FreeOrion

MikkoM wrote:It`s just that projects usually welcome any kind of programmers, ...

And IMO this is why SourceForge is littered with the bodies of dead projects.

Posted.

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 149#290149

Hi,

Congratulation's on the work that you have done on this game, it really looks amazing. I have some experience in programming languages, like C, python and also C++ (while i haven't programmed it in a while) but not on game development and i love programming and games so why not join both. So, if you still need programming help and i will be very happy to part of this project.

I have been trying to catch up by reading forum posts but some links are dead and the main page of freeorion is not working (You probably already notice).

Another question: Is http://freeorion.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/freeorion/ the main repo where everyone does the commits?

Ricardo

Hi, and welcome.

Yes, we've noticed the non-functional main page and I've informed the appropriate person. Hopefully that'll get taken care of soon...

We can definitely use programming help. I'd normally link you to some resources on the wiki, but they're not available at the moment. Instead, a good way to get started might be to try to fix a bug listed on sourceforge. Even if you can't fix it, you'll get some experience poking through the code.

We do all commits to the sourceforge repository.

Edit: Main Page of freeorion.org and the rest of the wiki are back in action. The Programming Work page is now accessible. /Edit

Hi, I'm a musician and sound guy.
Please tell me if you need anything. I've been dying for anything even remotely similiar to moo2 for ages, and it's still my favorite game of all time.

For music, we have a single track that ships with the releases that's played throughout the game while music is on. It'd be nice to have a bit of variety of tracks suitable for use on the map. Whether or not it's practical or desirable to have different tracks for different subscreens (map, research, design, production, diplomacy...), I'm not sure. It'd be nice to have a few tracks suitable for combat, as well. Really we just need someone to take charge of the area and either produce or select a few of the submissions scattered around the forums, package them up as .ogg files and say what files should be used for what. There hasn't been any leadership in this area for quite some time.

For sound effects, various combat sounds are the highest priority. Blaster or gun shots, explosions, shield fizzles or hums, engine pushes or burns, starlane entry or exit noises, or missle or fighter launch noises would be useful.

Hi and welcome. We'll need all kinds of combat sound effects pretty soon.

Off the top of my head:
- different weapons firing
- hull or shield getting hit
- explosions
- starlane entry
- ship moving
- radar sounds(?)
- some UI sounds(hard to say for me at this point what exactly we'll need)

I know it's been a long, long, LOOOONG time since I've been seen around these parts...

But I'm getting close to finishing my computer science degree, which means that, in theory, I might be able to help with coding. And I'm lacking anything to do to further my education over the summer, as I wasn't able to get any summer classes or an internship through the school. I'm pushing some private connections I have with groups like Stardock, but I'm not really all that hopeful at the moment. Could you use a novice programmer willing to learn at this point, and if so where should I send my resume / application to?

Ron_Lugge wrote:Could you use a novice programmer willing to learn at this point, and if so where should I send my resume / application to?

Since FreeOrion is open source and developed entirely by volunteers, and not a huge project requiring lots of bureaucracy, there are no applications required to contribute. If you want to help with programming, then get a compiler and the code from SVN and either the appropriate libraries or the SDK if on Windows or OSX and get the SVN version building. Then pick a task of the programming work page, or discuss another on the forums, and get to coding. When ready, submit a patch. It'll get reviewed and responded to, and possibly uploaded if acceptable.

Alright, I'll start poking around. I should have emphasized the 'novice' part a bit more than I did, though... a quick glance at some of the programming work page tells me I'm already in way over my head. "std::pair<GG::Key, GG::Flags<GG::ModKey> >" makes almost (almost... std is what I keep doing using namespace std to avoid, right?) no sense, though I suspect once I did into the code it'll make a little bit more.

You should see me grinning; I like challenges. Doable ones anyway...

What is our current situation with sounds and music? Do we already have something concrete that is needed for the combat engine or general game UI? And talking about combat effects, which should be made first visual or sound effects or does it matter?

Since our Audio section of the forums hasn`t been too active lately, I recently started searching for audio forums, which could provide us with a few new audio contributors. I found these two forums, which look, at least some what promising:

http://www.audioforums.com/forums/

http://www.gameaudioforum.com/phpBB3/

I also took the liberty to ask, if these forums would allow us to advertise FreeOrion`s sound possibilities, and both forums said yes, although with some restrictions (which are presented later on in this post).

Are there other audio forums that could be useful for recruiting?

In my opinion it might be useful, if we could offer possible new audio contributors a similar to do list as we already offer for programmers. This way we could offer them concrete tasks like, give us a three second continuous beam sound for a laser beam, instead of just, make some sounds and/or music that you think could be useful for combat or the general UI. Hopefully this kind of filling a need contributing could also make new contributors more interested in the project for longer periods of time, as they would know that the sounds and music that they have made and, which have been approved to the project will be soon used in FreeOrion, and thus they can soon hear the fruits of their work. Instead of just making some sounds/music now, which might be useful only after a long period of time has passed, and which might not get a lot of attention until then.

Then there are of course projects like this one:

http://www.freesound.org/

which could also offer us some sounds. However do we have the rights to use sounds from projects like these and are our licenses compatible, since the sounds in the freesoundproject for example seem to be licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License?

Finally, I could do the recruitment posts to audioforums.com and gameaudioforum.com, when/if it is considered to be appropriate. However if somebody else feels that he/she should do the recruitment posts or is just eager to do so, here are the rules that those forums expect us to follow.

Audioforums.com

1) Post it in the "Backstage Lounge" forum or in the "Sound Design Audio Post & Surround" forum.

2) Mention at the beginning of the thread that the post was pre-approved by me (Audiodude) so none of the other moderators think it is spam.

3) You can not sell anything, solicit our members for donations, or re-direct to a commercial website.

Gameaudioforum.com

Post in the "Video Games & More" section. No updates about the project allowed.

MikkoM wrote:Finally, I could do the recruitment posts to audioforums.com and gameaudioforum.com, when/if it is considered to be appropriate.

Yes, that would be great. Our goals in the sound department are: more songs; more songs of different types (right now we only have one, but could use a gneral one, one for combat, whatever); more and better sound effects (we should have a clear and consistent design for the sound effects, be they general UI, combat UI, or combat sound effects).

tzlaine wrote:right now we only have one, but could use a gneral one, one for combat, whatever

That's not quite true. LithiumMongoose has actually done a couple of different tracks and they are still available on his website. I could add all of them to SVN if you want.

It's probably not going to be very useful to ask for sound effect contributions until we have a set of events and objects involved in events that need sounds to accompany them. In order to decide what objects and events need sounds, we probably need a basic working combat system, or at least some mockups and/or a plan about what sounds and parts of sounds will be needed. Having that, we can make an Audio Work page... without that, we probably can't. If recruitment posts are just asking for sound contributions, not having an Audio Work page or list or equivalent will probably make contributing rather difficult...

pd wrote:LithiumMongoose has actually done a couple of different tracks and they are still available on his website. I could add all of them to SVN if you want.

Two issues with that:
* That he made a track doesn't mean it was decided it was good and appropriate for use in FreeOrion
* He said to me in an email a year or two ago that he wasn't fond of the CC-BY-SA without NC license, and that he might change his mind about releasing the current FO music track under it.

Given that, I wouldn't take any more tracks from his site and put them into SVN / release with FO, specifically under the CC-BY-SA, without his explicit permission and endorsement of doing so.

pd wrote:

tzlaine wrote:right now we only have one, but could use a gneral one, one for combat, whatever

That's not quite true. LithiumMongoose has actually done a couple of different tracks and they are still available on his website. I could add all of them to SVN if you want.

That's news to me! Well, if the concerns Geoff has (and I share those concerns) can be addressed, I'd love to see more music get added to a playlist or something. (Though this is what's needed in an overall sound design.)