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Freespace 2 looks set to gain an open source mission editor

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Freespace 2 [Open Source Engine] is about to gain an open source mission editor named wxFRED2. Freespace 2 has been open source for a long time, but the editor is always something we lacked.

Freespace 2 was released in 1999 and still to this day holds up as one of the best space shooters around, and my own personal favourite. The mix of seriously intense space battles with an interesting story I thought was really well done overall. One day I would love to see it gain another game in the series. In 2002 Volition release the source code to Freespace 2!

Note: You can grab Freespace 2 on GOG if you didn't realize it had an open source engine. SCP also have a handy installer with source code available on github (Java).

You can see a little preview over on the hard-light forums right here for the new editor. News about it was posted on the official newsletter here.

It's in the early stages, but it's making great progress already.

The Freespace 2 rendering engine has been integrated into the editor window and correctly displays the game engine and a grid. Next up will be implementing rendering the ship models.

Thanks to DMJC for letting us know! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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4 comments

Saladien Sep 18, 2016
Why wont gog sell Freespace 2 with Linux support?
Liam Dawe Sep 18, 2016
Quoting: SaladienWhy wont gog sell Freespace 2 with Linux support?
While the source was released, it's still unofficial. They would need the rights from who currently holds the Freespace license to sell it with a pre-built version of it, that means a fair bit of extra work and testing, which likely just isn't worth it financially for them.
The_E Sep 19, 2016
Hi, FreeSpace Open lead developer here. The issue with any official Linux (or, for that matter, MacOS) version of FS2 is that the FS2 source was never released under any open source license. The license reads (paraphrased) "Copyright by Volition Inc, you may use this source for noncommercial purposes."
As far as we know, Volition still owns the rights to the FS2 source (Interplay owns the IP and distribution rights at the moment), and any "official" port would have to take as basis either the work done by the SCP or the work done over on icculus.org or be a complete from-scratch new development based on the original source code release; The first two options present a hairball of legal issues, and the third obviously requires time and money and developers, something which Interplay doesn't really have.
Julius Sep 19, 2016
Yeah, the lack of a proper open-source license has held this project back so much... it is really a shame. Almost like the Homeworld 1 source release, that also came with a stupid shared-source license :(
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