Are Open-Source Games & Community Game Engines Fading Away?

[dungeon]

I wrote what i think on this theme... but unapproved

[vortex]

The #1 problem of open sourced games is, that you can't get enough devs. Nobody is getting paid, so finding free time is difficult.
Most only have 1-3 people...the lucky ones have more.

The #2 problem is, even if you want to do something cool, too many people have crappy Intel integrated gfx chipset, and it is horrible trying to support them.
The #2b reason has to do with drivers. Always crashes on Intel. Always. AMD & Nvidia, not so much (on linux), but, good god, we have seen more driver related crash for Intel than anything else, by a HUGE margin. Our stats show intel's gfx hardware are 1000 times more likely to crash than AMD or Nvidia.

If we drop intel gfx hardware, then, the userbase drops more than half.
So, we are stuck with crappy drivers on crappy hardware--talk about demotivating! We just don't have the time to make multiple rendering engines, see issue #1.

Alas, Intel's latest gfx hardware is getting better, but, the drivers still blow chunks, far worse than anything AMD or Nvidia ever put out.

[rabcor]

Open Source engines, as in GPL/MIT open source, not UE4/CryEngine open source are a dead trend, it's been dying for years, ever since I started using linux frankly it was all going downhill. The only exceptions are these occasional projects for porting antiquated games to linux (like openmw and openra) which are projects that may (hopefully) have a future, but are not exactly going to be making any sorts of impacts on this scene.

I think Open source engines like UE4 are inevitably taking over the market, in UE4 you have freely available one of the highest quality game engines ever developed for free (and wasn't cryengine like 10$?) with full access to the source code to modify for your needs. It provides you with all you need as a developer despite not being an FSF approved open software.

I mean small time community engines can't compete with these multi-billion dollar backed game engines, it's just not happening.

That said, I don't think open source game engines as we have known them thus far are actually dead, they still thrive as an option for developing smaller scale 2D games like platformers and visual novels, which surely can be created in UE4 and Unity and the like, but these engines are a bit overkill. Whereas say Ren'Py is a very nice engine for developing visual novels. And there's an abundance of platformer aimed game engines or apis (haxeflixel for one) out there that still have a place. It's just not quite competing with the big bad 3D gaming industry of sun rays and thousands of particles flying across the screen without any major performance hits, which are things UE4 (and I believe Cryengine do with ease)

[ssokolow]

I ONLY lost interest in many of these games, because none want to be on STEAM by default. I like everything to be nicely integrated, specially now that I have a STEAM CONTROLLER.

Teeworlds has many positive reviews on steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/380840/

many open source games that were on DESURA should make the jump.

I know I could potentially add them as Non steam games, but I just not into the hassle anymore of installing stuff or creating shortcuts manually.

If its not on the Software center or Steam I just don't bother much.

And, for some of us, it's the exact opposite. If it's only available through Steam or the Software Center, I add it to my IsThereAnyDeal.com waitlist and forget it exists.

(I'll accept fully open-source stuff and DRM-free closed-source downloads from GOG.com, Humble Bundle Inc., and a few others.)

[GraysonPeddie]

That is fatamorgana Michael , opensource is still there... because once you start counting growing amount of Steam Linux games every month or every hundred instead of saying "Warsow 2 is now almost fully FOSS!" opensource opensource just looks like dimminished

So I can only agree opensource games does not obey and follow growing number of steam games

Pardon me for asking, but do you speak Indonesian? Google Translate detected the word "fatamorgana" as such. I typed "define fatamorgana" in Google Search without quotes and Google separated that word into two words, even with a dash between them.

[kpedersen]

I think one large issue is products like Unity which are very unfriendly towards open-source (and proper engineering in general) are so well advertised and marketed that startup game developers get tied down and pointed towards closed source development. Unreal Engine 4 is good because the source is available (so any game I develop with it will be portable to future platforms (unlike Unity) but it itself is still not under an open-source license. Btw, I am working on an open source C++ Unity API clone (Mutiny), kinda similar to what MonoGame did. You can see the project here: http://www.mutiny3d.org (https://github.com/osen/mutiny). I started this project whilst working for a game development company which used Unity but wanted WebGL output (Before the Unity developers could monetize that functionality) and luckily I was able to get permission to open-source it.

[jacob]

Two open source games I couldn't live without are Super Tux Kart and Flightgear. Their development is as healthy as ever.

But seriously, the FOSS model is IMO inherently incompatible with mainstream gaming. Games that involve a scenario, solving puzzles, interacting with characters, having fun with new weapons etc. are great when they surprise and amaze the player. In an open source project, everyone would know everything about everything in the game world before even starting playing, which would essentially kill any interest in the game.

I think that FOSS can and does work as far as strict arcade or serious simulation games are concerned, but these will always be minority genres.

[kpedersen]

Apologies for the formatting of my post above... This forums is almost unusable on my Firefox (38.4.0 ESR) and it completely stripped all new lines on my text... Ugh.

[BrollyLSSJ]

For 2D Zelda like games I like the Solarus Engine.

[eidolon]

Phoronix: Are Open-Source Games & Community Game Engines Fading Away?

Is it just me or are open-source games faltering? While open-source, community-based games really aren't mainstream and really never took off, it seems these days there's a lack of good open-source games more so than in past years as well as diminishing open-source game engine projects...

So is it just me or do you also feel that the open-source game scene for quality work has been on a downward trajectory in recent years? Share your thoughts in our forums. Fortunately, and possibly as part of the reason for this downward slope, is that there have been more interesting closed-source games available natively for Linux gamers along with quality game engines that are increasingly accessible to indie developers like Unity and Unreal Engine 4.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...Game-Faltering

Are Open-source Journalists and Publications Fading Away?

Is it just me or are open-source oriented publications faltering? While open-source, enthusiast-oriented sites really aren't mainstream and really never took off, it seems these days there's a lack of good open-source journalists more so than in past years as well as diminishing open-source oriented publications.

So is it just me or do you also feel that the open-source journalism scene for quality work has been on a downward trajectory in recent years? Share your thoughts. Fortunately, and possibly as part of the reason for this downward slope, is that there have been more interesting closed-source journalists available to be read along with quality closed-source oriented publications that are increasingly gratis in content to readers without constant subscription and donation reminders.

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All in good fun