Redo the engine from scratch?

[XunTzu]

One of my friends made an intresting point when I told him  about JContainers downloadable from the site:  Has any mod authors thought about getting together and completely rebuild the Skyrim game engine from scratch?

From the sound of things, it's entirely possible and was wondering if there had been any attempts to do so before.

 

 

Disclaimer: I'm a simply user, not author, and therefore are not privy to the difficulties and logistics of doing so.

[Min]

Sorry for the kind of rude response, but... "Lol"ed.

[Prometeus5879]

Heh Min while I was in doubt responding that you already did 

 

For the OP two words: time and copyright.

[Jayce Dimmer]

Heh Min while I was in doubt responding that you already did 

 

For the OP two words: time and copyright.

 

To that, I respond with OpenMW!

 

But yeah. Time.

[Guest IAmTheOneWhoKnocks]

IF (that's a big if) you could redo the engine for Skyrim then you would have to also change EVERYTHING in the game to make it work with your new engine and no mods would be compatible.

 

tl;dr - No

[Kaz Aanh]

Just join and help the OpenMW team. When they finish it ,just replace models and animations with the Skyrim ones and you are done.

 

OpenSkyrim

[Rayblue]

Not possible because Beth knows that the game is still selling well, regardless of what people say about the game engine, and why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?

[Sybian]

yeah, With Snowdrop engine!!! And we can make a converter for all skyrim mods too, Just place and convert with a single button! Well now that we have covered this I am off to fly my broom around the neighborhood and finish spitting diamonds into the bags of trick or treaters, Then I'm off to stop ebola with an oven mit, 2 lemons and bar of old fashion soap!

 

Happy Halloween everyone!

[DDproductions83]

Also why would anyone in their right mind do that.. for free.. you could just build a new engine probably easier.. and make money off it or your own game..

 

So ya "Lol'd" is a pretty minor response imo

 

Also sybian I laughed so fricking hard at that

[Monsto Brukes]

One of my friends made an intresting point when I told him  about JContainers downloadable from the site:  Has any mod authors thought about getting together and completely rebuild the Skyrim game engine from scratch?

 

From the sound of things, it's entirely possible and was wondering if there had been any attempts to do so before.

 

 

Disclaimer: I'm a simply user, not author, and therefore are not privy to the difficulties and logistics of doing so.

 

 

So here's a serious answer:

 

Possible? Yes. 

Will it happen? Not today.

Good idea? No.

 

Realistically, I wouldn't think that anyone in their right mind would want to redo skyrim game engine. Graphically, it was merely "current tech" back in 2011. It's pretty dated today. Feature wise, (ai, quest logs, etc) it pales in comparison to more current offerings like unity. 

 

OpenMW, a morrowind clone, is out there somewhere, and it's . . .  "spotty" for the most part.

[Reenana]

I think ive seen it discussed somewhere.. 

 

[Vortec]

 Could Skyrim be ported to the Blender game Engine?.

[Monsto Brukes]

 Could Skyrim be ported to the Blender game Engine?.

 

The direct answer is yes. Semantically -- or pedantically -- any asset from any game in any engine on any os could be ported to any other.

 

Is anyone realistically willing to? No.

[Kimy]

It's of course possible to do if a large enough group of people with the right talents bands together and just does what Bethesda did. There is no god-given reason why only companies can make games. In theory, that is. In practice, I have never seen an open source game project truly succeed and produce something on par with commercial software - while it oddly enough works for any type of software BUT games, really. But while there is no shortage of coders willing to donate a substantial amount of their spare time for something like this, finding 3D artists, designers or composers willing to do the same seems to be much, much harder. It is odd though - because the combined workload that was needed to make the mods that can be found on Nexus and here is probably exceeding the hours that were put into making the original Skyrim game by a few orders of magnitude. But if someone would go ahead and say "Let's make a community RPG game with great mod support" not a lot of people would sign up for it.

[Monsto Brukes]

There is no god-given reason why only companies can make games. In theory, that is. In practice, I have never seen an open source game project truly succeed and produce something on par with commercial software

 

http://www.blackmesasource.com/

 

I suppose this is the part where "success" is defined as something monetary...

 

At which time I would point to the original Half-Life, which was made by the original team that built the Quake modification "Team Fortress" based on a loan, a wing and a prayer... then point to the game Narbacular Drop which was bought out by Valve and turned into Portal. The exact same path happened to the group that started making the original Left 4 Dead. Then there's Splash Damage that started out as the mod team behind Rocket Arena for Quake.

 

It happens much more often than meets the eye. With the exception of the games put out by the EAs and Activisions of the world, most games and dev houses started as "a group of guys" that decided to make a game. 

[Kimy]

Making games with the intention to monetize them later on doesn't exactly qualify as free/open source software.

 

The closest thing I can come up with in terms of a community-made game meeting commercial quality standards in areas other than just coding is 0AD. And that game has been in development for absolute ages and is nowhere near getting done, for their team seems to be absolutely tiny compared to the manpower game studios would tackle projects of comparable scope with. Tbh, as long as the community is unable to recruit talented 3D artists, designers and composers at the same rate as it seems to be able to find volunteer programmers, I can't see open source/community games becoming a hot topic, ever. Free/community software seems to be able to blow commercial software out of the water in terms of quality in a lot of areas - but none of these require artists. As long as this doesn't change, I can't see a "free Skyrim game" becoming reality, sad as is.

Modding works, because the projects are very limited in scope. Most of us developed their work either entirely on their own or in cooperation with just a few others. Making a Skyrim game from scratch would require a team of several dozen volunteers willing to work on the project in their spare time for several years. Nobody wants to start such an endeavor with - due to reasons explained above - such a slim chance of getting it done,.

[Parky]

 

Heh Min while I was in doubt responding that you already did 

 

For the OP two words: time and copyright.

 

To that, I respond with OpenMW!

 

But yeah. Time.

 

What praytell is openMW? Never assume people understand acronyms

[Jayce Dimmer]

 

 

Heh Min while I was in doubt responding that you already did 

 

For the OP two words: time and copyright.

 

To that, I respond with OpenMW!

 

But yeah. Time.

 

What praytell is openMW? Never assume people understand acronyms

 

 

Take a look.

 

[Monsto Brukes]

Making games with the intention to monetize them later on doesn't exactly qualify as free/open source software.

 

The closest thing I can come up with in terms of a community-made game meeting commercial quality standards in areas other than just coding is 0AD. And that game has been in development for absolute ages and is nowhere near getting done, for their team seems to be absolutely tiny compared to the manpower game studios would tackle projects of comparable scope with. Tbh, as long as the community is unable to recruit talented 3D artists, designers and composers at the same rate as it seems to be able to find volunteer programmers, I can't see open source/community games becoming a hot topic, ever. Free/community software seems to be able to blow commercial software out of the water in terms of quality in a lot of areas - but none of these require artists. As long as this doesn't change, I can't see a "free Skyrim game" becoming reality, sad as is.

Modding works, because the projects are very limited in scope. Most of us developed their work either entirely on their own or in cooperation with just a few others. Making a Skyrim game from scratch would require a team of several dozen volunteers willing to work on the project in their spare time for several years. Nobody wants to start such an endeavor with - due to reasons explained above - such a slim chance of getting it done,.

 

I agree that the issue isn't FINDING capable artists, there's tons of them. the issue is, as you said, intimidating scope vs individual drive. Artists are no different than programmers: they aren't going to spend time on things they don't care about.

 

2 things:

1) black mesa is opensource and successful. Unity engine is free while being open source enough to build a game with.

2) free or open source doesn't define monetization. Besides, your original point was about open source. While I don't follow open source gaming directly enough to know it's successes, we both know it's not an empty community. Anyway, nobody, not even the one-off phone app programmers, releases software completely altruistically. everyone wants people to donate or go pro or whatever.

 

Also, success is relative. It is not uncommon for 'people' to work on a game, open source, which is never completed, because it was basically a demo for that team to break into the game industry. 

 

Whatever man, my grander point is that there are regularly open source games that find success, whether monetary or otherwise. It happens. I can name as many of them as I can chess champions which is zero. I don't follow either, but I know they exist.

[Reenana]

unn .. i think some Russian sites...i forgot where ive seen it..

[Kimy]

 

Making games with the intention to monetize them later on doesn't exactly qualify as free/open source software.

 

The closest thing I can come up with in terms of a community-made game meeting commercial quality standards in areas other than just coding is 0AD. And that game has been in development for absolute ages and is nowhere near getting done, for their team seems to be absolutely tiny compared to the manpower game studios would tackle projects of comparable scope with. Tbh, as long as the community is unable to recruit talented 3D artists, designers and composers at the same rate as it seems to be able to find volunteer programmers, I can't see open source/community games becoming a hot topic, ever. Free/community software seems to be able to blow commercial software out of the water in terms of quality in a lot of areas - but none of these require artists. As long as this doesn't change, I can't see a "free Skyrim game" becoming reality, sad as is.

Modding works, because the projects are very limited in scope. Most of us developed their work either entirely on their own or in cooperation with just a few others. Making a Skyrim game from scratch would require a team of several dozen volunteers willing to work on the project in their spare time for several years. Nobody wants to start such an endeavor with - due to reasons explained above - such a slim chance of getting it done,.

 

I agree that the issue isn't FINDING capable artists, there's tons of them. the issue is, as you said, intimidating scope vs individual drive. Artists are no different than programmers: they aren't going to spend time on things they don't care about.

 

2 things:

1) black mesa is opensource and successful. Unity engine is free while being open source enough to build a game with.

2) free or open source doesn't define monetization. Besides, your original point was about open source. While I don't follow open source gaming directly enough to know it's successes, we both know it's not an empty community. Anyway, nobody, not even the one-off phone app programmers, releases software completely altruistically. everyone wants people to donate or go pro or whatever.

 

Also, success is relative. It is not uncommon for 'people' to work on a game, open source, which is never completed, because it was basically a demo for that team to break into the game industry. 

 

Whatever man, my grander point is that there are regularly open source games that find success, whether monetary or otherwise. It happens. I can name as many of them as I can chess champions which is zero. I don't follow either, but I know they exist.

 

 

*nod nod* I am one of the persons who don't ultimately believe that true altruism even exists. In the end humans won't do anything as long as they don't profit from it in -some- fashion, and even if it's only feeling good about having helped somebody. And yes, what you said about most programmer's motivation to write community/free software is correct - ultimately, most do it either to improve their skills or to demonstrate to potential employers that they have this or that skill needed for some position. For artists, this route seems to be a tad less common to take, so it's a tad harder to find any for developing free software with. It's really just very basic truths about humankind at work - we only do something if we're sufficiently motivated to. That's really something we have to take into accord when tossing around ideas like writing a RPG engine from scratch: What's the gain for everyone and anyone involved?

 

Would I be motivated to create a truly free and moddable RPG engine? Yes. I would. But in my case, demonstrating skills to employers isn't the motivation at all (I am not really looking for a position in the gaming industry). Getting the project done would be. It's not the journey that counts for me here. Just the destination. So, someone would need to convince me that it can be done and it will be done. Otherwise, for me, there isn't the slightest motivation to write one single line of code for it. As you can tell, I am not really convinced that tackling a project like that will yield the result I'd be looking for. For as far as I can tell, nobody ever managed to complete a project like that, and despite I know beyond any trace of doubt that on this forum alone there is more than enough talent to get it done, I can't see it happening. Which is why I personally wouldn't ever try to set up a project for it.

 

I'd love history to prove me wrong one day. I really would.

[Monsto Brukes]

 

 

Making games with the intention to monetize them later on doesn't exactly qualify as free/open source software.

 

The closest thing I can come up with in terms of a community-made game meeting commercial quality standards in areas other than just coding is 0AD. And that game has been in development for absolute ages and is nowhere near getting done, for their team seems to be absolutely tiny compared to the manpower game studios would tackle projects of comparable scope with. Tbh, as long as the community is unable to recruit talented 3D artists, designers and composers at the same rate as it seems to be able to find volunteer programmers, I can't see open source/community games becoming a hot topic, ever. Free/community software seems to be able to blow commercial software out of the water in terms of quality in a lot of areas - but none of these require artists. As long as this doesn't change, I can't see a "free Skyrim game" becoming reality, sad as is.

Modding works, because the projects are very limited in scope. Most of us developed their work either entirely on their own or in cooperation with just a few others. Making a Skyrim game from scratch would require a team of several dozen volunteers willing to work on the project in their spare time for several years. Nobody wants to start such an endeavor with - due to reasons explained above - such a slim chance of getting it done,.

 

I agree that the issue isn't FINDING capable artists, there's tons of them. the issue is, as you said, intimidating scope vs individual drive. Artists are no different than programmers: they aren't going to spend time on things they don't care about.

 

2 things:

1) black mesa is opensource and successful. Unity engine is free while being open source enough to build a game with.

2) free or open source doesn't define monetization. Besides, your original point was about open source. While I don't follow open source gaming directly enough to know it's successes, we both know it's not an empty community. Anyway, nobody, not even the one-off phone app programmers, releases software completely altruistically. everyone wants people to donate or go pro or whatever.

 

Also, success is relative. It is not uncommon for 'people' to work on a game, open source, which is never completed, because it was basically a demo for that team to break into the game industry. 

 

Whatever man, my grander point is that there are regularly open source games that find success, whether monetary or otherwise. It happens. I can name as many of them as I can chess champions which is zero. I don't follow either, but I know they exist.

 

 

*nod nod* I am one of the persons who don't ultimately believe that true altruism even exists. In the end humans won't do anything as long as they don't profit from it in -some- fashion, and even if it's only feeling good about having helped somebody. And yes, what you said about most programmer's motivation to write community/free software is correct - ultimately, most do it either to improve their skills or to demonstrate to potential employers that they have this or that skill needed for some position. For artists, this route seems to be a tad less common to take, so it's a tad harder to find any for developing free software with. It's really just very basic truths about humankind at work - we only do something if we're sufficiently motivated to. That's really something we have to take into accord when tossing around ideas like writing a RPG engine from scratch: What's the gain for everyone and anyone involved?

 

Would I be motivated to create a truly free and moddable RPG engine? Yes. I would. But in my case, demonstrating skills to employers isn't the motivation at all (I am not really looking for a position in the gaming industry). Getting the project done would be. It's not the journey that counts for me here. Just the destination. So, someone would need to convince me that it can be done and it will be done. Otherwise, for me, there isn't the slightest motivation to write one single line of code for it. As you can tell, I am not really convinced that tackling a project like that will yield the result I'd be looking for. For as far as I can tell, nobody ever managed to complete a project like that, and despite I know beyond any trace of doubt that on this forum alone there is more than enough talent to get it done, I can't see it happening. Which is why I personally wouldn't ever try to set up a project for it.

 

I'd love history to prove me wrong one day. I really would.

 

 

The closest it comes to completing a project of that scope that I've seen would openmw (the morrowind clone) or the Ultima VII clone Exult . . . which is 16 yrs old as it says on the news page and still without a "full release". . . of course, they're working with a game that has unknown wad files for a proprietary engine. That seems like a headbanger from the word go.

[TripleKnightmare]

yeah avil engine assassins unity wow far cry 4 we have a liftoff pshhhh

[Duoleb The Chosen]

depends

 

1 because bethesda never polishes their fucking gamebryo, and Fallout 3/NV was the Prototype for CK

2 because Skyrim has TEH WORST FACIAL ANIMATIONS AND EDITION EVER!