Hi Charlie,
thanks a lot for your answer!
charlie {l Wrote}:hiker {l Wrote}:Sorry for a very noobish question - not having used steam myself (embarrassing
): Why would you play it more? Afaik we can't use the steam API (since it is not compatible with GPL), so what other benefits does steam give you?
Thanks!
Joerg
In a word: convenience. I open up Steam, go to my library, play a game. If it's not installed, that gets handled in a couple of clicks. If a game gets updated, Steam updates the game for me. It is painless.
Good reasons. Updating STK in-game is still something I would like to do
On top of that is Steam cloud, achievements etc. I'm no longer tied to a single PC/laptop.
Hmm - good point. We have this partially implemented: as long as your local accounts are connected to the same online account, your achievements will be synched. But admittedly not the unlocked tracks/story mode progression (though what would be interesting to do).
Is the Steam API really subject to the GPL if a GPL game gets put on Steam? I doubt that very much.
Now, IANAL, but the GPL section 1states (
https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html):
For example, Corresponding Source includes ... the source code for shared libraries and dynamically linked subprograms that the work is specifically designed to require, such as by intimate data communication or control flow between those subprograms and other parts of the work.
So, the moment we use the API, we would exchange data, and would be required to distribute the sources of the steam API implementation. There is a system library exception ("..kernel, window system, and so on...")., but I doubt that one could seriously argue that this applies to steamworks.
The same argument was raised by xonotic (
http://xonotic.org/posts/2013/about-xonotic-and-steam/);
Although, Valve doesn’t force a game to use Steamworks, but then we’ll loose the ability to integrate Xonotic into the Steam infrastructure, track statistics, let users earn achievements etc.
So, from my understanding:we can certainly put STK on steam, but are not able to use any of the steamwork features (authentication, friends, achievements, ...). In order to do that, we would need to dual license STK - which is probably impossible given the long history of STK
Cheers,
Joerg