Custom stuff - how much of them really belong to you?

[Battle_Korbi]

Asking because I am curious. Also learning how to make proper polls :D, but I am still serious about my question.

[Bauul]

For me, none whatsoever. I'm a mapper, I make maps. I'll leave asset creation to the guys who actually know how to do it.  

 

I'll always credit everyone properly, and only use things specifically designed for that purpose, but I've so far never found the need to create my own stuff when there's so much good stuff out there already.

[Nine Inch Heels]

Just a small nitpick: It might be wise to change this thread's title into something less "misunderstandable". The question how much of these assets "really/legitimately belong to anyone", makes it sound a bit like people took it from whereever and have not yet been caught.

[42PercentHealth]

6 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Just a small nitpick: It might be wise to change this thread's title into something less "misunderstandable". The question how much of these assets "really/legitimately belong to anyone", makes it sound a bit like people took it from whereever and have not yet been caught.

Agreed. The question sounds like you want people to confess how much theft/plagiarism is in their maps.

[40oz]

I'm capable of creating everything I want, so I find the idea of using things other people have made to be pretty shitty of me.

[Jaxxoon R]

But what if someone specifically made those things for others to use in the first place?

[Revae]

I can't make sounds very well, and I can't make music at all, but custom textures and sprites are mine.  There's a grey area about what belongs to "you" though.  If you photo source a texture and paint over it sufficiently it's "yours" legally (and morally I'd say), but just how much is a weird line. The law (iirc) says 80% different, but how do you judge the percentage of difference from source to final asset?

Just wanted to throw that out there.

[Angry Saint]

The poll is clear: there is who is able to create new art content and put it in her/his wads, and who (like) is not able and just uses resources like Realm667 Repository and such.

[40oz]

6 hours ago, Jaxxoon R said:

But what if someone specifically made those things for others to use in the first place?

I'm speaking from my own perspective. If you or anyone else can justify using other peoples work, that's fine. But outside of really good mapping, there isn't much I've seen that I don't consider myself capable of reproducing if i wanted to. So it just feels irresponsible to use stuff just because I don't feel like making it on my own.

[Jayextee]

Voted 'eccentric'. It's a tough call; when making my own games of course I like 100% original assets; for the upcoming idTech 1 game SLaVE, I drew all the graphics and made all the sound effects myself; as well as the bulk of music composition (one track was not written by me; also I'd 'borrow' free samples and loops liberally in the creation of my music).

However, with Doom WADs it's largely just whatever. I'd like to spend the time putting together, say, an original texture pack; but the time spent on such a thing is time I'd rather sink into something I can try to get monetary recompense for. So, fuck it, I'll borrow a sky texture or MIDI or whatever.

[SFoZ911]

I mostly make maps so the only thing I'll ever use that is not vanilla are custom textures. I can do my own skies and MIDI tracks(I don't find my own tracks to be that good) but I don't have much creativity when it comes to making new textures. If I find a texture set I like, I'll ask for permission and use it, I don't think it's wrong to ask and nothing is wrong with using other people's work as long as you get permission. Some people can make good textures but not so good maps so somebody else who's better at mapping can use those textures for a better overall use. 

[lupinx-Kassman]

I usually make just enough new resources to sell whatever theme I'm going for at the moment. The textures can usually be found prefixed with KS_

 

For CC4 map21 "Shaman's Device" this mostly meant all the glowy scrolling lights, fair amount of dark midtextures, a few animated textures, floating cube structures, and stuff related to the plot about the corrupt A.I. (holograms, computer terminals, etc.). The stuff I borrowed (stole) was mostly culled from Dark Forces, H.R. Giger, Strife, and the CC4 texture pack (plus a purple fluid esselfortium whipped up for me).

 

For Ancient Aliens map24 "Culture Shock" I made the cloud textures (well sprites, they became textures later), the cloudy skies, the Quake3ish teleportation rings, the briefing screen, stuff for secret areas, and some animated textures. The stuff I didn't make mostly came from the AA resource wad and Cage's stuff (with some minor edits to fit the theme), and ELM and Tears for Fears album covers if you know where to look ;)

[Xegethra]

I went with question marks as it is different in every WAD. For my first 4 maps I ever made, I did almost everything that was custom which was just edited Doom monsters and textures and some edited Doom sounds. The only things I borrowed were some sprites for dead decoration from other games and it uses some of the PS1 soundtrack.

My other WAD Dark Cathedral used a creative commons music track, and a couple of edited Hexen monsters to fit the theme. All other textures and monsters were from Doom but still edited by me.

Then there is my GTA Doom WAD which uses the map layout and textures and sounds of the original GTA, but a lot of that was edited by me too. I had to create the characters myself which tried to mimic those in the original GTA game. Some weapons came from realm667. Things like street items were interpretations of mine, to try and mimic those in the original GTA. Shop fronts/businesses were made up by me, I did use some from other GTA games, but others I just made up. It is all a hodge podge really.

As for the WAD I am currently working on, everything is going to be my own, except for the voices, my friends have opted to do those when I need them too. As for music and sound, I'll need more creative commons stuff but graphically and monster wise, it'll all be my doing. I only intend to make an episodes worth of maps and the first level is almost done. Just creating a couple new punks to put in then I can work on the boss and end level mechanics, then just replicate it from level to level with new stuff to fight in new locations.

[Da Werecat]

I hate everything, so I'm always compelled to make and remake things, even when I want to do something familiar-looking. It's not that I don't hate what I make as well, but I can sometimes justify it by the fact that at least I've tried, and my own fuck-up in the middle of my work is better than someone else's fuck-up.

 

This is why nothing ever gets finished.

 

OTOH, I can't do SFX and music, so my options are very limited here.

[riderr3]

I can make new patches from old textures :)

[SirScottyi386]

If I'm making anything I usually use skypack 1 and 2 and everything else is Vanilla or my own.