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Far Cry Source Code Leaks Online (eurogamer.net) 23

Source code for the original Far Cry, released back in 2004, has popped up online. From a report: Entitled "Far Cry 1.34 Complete", the game's code was uploaded to the internet archive site Archive.org at the end of June, as highlighted by well-known modder Vinicius Medeiros It's unclear if the code includes any subsequent patches -- although the .34 part of the 1.34 title certainly suggests so -- and some commenters who've presumably downloaded and run the code believe the code is "not complete, but close."
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Far Cry Source Code Leaks Online

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  • by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 ) on Monday July 03, 2023 @06:08PM (#63654578)
    I'm convinced that the ports for Quake and subsequent ID Software games to IRIX and Linux helped them build a lot of street cred and made them popular in some unlikely spaces that have only helped them since. If someone does the same with Far Cry, not only will I play it on my Tezro I'll have a lot of intangible warm and fuzzy feelings toward the franchise.
    • I don't know how much those things actually helped Quake, although I thought they were very cool and I personally played Quake on Linux, so it was important to me. But what definitely did help Quake (etc.) was the source releases that made both complex mods and TCs and also restoration project-type engines which came out much later. When that kind of stuff comes out for your old games, people tend to think that they might also be able to get them for your new ones, so they're more willing to invest in your

    • If someone does the same with Far Cry, not only will I play it on my Tezro I'll have a lot of intangible warm and fuzzy feelings toward the franchise.

      Are you judging the quality of games based on if the source is leaked and if a Linux port exists? Then by all means feel warm and fuzzy towards Far Cry. It's run on Linux for a while now. Gold compatibility rating on ProtonDB for SteamOS (Arch Linux)

      But that's a strange thing to do. I don't think being able to play Farcry on Linux makes it any less boring to play.

      • It seems quite reasonable to judge them based on the number of playable maps and amount of player modded content.

      • Playing something using Proton Windows emulation and playing a native port are different experiences and have a different impact on folks who care. You don't care, that's fine. Some of us do. I care more about operating systems than games. So, a native port is a feather in the cap of that OS (and stuff like Proton surely counts too, on it's own merits). Due to my low interest and low participation in gaming, I'd often play a game simply because it's easily accessible on that platform, such as Quake 3 for IR
    • The leak of a recent version of Far Cry might hurt the owners and the franchise somehow, the leak of the very first version I doubt. That code is ancient by videogame standards. I doubt there's anything in there that could help other game studios.
      • I agree, but that wasn't really what I was trying to get at. I don't think a code leak will move gaming technology forward. As you point out, things are significantly further along nowadays than the tech in FC1. However, what it does do is give the game and modder community a lot more staying power and generate some "local interest" with OS enthusiasts.
  • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday July 03, 2023 @06:50PM (#63654640)
    I can see high school kids downloading this, playing with it, and forging future careers. I can't see how this hurts the publisher in any way. If 20 year old tricks and tips to optimize the hardware is where you've put the laurels you're gonna rest on then, well, those laurels dried up and blew away 15 years ago.

    I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
    • There's really no need. Anyone can legally download and play around with the tools and source for the latest Unreal or Unity engines for free, and start building your own projects. Or there are decent open source game engines available as well, like Godot. Lots of free content packs, tutorials. And what you learn is going to be more relevant than trying to get a 20 year old project to compile and run.

      • At least for me just being given some tools isn't the same than opening up a thing that actually works and figuring out what it does. Someone already created that game, you can learn from what they did instead of starting from scratch and stumbling towards maybe being able to create something on your own. People who learn anything, usually learn with established works and take them apart. That's how it works.
        • At least for me just being given some tools isn't the same than opening up a thing that actually works and figuring out what it does.

          Except this isn't a thing that actually works (it's not complete) and it's super outdated so some of the techniques will learn won't even be applicable to modern software.

        • I think it would be incredibly difficult to get a 20 year old large-scale AAA project up and building again. That's mostly because the build process for games are always a custom, fragile nightmare, relying on a hodge-podge of scripts, compilers, libraries and APIs, custom tools, exporters, data conversion utilities, etc. It's hard enough to keep things running smoothly during development, let alone recreate it decades later.

          The thing is, if you don't get the complete data-centric build pipeline working,

      • Anyone _with enough talent_ can so. I've known a few distinct "basement modders" in my time, none of them made a living. I don't know any that ever moved out of their mom's basement. Part of it is the social contacts more successfulkids made at college, and part of it was learning about the theory and structure to complete projects with a budget.

  • But not a far cry from close, I presume.

  • A great game I remember playing very fondly, especially on the harder difficulty settings. Extremely overdue for a remaster IMHO. I don't claim to know the details but I've been told that such a remaster is highly unlikely due to complex ownership of the FarCry IP between Crytek, EA and Ubisoft. Maybe this source leak might grease the wheels on a community effort to update and re-release this classic game?
  • The difference between man and ape is less than a 1.2% variation in DNA material.
    Also "not complete, but close".
    But that difference gave us Einstein, Bach, Rembrandt, Escher, Steve Jobs, Terry Fox, and so on.

An adequate bootstrap is a contradiction in terms.

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