Open Source FPS Game Alien Arena 2009 Released

Alienkillerrace writes "The open sourced, freeware FPS game Alien Arena 2009 has been released (Windows and Linux). The improvements to the game engine are very significant, and have surely raised the bar for free games of this genre. All surfaces in the game are now rendered using GLSL, not only improving the visual quality, but the performance as well. Interesting new effects like post-process distortions using GLSL have been implemented, as well as light volumes, better per-pixel lighting (reminiscent of UT3), and shaded water. Equally notable is that the sound system has been completely rewritten using OpenAL, allowing for effects such as Doppler, and adding Ogg Vorbis support. The game is free to play and available for download on its official website. It has a stats system and a built-in IRC client in its front-end game browser."

Re:GLSL is .... ?

[KDR_11k]

(Open)GL Shader Language.

Slashdotted

[KermodeBear]

The main site seems to be slashdotted out of existence, but I was able to find a download link [gamershell.com] as GamersHell.

Re:GLSL is .... ?

[donscarletti]

GLSL stands for openGL Shader Language [wikipedia.org]. It's a high level way of specifying vertex programs (functions run on each vertex) and fragment programs (functions run on each pixel as it is drawn). Basically, it provides a language environment similar to c that can be used to program the GPU to do calculations that the CPU would otherwise have to do. Another similar technology is Microsoft HLSL [wikipedia.org] which does something very similar for DirectX (though using slightly different terminology such as "vertex shaders", "pixel shaders" and "geometry shaders").

Re:Slashdotted

[KermodeBear]

ModDB [moddb.com] also has download links.

Re:Slashdotted

[mattyrobinson69]

here [on.net] is another ( games.on.net )

Re:OMG WHY NOT ON MAC?

[Anonymous Coward]

i believe it is on the mac as well... the linux client is listed as linux/unix, still downloading and waiting to test it for sure though

for everyone else, here's another download link:
http://games.on.net/file/27574/Alien_Arena_2009_7.30_for_LinuxUnix

Re:Slashdotted

[AlHunt]

Parent link is to Window version.

Here: http://www.gamershell.com/download_47540.shtml [gamershell.com] is the Linux version.

Re:OMG WHY NOT ON MAC?

[wicks0r]

There is a "unofficial" mac patch here [110mb.com], but I can't get it working on 10.5.7. Anyone else get it working?

From the Alien Arena site:

The official MacOS port has been indefinitely postponed. However, apparently someone has indeed ported Alien Arena to the Mac, and released a patch. Download the linux version above, then apply this patch. We cannot guarantee this will work.

Re:Wow, it has technical specs.

[Anonymous Coward]

He was talking about the troll post afterwords, dumbshit.

Oh wow, it gets worse.

[Blakey Rat]

Not only does the installer pick the wrong folder to install in, it tries to install a spyware toolbar for IE. (What is this, 2001? Seriously, guys.)

Then when you run the game, it presents a poorly-designed dialog in which you're forced to type a username. Well, fair enough-- then you end up in something called "Galaxy." Is this the game? I thought it was an FPS! All I get is unreadable green-on-blue gibberish. (I tried to copy and paste some of the gibberish, but of course copy and paste doesn't work.)

I refresh servers, it's impossible to sort by number of players. Oh and every time you click in the window, it beeps for some reason. Now my screen blanked and I'm looking at some kind of green-screen CLI or something? I have absolutely no clue what to do here.

I've yet to see any way of changing the screen resolution, putting the game in windowed mode, setting the controls-- hell I've been at this a few minutes and I've yet to see a single 3D model!

I tried typing "Run" into the green-screen CLI-ish thing, "unknown command." So I tried typing "play", and got "use STOPSOUND". WTF!

And now I give up. Congratulations, you've made Battlefield: 2142 look like a paragon of video game quality. Hell, America's Army 3 has a better user experience, and I've yet to successfully log on to it.

Re:Wow, it has technical specs.

[Anonymous Coward]

But is it fun?

I'll bite.

Yes, it is fun. It is not "I'll log in every day and join a clan and become a regular" fun, but more like "I'll log in when I'm bored and chase people around and waste the day" fun. I've installed and uninstalled this game dozens of times. There is no backstory single player mode. Mostly just running around shooting people

It's free. Why would you even ask if it is fun? It's like having a chef try to hand you a free sample to taste and saying "but is it yummy?".

Re:Wow, it has technical specs.

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it funny no one seems to apply this argument to most commercial games lately. Most of them look glorious but are shit to play.

Wow, you're right! I've never heard anyone express this opinion of popular commercial games before, especially not in EVERY SINGLE GAMING DISCUSSION EVER!

Re:Slashdotted - torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

there's also a torrent available of the windows version:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2701466

The value of time

[nacturation]

It's free. Why would you even ask if it is fun?

Well Timmy... here in the adult world, we tend to value our time. There are many things that are free and are definitely fun that we adults could be doing. This game has to compete with the other free, fun things that we already do. If very few of our peers find it fun, why bother wasting the time when we'd likely come to the same conclusion? We'd rather keep doing our other free, fun things. Or perhaps new free things that our peers have found to be fun.

Re:Oh wow, it gets worse.

[GimpAlien]

Tries to install toolbar, wow, I found a way around it! I unchecked the friggin box!! Woohoo! And let me say, if you are having Galaxy issues, look to your router\firewall or your settings. OR even read why some issues may occur. All this crap over a free game, FREE, that you are whining about just shows immature reactions and impatience. And if you'd simply hit esc, you would have gotten into the game very easily. That's why SOME have enough sense to read before jumping into something. Well, most can take some time and have the intelligence to figure things out. Had you played with shape blocks as a toddler, you may have better luck and patience now. For others who read this, trust me, the game is great, especially for FREE. To complain about something that gives you what Alien Arena does, have no patience and make it sound SOOO bad is beyond ridiculous and while everyone has preferences, may not like the game which is fine but going off like you paid for it, lol, childish.