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Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Planeshift Enters Open Testing 164

Posted by timothy from the does-it-have-balloon-mode dept.
josePhoenix writes "You may have heard about Planeshift in this article, but now they have finished their period of closed testing and everyone can play/test features! This version of the open source (except the art license) mmorpg includes combat, a much bigger world than the previous version, and many other features that bring it closer to the level of commercial games. The project leader, Luca 'Talad' Pancallo has posted some interesting statistics on the making of Planeshift Crystal Blue on their main page, including that they have 'a virtual team made of about 40 people distributed in 25 countries.' Read the good news and other info about the project, and download the client from this page."
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Planeshift Enters Open Testing More

Planeshift Enters Open Testing

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  • Speaking of a virtual team consisting of different countries. I have the following question: Which country is leading the game developement industry?

  • Coralized Link (Score:5, Informative)

    by WMD_88 ( 843388 ) <kjwolff8891@yahoo.com> on Saturday December 25, 2004 @01:58PM (#11181346) Homepage Journal
    http://www.planeshift.it.nyud.net:8090/main_01.htm l [nyud.net]

    Because you know it'll happen...let's link it early, ok?

  • I said it before (Score:4, Interesting)

    by eSavior ( 767078 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @01:58PM (#11181350)
    and I will say it again, MMOs are one of the few genres I could see open source taking hold in. Unlike other genres such as fighting games and racing games they arent a quick consume product. They require constant updates and new content, and frequency of updates is definatly one of OS's strong points.

    • Re:I said it before (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Zangief ( 461457 )
      Yeah, except that new content would be difficult to produce. Namely, graphics are the problem. Graphical designers aren't too hot on the open source way of doing things.

    • Re:I said it before (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      MMOs are one of the few genres I could see open source taking hold in.

      The term MMO is silly; the genre didn't begin with 3D implementation. It was even commercialized well before the Internet was. Point being, the best MUDs have always been open source and so your comment is jaw-droppingly ill-informed. DIKU code is 15 years old now, older than any commercial MMOs except for maybe Habitat and Shadows of Yserbius, and pay-MUDs. [And there was even some controversy over whether Everquest (what 99% of other
      • and just to note everquest wasn't first non text based, it was third or fourth that i know of, before where:

        ultima online - 2d, isometric
        the realm - 2d side
        meridian 59 - 2d 3d first person

        everquest was just the biggest, and at the time it came out, or soon after wards MMO games started to become more "mainstream" so lots started to pop up.

  • MMORPGs classified as games? (Score:4, Funny)

    by trezor ( 555230 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:00PM (#11181354) Homepage
    • mmorpg includes combat ... and many other features that bring it closer to the level of commercial games

    You mean MMORPGs is classified as games? As entertainment? I always figured they were social death stars, but ok.

  • Torrent? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Xeth ( 614132 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:01PM (#11181359) Journal
    Putting a 217 meg file on Slashdot is just cruel. Anyone got a torrent?

    • Re:Torrent? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Kalak ( 260968 )
      Not legal by the Planeshift license:

      2. You may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, sell, participate in the transfer or sale or reproduce, create Derivative Works from, distribute, perform, display or in any way exploit any of the Material released under this License unless expressly permitted by the PlaneShift Team.

      So much for the torrent I was going to make....

      • Fascist non-code content license binds authors too (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Frank T. Lofaro Jr. ( 142215 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @06:30PM (#11182180) Homepage
        Authors of art work, music, etc are required to assign copyright and are prohibited from using their own work (except as a portfolio to show employers) as a condition of being a full contributor to the project! The Joint Copyright isn't enough to be a full contributor. Would it have been too much to give the author an unlimited license to THEIR OWN WORK. Slashdot people get mad at employers who put these restrictions on people's own work, they should also do so regarding volunteer projects.

        So if I had something non-code related to contribute, I have to agree to not distribute my own work, even for free, in order to contribute to a project for which I wouldn't even be paid?

        Are they crazy?

        They are locking themselves out from even using free content. I would not suggest author's sell their soul (and the right to distribute THEIR OWN WORK) to this project.

        If I create something, unless I'm doing it for a paying job, I damn well want the right to do with it as I wish, and not be told I can't be a full contributor to a volunteer project unless I agree to being shackled and enslaved and prohibited from free use of my own work!

        If I give a gift of content (I will not say "intellectual property", there is no such thing, just a legal interest in gov't enforced monopolies, which isn't actually property in any non-legalistic sense) I shouldn't be punished for my generousity by being told what I can't do with my own work.

        That isn't in the Christmas spirit, or in any spirit of giving.
        • That is an insightful post.. Perhaps you should post some of your reasoning on the game forums and see if everyone can get Talad's attention to find out what his reasoning is.. I have to agree that the license is excessively (and perhaps needlessly) prohibitive, especially in allowing artists rights to their own work, but I am no lawyer and don't really have the sort of influence necessary to make thigs change...

          josePhoenix
          • While it may be insighful, as the authors should be allowed what license to contribute their license under especially if they're not paid to produce it, and also should be allowed to keep rights over their work, I'd suggest that the subject line is hard to get past. No one is likely to be converted by calling them fascists. "Hum, I'm a fascit, I've never been called that before." A less trolling tone might let the content make its point, though, as I believe the point is a valid one.

  • Notice! Server Maintenence Window! (Score:4, Informative)

    by josePhoenix ( 843454 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:01PM (#11181363) Homepage
    Our server sponsor, fragnetics, jas just told us that their internet connection provider will be conducting maintenence during the next few hours... A bit of ill timing on my part, but it should be over in a bit. josePhoenix

  • Windows only? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Quixote ( 154172 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:02PM (#11181364) Homepage Journal
    I checked the download page, and it appears to be Windows only.

    Not being 733t enough to port it to Linux in one of my spare evenings, I have to ask: is anyone working on a Linux port? Is the game engineered to allow such an endeavor?

    On a broader note: are there any MMORPGs for Linux? Not that I would play one; but a decent OpenSource MMORPG kernel could be used as a learning/information delivery platform in interesting ways.

    --
    Who's buying what... [buffalo.edu] ;-)

    • Re:Windows only? (Score:4, Informative)

      by josePhoenix ( 843454 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:08PM (#11181379) Homepage
      It is fully linux compatible and many developers do their developing and testing on linux, the only thing is that there are no binaries for linux avaiable at the moment, but it is fairly simple to build from sources. Currently discussion of building planeshift is done in the #planeshift-build channel on freenode, and a link to the build guide is in the topic of #planeshift on freenode. Planeshift aims to be just that, a good, cross platform framework for MMORPGs as well as an independent game. josePhoenix
    • It runs on lots of OS's, including *nixes. They just don't have binaries for other OS's yet. Just give 'em some time.

      See http://www.crystalspace3d.org/ [crystalspace3d.org]

    • Re:Windows only? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by andrew.craig ( 843468 )
      Actaully PlaneShift has about 60-70% of its development done in a linux environment. I do all of my work in Gentoo now ( was using Redhat 9 before ) and it'a pretty seemless working with the others that are using MSVC. I am currently working on an install script that will download and build everything for that players system. If I was smart enough I'd create an ebuild as well :)
      • an ebuild would be much appreciated from many gentoo users like me! :)
        • Nevermind, it IS in there....
          bash-2.05b# emerge -p planeshift

          These are the packages that I would merge, in order:

          Calculating dependencies ...done!
          [ebuild N ] dev-games/ode-0.039
          [ebuild N ] dev-games/crystalspace-20030413-r1
          [ebuild N ] dev-util/jam-2.5
          [ebuild N ] dev-games/cel-20030413-r2
          [ebuild N ] games-rpg/planeshift-0.2.010-r1

    • Re:Windows only? (Score:3, Informative)

      by bflong ( 107195 )
      There is Eternal Lands [eternal-lands.com] which has a native Linux version as well.

    • Re:Windows only? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jorrit ( 19549 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:18PM (#11181409) Homepage
      Many of the PS devs actually use linux themselves. So the game works very well on linux (and MacOS/X). It is just that making a linux distro is a bit more work then a windows distro. But it will come.

      In the mean time you can install the windows version and compile the linux version yourselves. After that copy the art from the windows version to the linux version.

      Greetings,

      • Re:Windows only? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by thelexx ( 237096 )
        I see no client source code anywhere and it doesn't look like the server code is ever intended to be released. There are no files on the Planeshift.it pages themselves or on the SourceForge pages linked to from that site under the 'How to download source' section of the 'Sources' page. More ominously, one glance at their licensing page reveals that this is absolutely NOT a true open source project and anybody expecting to derive another project from it can forget it.
        • After poking around some more, anon CVS access from SF is active and appears to have both client and server source. I still think the licensing sucks though! :)

        • Re:Windows only? (Score:2, Informative)

          by josePhoenix ( 843454 )
          There's a public cvs repository with all the source code, both server and client, and they have also separated their windowing system for crystal space into a separate module for other people to use. It is my understanding that the planeshift proprietary license only covers the art and rpg rule assets and all the source code is GPL'ed. You are allowed to create derivative works, you just cannot use the official art and rules.

          josePhoenix

        • Re:Windows only? (Score:2, Informative)

          by LeBleu ( 15782 )

          The source code is viewable in CVS on sourceforge [sourceforge.net]. I see directories for both client and server code. The pieces of code I looked at are under GPL, and written in C++.

          From reading their licensing page [planeshift.it], it looks like they are making all the client and server code of the game GPL, but all the art, game rules, etc. that make it a particular world are under a special proprietary license. They have a very good argument for why they chose the licensing style they have, though myself I think they are perhaps ove

          • The idea is for slight tweaks that they consider to be beneficial can be packed up in a diff and given to one of their many developers with cvs commit access, but if your tweaks aren't considered beneficial.. yeah, I guess you are a little stuck.

            As for custom clients, there was a discussion of this earlier on the forums, and the project director laid out a plan for beneficial modifications to the client to be reviewed and approved for use on the public server.

            Hope that answers some questions,
            josePhoenix
    • nope, been in gentoo's portage for ages. # emerge -p planeshift These are the packages that I would merge, in order: Calculating dependencies ...done! [ebuild N ] dev-games/crystalspace-0.98.4 [ebuild N ] games-rpg/planeshift-0.2.010-r1 ;p
      • This is the Molecular Blue release, the version number as listed on the download page is 0.3.004 (CB or Crystal Blue)

        There isn't an ebuild for this version yet.

        josePhoenix

    • Re:Windows only? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      are there any MMORPGs for Linux?
      crossfire [real-time.com]
      • Why is this informative?? We a talking about one Planeshift is a MMORPG for linux and a damn good one just try and download it and take a look.

  • Straight from the lion's den.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by rasjani ( 97395 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @02:11PM (#11181391) Homepage
    [19:54] [jani} you will be heavily hammered now
    [19:54] [joseChristmas} yay!
    [19:54] [joseChristmas} you just saw on slashdot?
    [19:54] [jani} yes.
    [19:55] [joseChristmas} I am the one responsible for that thingie }.}
    [19:55] [jani} yeah, i instantly recognized the nick =)
    [19:55] [joseChristmas} hehe
    [19:56] [chrischoo} oh dear why do u post on slashdot when we'er going to have a maintenance window?
    [19:56] [joseChristmas} you are?
    [19:56] [Cad|away} Hey chrischoo!
    [19:56] [chrischoo} yes, in the next 1 hr.
    [19:56] [joseChristmas} it should be on sf.net
    [20:00] [chrischoo} jani: we've been slashdotted on a couple of occasions. we know what it's like.
    [20:01] [chrischoo} hhahaha jose u posted the download link on slashdot?
    [20:01] [chrischoo} planeshift.it will be offline in a very short while lol!
    [20:01] [jani} chris: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/25/ 1728242&tid=209&tid=10
    [20:01] [jani} indeed.
    [20:02] [chrischoo} u can start timing now.
    [20:02] [chrischoo} we can start placing bets on how long planeshift.it will be available online.
    [20:03] [jani} lol, second post @ /. : Putting a 217 meg file on Slashdot is just cruel. Anyone got a torrent?
    [20:03] [joseChristmas} heh
    [20:03] [joseChristmas} I saw that
    [20:03] [chrischoo} jani: it's very very bad to link a 200MB file to slashdot. very very bad.
    • shush Jani! >.> no one was supposed to hear of that, but while we're at it... [13:03:43] chrischoo: well, its not a direct link. [13:03:45] 1000 visits per hour at least. [13:03:47] lehi: slashdot.org [13:03:57] close enough :P [13:04:32] chrischoo: This is nice :) [13:04:41] chrischoo: Maintain the line all you want :) [13:04:45] jahi: thx [13:05:01] well, then you can place the blame on the /. effect [13:07:00] jose: yay! yes yes!

  • Binary package for Linux (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why not use autopackage [autopackage.org] ? It just reached API stable phase. Inkscape and The Gimp already have .package files.

    For those that didn't hear about this before: autopackage is a cross-distro binary package with builtin dependency solving. Make the .package file executable, and just run the CLI or GUI installer. Should be better than Loki Installer, or even the one that aMSN uses.

    I'm starting to get tired of OSS projects-games releasing only sources to Linux systems. Stellarium and Vega Strike are other example

  • Other Download Locations (Score:5, Informative)

    by chrischoo ( 668921 ) on Saturday December 25, 2004 @03:11PM (#11181566) Homepage
    Some download mirrors here [fragnetics.com]

  • Wouldn't their proprietary "Planeshift License" that doesn't allow modification or use of their work outside their project be a violation of the GPL?

    Also, I agree about the source problems and client issues. There should not be a 220MB file on just one server like that - imagine what the /. effect would do - and besides, their server is probably slow anyway. BitTorrent all the way.

    They definitely need to make an actual source release; I don't like using CVS, I myself directly release everything. This

    • Now that's a cool idea.. a Planeshift livecd. But it wouldn't be current for very long and you'd have to update again each time you rebooted. They have made an actual release, it is only for windows though, and a linux package will probably be posted in the coming weeks. One drawback of the license is that no one can (legally) create a bittorrent without the approval of Luca Pancallo, the project leader, so everyone needs to pester him in IRC until he gives in. (Uh, ignore that...)

      I am no lawyer, so I can'
    • Umm.. it's not violating the GPL. Only the code is avaliable under the GPL, and you're free to do whatever you want with that. The things that aren't under the GPL are the art and the RPG rules, which the Planeshift team has determined are vital to keeping the game successful and unified. You're free to pick and choose what's released under the GPL and what's not, if it's your material. Hell, they could've decided that only certain source files were to be released under the GPL, and that would be perfec

      • You're free to pick and choose what's released under the GPL and what's not, if it's your material.

        They want that right even if it ISN'T THEIR OWN MATERIAL! Read the license - authors are required to agree to restrictions on their own use of their own content. *

        * Yes, there is a Joint Copyright license that doesn't bind the author, but the author is required to assign copyright and agree to the shackling of their own work - or they aren't allowed to be a full contributor - read the website and license.

  • Downloaded. Installed. Launched. App complained about missing MSVCR70.DLL. Couldn't find any documentation on this problem.

    Moved on.
    • You need the latest version of Microsoft C runtime libraries.

      Obviously one can get them at Microsoft's website.

    • Re:Meh. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Celeron1point2ghz ( 600925 )
      Did you try a google search for the DLL?

      It seems that it's an easy to find download. Here is one link I found for it-

      http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files.php/dllf iles/M/msvcr70.dll/download.html/ [dlldump.com]

      Scheiße!
      • Yeah, I eventually just googled the DLL and installed it.

        Kind of annoying, however, that they'd package a binary without a runtime library it needed.

  • license issues (Score:2, Informative)

    by oskie ( 324496 )
    I wasn't the first to discover the licensing issues, but I guess I was the first to report it to SourceForge. Of course I wrote the project maintainer first, asking if they had permission from SF to host the art files. The answer I got from the leader was that it was the other way around - they granted SF the right to distribute all their files... Unfortunately SF has been very slow working with this issue. See https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid = 200001&aid=1054384&group_id=1
  • I have mentioned some of them in other posts, but I summarize them here and also mention what appears to be an untruth in their license webpage.

    1. People are forbidden from using non-code content, even in other free projects. Legal, but nasty.
    2. Authors are required to allow themselves from being forbidden to use their own content as a condition of being a full contributor. They aren't allowed to contribute content they used in any other game, EVEN IF THEY HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO DO SO, EVEN IF THEY HAVE T
    • With their half-baked licensing scheme someone who contributes (FOR FREE!!!) loses a lot of rights associated with their work.. what the HELL is that about? Isn't OpenSource abour sharing and free-rights... not IP swindling 3 page license agreements and all this crap
      • so when the FSF asks you to assign copyright to them that's bullshit too?
        • so when the FSF asks you to assign copyright to them that's bullshit too?

          This is nothing like the FSF, who releases works assigned to them under the GPL and much more like the music industry, who release works assigned to them under restrictive licenses. Judging by all of your posts under this topic you have a massive problem seeing the difference.
    • No kiddin'. Their art licensing terms are, excuse my American, bullshit.
    • I was very excited when I first discovered Planeshift, and seriously considering contribution to the project, until I learned of their restrictive (and contradictory!) license terms. To me, Planeshift's schizophrenic licensing policy suggests an ulterior motive. Contrast to the genuinely Open Source game, The Battle for Wesnoth (http://wesnoth.org/ [wesnoth.org], a turn based strategy game), which hasn't had problems getting fine art content, or with "forking". I suspect one could find other similar examples.

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