Did someone from ATI really leaked Doom 3 alpha ?

[Mod]

Did someone from ATI really leaked Doom 3 alpha ?

I'm just interested in the mess around it ... :D

Here is the famous chat that is going around for the last days:

Xian> ATI leaked it
Xian> oh we will. We are hoping our rep gets fired.
Xian> John sent them a flame mail yesterday basically saying "This has hurt our relationship"
Xian> haha, no
Xian> not really
Xian> they sent us a development laptop with a full build of Unreal Warfare on it
Xian> yep
Xian> Well, we deleted it
Xian> that's a whole can of worms we don't want to get into
Xian> yeah, well, ATI has clearly violated our NDA
Xian> we thought about that.
Xian> but, no
Xian> ATI is on our s***tlist righ tnow
Xian> we are not dealing with them until further notice
Xian> no, it's not public chiQ
Xian> We know ATI leaked it. We watermark all releases
Xian> Squiggle: ATI has a relaxed policy about pre-release software. Remeber, they ave us a laptop that had Unreal Warfare loaded on it 3 months ago
Xian> They don't seem to care about strict enforcement of NDA's
Xian> on a positive note, people seem to *REALLY LIKE* the leaked s***t

[thcdru2k]

the chat seems legit enough..

[Kruno]

It can just be more rumour mongering. Where is the solid proof?

[intercede007]

Other then the fact that there are newsgroups overflowing with Config info, screenshot links and download sites?

[Kruno]

How do you know if I hadn't leaked it?
Other than a chat log that is said to be legit.

[thcdru2k]

just refering to the watermarking..if that is true, than time will tell.

[Kruno]

hmmm I wouldn't be surprised if there was one. Then again it is possible to be able to rmeove the water mark if you are really good at it?

I would be surprised if they didn't think it could be watermarked or has other protection things in there.

IE: Zombie in that verison might have something unique about it that other revisions of Doom 3 don't. It's just a possibility. Not saying every version they had done something to it. Maybe just that specific version if it was given to Ati and leaked from Ati.

[thcdru2k]

even if it was ati that leaked it, i don't think it was ati as a whole. maybe just one rogue employee gutsy enough to do such a thing.

[Kruno]

Well there is no solid proof that says one way or the other so I am remaining skeptical until there is some solid proof that proves anything along those lines.

A part of a "chat script" is not what I consider proof. Even a screenshot of people typing it up in an IRC channel is still not proof enough.

Official confirmation from Ati itself is proof enough without resorting to conspiracy theories. :)

[volt]

"Xian> we are not dealing with them until further notice"

GREAT!
More for us :p

[The Baron]

Who cares--it's out there, the people love it, and now EVERYBODY is going to get it as soon as it comes out.

It's just that cool. :p

Nothing increases hype like an alpha version...

[pelly]

The thing about this leak that makes me suspicious is that this seems to be way too polished for it to be an "alpha" build...

:confused:

[The Baron]

Polished?

It crashes every other minute!

It's the E3 demo.... and whose card was being used in the E3 demo?

Hmmmm? :D

Well, this means ATI has done 2 things right in the past forever... :p

[PsychoSy]

I spend alot of time on Xian's Wolf MP Beach server and message boards. That log probably is legit because that's the way Xian usually types. He's short, to the point, and the majority of his sentances have less than 8 words.

Also, alot of the regs on his servers have been pleading for Shrub mod to be installed on the Beach server and Xian has been too busy lately working with the rest of the crew on Doom 3 to really devote much time to his servers and message boards (he hasn't posted on the boards in the last few months).

Recently, his Beach server was acting really wierd and the Admins took it upon themselves to temporarily turn the Ice server into Beach as emails to Xian went unanswered for a few days (usually Xian keeps his email client open and fixes a crashed server within 10-15 minutes) and Beach is more popular. When Xian found time to check his email, he took a few moments to fix all the servers and archive our stats. :)

This Doom 3 leak is a much larger problem that server upkeep, however. The most vocal people at Id are Carmack, Xian, and HellChick so if something this damaging and unfortunate happens, we know one of them going will go be vocal about it!! :p

Carmack sending flame mails...
Xian on damage controll...
Sounds very legit to me.

And Carmack can flame just as good as he can write code! Between the Id reps that leaked Doom 3 to ATI and the ATI idiots that turned around and leaked it to the public, Carmack is probably borderline homocidal right now. :eek: And who'd blame him?!?

[thcdru2k]

well than in that case...epic should be mad at ati too.

[PsychoSy]

Damn skippy!

The whole "they sent us a laptop with Unreal Warfare on it" line not only solidifies that this log of Xian's words being legit, but it opens up a huge can of worms. I mean who other than Id employees would know about this laptop and its contents?

This is going to get ugly for ATI. :eek:

[Mod]

Originally posted by PsychoSy
?!?

3 QUESTIONS :

1- What's Xian position at Id .
2-Explain with detail that problem with that server. I don't know anything about that ! (and most people here don't either ... :()
3-Is this problem something more similar to J. Romero vs. J. Carmack, or problems with tomshardware vs. everybody, or something else ? :confused:

[Juntari]

ATI leaked it? Very interesting. But it is really not proven until everyone who is involved come up with official statements or .plan file or something. But it is very possible that someone in ATI has leaked Doom III, who knows what kind of intents were behind it. And sending a laptop with Unreal Warfare on it, what is that supposed to mean? ATI, if the allegations are correct, may be beginning its damage control as well.

Heads will roll at ATI, if this is in fact true.

[Juntari]

Xian I think is Christian Antkow, a level designer at Id.

[saturnotaku]

yeah, well, ATI has clearly violated our NDA

Hmmm...not good. I smell <sniff, sniff> lawsuit. I bet some spin doctor's going to be working overtime to help minimize the damage of this gaff.

And some people wonder why developers prefer NVIDIA. :rolleyes:

[PsychoSy]

Originally posted by Mod
3 QUESTIONS :

1- What's Xian position at Id .

Level Designer.

2-Explain with detail that problem with that server. I don't know anything about that ! (and most people here don't either ... :()

About a week or two ago, the Beach server would kick people back to the title screen when the loading status bar reached around 80% or so. Beach eventually crashed completely. When that happens, the admins can't fix it remotely - Xian has to. The admins powers are somewhat limited - sure, they can kick or temp ban someone for breaking the rules (only for a few hours), randomly change a game to something like "Knifves only", "no gravity", or both for a round or two (to break the monotony) or change the server map. That's about the extent of what they can do remotely. Any kicks or banishments of an extended nature (days, weeks, permanantly, etc.), server resets, and other aspects can only be done manually by Xian.

Xian's admins took the initative of temporarily turning the usually dead Ice server over to Beach because folks were bleating on the forums for a "beach fix" and Xian apparently was so busy that he didn't check his E-mail and thus wasn't aware of the problem. A few days later, Ice was back to Ice, Beach was fixed, and the WolfStats were archived.

From what I understand, Xian had previously gave his Admins permission to excercise their discretion when it comes to maintaining a positive gaming environment on the Id servers within reason. They excercised this discretion after Beach remained down for a few days by turning the Ice server over to Beach (which only lasted for about a day or so).

It's rare when one of Xian's servers goes on the fritz for long without his knowledge. Usually, someone (an admin or a regular) will contact Xian either thru E-mail or instant messaging. Xian hardly replies back but you know he gets the message when the servers are back up. Most of the time, he takes care of it within 5-15 minutes (over the summer, I sent him a brief E-mail when Beach went down for about 6 hours and 10 minutes after sending the E-mail off, Beach was back up) but when it turns into days, the admins assume he's hard at work, hasn't had time to check his messages, and thus they excercised their discretion. They only done this one time, though. I don't think "server swaps" of this nature will become a habit because I don't think the admins ever want to abuse this discretion and possibly end up in the doghouse with Xian.

Personally, all the Admins Xian has are great folks and they do an excellent job. I get along great with all of them...unless ND-USA-80 decides 3 rounds in a row of "null-grav knives only" is kosher! I can handle 1 or 2 rounds, but anymore than that, I'll purposely hunt him down with my frogsticker! :D :)

3-Is this problem something more similar to J. Romero vs. J. Carmack, or problems with tomshardware vs. everybody, or something else ? :confused:

I don't know what you mean by this? You lost me here! :p

[stncttr908]

I do believe that ati did it, why wouldn't they? It shows their cards run better with the latest in gaming technology.

[vampireuk]

heh, if it was them they may not have any of the latest gaming technology to show off soon;) :D

[Mod]

Originally posted by PsychoSy


I don't know what you mean by this? You lost me here! :p

I mean, do you know any personal problems between ATI and Id software ? How come Id simply let a Doom copy with ATI folks ?

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by Mod
How come Id simply let a Doom copy with ATI folks ?

NVIDIA also probably has a copy. I'm sure Id made both companies sign an NDA. ATI has violated this by leaking it (if they did)