carlsburg? :drinking:

DarwinS · Post by **DarwinS** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:24 am

As Captain Bazza says

We certainly have to acknowledge scefhwil's valuable contribution to making the sim sound as close to reality as the sim mechanism allows. Who can forget the horrors of the original default steamers unsync'd soundsets.

He is also most generous with allowing variations if you ask him nicely. (Many thanks are due to Stuart and to Dave Bran for sounds that go with my HR locos.)

I thought that was the whole idea of a "community" that we share each others offerings (with permission and due acknowledgement as appropriate).

Anyway I am inherently lazy, I wouldn't make anything if someone else would make it for me (

thanks demonshadow

thanks J A Scott

thanks Dave Bran:) ) but I end up making things for MSTS simply because no one else has made the things I want!

CaptainBazza · Post by **CaptainBazza** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 9:21 am

...but I end up making things for MSTS simply because no one else has made the things I want!

Darwin's Origin of the Trains? I hear and agree wid ya, although once I build 'em I move quickly onto the next modeling project. Do you make 'em for the sake of the making or the running?

Cheers Bazza

Jontan · Post by **Jontan** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:30 pm

Yeah I make stuff I want too so we all agree there. But I prolly won't release it, you know, fear of infringing copyright and all that. =o

But my original post wasn't about stealing sound files, but simply copying and using sms tags. The code in sms, cab, wag or eng files can't be copyrighted other than by M$/Kuju so it is basicly public domain for all users of MSTS, so why not a database with generic sms code tags?
Like at the steam4me site for example, all the current sms tags for bells, whistles, airpumps, brake squeal, etc etc could be stored for everyone to use. The actual sound files would then ofcourse be provided by whoever makes his/hers own soundset, iether for private use or release.

I make my own sounds for each of my locos for my own use with sounds I find on the net, other sets or myself, but I don't release them for obvious reasons ohnoes.

The flickering firebox in all my engines, that was originally just a copy of what I found in an eng file of an engine way back. I just studied the code and mimiced it, does that make me a crook? No, because it's just an idea. Who knows how many have done that before whatever author of that engine did.
I'm sure people use bits and pieces of my works too, that doesn't bother me as long as you don't sell it.

I still think that users copyrighting the games script code is pure bull. Sound, textures and shape files I can understand but not script code that's used by everybody, it isn't yours anyways. It is iether everybodys or nobodys...

/Jonatan

Atomic Systems

sms code public domain?

sms code public domain?

Re: sms code public domain?