Hoping this is the SDK and not the source

[nibbles]

an unauthorised release of the source code would help no one, its only bad for Valve and the future commercial viability of the Half Life Genre. The source engine is the most advanced FPS engine to be developed for the PC and Valve righty deserve financial reward for there effort.

Unlike HL1 which was based on the Q2 engine and therefore there wasnt a Valve engine to license so to speak, the Source engine is all Valve's and i expect like ID and Epic for Valve to license that engine aggressivily.

If this is the source then IMHO this would reduce the Value of the Source engine commerically. Yep companies will still license it but in effect the engine will be public knowledge and are you telling me some game companies would'nt just love to see the source to Source.

If this is unauthorised personally i hope valve bring criminal proceedings against the person who leaked it and sue to kingdom come any one that hosts it.

It doesnt matter if it doesnt compile or art work is missing (which would be avalible when HL2 is released anyway), the source code is the jewels in the safe that where the real value to HL2 lies.

Im hoping this is either intentional, or a leaked SDK and was going to be released in time or a Hoax.

Akin to windows Microsoft have released the SDK for all there products over the years but until only recently have they released the source and thats to a select number of blue chip companies and goverments. Releasing SDK's often add value to a product.

Releasing the source add's at best value to the community and the quality of the work they do but for the company who releases(lost) it, i would doubt ever add value to there bank balance. And its in our interest that Game developers like Valve are financially sucessful otherwise you will only have EA and Microsoft.

The only real benefit to source release as i have mentioned is it can enhance the community, i.e ID release Q1 / Q2 code, Rowan's BOB and Razorwork's EECH, i even think Homeworld code was released.

In all these cases though the code was released after the engine was outdated and there was no financial gain to be had from it, or as a good will gesture usually before the company went belly up. For a game that isnt even out i personally hope it hasnt happened

 

[VoidWraith]

I hadn't thought of that. Its quite possible this is just the SDK, but I'm not quite sure, as I don't actually have the files!

 

[nibbles]

just to add a bit more i suspect this isnt a leak of the source code. for 3 reasons

1.Valve seem a tight knit company they been around a while. Even though apparently they did move offices recently (i think i read that somewhere) which results usually in a new Network infrastructure as opposed to a preexisitng secure one.

Basically though i suspect that the staff at Valve wouldnt do this unless they hired a temp recently . The main point is for 5 years look at how good they kept the HL2 secret. Not until E3 this year did anyone really see or hear anything about it.

To achieve this means they run there company well , i.e it not hard for Bob the Janitor to get some screenies out in the last 5 years and release them to every game site there is. The fact this didnt happen means it's less likely an unauthorised release of there code happened.

2.It was mentioned a bit that Valve would release the SDK before Shipment, at 1st to established Mod teams but later i beilieve to the general public.
I havent looked at the D/L link but was this source a valve orgin or some 3rd party FTP server. If a Mod team released it or they had it somewhere with just crap security then i would suspect it would be the SDK.

3.There are Sad people that would produce a Hoax of the source especially as they have a lot of HL1, Quake code to insert to add authenticity. To be honest unless the dam thing compiles , to most people the code will look genuine , that doesnt make it so. Just put some code that looks like it does physics, look likes it has combine AI and all that stuff and you could fool a lot of people.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Erm, the SDK has tools....

No mod teams have the SDK, the only ones who have it are Valve employees, like the DoD team. This is either a fake or it's real.

 

[alco]

The damn thing did compile. Not a single error.

I really wouldn't care, would it be not for 2 things: People posting spoilers up the wazoo, or Delaying the release of HL2 further.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Yep, it compiles.... badness

But still, my personal opinion is that this is the E3 build, hopelessly out of date and unoptimised....

 

[poseyjmac]

Originally posted by mrBadger
This is either a fake or it's real.

i agree with this wholeheartedly ^

 

[alco]

Originally posted by mrBadger
But still, my personal opinion is that this is the E3 build, hopelessly out of date and unoptimised....

Some say it's 3 years old because of the copyright.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Would make sense that... yeah.... would explain a lot....

funnily enough, I heard tell of someone with a compiler trying to compile it ....

 

[MooCow]

It's not the SDK, how old it is is a different question.