Virtual Meeting

[adam_0]

The Second Demo is upon us. There are a few things that I would like
to discuss regarding the completion of this demo and the like.

I know that we are all busy with differing summer schedules, so I have
posted this here so that we can discuss this when each of us has the
time.

Topics for discussion will be numbered. Each topic will have its own
number, lasting the whole discussion. If anybody has a new topic that
they wish to talk about, just stick the next highest number at the
front of the topic. If you want to talk about something that's
related, suffix the number with a letter (i.e., main topic is "6",
subtopic is "6a", etc).

Anybody can jump into the discussion, as long as you add to our
discussion instead of distracting or detracting from it.

Also, please do not quote large chunks unless absolutely necessary, as
it will make things harder to read in the long run - just use the
number and reference what you're talking about.

Here we go:

1. Licensing.

Alistair and I previously discussed working under the MIT license
(viewable at: <http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php>);
however, I feel that this license is too lax, as it would allow for
commercial tweaking and redistribution by a third party. Instead, I
found this Creative Commons license ("human readable summary" at
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/>; license at
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode>) that
would suit my tastes a little better: non-commercial rights for all,
commercial rights for authors (with commercial rights able to be given
by authors).

This then got me thinking about the licensing that Mr. Lamont released
Ares under:

The GNU GPL v2.0 ("human readable summary" at: <http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/>) is for the source code of
Ares, which we are using for no more than a reference - although we
are trying to achieve a similar end result. To somebody more legally
savvy than myself: if we do not copy the code, yet we still try to
achieve a similar end result, are we bound to this license? That could
cause some serious licensing problems to us.

The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 ("human
readable summary" at: <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/
3.0/>) for most of the media, which we ARE definitely using in the
endgame. (which is also my preferred license of choice)

This then spurred another thought: we're only using the Ares content
in Xsera! Our engine, aptly named Apollo, has no Ares or Xsera content
in it, and perhaps this could be our saving: hold Apollo to one
license, and Xsera to another license that fits both the Apollo and
Ares licenses. This means that we could use the CC license for Apollo,
which is what I was hoping for.

... right?



2. What does the Second Demo look like?

We're beginning to figure that out, but so far it's "just a bunch of
improvements". You, sitting pretty in your Ishiman Heavy Cruiser,
still just go out and kill the Gaitori Carrier, which is still
defenseless, with the same weapons. No changes except for "it looks
better". I would like something that has a deeper cause, but I don't
know what... like perhaps taking over another planet? That would take
some work, though:

- Implementation of another planet
- Implementation of Ishiman Transport
- Ishiman Transport AI (tell it to go to the planet)
- Method of selecting Ishiman Transport (currently, our mouse cannot
give us coordinates, so we're stuck here, unless I figure out how to
select by pointing the ship - again, more work)

Anyways, throw ideas out there about what you think on this.



3. Communication with Alistair.

Recently, It's been impossible to contact you, Alistair, any way
except for Twitter, and I really don't like having @reply wars back
and forth. I've tried IRC, email, and IM, and I haven't gotten
through, even when you're online and responding to my Tweets.

... so what's up with that?



4. Xsera's Font ("Crystal Clear").

Until now, this font has suited our needs. The addition of the console
has caused us to need special characters, some of which this font
cannot provide. I've already created a topic on the Ambrosia Software
Forums about this, please respond there if you have any input (<http://
www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=126111>).



5. Summer plans.

This is more of a general topic, but I know that LNSU and Alistair are
less available during the summer than school, whereas vice versa is
true of me, seeing that the unemployment levels in my county are near
20%. I would jump for joy and scream and all sorts of irrational
things if we could get Xsera at least to beta by the end of my summer
(school starting up September 22nd). I know this means a lot of work
for you guys, but if we can get it to beta, that means that Alistair
would just need to help me out with figuring out problems that beta
testers experience, with the same going for LNSU. (my experience of
beta meaning that it's a feature-complete, untested game that would
only need tweaking on my level of code) LNSU and Alistair: sound good?



I'll add any more that I think of later.

Adam

[adam_0]

2. What does the Second Demo look like?

I just finished my last objective for the Second Demo in Redmine, so
now I think I'll start to get to work on the above-mentioned scenario.

If anybody else has some good ideas, though, let me know and I'll
consider them.

[adam_0]

1. Licensing.

Alistair and I chatted about the different licenses, making the
following points:
- The MIT is a sufficient license for our purposes.
- We are not held to the GNU GPL 2.0 license that the Ares code is
licensed under because we are not utilizing the code for anything more
than a reference.

Problem solved!

2. What does the Second Demo look like?

I've finished all objectives that I set for this improved Second Demo.
The only thing keeping me from publishing it is a buildup of memory
(apparently NOT a memory leak) that can make the game crash in a
matter of minutes. Therefore, the Second Demo is very, VERY close to
being finished.

6. Xsera boxes

(picture of reference: http://xsera-dev.googlegroups.com/web/Xsera%20Boxes.png?gsc=h0Q6xAsAAAAB9J1vpQArqWxnNaR-lUXm)

In Ares, the boxes have little edges to them, making them concave
shapes. For you who do not know, concave shapes are nasty as far as
OpenGL goes. Basically, if we were to create boxes in the same manner
as Ares, it would cost me a lot of time, as well as an increase in
about 50 - 80% of CPU work, excluding text. I am wondering if the
latter matters because these boxes will just be showing on the menu,
which is not particularly CPU-intensive, although it would cost me a
lot of work.

I managed to find and upload a real screenshot to show what I'm
talking about:

<http://xsera-dev.googlegroups.com/web/Real%20Xsera%20Boxes.png?
gsc=jj9Z6QsAAAD_t9z4_nTM5NcwVLD_Bt2O>

Should I go for my convex approach, or should I work harder to get the
boxes to look a little more authentic?

[adam_0]

6. Xsera Boxes

I've decided to go with the task-intensive boxes anyways, but I'm
having trouble getting a consistent looking box. I'm wondering why it
is happening like this[1]... I change the camera ratio to be 1:1 with
the resolution, but that still doesn't work. [2] Help, Alistair?

[1] http://xsera-dev.googlegroups.com/web/Ares%20Splash%20-%20640x480.png
[2] http://xsera-dev.googlegroups.com/web/Ares%20Splash%20-%20Native%20Xsera%20Res.png