Subject: Majik 3D Project announces co-operation with Taika Technologies, Ltd.
From: Jari Saukkonen (dazzt@majik3d.org)
Date: Fri Jul 21 2000 - 18:42:57 EEST
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
https://majik3d-legacy.org
---
Jari Saukkonen -- Majik 3D Project
dazzt@majik3d.org -- https://majik3d-legacy.org
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