BioWare Open Sources Something [Mar 30, 2015, 5:51 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
BioWare Blog
announces the open source release of Orbit, "a modern Java framework that
makes it easier to build and maintain distributed, secure, and scalable online
services." That's pretty self-explanatory (we're nodding, knowingly), but here's
more, just in case:
Beginning today, we will be making Orbit open source on GitHub under a BSD license. We have been leveraging open source technology internally for quite some time, and we think the time is now right for us to give back and engage with the community in a more meaningful way.
The last-generation of Orbit powered some of the key technology behind the Dragon Age Keep and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Our plans for the next-generation framework are even more ambitious.
Orbit is still early in development, and as such, we’re excited about the opportunity that open and collaborative development presents. We’re looking forward to working with people across the community to make it even better. If you’re building online services in Java, we’d love to hear your feedback.
This initiative is the result of a lot of effort from people across BioWare and EA, and as our first open source project, we think Orbit will be an exciting and interesting challenge.
Sho wrote on Mar 30, 2015, 22:20:
That's great. Game development is the last large software industry that generally doesn't open source very much (there's the odd engine here and there nowadays, EA has thrown some of its libs over the fence in an ungraceful fashion, and Valve has gotten into open dev tools for SteamOS/Linux), but stands to benefit a lot from collaborating on infrastructure that it's a very suitable dev methodology for.
I think, although I'm not 100%, that all that 3rd party middleware doesn't help the open sourcing much. Tim Sweeney says as much here,
If we can get to a point where all of that can be convinced to open up ancient, legacy versions of their middleware, it might convince pubs/devs to do that same. Unlikely, but anyway.
It's a shame, as if we could get to a point where open-sourcing was seen as a natural part of the life cycle of a game, then we could also get to a point where your old games on Steam, GOG, Origin, whatever, continue to get updates, ports and fixes long into the future; running a legacy games catalogue becomes about cherry picking patches contributed to the repo.
Sho wrote on Mar 30, 2015, 22:20:
That said, the hard work only starts after you open up a codebase. Open source projects rise and fall mainly with their approach to community and governance.
Quite.
::
Rockstar made $1 billion in 3 days with GTAV, yet they can't find the budget to port RDR to PC.
Rockstar made $1 billion in 3 days with GTAV, yet they can't find the budget to port RDR to PC.
Date
Subject
Author
Copyright © 1996-2025 Stephen Heaslip. All rights reserved.
All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Privacy Policy. Manage Cookie Settings.
News CGI copyright © 1999-2025 James "furn" Furness & Blue's News. All rights reserved.
Chatbear v1.5.0/blue++: Page generated 16 January 2025, 15:57.