Appeal to the developers of programs for modding.

[Melhior]

Hi, everybody.

I want to appeal to the developers of software for modding. Why don't you put your source code on Github? Personally, it is hard for me to observe the development of a new program, and over time the author may disappear and all the developments with him. And also with the programs that came out, but the authors have no time to support them and add new functionality. The examples are not far to seek: djbozkosz and LS3DSandbox. An editor who could replace everything, but this did not happen because of the author's employment. And now djbozkosz does not even appear on the forum. Recent: Duelist and his plugins. Which we may not see. And apparently for the same reason.

You all know the Water Shader from Mr F. in Winter, the author posted the source code
Water Shader source code
and it is now possible to combine similar modification.

I hope that you will agree with this proposal and new source codes will appear in GitHub. Who for this?

[AMadeMan]

Although I hope Duelist and djbozkosz will return one day (since djbozkosz is working along side Mr. Robville on the Titanic Mod and Shadowgun legends, its likely he's very busy), I like the idea of an official source code for Mafia's dev kit releasing.

Sadly I doubt this will happen. Mafia is in the hands of Take 2 (who are completely against modding) and I assume the tools of Mafia 1 and 2 are either in the hands of Hangar 13 (who merged with 2K Czech last year) or Take 2. I don't believe either side is at all willing to release their own dev tools for Mafia or Mafia 2 even with fan demand.

[Melhior]

[AMadeMan]

oh ok, thank you for the clear up. I at first thought you meant something official from 2K or Take 2.

I agree. Mafia World Editor and M Editor could use some fixes and additions especially since they haven't received much love in a long time. If the modders don't have the time, then others could get involved and take over or at least contribute.

[ASM.]

Actually I have already thought about open-sourcing MWE but then there're still a few architectural aspects I'm not really content with and that I'd like to address first I think.

Contrary to what it might seem I still occasionally work on the editor. I'm currently mostly refactoring parts and adding minor features requested by fellow modders here. However the user-facing changes are fairly insignificant so far which is why I haven't bothered to release an official update yet.

I'm generally still interested to work on the editor since there's still a lot of untapped potential for improvements, both on Mafia/LS3D feature-side as well as general usability. My issues list currently contains about 180 items and covers one-liners down to more involved changes such as the switch to a programmable graphics pipeline for rendering. What keeps bugging me though is the question whether it's worth the effort and someone will use all that stuff in the end. After all what I have in mind here isn't just a bunch of minor fixes and tweaks but requires a bit of work to pull off. Mafiascene for example is quite silent currently which makes it hard to assess how much of a community is left who is willing to build mods for the game. At the same time I realize there're Mafia communities outside of Mafiascene and new/improved tools might lead to a renaissance.

[Hunter]

There's no audience left, just passion projects! Sort of what I do for YouTube. I don't do it because I expect an audience or to be rewarded somehow. I do it because I wish to and it gratifies me.

That probably doesn't justify software development...but it depends on your own priorities.

[ASM.]

MWE is and has always been a passion project for me. However at the end of the day it's a tool and it's kinda odd to work on tools nobody uses.

[Muggy]

*Moved to Ask a Modder Tools*
_________________

[Hunter]

[Mr Robville]

A valid concern I think.
Even though djbozkosz is involved with the Titanic mod's development, for me it has also gradually become harder to get in touch with him, which for me is concerning because only he knows how to solve some of the developing problems.

People such as him possess a wealth of information. If this information isn't passed on, the moment one of them quits the modding hobby, that information dies off, and we are at the mercy of someone else to re-invent the wheel once more.
_________________

www.robville.net

[newto]

It is wonderful that there is still interest in the game. I have a plethora of programs available throughout the years that I have found but little or no explanation of how to use them. Some have tutorials in other languages that can be translated, but most have not. I would love to see a resurgence of how to use the different tools to solve problems and create new ones.

[mammix]

It takes me like a month to finally reply... I still want to write here, though, I hope that somehow we can make the forum a bit more alive. I really miss the old Internet, where people would write on websites like that, not FB and so on.

I can give an update about my mod - 2 more segments of 3rd mission out of 4 and that's it for the coding. Then corrections and implementation of some new things. I hope it will take me only few more months, but it takes a loooot of time to do anything now.

[Bojeffries]

Perhaps the reason the community has been quiet is because people have hit a wall with the games engine. Maybe tinkering with the Mafia modding tools could draw fresh interest.