Since Obsidz designed a new rendering engine for NWN2 (Electron?), whose property is it? As an extention, will Obsidian be able to use it for free on different games or will it have to be loaned etc?

Well, I guess since Electron and all appendant tools are developed by Obsidian, it's also owned by Obsidian and may be used for future titles without any fees.

I don't think they can use it "for free" for any other project than Neverwinter Nights 2. It is based on Bioware's engine and should have some restrictions from that. Not 100% sure, but I think you have to construct the technology from the ground up yourself to be able to use it as you wish, at least commercially.

But parts that were competely rewritten should be theirs, like graphics engine and tools engine.

Now the question really is how tightly or loosely coupled Obsidian's parts pf the engine with Bioware's Aurora.

Edited February 7, 200619 yr by Diamond

Now the question really is how tightly or loosely coupled Obsidian's parts pf the engine with Bioware's Aurora.

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Depends on the overall structure, if the engine has a good design, which it appears to have as the obsidian folks have rewritten the render side of the engine, then technically it should be easy to move it to an in-house engine of similar design structure.

 

As for who it belongs to that is a legal question that's most likely in the contract that was drawn up.

 

I doubt we're actually going to find out who it belongs to most likely it'll only ever be used in NWN2, but lessons learned will be extrememly valuable for development of future titles at obsidian.

Edited February 8, 200619 yr by @\NightandtheShape/@