Quake 3 resource copyrights

[themaster]

I was wondering if it is OK to use Quake 3 resources (textures and sounds) in my commercial projects. I notice a lot of games have quake 3 sound effects in their game, and also use the quake 3 engine, so I was wondering what the policy is on this.

[obsidian]

It is illegal to distribute Quake 3 textures, sounds, models, etc. for either commercial or non-commercial games. You are allowed to create a mod or stand-alone game using the engine (without any distributed game assets) as long as it is released under the same GPL license as the engine (meaning open-source).

More information on id Tech 3 licensing here but keep in mind that that only pertains to the game engine itself, not the Quake 3 Arena game assets, which is strictly (they will seek legal action) protected under a commercial copyright by id Software.

[themaster]

thanks for the info

[seremtan]

why would you want to use Q3 texture assets anyway? they're a bit lo-res for a modern game

[themaster]

Its great artwork...

Also, in Jedi Knight 3, I hear some quake sound fx (for example the feet landing sound when falling)

[o'dium]

A lot of the Q3 sounds came from a public sound archive. You may be able to get them, but sometimes you do have to pay to download. So its likely what you are hearing is this, too.