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Unity owned ECS patent uses techniques described in 2013 Stack Exchange post

The 2013 StackExchange post [^1] describes what is now commonly called an "archetype" based ECS architecture that was implemented as compile time archetypes in the author's open source project in Feb 2018 ^3. A similar ECS model was described later in the June 2018 patent filed by Unity ^2 and active since 2020.

It's useful to bring visibility to the issue for the inevitable patent trolling that will occur in the future.

References:
[^1]: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/58693/grouping-entities-of-the-same-component-set-into-linear-memory/

Mikina ,

Wouldn't this, along with the other numerous talks on ECS that were made before Unity copyrighted it, be enough to challenge the copyright and have it revoked? Or is that not how copyright works?

BradleyUffner ,

The patent wouldn't be for any ECS; it would have to be for a specific implementation. The post may match the implementation, and invalidate the patent, but just being an ECS wouldn't be enough.

MadhuGururajan ,

Corporate loves to steal ideas and patent it/copyright it so nobody else gets to steal it next, even the original author of a technique.

zib ,
@zib@kbin.social avatar

Don't forget the perk of forcing others to license the technology if they want to use it themselves.

Mikina ,

They did that to Parsec. Their SDK was once an openly accessible and amazing alternative for Steam Remote, which (In my experience) worked better and was easy to integrate into Unity.

Then Unity bought them, closed-sourced, and if you want access to the SDK, you have to ask for it and they have to approve it.

We tried that three years ago, mentioning that we're just a team of students working in school on a two-player only coop project that could really use a multiplayer we can't implement.

This is their response, and I'm still salty about it to this day:

Thanks for reaching out about Parsec! You mentioned in your comments that you were interested in SDK. SDK starts out at $1million. I think upgrading to our Teams plan might assist with the lag issues you're experiencing with your team.
Our Teams subscription starts art $35 per user.
Please let me know if you have any further questions you have.

sirdorius OP ,

This is the point of patents. Privatize technology that would benefit all and then ask rent from people using it. Then make money without doing shit, except for the odd enforcement (through lawsuits). Just feudalism updated to the modern age.

AdmiralShat ,

One more reason to add to the list to not support Unity as a company.

saintshenanigans ,

Been learning godot and thankful for it every day we hear something new about this company

CodexArcanum , (edited )

Software patents are such evil bullshit. As if ECS hadn't been developed 20 years earlier and described in numerous papers and GDC talks after.

sirdorius OP ,

Yeah, I forgot to mention in my original post that ECS was extensively described and already in use by many private commercial engines (like Overwatch) at the time when the patent came out. Absolutely ridiculous patent that shows why the whole system is broken.

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