0 A.D.: modern RTS goes GPL!

[bryonak]

A nice looking real time strategy game called 0 A.D. (http://os.wildfiregames.com/) has switched to the GPL 6 days ago.
Here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJG8SHH39W4) a YouTube gameplay vid.

[Grant A.]

It looks pretty cool.

They forgot the Germanic tribes as a faction!?

The Germanic tribes can pwn the Western Roman Empire any day. :P

I *might* be just a little biased because I am English and Scottish.

[Mehall]

My friend analysed it correctly:

Anno 1404 meets Cossacks, set in an earlier time period.

He was hooked by the videos I linked (i showed more than one.)

he asked price and release date. I said dunno for release date, but it's going GPL. He was VERY pleased.

[starcraft.man]

I'm impressed, looks nice. I'll give it a try some time.

[andrewabc]

A nice looking real time strategy game called 0 A.D. (http://os.wildfiregames.com/) has switched to the GPL 6 days ago.
Here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJG8SHH39W4) a YouTube gameplay vid.

The gameplay vid is a little over two years old. Hopefully it has improved since then. Although the only way to download/play is to get svn. So that to me means command line required to install. No binaries for windows or anything...

Heck, I search for 'download' on main page and no links. Game looks good, but they make it difficult to try and play it.

[zekopeko]

My friend analysed it correctly:

Anno 1404 meets Cossacks, set in an earlier time period.

He was hooked by the videos I linked (i showed more than one.)

he asked price and release date. I said dunno for release date, but it's going GPL. He was VERY pleased.

GPL doesn't mean that it can't have a price tag.

[Mehall]

GPL doesn't mean that it can't have a price tag.

yes, but the source code is freely available, and they are encouraging users to build a copy if they want to help test.

They would release it for free anyway (it was always gonna be freeware) but the source would be open, and they have commited to keeping the build system open so anyone can do it. [=

[zekopeko]

yes, but the source code is freely available, and they are encouraging users to build a copy if they want to help test.

They would release it for free anyway (it was always gonna be freeware) but the source would be open, and they have commited to keeping the build system open so anyone can do it. [=

is the artwork also free or only the source code?

[Mehall]

is the artwork also free or only the source code?



CC-BY-SA

Home-page (http://www.wildfiregames.com/0ad/) (with link to open source portal for the code.)

[zekopeko]

nice!

[forrestcupp]

That looks cool. The graphics look pretty amazing for that type of game.



Heck, I search for 'download' on main page and no links. Game looks good, but they make it difficult to try and play it.
The 3rd paragraph on their web page says they're not releasing a playable game. It's not even meant to be anywhere near playable yet.


CC-BY-SA

Home-page (http://www.wildfiregames.com/0ad/) (with link to open source portal for the code.)But they're only releasing the artwork and gameplay data for 2 of the 6 civilizations.

[ThisEndlessFall]

That looks cool. The graphics look pretty amazing for that type of game.


The 3rd paragraph on their web page says they're not releasing a playable game. It's not even meant to be anywhere near playable yet.

But they're only releasing the artwork and gameplay data for 2 of the 6 civilizations.

This has been in development for 8 years.........

Is it the next Duke Nukem Forever?

[munky99999]

It really does look good. I am fairly surprised many games go open source.

I can see oldschool ports being open source... such as wormux

I just dont see many games being successful as open source. Unless they are mmog. Then ya. WIN!

[sertse]

I like to remind people that for a GPLed RTS engine, with playable games right now, there is already Spring: http://springrts.com/

Most of the games made on that engine are based on the Total Annihilation / Supreme Commander style though, since that's why the engine was originally created, as big fans. Though there are also some other inventive games using that engine if you browse around.

[Superkoop]

This has been in development for 8 years.........

Is it the next Duke Nukem Forever?

This is why they've decided to Open Source it, because so far it's been like an open source project in the sense that the devs only work on it during spare time. However because the development was closed no one except for very few people could work on it, and it's tough to gain developer's interests when they can't even test it, and they won't be getting paid.

Therefore, opening the source code will hopefully draw attention and the game will get packaged so that more people can test it, which will result in more developers. Hopefully this results in quicker development.

All in all, I think open sourcing the project was simply a way to keep the game from becoming abandonware lost on someone's hard drive.

[monsterstack]

This looks pretty sweet. So now we have loads of decent GPL'd FPS games, and a couple of decent RTS games too. Do I have to wait much longer till I can get my hands on a decent GPL'd RPG game? I'm fed up with emulating Playstation games!

[forrestcupp]

So now we have loads of decent GPL'd FPS games

I wish that were true. Most of them are all just the same online multiplayer arena style fragging game with a different backdrop.

Bring on the GPL'd FPS's with single player campaign modes. But that's too big of a task to do for free.

[perce]

There is no 0 A.D. we went from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. The zero was introduced in the West only some centuries after we started counting years from the birth of Jesus.

[PuddingKnife]

There is no 0 A.D. we went from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. The zero was introduced in the West only some centuries after we started counting years from the birth of Jesus.


Oh. Well maybe send 'em an email.

[Tibuda]

There is no 0 A.D. we went from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. The zero was introduced in the West only some centuries after we started counting years from the birth of Jesus.

They know it.

It is a moment in time that never was.

It is important to note that "0 A.D." is a period in time that historically never actually existed. Historians go directly from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. and skip over "0 A.D." So, what are we saying? We are specifying that this time period is a fictional time period. (http://www.wildfiregames.com/0ad/page.php?p=1728)

[benj1]

There is no 0 A.D. we went from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. The zero was introduced in the West only some centuries after we started counting years from the birth of Jesus.

pedantic :P

the whole concept of AD and BC was only introduced some time later. it wasn't as if in 100BC the romans were saying "well only 100 more years until christ is born"

[MasterNetra]

I like to remind people that for a GPLed RTS engine, with playable games right now, there is already Spring: http://springrts.com/

Most of the games made on that engine are based on the Total Annihilation / Supreme Commander style though, since that's why the engine was originally created, as big fans. Though there are also some other inventive games using that engine if you browse around.

0 A.D.'s graphics look better then Spring...It seems in general that GPL game are still playing catch up graphics wise. I like my games very pretty as well as fun to play..but then again I'm very visually oriented. ^.^

[phrostbyte]

Unfortunately I haven't been able to built it. Their build automation system is kind of "interesting". :) Don't expect a "make; sudo make install"

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

I've managed to build & run it on Jaunty using their build instructions (http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/BuildInstructions#LinuxOSX).



svn co http://svn.wildfiregames.com/public/ps/trunk 0ad
cd 0ad
(cd libraries/fcollada/src && make)
cd build/workspaces
./update-workspaces.sh


Before you can run make you'll have to build a thread-safe spidermonkey (http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/BuildInstructions#Installingthread-safeSpiderMonkey)

Then run (in build/workspaces/gcc):



make -j3


Then I start it as:



~/src/0ad/binaries/system/pyrogenesis_dbg