open source gaming?
 

was thinking the other day, while doing GTA3 mods, that it would be cool if someone (or more accurately, a group of someones) made an open source game. a game wherein everything is completely open source and could be easily modified by anyone with a little know-how. basically, GTA3+Linux is what I mean.


has this ever been attempted?


if not, what do you all think of the idea.

I've never heard of a pure open source game like that, but they released the source for quake 2. That includes a model interpreter and physics engine, so you could start there and see where it takes you.

if its online then it would be impossible to prevent cheaters...
(never say impossible)

but could be a good idea nonetheless...

it's always impossible to prevent cheaters, you can just block the holes once the hackers find them... Open source would make it easier to patch the holes once their found, but that's for another topic.

I don't think there is a pure open source game engine, there are a number of 3d engines out there though, CrystalSpace is one I can think of off the top of my head. Other than that, Quake1,2 and I think 3 souce has been released, sort of a limited open source engine as far as I know. Those are pretty damned solid engines though, so you should, if you really wanted to, be able to make a GTA type game using Quake2 at least. Gonna take a while though

I doubt any big game companies would do anything, it would most likely be something some guy did in his basement. Things like that are touchy subjects for big game designers. I don't think they'd want to invest time and money into a project, then see where it goes, because they probably figure noone will want to pay for something that's open source. It would be nice tho :(

Mastershredder, I wasnt thinking of the game companies, per se. I just think it would be cool if some amateur programmers would get together and make an open source game.

Open source gaming tends to be a bit of a flop.

I was interested in one called Parsec a while back, and the game never really materialized. It just got stuck in development hell.