rec.autos.simulators

...there's an idea that I still have yet to hear anyone mention.  Open
GPL up!  Take after the FPS market and release the source code an possibly
an SDK.  It seems that we certainly have enough talented programmers in
the simracing communtity that we could wind up with all sorts of nifty
modifications.  Papyrus has always been at the cutting edge and this seems
to be a logical step forward in the evolution of racing sims.
  As far as the financials go, do you honestly think QuakeII would still
be on the shelves if it weren't for all the tweaks and mods available for
it?  In this day and age, opening a game up can only increase its
longevity and long term sales.  Also, the Sierra suits already approved
Valve opening up Half-Life so there is some precedent within the company.
  Just curious what everybody else's thoughts were on this.

--
                    | "Instead of letting the moon be the
Bill Mette          |  gateway to our future, we have let
Enteract, Chicago   |  it become a brief chapter in our

There was no question of "the Sierra suits" not allowing the source to be
open as Valve always wanted this and would have had it in the contract
(Valve are not owned by Sierra in any way).

M

3.enteract.com>:

Quake/Quake2/Shogo/Unreal/et al did NOT open their code up to open source
code.  All they did was expose either an API (Shogo/Quake2) or a scripting
language (Quake, Unreal, Tribes, et al) that the end-users could customize
the game in a limited manner.

Nonetheless, perhaps information on how to create new cars and tracks is
more appropriate.  I know people have gleaned a lot but its not all perfect
and to have that open might lead to some interesting uses for GPL.