MrMiller:

I can't agree more with you and thanks for the additional info. Like I said, my intention is not to just pickup any photo and modify it without asking. I want to use copyright-free/royalty-free photos of landmarks/objects of which I want to change the appearance so that they aren't easily recognizable.

It's the subject in the picture that matters here, not photo copyright. :)

Do you know if you must ask, say, NY to use the Statue of Liberty as part of a game's story? Or London for BigBen?

Genki:

Thanks for the tip. I'll further my investigation tomorrow. I'll call a lawyer's firm to be sure about the landmark recognition issue. And for sure I won't use copyrighted photos and modify them and hope it'll be ok. I just hope this "rule" applies to the likeliness of public buildings and landmarks.

I mean I don't even want to use super popular landmarks, just some building from some city.

Thanks for all the replies, people.

I can't create all these photo realistic assets myself. That's why I need to use photos.

Securing the license to use a photo shouldn't be a problem. It's mainly the subjects/landmarks on these images that I'm worried about. It could be necessary to get some sort of agreement or usage right from the city in which they reside. Example: there could be a problem with me using a photo of the Statue of Liberty and saying it's the bad guy's secret base. :) NY might not like it, I don't know. I wonder what they do with these issues in movies.

If I can modify the subjects enough to the point where it's considered a new piece of art and different enough so it's obvious it's not the Statue of Liberty anymore under the law, I could be fine too and it would be much easier.

I guess only a lawyer with a good knowledge of the video game industry will provide a defitive answer.

Thanks again, C2 users.

From what I heard, this "rule" was proposed by lawyers who studied this exact type of issue. It is applied in at least 1 videogame company that I know of.

I also know an Art Director who confirmed me that's what they were told at the university actually.

Also, the rule don't make sense if you apply a non-logical reflection to it, nemo. :)

Changing the color of half of Mario's body is not modifying 50% of its appearance. I would guess about 10%.

You would need to, example, change the colors AND his apparels (say for a t-shirt and jeans) make him taller, replace his cap for hair, remove the mustache. That counts for at least 50% changes, therefore, from what I heard, would constitute a new design that you would own the rights to.

It's just there's no legal document that I can find or article on the internet confirming it.

Another interrogation I have: Can you use the image of a popular building freely in a game? Or do you need to ask the city in which it resides for permission? I'm going to do some research about that right now. :)

Thanks for the reply, Kyatric.

I contacted the author of one of the images that required only to give credits and we agreed that simply stating his name in the credits roll would be fine.

I was also made aware of the "50% modified rule" when you pick any images from the 'net. I just cannot find anything about it but it would seem like if you modify an image so that at least 50% of it's visual is not recognizable from the original, you're fine to use it both commercially and non-c.

Have you or anyone ever heard of that rule and maybe provide a link about it?

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I am planning to make a game that uses photos from the Internet.

Modify them quite a bit but the subjects/landmarks overall would still be recognizable.

I am using photos that are adhering with the creative commons copyright. They're all free and all the authors ask is that credits are given (which I plan to do in-game in the credit roll.)

Do you guys see an issue with this if I want to monetize the game?

Do you guys have a link to a website that talks about copyright and photos used for a video game?

Thanks

Alright, I'll let them know.

I really need (and many people I'm sure)their next version of Cocoon to have a fix for this.

Yep. Like I mentioned in my updated post, after speaking to the guys over at Ludei and further investigation of the issue, they told me it is a CocoonJS bug after all.

377 views, and 1 "Thank you" for sharing your issue with us. :)

No problem guys.

See updated original post for more details.

Hello all, thought this could help other people having the same issue.

Also possibly related to prior sound issues people had in another thread that was closed.

----

I've had an issue with long sound files vs short ones. Long sound files (longer than 20 secs)would play, but short ones wouldn't play on android.

I contacted Ludei about this and sent them a ZIP.

Well, looks like the game was not detecting my device correctly (android) and tried to play the short sound files in m4a format which is not working on android (I didn't know). Should be playing ogg files instead.

Check the debug menu in Cocoonjs during gameplay (fps number box), verify if you see your sound files being loaded in m4a format.

If so, a temp solution is to do this (you can use Notepad++ on windows):

Modify line 775 of c2runtime.js and change this line:

this.isAndroid = /android/i.test(navigator.userAgent);

for this line:

this.isAndroid = true;

Should force a proper detection of your device and play all sound files as ogg.

By the way, "c2runtime.js" is inside your exported ZIP file for Cocoonjs.

UPDATE:

In any case the above fix doesn't work for you, you can also just replace every instance of the word "m4a" with "ogg" in the above JS file.

Also, make sure you've got the actual ogg files in your game. (C2 creates them for you at the import of sounds)

Ashley: this issue seems to be related to the way C2 detects what device is running the game after Cocoonjs modifies the useragent. Seems to mess up the detection system. The guys over at Ludei told me they would sort this bug out with you guys. UPDATE: looks like this will be fixed in an update of Cocoonjs. Ludei: "A bug that isn't reporting the user agent correctly and that's what's making Construct use the m4a files." You can close this bug I guess. :)

----->Also, is there a way to include only ogg files when we know the game will run on Android? Without the need to delete wav and m4a files manually before the export. Thx

Thanks for the reply!

I had to check your website on my desktop computer to access the forum. The drop down menus don't work on my mobile's browser so I couldn't see the Forum section under "Technology".

I'll be checking out the forum for my audio issues.

See you there! :)

Hi everyone!

For the love of my cat I can't find a forum on Ludei's website!

Does that mean we've got to email them everytime there's an issue with the app or cloud?

Also, wouldn't it be a good idea if there was a forum section here to share our experience and discuss issues and tips to resolve them?

Right now, some sounds don't play when my game runs through Cocoonjs' app. The first 2 sounds don't play (considered sound effects since no longer than 20secs). The music does play and is more than 20 seconds long. Tried preloading the 2 first sounds... no go. Is this bug with first sounds not loading/playing properly a known issue?

I don't know where to get answers about that and I already sent them an email without any response. Can't find the issue mentionned elsewhere on the forum.

Am I missing something?

cheers!