I.P. for sale?

[hazmatt]

The average computer programmer salary in DFW area is considerably less than $120K.

The conversation is interesting, however, it seems like there are options that are not being considered.

Lets just say for example that HT has a something in his will that would release the code should he be unable to continue.

There are many skilled devs in the open source world that wouldn't cost 120k per year. You would also have the added benefit of having multiple sets of eyeballs looking at the the code.

I agree with your assessment about other games integrating the technology developed for AH3. I for one would like to see the game itself stay around in some from, which I'm not sure would happen if it was bought by one of these other games.

If it was me and I cared about the legacy of the game I would open source the coad so that it could continue on even after I was gone. Releasing the coad would allow other games like DCS and IL2 to use the server part to integrate with their offerings while preserving the latest form of the original game.

An example of something like this is Linux Air Combat developed by  bbosen. https://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxaircombat/
Some of you may recall that name. It came from open source GL-117. https://libregamewiki.org/GL-117

If I was a open source coader I would add an interface that would allow the easy addition of new ground vehicles, planes and other objects, kinda like the skins do currently.

I think something like this might keep the game alive in some form for a long time. People could run their own custom servers like combatbox (which I still see at max capacity weekly)

Just some ideas to kick around.

[CptTrips]

The average computer programmer salary in DFW area is considerably less than $120K.

The average programmer in DFW is writing javaScript on web pages. 

HT's code is C.

Complex, real-time processing, Ansi-C.  Low-level networking protocol.  No easy-mode memory management (No garbage collector). 3D geometry math. 

Totally different level of skillset than your "average" programmer.

Closest analog might be low-level telephony software engineer and those guys given the difficulty and narrow domain knowledge might run 150k.  I used to work with those guys.  A lot of those guys moved into the high-speed trading space and make WAY more than that.

A 6 month code camp JavaScript graduate ain't gonna hack it.

[hazmatt]

I suspect the open source community would have access to the needed skill set. 

Why no discussion on open source? Is that a bad word around here? If it is the filter didn't catch it...

[CptTrips]

I suspect the open source community would have access to the needed skill set. 

Why no discussion on open source? Is that a bad word around here? If it is the filter didn't catch it...

Can you give me a list of the AAA quality level Open Source games you've played in the last year?

[edge12674]

What about a console port of AH?  More money resources than PC development.

[AKIron]

I learned C back in the 80's. May hafta take a course on C++ or C Sharp. Of course it will be nothing more than a hobby like all the programming I did before. Schools around here don't offer it. Any good online courses?

[CptTrips]

I learned C back in the 80's. May hafta take a course on C++ or C Sharp. Of course it will be nothing more than a hobby like all the programming I did before. Schools around here don't offer it. Any good online courses?

I assume Udemy.com has some good ones.  I assume some good Ansi-C too. 

C++ (C language family but you need to understand OOP which can get non-trivial to do well)  has made a comeback in to last 10 years due to Unreal Engine.

Personally, I'd suggest C# and Unity3d.  YMMV.
You might dabble in a Udemy Lua course too.

[AKIron]

Think I bought a Unity3D course from Udemy a while back and never made much progress. I'll look. Thanks.

[CptTrips]

Think I bought a Unity3D course from Udemy a while back and never made much progress. I'll look. Thanks.

If you learn C# it can be a powerful tool. 

In a long weekend I was hacking up some (lame) data visualization VR experimentations just to get a feel for what I could use it for.  Don't laugh, just seeing how things worked.  Playing around.





Still, that was only an (intensive) 3-day weekends worth of work.  But I had complete a Udemy course on Unity3d about a year before that so not from ground zero.

However, I have 20+ yr experience in C# (8 yr of C++ before that) and I've been dabbling in various game engines and 3d programming for longer than that so there was a lot that was already familiar to me.

But I still think it would be the fastest path for a noob to get something usable and the Unity3d Asset store is freakin amazing.

[hazmatt]

Can you give me a list of the AAA quality level Open Source games you've played in the last year?

This doesn't sound like you are open to discussion.

I only play IL2 at the moment. That doesn't mean that because I'm not playing another game that it's not decent.

I found this doing a quick search. It's from an open source game release 20 years ago.

https://youtu.be/z7R9kAN2uT0

[CptTrips]

This doesn't sound like you are open to discussion.

Why would you say that?  Because I asked you a question?  Sorry I ask hard questions.  Was I supposed to just rubberstamp?

My point was I've seen a lot of open source game projects start.  Helped on a couple. Seldom do they really go anywhere. 

Very quickly it is 2-3 guys contributing everything and a bunch of other people asking when it will be done so they can use it.  lol.

Now open source business software is different.  Companies will contribute to those to lower their costs and reduce dependency risk.  Games tend to be less successful.

Now you do have stuff like 1946 mod teams.  Various other game mod teams.  Some of the DCS mods are near AAA quality.  Team Fusion (Not sure that is open). Etc.

But success is rare.  And what would be the benefit to Hitech?

[hazmatt]

Why would you say that?  Because I asked you a question?  Sorry I ask hard questions.  Was I supposed to just rubberstamp?

But success is rare.  And what would be the benefit to Hitech?

No. It's because you asked me a question that chances are I would not have a good answer too because I was promoting an idea not a game. Like the good old (When did you stop beating your wife?) question.

Not sure if you caught the part where I was talking about keeping the game alive after HT was gone.

I only see two ways here.
1. Game is bought out and the tech is applied to another game and AH3 is shut down.
2. At some point HT leaves us and his coad goes with him.

They only way I see to keep the game around for our grandkids to play is to open source it at some point but it seems that I'm the only one who seems to think this so I'll stop beating the horse.

[CptTrips]

No. It's because you asked me a question that chances are I would not have a good answer too because I was promoting an idea not a game.

I was trying to subtly point out to you that since you couldn't answer the question, is a clue to the answer to your question. 

If IL2 and DCS were open source game projects then I'd be like , yeah AH should go open source too!

I could explain a dark narrative of the 95% chance of how that would go, but why bother.

You don't have to convince me of anything. I was just trying to answer your question in a oblique way.  I should have been more explicit.  Discuss away.

[CptTrips]

What about a console port of AH?  More money resources than PC development.

It had crossed my mind that maybe the interest in Vulkan would be to allow a path to console for AH. 

Shrug.  I'm not sure how good a fit for AH that is.  Seems like you would have to dumb it down so much for controllers that it wouldn't been the same game.  I could be wrong.  Ask someone younger.  I never could work those dang things.   

[AKIron]

XBox controller came with my Oculus headset. Finally found a use for it with the DCS AH-64D (front seat).