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this already exists. and coincidentally, it comes from the ryzom guys http://www.nevrax.org/

Ryzom wasn't very good when it was released, but now it's actually really fun. The dev-team has already released an addon that allows players to create their own adventures. The graphics are also quite good for an MMORPG, so it should be possible to create a cool open-source MMO.

The engine itself is already released under the GPL: http://www.nevrax.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php But there seems to be very little documentation available.

I could see some other, dumber, companies doing this, but Ryzom is a niche game, there's no way they'd waste money to but it just to shut it down.

I find it interesting to note that Saga of Ryzom's parent company already GPLed the engine -- but offers a non-GPLed version for a fee:

http://www.nevrax.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php

So it should be trivial to get the end product.

Soya3d is a 3d engine written as a Python module (really). Being a python beginner, and someone who hasn't written a lick of C in ten years, I can tell you it's EXCELLENT. It even comes with a sample 3rd person game, Balazar, that has been fun to play (although it's not quite done) //and// to tweak under the hood.

I highly recommend it.

This is over and above the other mentions of Ogre3d, Nevrax, Cube/Sauerbraten, the Quakes, Nexuiz, the Worldforge projects, etc.

Nevrax have developed the GPLed "Nevrax Library" (NeL), used by Nevrax's own MMORPG; The Saga of Ryzom:
"NeL is a toolkit for the development of massively online universes. It provides the base technologies and a set of development methodologies for the development of both client and server code."
http://www.nevrax.org/

I can't really comment on it's usefullness though, as I haven't looked deeply into it - I'm not a C++ developer.

Completely OT, but what's that cute "Mushferatu" pet seen in Nevrax's galleries?. Have any idea?

I was happily surprised to find out Saga Ryzom runs on an Open Source Game Engine (Nevrax.org) a few weeks ago. Unless your making tons of money off them like Epic or ID, there's no reason to keep your game engine proprietary...the engine is not what makes your game unique it's the content built on top of that engine that makes you the money.

You may want to check out Nevrax.org home of Nel, the MMO Engine that powers The Saga of Ryzom. NeL is licensed under the GPL and is a set of C++ libraries and utilities.

You may want to check out Nevrax.org home of Nel, the MMO Engine that powers The Saga of Ryzom. NeL is licensed under the GPL and is a set of C++ libraries and utilities.

The Nebula Device
Its license is as permissive as the MIT license.
Its not an engine per se; its a framework for programming your own engine. But that is what most things billed as "3D Engines" actually are.
There is also Nevrax/Nel technology, which shipped in The Saga of Ryzom MMORPG. The software license is GPL, and it is a competitive cross-platform engine, much like Nebula- however, like Nebula, it is much more of a toolkit, though to a lesser extent.
There are a variety of $100 RAD game tools out there, and it seems like they have always hovered at this price point- you get what you pay for; undocumented, buggy code that is ok for a quick prototype but unviable in the long run.
Excepting Torque. This is an excellent engine for $100 US. The engine shipped in Tribes and Tribes 2, is cross platform, and has a mature toolchain for developing anything that is Tribes-like (predominantly outdoor terrain with buildings and tunnels in it). In fact, if what your developing is basically a Tribes 2 total conversion, the only code you would need to write would be AI and other game-specific code.

Is more player-created content, and I don't mean SWG's crafting system or any RPG's roleplay system.

What I'm looking for is an open-source 3D MMORPG. This way, content can be added easily because the system itself would be documented and open; one company wouldn't hold their subscribers "hostage". Someone hosting a game server could decide how much content to make available on their server, so you could run your own for, say, 20 users or (gasp) pay a commercial provider who is maintaining larger servers (and larger worlds) where thousands of users can play at once.

I know there are a few open source MMORPGs out there. A quick Google search turns up:
www.genecys.org
www.nevrax.org
eternalsun.info
www.planeshift.it

Wow, what a genius, better go rush off and tell the record companies that it is impossible for singers to assign their copyright to them cause they've been under the mistaken impression that this was possible for decades now.

They are being paid for the rights, just as a scientist working for a company is being paid for his work (anything he discovers belongs to the company). Surrendering all of my rights to a piece I created without compensation (as the PSL demands) is quite different.

(you can even use the Planeshift engine!)

I would never. It's shit compared to the alternatives (and they seem to understand free software much better than the PS guys, not to mention that their webiste doesn't look like utter crap in Firefox--get your webmaster a book html).

Well, the Open Source model is definitely not adapted to that kind of development, being geared more towards long, gradual fine-tuning of software which will be in use already from the alpha / beta stage onwards. That of course favours re-implementations of other, established games, because they have clear specifications, and there's no time pressure - people who still want to play a good Civilisation clone could hardly care less about how dated its graphics are, compared to balanced, involving gameplay.

Cutting-edge artistic effects are naturally not in the same category, if you want to compete with companies throwing enormous amounts of money and man-hours at intensive development of engines, and with legions of professionally trained artists. And ask any amateur game developer about how hard it is to find artists willing to work on their free time...

Which isn't to say it can't be done: French company Nevrax http://www.nevrax.org/ developed the NeL engine for their MMORPG Ryzom, and have released it as GPL. And the game certainly does look impressive, but the game and art remain proprietary (and mono-platform). Again, open-source seems to be favoured for infrastructure and technical projects.

One of the games I've found interesting recently for this recently is Ryzom. While I haven't had the time to really follow the development of the beta (not much into MMOs currently due to time allotment etc). One thing that caught my eye is their use of an open source engine called NeL, which is primarily a graphics (OpenGL, and Direct3D I think) engine. Along with some other stuff.

There's a few other projects on their page by third parties, and a free tech demo. A co-worker in the beta who's an avid online gamer has said the graphics in Ryzom were definitely above average, if not the gameplay yet. Possibly worth following to see if anyone takes advantage of the source and does anything besides cheat. :-)

Finally a subject where I feel I can safely contribute. :)

I've spent a few years in the MMP (Massively Multi Player) arena so I think I know my way around. As founder and CEO of Nevrax, where I initiated the Ryzom RPG and the NeL technological platform, I've had plenty of time to reflect on the state of this industry.

First let me say that MMPs are an entirely different class of video games. The technology, the gameplay dynamics, almost everything is different. It just happened that the game industry got its hands on them first because it had the closest ties, but it could have been otherwise.

The most important thing to remember is that MMPs have a radically different business model.

In the traditional game industry you create a game, put it a box, then try to move as many boxes you can in the few month the public stays interested. It's a product oriented business.
The typical business plan for a studio is:

1- Convince publisher to finance the production of a game
2- Try to make a small profit in the process
3- Make some royalties (maybe) if the game is hugely successful
4- Start all over again

This is not very different from what goes on in the music business or in the movie business. Basically to make it simple, the author/studio gets a lousy deal from the publisher/distributor who gets to reap all the benefits.

The MMP industry could - it's not there yet, but it will eventually - be very different.
An MMP producer creates a virtual environment, then sells access to this environment. It's a service oriented business.
A simplified business plan for an MMP producer could be:

1- Create a Massively Multi Player Game
2- Make the client software as easily accessible as possible
3- Sell access to the MMP on a recurrent basis
4- Profits! ;)
5- Keep improving your MMP over time > expand user base > more profits!

This would be the equivalent of a musician cutting the middle man and selling his music straight on the Internet. With one enormous advantage: An MMP producer has no fear of having the client software copied since all that does is expand his potential user base. Whatever you do, you *have* to pay if you want to get the experience.
Which is, IMHO, the reason why so many people are whining about the subscription fees. It's not that it's too expensive (12$/month for 20H of entertainment time in average is cheap compared to say, movies), it's just that they can't freeload anymore. :)

My guess is, in the coming years, there will be a real distinction appearing between traditional studios (doing regular PC and console games) and companies building MMPs.

Now back to the current game industry.
The hardest part with the model I just described is making "step 1" happen while still retaining the control of your creation. That, from my painful experience, means avoiding to be financed by either game publishers or vulture capitalists, as they will find a way to wrest control from you. The problem, as it has been said before, is that making a professional MMPs is expensive.

Sure, they are ways to get the numbers down if you know the trade secrets, but it's still going to be expensive.

That's where Free Software can help.

My initial idea for Nevrax was that Free Software and MMPs were a perfect match.
You get all the benefits of Free Software, but keep a strong business model where you can avoid having a competitor piggyback on your work as you stay in control of all the "data" (art assets mostly).
One of the big cost associated to running an MMP is due to maintenance. Also, having a robust tech on launch helps a lot. Those are things that Free Software can help alleviate tremendously. This is why we created NeL. A Free Software engine for MMPs.

As an added benefit, now that I am starting a new company out of the hands of the VCs, I can freely reuse all the tech we did at Nevrax. My software development costs just got divided by a factor of 10. Imagine that...
And the best thing is: you can do it to! :)

One last thing I would like to say to people who think that Everquest & co are boring and ugly: you are right. But real communities formed around these games, and that's what is truly fascinating about MMPs. As time goes, you will see MMPs that are more and more geared towards fostering these online communities, and less and less "games" in the sense that we understand it today. Just because you don't see the point of playing today, doesn't mean that you won't see the point of playing tomorrow...

And I know I'll be working hard to make that happen ! ;)

Finally a subject where I feel I can safely contribute. :)

I've spent a few years in the MMP (Massively Multi Player) arena so I think I know my way around. As founder and CEO of Nevrax, where I initiated the Ryzom RPG and the NeL technological platform, I've had plenty of time to reflect on the state of this industry.

First let me say that MMPs are an entirely different class of video games. The technology, the gameplay dynamics, almost everything is different. It just happened that the game industry got its hands on them first because it had the closest ties, but it could have been otherwise.

The most important thing to remember is that MMPs have a radically different business model.

In the traditional game industry you create a game, put it a box, then try to move as many boxes you can in the few month the public stays interested. It's a product oriented business.
The typical business plan for a studio is:

1- Convince publisher to finance the production of a game
2- Try to make a small profit in the process
3- Make some royalties (maybe) if the game is hugely successful
4- Start all over again

This is not very different from what goes on in the music business or in the movie business. Basically to make it simple, the author/studio gets a lousy deal from the publisher/distributor who gets to reap all the benefits.

The MMP industry could - it's not there yet, but it will eventually - be very different.
An MMP producer creates a virtual environment, then sells access to this environment. It's a service oriented business.
A simplified business plan for an MMP producer could be:

1- Create a Massively Multi Player Game
2- Make the client software as easily accessible as possible
3- Sell access to the MMP on a recurrent basis
4- Profits! ;)
5- Keep improving your MMP over time > expand user base > more profits!

This would be the equivalent of a musician cutting the middle man and selling his music straight on the Internet. With one enormous advantage: An MMP producer has no fear of having the client software copied since all that does is expand his potential user base. Whatever you do, you *have* to pay if you want to get the experience.
Which is, IMHO, the reason why so many people are whining about the subscription fees. It's not that it's too expensive (12$/month for 20H of entertainment time in average is cheap compared to say, movies), it's just that they can't freeload anymore. :)

My guess is, in the coming years, there will be a real distinction appearing between traditional studios (doing regular PC and console games) and companies building MMPs.

Now back to the current game industry.
The hardest part with the model I just described is making "step 1" happen while still retaining the control of your creation. That, from my painful experience, means avoiding to be financed by either game publishers or vulture capitalists, as they will find a way to wrest control from you. The problem, as it has been said before, is that making a professional MMPs is expensive.

Sure, they are ways to get the numbers down if you know the trade secrets, but it's still going to be expensive.

That's where Free Software can help.

My initial idea for Nevrax was that Free Software and MMPs were a perfect match.
You get all the benefits of Free Software, but keep a strong business model where you can avoid having a competitor piggyback on your work as you stay in control of all the "data" (art assets mostly).
One of the big cost associated to running an MMP is due to maintenance. Also, having a robust tech on launch helps a lot. Those are things that Free Software can help alleviate tremendously. This is why we created NeL. A Free Software engine for MMPs.

As an added benefit, now that I am starting a new company out of the hands of the VCs, I can freely reuse all the tech we did at Nevrax. My software development costs just got divided by a factor of 10. Imagine that...
And the best thing is: you can do it to! :)

One last thing I would like to say to people who think that Everquest & co are boring and ugly: you are right. But real communities formed around these games, and that's what is truly fascinating about MMPs. As time goes, you will see MMPs that are more and more geared towards fostering these online communities, and less and less "games" in the sense that we understand it today. Just because you don't see the point of playing today, doesn't mean that you won't see the point of playing tomorrow...

And I know I'll be working hard to make that happen ! ;)

>There's this company called Nevrax founded by Slashdot reader Lejade...

Err, that would be me... :)

Thanks for the plug, but I am not longer at Nevrax. I left the company by the end of last year due to some severe divergence of opinion with the board of directors regarding the company's strategy. So to make a long story short, I have nothing to do with Ryzom anymore. I just hope it turns out as good as it was supposed to be.
And sorry for the website not being standards compliant: it shouldn't be that way but there's not much I can do about it now. I'll still try getting the word across, though...

On the bright side, I've been working on a new project that also uses NeL (more on that later this year).
So now you have two companies working on NeL and Free Software based MMPs instead of just one!

Ain't the GPL great? ;)

And that's not even counting pure community driven efforts like Arianne or Worldforge which, by the way, deserve a lot more respect than they actually get. Most people just do not understand how hard it is to make these games, even with a team of seasoned professionals.
I know, and I am simply amazed at what these guys are able to do.
Think coordinating coders over the net is hard? Try artists...

Olivier

There's this company called Nevrax founded by Slashdot reader Lejade that makes a MUCH better engine: NeL AND it's released under the GPL, AND they are using it to make a very unique looking MMORPG called Ryzom.
Check out the screenshots in the "download" section! Although beware: the site is not very Mozilla friendly and uses Quicktime and Realmedia. Bleurgh! :(

Another interesting GPL'ed alternative is NeL. NeL is a MMORPG platform developed by Nevrax for a game called Ryzom.

I'm a game developer working on the Nel platform. I've only dealt with app level code so far, but from my few perusals of the lower levels of the library and my browsings of simple directx code, it seems as if the complexity would make for pretty slow and buggy engines.
Extra layers obviously have that property in general, but I see it as the wrong place to create that cross compatability. The nevrax team has said in the past that they have designed the system to be able to replace the OpenGL bindings with DirectX or gamecube api (what is gc api like?)
I hope that more developers will build games based on Opensource engines as our company is (in-orbit.net)- it has saved us a lot of money and allowed us to focus on gameplay and uniqueness.