Open Source Terrain/Maps

[nosaMtrevoC]

I understand the need to keep things close to the chest or proprietary, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't help improve DCS World as a whole to allow certain parts of it to be more open to the community.

 

Terrains especially I think would be a great project to offer the tools or API to DCS World to allow people to collaborate in building certain parts of the environment. I wouldn't allow the openness to edit the current terrains necessarily, but what about opening up certain parts of the world map that wouldn't conflict with the current terrains and allow the community to build out the LOD's, terrain and textures and buildings/streets/airports etc..

 

I'd love to contribute to such a project, and I know many would probably jump in with their particular talents.

 

Pick a spot on the map to test it, and allow the community to build it out.

 

Sort of a developer supported community project, offering the community the ability to do something on their own.

 

Thoughts?

[stormrider]

Agreed or A Greed?

 

 

I'd love to have those tools. With the amount of remote sensing data available today that's more than possible.

[Baco]

That Would be awesom!

Kind of a ME but to build maps.

With DEM Files as base for altitudes and coast. and a ME type of tool to place objects.

[Baco]

I would actually PAY for a module to build maps.

[lee1hy]

Now the terrain and sound are no longer moddable by the user.

[nosaMtrevoC]

I realize ED is first and foremost a business model, and I'm fine with that. Not knocking a great company that provides a wonderful product IMO, but time and time again it shows that allowing communities to build around your product like this doesn't hurt sales but does the opposite. People get more excited about your product, and new people are brought to it.

 

If there was an open source map product, I'd still buy every terrain product ED releases. I have them all now.

[Baco]

Just look at ARMAIII a dated 8 years OLD game, still stron as teh first day....

[nosaMtrevoC]

Something else a community project does that is hard to quantify is keep interest in the product form people who float back and forth. I've come back and forth from DCS 3 times since the original lock on. I've owned almost every FS product that has ever existed since MSFS 1.0

 

A community project keeps people engaged in something even when they're tired of flying, which keeps them near the community and aware of the products you are selling.

 

I spend more time tinkering with DCS than i do flying most days as I find this enjoyable.

[stormrider]

Something else a community project does that is hard to quantify is keep interest in the product form people who float back and forth. I've come back and forth from DCS 3 times since the original lock on. I've owned almost every FS product that has ever existed since MSFS 1.0

 

A community project keeps people engaged in something even when they're tired of flying, which keeps them near the community and aware of the products you are selling.

 

I spend more time tinkering with DCS than i do flying most days as I find this enjoyable.

 

 

This reminds of me of Richard Burns Rally and more recently, Assetto Corsa.

[Ercoupe]

I think this would be great, but I'd like ED to have the last word as to wether it gets into the sim, or not. Just to keep the junk out and the quality up.

When I was flying FSX there was plenty of free stuff. But 90% of it looked like ass, frankly.

[stormrider]

I think this would be great, but I'd like ED to have the last word as to wether it gets into the sim, or not. Just to keep the junk out and the quality up.

When I was flying FSX there was plenty of free stuff. But 90% of it looked like ass, frankly.

 

 

Why not you having the last word of what gets into your computer?

[nosaMtrevoC]

Why not you having the last word of what gets into your computer?

 

I'd have to agree with this. A community isn't going to put their efforts into something that won't get excepted by ED.

 

Usually the first iteration of these projects isn't going to be of the highest quality as it would very much be a work in progress. It's something that people learn on and make mistakes and in many cases eventually end up with a superior product.

 

Having ED make final judgments on third party products makes sense, but not on an open source community project.

 

If it isn't your cup of tea, don't use it.

[stormrider]

Having ED make the final judgement is completely unrealistic. Who in the team is going to go through all submissions to choose what's worth or whatnot, I mean, there is only 2 options: release the tools to the public or not release it at all. Once the tools are out, people are going to create new stuff just like we love to do. I wouldn't want that ED wastes development time not developing.

 

 

In the end most stuff will be like Ercoupe's ass, but some will be so good that even ED will want to release them as official DLCs.

Edited June 2, 2020 by stormridersp

[Mimes]

Something else a community project does that is hard to quantify is keep interest in the product form people who float back and forth. I've come back and forth from DCS 3 times since the original lock on. I've owned almost every FS product that has ever existed since MSFS 1.0

 

A community project keeps people engaged in something even when they're tired of flying, which keeps them near the community and aware of the products you are selling.

 

I spend more time tinkering with DCS than i do flying most days as I find this enjoyable.

 

Wow, cool to see, I thought I was the odd one here, doing more tinkering than flying... :)

[Mimes]

In the end most stuff will be like Ercoupe's ass, but some will be so good that even ED will want to release them as official DLCs.

 

Than would be the way to go. The best re-released as official DLCs.

[stormrider]

Than would be the way to go. The best re-released as official DLCs.

 

 

Back in 2015-2016, Assetto Corsa modding community was booming. There we had all the same SDK as them and some limited documentation, enough to get going most of the time and there was new stuff being released almost daily but most bad quality stuff with 3d models imported from other games. At the same time, Kunos, the devs were also selling their official DLCs. As I remember, in the first place, everybody, simply everybody would buy them no matter what, because they were really that good and honestly priced, so mods were not interfering with official sales. At some point, Kunos shut down the modding section for mods announcements, because it was stealing their time in order to verify the integrity of the mods, that is, moderating over illegal 3d models in their official forums. This meant that mods announcement went to another website, called racedepartment, where mods continued to flourish. At the time I didnt see it with good eyes, but now I understand; it meant that people who wanted to use mods were free to do so and had total support from Kunos; they just had to use Racedepartment (or whatever) to get them, while people who didnt want any mods were also free to do so.

 

 

The second thing was that throughout this period, some mods were so good that Kunos licensed them and included in their DLCs and free updates. Also, some modders, who previously had no experience, discovered their talents while modding and were quickly hired to join the official development team. In the end it was a win-win situation.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by stormridersp