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About

What is OpenArena?

OpenArena is a Free Open content package for the id tech3 GPL source code package. But why is it a game? Well you see one of the great side effects of making content for a bunch of source code out there is that it becomes a playable game itself. This opens more opportunity for FUN to the end user because they have another option to play a game that you couldn't play without the data because now there is data made for it. And since this data created is also FREE, it's very redistributable. Meaning more people can play it with little effort on obtaining it. This is A Good Thing.

The gameplay is identical to the game it's based on so fans of that other game should feel at home here. We do not intend to change the physics of the game. If you feel there is a change of physics of input smoothness, you can blame the ioquake3 team, not us; we just make MD3s and TGAs, compile the code and put it out there.

OpenArena is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 meaning you can change stuff in it but you gotta redistribute the source of your changes, or don't do it at all and we'll then do some nasty pitchfork-related things to you. It's happened before. Trust me. But what is the source defined as then if it's GPL? For code we do actually have C files you can read, edit and compile yourself, and for md3 models we usually accompany the original .blend files with them where available. For sound effects they are usually lossless and done as a single layer without a project file so mostly they are their own source. Music is done in a tracker format, but since we have no music and people think tracker is obsolete we have no music in the game. Textures are like sounds in the fact if they are lossless without layers they are their own source, but if they have had layers then the layered (PSD, XCF) file is supplied in the SVN. We get the question "How does the GPL define the media source" alot, but hey if a text editor is required to read the bits of a SOURCE CODE file then to me that's identical to how an image editor is required to read the bits of an image file. It is no different if it's code or not.

OpenArena requires actual hardware accellerated OpenGL hardware. This doesn't require DirectX. The minimum line for a video card to run the game is a 3DFX Voodoo2 8MB. No ATI Rage cards.

It can run on Linux, Mac OS X, and all 32-bit flavors of Windows that I know of (that supports OpenGL. This includes Windows 95). If you can run "one of those other 3d shooters" you can probably run OpenArena.

You can run/play it on processors as slow as a Pentium 90MHz with 32MB of RAM, but it is recommended for at least a PII 233MHz processor, with at least 96MB of RAM, for any playability. This game is MORE DETAILED than that other one.

OpenArena contains Mature Content, such as a lot of blood and guts that stain the level with animation and sound accompanying it, and some characters wear next to nothing (but no nudity), like Angelyss/Dark wears the thinnest exotic/erotic slingshot 'swim'suit you can think of (she also has large breasts that are animated and bounce from every motion). Arachna has only her own hair covering her dignity and Neko is covered in fur and nothing else, for example. There is also swearing when you play the game, play with the game, and play with friends on the game. This game is not intended for kids and children. If you want a game for kids you will want to play SDL Sopwith but it is just as fun and contains no objectionable materials! It's a fun game too. You can also run it on almost any computer.

OpenArena may or may not be right for you. You can browse the media section but unfortunately that oesn't depict the motion of the game as well as it should. It's a fast moving game where reflexes are key.