Valve have just updated the Source 1 SDK on GitHub to the latest code based on Team Fortress 2, effectively making TF2 code source available.
SDK was previously updated in 2014.
This is great, but also WEIRD because Valve have historically gone after TF2 fan projects in the past few years. I guess they just changed their minds?
Damn, Valve going against fan projects is really weird. Especially considering that most of their biggest games are former mods. And they let just about anyone do something in the Half Life universe.
Its worth noting that all of those fan projects were based off of an old leak of the source code. Shutting them down makes sense and honestly it was weirder that it didn't happen sooner.
Either way releasing this SDK gives the modders a brand new much more updated set of tools to make the mods all over again but this time they could even release on steam instead of just being some sort of semi-illegal back alley deal
Just because the source code is available it does not mean it is free to use and do with it what you want. The license explicitly states that you may use it but have to publish it for free and follow the Steam subscriber agreement. Also this is just source code, not the assets (at least as far as I understand it).
Also this is just source code, not the assets (at least as far as I understand it).
Could probably just require the official game to be installed too and load the assets from that directory, or might even be able to use the shared folder, but not sure if tf2 uses that, i remember l4d and css and hl2 used to.
Valve has made attempts to take down projects that follow those rules. TF2Classic is the example that comes to my mind since it's the main one I've played, but I know there are several others. In TF2C's case, they tried contacting Valve to find out why they'd been hit with a C&D, never heard back, and eventually quietly resumed development.
Some kind of miscommunication between legal and the devs? Maybe internal drama? Maybe they didn't really pay attention and still aren't aware TF2C is back up? Who knows. Still happened tho.
That has been a dream of mine for well over a decade. When I (rarely) play TF2 it's with bots only, since they have all the vanilla stuff.
I miss the times when an entire team would do a Scout rush, with only the 3 vanilla weapons, just for the hell of it. It was always complete chaos. You can do it with bots, but it's very tedious, and they only run along the ground from node to node. Give me a dozen Scouts flying off the rooftops spamming x5x5x5x5!
Also, does anyone else wish someone would bring back his crazy legs when he does the midair jump?
This is the first I'm hearing of that, but I would assume any project would get sued if they copied any art assets, songs, and trademarks (logos, characters, etc). And at the time, any code they used would be suspect because of the TF2 source leak.
Remember that this does not include the source engine which is still closed source, good for modding but you won't be able to do crazy ports or anything anytime soon.