This absolutely thrilled me. Right up until I realized that there's a closed-source, binary-only dependency (FBX SDK). I guess my dreams of playing this game (which I do, in fact, already own a copy of - twice over, actually) on Linux/aarch64 are still a ways off. AutoDesk indicated as of ~2017 that Linux/ARM support for the FBX SDK wasn't on their road map, and nothing seems to have changed since then.
Still- major kudos to Frictional for doing this. It's 100% an appreciated move, and very much in the right direction. The choice of FBX SDK is just, in hindsight, unfortunate, but that doesn't diminish the helpful nature of what they've done here.
(fingers crossed - maybe FBX SDK is just needed for the editor? Hope springs eternal...)
With it being open source now, someone may be able to write a new asset loader using either GLB or UDZ and convert any FBX assets to one of those formats.
Just got the HPL2 engine from TDD to build on Linux/aarch64 right up until it needs to link against the FBX SDK. Only real PITA was getting Newton on ARM going. After that it was a few cmake hacks in HPL2, and a few symlinks in the lib/linux directory of the dependencies archive.
Looks like the culprits are "MeshLoaderFBX.cpp" and "LowLevelResourcesSDL.cpp" - any workarounds for FBX SDK would need to rework and/or replace those.
Does it actually use the FBX SDK during runtime? Most engines I've worked in just use the FBX SDK to convert assets from a DCC into engine specific assets. If that's the case you might just be able to disable it?
This all sounds very fixable, and one of my first programming projects was actually interacting with the FBX SDK. I’ll take a look at it tonight, could be fun.
I only played the first Amensia game. I felt it was kind of a weird fit. It was a horror game in that you were in a horror environment with entities that were scary. But the lack of consequence for death made it feel kind of gamey. Horror is hard to get right. The amnesia monsters are horrifying, yes, but in the context of a horror game, not especially memorable in my opinion. One thing I think the resident evil series has done well especially in number 7 and the number 2 remake, is realize that players won't be scared for the whole game. In the first half of these games, you tend to be weak and there are genuinely frightening moments. Towards the end you're pretty desensitized to the nature of that game's fucked up shit, and you just want to mow them down or get by the efficiently.
My absolute favorite horror moment is in the original Silent Hill. You enter this giant hospital and you know its going to be a huge daunting task if its full of monsters, but its not. So you go through the elevator to floor one. It's empty. Floor 2 is empty. The final floor, floor three... is empty. So returning the the elevator you're feeling like you missed something and then, ta-dah, the elevator eerily has acquired a bloody fourth floor button letting you know you're about get shat on.
IMO "consequence" is the epitome of "gamey". Which is why Amnesia didn't seem like it was targeted at the resident evil/silent hill players who were used to "mowing" through enemies. It was for people who wanted to be scared, and have a scary experience, so they didn't give you any way to defend yourself besides hiding and covering your eyes. More like a movie or...a haunted hay ride. Very Lovecraftian.
That silent hill example sounds cool. They used anticipation and your own imagination to scare you. Amnesia is like 95% this.
I think maybe you met the game mechanics too quickly and that might have ruined it for you. For me it was very non-gamey because I had no idea what the consequences of meeting one of the monsters was so I spent almost the entire game petrified. Once I had died a couple of times and learned how the monsters worked, the spook factor wore off quickly.
But I still far preferred that to the classic weapons based horror games where the spookiness is derived from how tough an openent is in combat.
You should really, really try SOMA though. They dialed in the non-combat spookiness and even once you figure out how the monsters work, the few there are, it's the story and atmosphere that drives the spookiness anyway so it doesn't detract from the experience. Much less gamey, and quite a good mystery mixed with some existential dread.
The original Silent Hill was a masterpiece of horror games. But mainly because it was all in your head. The creatures weren't that bad, but the sensation that they were coming at you is what it counts. Also, the radio that started every time you had one close to you was excellent, because it made you feel horrible even if you weren't doing anything.
I played a few games after that one in the next years (I was only 11 when I played Silent Hill) and nothing made me feel the same.
The most horrifying moment for me was the hospital level in the last of us 2. This and the night where you play abby and save the girl and the boy. I had to switch from hard to easy or I was going to have PTSD. Didn’t remember that the first game was really scary.
I'd love to do this with my VR game, but it contains at least a dozen thirdparty paid assets -- some of which contain heavy modifications. I'd have to withhold these assets from a release, making it unbuildable, unless someone could prove with invoices that they also own them.
Kind of bums me out, because there aren't really any released projects from commercially successful Unity games. And then there is the legal ramifications of having your source out there. What's stopping a bad actor from trying to find something trivial they could sue you over because of vague patents?
Frictional Games has always had good Linux support as well. I wish other companies would follow suit and release some of their older, abandoned (not that I would call Amnesia either) titles to the open source community.
Warzone 2100 had something similar happen and it gained a community revival.
> But I think the assets are missing, so it is not everything.
It's everything you need to build the game, which is different than everything you need to play the game.
> Maybe they released those somewhere else?
No, studios rarely to never release assets as OSS. In part because most artists don't sign off on this, and in part because especially smaller studios will license existing assets from stores and the like which they literally can not, legally, relicense.
Rarely do they release the assets with the open sourcing of the engine. If you want those they tend to want you to pay for the game and then pull the assets out to put in your build.
Maybe "to build" means more specifically "to build the binary of". Then yes, you don't need data assets for that. It particularly doesn't say this is everything needed to "build and _play_ the game".
So can you fully build the game and run your executable build, such that we could start seeing these games showing up on Flathub and the like? Or is it the Doom-style "You can build the engine, but you still need to supply your own assets from a purchased copy of the game"?
You guessed right, the GitHub repositories only include the code, and the README mentions (emphasis mine):
> All code is under the GPL Version 3 license.
And the linked page:
> Very important note: This doesn’t mean that the game is suddenly free. It just means that people are free to use the source however they want as long as they adhere to the GPL3 licence. The game and all of its content is still owned by Frictional Games. Just like before.
For anyone that hasn't yet seen it, I'd highly recommend watching Ars Technica's video interview on Amnesia and how it created its unique atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMl2la8-3-o
Along with the rest of their War Stories videos, for that matter. The interview with Andy Gavin on Crash Bandicoot is great, even though I never played the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o
SOMA sources would be nice. Just last night I ran into this bug under Linux when pulling the lever at the relay station in delta sector the game reproducibly crashes with an trap divide error in libfmodevent....
One of the selling points of at least the later games was the availability tools to build your own "stories" with the same base mechanics, so it's cool to see these be made more widely available and some of these fan creations evolve into more.
I never played any of these games but the first one looked pretty scary from the videos i've seen of it. I might have to download it, it is fall after all and i'm in a mood to be scared.
Maybe trying to generate interest for their upcoming game, Amnesia: Rebirth? Honestly, their stuff is quite good if you like horror games-- Amnesia: Dark Descent and SOMA are excellent!
Frictional Games also developed SOMA. It's also a horror game, but the psychological horror in the game is just a gameplay element where the philosophical topics are embedded.
I consider myself pretty thick-skinned when it comes to being scared but I * checks notes * still have only played 27 minutes of Amnesia according to Steam.
My grandma has this super old wooden house in the middle of nowhere. One summer I was staying there with her, I went downstairs, turned off all lights and played Amnesia. I honestly thought it'd be fun, but I stopped after ~1 hour. It was an experience.
Frictional Games and Loiste Interactive are my two gaming sweethearts. Them and Cyan Worlds are the only studios I keep an eye on to make sure I don't miss a game.
Cyan Worlds, makers of Myst, are releasing games again for those like me who are late to parties like this.
Loiste Interactive released a game called INFRA which I have replayed like 4 times already. There is no other game atmosphere like it, similar to how SOMA, Amnesia and Myst are without rival. There are games as good as them, but few if any games that are like them.
Cyan's Obduction was pretty good but had its flaws too.
I was just a kid when Myst was a hit, and never finished it. But I remembered being fascinated by the strange worlds to explore in that game and the uncanny mix of fantastic and realistic elements within them. Obduction definitely hit that same tone. I was absolutely thrilled with the exploration side of it and most of the puzzles were pretty enjoyable too. I enjoyed the unique look of each world so much that I was really disappointed when one turned out a bit boring -- though of course it makes sense in context.
However, like Myst, its open-world puzzle style gets frustrating when you run out of obvious paths and aren't sure what to do next, and end up running around everywhere trying to find something you haven't played with yet. That's a double-edged sword because the freedom and discovery is part of the appeal of those games, and I would never want them to remove it. But it does get annoying sometimes and I wish they would have considered that and chosen NOT to have areas to find with stuff that NEVER becomes useful. Especially when one of them has switches to flip (that don't affect any of the games actual puzzles). I wasted probably half an hour trying to find some purpose to the submarine cave and tiki bar while stuck, thinking they would provide a path through what was blocking me when in fact I needed to look elsewhere.
The other thing is that the load times in Obduction are a little long. That's annoying given how often navigating between worlds is required to complete a puzzle. This is probably getting better with faster and faster SSDs these days.
It was great overall though and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans of the genre.
[+] [-] tehsauce|5 years ago|reply
It has over 15 different behavior states:
Idle, GoHome, Wait, Patrol, Investigate, Alert, Search, Eat, Hurt, Hunt, HuntPause, HuntWander, AttackMeleeShort, AttackMeleeLong, AttackRange, BreakDoor, Dead, Flee, Stalk, Track
States:
https://github.com/FrictionalGames/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent/blo...
Implementation:
https://github.com/FrictionalGames/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent/blo...
There's also naming gems like "mindfuckevents"
https://github.com/FrictionalGames/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent/blo...
[+] [-] tleb_|5 years ago|reply
Scary stuff.
[+] [-] ibobev|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zemnmez|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doomlaser|5 years ago|reply
Here's the GitHub the repo for Amnesia: The Dark Descent, https://github.com/FrictionalGames/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent — looks like a custom C++ engine called HPL using SDL for input, Newton Dynamics for 3d physics, and OpenGL for graphics? The engine also supports AngelScript for scriping in-game events & logic: https://www.angelcode.com/angelscript/
[+] [-] ninefathom|5 years ago|reply
Still- major kudos to Frictional for doing this. It's 100% an appreciated move, and very much in the right direction. The choice of FBX SDK is just, in hindsight, unfortunate, but that doesn't diminish the helpful nature of what they've done here.
(fingers crossed - maybe FBX SDK is just needed for the editor? Hope springs eternal...)
[+] [-] lux|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ninefathom|5 years ago|reply
Looks like the culprits are "MeshLoaderFBX.cpp" and "LowLevelResourcesSDL.cpp" - any workarounds for FBX SDK would need to rework and/or replace those.
[+] [-] Arelius|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aspaceman|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ace17|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] voltagex_|5 years ago|reply
1: https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86
[+] [-] captn3m0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CursedUrn|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erikbye|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tus88|5 years ago|reply
FBX Python SDK Windows
FBX Python SDK Windows Mac
FBX Python SDK Mac Linux
FBX Python SDK Linux
[+] [-] klmadfejno|5 years ago|reply
My absolute favorite horror moment is in the original Silent Hill. You enter this giant hospital and you know its going to be a huge daunting task if its full of monsters, but its not. So you go through the elevator to floor one. It's empty. Floor 2 is empty. The final floor, floor three... is empty. So returning the the elevator you're feeling like you missed something and then, ta-dah, the elevator eerily has acquired a bloody fourth floor button letting you know you're about get shat on.
[+] [-] teawrecks|5 years ago|reply
That silent hill example sounds cool. They used anticipation and your own imagination to scare you. Amnesia is like 95% this.
[+] [-] ehnto|5 years ago|reply
But I still far preferred that to the classic weapons based horror games where the spookiness is derived from how tough an openent is in combat.
You should really, really try SOMA though. They dialed in the non-combat spookiness and even once you figure out how the monsters work, the few there are, it's the story and atmosphere that drives the spookiness anyway so it doesn't detract from the experience. Much less gamey, and quite a good mystery mixed with some existential dread.
[+] [-] bitdizzy|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 101008|5 years ago|reply
I played a few games after that one in the next years (I was only 11 when I played Silent Hill) and nothing made me feel the same.
[+] [-] baby|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] watwut|5 years ago|reply
I had no motivation to play it after and ended in some entance hall right after start.
[+] [-] hesdeadjim|5 years ago|reply
Kind of bums me out, because there aren't really any released projects from commercially successful Unity games. And then there is the legal ramifications of having your source out there. What's stopping a bad actor from trying to find something trivial they could sue you over because of vague patents?
[+] [-] lilboiluvr69|5 years ago|reply
Warzone 2100 had something similar happen and it gained a community revival.
Edit: I can't believe Amnesia is 10 years old!
[+] [-] chme|5 years ago|reply
But I think the assets are missing, so it is not everything. Maybe they released those somewhere else?
[+] [-] masklinn|5 years ago|reply
It's everything you need to build the game, which is different than everything you need to play the game.
> Maybe they released those somewhere else?
No, studios rarely to never release assets as OSS. In part because most artists don't sign off on this, and in part because especially smaller studios will license existing assets from stores and the like which they literally can not, legally, relicense.
[+] [-] runevault|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d1zzy|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sto_hristo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ClikeX|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AdmiralAsshat|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] remram|5 years ago|reply
> All code is under the GPL Version 3 license.
And the linked page:
> Very important note: This doesn’t mean that the game is suddenly free. It just means that people are free to use the source however they want as long as they adhere to the GPL3 licence. The game and all of its content is still owned by Frictional Games. Just like before.
[+] [-] throwaway889900|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mmm_grayons|5 years ago|reply
Along with the rest of their War Stories videos, for that matter. The interview with Andy Gavin on Crash Bandicoot is great, even though I never played the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o
[+] [-] paines|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vorpalhex|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skee0083|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Meekro|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tauchunfall|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sharkweek|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnulinux|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RealStickman_|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asutekku|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baby|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shmerl|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] __david__|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ehnto|5 years ago|reply
Cyan Worlds, makers of Myst, are releasing games again for those like me who are late to parties like this.
Loiste Interactive released a game called INFRA which I have replayed like 4 times already. There is no other game atmosphere like it, similar to how SOMA, Amnesia and Myst are without rival. There are games as good as them, but few if any games that are like them.
[+] [-] rspeele|5 years ago|reply
I was just a kid when Myst was a hit, and never finished it. But I remembered being fascinated by the strange worlds to explore in that game and the uncanny mix of fantastic and realistic elements within them. Obduction definitely hit that same tone. I was absolutely thrilled with the exploration side of it and most of the puzzles were pretty enjoyable too. I enjoyed the unique look of each world so much that I was really disappointed when one turned out a bit boring -- though of course it makes sense in context.
However, like Myst, its open-world puzzle style gets frustrating when you run out of obvious paths and aren't sure what to do next, and end up running around everywhere trying to find something you haven't played with yet. That's a double-edged sword because the freedom and discovery is part of the appeal of those games, and I would never want them to remove it. But it does get annoying sometimes and I wish they would have considered that and chosen NOT to have areas to find with stuff that NEVER becomes useful. Especially when one of them has switches to flip (that don't affect any of the games actual puzzles). I wasted probably half an hour trying to find some purpose to the submarine cave and tiki bar while stuck, thinking they would provide a path through what was blocking me when in fact I needed to look elsewhere.
The other thing is that the load times in Obduction are a little long. That's annoying given how often navigating between worlds is required to complete a puzzle. This is probably getting better with faster and faster SSDs these days.
It was great overall though and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans of the genre.
I'll have to check out INFRA.
[+] [-] dllthomas|5 years ago|reply