The End of 3D Computer Games

nICk nOLTE · Post by **nICk nOLTE** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:14 pm

Hi I only have this in German, still it is hm... well... see Yourself
http://www.gmx.net/de/themen/computer/g ... 64560.html

coder2000 · Post by **coder2000** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:32 pm

Here are some english links:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/03 ... d_lawsuit/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/04 ... it_update/

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:36 pm

yeah i already read about it, that really sucks.

but doesnt that count only for the USA? that would mean that i could program 3D games and play them in germany, couldnt i? but still, that sucks badly !!

coder2000 · Post by **coder2000** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:06 pm

but does it actually apply to the people who write the engines or would it apply more to developers of opengl and directx?

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 6:37 pm

It could apply to anyone who uses that type of technology, from the people doing the basics, DX/OpenGL, to those that make the games that use that technology.

It's another of those stupid patents out there and points to how the US patent system, which was originally founded by Franklin as a way to get inventions out there into the public domain, is now being used as a sword to make money for failing companies.

Oh, and yes.. this is only valid in the US. The country where the inventor of the cure for Cancer would be sued out of existence by 30,000,000 lawyers for patent infringements and the cure lost in bueracracy.

JoeWright · Post by **JoeWright** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 6:48 pm

Well it shouldn't work because a) prior art, b) its pretty obvious. Anything particularly clever in it was probably thought of 2000 years ago.

Joe

Tyn · Post by **Tyn** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:05 pm

Star Wars had the Death Star in psudo 3D art on a control panel in the 70's, so doesn't that mean that Lucas can file a counter suit that he in fact invented displaying a 3D image to a 2D display?

Niko lives in Austria and I live in England so I couldn't give a crap. We'll just get the Japanese to develop their own API and off we go again

Robomaniac · Post by **Robomaniac** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:04 am

This whole thing pisses me off, espesically the part where it says:

"Some people may invent better/different ways of doing this then us, so... Thats our invention too"

I hate the US Software patents

coder2000 · Post by **coder2000** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:38 am

Then what about the EU Software Patents they are currently battling for things like the scrollbar.

Tyn · Post by **Tyn** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 7:58 am

I didn't mean that the systems are better in any way, just that there is no continuity between the EU and US patents so I'd imagine that it'd be thrown out here even if it did get win in the US.

Hehe, a scrollbar eh? I'm gonna start one saying that my great ancestor invented the wheel and claim a patent for every technology using a wheel

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:46 pm

Isn't it fun how laws get twisted?

The DMCA was supposed to protect us, now it's being used to snuff out everything from pre-releasing information about retail sale adverts to grade school children's theatre works.

niko · Post by **niko** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:25 pm

Yep, these software patents really suck. They are currently discussing about software patents in the EU in the usf forum (http://www.usf2.de/forum/showthread.php?t=2740), really interesting. Sounds like patents will not become very dangarous in Europe, but that's the theory, and I don't belive it.

dingo · Post by **dingo** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:18 am

Umm you can't patent stuff already in the public domain. The 3D patent should not have been granted due to the fact there are plenty of examples of displaying 3d images on a 2d surface that predate the aplication for that patent.

I had an Amiga 500 back in the day, even it had limited 3d games.

And what about the fact that raytracing was commonly done in the 70s on computers?

Geez, I mean if this patent holds water then I'm going to patent the musical note F. Everytime a composer uses F I want a royalty!