FreeGameDev

https://eukara.github.io/FreeCS/
https://github.com/eukara/FreeCS

Based on the awesome Quake1 derived FTEQW engine (don't be fooled by the outdated website).

Seems to be in a playtable but still early state. Might be good for some nostalgia or to recreate Free assets...

Edit: Latest FTEQW engine binaries for Windows, Android & Linux here: http://triptohell.info/moodles/

The reason why this "original idea" wasn't done sooner is because it was actually tried before back in 2000 and Valve C&D'd it.

Furthermore, compiling tools from the HL SDK and Hammer have very strict usage rights.

It is not even a FOSS game, they just take the free CounterStrike version and put a FOSS engine underneath it, what is the purpose of it? Other than saying "Hey it is a FOSS engine" there is no purpose in it.

Plenty of use. For example FTEQW runs on Android and many other platforms, even via WebGL in a browser. It can also be a starting point for a fully free tactical shooter...

How can it be a starting point for anything, if it already was outdated over 15 years ago?
And by the way, the game is technically still stolen, the intelectual property is stolen like brand name, concept, design, gameplay etc and of course all the assets. How can it be a starting point?

Duion {l Wrote}:It is not even a FOSS game, they just take the free CounterStrike version and put a FOSS engine underneath it, what is the purpose of it? Other than saying "Hey it is a FOSS engine" there is no purpose in it.

So there's no purpose in OpenMW?

The problem with those plagiarism projects is, that they have not much to do with FOSS, since you cannot legally open source them.
Legally this is fan art and even though it is often tolerated, it is not legal, so the companies, that are all hostile towards open source can sue you anytime for a zillion dollars and then your project is history.

Duion {l Wrote}:The problem with those plagiarism projects is, that they have not much to do with FOSS, since you cannot legally open source them.
Legally this is fan art and even though it is often tolerated, it is not legal, so the companies, that are all hostile towards open source can sue you anytime for a zillion dollars and then your project is history.

So let's get a project which got a C&D long ago: Freecraft. And what we have now from it? Stratagus engine and lots of games, especially Wyrmsun.

It shouldn't be possible if, years ago, some people did not decide to recreate the warcraft engine on a FOSS approach. For me it worth it.

And I know the case of this Counter Strike is a bit different as it seems to be on top of a already existing engine (yes, FPS games are a bit special case due to IDTech's GPL releases), but who knowns where it will be in the future (If not dead, probably will be in a similar way as OpenTTD: some free/libre contents on top of a free/libre engine).

Except for the radar and some menu issues seems to be fully playable now.

Still some annoying seemingly Ubuntu16.04 related bugs in the engine though, as the menu looses mouse focus and the jpeg library (sky rendering) is not found... so your mileage my vary on Linux.

FOSS version of Counter-Strike? Sounds great!

CS is/was one of the most influencial video games, especially popular in LAN parties. Even if it is now very old, it really wrote history.

I don't really understand all the naysayers here. The project and idea are legit to me. And even if the data is not (yet) free, well, nobody says that it can't be replaced in future. According to website, no actual data is distributed, so it is (sadly) only an engine so far.

But why only CS 1.5 and not CS 1.6?

1.6 was actually the point many people stopped playing because of game-play changes, so I guess that is where the 1.5 only comes from. And wasn't it also the point Valve took over?

The mouse issue under Linux is fixed now, by the way. But you still have to rename a few files to all lower case to work around case-insentiveness (skys & some sounds).

I see.

About the media:

I think replacing the textures shouldn't be too problematic, they were low-res in original CS anyway, so finding a replacement makes a lot of sense, not just from a FOSS standpoint, but also a quality standpoint.

What I'm more worried about are the sounds, I don't think there is an easy way to replace them all. The sounds in CS are kinda “iconic”, any replacement will definitely change the game. This is one of the moments where I wish we had no copyright at all, but whatever.

Yes you only need to replace all textures, all models, all sounds, all logos, all brand names etc oh wait then you have a new game, so why not build it in the first place?

But you can do so incrementally and with an existing (potential) player-base. People can also go back later and play the "classic" mode for nostalgia.

For those looking into contributing, I have recently started collecting all sorts of documentation regarding the FTEQW engine here:
https://quakewiki.org/wiki/FTEQW_Wiki

(help is welcome on that effort as well... the engine is great, but documentation is mostly not that good.)