there are screenshots of wow models imported into sc2, even animated. not sure how easy / bug free it is, but feasable? very much so. check out nintoxicatedes threads. theres a worgen in sc2 in a video animated.
I will make a warning here. At the Hive, they have made a notice that importing WoW models in WC3 is illegal. I doubt that the same thing will not apply to SC2. So, be careful.
This makes absolutely no sense, you're exporting content from one blizzard game, to Import in to another.
<<quote>>First of all, its not illegal. As long as your not redistributing the models as forgery (claiming them as your own work), and your not using them for commercial use, it is perfectly legitimate to import wow models/icons into your WC3 map.
I had a discussion about this just a couple of days ago with a Blizz employee over on the battle.net forums.<</quote>>
a quote from another forum, which DOES make sense. long as you give credit where credit is due, you're golden.
It's just a standard set by The Hive Workshop. It's not clear what protocol is in place here regarding WoW models. WoW models are more of a gray area for a few reasons. Blizzard is protective over WoW content, probably due to the fact people have to pay on a regular basis to use the client. They also never had any intention of letting people modify or create WoW content. The same does not apply to Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2, which both have software released by Blizzard to directly modify and create new content. Blizzard likes to be the master of their own domain in that way. There's plenty of evidence around the internet of where Blizzard has demonstrated this through court action and general bullying. I'm not exactly opposed to this, it is their content created by their art team, they should have rights to where it is and isn't used, but that's a different topic altogether.
To get WoW models into Starcraft 2 I created an importer that was based around ufoZ's old m2 importer for pre-BC WoW models. The importer I updated allowed it to import post-BC models, but the Lich King introduced changes to the M2 format. The changes are nothing dramatic and I plan to update the importer to handle the new format at some stage. Whether this will be released to the public is another matter as I don't know the legalities behind reverse engineering the M2 format and providing importer plugins for it. I don't want to land myself or sc2mapster in hot water. That will be a topic I'll have to take up with Sixen and vjeux. The bonus is that since the importer was designed by me, WoW models import in a very similar fashion as M3's do. Consequently WoW models are incredibly easy to import and export to M3 straight from 3ds max.
I have updated the old Warcraft 3 model (MDX) importer/exporter designed by Philip Laing in 2002 so that animations are accurate and it no longer crashes. It also imports very similar to how M3's are exported and with a little tweaking can be a powerful MDX -> 3ds Max -> M3 tool. Once I've tested it more and updated it further I'll release it so that people can use Warcraft 3 models in their maps. I know there's alot of passionate Warcraft 3 modders among the Starcraft 2 community.
As for WoW models, it'll depend on the rules in place here and the ultimate legality of using the models in another game. I know Warcraft 3 used alot of low poly WoW models in some maps, but whether that is condoned or not here is another matter. I ask Sixen and vjeux to weigh into this issue, as I believe it will become a heavily debated one just as it is on The Hive Workshop.
well i do hope we get to see them, as the wc3 models look like garbage now. the wow models would give us an avenue for playing with fantasy instead of sci fi... i do wonder what models they will give us with release in relation to wc3. i guess the tauren marine would be an obvious, but sometimes they throw in other stuff, we could see a blizz uther in sc2 release or something. seeing osmething like that would relax people a bit.... though i guess it has nothing to do with the legalities.
i do ownder what they would do if you used wow models and then made people pay for your map... they would be pissed that we took 2 dollars from their 20 million a month income off wow.... fuckin pigs....
well i do hope we get to see them, as the wc3 models look like garbage now. the wow models would give us an avenue for playing with fantasy instead of sci fi... i do wonder what models they will give us with release in relation to wc3. i guess the tauren marine would be an obvious, but sometimes they throw in other stuff, we could see a blizz uther in sc2 release or something. seeing osmething like that would relax people a bit.... though i guess it has nothing to do with the legalities.
i do ownder what they would do if you used wow models and then made people pay for your map... they would be pissed that we took 2 dollars from their 20 million a month income off wow.... fuckin pigs....
20 million a month in income is not the same as 20 million a month in profit. It's a corporation, they want to maximize profits, get over it. The same goes for any game if you want to use their art. Most companies, even little ones, are against use of the original artwork. For example, when I asked Ambrosia Software if I could use their intellectual property, specifically the name, storyline, and related ideas from Escape Velocity: Nova, they said they were perfectly fine with it, under the condition that I didn't use the artwork that came with the game and I didn't charge any money for it. Thats how it works.
Though I'm quite sure they won't care if you export from Warcraft 3, but from World of Warcraft will make them more wary, but probably not a problem.
The guideline is: Release whatever tools are useful for the mapping community (given that it is not an obvious hack ...). If it goes against Blizzard objectives, they will ask us to take it down.
You can use any copyrighted material if it is NON-Comerical that means you are not making money.. I Don't see how any company can prove that you are making money of their artwork.... If they wanted to fight Blizzard for it saying that its taking sales from their game... Well That is complete bogus and it wont hold up in court. You should be able to duplicate anything as long as you don't ask for any money.
" How do you think people make Private servers of wow "
The case involved Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince's song Let's Go Crazy and posted the video on YouTube. Four months later, Universal Music, the owner of the copyright to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks, not two weeks as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair-use of the song.
If any company tries to come after you they will get them selves in trouble most likely.
AGAIN... If you are making NO money from a project... Then it is legal!
Noncommercial use is invariably fair. Not true, though a judge may take the profit motive or lack thereof into account. In L.A. Times v. Free Republic, the court found that the noncommercial use of L.A. Times content by the Free Republic Web site was in fact not fair use, since it allowed the public to obtain material at no cost that they would otherwise pay for
( The only way a company is going to be able to get you is to say that people are buying sc2 for the use of your game... and not buying their copy. This would be very very very very hard to prove in any cases of sc2. Just because the game is already huge itself... and most people that play your fan base games are going to be fans themselves... i am 99.9 percent sure no judge is going to believe people are buying starcraft for your game.. not starcraft, and the people that are buying sc2 are doing it to get the same content as the game you copied... You would have to have a different engine to make it so people thought your game was as good/ better then any game on the market ) " If any company did come at you like this.. you would just have to prove they were already fans and had already purchased the original game, on most cases like this its going to be the case.
Ultimately Blizzard controls what maps and mods are uploaded to Battle.net. If you were importing some other companies models into your map, it's likely Blizzard would simply remove it preemptively to avoid being sued. Simply to be safe.
The one good thing about WoW models is that Blizzard knows they won't sue themselves, therefore only a few things could happen:
Nobody will know Blizzard's stance for certain until someone does it. Asking them is very unlikely to provoke a "yes, go for it" response, but they may have an unspoken policy of letting maps that use assets from other Blizzard games be.
I'd guess that importing a few spell effects isn't a big deal, but making "Warcraft 4" with all WoW assets is not going to be allowed.
I don't see any problems with it. As said before, Blizzard controls what goes through to Battle.net and what doesn't. Regardless, I don't believe there will be an issue. Though, i'm sure if you're selling your map as premium, things will need to be done beforehand.
I hope this is a joke. Not only do I think this is illegal (as the thread has been talking about using models for non-profit purposes) but I think it is immoral too. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you are joking. If I were you I'd clarify...
Since Sixen/vjeux have no problem with it, I'll eventually release an updated version of the importer that supports Lich King models for free. I'm curious as to whether they have updated the M2 format for Cataclysm too, hopefully not as it will require more work :(. I can't give a timeframe as the M3 Importer/Exporter is my main focus at the moment.
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I'm curious as to how hard of a process this is? I know this was doable in war3. Does the M3 plugin support this?
update: Check out [Galaxy Noobs] wow to sc2 in 30 seconds no 3dmax
@HungryHipp0: Go
there are screenshots of wow models imported into sc2, even animated. not sure how easy / bug free it is, but feasable? very much so. check out nintoxicatedes threads. theres a worgen in sc2 in a video animated.
I will make a warning here. At the Hive, they have made a notice that importing WoW models in WC3 is illegal. I doubt that the same thing will not apply to SC2. So, be careful.
Yes guyz, pls keep away from this. And I think that worgen was custom model. At least, let believe it is.
@AegisRunestone: Go
This makes absolutely no sense, you're exporting content from one blizzard game, to Import in to another.
<<quote>>
First of all, its not illegal. As long as your not redistributing the models as forgery (claiming them as your own work), and your not using them for commercial use, it is perfectly legitimate to import wow models/icons into your WC3 map.I had a discussion about this just a couple of days ago with a Blizz employee over on the battle.net forums.<</quote>>
a quote from another forum, which DOES make sense. long as you give credit where credit is due, you're golden.
@tigerija: Go
Whats with the irrational reaction? It's perfectly legal (long as you don't pass them off as your own).
@HungryHipp0: Go
It's just a standard set by The Hive Workshop. It's not clear what protocol is in place here regarding WoW models. WoW models are more of a gray area for a few reasons. Blizzard is protective over WoW content, probably due to the fact people have to pay on a regular basis to use the client. They also never had any intention of letting people modify or create WoW content. The same does not apply to Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2, which both have software released by Blizzard to directly modify and create new content. Blizzard likes to be the master of their own domain in that way. There's plenty of evidence around the internet of where Blizzard has demonstrated this through court action and general bullying. I'm not exactly opposed to this, it is their content created by their art team, they should have rights to where it is and isn't used, but that's a different topic altogether.
To get WoW models into Starcraft 2 I created an importer that was based around ufoZ's old m2 importer for pre-BC WoW models. The importer I updated allowed it to import post-BC models, but the Lich King introduced changes to the M2 format. The changes are nothing dramatic and I plan to update the importer to handle the new format at some stage. Whether this will be released to the public is another matter as I don't know the legalities behind reverse engineering the M2 format and providing importer plugins for it. I don't want to land myself or sc2mapster in hot water. That will be a topic I'll have to take up with Sixen and vjeux. The bonus is that since the importer was designed by me, WoW models import in a very similar fashion as M3's do. Consequently WoW models are incredibly easy to import and export to M3 straight from 3ds max.
I have updated the old Warcraft 3 model (MDX) importer/exporter designed by Philip Laing in 2002 so that animations are accurate and it no longer crashes. It also imports very similar to how M3's are exported and with a little tweaking can be a powerful MDX -> 3ds Max -> M3 tool. Once I've tested it more and updated it further I'll release it so that people can use Warcraft 3 models in their maps. I know there's alot of passionate Warcraft 3 modders among the Starcraft 2 community.
As for WoW models, it'll depend on the rules in place here and the ultimate legality of using the models in another game. I know Warcraft 3 used alot of low poly WoW models in some maps, but whether that is condoned or not here is another matter. I ask Sixen and vjeux to weigh into this issue, as I believe it will become a heavily debated one just as it is on The Hive Workshop.
well i do hope we get to see them, as the wc3 models look like garbage now. the wow models would give us an avenue for playing with fantasy instead of sci fi... i do wonder what models they will give us with release in relation to wc3. i guess the tauren marine would be an obvious, but sometimes they throw in other stuff, we could see a blizz uther in sc2 release or something. seeing osmething like that would relax people a bit.... though i guess it has nothing to do with the legalities.
i do ownder what they would do if you used wow models and then made people pay for your map... they would be pissed that we took 2 dollars from their 20 million a month income off wow.... fuckin pigs....
@NiNtoxicated01: Go
heres another discussion on a similar topic:
http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1184786
20 million a month in income is not the same as 20 million a month in profit. It's a corporation, they want to maximize profits, get over it. The same goes for any game if you want to use their art. Most companies, even little ones, are against use of the original artwork. For example, when I asked Ambrosia Software if I could use their intellectual property, specifically the name, storyline, and related ideas from Escape Velocity: Nova, they said they were perfectly fine with it, under the condition that I didn't use the artwork that came with the game and I didn't charge any money for it. Thats how it works.
Though I'm quite sure they won't care if you export from Warcraft 3, but from World of Warcraft will make them more wary, but probably not a problem.
The guideline is: Release whatever tools are useful for the mapping community (given that it is not an obvious hack ...). If it goes against Blizzard objectives, they will ask us to take it down.
You have the green light to host it here :)
You can use any copyrighted material if it is NON-Comerical that means you are not making money.. I Don't see how any company can prove that you are making money of their artwork.... If they wanted to fight Blizzard for it saying that its taking sales from their game... Well That is complete bogus and it wont hold up in court. You should be able to duplicate anything as long as you don't ask for any money.
" How do you think people make Private servers of wow "
The case involved Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince's song Let's Go Crazy and posted the video on YouTube. Four months later, Universal Music, the owner of the copyright to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks, not two weeks as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair-use of the song.
If any company tries to come after you they will get them selves in trouble most likely.
AGAIN... If you are making NO money from a project... Then it is legal!
Noncommercial use is invariably fair. Not true, though a judge may take the profit motive or lack thereof into account. In L.A. Times v. Free Republic, the court found that the noncommercial use of L.A. Times content by the Free Republic Web site was in fact not fair use, since it allowed the public to obtain material at no cost that they would otherwise pay for
( The only way a company is going to be able to get you is to say that people are buying sc2 for the use of your game... and not buying their copy. This would be very very very very hard to prove in any cases of sc2. Just because the game is already huge itself... and most people that play your fan base games are going to be fans themselves... i am 99.9 percent sure no judge is going to believe people are buying starcraft for your game.. not starcraft, and the people that are buying sc2 are doing it to get the same content as the game you copied... You would have to have a different engine to make it so people thought your game was as good/ better then any game on the market ) " If any company did come at you like this.. you would just have to prove they were already fans and had already purchased the original game, on most cases like this its going to be the case.
Ultimately Blizzard controls what maps and mods are uploaded to Battle.net. If you were importing some other companies models into your map, it's likely Blizzard would simply remove it preemptively to avoid being sued. Simply to be safe.
The one good thing about WoW models is that Blizzard knows they won't sue themselves, therefore only a few things could happen:
Nobody will know Blizzard's stance for certain until someone does it. Asking them is very unlikely to provoke a "yes, go for it" response, but they may have an unspoken policy of letting maps that use assets from other Blizzard games be.
I'd guess that importing a few spell effects isn't a big deal, but making "Warcraft 4" with all WoW assets is not going to be allowed.
There are so many amazing WoW models/textures/sounds. I really hope the can see use in Starcraft II.
i am importing WoW models, if you want me to email you the models, i charge 5$ paypal. that is all-
I don't see any problems with it. As said before, Blizzard controls what goes through to Battle.net and what doesn't. Regardless, I don't believe there will be an issue. Though, i'm sure if you're selling your map as premium, things will need to be done beforehand.
As vjeux said, you've got the greenlight, NiN.
So, which of you people who have expressed a desire to do this is currently working on an AOS map with control points and a capturable flag?
Pleased to meet you, I'm your terrainer :P
Wow. Just wow.
@ezbeats: Go
I hope this is a joke. Not only do I think this is illegal (as the thread has been talking about using models for non-profit purposes) but I think it is immoral too. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you are joking. If I were you I'd clarify...
Since Sixen/vjeux have no problem with it, I'll eventually release an updated version of the importer that supports Lich King models for free. I'm curious as to whether they have updated the M2 format for Cataclysm too, hopefully not as it will require more work :(. I can't give a timeframe as the M3 Importer/Exporter is my main focus at the moment.