see, let me backtrack. im not THAT worried about theft per se. people take stuff with out giving credit, and will always do so. what concerns me is kinda... emphasizing taking stuff out of context, artistically. this is actually especially important for THIS community, since so many mappers are used to basically... using prefabs.
as roy noted, the issue relates to have packages work in unreal.
in tribes2, if i make a building and compile it, it's saved as a distinct file with my map.
it doesnt really work that way with the unreal engine, unless you decide to save VERY little bit of mesh as its own file.
unreal let's us combine all the meshes into a mesh package which then can be saved as a distict file. the same thing can be done for textures, sounds, etc.
this is akin to a texture "wad." it's not zip format. there's no /blahblahblah.dif being saved to hard drive.
to follow that analogy, you can save what you use in your map as a independent set of wad files OR you can actually store ALL your custom assets within the map itself.
in other words, you can have a map with new sounds, mesh, textures... all in one MapName.ut2
that's the standard in unreal mapping, to do it that way. it's efficient. it makes sure that your map loads exactly the assets (and versions) you want it to load.
IF somebody wants to basically go out of their way to make independent MapName.utx (texture packages) then they allow more direct sharing of those textures accross many maps. HOWEVER, you run the risk of having people change those files and thus your map loading the wrong version of textures... or similar problem. it's a slight risk increase if you have that texture package flying all around. in a mod context, that wouldnt be a big deal.. cuz folks would be careful with the shared assets.
*** hypothetical: all it takes is for there to be several different versions of LushLands.utx out on the game servers, and half the maps could stop working cuz they are relying on textures from a package that somebody modified, and NOW servers kick anybody who merely downloaded the original map with the package...
we can overcome that set of problems, im sure... with some care and experience. that's where using really good naming rules will help us out a ton. also, it means that newbie mappers who dont realize they overwrote LushLands.utx... not have ability to place that modified file online. hence, the importance of a site like this or servers in general to make sure they dont have conflicting packages (in unreal context, if the server and client do not have the same EXACT assets, client cant joing server)
on the other hand, even making an index of every actual ASSET is very difficult from the web per se.
again, we can easily have a list of all the TseTse_Textures1.utx files, but making a list of the actual textures inside it is entirely another issue.
same goes for sounds and stuff made with 3dmax or maya.
with that said, i oughta repeat something in case it isnt clear.
IF a map has custom textures, models/mesh, and sounds but doesnt make independent files, then that means they are all stored within the map package itself.
it's easy to grab stuff from the map for use in another map. it just means actualy duplicating the mesh/sound/texture instead of referring/linking to a shared file.
what MIGHT be really cool is if T:V allowed us to actually link to the packages from within a map.
for those who know unreal mapping, imagine just loading another map's textures, and actually seeing UED split them up as:
Map1.myLevel
Map2.myLevel
Map3.myLevel
That would be the cleanest and fastest way to dissolve most of these issues. Then the only thing required when linking to another map's assets... is the map itself, instead of a shared texture package.
im not opposed to people using other peoples' stuff. i just dont want to see a lot of peopel... RELY on that and worrying about it 1.5 years before the game comes out... instead of maybe taking 1.5 years to learn to use ued, photoshop or even a modeling program.
