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Dinir/Streamliner_Going_CloseSource.md

Created July 31, 2022 05:42
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Announcement of the cessation of the open source aspect of Streamliner, the custom hud for BallisticNG.
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Streamliner_Going_CloseSource.md

The BallisticNG code mod, Streamliner, was previously licensed under OSL-3.0 up to 1.2.10. Because not being able to get any help at all from the official discord server was really frustrating, and I didn't want that to happen again to anyone who wants to start making a custom hud. I thought having more publicly available source codes from more custom huds would help with that, so I wanted to state my intention with a license I carefully chose.1

One day, a member of the BallisticNG community sent me a DM, saying a friend of his wants to get permission to look at and use a part of my code that handles the hud motion for a custom hud the friend is making. I explained to him the license and the conditions for using my code. He then revealed that the friend is the guy working on WTRP, and it's likely that he won't make the source code public.

I still wanted to be a help, even though WTRP takes the exact opposite of the intention I have. Because not knowing how to do a cool thing while there are people who can do it always made me so sad. And my hud is a movement trying to break the knowledge inequality.

There is a way to do that while satisfying the intention of both sides at the same time.2 I pondered about what I should do the whole day and came out with a solution. I will update the hud motion code linkable. When that's done, WTRP can use that, and I won't ask the developers to disclose the source code.

He then replied:
He doesn't get it.
The guy just wants to look at and use the code, I don't really need to do any work myself.
And the guy just wanted permission.

I saw the first DM in the morning and responded to them in the night. When I got the replies, I felt that I could've done so much better things this whole day. They were ignoring what I was saying the whole time.

WTRP is the biggest and the most popular mod in the community. It is also known for the developers trying to keep everything as hidden as possible.

They are also a creator of a mod.
They also have the intention/stance they set and want others to respect.
The guy also frequently rants about how people never read readme files.

Yet they contacted me ignoring every right and intention I expressed.

I made this mod.
I want others to respect my decision on spreading the birth of more open-source mods.
This was all mentioned in my readme file on the repository.

I turned down their request on using my code. But since the responses I got were so heartbreaking, I couldn't stop thinking about what they would do.

Would the refusal really make any difference? My source code is publicly available on my repository. I even made detailed documenting comments along with that part of the code.

They can just copy the code from there. They can make it better in their adaptation, and how it could be done will be never shared. And when I was still in the discord server, I saw them bad-mouthing others a lot, sometimes even from a wrong accusation that they never apologized for afterwards. This could be the start of me getting treated the same in that server, an official server of the game I love.

Enough paranoia, but I do need to keep my peace of mind. If something is disrupting it, I need to cut that off from me. To me, in this case, was dropping the license, OSL-3.0. My source code is not available in public anymore. It applies from the next version after 1.2.10.

But I still want to keep my intention and help others to get over the knowledge inequality, with what I can. I will start writing a guide on going through everything I made for the hud.

I don't know how long it will take to finish it. It might be cancelled if I lose my passion for the game, which I am already having a hard time holding tight, knowing that most of the WTRP team are also closely connected to the official game development.

If I manage to finish and publish it, that will compensate for the now lack of the source code.

If not, that's what you get for being interested in a game the official community of is like this. At least I can say with confidence that I tried my best, for what is basically returning nothing.

Footnotes

  1. The license allows using any parts of my codes adapted for your work, under the condition of licensing the work under the same license, which also requires you to disclose its source code. OSL 3.0 § 1(c) ↩

  2. The license also says that if your code uses my codes as is, your code is not subject to the license. OSL 3.0 § 1(a), 1(b), and 1(c) Explained ↩

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