Most of the tools we produce are open-source.
You can view the source code of IW4x on GitHub.
You can also view the source code of our other mods here, and the source code of other less important tools here.
IW5-Mod is the exception as it’s the only client that is currently closed-source.
Historically, all of our clients (and most of our tools) were previously open-source under XLabs. So keeping those programs open-source made sense to us.
IW5-Mod was initially an experimental client created by momo5502 in 2019. It gained attention in 2020 when Plutonium IW5 adopted its code base for the relaunch of the Plutonium IW5 client. Do you remember ChaiScript? It was a feature of IW5-Mod before we integrated the GSC compiler into the clients. In 2021, I also began privately working on IW5-Mod before joining the Plutonium development team. My primary focus was to introduce features that were enjoyable to implement on both singleplayer and multiplayer.
I believe that open-sourcing a program like IW5-Mod would harm both AlterWare and Plutonium IW5 (which is also closed-source) for various reasons.
LICENSING
IW5-Mod is based on work that was licensed under the MIT License. This means we are not required to open-source our work. However, momo5502 later changed the license to the GPLv3 License. To protect ourselves, our code was rebased on top of the original IW5-Mod repository as it was before the LICENSE file was changed. Consequently, IW5-Mod is entirely based on MIT-licensed code and code changes made by me. By keeping those changes private, AlterWare is not in violation of the MIT License. The GPLv3 License does not apply to us, as we have not incorporated any code added to the original repository after the LICENSE was changed.
OTHER REASONS
The reason I am saying this is because there are other “developers” who have shown interest in creating clones that copy our clients, essentially aiming to offer the same features under a different brand. We are aware that the primary group working on the IW5 engine is doing so privately, using a closed-source fork of IW5M, an old client developed by NTA. I think it is unjust that they could copy our source code while maintaining theirs as private.
Everybody in the community knows who these people are. Their entire source code was leaked in 2021, and their client was once again proven to be an almost identical duplicate of NTA’s open-source client (with fewer features, oddly enough).
In conclusion, considering the ongoing turmoil within the IW5 modded clients scene, I maintain a strong belief that open-sourcing IW5-Mod would be a bad idea.
We are not gatekeepers of knowledge. If anyone has questions about the IW5 engine (or any of our other clients, for that matter), they can reach out to us on Discord. This project is a hobby for us and everything we provide is free of charge, we are not obligated to answer to anyone. However, if you ask us nicely, we are usually more than happy to help if we can.
Edit 2025:
We recently had a discussion with a staff member from the Tekno Moderation and Support team. While the original purpose of this conversation was unrelated, this topic became part of the discussion. The Tekno staff member pointed out that, as of 2025, it is almost impossible to prove who wrote which patch and from which client certain elements originated. Consequently, I have no concrete evidence to determine which code was written at what time or by whom. This is because all the clients at the time were closed-source, and Git may or may not have been used. Additionally, any reuploads of the source code could have had their Git history erased due to the uploader starting from a clean repository.
In an effort to demonstrate good faith where it is due, I am revising my statement regarding Tekno being “an almost identical copy of IW5M.” We have no concrete evidence to support this claim, and we will neither attempt to find such evidence nor pursue this claim any further.
We will strive to move away from hostile relationships with other clients and respect their wishes if they prefer to keep their communities “isolated” (in the sense of each team focusing on their own work). However, if there is ever an opportunity to restore a good relationship between projects, I hope this serves as a step in the right direction.
That said, for the previously stated reasons, we do not plan to change the status of the visibility of the IW5-Mod source code.
