Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - Non-FreeSpace => StarShatter Open Source Project => Topic started by: The E on May 23, 2012, 02:51:30 am

Title: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: The E on May 23, 2012, 02:51:30 am: Well, more or less. As you may be aware if you have followed my occasional ramblings on IRC, I have decided to take part in the continued development of the Starshatter engine and game.

For those of you who don't know, Starshatter is a space combat sim that takes its cues from games like Battlestations Midway, giving you the option to take control of anything from a single fighter to a whole Carrier Battle Group, with a dynamic campaign environment. As its commercial success was somewhat lacking, the game's creator chose to give it, and the engine's source code, away for free.

When looking at this board, you may have noticed an unfamiliar name among its moderators. braddw25 was one of the senior members of the Starshattermods.com site, which for a long time was the Starshatter community's main hub. He is also currently in the process of setting up download locations for all the official and unofficial content out there, so please give him a warm welcome.

Further info, when I have time to write it up.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: LordMelvin on May 23, 2012, 02:59:11 am: Second post! Yay for flightsims and stuff.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Dragon on May 23, 2012, 03:00:01 am: Looking forward to it.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: headdie on May 23, 2012, 03:51:13 am: good luck to the project
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 23, 2012, 05:43:44 am: Thanks very much for providing a little corner of this awesome web site for starshatter! Your generosity is much appreciated. The first objective I personally would like to achieve here is to get at least some idea of how to modify the source code. I am completely clueless as to how this should be done, so I'm sure I'll have TONS of questions. I'm hoping some of the more knowledgable folks here can help me out. In the meantime, if there are any starshatter specific questions that anyone needs help with, please feel free to ask me. I don't know as much as the previous starshattermods team leader, but I have picked up quite a bit over the years so chances are I might be able to serve as a resource in things starshatter related. So feel free to shoot any questions my way and I will do my best to get you an answer. Thanks again for providing this board space!!
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: The E on May 23, 2012, 05:48:37 am: I will post a comprehensive guide on that topic once I am back home (~4.5 hours from now)
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 23, 2012, 07:27:38 am: Sounds great, E, thanks very much!!
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 23, 2012, 07:40:08 am: Just a quick FYI. I was able to access Wdboyd's ftp site where all the files from Starshattermods were stored. It took over 5 hrs last night, but the files are all now safely in my possesion. If anyone is interested in mods for the game, tutorials for both playing and modding the game, and tools for modding, they will be appearing soon over in the download section of www.spacesimcentral.com along with the latest and greatest version of the game itself which includes improvements made by the source code project team.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Rodo on May 23, 2012, 09:02:37 am: Good to see you folks got a spot here at HLP.

Wish you the best with the project :)
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 23, 2012, 09:54:27 am: Quote from: Rodo on May 23, 2012, 09:02:37 am
Good to see you folks got a spot here at HLP.

Wish you the best with the project :)

Thanks very much, Rodo. It's good to be here!!
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Flipside on May 23, 2012, 10:49:58 am: Here's hoping to great things in the future, the SCP started small and became a giant, and there's no reason why Starshatter cannot follow that same route :)
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Unknown Target on May 23, 2012, 11:24:14 am: Good luck! :)

Is the released code's license agreement similar to Freespace 2, i.e. can you not make commercial games with it?
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: The E on May 23, 2012, 11:29:55 am: I am unaware of any restrictions regarding that. I am placing Starshatter Open under the New BSD License.

However, I think that that's definitely something where you're going to have to at least talk to the original developer about it.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 23, 2012, 01:23:34 pm: Quote from: Unknown Target on May 23, 2012, 11:24:14 am
Good luck! :)

Is the released code's license agreement similar to Freespace 2, i.e. can you not make commercial games with it?

I'm not sure there ever was an official license agreement for the released code. Milo, the original developer would occasionally sign on to starshattermods.com, and one day out of the blue he asked us if we would be interested in obtaining the source code off his old computer. We of course answered that we would love to have it and the he sent it to William who made it available for download on the site. I never really gave much though to creating a commercial game with it. My guess would be that Milo gave it to us believing that we would just use it for modding and upgrading. I will try to check with William and Milo though to see if there is such an agreement in place.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 23, 2012, 02:17:47 pm: According to William, Milo handed over the source code with no strings attached, so I don't really know what that means as far as a licensing agreement is concerned. I do know that the software was only ever sold by Matrix games and they no longer seem to have any interest in selling or supporting it.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: headdie on May 23, 2012, 02:46:50 pm: Just be careful there is no issues like FS has with interplay owning certain rights.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: jg18 on May 23, 2012, 09:07:16 pm: Congrats on getting a board (I love the tagline! :D) and good luck with everything! Looking forward to new developments. :)
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: jr2 on May 24, 2012, 12:38:37 am: Heh. :nervous:

/me looks around

/me sees no one, and tiptoes over towards the fire control console

Code: [Select]
/.target community StarShatter /.firebeam main
:welcome:
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Black Wolf on May 24, 2012, 01:38:40 am: So, has anyone checked the Wayback Machine to try and obtain email addresses for some of the more active memebrs? They have a snapshot from Feb 2011 of starshattermods.com, by the looks.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 24, 2012, 03:56:36 am: Black Wolf,

I have been trying very hard to find email addresses from a few of the senior members and have not been having too much luck. What do you mean about the snapshot of the site? Is there a way to access the site info from a previous date?? If so, how did you do it? If I could get to the memeber directory, that would be a HUGE hellp in getting some of the other active members to come over here.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: niffiwan on May 24, 2012, 04:11:00 am: The wayback machine effectively takes periodic backup of internet, try these links :)

(I haven't looked for the members directory, I figure you know the site better than me)

http://web.archive.org/web/20110207161949/http://starshattermods.com/news.php (7th Feb snapshot)

http://archive.org/web/web.php (main site)

edit: actually, if you need to login to the forum to get the members directory & their emails then I don't know if the wayback machine can help you, I doubt it can snapshot a page that requires authentication...
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: The E on May 24, 2012, 04:27:59 am: It can't. It can only archive publically accessible information.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: jr2 on May 24, 2012, 04:36:04 am: link (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=wayback+machine)

Spoiler:
http://archive.org/web/web.php
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: The E on May 24, 2012, 04:44:21 am: Did you not see the post at the top of this very page?
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: jr2 on May 24, 2012, 04:51:02 am: :wtf: Sorry, didn't see second page. d'uuuuuh.. :embarrassed exit:
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: magic on May 24, 2012, 05:38:19 am: Welcome and good luck, forum neighbor. (Mech Commander Omnitech)

I will take a look at the code (when I have time), may be I can help, MCO is old c++ code.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 24, 2012, 05:46:07 am: I'm currently trying out this wayback machine, but not having much luck. Is it supposed to take such a long time to load up the site archive? I've been watching it say it's loading the site for close to 10 minutes now and it still hasn't gotten by the screen where it says its loading. Is this normal? Thanks for the lead in any event.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 24, 2012, 05:57:07 am: GOod news!!! I finally was able to access the snapshot of the site and was able to obtain email addresses for 3 very prominent members who have now been contacted. Hopefully I'll be hearing from them soon. In the meantime I'm going to go searching for more addresses. Thanks very much for this outstanding idea!!!
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Rodo on May 24, 2012, 10:57:29 am: I was browsing for SS content on the webs and found this wiki article with few entries there, added a link to the HLP board as the SS open source project.
Hope that's ok with you guys.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: starlord on May 26, 2012, 02:58:28 am: hi bradd. Nice to see you managed to find your way here! Hopefully so will wdboyd and the others.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 26, 2012, 06:03:09 am: Well if it isn't the guy who first inspired me to learn how to mod. Good to hear from you, Mike. I have contacted many of the guys from the old site. So far they have not shown up but many of them have said they will do so in the near future. I'm still hopeful that they will come here and contribute to this community. In any event it's good to hear from you.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: starlord on May 26, 2012, 09:30:08 am: indeed! I hope they'll show up! the starshatter community sported to many promising projects to go out like that. Perhaps should wdboyd find his way here, he'll continue working on his solcom and red rift campaigns...
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on May 26, 2012, 03:22:48 pm: Quote from: starlord on May 26, 2012, 09:30:08 am
indeed! I hope they'll show up! the starshatter community sported to many promising projects to go out like that. Perhaps should wdboyd find his way here, he'll continue working on his solcom and red rift campaigns...

I truly hope he does one day produce the Red Rift mod. He and I had several discussions about the back story for the mod and it would be VERY VERY good if produced. Just as good if not even better than Solcom. I have to believe that he will eventually get back into modding starshatter at some point. He told me he had switched to some Role Playing games for a while, but I can't imagine that he won't return to his first love sometime.
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: Lucan on June 08, 2012, 06:13:05 am: Thank guys for getting me on board. (For whatever, the site kept flagging my emails as spam when I attempted to sign up for an account.)

It's good to know that there are folks who are still interested in keeping the Starshatter coding project alive. For a moment, after starshattermods.com went kaput, I thought SS was doomed to fade into gaming obscurity. But thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case. :D
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: braddw25 on June 08, 2012, 07:38:02 am: Welcome, Lucan!! Glad to see you finally were able to make it here. It's great to have you onboard!
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: jr2 on June 08, 2012, 07:47:38 am: /me sneezes near the fire control circuit. :nervous:

:welcome:
Title: Re: This post is a placeholder for a real introduction
Post by: mattivanhanen on August 26, 2012, 05:09:43 am: Hello all,

It's heart warming to see that the StarShatter community is being revived. I look forward with ravenous appetite to see new features in the game and especially a more versatile mission creator now that it's open source. :)

Here are some samples of my Freespace port to StarShatter I did a few years back.

Activating a dormant fighter and attacking a Triton close by:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO12_7Jvby8

Planetary assault:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNG855dydg