Creative Labs Patent & DOOM 3
In case you were looking for a reason to get out some angst Creative Labs looks like a
good target today. Here's a quote from John Carmack giving a little insight into why the
deal that id Software struck with Creative recently. Seems It wasnt just a happy happy
deal but Creative actually forced the issue. If you're looking for a good summary of wtf
this means, take a look at this post.
396 Comments
The patent situation well and truly sucks.
We were prepared to use a two-pass algorithm that gave equivalent results at a speed hit, but we negotiated the deal with Creative so that we were able to use the zfail method without having to actually pay any cash. It was tempting to take a stand and say that our products were never going to use any advanced Creative/3dlabs products because of their position on patenting gaming software algorithms, but that would only have hurt the users.
John Carmack
Thanks stelth.
1. Creative and Carmack had discussed a method of shadowing... it became a "standard" and is used alot in 3d engines afaik.
2. Creative publically released info on it, then ran out and patented it.
3. Creative pushes legal action against id Software to remove said method. id software negotiated to allow Creative to incorporate their 3d sound tech into future Doom3 engine licenses.
in other words, Creative fucks Carmack, Carmack takes the bullet by striking the deal so the end user is safe.
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