Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

orbiter-forum.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 77 posts

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#31

Post by RobotCaleb »

blendergeek wrote: post #29
RobotCaleb wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but on the other hand it's MIT so I'm actually willing to look at the source code.

Why wouldn't you be willing to look at GPL code? Is it just GPL, or strong copyleft in general? Do you intend to release modified versions without releasing corresponding source code? Why should an author want to provide you with the source code, just so you can deny that privilege to others?

To answer your questions, no, I don't intend (or tend, for that matter) to takes modified versions without corresponding source code. It's not about what I do it's about what they say I can and can't do.

I don't know why an author should. I'm not spending any time agonizing over what they should be doing. I don't understand why you threw that second half of the sentence in there as if the two are necessarily linked.

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#32

Post by codetrotter »

zardo wrote: post #16
shakow wrote: post #2

The Orbiter Space Simulator ( http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/ ) has been one of the major realistic-ish space simulators of the decade. Development has slowed down in the last years due to the obligations of its sole author, so seeing it be open-sourced with a free license (MIT) is a great opportunity to rekindle its development! It seems that the first priorities would be to upgrade the code to 64-bits and transitio…

It didn't need to be open source for a DX11 graphics client to be developed. https://www.orbiter-forum.com/threads/d3d11client-download-a...

The Bitbucket link in that thread doesn’t work

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#33

Post by moftz »

bruce511 wrote: post #27
rbanffy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s MIT licensed, so there’s nothing stopping someone from getting it, making major changes, and releasing it as proprietary software for consoles and make a lot of money in the process. This is why I’m always sad when I see a project opening as MIT instead of GPL.

Not to be picky, but the GPL would not stop someone "making major changes, and releasing it as proprietary software for consoles and make a lot of money in the process." The only difference is that they would be obligated to release the source code. Given that the list of folk who can compile for consoles is very limited, this would not be an existential burden for them. Indeed, even if they targeted a common develop…

Plus, you can open source the code but leave the textures, models, maps, whatever else as proprietary. iD software already did this with the source code of Doom, you can read it but unless you want to reskin the whole game, it's entirely unplayable.

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#36

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

Oh, fond memories of it. It was the first time when I understood that when you fly to the Moon, not only you have to cross the Moon's orbit, but you have to do it when Moon itself is nearby. If you are 1/4 orbital period ahead of it, you are screwed.

It also ruined space movies like "Gravity" for me, because pointing the nose to the space station in 50 km and applying thrust towards it turns out to be a sure way to NOT get to that station!

Edit: fixed the thrust direction

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#37

Post by jylam »

larodi wrote: post #34

another open source project is born only after it is basically dead or is about to die in its closed-source form. out of curiosity - which other open source projects do you know, that have not started as open source?

Blender, Firefox and OpenOffice have, from the top of my head.

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#38

Post by the_af »

bruce511 wrote: post #27
rbanffy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s MIT licensed, so there’s nothing stopping someone from getting it, making major changes, and releasing it as proprietary software for consoles and make a lot of money in the process. This is why I’m always sad when I see a project opening as MIT instead of GPL.

Not to be picky, but the GPL would not stop someone "making major changes, and releasing it as proprietary software for consoles and make a lot of money in the process." The only difference is that they would be obligated to release the source code. Given that the list of folk who can compile for consoles is very limited, this would not be an existential burden for them. Indeed, even if they targeted a common develop…

> the GPL would not stop someone "making major changes, and releasing it as proprietary software for consoles and make a lot of money in the process.""

It absolutely would stop anyone from releasing it as proprietary software. You cannot have GPL'ed proprietary software. You can sell GPL code, you can use it in proprietary platforms, but by definition the software itself cannot be proprietary. If it's GPL'ed, other people can sell it, modify it, distribute it, and use it for their own purposes.

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#39

Post by sabjut »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #36

Oh, fond memories of it. It was the first time when I understood that when you fly to the Moon, not only you have to cross the Moon's orbit, but you have to do it when Moon itself is nearby. If you are 1/4 orbital period ahead of it, you are screwed. It also ruined space movies like "Gravity" for me, because pointing the nose to the space station in 50 km and applying thrust towards it turns out to be a sure way to N…

I first discovered this game back in school at around 2010-2011 and it quickly turned into one of the defining games of my childhood. I wish I had some numbers but I am certain that I played hundreds of hours playing this game, installing countless mods, learning orbital dynamics, spaceflight history, and so much more. I flew to mars and back, landed on the moon, programmed flight computers (sometime catastrophically wrong), docked so many different vehicles in orbit and generally had the time of my life in this game. Dan's Orbiterpage and his world class mods for the game (including the excellent sound mod) really made this game (or sim, whatever you call it) shine. I probably also spent days of my life browsing orbithangar for the coolest new vehicles.

At some point I discovered Kerbal Space Program and eventually got older and had less time for Space Sims altogether, but Orbiter (especially the 2010P1 version) will remain closest to my heart.

I am really happy to see this game become open source.

Re: Orbiter Space Flight Simulator is now open source

#40

Post by ekster »

DarmokJalad1701 wrote: post #23

This is great news! I have been a fan since around 2006 when I was just a teenager.

Same, playing a lot of this game once gave me a sort of dizzy feeling while looking up at the blue sky, like I was looking forward/out rather than up. Only happened once, but I will never forget it.
Post reply on HN