Open-Source Cube FPS Game/Engine Updated

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."

Comments

As a long time cube fan,

[I(rispee_I(reme]

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!

Re:download probs

[vijaya_chandra]

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

this works for me 8-|

This isn't a real 3D engine.

[Tim_F]

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.

Re:This isn't a real 3D engine.

[fredrikj]

You think Cube 2 would stand a chance, then?

Re:This isn't a real 3D engine.

[Drakker]

That is completly beyond the point. Cube's goal is to be FUN. Not to compete in the commercial games market.

It is real 3d, but to keep things simple, the rooms are limited to what you call 2.5D. That's why it playable even on old computers. If you want room over room, you can always make md2 models and insert them in your level, it works marvels and still looks good, if you are good with ligthning of course.

The working of the engine is actualy very clever, try editing for it, it's done in the game itself and it's very fast. I have contributed a couple of levels for this release and after having edited for Cube, I'd hardly go back to a "real 3d engine" because Cube is so much more FUN to edit for.

So, next time, before posting something like this, maybe you'd want to consider the actual goal of the project.

Re:This isn't a real 3D engine.

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Woo-hoo!

[Sunlighter]

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!

platforms

[dingd0ng]

How come this game that is open source, with what I have to think are fewer financial or programming resources than for-profit games, can manage to release a game for 4 platforms? For most games, you get a PC version, and maybe a Mac version or a Linux version significantly later. I know cross platform games exist, but I don't think I've ever heard of a release like this one.

Re:platforms

[magefile]

Lack of features (no major video or sound, no room-over-room, low-rez, yadda, yadda, yadda => no need to support Nvidia XYZ or similar)

Lack of code - it's very short

Lack of support (it's a hobby)

Manual config editing - the game doesn't have to screw around with figuring out what settings are mutually compatible - you do

If you want a game engine that can be used in a game that's actually enjoyable, try (these are just the ones I've personally tried) Aleph One (the renamed version of Marathon Infinity), Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D. Granted, nothing like as nice as UT3 or CryEngine (FarCry), but still better than Cube.

This isn't an insult by any means; on the contrary, doing what he's done, all by himself - yes, just one person - is amazing. But, as he says on his site, he's doing it to code, not to play. And when you try to play, well, it's fun to compile and then ooh and ah for a few minutes, then it sucks. Like the Wolfenstein 3D or Marathon Infinity, but without the graphics (or what graphics W3D and MI had).

I heard he was involved with Far Cry - you can definitely see Cube's influence on FC's WYSIWYG, edit-as-you-play Sandbox Editor.

Re:platforms

[WWWWolf]

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.

Re:I'm impressed

[Drakker]

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

Re:funny

[silverfuck]

Anybody see the need (well, want) for a real open source FPS engine? People could build their own maps for it to start out with, teams could build entire games based upon it...

Well, just an idea anyway...

This game rules!

[n1ywb]

It's small! It's FAST! It's free! It's FUN! What more could you ask for?

I played tonight for the first time. Multiplayer play reminds me a lot of Quake. The maps are all very pretty. The lighting effects are really quite good. It's true that it doesn't currently support true 3d maps (although there is a hack to get rooms over rooms using map models), and that gives the maps a sort of doom-ish feel, but WTF? Does that really impact the fun of deathmatch? I don't think so!

Screw you for releasing such a fun game that I had to waste two hours of my evening playing it! Bloody video game time pirates. :)

Re:funny

[Kyouryuu]

Although it can't compete graphically with a modern FPS, it at least has the looks similar to the old Unreal Tournament. Although I think the player character moves a bit fast and the weapons lack "oomph," it actually has a lot of potential. The way the game editor works is also pretty intriguing.

I think you could conceivably make an interesting FPS based on this engine with some convinction and hard work.

Re: Open-source FPS game engine

[some guy I know]

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.

Cube modifications

[Nomihn0]

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