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OpenFrag - An Open Source FPS 120

OpenFrag was founded in May 2003 and aims to create an open source first person shooter with commercial grade quality. All participants are volunteers and use some of their spare time to help in the development process. The project was recently featured last month at the Finnish game exhibition XPlay 2006. Some of the project's textures have also been featured in the news at BlenderNation, it looks as if there is a promising future for these developers.
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OpenFrag - An Open Source FPS

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  • Ugly (Score:2, Funny)

    by Ramble ( 940291 )
    As with all open source software, it's pretty damn ugly.
    • Re:Ugly (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Of course it's ugly. It just started. Polish comes after functionality is in.
      • "Of course it's ugly. It just started. Polish comes after functionality is in."


        For once I actually agree with an AC! I much prefer a functional V1.0 game that has to grow a little in the graphics department to a gorgeous game with one level.

      • which provokes the question: "why is this in any way newsworthy at this point in time?"

        starting a project and having dreams may be some kind of accomplishement in itself, but it's by so many magnitudes smaller than sticking to a project long (and skillfully) enough to achive something like nexius (which i still found very lacking last time i checked, mostly because of squishy controls) that it hardly matters any more than stories about overbalancing sacks of raw food in foreign countries. the only thing tha
      • You really should design for internationalization from the the start, and not try to hack it on later.
      • Re:Ugly (Score:2, Insightful)

        by PHPfanboy ( 841183 )
        Polish comes after functionality is in.

        I'd have thought that an English version first would enable more developers to participate... ... I thank yooooow

      • Re:Ugly (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Tim Browse ( 9263 )

        Compare and contrast:

        It just started. Polish comes after functionality is in.

        with:

        OpenFrag was founded in May 2003

        ...unless they spent 3 years just talking about it. Hey, this is an open source project, right..? Hm...

      • Re:Ugly (Score:3, Funny)

        by n3v ( 412497 )
        Luckily I was born Polish!
      • Re:Ugly (Score:3, Funny)

        by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 )
        So it starts out ugly and then later they make the ability to speak Polish required to play it?

        This is never going to fly.
    • Re:Ugly (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thelost ( 808451 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:17PM (#15668260) Journal
      as with all open software, you have the chance to change this :) put on your artist hat and get your brushes in gear. If you are not of an artistic bent, then perhaps you could make some suggestions and constructive criticism of the project.
    • Artists can't eat good video games. Maybe a donation center just for open source art (models, skins etc) needs to be established with a system for comissioning artists renderings.
    • XGL (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MarkByers ( 770551 )
      As with all open source software, it's pretty damn ugly.

      It seems that you have never heard of XGL [wikipedia.org].

      Now you have. :)
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • I can see you haven't actaully tried it. You can't judge the beauty of XGL from looking at static screenshots (if you do that, you only see the applications running, you are not looking at XGL). It's the stunning effects and animations that make your desktop interesting and also more intuitive.
        • Re:XGL (Score:4, Informative)

          by MarkByers ( 770551 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @02:01PM (#15668702) Homepage Journal
          Watch a video of it here [google.com] and you might get a better idea of what XGL is.

          More videos here [novell.com] and here [novell.com].
          • seen videos, was not impressed, at least in terms of beauty.

            i guess it's just that some people correlate beauty and novelty more and some correlate those terms less. call it taste if everything else fails.
          • Isn't that more of a demonstration of Compiz, more than XGL? XGL just running Metacity or whatever looks much the same, if a little rougher around the edges.

      • As with all open source software, it's pretty damn ugly.

        It seems that you have never heard of XGL.

        Not helping.

    • Re:Ugly (Score:5, Informative)

      by Ant P. ( 974313 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:33PM (#15668416)
      There are a few exceptions [alientrap.org].
    • No wonder! It's been slashdotted! :P
    • OpenFrag doesn't seem to be from the ugliest end (though it definitely isn't from the prettiest end, either, far from it).

      If you want to see hilariously, sacrilegiously ugly stuff, check out the old FreeCraft Media Project (I don't know if it still works in Stratagus though). I really need to thank those people - I'm a big fan of Warcraft II, yet found the whole thing pretty amusing in so-bad-it's-so-good way, also because this thing is a perfect slap on the face of Vivendi and Blizzard for the whole bnet

  • Does this bring http://parsec.org/ [parsec.org] to mind for anyone else?
  • Ramble's right, that's the very reason I 3 Apple. They take the awesomeness that is open source and polish it up for me.
    • Re:Right (Score:5, Funny)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:23PM (#15668311) Homepage Journal
      Ramble's right, that's the very reason I 3 Apple

      You know, if you use < instead of &lt; when you want to insert a less-than symbol someplace, then your <3 ends up looking more like you're teabagging than hearting Apple.

      • Call me when slashdot is revolutionized by the feature every other site has had for over a decade - an edit button.
        • Re:Right (Score:4, Informative)

          by linvir ( 970218 ) * on Thursday July 06, 2006 @02:26PM (#15668950)
          Insightful Comment by some-user (44522) [localhost] on 06/06/06 18:10 (#134324 [localhost]) (Score: 5, Insightful)
          This is a very Insightful comment which will soon be modded up. Isn't it great? Huzzah!
          Later that day, the user returns and edits his +5 comment:
          Insightful Comment by some-user (44522) [localhost] on 06/06/06 18:10 (#134324 [localhost]) (Score: 5, Insightful)
          About GNAA: GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS. Are you GAY? Are you a NIGGER? Are you a GAY NIGGER? If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions...[truncated]

          This issue could be prevented by having moderation points taken back off a comment when it's edited. In this case, people would be discouraged from moderating as their work could be deleted at someone else's whim. Even if you returned their points to them after the fact, this would in turn create issues with newly issued points and metamoderation.

          Long story short: you sound like you think that this idea hasn't ocurred to anyone before you. It has, and there are plenty of reasons [slashdot.org] that you can't edit comments on Slashdot.

          • Long story short: you sound like you think that this idea hasn't ocurred to anyone before you. It has, and there are plenty of reasons [slashdot.org] that you can't edit comments on Slashdot.

            On some other sites, this is solved by (rather short) editing time limits. Enough to correct spelling mistakes etc, but far from enough to have the time to get modded up.
            • On some other sites, this is solved by (rather short) editing time limits. Enough to correct spelling mistakes etc, but far from enough to have the time to get modded up.

              On this site, this is solved by having a preview button, and if you can't get it right with that, then fuck ya.

              I get things wrong too, typically because I forget to use preview, so fuck me, too.

              Er, not literally.

          • So simply remove the option to edit a comment once it has been moderated.
    • What the fuck does Apple have to do with this?
  • The Actual Site (Score:4, Informative)

    by Kwesadilo ( 942453 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:24PM (#15668323)

    The project site is located at http://openfrag.org/ [openfrag.org], although I believe it is in the process of being slashdotted right now.

    I wonder whether the first iteration of the game will be traditional or tactical? I assume that the designers want the engine to be good enough that it can be customized to do both. But what kind of game do they actually want to make? More like Quake or more like Counterstrike?

    • Or... how about: Something -completely- different from the ones you mentioned.
      The problem with these Open Source games is that they lack quality (as in, visual quality): When having to choose between CS (which can be bought for about 5 bucks nowadays) and this engine replicating the exact same gameplay: Most people wouldn't bother with this.

      One of the few ways how such a project can be picked up imo, is if it's different than the rest of what's out there: And for projects like these there are no constra
      • I agree that they could go in really any direction with this, including making a game that is not entirely an FPS. Quake and CS are, IMO, classic examples of what I would consider to be the two main families of pure FPSs. I can't think of any other kinds now, but I'm sure they're out there. (Maybe WW2 gets its own division?) Anyway, I get what you mean about the potential for this to be different. That said, if its solid and fun, I wouldn't decline to play the completed product just because it sticks to tra

  • by Vandilizer ( 201798 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:25PM (#15668338)
    Frag count

    www.Slashdot.org: 1
    www.openfrag.org: 0

    Slashdot wins this round...OpenFrag is dead.
  • by Brothernone ( 928252 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:27PM (#15668361) Homepage
    Ugly or not it'll probably be much more fun than some other major titles. Major software houses don't usually have a fucos on making a fun game, it's all about timelines and profit. I think people taking their own time to make something they want to play would at least be worth a look at.
    • No, it won't be more fun than any decent game. While Open Source is great, there are serious problems with the anarchy of it. Most coders seem to only want to code the sexy stuff; very few are willing to bash their heads against the wall for hours tying to figure out some bug that turns out to be an incorrect variable in a recursive 80-element formula which determines a cube map texture coordinate. So the routine is killed, the graphics quality drops and progress toward completion is made. Even Tux Racer st
    • It's called modding. You take a loverly engine that someone else coded and add your own gameplay. (I'm talkin to you Doom3!)

      What does an open source engine bring to the package?
    • Ugly or not it'll probably be much more fun than some other major titles.

      Erm, actually no: Point me to an open source (FPS-)engine that -isn't- an exact copy of games that have allready been tried and done.
      Most of these engines only have deathmatch, with a few gems of them sporting some alternatives gametypes.

      It's not that I want to discourage people from downloading it: I think you're right that if you're able to download games like these (and you like them) you always should give them a try becaus
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I can see your point, but I think in order for companies to make a profit, they do have to focus on the "fun factor" as well. My concern with this project is that it'll be like 90% of the FOSS volunteer projects out there. (Mind you, I am QA, so I'm not going to sugar coat this much) Which includes:
      1. Lack of documentation (or lack of documentation that tells you what you need to know, or lack of documentation that is written for someone other than the volunteering developers)
      2. Not providing what is markete
  • Cube (Score:3, Informative)

    by AndyG314 ( 760442 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:28PM (#15668371) Homepage
    Cube and it's sequal are two great open source fps games... http://wouter.fov120.com/cube/ [fov120.com]

    • There was also one called Legends: The Coming of a New Age, which was an open source rip of Tribes. It was getting pretty good, the demos were fun, and there was a decent community surrounding it, but then it evaporated.

      I miss tribes.
  • by MarkByers ( 770551 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:35PM (#15668438) Homepage Journal
    If you like the sound of this then you might also be interested in Cube [cubeengine.com].
    • by Affenkopf ( 949241 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:47PM (#15668575)
      Since Cube is not further developed anymore you might want to check out it's successor Sauerbraten [sauerbraten.org]
      • Accoring to Sauerbraten's Sourceforge status page, it is still in a pre-alpha stage. In other words, you should expect that it probably won't work properly. I haven't tried it though. Maybe their status page is ust not up-to-date? On the other hand, Cube is mature.

        For most software, not being developed further is a bad sign, but for games it is completely normal that when a game is stable and playable, it is released and then no longer developed further, apart from perhaps some bug fixes if the error affect
        • You really have to keep software up to date, otherwise it'll just end up unreadable like http://advsys.net/ken/klab/labflsrc.zip [advsys.net] (yes, you'll want to check the source).

          This is especially important for a crossplatform application that will have to support the newest architectures that weren't even conceived when the application ceased development.

          Of course, it's a pain in the ass, so why bother ;)
    • As long as we are bringing this up - check out Tremulous. [tremulous.net] It is kind of like and RTS and FPS at the same time. It is tough to imagine (it was for me) until you experience it. Truly innovative gameplay really.

      Alien Arena [planetarena.org] is similar to CUBE - good multiplayer, virtually no single player.

      All three have source available and are available on Windows and Linux.
      • Tremulous is excellent and really rather addictive, i used to be a big fan of onslaught in UT2k4 but i tend to find Tremulous more interesting.

        Not sure that i'd agree with the comparison of Alien Arena 2006 to CUBE, Alien arena is quite nice to look at and a fast paced deathmatcher based on Quake(2 or 3, i forget), for some reason there aren't any good screenshots of it on the homepage so http://www.ratiatum.com/img/logiciel/502/502.jpg [ratiatum.com] will give you a better idea. CUBE is mildly entertaining but Sauerbrat [sauerbraten.org]
  • I wonder how this will differ from nexuix which, as far as I am aware, is pretty much this...
  • I like their effort, but it doesn't come close to, for instance, the Quake III source (released under the GNU license).

    Besides being graphically superior, Quake III also has the advantage of alot of tutorials/documents being available (mostly made by the community).

    Allthough I have to give credit to Ogre [ogre3d.org] (which this engine seems to be based on), which was one of the few engines which had some nice wiki's/community to help you through.

    But hey, as said, I like their effort, and maybe within a few build
    • So ... if the Quake engine has been released under the GPL, why does this project exist?

      Why not build on and improve Quake II's engine, instead of just reinventing the wheel (3d engine) all over again? Does the world really need another engine, when there's a perfectly good FPS one available that's both free and a lot more mature?

      I don't get it.

      If it's just a for-the-hell-of-it project, that's fine, but the summary makes it sound like it's somehow creating something new, as if an open source FPS doesn't alr
      • You are asking "Why create a game engine from scratch when you have a perfectly good six year old, multiplayer only game engine available?" You might as well ask ID why they didn't use the Quake III engine for Doom 3.
        • Maybe I was playing a different Quake II, but I'm pretty sure that it had both a single player campaign AND multiplayer in it. If for some reason you meant Quake III - it had several single player games built on its engine, ie Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.
        • A FPS engine that can do multiplayer play can almost certainly do single player play...I don't think there's such a thing as a "multiplayer only" engine. Actually, a single-player-only one ought to be a lot simpler (if the multiplayer version already has support for bots/AIs).

          I just question whether rewriting an engine from scratch is a good idea, versus putting that effort towards improving an existing engine. If the Quake II engine is insufficent today, update/fix it. It's very hard to believe that writin
  • -1 Redundant (Score:3, Informative)

    by MrZaius ( 321037 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:39PM (#15668493) Homepage
    http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/ [alientrap.org]
    http://www.cubeengine.com/ [cubeengine.com]
    ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/quake2.zip [idsoftware.com]
    http://www.itplaysdoom.com/ [itplaysdoom.com]

    It's not like there aren't other FPSs and engines available. Am I nuts, or would someone with an interest in game design and F/OSS be better off creating derivative work from those engines?
    • Thats like saying... Why doesn't Apple, FreeBSD, and Linux quit making operating systems. I mean we already have Windows.

      I don't think your nuts, I just think you are looking at it from the wrong side. Derivative works improve said work. (Linux kernel 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6) Creating from scratch allows for core innovation. (FPS engines, Doom, Quake, Quake 3, etc)
  • Wheeee-hah! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Eil ( 82413 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:54PM (#15668652) Homepage Journal
    Fragged their web server!
  • One of the things that made Elephant Dream, the recently released 3D short movie that was created (almost) with only Open Source Tools, so interesting was that it focused on doing it completly the 'Open Source'-way, free tools whereever possible and all source and data was released as well. This lead to quite some nice improvments in Blender, which was used for most of the work and a whole lot of data to look at and browse around to learn from. So the question is, how does OpenFrag compare to that? We alre
  • http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=82471 [sourceforge.net]

    I couldn't get it to work; maybe somebody else can. Seems a bit iffy about card detection; it kept thinking my nVidia Geforce 6600GT was an ATI Radeon 9600.

    Also, I think somebody needs to have a little talk with them about what "open source" means. Unless Bush and Evanescence are really big fans of their work, I don't think they have permission to be including their songs along with their tech demos...
  • I tried to sign up for the forums, after I didn't find an obvious email address for a webmaster, but (and this is before any Slashdotting took place) I got an error message instead. If I knew where to send it, I'd like to send a diff from their current home page text which would include at least a few spelling fixes, etc. Editing is fun [wikipedia.org] :) -- but not when it's a bother ...

    timothy
  • It will be interesting to see if an open source development model can make a game 'cheat proof'.
  • Priority #1 for Open Source Games: Make it easy to edit! I've tried to edit CrystalSpace, and it is a massive pain in the ass. If you make decent open source game engine that is easy to edit, the levels / adventures will show up eventually. Notice that there are quite a few different texture sets for Wargus/Freecraft - this is because all you have to do is edit the images! If you know of OSS games that are easy to edit, I'd love to hear about them.
  • by MrCopilot ( 871878 ) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @03:21PM (#15669646) Homepage Journal
    Surviving the Slashdotting at: http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?gro up_id=82471 [sourceforge.net] Mental note, Add to
    Warsow. . . . .http://warsow.net/ [warsow.net]
    Nexuiz. . . . .http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/ [alientrap.org]
    OpenArena . . .http://cheapy.deathmask.net/ [deathmask.net]
    Legends . . . .http://legendsthegame.net/ [legendsthegame.net]
    Tremulous . . .http://tremulous.net/ [tremulous.net]

    And the rest : http://www.icculus.org/lgfaq/gamelist.php [icculus.org]

  • Totally wrong moment for a slashdot... :P Demo is about to be released at the end of this summer. About the media, it's all licensed CC-BY so don't worry about only the source being open :) I feel sorry for our webserver... Currently i'm uploading 2 trailers to the sf.net project page.. they were on our webserver.. but well, that one is kinda dead.
  • And it's quite interesting, there's a few good looking ones which I've played a few times. But it's all come back to gameplay and I'm afraid that the gawky looking Block Attack [sourceforge.net] has taken waaay too much of my time lately. Only after completing all of the stage levels could I stop playing it to any serious degree.

    The graphics however, are obviously created by a programmer...
  • It's beautiful.. start with that as a base and go from there.
  • Oh why must every another open source game project name begin with "Open".
  • GTA was written by a large company under direct supervision, and look at the insane crap they hid in there, and the sex scenes. Spicy!

    Can you imagine now, a game being written by the /. community? There would be so much hidden pr0n, hidden sex scenes, and only God knows what else. I shiver at the thought.
    • "Can you imagine now, a game being written by the /. community? There would be so much hidden pr0n, hidden sex scenes, and only God knows what else. I shiver at the thought."

      Only that with it being open source, you can't call it hidden.

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