On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 6:11 PM, Stefan Dösinger stefandoesinger@gmx.at wrote:
You may find this helpful: http://code.google.com/p/nvidia-texture-tools/
Wrt the legalese check the last question here: http://code.google.com/p/nvidia-texture-tools/wiki/FAQ
Using a proven library for s3tc handling is a good idea even without the legal troubles. s3tc decompression isn't rocket science, but s3tc compression is harder than it seems. Nvidia, ATI and Microsoft have fought a long battle for the best s3tc compression algorithm. For a long time s3tc was considered bad because there was no really good compressor - so I recommend not to reinvent the wheel here.
So what they are saying is that Nvidia has a license on the s3tc patent for use in those tools but if we would rip their code out we wouldn't be covered unless (but that is gray area) we put all their image code in wine (which would be impossible since it is C++). Perhaps if we want to be safe we could ask s3 for a license for use in Wine?
Roderick