Blitz3D-V1.114 now available and MORE!
(Note: Blitz3D-V1.114.zip has been updated to Blitz3D-V1.115.zip, please use this instead!)
IMPORTANT!
It turns out that the FMOD audio engine included in Blitz3D still requires a license to use in certain situations.
This was not my understanding when I initially added FMOD to the repository, which I believe was done with the full understanding and agreement of the FMOD author. However, no 'paperwork' was ever involved, so the exact legal situation regarding FMOD and it's use with Blitz3D products has perhaps understandably been a cause of confusion over the years.
So I recently contacted the author of FMOD about this issue, and the bottom line is that FMOD 3 *is* still proprietary and may only be used under the following terms:
I am disappointed by this, as it was always my intention that 'github' Blitz3D would be completely free to use, without any licensing headaches etc. Furthermore, this is what I have been *telling* people all this time, and while I do believe I had very reasonable grounds for thinking so, it's a bummer to think I've been misleading people. I mentioned this to the FMOD author and he's OK with an amnesty for people who have used FMOD in Blitz3D products in the past without realizing there was a licensing problem, so at least this is only an issue for Blitz3D/FMOD users going forward.
Anyway, having taken all my Blitz3D (and BlitzPlus) sites private while all this has been going on, about yesterday lunchtime I got a bit bored and decided to have a quick look at what would be involved in porting the audio stuff I have done in LibSGD using the SoLoud audio API to Blitz3D, and by about 5 o'clock it was sort of done - well, the 3d stuff took about as long again, and wont ever work *quite* the same. It should make a decent 'free' alternative to FMOD IMO. Forunately, the Blitz3D audio API is pretty simple!
So I've started a new github repository called blitz3d_soloud that includes the new soloud audio and the FMOD files removed. They are easily restorable and building Blitz3D with FMOD is but a cmake switch away if you restore them, but I'm reluctant to host properietary files along side a supposedly 'open source' Blitz3D at github so I'm leaving them out for now.
I've done an intial build of blitz3d_soloud and will release it here as Blitz3D-V1.115.zip. If you find any bugs in it, please report them to the github repository issues page.
SHA256 hash of Blitz3D-V1.115.zip:
7f9a56870a2c52b4c7a2dd58761cf71796cb01e33916e474fa692238c6b3de4d
Bye,
Mark
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Blitz3D
The classic Blitz3D compiler for PC.
| Status | Released |
| Category | Tool |
| Author | Blitz Research |
More posts
- Blitz3D V1.118 now available3 days ago
- Blitz3D V1.117 now available!19 days ago
- Minor Blitz3D updates now up!47 days ago
- Blitz3Dx95-V1.109 for Windows 95 released!75 days ago
- Blitz3D-V1.113 now available!95 days ago
- Blitz3D V1.112 now available!Apr 14, 2024
- Blitz3D-V1.111 now available!Apr 13, 2024
- LibSGD AnnouncementFeb 28, 2024
Comments
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That’s so cool! The FMOD dependency has always bothered me a lot. Many thanks!
Nice to see, thanks for your Work at this old Code. It's possible for work with C# of make a re release of blitz3D SDK Edition for the community ?
It keeps popping up an error on the command DesktopWidth() which I think is from my User32.decls(Allows windowed borderless)I will keep experimenting and give more information as I discover it
What does the error say?
:)
Good old Sol to the rescue - and he's a top guy too :)
Hi Mark. How does this affect people who purchased Blitz3D? Can anything made with it be distributed commercially without issues? What’s the correct version to use in that case?
I am using Blitz3D 1.108 on a retro project, and I haven’t moved to a newer version because I want to maintain Win9x support.
> How does this affect people who purchased Blitz3D? Can anything made with it be distributed commercially without issues?
I think people who bought Blitz3D back in the day would be okay (not sure if that includes 1.108 though, if you got it from here at itch probably not) because those versions don't need to ship fmod.dll which is what the license is all about I think. Instead, the audio code will have been statically linked into the exes.
But this is just a guess, I obviously suck at this stuff so have put the question forward to the FMOD guy and will let you know as soon as I get his reply.
Bye,
Mark
Well, I've heard back from the FMOD author and the new licensing system apparently applies to anything released in future using FMOD, regardless of whether Blitz3D was purchased or not.
I strongly disagree with this interpretation, but I no longer have the contract from 20 years ago (not sure I ever did, I think Guildhall did all that) and it's conceivable the contract did have the famous 'no engines' clause in it and no one noticed, and I have neither the time, energy or money to argue it anyway, so I'm just gonna leave it at that.
But in light of this development, I have put together a version of Blitz3D that's Windows 95 compatible and that uses SoLoud instead of FMOD. More details here:
https://blitzresearch.itch.io/blitz3d/devlog/754345/blitz3dx95-v1109-for-windows...
I would love to hear how people get on with this, I've only been able to test it on an emulator and that's pretty ropey with *all* audio. But it is at least recognizable and the 3d stuff appears to be working.
Bye!
Mark