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Penumbra: Overture Goes Open Source
As promised when the Humble Indie Bundle hit $1 million in donations the other day, indie developer Frictional Games has released Penumbra: Overture's source code. "The code for Penumbra: Overture is a continuation of the one used for the tech demo + some addition for the not so long lived Robo Hatch project. It also contains some code from Unbirth, giving it quite some history." The release also includes the HPL1 engine. "This is engine that has powered all of the Penumbra games and it even includes the stuff used to create the 2D platformer Energetic. The engine code was started in December 2004 and was actively developed until early 2008." The repositories are available at github.
Wouldn't that be YOU are open source since you're compiled from your parents?
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Not if he's BSD
Penumbra Wiki Quote from wikipedia:
The game's main focus is on exploration and classic adventure game object interaction: examining and collecting objects and using them to solve puzzles.
The Long Now Foundation
FREE software shouldn't be like that. FREE sfotware is about giving back your changes to the community, to the centralized repository. Git is dangerous for free software.
Where is it defined that free software is about giving back your changes?
If you want truly free software, then you have to take the both worlds and accept that people aren't required to contribute back. Even less so if they just keep those modifications private and to themself, which even GPL allows. It isn't really any better than proprietary software if you also want to make restrictions and demands on how you can use free and/or open source software.
Oh you...
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I've never heard of this game and neither the summary nor TFA actually told me anything about it. According to Wikipedia, it's a first-person adventure game with a focus on Newtonian physics, improvised weapons, and no firearms. Is it really too much effort for the person writing the summary to bother saying that?
The story isn't really about what kind of game Penumbra is... It's about the fact that the source code was opened up. With the source code now available, the content of the original game is somewhat irrelevant as people will (hopefully) use the code to develop their own games.
Additionally, this is not the first mention of Penumbra or the Indie Bundle here on Slashdot. One of the previous stories is mentioned (and linked-to) right in the summary.
I mean... Sure, they could have included a description of the game... And they could have provided a description of the Indie Bundle as well... And defined what Open Source means... And what github is... And maybe some of that stuff might have been useful... But at some point it just seems kind of excessive.
The story is about the code, and they provided a description of the code.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Agreed it's a useless summary - but the humble indie bundle has been widely hyped, penumbra is part of it, and it's linked right there in the summary. If anyone out there hasn't played it, I highly recommend giving penumbra a quick play through- it's genuinely one of the scariest games I've played since Dead Space, and worth throwing a few dollars to charity for. All of the other games in the bundle are due to be open sourced, too - I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the back ends of aquaria and world of goo.
Nice job selectively quoting to be misleading. Here is the entirety of that quote:
In other words, this is the entirety of the source code for Penumbra: Oveture. AI, GUI, etc are all present. What it isn't is the sourcecode for the next two games in the series, Black Plague and Requiem.
*Note that the art resources have not been open sourced. You should still purchase the game if you want to play it, but now you can build your own binary. This is basically what iD has done in the past with their old Quake engines.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I love people who rant about freedom as they try to tell other people what to do.
The physics engine (Newton) is also missing since it's non-free software. One of the devs says that implementing bullet shouldn't be too hard, though.
There are different places for the Freedoms. The GPL squarely puts the Freedom with the end-user. That person will always be free to receive distributed updates to their software as long as interest and activity for it exists. Another place for Freedom is in contrast with a BSD'ish license putting the Freedom with the software itself. That software is free to use anywhere without guaranteeing the end-user receive free updates. A consequence of the software itself having the Freedom is that the end-user is not guaranteed improvements.
Shh.
First of all it's great that they have done this, any contribution to open source is a nice thing to have.
With that said I question their motives it seems to me like they're using this release as an excuse to not have to provide support for their old games. Also it's not even the whole game code that is open source..
That seems to me like a big chunk of the game is missing, no AI, no GUI.. pretty much most of the "game" part.
That is grossly unfair to say. They released the engine, which would constitute a great deal of the game logic. I'd say that's pretty significant. Especially given how unique their games are.
Given an example, if let's say Windows kernel was opened without the Windowing system, GUI elements, etc. Would you consider that without most of the "OS" part?
Other examples: Unreal engine, Quake engine, FreeCiv, ScummVM
And it's not just one, but for 4 games, with possibly more planned. http://www.wolfire.com/humble
And besides, this way of opening the code is very much in the "heart of the GPL". Producing software that is open, and selling your own content on top of it.
And then there are the other factors, like the for charity part, and etc.
All in all, I don't see where you get off detracting from their contribution like that. Even if it's just a little.
To be fair the game has been on /. a few times before, but it is annoying when summaries do not give general details about what they are talking about.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
People are gaga over git. You shouldn't be. Git is a decentralized vcs... Use bzr or mercury if you like FREE software.
Let me translate: "Don't use git. Git is bad because it's a decentralized VCS. Use one of these other decentralized VCSs instead."
Troll.
These games from the Humble Indy Bundle have not been released under a free license, nor does it appear they will be. All that is being released are their engines. There are already dozens of free software game engines available with no free software games which use them.
While this is a nice gesture, and does raise some awareness for software freedom, its important to point out that the games themselves are still very much proprietary.
I didn't selectively quote. It states three facts.
It won't run on their later games and the AI for infected plus GUI elements are missing.
You're failing to see the full stop at the end of the sentence.
Either way I checked the source code..
GameEnemy_Worm.h
GameEnemy_Spider.h
GameEnemy_Dog.h
No AI for the human infected.
Thinking about it the author could mean that Human AI and GUI elements that are attached to mesh objects aren't included because they were specific to the later games, but then I can't really remember the features of all three games.
Yes, of course, I did it all on purpose. What a fucking asshole..
Penumbra:Overture had no human infected. It only had dogs, spiders and worms. Humans come in during Black Plague.
Whats wrong with that? Even Richard Stallman's license allows this. Plus, no one is forcing you to use git for your code. If you have a problem with it, use a different vcs.
Said, "It's just like dice but it's got more sides And it tells me who lives and who dies"
People are egotistic, as always. You ask them if they're qualified to pick a president and they respond with what they're entitled to.
I guess it's a natural consequence of allowing everyone to think they're special.
Note: you only have to pay 1 cent for a bundleof games including Overture.
AI, GUI, etc are all present.
What part of
AI for the infected, GUI elements, etc are all missing,
don’t you understand?
It being possible to implement them, does not mean they are present. The interface that the AI needs to control the infected, plus the inner functions that the UI triggers, are there. But the whole UI layer itself and the actual AI scripts that use the interfaces are missing.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
With that said I question their motives it seems to me like they're using this release as an excuse to not have to provide support for their old games.
sounds like a fair trade to me. They get to stop supporting it, we get the source. Everyone wins. Who cares if we don't get game assets, or the engine to the new games? Maybe if those games run their course, we'll get the new code, and the best parts of it can be merged in, or the best mods can be merged to the new tree.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It won't run on their later games because the AI for infected plus GUI elements are missing.
there, fixed.
It lacks GUI elements added in later games. It also adds AI for creatures found in later games - all three enemies found in Overture are included. (one of the humans in the Overture is never seen, the other is strictly scripted, no AI)
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
This is Slashdot, not the AP. Editors should assume a familiarity with a wide swath of technological, scientific and gaming elements for the large majority of their readers. For the rest, seriously just read the article, ask a question or Google it. There is no reason to complain on a forum that the description of something is vague, you are on the frigging Internet.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I thought the point of this was that now other developers have a new toy to play with. Perhaps create their own games using the engine or mod and extend it into something that's hardly recognizable at all. By any measure what they've provided is indeed very generous.
From the article, as a paragraph all to itself:
These two sentences comprise the entire paragraph. Thus, logically, hey are related. If you were not previously familar with the games, then you should understand that there are 3 separate games, Overture is only one of them, and it is the only one of them for which sourcecode is claimed to have been released. As explained by other posters, Oveture never had AI for infected humans in the first place.
Don't make me have to jump into a deeper explanation of the meaning of these sentences, I am not your 2nd grade english teacher.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
That's true, but people do get curious, and like the GP mentioned adding the info is such a trivial thing. I mean to make an analogy, lets say (god forbid) Linus Torvalds died. I don't think anyone would say we shouldn't talk about his life anymore because as a corpse he's no longer relevant to the living.
Has anyone looked at the source to figure out what algorithm they use to get the depth-of-field effect?
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
This is complete and utter bullshit. Centralised VCS also encourages people to keep their modifications private, because most of them won't have commit privileges anyway.
Git is a decentralized vcs, which means it's easy for someone to download the source, make modifications, but keep those modifications private.... Use bzr or mercury if you like FREE software.
What's mercury? (Maybe you meant mercurial?) And both bzr and mercurial are both just as decentralized.
I know Linus Torvaldes is your hero, but let's be honest. Before git, his rcs of choice was the non-FREE BitKeeper.
And before that, his rcs of choice was none at all, because that's how much of a difference a dvcs makes over non-distributed.
FREE sfotware is about giving back your changes to the community, to the centralized repository.
Free "sfotware" doesn't exist. Free software is about giving your changes back to the community however you want, including not at all if you so desire. If I want to fork and develop on my own, in private, it's going to be very hard to merge that stuff back if I use svn. If I use Git, such private branches might be contributed back one day, and much more easily.
Oh, and you're offtopic. Guess what: It's free software now, so if you're that terrified of Git, go fork it in svn. See if anyone cares enough to follow you...
Oh, that's right, you're a hypocrite -- you won't use svn, you'll use bzr or hg, which function exactly like git, only slower.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Why don't you go download and build the source? Works just fine for me.
As a counterpoint, I'd just like to weigh in with my opinion that the second and third in the series are rather disappointing. I kept playing because the plot was, indeed, engrossing. There is no question there: they've absolutely nailed the video game "port" of a good Lovecraft story. There is no doubt that they are worth the price; however, I felt a bit cheated with the sequels. The plot begs you to continue, but the gameplay becomes a tedious challenge instead of a nerve-tingling joy. Overall, the series succeeds on the strength of its plot, despite gameplay; whereas the first entry masterfully combined them both.
Part two, Black Plague, replaces a menacing enemy with an outright frustrating one, and its puzzles begin to wear thin. The horror in the first part, Overture, comes from a series of uncannily well-executed escalations: at the moment you are finally exasperated from running from an enemy, circumstances turn in your favor. As you acclimate to this, another enemy is introduced requiring more adaptation. This staging was nothing less than a stroke of genius.
In contrast, for the entirety of Black Plague you are completely defenseless. This would be OK were it not for the scripting/AI of your sole enemy. Occasionally you may even need to engage and run away from an enemy since they are blocking a goal. Repeated ad nauseam, this is not scary; it's just annoying. These frustrations are also present in Overture, but as an exception. In Black Plague they have become the rule.
Likewise the stealth-orienteering of Overture has been mostly replaced by puzzles which are either insulting straightforward or require rather silly, contrived solutions in the spirit of Sierra games (although simpler). Certain sections require the use of a (filth-encrusted) gas mask which serves, gameplay-wise, only to make life more difficult by obscuring your vision. Again, this is neither challenging nor scary; it's just annoying. To add insult to injury, your character has in his inventory a bottle of alcohol and a rag which cannot be used to clean the damned thing; you see, they are for use in a puzzle later on. Further, as in most physics-puzzle games, the promise of "multiple solutions" reminds one of the hillbilly bar in Blues Brothers which played both kinds of music, country and western. Indeed, one may cross an obstacle using either a stack of crates or a stack of barrels.
With the final entry of the series, the developers seem to have finally accepted defeat in the combat/stealth genre; it's a pure first-person puzzle-platformer which, to put it mildly, deviates somewhat radically from the spirit of the first two and borrows quite a bit from the spirit of Portal (to which there is a bit of an homage in the second level), as a somewhat deranged alien intelligence guides the character through a sequence of tests. At least it's passable gameplay, but the gameplay and the plot have at long last become totally orthogonal.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
I never criticized them for releasing the game as open source. In fact I did the opposite. I praised them.
Got my Humble Indy Bundle just the other day... it was off my radar for some reason, but a fellow game developer pointed it out to me. I was impressed with not just the collection of games, but the pay-what-you-want system that allows you to split your contribution between the developers and a couple of charities in whatever ratio you wish. On top of that, the games are pretty fun. I am really enjoying World of Goo! Glad to see that the developers are open-sourcing their code, and hopefully inspiring some other young developers to take a look at the code and try their hand at the fun and rewarding world of game development.
Buy the trilogy pack for $20. Now. It's worth every penny and runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux. I didn't care much for the third one, but the first was creepy and the second was even more so. I usually pirate games when I can, but not these. I'm going to preorder their Amnesia game as well. Cross-platform indie developer actually making good games? They get my money.
It's an FPS, but not quite traditional. You get a little hand cursor that can be used to pick up an manipulate objects. The genre is horror, and Penumbra delivers. Freaky game. Worth the money.
IOW it's an engine for character-driven 3D games.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
With that said I question their motives it seems to me like they're using this release as an excuse to not have to provide support for their old games.
I think their motive is to increase their businesses revenues (which is just fine of course, they are a business after all, and that's what businesses are supposed to do). Cheap (not free, because open sourcing requires a bit of extra work, which isn't free) PR is probably the main motive.