Free 3D MMORPG Planeshift Ported To Mac OS X

superfebs writes "While Planeshift, the free (yes, as in Freedom, who cares otherwise) 3D MMORPG, is moving towards the 0.3 version, which will provide combat (read: flows of fresh blood), the current release has been ported to Mac OS X. Now more people can enjoy going around in a fantasy world chatting with others and collecting crystals. Oh, beta testers are needed."

Comments

Meh.

[Solder Fumes]

I tried Planeshift a few months ago, and seriously it's just not something that should even be out there yet. Lots of bugs, limited map, the only thing you could do was run around to all the same places and pick up crystals. To get enough crystals to buy a weapon (though all you could do was hold it) would have taken about 20 hours of playtime. That was an awfully long time to stand in the middle of a room waiting for crystals to grow back, so I uninstalled it. I'll pay attention to these guys when they reach 1.0 release. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's any good.

Re:Meh.

[capmilk]

Maybe they're just users not whingers. A lot of Mac people can recognize good quality software easily - but a less of them actually know how to code.

Re:Porting work

[Cecil]

Umm, there is more to PlaneShift than the CrystalSpace engine. I know this, because I tried (and failed) to port it to Mac several months ago. Particularly troublesome were several parts of the network layer, in my experience.

There was certainly more to it than simply recompiling and distributing.

Re:Planeshift is not free as in Freedom

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

yes, as in Freedom, who cares otherwise
Heh. Apparently the submitter cared enough otherwise, seeing as it isn't actually Free. :-)
--

graphics artists find the concept of free licenses scary and foreign

This is understandable: most visual art is unique and based on your own talent, where programming is more about efficiency and the end result. Programming classes tend to ask students to create a "black box" that gives this exact output on these exact inputs. Art classes generally say draw something nice, based on this theme, using this style.

Thus, programs can be easily shared and modified, rarely can any but the best programmers lay individual claim to code, and the author's style is not evident to the user. Art is individual work, created once and not updated, that even amateurs will sign as their own, and the artist's style is often as important as the subject. It is quite understandable that artists refuse to Free-license their works; it's not necessarily because it's "foreign", but the concepts of free access and changeability simply don't apply to art.

Someone might mention Creative Commons, but that's for making artwork publicly available, which isn't quite what you're doing here. What you want is something with the essence:

"This artwork may be freely distributed and used with the Software, and any Derivative Works that retain both the spirit of the Software and the same manner of use of the artwork, provided that a) the artists are credited, b) the artistic aspects, such as subject and style, remain unchanged, and c) any additions to or removals from the set of artwork do not disparage or misportray the original art or its creators. Nothing in this section should be construed to prevent changes to the underlying programming algorithms so long as the visual output remains the same or nearly so."

IANA-licence-writer, but something like that should allow you to Freely distribute the art with Planeshift, allow Planeshift to be forked X.Org-style along with the art, and convert the art to different formats, yet it would allow the artist to retain control over the work, in the sense that it would only be used with Planeshift or its derivatives. I would guess that you'll have to use a special section for licensing the art, and make that technically non-Free, since you can't derive it at will or change the art itself.

Re:Porting work

[Cecil]

Apologies if you're actually Daniel Fryer, I assumed it was just someone trolling on Slashdot and signing your name, but the reply makes me think otherwise. If it is you, much thanks and keep up the good work.

In any case, I ran into quite a few conflicts between the networking header files and the OS X Frameworks I was trying to include. But that was at least 6 months ago, and it may have been cleaned up in that time, as there was discussion on the IRC channel about doing that. (Might've been you, for all I know)

Re:Porting work

[QuantumG]

I'd just like to point out that dfryer actually did the Mac OS X port.. so telling him he there was more to it than what he actually did is pretty silly.

Re:Planeshift is not free as in Freedom

[QuantumG]

Which is exactly the reason why it doesn't make any sense to develop art for a game under a free license. We don't want hundreds of Planeshifts, we want ONE Planeshift. You wanna make your own game? Cool, use our engine, we've demonstrated that it works. It's just like a MUD: here's the engine, now go design your own world. The only difference is that you have to have a different skill set to make a graphical MUD to a textual one (you have to be able to draw). In a couple of years time a bunch of graphics artists trying to get into the games market will be able to grab the Planeshift engine and make their own game with it over a few months. That's something they can show to investors when they're looking to start a design studio. Not to mention the fact that anyone is free to pick up the Planeshift engine and make a commercial game with it. The requirement that they keep source available for the client really makes no difference.

Of course, if this all still leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, I suggest you start a free graphics project of your own. Go out and find all these artists that just wanna give up control of their art to the world and make your own game. We've provided a nice little engine for you to do it with.