Open source and the fantasy world

I just discovered your project and I'm excited to see something like this made available as open source. It will be great to be able to concentrate on the unique features of a game, rather than developing the nuts and bolts all over again. I did have a couple of questions, though:

- Does the open source licensing apply to the sample content (the 3D models and so on) as well as the code? For example if we started with the fantasy world and developed it into our own game, would we have to replace any remaining sample content prior to release?

- If the sample content is open source, is there a place I can download the 'source code'? It would be very useful if we could get COLLADA versions of the sample models, so we can use them as a starting point rather than modelling from scratch.

Thanks,
Pete

Hi Pete,

First of all, welcome to the Multiverse Community! I'm Tristan, and I'm one of the Multiverse Foundation team members. I head the community, marketing and PR side of things for the Multiverse Platform.

Quote :

- Does the open source licensing apply to the sample content (the 3D models and so on) as well as the code? For example if we started with the fantasy world and developed it into our own game, would we have to replace any remaining sample content prior to release?

The licensing applies to everything that is available to download from our SourceForge page. So yes, you can do what you like with all the assets, including the sample content. You can even modify or the Platform's development tools (like the World Editor, for example), and do what you want with it.

Quote :

- If the sample content is open source, is there a place I can download the 'source code'? It would be very useful if we could get COLLADA versions of the sample models, so we can use them as a starting point rather than modelling from scratch.

When the Platform went open source, we weren't given the source files (i.e. the .DAE models) for any of the assets. In terms of content, we were only given what was included in the SampleWorld project files.
I did actually ask if we could have access to things such as the source files a few months ago, but the old employees from the original company (Multiverse Inc.) no longer have the files, and they reckon they were deleted from their server when the company went down the tubes back in 2008-9.

So I'm afraid you're going to have to model from scratch! I guess the best you could do would be to play around with the textures, which are in DDS format, somewhere in the asset repository.

Saying that, I've had a quick look on the almighty Google, and found that UnWrap 3D can convert .mesh assets into more workable formats. I'm not too familiar with the more in-depth aspects of modelling, so I don't know whether you'd be able to fully modify them that way. Here's the website: http://www.unwrap3d.com/u3d/index.aspx

I hope that at least gets you started!

Tristan