Obsidian is an open source 3D virtual world for Linux and OpenGL.

obsidian6Obsidian is an extensible virtual world system with a fullblown multiplayer client-server architecture.

It is NOT a VRML2 world system (there are fundamental computer graphics reasons why VRML worlds will always be slow), though there are plans to include VRML2 as a world data format.

Features include: Multiplayer Client-Server architecture, Editable worlds and textures, and projectile weapons.

Obsidian is now a parked project, and no further work will be done on it. Feel free to use this code and study the thinking behind it, but we do NOT advise using it as the basis for any virtual world projects you may have in mind.

Obsidian is an extensible virtual world system with a fullblown multiplayer client-server architecture. It is NOT a VRML2 world system (there are fundamental computer graphics reasons why VRML worlds will always be slow), though there are plans to include VRML2 as a world data format.

Features.
    Multiplayer Client-Server architecture
    Generic TCP/IP hence works natively across the Internet
    Full 3D headsup with texture mapping
    Runs acceptably on a 486, screams on a Pentium
    Editable worlds and textures
    Supports some forms of IMPOSSIBLE ARCHITECTURE (eg. rooms that are bigger inside than out, corridors that curve back on themselves)
    Inter-player communications
    Projectile weapons (rudimentary, anybody is welcome to add more spectacular violence if they can)
We have decided to make the source code available for those who are interested in compiling it up and having a play with it. Feel free to send in any improvements, patches, or bugfixes you may make.
Remember that for all Obsidian's sophistication, this is Alpha code. It is not yet an RPM or other standard install, though we are trying to make it as nice at this stage as possible.
obsidian

Download.





  • Click HERE TO DOWNLOAD the latest BINARY tree (3.3 Meg).
  • Click HERE TO DOWNLOAD the latest SOURCE tree (600 k).

  • You'll need a linux machine with svgalib (see below for other platforms) and the "dialog" utility to get it up and running, and many linux distributions have these (or else they are quick to obtain). We used RedHat 4.1 (Vanderbilt) Linux on our development machines.





  • Click here for REDHAT 5.x PATCH (1k). This patch, the work of Richard Lyons, will be incorporated into the archive at some point. This patch makes the tree more "generic" and may help people compiling under various Linux distributions.
  • SLACKWARE Users' note:
      Andrew Donkin reports the following: I tried building Obsidian on my Slackware 3.something box, and found a clash with the GTK/Gimp glib.h.
      It first appeared while compiling glib/graphics.c
      The easiest solution was
      mv /usr/local/include/glib.h /usr/local/include/glib.h.old
      ...before trying to build Obsidian. A cleaner solution, I guess, would be to swap the order of "-I/usr/local/include -I../include".
      Other than that, it built fine.
  • When mailing code to us, be sure to quote the full source version number and the name and number of any patches you have applied.


  • Notes.
    • Obsidian is governed by the Obsidian Artistic License.
    • This is alpha code, it may crash. We take NO responsibility for it. Just like any other software producer. We have tried to make it run as nicely as possible, but it is using svgalib calls so if it does lock you could lose the console.
    • The "obsidian" script that starts the client in an easy to use manner requires the "dialog" program to be installed, which comes with the standard RedHat distribution. If you can't find "dialog", inspect the contents of the "obsidian" script to see how to run the client from the command line (its easy!).
    • We have included the source code to the TYPHOON database engine, by Thomas B. Pedersen, which is required to compile Obsidian.
    Screenshots.
     
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    obsidian8

     
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    About Giampaolo Rossi.

    Fond of computer and video games. Stay informed of the latest news on games for Linux and Android. The future of gaming is in Linux. All you need to know about How to play Windows games on Linux.
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