Is "PlaneShift" engine actually "OpenSource"? New Evidence Shows Otherwise.

[Wavemaker]

I've known that PlaneShift was based on the "Crystal Space 3D" engine for a while, which is Open Source, but after reading this and this threads, it turns out that the additions made to the engine by the PlaneShift team aren't actually "Open Source" at all. That means the only Open Source part of the game wasn't even made by Atomic Blue or the PlaneShift team. Apparently, anyone trying to use this game's engine is called a "thief" by Luca Pancallo. Isn't it False Advertising when the game is being promoted as an "Open Source Game" all over the internet by its project leader? Double standards, again.

[weltall]

as long as it's gpl yes it's opensource. you can argue whatever you wish about the pr but the fact remains. http://blogs.computerworld.com/17197/oracle_kicks_libreoffice_supporters_out_of_openoffice => so openoffice is closed source now? again it's pr it has nothing to do with being or not being opensource.

[verden]

PlaneShift the server is open source, PlaneShift the game is closed source. Additions made to the server are OSS, additions made to the game are not. The problem here is that both projects have the same name, and maybe those screenshots of the game on the server page on SourceForge. Or am I incorrect?

[novacadian]

The approach of the Atomic Blue license is common with most Open Source Game Engines out there; as  mentioned on another forum thread. Open Source does not normally mean "here is the entire game"; but instead here are all the pieces to make your own game.

- Nova

[Aiwendil]

Now I am confused...what server? What game?

The sourcecode of the client is obviously GPL. From src/client/psengine.cpp:

Code: [Select]

/*
 * psengine.cpp
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2001 Atomic Blue (info@planeshift.it, http://www.atomicblue.org)
 *
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2 of the License)
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
 *
 */
...

Also the world editor seems to be GPL: (src/worldeditor/main.cpp)

Code: [Select]

*
* main.cpp - Author: Mike Gist
*
* Copyright (C) 2009 Atomic Blue (info@planeshift.it, http://www.atomicblue.org)
*
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
* as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2 of the License)
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
*
*/
...

The same for pslaunch: (src/pslaunch/pslaunch.cpp)

Code: [Select]

/*
* pslaunch.cpp - Author: Mike Gist
*
* Copyright (C) 2007 Atomic Blue (info@planeshift.it, http://www.atomicblue.org)
*
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
* as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2 of the License)
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
*
*/
...

And also the server: (src/server/psserver)

Code: [Select]

/*
 * psserver.cpp - author: Matze Braun <matze@braunis.de>
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2001 Atomic Blue (info@planeshift.it, http://www.atomicblue.org)
 *
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2 of the License)
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
 *
 */
...

Can't find any license for the .sql files in src/server/database...but assuming the structure of the database is also GPLed

What isn't open-source is every content of the database, most graphics, sounds, settings, game rules and a lot of other stuff which makes the game playable. So for sure it's not "thievery" if you build another game on this code as long as you don't use any of the ABC content. Forking should be fine as long as the code stays GPL.

Oh..and btw..maybe I am just too stupid to find it but I couldn't find a text file with the GPL license coming with the code. According to this it would be better include one.

So just take the best of PS if you want and ignore the crap with the ABC license for your own game.

[RlyDontKnow]

all files available on the official svn (http://planeshift.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/planeshift/) are open source under different licenses.
most of it is GPL, however a few files (in which it is explicitly stated) aren't, e.g. some data (e.g. shaders) are LGPL and the third party libs in the source tree also have their own licenses (e.g. recast&detour is BSD-style).

as for the rest: don't get distracted by PR stuff *shrugs*
the content/data/art used in association with the official server are the only thing not open source in planeshift (at least those parts that aren't part of the public svn).

hope that cleared it up for you

[ThomPhoenix]

PlaneShift uses CrystalSpace as it's rendering engine, and yes, CrystalSpace is open source. The PlaneShift game engine is also open source. When you have a rendering engine like Crystal Space you can draw stuff on your screen, but that doesn't make a game. So the entire game logic is open source, just like Crystal Space, just like Linux for example.

However, there's a difference between the PlaneShift game engine and PlaneShift the game.
The game itself, which means PlaneShift's lore, stories, quests, unique art assets, world rules, basically what defines PlaneShift as a unique game is proprietary, meaning it's owned by the Crystal Blue foundation and you can't reuse it.

However, it's perfectly possible to take the PlaneShift game engine code and make your own MMORPG. You will have to make your own art and write your own lore, stories and quests though.

So, the confusion mainly arises from PlaneShift the game and the PlaneShift game engine having the same name.

I hope this clears things up for you

[verden]

I find it funny that this license has been in place for years, and about once a year someone posts about this with plenty of added drama, as though they just caught PS doing something bad.

[ThomPhoenix]

Yup. The main problem seems to be that some people (even ex-PlaneShifters, see threads the threadstarter linked to) can't wrap their heads around the concept of part of a project (the code) being open-source and part of a project (art, lore, quests) being proprietary. Guys, it's not that complex!

Also, remember that keeping stuff proprietary isn't evil. If you think that's so, 99,9999999999% of the world's institutions are being super evil every day and you might as well retreat to a life of solitude in some far-away country to get away from all that evilness. (Also, if you're an everything-opensource-activist and think that proprietariness *is* super evil, PlaneShift is not the best place to start changing the world).

[LigH]

I am not absolutely certain, but I believe there have already been new "games" derived from PlaneShift (e.g. Arianna's "Virtual Annelöv" - a historical village tour, IIRC). So using the engine with own content is no problem from the licensing side.