Polycon now as a true TC

Presently, copyright is inherent and assumed. However, as far as I can tell, there is a bill which was introduced to congress on April 24th, 2008, titled the Orphan Works Act of 2008, which has not been voted on that I can find record of. I haven't read much of it so I don't know if it would apply if it were passed into law, but its goal is to make "good-faith" uses of material whose copyright-owner cannot be located no longer against the law.

@qaanol, on Nov 16 2008, 05:18 AM, said in Polycon now as a true TC:

Presently, copyright is inherent and assumed. However, as far as I can tell, there is a bill which was introduced to congress on April 24th, 2008, titled the Orphan Works Act of 2008, which has not been voted on that I can find record of. I haven't read much of it so I don't know if it would apply if it were passed into law, but its goal is to make "good-faith" uses of material whose copyright-owner cannot be located no longer against the law.

Well, it looks like the Owner has been found (or at least partly). I got an email reply from Accutron; one of the people who helped AnubisTTP work on Polycon EV. He said he would pass on my message to him. I expect to hear back from him in the next few days. I first asked for permission to update his TC and then also I needed him to speak with someone here; perhaps a moderator. I suggested that if I got the Mod's email address he could contact them directly? I am also guessing that AnubisTTP's account is no longer active. That is why I formed my request in this way. If I was wrong, I will reply to him or forward his reply to the right person.

Congratz on actually finding a person that tried to disappear! That is truly an accomplishment in itself but I'd also like to praise your work for turning this sort of TC to a real TC! I didn't notice but did you say you changed stuff (a plug-in) or were you just making it a Nova Files thingy? Either way nice job though.

@1purevengeance1, on Nov 17 2008, 12:35 AM, said in Polycon now as a true TC:

Congratz on actually finding a person that tried to disappear! That is truly an accomplishment in itself but I'd also like to praise your work for turning this sort of TC to a real TC! I didn't notice but did you say you changed stuff (a plug-in) or were you just making it a Nova Files thingy? Either way nice job though.

As it was, in the Plug-ins folder, there were (null) (files? resources?) all over the place which I removed. I had to add SND resources from EVN, because Polycon relied on them. Upon Guy's suggestion, I changed several resources from PICT to RLE. So there have been several changes. Never the less, When the game is played, it opens the same, the text is the same, the graphics are the same and the game play is the same.

My whole thought on this was to free up resources so that someone could make plug-ins for this TC. That was the plan anyway.

Still no word email back from AnubisTTP
If I had his approval, I could upload the file(s) but I have agreed to wait for EVN ver 1.1 to come out so Guy can come out with some program to upload with it.

I did indeed pass your message along to Anubis, and we both agree that there will be no modified re-release of Polycon at this time, and hereby reserve the exclusive right to release any future variants, sequels or other derivative works based on the prior art. Posters should be directed to this thread if the subject arises at some time in the future.

Polycon is most definitely not abandonware or any such thing. The developer simply does not have the time to develop further updates, and does not trust modifications of the nature described here to an outside individual. Please do not pursue this unauthorized distribution any further.

Heh, oh well. Thanks for letting us know.

Bummer.

I SO wanted to have Polycon as a TC... I had great ideas for plugins and such... oh well.

Maybe I'll go work on my idea for an Emalgha storyline for EVO.

I'd say 'all that work for nothing', but it really wasn't all that much work! Still, now I can take 26mb worth of data off my computer store it away in a safe place.

If I´ve understood this correctly Polycon uses null resources to replace stock resources, couldn´t you just program plug-ins over those resources, as long as your plug is read after Polycon that really shouldn´t be a problem.

That's not the problem. The problem is that Polycon is missing resources necessary for it to function as a true Total Conversion. As it is now, it has to be placed in the plug-ins folder with EVN as the loaded scenario, e.g. "Nova Files Original" is just "Nova Files" and the only plug-ins in "Nova Plug-ins" folder are those pertaining to Polycon.

I suppose that an endearing plug-in developer could make the patches his/herself and make the TC stand alone that way... :ninja:

Edit: Oh, I see what you're saying. That is one of the problems, but it by itself doesn't make it impossible to run the TC stand alone, it just makes things a whole lot more clunky. That wouldn't work, by the way. The null resources have to be removed in order for the TC to become smaller. Since plug-ins can only add or replace resources, they can't do this alone. You have to use a resource editor to take them out, assuming you've made the files stand alone first.

This post has been edited by JacaByte : 30 November 2008 - 05:16 PM

From what I understand, the null resources are meant to block and prevent any elements from the Nova game itself from leaking into the Polycon TC. I'm thinking of converting Polycon myself as well, but for personal use only.