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Open-Source Cube FPS Game/Engine Updated

Posted by simoniker on from the bang-bang dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There's a new release of the open source multiplayer/singleplayer first person shooter Cube available on the official site. According to the site, this update, which has freely downloadable 'Win32/MacOSX/Linux/LinuxPPC clients and Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD servers' includes 'lots of new great SP [single player] and DM [deathmatch] maps, new textures, mapmodels, a completely new soundtrack yet again, and a variety of code improvements such as better animation.' - the history document has more info on the changes."

11 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. As a long time cube fan, by I(rispee_I(reme · · Score: 5, Informative

    I feel compelled to mention that the author has written other engines besides cube; those can be viewed here. Oh yeah, he worked on Far Cry, too!

  2. Re:download probs by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/cube/cub e_2004_05_22.tar.gz

    this works for me 8-|

  3. This isn't a real 3D engine. by Tim_F · · Score: 2, Informative

    This thing is no more advanced than the engine used in Doom 1/2 (2.5D at best) and in Duke Nukem 3D. This engine cannot be used to make "rooms over rooms."

    This open source 3D-engine is so far behind UT2K4, Doom 3, and HL 2 that it probably stands a next to zero chance of making the leap to real 3D in the near future.

    1. Re:This isn't a real 3D engine. by fredrikj · · Score: 2, Informative

      You think Cube 2 would stand a chance, then?

    2. Re:This isn't a real 3D engine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You are mixing up quite a few issues, namely the difference between a 3d renderer and a 3d map format. Cube is decidedly 3d... take a look at the screenshot... does it look 2d to you? What do you think cube looks more like, a 2d sidescroller or quake?

      The orginal doom had a 2.5d renderer and a 2d map format, OpenGL doom ports now have a 3d renderer still with a 2d map format.. they are 3d engines. Cube is a 3d engine with a "mostly" 2d mapformat, but that is just a limitation for convenience, and doesn't affect things like physics, e.g.:

      http://www.cubeengine.com/images/screenshots2/sc re enshot_802899.jpg

      see the bridge on that shot? players can be on top of and below it at the same time. No limitations.

      As to doom3 et al... Cube is not even competing againt that. It has some pretty cool features of its own which doom3 will never have. But for your uninformed mind that is not going to matter, is it?

  4. Woo-hoo! by Sunlighter · · Score: 3, Informative

    I beat the Slashdotting! I found out about this on Doom World and I've been playing with it all day.

    Couple of helpful hints for Windows users. First, run cube.bat in the root directory; the cube.exe in the bin directory mysteriously crashes if you run it directly. (Well, it did on my system.) Second, if you have a slower system, like I do, you might actually want to edit that cube.bat file and set the resolution to 640x480 instead of 1024x768!

    --
    Sunlit World Scheme. Weird and different.
  5. Re:I'm impressed by Drakker · · Score: 2, Informative

    Edit autoexec.cfg and change "invmouse 0" to "invmouse 1". It's in the Doc.

  6. Re:Hardware reqs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    On my 667 mhz pIII with Radeon 9000 in Fedora Core 1 at 800*600, I average about 50-70 FPS in medium/low detail areas. But most of the time during play in large areas with enemies, I get about 24 FPS, even with graphics set to lowest detail. Changing the resolution has reletively little effect. (Unless it's set to 320x240) The detail settings really only change the frame rate by one or two frames per second on my system. The biggest source of speed increase in Cube is to sete the field of vision to something like 60 degrees.

  7. Re: Open-source FPS game engine by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 4, Informative
    Anybody see the need (well, want) for a real open source FPS engine?
    Well, the Q2 engine is now GPL, and many people are doing things with it.
    Q2 is also true 3D, unlike Cube, which is (apparently, judging from the screenshots) 2.5D.
    Cube does have some things that Q2 lacks, such as in-game editing of geometry, and probably better handling of outdoor areas.
    Also, my guess is that the system requirements for running Q2 are somewhat higher than those for Cube.

    The right game engine for the right game, I always say.
    (Well, not always; sometimes I say other things, and sometimes I don't talk at all.
    But when I do talk, one of the things that I may say is "The right game engine for the right game".
    So I guess that it would be more accurate to say "The right game engine for the right game, I sometimes say.".)

    Anyway, it's nice to see that people are working on these things.
    Other open-source game engines exist, such as Crystal Space 3D and OGRE.
    There used to be a comprehensive list of 3D engines (both free and commercial) here (which took over from here), but it's been a while since is was updated.
    If anyone has a more recent version of this list, please post a link to it.
    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  8. Cube modifications by Nomihn0 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Cube is a really great game. The best part about it is its customizability. There are many people out there working to mod the game. One really great example of the Cube engine being modified is Death Illustrated. It is a very original game in which you play the hero of a black and white ink-sketched comic book. It has similar gameplay to the original Cube game but the ambiance is really something, especially considering the limited tech they're working with. Here's a link, they are definitely worth checking out: Death Illustrated

  9. Re:platforms by WWWWolf · · Score: 2, Informative

    well, they've picked the cross-platform compatibility as a goal right from the start - sticking to APIs that are not pain to port over.

    Commercial game developers typically pick one or two platforms and then "optimize extensively" for those platforms. They want optimal, efficient and platform-aware programs, not academic-technical masterpieces. (Do a "grep -r goto *" in Quake source one day. Try to read the code without a noticeable eye bleeding. =)

    Cube isn't developed with the goal of maximizing the profit from one or two platforms - it's made specifically with the other platforms and portability in mind. It apparently uses common cross-platform libraries like OpenGL and SDL, and many libraries that originate in *NIX but have been ported to other platforms (image libraries, Ogg Vorbis, etc). As an added bonus, being an open-source project, they can easily be open-source all the way and use whatever is already there.