First published in majik-announce mailing list. Below is the text as it was published by LinuxPR.Jul 21st, 18:32 UTC
The Majik 3D core developer team has been recently employed by Taika Technologies Ltd. where they are developing partially Majik-related technologies. An agreement has been made with Taika that the best technologies available for Taika will be utilized in the development of Majik 3D.
About Majik 3D:
Majik 3D is a project to create a captivating role-playing environment set in a medieval fantasy world with the help of modern 3D-technology. Majik differs from other similar games by having a single ever-developing server instead of multiple clones from one static world. Thus the residents of Majik can truly affect the history and legends of this world as it constantly grows in both size and detail.
The announcement:
Majik 3D Project announces co-operation with Taika Technologies, Ltd.
20 Jul 2000
The Majik 3D core developer team has been recently employed by Taika Technologies Ltd. where they are developing partially Majik-related technologies. An agreement has been made with Taika that the best technologies available for Taika will be utilized in the development of Majik 3D.
Due to the proprietary nature of these technologies there will be no more public source code access, preventing the release of new Majik 3D versions under the GNU Public License (GPL). This will not cause a copyright violation as Majik 3D's current code base doesn't contain any code not developed by the core members. Naturally the prior versions that have been released under the GPL will remain open. Despite the proprietary technologies the game itself will always remain free of charge.
"As the CEO of Taika Technologies, Ltd. I would like to point out that our intention is not to sell Majik 3D or get any direct profit from it (actually the agreement between the Majik Development Team and Taika prevents this entirely). I myself have been a part of the Majik Development Team in the recent years - so there exists some guarantee that Majik is in 'good hands' so to speak. Part of the company vision with Taika is to enable magnificent online games such as Majik. We will offer the best technologies available to us and our partners and build Majik 3D better than it has been before. Majik 3D still remains open to everyone and free of charge. Lately there has been a lot of discussion going on about open source and GPL in general, some arguments have been presented that if everything would be made open source then the commercial world (ie. the guys with the money) would lose all interest in, for example, Linux and the OS itself could be on the verge of extinction. I hope that Majik takes steps towards a truly unique roleplaying experience rather than an extinct garage-project. As said previously, I have been a part of the Majik Development Team, and honestly I can't wait to get Majik 3D running - perhaps Taika employees will have to face a rather unusual sight: the company CEO coding through the night :)
Taneli Tikka
President and CEO
Taika Technologies, Ltd."
The first advantages from this co-operation are SurRender 3D visualization library and SurRender Umbra visibility optimizer developed by Hybrid Holding, Ltd. SurRender 3D is one of the leading 3D libraries on the market and is currently being used in many commercial titles such as Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer: Renegade. We will use SurRender to implement Majik 3D's visualization component. SurRender Umbra is the first dynamic visibility optimizer that doesn't require any preprocessing and is thus suitable for our dynamic environment. More information about these products can be found at http://www.surrender3d.com
However, as all of the new technologies aren't available for every currently supported platform, we can only support Win32 and Linux for the time being. If there is enough demand we will consider making ports, provided that the base conditions for the target platform are met.
Also, our newly designed website has now been officially opened. We are currently in the process of merging content from the old site so there is some content missing but it should be ready during the next few days.
Majik Development Team
majik@majik3d.org
http://www.majik3d.org