Dune2 music

Davidu · January 13, 2006

Oh, come on!

If any problems rise... just say that you were making the game for you... and that's it. You were just consulting with some friends over the internet. That's all. Right?

And besides, what are the odds for all the copyright sh*t to come down over you? I think they have bigger fish to fry than a free Dune2 MOD. Like pirating... And besides... as we are the site that the Westwood page directs to, and after all the fuss we make (mails to BH, mails to reques Dune1/2 code, etc) I think they might just know it by now.

It is however irrelevant. You do not threaten their financial empire with your enthusiasm in remaking Dune2. If you'd be advertising on how to get Emperor for free or for less than EA's price, then you'd be in real trouble... not if you use 12 year old graphis. So relax.

stefanhendriks · January 14, 2006

perhaps the people of freecraft can explain WHY they where 'asked' to shut down the project...

i am not saying it will happen, but knowing a company with principles ;)

Davidu · January 15, 2006

Freecraft?

stefanhendriks · January 15, 2006

Freecraft was a remake of Warcraft 2 afaik. They got sued, Freecraft was taken down.

Davidu · January 15, 2006

Ooops.

Well then, just don't advertise it.

vidiware · January 15, 2006

At least Blizzard told them to shut the project down and told them that they would bring it to the court. The problem is though, that a small freeware project doesn't have enough money to fight a industry gigant, even if the law is on their side.

stefanhendriks · January 16, 2006

even if law is (partially) on their side, blizzard will just hire far better (and more expensive) lawyers to win this case.

dvalin · January 16, 2006

"Den som oversetter eller bearbeider et

stefanhendriks · January 16, 2006

let me quote a mail (entirely, but no mail header..)

Dear Mr. Hendriks,
During the course of last week you have repeatedly contacted Electronic Arts Inc. by email on the matter of the Dune II source code. Electronic Arts Inc.
has now asked me to respond on their behalf. I will refer to Electronic Arts Inc. hereafter as "EA".
I understand that you wish to create your own Dune-clone and publish it on the Internet. To this effect, you have developed a game engine based on graphics used in the original Dune II game. You have obtained these graphics by extracting them from the original game. To further develop and extend your clone, you wish to use the Dune II source code. Therefore, you have asked EA to provide you with such.
Be advised that your actions thusfar, as well as your further intentions, are illegal under Dutch copyright law.
The Dune II software is a copyrighted work. This includes the software in source code format. EA holds all intellectual property rights, including all copyrights, in and to the Dune II software. As a consequence, EA is exclusively entitled to publish and reproduce the software, wholly or partially. Reproducing also includes the creation of (partial) adaptions of the software. This is called a derivative work. Anyone wishing to publish or reproduce the Dune II-software requires the permission of EA.
The clone you have developed, and further intend to develop is a derivative work. Creating and publishing such a work is subject to permission by EA.
Furthermore I wish to stress that the concept of "abandonware" has no legal meaning whatsoever. The fact that software is in your mind "outdated" or no longer actively distributed does not imply that it has become free for anyone to use, adapt or exploit. In this particular case, EA holds all intellectual property rights in and to the Dune II software until well into the future. It has no intention of relinquishing any right thereto.
EA will not give you permission to use (any part of) the Dune II source code. (They appreciate that you have shared your intentions with them.) However, they do urge you to refrain from further pursuing them.
Yours sincerely,
Jan Kniipscheer
Attorney

This mail is pretty old already (24-2-2003), but here you have all the answers you need.

Davidu · January 17, 2006

So, if you had that mail for so long, why are we having this discussion? ;D

stefanhendriks · January 17, 2006

i did not start it ;) And i expressed my opinion over and over again, there is no 'copyright' stuff we can just take and make ours...

ShaiWa · January 17, 2006

Some words about the .xmi format... with awave studio the structure of the xmi file will be more clear i think.

Yes,.. within the xmi file there can be more xmi files. This format is also known as the "Miles sound system" or "eXtended MIdi file" (as far i figured it out)

So the files i've extracted are ".c55 or .xmi file name" + "track number within that file (does not have to start from zero)"

( http://www.fmjsoft.com/awframe.html )

Davidu · January 17, 2006

This copyright sh*t is too much anyway. Just another way to make money.

It started as an idea... to protect the inventions and creations and now... theypick on everything even if it is not produced to gain money.

vidiware · January 17, 2006

Let us just forget the copyright thing... and talk about music instead.

Once I contacted RAD Game Tools (wich are the current owners/distributors of miles sound system). They were not able to help me as they told the xmi files used a non-standard way to handle the format. (If i remember correctly it uses one "song" for every instrument instead of all instruments in one "song" as multiple tracks. This makes the original game play +/- 10 songs pr. music sequense (all instrument-"songs" within one xmi file).

dvalin · January 18, 2006

It seems like the exult project has implemented a xmi converter in their project:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/exult

Maybe someone could create a standalone xmi2mid converter based on their code?

:)

Borg Number One · January 31, 2006

Hi dvalin.

I am really surprised, that you do/did not know the XMI format. :)

The XMI format is a MIDI-format which was used in maaaany DOS ( and some Windows Games), like:

+ The Settlers (1/2) ["Die Siedler 1/2"]

+ WarCraft 1/2 (take "Wardraft" to unpack the in-game container files)

+ The 7th guest

+ ...

Furthermore the XMI format has some "special features"[...] (loops and other interesting stuff).

The problem:

Nearly each game, which uses XMI files also uses instrument patches which will be loaded before the music will be played.

So, the XMI files which will be played with Winamp's MIDI Plug-in or other XMI player software sounds (slightly) different than the original music which was played through the game's

xmi playing and instrument patching routines.

Before you convert XMI to MID it is necessary to know the instrumentation which is used in the game's instrument patches.

Depending on which soundcard or music/MIDI device was setup in Dune II ' s configuration,

different music/MIDI files (.c55, .xmi, .adl, .pcs) from the Dune II "sound.pak" container file will be used.

Furthermore, we need an easy and fast possibility/utility which is able to find the exact XMI patches/ exact instrumentation in Dune II and an utility which applies the exact instrumentation to the converted MID files.

dvalin · February 6, 2006

Hi!

Well, to figure out the best instruments will be a second problem that I don't see as that big, for Dune Legacy we use TiMidity++ to convert the files to Ogg Vorbis format with the GUS patches for timidity which are in the public domain, the result is quite good actually :)

The exult projects (http://sourceforge.net/projects/exult) has code for xmi conversion, so maybe someone could pick up the code from there and create a stand alone utility which we all can use?

WDYT?

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