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- DM> While I have no problem with the sources being badly (or not at
- DM> all) commented (I do the same myself far too often), not having the
- DM> them available in _any_ form is of course totally unacceptable.
-
- You have to remember that no useful information on Doom's texturemapping
- techniques has been made available to me, and I have been unable to find
- this information myself in any of the documentation supplied by friends or
- found in various PC literature. My only alternative is to employ techniques
- I have developed on my own - for other projects - in order to get Bad Mood
- into a state where people can see what kind of potential is available here
- through the Falcon.
-
-
- The techniques involved are my own work, and do not belong in the public
- domain in any form. I make my living from the techniques I develop & the
- programs which use them and I see no reason for handing them out to all and
- sundry. I believe that you have taken this point of view for certain
- efforts of your own and the argument is no less valid from my own
- standpoint.
-
-
- If somebody can find a useful description of the formulae and approach
- employed by Doom to deal with this problem, then I will be happy to replace
- my code with a DSP version of those routines. Until then I'm hanging onto
- the source.
-
-
- Aside from the above (and assuming I do make the DSP sources available), I
- don't believe it is wise to have others modify the code. It's not like a
- nice clear 'c' or basic program with nice tidy functions - it consists of
- broken down mathematical formulae and very complicated linked list
- structures - all in DSP assembly with up to 3 separate threads per line.
- Changing these an any way without a near complete understanding of what's
- going on in there leads to an abrupt loss of Falcon doom. It would be
- possible to rewrite large chunks of the code if you were very careful, but
- it would be easier to start from scratch.
-
-
- What I don't want to see is people meddling with it and then complaining
- about 'bits missing' on the display or 'occasional crashing' and so on.
- What happens here is I get loads of E-mail to the effect that my code has
- lots of bugs and that I need to fix them soon. In other words, as soon as
- people start editing the DSP code, I am no longer responsible for what goes
- wrong - and refuse to maintain, repair or upgrade it afterwards.
-
-
- DM> That may be, but having only one person in the world capable of
- DM> improving/ extending the code or fixing bugs is a _lot_ worse.
-
- I'm afraid that depends on what the code does. With this particular one,
- there's a much greater chance that it will get worse rather than get
- better. I already find it difficult enough to maintain myself, and I'm just
- astonished I got certain bits working at all.
-
-
- This is not what's keeping me from releasing the sources, but it does tend
- to put me off the idea.
-
-
- DM> Apart from that, it goes against the whole original idea of the
- DM> project: to create something that could be worked on by anyone,
- DM> anywhere, at any time.
-
- This I completely agree with, but I'm not prepared to release key parts of
- that code onto the PD. If I can replace them with the original methods,
- then I'll be happy to release the DSP sources. Ok?
-
-
- DM> Comments can be added over time by people who examine the code.
-
- And I hate to think what those comments might be... :)
-
- DM> Doing it to the original sources will be a lot easier than trying
- DM> to do the same with a straight disassembly, which _will_ be supplied
- DM> if the sources are not.
-
- Threatening to disassemble something against the programmer's will is
- definitely not the answer. The prospect of this alone would be enough to
- get most people really upset, most probably yourself included. :)
-
-
- Besides, do you really think that I would supply sensitive data in a form
- from which it could easily be disassembled? And it's worth noting that
- fragmented assembly language versions of mathematical formulae which
- include everything from scalar relationships to calculus isn't exactly
- going to jump off the page, begging for a description. No - the only useful
- DSP sources which will become available are those which will reflect the
- true Doom equations and methods, which I do not yet have.
-
-
- I have heard that the DEE team are prepared to share some of their secrets
- with us, maybe even some source. This would be a great place to start if we
- are to find these methods and implement them quickly.
-
-
- Doug.
-
- ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
- | Black Scorpion Software / Falcon040 ~ 4MbSRam ~ 16MbFRam ~ Expose ~:) |
- ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
- | Doug Little ~ Neil Stewart ~ Dave Murphy ~ Nick Hesketh ~ Dave Encill |
- └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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