The Hunt For The G.o.d.s Engine

[RockmoddeR]

I'm pretty sure a crucial dll like this wouldn't be hidden in the game folder...perhaps it's in the windows folder with all the other 3d engine dll's? and is it legal to mod...or is that just an .exe thing? (there are ways to mod dll's)

[Addictgamer]

It's probably statically linked into the exe, and a dll wouldn't be enough to find the g.o.d.s. engine anyway.

But, goodluck looking.

[Anonymouse]

Yes, it's going to be statically linked into the exe, i.e. (for non geeks) included in the exe file.

DLL = Dynamically linked library. Linking dynamically (different programs use the same copy of the library/engine) is more efficient, but if you link it dynamically you'll always have to include the DLLs. Linking it statically would basically include the library/engine in the program, making the filesize bigger but making it much more likely to work.

[Acmex]

The engine is crucially woven in with the rest of the game.

Its not another library, heck, its the game itself now, causing DDI to punch out sucky games.

Luckily they knew better when RR was made.

[Masterchief]

Indeed by having a look into the RAM with a special debbuging tool it becomes obvious that everything is handled by the exe itself (for instance other games are calling .dlls for checking memory usage etc.), so no wonder why there is no other engine file in the folder as every other file is a resource file for the game itself. GODS seems more and more to be an early unfinished engine.

[karsten]

We are a games company based in the West Midlands creating multiple titles for the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 platforms. Unlike many other developers we work totally independently, so all of our games remain under our control from concept right through to appearing on the shop shelves.

That is what DDI sas on their site so i don't think lego has all the rights of the game?

[McJobless]

The engine doesn't call any .dll files, else I would have found something when I did that .exe scan a while back (You can find it somewhere in either Members Share or Modding Help). It lists 2 or 3 .c files and I think both the NERPS Header files are also splashed in there.

It's impossible to rip it, and I haven't turned anything up in any Search Engines. Looks like this secret might die with DDI.

BTW karsten Lego owns all the rights to the games resources, and DDI owns all the rights to the games engine. We own nothing but the modding tools.

[Amauros]

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, but LegoRR.icd/exe (depending on what version you use) does use several dll's. You can use CE to find them while LRR is running.

As for modding those dll's, I don't think that would be a good idea as 90% of them are specifically system dll's. I don't think any of them however will help with finding GODS engine or anything to do with it.

[Cyrem]

The game uses Direct-X as it's graphics engine, the rest of the engine was mostly likely built into the exe. Fact is, you can't get a game engine out of an exe or dll.

[Masterchief]

An email to DDI cleared things up at least a littlebit. I wrote them back in 2010, in november.

Well the first two mails sounded like: "Don´t ask you won´t get an answer!" or " I am sorry but I don´t know such things but I am still working here!"

So I continued my spamming and spammed them for the next days on a daily basis with a mail about the old GODS Engine and one day, I think it was after 1.5 weeks, someone called Chris answered my calls.

He wanted to meet me on the IRC channel and we talked about how buisness is going, what´s going on behind the doors and what was about Lego´s investigations in multimedia gaming.

So here some facts you might already now and some facts that might be new to you, but I think it was an very informative evening (please forgive me that I can´t recall every detail of our conversation as it was back in november last year):

1. DDI was involved in several Lego Game Developements
   
2. Rock Raiders was one of 6 projects, Alphateam and Lego Racers where developed by DDI and later published by Lego itself the other projects were cancelled.
   
3. LRR uses the old GODS Engine 1.0 based on DirectX 7.9 April Release (introduced the second generation of 3d graphics and supported a great range of voodo 3d cards)
   
4. The Engine is (was) highly based on DirectX calls
   
5. The current engine (actually the upgrade of the GODS engine) is internally called Emersion 4 (GODS 5), they changed the name after the release of GODS 2 to Emersion 1
   
6. The new engine uses DirectX 9 & 10 as well as it´s own DirectX libraries and VC++ Runtimes, the GODS doesn´t
   
7. GODS Engine supported PC, PSX, N64 and Linux
   
8. Lego decided to publish different versions of LRR on the PSX and PC because of their marketing strategy (also the reason for not publishing it on the N64 or linux)
   
9. GODS for PSX is a downgraded version of the GODS Engine for PC (It is not able to display more than 4000 vertices whereas the PC version "officially" supports 8000 vertices / UDK and Unity support up to 8 mio. polygons x2 for vertices)
   
10. GODS Engine was designed to work perfectly in 640 * 480 pixel enviroments. The configuration lies in the cfg file and the exe itself.
    
11. "Officially" all data of the Lego Projects before 2003 has been collected by Lego itself and all data of the GODS Engine (Version 1) has been backed up - no public access - and they are never going to be used again.
    

[Addictgamer]

That is...quite awesome! Very informative!

Never would I have thought that there was linux support in the GODS engine.

[karsten]

An email to DDI cleared things up at least a littlebit. I wrote them back in 2010, in november.

Well the first two mails sounded like: "Don´t ask you won´t get an answer!" or " I am sorry but I don´t know such things but I am still working here!"

So I continued my spamming and spammed them for the next days on a daily basis with a mail about the old GODS Engine and one day, I think it was after 1.5 weeks, someone called Chris answered my calls.

He wanted to meet me on the IRC channel and we talked about how buisness is going, what´s going on behind the doors and what was about Lego´s investigations in multimedia gaming.

So here some facts you might already now and some facts that might be new to you, but I think it was an very informative evening (please forgive me that I can´t recall every detail of our conversation as it was back in november last year):

1. DDI was involved in several Lego Game Developements
   
2. Rock Raiders was one of 6 projects, Alphateam and Lego Racers where developed by DDI and later published by Lego itself the other projects were cancelled.
   
3. LRR uses the old GODS Engine 1.0 based on DirectX 7.9 April Release (introduced the second generation of 3d graphics and supported a great range of voodo 3d cards)
   
4. The Engine is (was) highly based on DirectX calls
   
5. The current engine (actually the upgrade of the GODS engine) is internally called Emersion 4 (GODS 5), they changed the name after the release of GODS 2 to Emersion 1
   
6. The new engine uses DirectX 9 & 10 as well as it´s own DirectX libraries and VC++ Runtimes, the GODS doesn´t
   
7. GODS Engine supported PC, PSX, N64 and Linux
   
8. Lego decided to publish different versions of LRR on the PSX and PC because of their marketing strategy (also the reason for not publishing it on the N64 or linux)
   
9. GODS for PSX is a downgraded version of the GODS Engine for PC (It is not able to display more than 4000 vertices whereas the PC version "officially" supports 8000 vertices / UDK and Unity support up to 8 mio. polygons x2 for vertices)
   
10. GODS Engine was designed to work perfectly in 640 * 480 pixel enviroments. The configuration lies in the cfg file and the exe itself.
    
11. "Officially" all data of the Lego Projects before 2003 has been collected by Lego itself and all data of the GODS Engine (Version 1) has been backed up - no public access - and they are never going to be used again.
    

What "other projects" are cancelled then and why?

Dono if you know that but,

[Masterchief]

I can´t tell you the real names because I actually forgot them but I can recall that the other projects where based on lego themes of the time around 1996/98.

One of them was a project related to Lego Space Port (1999) and another was related to Lego Harbor (1996). These themes where cancelled in the production years so the production itself was cancelled.

The other two projects where concepts (no real game content finished) for Lego Extreme Team (1998-1999) and Lego Arctic (1998-2000) whereas Lego Space Port and Lego Harbor where finished up to 40%.

I wrote Lego about these projects but up to this date they didn´t reply on my mails.

That´s all I can say about the other projects, as Chris said: "All data has been collected by Lego and we are not allowed to give information about their projects of the past until you provide a written permission of Lego itself"

[Guest display name]

I can´t tell you the real names because I actually forgot them but I can recall that the other projects where based on lego themes of the time around 1996/98.

One of them was a project related to Lego Space Port (1999) and another was related to Lego Harbor (1996). These themes where cancelled in the production years so the production itself was cancelled.

The other two projects where concepts (no real game content finished) for Lego Extreme Team (1998-1999) and Lego Arctic (1998-2000) whereas Lego Space Port and Lego Harbor where finished up to 40%.

I wrote Lego about these projects but up to this date they didn´t reply on my mails.

That´s all I can say about the other projects, as Chris said: "All data has been collected by Lego and we are not allowed to give information about their projects of the past until you provide a written permission of Lego itself"

Do you think Lego gives you or RRU permission to LRR Data?

And the game engine is DDI opening V1.00 of the game engine to public once?

[Cyrem]

Do you think Lego gives you or RRU permission to LRR Data?

And the game engine is DDI opening V1.00 of the game engine to public once?

No, and:

GODS Engine (Version 1) has been backed up - no public access - and they are never going to be used again.

[Tauka Usanake]

I can´t tell you the real names because I actually forgot them but I can recall that the other projects where based on lego themes of the time around 1996/98.

One of them was a project related to Lego Space Port (1999) and another was related to Lego Harbor (1996). These themes where cancelled in the production years so the production itself was cancelled.

The other two projects where concepts (no real game content finished) for Lego Extreme Team (1998-1999) and Lego Arctic (1998-2000) whereas Lego Space Port and Lego Harbor where finished up to 40%.

I wrote Lego about these projects but up to this date they didn´t reply on my mails.

That´s all I can say about the other projects, as Chris said: "All data has been collected by Lego and we are not allowed to give information about their projects of the past until you provide a written permission of Lego itself"

AWWWWWW!!! I want a Lego Extreme Team! That's my favorite of favorite favorites! Oh if only they could make a come back, but with Lego as they are, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks lowly of them for whatever reason, nothing good will come in a long way.

[Guest display name]

Do you think Lego gives you or RRU permission to LRR Data?

And the game engine is DDI opening V1.00 of the game engine to public once?

No, and:

GODS Engine (Version 1) has been backed up - no public access - and they are never going to be used again.

Cyrem, do you thinkg because of RRU that DDI is nice engough to give us the old engine because of this large community maybe that Karl can ask for us because he knows us?

But i don't think DDI is that nice :P

[Tauka Usanake]

Do you think Lego gives you or RRU permission to LRR Data?

And the game engine is DDI opening V1.00 of the game engine to public once?

No, and:

GODS Engine (Version 1) has been backed up - no public access - and they are never going to be used again.

Cyrem, do you thinkg because of RRU that DDI is nice engough to give us the old engine because of this large community maybe that Karl can ask for us because he knows us?

But i don't think DDI is that nice

If I may comment again, I don't think they would want to even if they were nice. They worked hard on an engine and giving it to any portion of the world, you may as well give it to everybody. That's how the Internet works

Best chances are that enough people request that the engine become open to the public and DDI think that the old engine is outdated enough to be worth giving out. And by that I would think that it would be something that can't be used to trace the latest engine they have, if such a thing is possible. I'm still learning.

[Cyrem]

Cyrem, do you thinkg because of RRU that DDI is nice engough to give us the old engine because of this large community maybe that Karl can ask for us because he knows us?

But i don't think DDI is that nice

No DDI will not give us the engine. Simple as that. It doesn't matter how nice you are, how much you spam them or how many people signed a petition. They spent tens(possibly hundreds) of thousands of dollars employing programmers and building their entire business on the GODS engine. It would be stupid to give the engine away to random people on the internet they don't know. It is their source of income. Even if we had the engine, what could we do with it? 1) The engine is ancient, there are a lot better free engines nowdays 2)We don't have the source to LRR anyway.

Not even I would give a source code out for something that I was making money on.