Walter Reid

While I have your attention...

I have always found that source code is very useful to learn from and have therefore made it a point to release as much of my own material open source. However, I have noticed that other people chose never to release source code. I’m not talking about the lazy people that forget about it, but I’m talking about the people who choose not to release their code. The ones that you e-mail because you want to learn, but they don’t want to give away their secrets.

My theory on this issue and why I think you should give away your source code:

• People who download a cool effect might say, “Hey that’s a great effect, I wish I knew how the person did XYZ”. Where XYZ is the cool effect—shading, fractals, landscape, etc

• That same person would then open ‘yahoo.com’, ‘google.com’ or ‘live.com’ and do a search for ‘XYZ source C++’ and see if anyone else released the source code with this effect.

• They would then download the source code and use it for their own purposes.

• Now, the person who created the effect in a demo, but didn’t release the source, is quickly forgotten – as is their demo. However, the person who created the demo with the open source isn’t… and the next time they are looking for something they go back to that open source author.

I can think of countless times where I have gone to NeHe to scan the directories to see if a specific effect exists. Or went on game programming forums for assistance for my countless programming questions.

I assure you that if you have a question I would be more than happy to answer it as best as I can. I can also assure you I will always do my best to release all my work open source.

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