Is this open-source?

[mishko]

Hello, I'm curious. Is this open-source? And if it is, why don't more people work on this project? Doesn't open-source mean anybody can help make it?

[dotted]

Hello, I'm curious. Is this open-source? And if it is, why don't more people work on this project? Doesn't open-source mean anybody can help make it?

Yes it is open-source, but it requires that people are willing to help out which is obviously not a given.

Well I'm not completely sure, but from what I gathered I think War for the Overworld killed/absorbed this project.

No, there was some talks many eons ago about using the engine as a base, but that never amounted to anything.

[MaxHayman]

I work on this from time to time. I don't expect it to be finished anytime soon though.

[Hapuga]

I think remaking the games from scratch would probably be easier than reverse engineering DKII.

And I'd say you are right. Unless you are an excellent computer engineer and you know exactly what you are doing, and you have some sort of help (debug information, source code) it is easier to rewrite the game from scratch.

I am currently writing a 3D RTS with a team of 3 other programmers as a graduate project for my institute. I am writing it in c++, from scratch (no external libraries, except some DX functionality, FMOD for sound and AntWeakBar for debug, and we are even planning to rewrite that later). So far we have been working on this for 6 months, and were are at the point where we have almost enough tools and tech to start generating content. Of course, we are facing full class load apart from doing this project.

I would say, a team of 4 working on this project full time would be able to mimic if not all, about 70-80% of functionality under a year.
I honestly would like to rewrite DK2 one day and make it better.

[mishko]

This project is being made from scratch though, is it not? And yes, DK2 would look amazing with newer graphics and more finished gameplay.

[Hapuga]

I dont want to sound disrespectful to IKSLM, bu if such a venture is to be considered later on, it will be started from scratch again. NBK was originally planned as a DK1 remake, and it was never finished, some people did various contributions here and there, but I believe that it would be better to start over. again. With a team of dedicated programmers and artists.

The problem with such projects is that if you want to do things right, it is close to impossible to do it single-handedly. Not only because it is a large amount of works, but also because one person cannot realistically be a good core, physics, networking and graphics programmer at the same time. It is like trying to build an airplane by your own. Even if you are a brilliant engineer, you will not get close to airbus or boeing. You may get something that flies and even lands without killing you, but thats pretty much the limit.