MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: Doom 3 source released

> > Doom 3's inner workings were ready to go at the start of the month, but last-minute
> > legal issues temporarily held up its release - Carmack was forced to re-write some
> of
> > the code to placate "skittish" lawyers nervous about the release of a particular
> > section.
> >
> > Re-write code? Or remove some uh, colorful comments?
>
> It was some patent issue. He and someone at Creative Labs supposedly independently
> came up with some rendering technique, and Creative patented it. They cut a deal that
> they wouldn't bother him about the patent, and he'd put in a good word for some of
> their hardware. His lawyers wanted the code affected by the patent removed from the
> open-source release.
The issue more specifically is the "Carmack's Reverse"/"depth fail" method for rendering fast dynamic shadows.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_volume#Depth_fail
His solution to the patent issue was to completely remove that code from the game; hence, the open-source version has no dynamic shadows AT ALL.

LN

"When life gives you zombies... *CHA-CHIK!* ...you make zombie-ade!"