Spring RTS Engine

Hi all,
today I have surfed through this page and found this:

The core game is released under GPL License. Fortunately as of now, there are also two mods which have been released under the GNU/GPL, and several more which do not have clear licence terms (owned by their modder).

1. Are they really Open Source?
2. Which mods are supposed to be Open Spource?

Thank you for your want to help!
Saunameister :)

Spring 1944 - scripts are GPL and content is CC, don't know which one out of my head.

Kernel Panic is the other one.

and all of kdr_11k mods (?)

Tobi wrote:Spring 1944 - scripts are GPL and content is CC, don't know which one out of my head.

Kernel Panic is the other one.

CC-BY-NC

I think KDR's mods are all PD.

The content of Evolution RTS is CC-by-share alike, if I'm not mistaken. Also Nanoblobs is PD or GPL, unsure.

I started a wiki page a while ago, collecting some of the open source resources around for Spring, there are some games mentioned there as well: http://springrts.com/wiki/Freely_availa ... le_content.

Fraid I didn't keep working on that, cause the only source of information was me rooting round my self.

Sean

I think Nanoblobs is PD, be good to learn from that one.

That page is somewhat incorrect. The core ENGINE is GPL, some GAMES are open source, but presently there are no MODS which are open source. If somebody made an open mutator of a free game on the engine, however, that could change.

And, I believe, one is in development - 1940, a mutator based on 1944, under the development of JCanseco.

However, yes, those are the primary open options.

CA (apart from the otacontent) is open sourced and is fairly well along in completely removing the non-free components.

If you are looking at working with an open source mod inspired by TA i would definitely recommend Complete Annihilation.

http://trac.caspring.org/ -- link for your convenience.

It irks me when people keeps calling "Open Source" what is stolen commercial IP.

zwzsg wrote:It irks me when people keeps calling "Open Source" what is stolen commercial IP.

if you knew CA's main goal which is getting IP Free and its progressing along nicely.

so stop trolling

Otherside wrote: if you knew CA's main goal which is getting IP Free and its progressing along nicely.

so stop trolling

Not to mention that CA has an extensive collection of widgets and gadgets that are OSS.

Otherside wrote:if you knew CA's main goal which is getting IP Free and its progressing along nicely.

Goal != Current State.

BA has a wide collection of open source widgets and it is eventually planned to replace all non open source parts. BA is open source.

Otherside wrote:

zwzsg wrote:It irks me when people keeps calling "Open Source" what is stolen commercial IP.

if you knew CA's main goal which is getting IP Free and its progressing along nicely.

so stop trolling

It's still important, someone who's looking for some opensource content and thinks CA is that would end up grabbing unlicensed content thinking it's GPL.

It is open source. The source is open. That is all that word means. All spring games/mods are open source by definition, except for .bos/.cob script which isnt too hard to decompile (CA includes all its .bos scripts, so therefore is fully open).

The art may not be, but even applying the term 'open source' to art is tricky. Are we talking about uploading all the model files in origional formats and the textures in all their .psd glory etc? NOBODY does that. The art content is easily editable from its current state which is all you can really expect.

What CA is not, though, is entirely free. It includes IP from sources we do not own the distribution rights to. Thats a different question.

However, large chunks of CA (in fact, the majority of it) are under open liscences, including all the lua and most of the art.

Saktoth wrote:It is open source. The source is open. That is all that word means.

The original poster, Saunameister used a special capitalisation on the words Open Sources, showing he attaches a special meaning to them.

Open Source Definition - Introduction
Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code.

Oops, too bad, from the first line of Open Source Definition you're shown wrong.

Saktoth wrote:All spring games/mods are open source by definition, except for .bos/.cob script which isnt too hard to decompile (CA includes all its .bos scripts, so therefore is fully open).

Totala1.hpi includes the .bos script. Woohoo! My Total Annihilation CD I bought from Cavedog are open sources! Unreal Tournament 3 can have its asset edited, therefore it is open source! Some people managed to mod S.T.A.L.K.E.R., therefore it is Open Source!

Saktoth wrote:Are we talking about uploading all the model files in origional formats and the textures in all their .psd glory etc? NOBODY does that.

KDR did that, uploading the KP models in their blender form to be more open source.

Saktoth wrote:What CA is not, though, is entirely free. It includes IP from sources we do not own the distribution rights to. Thats a different question.

And it prevents the whole from being allowed to bear the Open Source seal.

Saktoth wrote:However, large chunks of CA (in fact, the majority of it) are under open liscences, including all the lua and most of the art.

Half Stolen + Half Open doesn't make the whole Open.



I don't mean any harm toward CA, it's a nice project that took lots of work and is pushing Spring forward, but I'd just rather you be honest and call yourself "abandonware" instead of "GPL".

There's a reason RMS wants everyone to use the term Free Software. Open Source is colloquially understood to refer to the same thing, no matter how much MS has attempted to corrupt the term with licenses that let you look at the open source but not touch it.

Okay, point taken.

However, a lot (id say the majority) of CA is freeopensourcesoftware. If CA is taken as being an aggregate then that is legal, and almost everything the team makes is GPL. Though no, you probably cant play the full game without owning TA, legally.

There was a lot of argument about the source code of mods having to be GPL, and iirc the devs said that they *should* be GPLed the same way as the engine.

The art itself can have any lisence.


And tbh, I bet that you can pretty easily use source code of any spring mod as you like without having to be too afraid of someone complaining.

Saktoth wrote: Are we talking about uploading all the model files in origional formats and the textures in all their .psd glory etc? NOBODY does that. The art content is easily editable from its current state which is all you can really expect.

I did and do. Look in grts if there is a PSD then odds are I pd-ed that art. Currently there are the psd for the ui elements.

Also I open sourced the entire source file for islands in war and uploaded it.

There was a lot of argument about the source code of mods having to be GPL, and iirc the devs said that they *should* be GPLed the same way as the engine.

no they said we can do whatever the fuck we want.