[REL] OpenArena Community Mappack - Volume 1 - FINAL

[Neon_Knight]

The map count has 3 FFA-based maps and 4 CTF-based ones. I might try my hand at another FFA map, just to balance.

Also, I'm thinking on releasing two betas of the pack before the final Easter release. First beta will be launched in February 15th and second beta in March 15th. What do you think? Are OK the dates?

[Akom74]

For the dates, no problem. Do what you want, if you need that kind of  time it's ok.

About the textures, i see that all the textures i have used are GPL'd, aren't they ?
Tell me.

[Peter Silie]

I am fine with the suggested dates.

[Akom74]

I'm working on my new map and i have made this bouncepad/jumppad.

 

[Neon_Knight]

That launcher is pretty good.
The jumppad would be good in a square brush.

[Akom74]

That launcher is pretty good.
The jumppad would be good in a square brush.

After a lot of tries, i've finally done it !
I have rebuild the jump pads that have a little bug.
The big problem was the script for the pads with effects without black around. I have made a lot of mistakes but finally i win the match !

I hope you like it !

 

[G One]

hope you like it !

 

Seems very nice.
Can you upload some other image of the rest of the map?

[Akom74]

hope you like it !
 

Seems very nice.
Can you upload some other image of the rest of the map?

The map you mean is a test map, four walls to see the light effect and the jump effect  

 

[Neon_Knight]

¿Base Siege from Q3: Team Arena?

[Akom74]

¿Base Siege from Q3: Team Arena?

Nope !

Today i have played Q3A in q3dm6 map and it's been an inspiration.
No idea of what kind of map will be, but i'm working on it and soon i will give you some shoots.

[Neon_Knight]

¿Base Siege from Q3: Team Arena?

Nope !

Today i have played Q3A in q3dm6 map and it's been an inspiration.
No idea of what kind of map will be, but i'm working on it and soon i will give you some shoots.

I thought you were building a CTF map, and that area reminded me of that map.

[Akom74]

I'm Here again

I have downloaded from Soc web site the desert skybox for my next map.
You can find it here: http://www.simonoc.com/pages/materials/skybox/desert.htm
In the "readme" file it was no mention to GPLv2 or other thing about copyright.

Please, tell me if i can use this skybox in this mappack. Of course i have to give credits to Soc and link his web site.

[fromhell]

In the "readme" file it was no mention to GPLv2 or other thing about copyright.

Doesn't make it public domain though

Also, most "free" skyboxes out in the wild are created from using Terragen, which has non-commercial usage rights. I'd avoid committing any terragen skybox


Blender can render skyboxes, but always has seam issues.  Unfortunately it's the only skyboxes i'll accept (other than strange gimp xcf picture jobs)

[Neon_Knight]

What about the Blender + GIMP combination?

[Akom74]

In the "readme" file it was no mention to GPLv2 or other thing about copyright.

Doesn't make it public domain though

Also, most "free" skyboxes out in the wild are created from using Terragen, which has non-commercial usage rights. I'd avoid committing any terragen skybox


Blender can render skyboxes, but always has seam issues.  Unfortunately it's the only skyboxes i'll accept (other than strange gimp xcf picture jobs)

On LvL i have found a Skybox collection: http://lvlworld.com/review.php?id=2023
In this collection there is a Desert Skybox that i can use in this map, in the readme it says:
===========================================
Created by 'amethyst7' aka Chris Matz.
WEB site: http://amethyst7.gotdoofed.com (FAKE website ??)

You may use and distribute this sky box under the terms of the
GNU General Public License version 2.
===========================================

Theorically this skybox can be used for free.
Tell me or i have to make even a personal skybox

[Neon_Knight]

Does it have a source file? Such as .psd or .xcf or the like.

[Akom74]

Does it have a source file? Such as .psd or .xcf or the like.

I'm not sure what do you mean, but here is the screenshot of the folder content:

[Gamyr]

Does it have a source file? Such as .psd or .xcf or the like.

I'm not sure what do you mean, but here is the screenshot of the folder content:

What @Neon_Knight means is what are the extensions of the file, the part after the ".", for example "filename.exe" you want the .exe part of the name. That screenshot doesn't help because nobody can see the extension. Is there a file with the extension .psd or .xcf? For instance I see a file named  "ame_desert.shader", the extension of that file is .shader. What are the extensions of the other files? You may have to click on each one to view the whole name.

[fromhell]

Well, judging by the small text in their icons associated to photoshop, i'd say it's...... TGA

[Gig]

Maybe one should take a look to the tga images and try to guess if they are based upon multi-layer images (then a source would be required) or not (in this case, no additional source would be required, right?)...

[Gamyr]

Well, judging by the small text in their icons associated to photoshop, i'd say it's...... TGA

I should have figured that out.  I thought the tga icon labels were generic somehow. Oops.

[Akom74]

In the folder there are 6 TGA images for the skybox, the .shader file and the "readme".

What source is needed ? If there isn't a source this skybox can not be used ?

...... .....

[Gig]

Starting from the post of Neon_Knight that mentions the release under GPL of some Simon O'Callaghan textures (for Nexuiz)
I downloaded the file Neon posted:
http://depositfiles.com/files/nti9zh9av (!egyptsoc-nexuiz.zip, 32,2 MB)
Inside it, I can find a "COPYING" file (GPLv2) and "permission.txt" file. It looks like we can use it, providing that we mention "Simon O'Callaghan" as author and link to his site "http://www.simonoc.com/pages/materials.htm" in the documentation.
For the problem of its sources... it seems to contain .TGA files only. I have looked at some them, randomly... for me (that I'm not an expert) it's hard to tell "the artist created this image directly by painting it with a bitmap program" or "the artist created it by using some multi-layer file format before, then exported to this single-layer one". So, I cannot say if such textures are acceptable for OA or not (if it would depend from me, I could accept them... but it does not depend from me).
I suppose Fromhell should look at the package and then give a definitive answer about this.

Another problem of using such textures may be that many other games may already use them, as Fromhell said. I don't know.

-----------------------

For the Skybox compilation Akom found here:
http://lvlworld.com/review.php?id=2023 (q3sky.zip, 476 MB), it contains a q3skyinf.zip-->license.txt that says which ones are those with GPL license.
The one Akom is interested to is Ame_Desert, and seems to be licensed under what is reported in Akom's post (GPLv2 with mentioning that guy and site). Taking a look to them, I cannot say if they are "real photos" (and one-layered) taken with a camera that maybe got some "dithering" effect (due to quality reduction?), or are computer-generated panoramas (in that case, there may exist a "source" intended as a file of some virtual-landscape software -I don't know them at all!-).
I would think they could be okay (although its readme says it's GPLv2 but the COPYING file seems missing). Again, I prefer to know Fromhell's opinion.

-----------------------

About the textures from Evil Lair (that Akom used in the current version of oa_akomdm2 map), Neon_Knight in this post linked a package of Evil Lair textures that have been released under GPLv2 for Nexuiz (while those packages downloaded from Evil Lair offical web site are not)
http://dfiles.eu/files/ezg1k1ouu (!evillair-nexuiz.zip, 66 MB)
It contains COPYING (GPLv2) file.
I suppose files contained there should be theoretically allowed in OA: Akom should check they are all exactly the same versions he used.
Again, there are the problems of missing "sources" (again, I don't know how to tell which of them really need "sources"... and I don't know if there are some somewhere in Nexuiz SVN for those textures) and the fact they are used in at least another game. Again, I suppose that Fromhell should take a clear decision about them.

-----------------------
PS: To who is searching for new textures compatible with OpenArena: already tried following the links here?
http://freegamedev.net/wiki/Free_3D_and_2D_art_and_audio_resources
Remembering that only PD (Public Domain) and GPLv2 stuff is ok for OA.

-----------------------
NOTE:
To do not force you to download the whole 476 MB Skybox compilation package, to check out the skybox that interests Akom at the moment, I would have attached to this post the ame_desert.zip file alone (2,39 MB)... but for some reason, the forum gives me an error uploading it, even if the file is less than the 3082 KB theoretically allowed by the forum... I don't know what to think!

[Akom74]

Gig is absolutely right, sometimes no sources are needed to do a texture or a effect.
Personally i have tested it with jump pad effect i have made myself, start from nothing to a TGA, in that case what i have to take as a source of this file ? The file itself is the source.

I'm waiting FromHell response about this issue, and the other posted by Gig.

[Peter Silie]

While waiting fpr the response, i will show my rough draft of the flag room.