Open Source - CWE and MOSS in layman's terms

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:45 pm

The team at OpenUru.org has put together a few things as a simple Q&A in response to some requests for simple, non-techy information on what the recent release of the CyanWorlds.com Engine Client and Plugin sources and the MOSS server means.

There is an FAQ page on the OpenUru.org wiki and you can also ask new questions at OpenUru.org. Links are given at the bottom of the following post.

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:45 pm

What happened to Plasma?

In releasing their sources, Cyan titled the game engine as the "CyanWorlds.com Engine" (now being abbreviated to CWE) although historically most people have known this as "Plasma". The name change is really to distinguish the version of the engine that has been released to Open Source from the versions retained by Cyan for their in-house projects.

What will happen to MOULa as a result of these Open Source releases?

Nothing; MOULa will continue to run on exactly the same basis as has done for the last 14 months or so. So long as there are sufficient donations to keep the servers running, MOULa will keep going. Longer term, some of the development on the Open Source items may feed back into MOULa as enhancements or new content, but that is probably still some way off.

Will these sources allow someone to set up a shard?

Yes, but at the moment it still requires a bit of work by a reasonably tech minded person to successfuly build and configure the client and server, but an operational shard can be created today. In due course, we expect "off the shelf" builds to be available for the less technically oriented.

How does a shard get Cyan's game content?

Strictly speaking, it doesn't need to. It simply uses the content that was already downloaded to your PC when you installed MOULa. Cyan is allowing that content to be re-used with Open Source shards with the proviso that the files are not modified (it's still "Cyan's content").

Can we get fan ages on a MOSS based shard?

Yes. There are instructions available on how a shard operator can add fan ages to a MOSS server. It'll be up to individual shard operators to decide what fan content they wish to add. It's also likely that some existing fan made ages will need to be adjusted to the MOUL format rather than the Uru:CC format before they can used on a MOSS server.

Will my MOULa account work on a MOSS shard?

No, each shard will run it's own account creation scheme, so you'll need to create new accounts for each shard you wish to play on.

Does this fix those annoying "bugs" we've been complaining about for months?

Not immediately, but soon. In replacing the code that Cyan had to remove before releasing the sources, there are still a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out. It's probably best to let the developers get the client back to a state where it works at least as well as the current Cyan client, before fixing bugs or adding new features. Having said that, some things will be very simple code fixes that can incorporated almost immediately.

We hope this helps answer the main points that most non-tech people would like answered.

The CWE FAQ (probably for the slightly more technically minded) is at: http://wiki.openuru.org/index.php?title ... Engine/FAQ

If you have a specific question related to CWE or MOSS, then you can add it to the FAQ Request thread: http://forums.openuru.org/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=523

Charura · **Joined:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:14 pm **Posts:** 1773

Will my donations continue to fund Cyan to continue what I see and play now, or will part of that go to this new open source project?

ChloeRhodes · **Joined:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:29 am **Posts:** 520

Charura wrote:

Will my donations continue to fund Cyan to continue what I see and play now, or will part of that go to this new open source project?

No, any donations through Cyan's site will go directly to Cyan to fund MOULa. I'm sure those funds will go to whatever Cyan feels appropriate to use it for as far as MOULa goes. But none of it will be going to any open source work done by fans. However, like PlasmaClient accepts donations independent of anyone else. I'm sure some open source projects that are based of off CWE will do the same. And you're free to donate to those if you so choose in the future..

Nalates · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:07 am

Quote:

Cyan is allowing that content to be re-used with Open Source shards with the proviso that the files are not modified

In this usage, what does allowing mean? Is there any written anything? Or is this just an understanding?

rarified · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:33 am

Just a quick note since I've seen a couple of references about it.

The limited download turnstile is no longer in effect. We havn't run anywhere close to our capacity on the OpenUru foundry server, so as soon as you obtain a username on the Foundry JIRA login page, you're enabled to retrieve from the CWE and MOSS repositories.

_R

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:49 am

Nalates wrote:

Quote:

Cyan is allowing that content to be re-used with Open Source shards with the proviso that the files are not modified

In this usage, what does allowing mean? Is there any written anything? Or is this just an understanding?

There are several FAQs about content on our wiki that could apply to this question:
http://wiki.openuru.org/index.php?title ... Engine/FAQ

Malfhok · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 6:24 pm

Will Cyan be giving us access to the open tickets in their database concerning Uru bugs? I'm thinking specifically that I submitted at least one report that RAWA answered and said it would be added to a fix list. Do we have a copy of that list? Or can we get one?

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 6:49 pm

Don't know. It's a question I posed (somewhere) a long time ago, but it's possibly a moot point as most of the the bugs are known to the developer community in some form or other anyway. Open Source will throw up some bugs of it's own as libraries get substituted anyway.

Trekluver · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:00 pm

JWPlatt wrote:

Nalates wrote:

Quote:

Cyan is allowing that content to be re-used with Open Source shards with the proviso that the files are not modified

In this usage, what does allowing mean? Is there any written anything? Or is this just an understanding?

There are several FAQs about content on our wiki that could apply to this question:
http://wiki.openuru.org/index.php?title ... Engine/FAQ

JW, three questions: 1, You work for Creative Kingdoms? 2, Once the shards are up will we be able to access them through the standard URU client and if so will that access to the ages be through the nexus or some other means. (new Nexus, Linking Books in Ahra Phats, ect.) and 3, will I be able to see buddies through the various servers meaning if I was in server A and you were in server B would you still show up on my KI?

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:33 pm

@Trekluver:
1. Yes, he does (when he can find the time :wink:

)
2. No, the standard Uru client only knows about the MOULa servers. To access an Open Source shard you need to use a client that knows about the server you want to use. How you get to any new fan ages that may be on a shard will largely depend on how the shard operator decides to do things.
3. No, there is (currently) no interlinking of shards, so you will not be able to buddy chat between shards.

Montgomery · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 11:45 pm

Where is Cyan with regard to the FCAL for MOULa? I know some work was done over a year ago in preparation for this, and some details hammered out.

As I recall from my time working on this at the beginning, there was some discussion about creating a panel which would consist of equal parts Maintainers, Writers and Archivers. I think the idea was Writers would check coding and the technical side of the files, Maintainers would check playablility and aesthetics, and Archivers would check integration into the storyline and general consistancy with the D'ni universe.

Am I on the right track? I'd like to start this process up again, and would appreciate any insight into the current state of affairs and Cyan's ultimate requirements for inclusion of FCA into the main shard of MOULa. And, or course, how the GoMa fits in.

Trekluver · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:53 am

Mac_Fife wrote:

@Trekluver:
1. Yes, he does (when he can find the time :wink:

)
2. No, the standard Uru client only knows about the MOULa servers. To access an Open Source shard you need to use a client that knows about the server you want to use. How you get to any new fan ages that may be on a shard will largely depend on how the shard operator decides to do things.
3. No, there is (currently) no interlinking of shards, so you will not be able to buddy chat between shards.

1: Awesome!
2: Ok.
3: Ok but if that's the case will Cyan eventually host a centralized server where all the content can be acessed? I don't want to have 3 or 4 installs of the client for multiple servers. What about a LOTRO style client where we can chose our servers? You know like one option would be the Cyan server then another would be MOSS ect. [spoiler]

Those who play LOTRO will know that there is a server selection screen in the client.[/spoiler]

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

The issue with multiple servers is that some may have conflicts over the exact data that's in a PRP.

I've got a half-baked idea for servers to be able to tell the client when it has differences from a stock PRP, and to allow the client to store the differences per-server. It was one of my "sometime in the future" ideas for PlasmaClient, and I've never actually tried to implement it. It's something that could still be considered for CWE, though.

Marten · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:26 am

PoK: So PRP files have the same old problem DLL files were famous for? Seems like the simplest solution would be to enable multiple versions of PRPs to live side by side, and have the server tell the client which PRP version it wants to be used. If the necessary PRP isn't present, maybe that version could be pushed and added to the user's "library." That should be easier than trying to manage some sort of "diff" to the PRP.

But this is veering into Technical Discussion isn't it?

Open Source - CWE and MOSS in layman's terms

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