Source code access?

[DarkShadow44]

Hello there,

Factorio is one of my all time favorite games, and the best optimized I've encountered. I love your hands-on approach with the FFF, and would like to dive deeper into the secrets of optimization. Would probably make for a great opportunity to learn...
Is there a way for 3rd parties (like me) to get access to the code without being hired by Wube? Of course I'd sign an NDA, and wouldn't need to see the expansion branch.
What would be needed to be considered worthy of that privilege?

Apart from learning I'd like to play around with the fluid system that was proposed but never added. And see if there's something that can be done for big modded bases like PyMods or SpaceExploration. And maybe add a few tweaks/hacks for personal use...
I mean, I'd love to help fix issues and stuff as well, but I'm not sure how that could work.

- Dark

[Koub]

I think the best way is by using the general contact email on this page : https://factorio.com/support/contact.
And to try to convince Wube they should grant you the access to their source code .

[ptx0]

Is there a way for 3rd parties (like me) to get access to the code without being hired by Wube? Of course I'd sign an NDA, and wouldn't need to see the expansion branch.
What would be needed to be considered worthy of that privilege?

good luck, even Bobingabout doesn't have source access anymore. they're pretty strict about it nowadays. either that or it's a Boys' Club, one which I am not in, despite being able to contribute.

[DarkShadow44]

good luck, even Bobingabout doesn't have source access anymore. they're pretty strict about it nowadays. either that or it's a Boys' Club, one which I am not in, despite being able to contribute.

Mhh I see, so chances are bad.. Maybe related to the upcoming expansion, so they want to maximize secrecy.

I think the best way is by using the general contact email on this page : https://factorio.com/support/contact.
And to try to convince Wube they should grant you the access to their source code .

I already sent them a mail about a month ago, but didn't get an answer. Not sure if the mail simply landed in spam (wouldn't be the first time with my mail provider), or whether I should take the silence as rejection.

[Koub]

I already sent them a mail about a month ago, but didn't get an answer. Not sure if the mail simply landed in spam (wouldn't be the first time with my mail provider), or whether I should take the silence as rejection.

Whether it's the former or the latter, I think, like ptx0, that the chances the devs give access to their source code to anybody not part of Wube are highly unlikely at best.

[DarkShadow44]

Whether it's the former or the latter, I think, like ptx0, that the chances the devs give access to their source code to anybody not part of Wube are highly unlikely at best.

Probably, but since the chance seems to exist, I figured I could ask what's required.

[adam_bise]

There is just no way they would hand over their source code. This is a closed source, for-profit product and doing so would be willingly casting all their work into the wind.

[DarkShadow44]

There is just no way they would hand over their source code. This is a closed source, for-profit product and doing so would be willingly casting all their work into the wind.

You do know that some modders already have access? It's not like you can do anything with the source code, that's what the NDA is for.
I don't want the sources for nefarious purposes, only to learn from and play with it. That's what programmer fans of the game want.

[blazespinnaker]

It's very unlikely that they would give out access, and it has nothing to do with intellectual property (or at least shouldn't), but rather they probably don't want to reveal what is likely a lot of messy spaghetti and snarled code. Also, it makes it easier to develop exploits into multi user games.

The whole notion that there is some super secret sauce to source code is, frankly speaking, ludicrous. Plenty of companies have OS'd their code and generally the collective reaction is a shrug.

That aside, building an engine that could handle something like the scale and size of factorio does sound sort of interesting.

Rust has some great performance characteristics and might be an ideal way to go, though likely C/C++ with embedded assembly would probably be fastest. Optimizing compilers and branch prediction do wonders nowadays though, so sometimes it's best just to leave it up to underlying archs.

In terms of a core datastructure, that's an interesting question. Multi core utilization would be something to think about, I believe there are likely improvements over wubes engine to be done there. Smarter cpu cache utilization would be involved. Wube talks a little about it here - https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-215

I think the idea generally was to make the DS such that each chunk is an independent entity with regards to memory / cache, so cpu cores could partition them up and process them all in parallel. Maybe they are doing that for the next version.

[ptx0]

It's very unlikely that they would give out access, and it has nothing to do with intellectual property (or at least shouldn't), but rather they probably don't want to reveal what is likely a lot of messy spaghetti and snarled code.

really its about this. only recently have they even started unit testing their stuff and they're using the outdated bad ideas from Uncle Bob to "fix" the mistakes they've made.

there's some public code on Github Gists that has selectively been published and from that, it's pretty scary looking. but makes sense why they reject so many proposed optimisations and features, because the code would require a major refactor for it.

[DarkShadow44]

It's very unlikely that they would give out access, and it has nothing to do with intellectual property (or at least shouldn't), but rather they probably don't want to reveal what is likely a lot of messy spaghetti and snarled code.

really its about this. only recently have they even started unit testing their stuff and they're using the outdated bad ideas from Uncle Bob to "fix" the mistakes they've made.

Huh, I'd assume it's mostly about IP. Isn't that usually the reason code is secret?

The whole notion that there is some super secret sauce to source code is, frankly speaking, ludicrous. Plenty of companies have OS'd their code and generally the collective reaction is a shrug.

True. Although you got to admit it's quite impressive at what level of performance the game works. Not to mention, modifying source is a lot easier than assembly.

In terms of a core datastructure, that's an interesting question. Multi core utilization would be something to think about, I believe there are likely improvements over wubes engine to be done there. Smarter cpu cache utilization would be involved. Wube talks a little about it here - https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-215

I think the idea generally was to make the DS such that each chunk is an independent entity with regards to memory / cache, so cpu cores could partition them up and process them all in parallel. Maybe they are doing that for the next version.

I'd definitely like to see that! Could take the scalability to a whole other level. Although it would probably need a few breaking changes for best results...

[PaszaVonPomiot]

In general video game developers don't share their code because if leaked to public it could be used to create a clone of the game or cheats. Although there is some rationale to make it open source like in example of Barotrauma. However nobody can expect from WUBE that they will share their code.

[DarkShadow44]

In general video game developers don't share their code because if leaked to public it could be used to create a clone of the game or cheats.

Well, that's where NDA comes in, no?

[FuryoftheStars]

In general video game developers don't share their code because if leaked to public it could be used to create a clone of the game or cheats.

Well, that's where NDA comes in, no?

Well, unless they spend the money to track down and prove who violated the NDA… and even then, I’m sure there are plenty of measures that can be taken to make that more difficult to do (read, more costly for Wube), and possibly even impossible.

[blazespinnaker]

In general video game developers don't share their code because if leaked to public it could be used to create a clone of the game or cheats. Although there is some rationale to make it open source like in example of Barotrauma. However nobody can expect from WUBE that they will share their code.

If you were going to 'clone' factorio, I don't think you'd bother copying their source code as you'd be at risk for copyright violation (easily proven by duplicated bugs), and any effort to reskin it would be wasted, not to mention the liability.

You can already "clone" factorio by just copying the game, removing whatever copy protection is on it, and than reselling it as your own.

If you were trying to compete with Factorio, the only rational approach is just to code it from ground up. This is not rocket science and Wube has already shown the way.

The real intellectual property of Wube is not the source code, but rather the lead game designers, engineers and artists. They are the IP.