how does one become standalone?

[snb]

how do you get your mod to stand alone status?  Ive searched on google and ask but they don't tell me a thing about it but I really want to know.  I want to see how other mods can become stand alone.

[Archangel]

by not relying on the program the mod is based on. usually only possible if the engine is open source, or is licensed

[mooseberry]

Aka. You don't need to have the game the mod was orginaly based on in order to play. For example if you needed q3 to play tremulous, it would not be stand alone.

[snb]

yes but how exactly do you make your mod run from it own engine?  I'm kind of confused on how they manage that

[player1]

yes but how exactly do you make your mod run from it own engine?  I'm kind of confused on how they manage that

It still "runs" from the same "engine", more or less. It's just that now it's cool to use that engine, without using the game that it was designed to drive. So they haven't taken the engine away (in fact, they really just took the other game away). It's just that you no longer need to also have Quake 3 installed for it to work. You may want to look up "open source" in your own language. Take a look at the following four definitions, and then do a little research about Quake.

Also, it may be easier for you to think of it like this. Say you buy a car because you really like the engine (maybe it's an old 327 or something). But you hate the body. So you tear off the body, and chop the frame, and completely modify the vehicle until it looks completely different. Now when you drive it down the street, nobody can recognize it. But still, the same engine is making it go, with minor changes, while, appearance-wise, it is a radically different-looking thing. A somewhat oversimplified analogy, but I hope it helps.

Cheers!

ioquake3
Open source
Source code
Human-readable

P.S. Tremulous doesn't really have it's "own" engine. It's just that id software made it cool to make a game using the Quake 3 engine without also having to install the game of Q3a. It's not standalone from the engine, so much as it is standalone from the game the engine was originally made for.

P.P.S. I highly recommend Google & wikipedia. While not the be-all and end-all of information resources, they are both quite useful for at least getting a general background on any particular subject.

P.P.S.S. And take any advice about deleting system folders with due skepticism.

[snb]

THANK YOU!! This will definitely help me.

P.P.S.S. And take any advice about deleting system folders with due skepticism.

Yeah I was thinking that was a load of bull when I saw it.

[Hendrich]

Take note that some games like Gloom or Vortex uses the Quake 2 engine. What they did is use the free to copy and distributable Q2 demo, stuck their mod in it and sent it as a "stand-alone" package, which still uses Quake 2 in a way. This way the modders doesn't have to go through the process of getting a license for the engine or make the mod stand-alone within the game. I've seen a few games do this with demos, so optionally you can do that, if the authors said it's alright to do it in the first place.

Anyways, why do you want to know this snb? Is it because of curiosity?

[snb]

I wanted to make my mod standalone, but its on halflife2 and I haven't seen many standalone halflife mods.

[Annihilation]

To become standalone you have to buy a house and remove all connections with your parents.

[Plague Bringer]

I wanted to make my mod standalone, but its on halflife2 and I haven't seen many standalone halflife mods.

To be standalone you need to recompile the engine with all custom assets. You probably can't go standalone with Half Life since it's closed source, but this wouldn't be the place to ask.

[player1]

Or, to restate that: You would either need to wait until HL2 becomes open source (if ever), OR take all of your modifications, and apply them to an engine which is either open source, or not directly related to a speific game.

[Hendrich]

Player1 is right actually, the old Half-life made in 1998 isn't even open-sourced, since its selling well, even better then some of the most recent games today. Unless you pay for the engine (For Source, it will probably be $20,000 right there xD) I'm pretty sure theres no chance your mod could be stand-alone on source.

[Archangel]

HL1 is GoldSrc, which isn't used at Valve anymore.

[Hendrich]

HL1 is GoldSrc, which isn't used at Valve anymore.

I know that, but whats your point?

[Plague Bringer]

It might be cheaper and easier to get permissions since it's not an engine that's used very commercially, or that has new games on production call for it.

[Hendrich]

It might be cheaper and easier to get permissions since it's not an engine that's used very commercially, or that has new games on production call for it.

Ah, I see his point now, but the question is if the GoldSource engine is for sale, which I see no reason for Valve to decline an offer for the out-dated engine. But snb is talking about the Source engine, which is totally different then Gold Source. Maybe if snb takes his mod, scraps it, then re-makes it for HL1 and pays for the engine, it could work. But thats alot fo work to do, which makes it unlikely for him to do so.

[kevlarman]

It might be cheaper and easier to get permissions since it's not an engine that's used very commercially, or that has new games on production call for it.

Ah, I see his point now, but the question is if the GoldSource engine is for sale, which I see no reason for Valve to decline an offer for the out-dated engine. But snb is talking about the Source engine, which is totally different then Gold Source. Maybe if snb takes his mod, scraps it, then re-makes it for HL1 and pays for the engine, it could work. But thats alot fo work to do, which makes it unlikely for him to do so.

just because the engine is outdated doesn't mean licenses are cheap, id charges something like 10k for non-gpl licenses to its old engines.

[Plague Bringer]

Cheap, in comparison to an engine that is currently being used commercially.