2009-10-03, 12:19 AM
(2009-10-02, 09:09 PM)Holy Diver link Wrote: "Reverse engineer" the game.exe what?? I don't know where people get off tossing shit out there like that... I could probably unravel the animated model format with some coffee and good looking over. You're not going to get anywhere by disassembling an executable etc, but you're welcome to prove me wrong. There isn't much point in "reverse engineering" other than to get some insight into the files (by whatever necromancy you propose) ...it's not like programming it from scratch would be too much trouble. The real value in SoM is license and assets that come with it. The tools themselves only slightly more impressive than the quickly thrown together runtimes.
Would you have been more comfortable with the term 'tracing code' than 'reverse engineering'? I avoid computer geekims and acronyms whenever possible because I'd actually like everybody to be able to grasp the concept of what I am saying. I simply meant that it would be probably be easier to decipher the animation format by tracing the code that processes the MDL files in the exe as opposed to my subject-line suggestion 'to decipher animation by looking at the MDL files themselves'. Translation projects have to 'reverse engineer' programs without the source code all the time; it's usually not that hard, and there are a tremendous number good tools available for doing so on the PC.
In spite of what you say, it is hard to program a functioning game engine from scratch. Feel free to prove me wrong by providing a link to a functioning SoM remake.
The 'assets' that come with SoM have almost no value to me. A lot of them aren't even King's Field related and they are all easy to replicate in well-documented formats for other game engines. My work on SoM is simply a hobby because I like to figure things out, and (in spite of everyone's complaints) SoM is far easier to use, and more feature-filled than any other game-maker program I've seen.
And as far as the license, I suggest you read SoM's EULA before you decide that it grants any license to distribute SoM material- I can almost guarantee you that it doesn't.
So why don't you have that cup of coffee and I'll look for your in-depth report on SoM's animation format in the morning.
