The problem with forking IdTech is that it's GPL, which is a problem if you ever want to release your game on consoles. The vast majority of new Quake-inspired boomer shooters take the pragmatic approach and just use Unity or Unreal instead.
Isn't Selaco desktop only? The problem is GPL on consoles, because you can't ship GPL code to a console because it's impossible to meet the modify+re-link requirement since the consoles will only run signed code.
Technically, the GPL has no such direct requirement, only a theoretical one, from everything that I’ve seen.
If that were the case, no automaker or fridge manufacturer that ships Android would be able to, since in so many of their products, you’re not really able to replace the Linux kernel.
> which is a problem if you ever want to release your game on consoles
The direction of dependency is from your program to the console specific stuff. You can write a platform library which is linked to your program without releasing that library.
> modern boomer shooters
I didn't say for boomer shooters. It's a general 3D game engine.
> just use Unity, Unreal or occasionally Godot instead of the actual Quake engine.
Because they are popular and familiar, not because they did a serious evaluation.
If you know of an example of GPL code being cleared for release on consoles I'd be interested to hear it because I'm not aware of any. The game Wrath: Aeon of Ruin was built on a fork of the Quake engine, but then they had to spend years rebuilding it from scratch in Unity for the console releases because GPL was verboten.
Maybe you're right. I have not tried this and don't know someone who has.
I am reasoning with the example of DirectX. You should be able to release a GPL program that uses DirectX, even though nobody has the source code for it.
If some version of that is not right, it's impossible to make a GPL windows or Mac UI application.
