You know, the right (and by that I mean wrong) crowd would do horrifying things to Clippy. Just sayin’.
Foone, lover of 3D Movie Maker and creator of goddamn nightmare keyboards, woke up one day and decided “Why not? What’s the worst that can happen?”, and tweeted out the following to Microsoft:
…and continued the thread by laying out reasons why it would genuinely be a good thing for them to do. Notably, though, the case was made that a lot of movies created in the program can’t be read by modern players, meaning they’re effectively consigned to the dustbin of history without it.
This, coincidentally, actually worked. Microsoft’s Scott Hanselman quote retweeted Foone’s request and dropped a GitHub link to the source code, crediting the Microsoft Open Source Office for their efforts.
Which means anybody can now download the program to mess around with. Though, admittedly, it’s not likely going to be smooth sailing on any modern PC’s. That’s where our above-mentioned keyboard Frankenstein comes in. Foone has plans to update the program to function on modern hardware, and said the following to PC Gamer:
I’m expecting I’ll get the basic modernized version in the next month to a few months, depending on how many issues I run into.
Foone
Foone’s had a love for the program since first using it back in 1996, and began crafting addons for it in 2001. Foone is also, naturally, part of the dedicated fanbase for the defunct program, and is part of an unofficial forum that is currently fist-pumping with joy.
This all works out, thankfully, as the engine 3D Movie Maker runs on, BRender, recently had its source code released. And wouldn’t you know it, Foone was also a part of that happening. Which means that it’s pretty much clear skies ahead for 3DMM working on modern hardware. Foone wants the program to be as accessible as possible, regardless of what your use case for it might be.
Chances are, you’ve seen at least one movie made in the program. If I were to describe the look of the sort of things you can make in it, that description would be “aesthetic AF”. Notably, Jerma985 created Rat Movie: Mystery of the Mayan Treasure in 3D Movie Maker. And probably went through some sort of nightmare getting it to a point that it could be uploaded to YouTube.
Source: PC Gamer
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