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Zaldaryon edited this page Jul 24, 2026 · 2 revisions

Legal

Game Ownership

Vintage Story is developed and published by Anego Studios. All game assets, textures, sounds, models, and the original client binaries are the intellectual property of Anego Studios. Optimum does not distribute, bundle, or claim ownership of these files.

What Optimum Distributes

Optimum releases include:

  • Optimum source code (patches, launcher, patcher, build scripts) — GPL-3.0 + Commons Clause
  • VintagestoryLib.Donor.dll — compiled from the decompiled + patched engine source. This DLL contains only Optimum's optimized method bodies; it is not a functional game binary and cannot run independently. It serves as the "donor" from which the Cecil patcher transplants methods into the user's local vanilla DLL at runtime.

Optimum does not distribute:

  • Game assets (textures, models, sounds, JSON definitions)
  • Complete functional game binaries
  • Account credentials or authentication bypass

How It Works Legally

  1. The user owns a legitimate Vintage Story license and has the game installed.
  2. Optimum's launcher reads the user's local VintagestoryLib.dll (never distributed).
  3. The Cecil patcher transplants optimized method bodies from VintagestoryLib.Donor.dll into a patched copy.
  4. The patched copy lives in .optimum/cache/ on the user's machine — never uploaded or shared.
  5. The vanilla DLL remains unmodified on disk.

What Optimum Owns

Optimum's original contribution is:

  • The performance patches (source diffs in patches/)
  • The launcher and caching logic (Optimum.Launcher/)
  • The Cecil patcher (Optimum.Patcher/)
  • The installer scripts (scripts/)
  • Optimized shader replacements (sources/shaders/)
  • Build infrastructure and documentation

What Optimum Does Not Own

  • Game assets (textures, models, sounds, JSON block/item definitions)
  • The original unmodified client binaries
  • The Vintage Story name and logo (used only for compatibility identification)

License

Optimum is licensed under GPL-3.0 with the Commons Clause:

  • GPL-3.0: You may use, modify, and redistribute the source. Copyleft applies — derivative works carry the same license.
  • Commons Clause: You may not sell Optimum or a product whose value derives from it.
  • Vendor Exception: Anego Studios has perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free permission to use, modify, and incorporate Optimum patches into their products without the Commons Clause restriction.

A Valid License is Required

Optimum requires a legitimate Vintage Story account. The client authenticates with Anego Studios' servers on launch, same as vanilla. There is no offline mode, no license bypass, no authentication circumvention.

Relationship to Anego Studios

Optimum is an independent community project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or associated with Anego Studios. The Vendor Exception ensures that any optimization Optimum develops can be freely incorporated upstream if Anego Studios chooses.

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