What is the license for Sydney(.md2)?

[archmagus]

Tutorial 01 says that...

Instead of writing the filename sydney.md2, it would also be possible to load a Maya object file (.obj), a complete Quake3 map (.bsp) or any other supported file format. By the way, that cool Quake 2 model called sydney was modelled by Brian Collins.

To me, this implies that attribution to "Brian Collins" might be required, but he is never mentioned anywhere else.

So, what license is Sydney under? Can I make a model inspired by Sydney with/without attributing the mysterious "Brian Collins"?

(Wasn't sure where to post this, will move if appropriate)

[CuteAlien]

Good question - I'll ask around the mailing-list if anyone has a clue.

[archmagus]

Good question - I'll ask around the mailing-list if anyone has a clue.

I did not know that Irrlicht had a mailing list, do you mean this?
Anyway:

(The following was written over about 60 minutes of being a detective (at 1 a.m.), sorry if it gets a bit disjointed/stream-of-consciousness-y)

Further searching of the Internet (actually switching from DuckDuckGo to Google) led me to the Assimp MD2 test model page, which assigns the Irrlicht license (Zlib) to both the Faerie and Sydney, with credit to Nikolaus Gebhardt.
Seemed legit until I realised that they misspelled "sidney" and so I really don't trust it as a source.

Then I took a look at the very first commit of Irrlicht (that I could find in Sourceforge) and I looks like the same attribution to Brian Collins is present there as well. (Off-topic: It's really amazing how stable Irrlicht's API seems to have been since that first version. The first tutorial is almost identical!)

Even further back...
Niko's first ever blog post on irrlicht3d.org mentions his old site at code3d.com, which I plugged into archive.org. Still not what I was looking for, but close...

That page links to the early Irrlicht Sourceforge page from 2004:

The first archive.org / wayback machine trawl of irrlicht.sourceforge.org!!!
And this page credits Brian Collins from planetquake.com.
PlanetQuake now links to IGN, so I hit archive.org again and found the planetquake.com/polycount with a bunch of md2 models available here. Pretty great, but none of the download links work and only 2 pages of the archive have been saved by archive.org. I recognise the Johnny 5 model however, I believe it is used in a demonstration of a demo ("Johnny 5 must die?") somewhere on the forum. Too lazy to find it right now though.

Polycount.com has a modern page up, but that doesn't have what I'm looking for.
Semi-success!!
archive.org: 2007 ->polycount.com Quake 2 models. Second in list is Sydney by Brian "EvilBastard" Collins. I can't tell if it's the same model and the download is broken, but I think it is. No word on license, but it appears that it is an original design. Looks like his email was fenrir@best.com, but best.com is also down.

Googling "Brian "EvilBastard" Collins" takes me to the "Cube 2: Sauerbraten" online readme page. No mention of contact or what art he provided for Cube 2.
(Sauerbraten => German for "Sour Roast"; Irrlicht => German for "Will o' the wisp"; coincidence?) Also mentioned here and here.

It is 2am.
Blargh.

[archmagus]

Johnny 5, from "Johnny 5 must die" by JP
https://sites.google.com/site/javierpic ... ny5mustdie

Edit:

The first release of the Irrlicht Engine SDK is on its way. The release will be in the next two or three weeks. To show you the progress of the development, I've made a detailed TODO list at the development site. As you can see, dynamic light is 100% implemented now. Also, I contacted Brian Collins and got his permission to use his cool 3d models with the engine. Also, I uploaded some new screenshots.

That's what I get for not really reading the page I linked to.
Niko had to get permission to include Sydney (and maybe the faerie?) in Irrlicht, wonder what the licence is outside of Irrlicht?

[CuteAlien]

Hybrid found also something. Seem the model is also available here: http://www.fileplanet.com/10366/10000/f ... ake2-Model

In the description there is also the mail-address of the maker.

The mailinglist is just internal for the engine team by the way. Some otherwise no longer active members still are subscribing to it, so I can get some answers there sometimes.