Small Mod compilation

[MangledEyeStudios]

Dug up some more info: Dark Salvation was made available for free by the studio as soon as 2011 - yep, that's right, only 2 years after release, which incidentally speaks volumes about its quality but that's not the point. What probably happened next is not hard to guess: with the studio having ceased activity and the game being distributed for free, Kiltron must have considered it abandonware and so used the model for his own purposes. Now according to the studio's itch.io page, they've been selling the game again since last month.

@MangledEye Maybe instead of being all riled up against Seven who apparently has nothing to do with the "theft", you could strike a deal with him provided he includes all legal info in his readme. After all, your model being in Quake makes good publicity for you. And you should feel honored to finally see it in a good game, for a change...

Are you Seven? Were you involved in his project? OK, best to not speak for someone else and just drop out of the conversation. It isn't your concern so don't make it your concern.

Whether a game is released free for indefinite, whether a game is released for free for a limited time, whether a game is sold or whatever, the content is owned by who made it and doesn't automatically consider it a free for all for anyone to do with whatever they want to with the assets.

As for Seven, so you say you personally didn't take it from Dark Salvation but instead got it from a 3rd party or they don't remember (usually what people say) well now you know where it came from and shouldn't be using it.

I would say, pick up Photoshop, 3DSMAx, Blender or similar, learn how to use them and create assets that you want in your game instead of appropriating content directly made by other people and their games. If other people can do it, nothing is stopping you from doing it too.

[Mugwump]

Dug up some more info: Dark Salvation was made available for free by the studio as soon as 2011 - yep, that's right, only 2 years after release, which incidentally speaks volumes about its quality but that's not the point. What probably happened next is not hard to guess: with the studio having ceased activity and the game being distributed for free, Kiltron must have considered it abandonware and so used the model for his own purposes. Now according to the studio's itch.io page, they've been selling the game again since last month.

@MangledEye Maybe instead of being all riled up against Seven who apparently has nothing to do with the "theft", you could strike a deal with him provided he includes all legal info in his readme. After all, your model being in Quake makes good publicity for you. And you should feel honored to finally see it in a good game, for a change...

[Seven]

Hello MangledEyeStudios,

I can totally understand your anger and your post.
But do not worry, I am not that kind of person who steals other peoples work and claim it as my own or something.
You do not know me and my intentions, that is why your reaction is of course correct.
You will find information of the content that is used inside the mod and where I got it from (incl. authors if information is available). You find it inside the posts of this very thread, in the download and many are even mentioned in the included source files.

My information of this special model you are mentioning is that is was made by Kiltron.
I most probably found it at gamebanana but I do not really remember.
If you are the real author and do not want it to be used, I of course fully respect it.
Do not worry. I already deleted the link.

I can understand you how it feels when you find work of yourself in the internet, used by other people that do not care. I am facing the exact same situation myself too. That is unfortunately the way most people behave in the internet.

Best wishes,
Seven

[MangledEyeStudios]

Seven was addressed directly in the original post. Anyone else who decided to make it their business was their own doing.

He know's it came from Dark Salvation 100% considering everything else he has in the mod came from somewhere else too. Simply put, if you didn't make it, nor a team member made it, then it doesn't belong to you nor does it belong in your project.

You're right, id Software probably wouldn't respond to a thread, or even the person who did it. They would contact the website owner and ask for the content to be removed for using assets from their commercial game.

It seems all he did was rip the entire model and texture then just altered the pentagram on the forehead to be a Quake symbol on the texture and added some flame sprite behind the model.

[Dutch]

@MangledEyeStudios

This is an issue that needs to be conducted through private messages. Blowing up this thread and dragging the rest of the community into what should be a private affair is rash and immature.

If you are indeed a representative of a commercial enterprise, then you will know what I mean. Would id Software march into this thread calling people out for copyright infringement? No, because it isn't professional. It would be dealt with privately and un-emotionally.

[Mr.Burns]

... The Quake modding community often uses models from other sources (for instance this mod contains, among others, models from Hexen 2 and from a Quake 2 mod). They spend countless hours crafting mods that are distributed free of charge, purely out of love for this great game, which is why usually the rightholders don't make a fuss about it. You should at least listen to what he has to say before barging in banging your chest and calling him a thief, most especially when you consider the model in question.

To be fair to Mangled, looking at the 2 screenshots there does appear to be a lot of similarities between the 2 models but they are seen at differing angles. However, that said, similar looking variants the "horned demon" figure have been used in sculptures, paintings, books, movies, games, etc for hundreds of years so I would guess it would be very difficult to claim copyright or ownership.

Given his considerable contributions to keeping this genre alive I have to agree with BFG in that Seven deserves to be heard. Knowing Seven I cant imagine he would purposely "steal" copyrighted content from an active, current, commercial game. He just doesn't seem that sort of person.

Hypothetically, if this was all a mistake and it turns out that the model Seven used was originally produced by Mangled Eye and permission to use it was requested, and assuming you are who you purport to be, how would they feel about granting that permission? I'm not saying that they are the same model, just looking for an amicable way forward if that were the case

Kind regards

Monty

[Mugwump]

He stole the direct assets from Dark Salvation. Didn't ask for permission, none was ever given.

I'm not sure Seven was even aware that the model he used was, haha, copyrighted (sorry, still funny). The Quake modding community often uses models from other sources (for instance this mod contains, among others, models from Hexen 2 and from a Quake 2 mod). They spend countless hours crafting mods that are distributed free of charge, purely out of love for this great game, which is why usually the rightholders don't make a fuss about it. You should at least listen to what he has to say before barging in banging your chest and calling him a thief, most especially when you consider the model in question.

As for the studio, it never went anywhere but I already mentioned that once.

This is a message found online that was reportedly salvaged from the studio's old website in 2012:
"Mangled Eye Studios has ceased operations and is no longer active.
We appreciate all of the fan support we received over the years.
Contact information will still be available for the remainder of the year for those who need support on our currently released titles."
The studio may be back but there is evidence that it had gone down at some point.

[MangledEyeStudios]

Inspired? That's quite the understatement! You using the word "steal" is frankly hilarious.


I've read from several sources that the studio went down after the failed Kickstarter for their second game.

Look, you can attempt to deflect it back to us if you like but I know you're not stupid.

He stole the direct assets from Dark Salvation. Didn't ask for permission, none was ever given. Period! Simply uncool.

As for the studio, it never went anywhere but I already mentioned that once.

[Mugwump]

Inspired? That's quite the understatement! You using the word "steal" is frankly hilarious.

Mangled Eye Studios never went kaput at any point.

I've read from several sources that the studio went down after the failed Kickstarter for their second game.

[MangledEyeStudios]

Maybe, but the model is a ripoff of id Software's lost soul... Also, I googled them and the studio went kaput 5 years ago.

Big difference in an inspired design than blatantly stealing an exact asset from a game. Not sure of your excellent research skills but Mangled Eye Studios never went kaput at any point.

Anyhow, I'm sure you understand what was mentioned in the original post. He took the exact assets from the game. A very lame thing to do for anyone to do.

[Mugwump]

Maybe, but the model is a ripoff of id Software's lost soul... Also, I googled them and the studio went kaput 5 years ago.

[dumptruck_ds]

@MangledEyeStudios BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! That's quite rich of you to claim intellectual property over what's a blatant ripoff of Doom's Lost Soul! You wanna take this to id Software to know what they think? Jeez...

Not taking a side - but for clarification the poster is implying that the actual model was taken from their game. Not the design or type of creature.

[Mugwump]

@MangledEyeStudios BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! That's quite rich of you to claim intellectual property over what's a blatant ripoff of Doom's Lost Soul! You wanna take this to id Software to know what they think? Jeez...

[MangledEyeStudios]

Seven,

Are you the author of this mod? I wanted to ask you who within Mangled Eye Studios gave you permission to steal the Mysticface model / artwork from their commercial Dark Salvation game?

I'm pretty sure nobody gave you permission to do this, so I'll assume you feel that anything on the internet that don't belong to you is fair game to use how you see fit? All you did was make a few adjustments to the texture. Uncool stealing assets from commercial games or other mods.

No need to question what I mean, it is pretty obvious.

Your Mod:


Mangled Eye Studios / Dark Salvation Game:

[MostWanted]

Wait! No I didn't downloaded your second file at first, now I did and it works! I cant believe you did that little update for me! Thank you very much Seven you're worth your weight in gold for this game! I played with it a bit and now I understand why it shouldn't be adjusted to an extreme since some areas of the maps are too low for the player, although it looks much better in other areas. Thanks again seven!