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S&Box #282

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opened 2026年04月29日 00:37:17 +02:00 by Meowcat285 · 1 comment

Project Applicability

  • I have read the scope and this project fits into it

Project Name

S&Box

Project URL

https://sbox.game/

Project Source URL

https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-public

Information & Context

S&Box, developed by Facepunch, is currently billed as an open-source engine based on Valve's Source 2, and Facepunch claims it's similar to Godot in terms of user freedom. However, their marketing around it being open-source is extremely misleading. While the C# portion of the engine is open source, the C++ core is closed source. Most of the engine development happens in a private GitHub repo, with changes synced to sbox-public every few hours.

Another issue is confusion around what my rights actually are when building the engine from the public sources. While the C# code is under an MIT license, they specifically say the binaries that are downloaded during the build process are not under the MIT license with the following:

Certain native binaries in game/bin are not covered by the MIT license. These binaries are distributed under the s&box EULA. You must agree to the terms of the EULA to use them.

But the C# is so dependent on those closed-source binaries that you are completely unable to use the C# code without them. As a result, it might as well not even be licensed under the MIT license.

### Project Applicability - [x] I have read the scope and this project fits into it ### Project Name S&Box ### Project URL https://sbox.game/ ### Project Source URL https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-public ### Information & Context S&Box, developed by Facepunch, is currently billed as an open-source engine based on Valve's Source 2, and Facepunch claims it's similar to Godot in terms of user freedom. However, their marketing around it being open-source is extremely misleading. While the C# portion of the engine is open source, the C++ core is closed source. Most of the engine development happens in a private GitHub repo, with changes synced to sbox-public every few hours. Another issue is confusion around what my rights actually are when building the engine from the public sources. While the C# code is under an MIT license, they specifically say the binaries that are downloaded during the build process are not under the MIT license with the following: > Certain native binaries in `game/bin` are not covered by the MIT license. These binaries are distributed under the s&box EULA. You must agree to the terms of the EULA to use them. But the C# is so dependent on those closed-source binaries that you are completely unable to use the C# code without them. As a result, it might as well not even be licensed under the MIT license.

Also for reference, this is on the landing page for S&Box's webpage
image

Also for reference, this is on the landing page for S&Box's webpage ![image](/attachments/6b051c60-0185-4e41-a60c-b0b4353e5dc0)
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danb/isitreallyfoss#282
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