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This seems such a reasonable model for making money out of software, but still keeping in touch with open source. Let's be honest, there are areas of software development that get some benefit from a commercial model and the cash incentive from selling your software when you're done. Game engines, where being cutting edge counts for a lot, is one of those areas. At the same time, software tends to go out of date fairly quickly, and if it was developed as a commercial app then it often ends up as abandonware, lost to the world - no longer being sold. Once you've stopped making cash out of your software then open source it and provide the community something to play with. You can end up with results like Tenebrae which is a fairly impressive open source engine considering it is built originally from Quake I source.

I wish there were some other commercial developers that could manage to follow the same sort of pattern. Do some of the old X11 nVidia drivers contain sufficiently outdated stuff that they could be safely open sourced? Are there some other applications that are currently locked up, not being sold nor developed, that could be opened up? I assume part of the problem is bookkeeping: you can keep software on your books as an asset even if you probably couldn't make a dime trying to sell it anymore - and "goodwill from the community" doesn't fit into accounting.

Jedidiah.

Yes, Half Life 1 was updated with an integration of the Source engine. However, the geometry was not updated. You'll get the same old blocky Gordon man-hands as in the first iteration of the game. Because of this half-complete update, the HAVOK physics engine fails to chagen the game whatoever. It has almost no affect on the environemnt. For example, a barrel in Half Life 1 might be a static object in game, essentially fixed to the ground. The engine does not change any class definitions, obviously, so the game could seem a bit imbalanced to the player. It's like playing Tenebrae Quake. The graphics simply don't fit the game. They are superfluous and actually serve to break the suspension of disbelief (note that Tenebrae is working on that).

The Source Engine Half Life 1 update was done as a test of mod compliancy by Valve. It was just a convenient result that it proved releasable with a minimal investment by Valve. . . an extremely lucrative midnight project.

We allready have a nice open source engine with "state-of-the-art" features...
just have a look at http://www.tenebrae2.com/

i would guess its the best we have even though its based on quake1

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

For making a full game, much much more is needed. Player control/input
handling, level loading when needed, loading saving of progress. Physics. AI. And , well, a _whole_ lot of other code.

Indeed, and sound, which I can't find any mention of on their website. Sound is often overlooked - consider how effective in creating atmosphere the advanced sound engine in Doom3 was, it made a significant difference to the feel of the game.

If you're looking to make a game I'd usggest you consider tenebrae2 which is a GPL game engine, based on the GPLd quake source code, beefed up to include all the latest eye candy like bump mapping, specular highlights, dynamic lighting etc. Check out some screenshots to get the idea. It uses OpenAL for sound, so that is pretty useful too.

As far as I know there is no physics engine, and certainly no AI - but then AI tends to be game specific. It does represent a good base for anyone looking to create a graphically impressive 3D game.

Jedidiah

There is little doubt that we are coming closer and closer to a "market correction" (and not just in the US, see the "What's Wrong with the Japanese Gaming Industry" series at tokyopia.com). The hows, whens, and whats of the issue, however, are really rather hard to predict. There are a few developments I predict for the future of the "gaming industry", which may or may not directly result from said market correction:

1) Shorter games at cheaper prices - This has already been brought up several times, but I think this will be one of the major themes in the future. If gamers truly are searching for "cinematic experiences", then why do many modern games promising to deliver on this account run 40 hours, when the average movie runs around 2? Shorter games will be the perfect forum for testing the new ways of telling stories that have yet to be developed (and which will most likely be pioneered from smaller and/or open-source independent development houses).

2) A resurgence of older games - Say a big industry powerhouse suddenly finds itself publishing games for a market that is no longer investing in the big-budget rehashes that said powerhouse has been investing, well, big-budgets in. It won't take too many $20 million dollar investments to flop before the company starts hemmorhaging. The answer? Tapping into the incredible backlogs of intellectual property that the company has at its fingertips, possibly stretching all the way back to the 8th bit generation. What better way to recoup on failed development investments than by re-releasing older products with little development investment required? This would mean that we finally see legal emulators released on new-generation consoles (what a major coup for Nintendo, if they were to suddenly to gain a huge chunk of Sony's marketshare simply by releasing an official SNES emulator and working with developers to ensure quality re-releases!)

3) Gaming will find its Voice - Maybe not directly related to the Crash, one development that is certain will be a rising interest in looking at video games from an "academic" perspective. Institutions such as the IGDA and publications such as Game Studies are heralding a new age of vdeo gaming discussion, criticism, and theory. And as we well know there have been several calls-to-arms among the video game journalism crowd (which the quality members of will also help to fuel the desire among gamers to get their hands on some of the older games through their nostalgic advocacy of previous classics). It is only a matter of time before a common language for game theory is developed. After that, the sky won't even be a limit!

4. Innovation based on older technologies - If you were thinking this category is just an excuse to throw out some links to Tenebrae screenshots, well, you were right (and stop reading my mind already!). Do yourself a favor and feast your eyes on some of these (Tenebrae) and these (Tenebrae2). These engines are based off the GPL'ed Quake 1 source, people! I mean, OMFG! T2 could be on par with Doom3 (in terms of capability, if not performance...yet), and it is _open-source_! Under the _GPL_! Which means it can only keep getting better! Alright, I better stop here or else I'll exceed my quota of exclamation points...

5) Convergence of Media - Check out this excellent article from gamesindustry.biz that contains speculations about Sony's long-term plans. Better believe the PSP will be my "Walkman" once it's released!

Okay, I think that is all I have to say for the moment. I am very excited fo