Official screenshots of PlaneShift Steel Blue

[hook]

It would be great to have official screenshots of PS SB (i.e. 0.4.x) on the homepage soon.

My motives for this plead are:
* players (new and old) to awe upon it while waiting for the download
* potential new players
* gaming sites like HappyPenguin.org to include a representable screenshot (the one on happypenguin is still from the MB times!!!)

[Caarrie]

only talad can do that and he is busy and the other devs are busy doing other things, i dont see the point here. anyone can take screenshots whenever they want and try to submit them to sites like that to get them updated.

[hook]

That's true (at least on HappyPenguin)... It'd still be nice to have screenshots of the current version on planeshift.it though ...when Talad finds time

[neko kyouran]

CLICK ME!

[steuben]

* steuben steels the screenie and runs off

[Karyuu]

FYI, I took or updated nearly 90% of the screenshots that are on the main page. So it's not purely Talad's responsibility. If anyone has some really nifty shots they want to submit (must be at least 1024x768 resolution) give me a poke and I'll try to make sure they're put up. Aim for decent lighting (hard in PS, I know..!) and turn your settings up as high as they can go :]

[neko kyouran]

or build your own test server and use the gm commands to take shots from anywhere and any angle to get that perfect picture!

[Caarrie]

CLICK ME!

* Caarrie takes her pic back

[Induane]

or build your own test server and use the gm commands to take shots from anywhere and any angle to get that perfect picture!

Isn't that discouraged?

According the the PlaneShift content license (which governs the useage of artwork for instance):

3. You may use the provided Material, for personal use only, to connect to an Official PlaneShift Server only in conjunction with a Planeshift Client, distributed by Atomic Blue. Official PlaneShift Servers can only be designated by Atomic Blue.

I know that maybe they don't mind you using it to take screenshots but is it wise to actually encourage violating the license?  Actually I think that part of the license is poorly conceived and should include deviations for non public servers used for testing or fanart purposes.

[neko kyouran]

if people weren't allowed to build the server, there wouldn't be a testing team.

so no, I don't see how me taking a screenshot produced by one of our official testers and providing it here, is violating any license.

Also, this video would have never been made, which has become the unofficial official trailer/preview thing of what the game had to offer at that in PS's history.:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=YC0j_tQygCA


So I see no issue with building a server for screenshot purposes, especially if you plan on submitting them to be used on the main official PS website.

[Induane]

It is simply because according to the license the only legal use for the artwork provided is to use an official planeshift binary to connect to the official PlaneShift server.

Testing servers are of course necessary and allowed but those people are on the development team and thus are a part of the development process.  This I assume is part of the development process and used for code testing and the like.  I think its a different matter when its a developer working within the workflow of the internals of the project and random other people.

I'm not defending the license or even saying it should be obeyed.  We've had guild meetings ingame on my server before in a custom map for the Council of Vaalnor.  I'm just surprised to see a somewhat official suggestion to disobey the license. Since the license states that connecting to the official server with an official client is the ONLY thing that the art is licensed for, it is indeed a violation.  I'm guessing that the developers don't have to agree to the planeshift eula before launching their test server with new internal art packages.

[Karyuu]

Induane, mountains out of molehills.

People can run a server with PS art to take screenshots, or explore the world on their own. They can run a server to test what the GM commands are like. I've encouraged it during all my time here, and so have many other devs. It's really not something to pick at. Moreover if it actually becomes an issue, I'll further encourage people to say they're testing something locally to see if they can help the team and that's their excuse ;)

[Induane]

I'm picking because I was warned that if I didn't shut down mine I'd get a cease and desist order. No one could connect outside our guild and it was used for things like guild screenshots of us having meetings and for testing art we were trying to submit to planeshift. I suppose its my fault for asking questions about it in #planeshift-build when I was working on my guide on testing art in planeshift using a self compiled test server.  I guess I'm mostly picking because I was told to shut it down when I was trying to help document development stuff for PlaneShift and now its being publicly encouraged in some form.  I'm glad you encouraged it.  I tried the testing argument and was told that that didn't matter because I wasn't a developer and besides testing wasn't the only purpose because guild mates connected to it for meetings.  It seemed to me that THAT was making a mountain out of a molehill.

I didn't mean to nitpick, I just found it frustrating and should think the public stance needs clarified then because if someone else does do so and mentions it in the wrong company and gets told to shut it down as I was then there is a problem. Granted I haven't had my server up in over a year so no complaints recently. 

I don't mean to bring a personal issue into this but I mention it because it adheres to the relevance of my comments.  It was a frustrating experience so I'd rather the official stance be made public not personal stances of some developers.  I don't think I was being singled out for any reason personal or not so to me it reflects a disconnect in stances among what is acceptable.

So maybe it is mountains out of molehills but it became a mountain for me indeed but not out of my own choosing.  I'd have preferred it to have remained a molehill.  So long as it can be proclaimed that the official stance is that such actions are ok I'll shut up as at that point its evident that no one will be ordered to shut down a testing server.

[Xordan]

Who threatened you with that? Win for PR!...

[Induane]

Guess.