John Carmack codes around patent to release Doom 3 source

Id Software's lawyers got a little uncomfortable about releasing the Doom 3 source code — a tradition at id — because of a small patent issue, but John Carmack saved the day by just coding around it. We're playing it a little fast and loose here, but the story is that between 1998 and 2000, both Carmack and Creative Labs independently developed a very similar method for rendering shadows in a 3D environment. Although the technique is commonly known as Carmack's Reverse, the patent went to Creative, so the lawyers understandably didn't want to get in trouble for open-sourcing somebody else's technology. However, the problem was apparently minor — according to a tweet from id's founder himself... »read more

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