An open source engine clone of Age of Empires II
GitHub - SFTtech/openage: Free (as in freedom) open source clone of the Age of Empires II engine 🚀

openage: a volunteer project to create a free engine clone of the Genie Engine used by Age of Empires, Age of Empires II (HD) and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, comparable to projects like OpenMW, OpenRA,  OpenSAGE, OpenTTD and OpenRCT2.
openage uses the original game assets (such as sounds and graphics), but (for obvious reasons) doesn't ship them.
To play, you require any of the original games (AoE1, AoE2) or their Definitive Edition releases.



Contact



Contact
Where?




Issue Tracker
GitHub SFTtech/openage


Development Blog
blog.openage.dev


Subreddit
 /r/openage


Discussions
GitHub Discussions


Matrix Chat
 #sfttech:matrix.org


Money Sink




Technical foundation



Technology
Component




C++20
Engine core


Python3
Scripting, media conversion, in-game console, code generation


Cython
Python/C++ Glue code


Qt6
Graphical user interface


CMake
Build system


OpenGL
Rendering, shaders


Opus
Audio codec


nyan
Content Configuration and Modding


Humans
Mixing together all of the above



Goals

Fully authentic look and feel

This can only be approximated since the behavior of the original game is mostly undocumented,
and guessing/experimenting can only get you this close
We will not implement useless artificial limitations (max 30 selectable units...)


An easily-moddable content format: nyan yet another notation
An integrated Python console and API, comparable to blender
AI scripting in Python, you can use machine learning

here is some additional literature


Re-creating free game assets
Multiplayer (obviously)
Matchmaking and ranking with a haskell masterserver
Optionally, improvements over the original game
Awesome infrastructure such as our own Kevin CI service

But beware, for sanity reasons:

No network compatibility with the original game.
You really wanna have the same problems again?
No binary compatibility with the original game.
A one-way script to convert maps/savegames/missions to openage is planned though.

Current State of the Project
Important notice: At the moment, "gameplay" is basically non-functional.
We're implementing the internal game simulation (how units even do anything) with simplicity and extensibility in mind, so we had to get rid of the temporary (but kind of working) previous version.
With these changes, we can (finally) actually make use of our converted asset packs and our nyan API!
We're working day and night to make gameplay return*.
If you're interested, we wrote detailed explanations on our blog: Part 1, Part 2, Monthly Devlog.
* may not actually be every day and night



Operating System
Build status




Debian Sid
Todo: Kevin #11


Ubuntu 22.04 LTS



macOS



Windows Server 2019



Windows Server 2022




Installation Packages
There are many missing parts for an actually working game.
So if you "just wanna play", you'll be disappointed, unfortunately.
We strongly recommend building the program from source to get the latest, greatest, and shiniest project state :)


For Linux check at repology if your distribution has any packages available. Otherwise, you need to build from source.
We don't release *.deb, *.rpm, Flatpak, snap or AppImage packages yet.


For Windows check our release page for the latest installer.
Otherwise, you need to build from the source.


For macOS we currently don't have any packages, you need to build from source.


If you need help, maybe our troubleshooting guide helps you.
Quickstart


How do I get this to run on my box?

Clone the repo.
Install dependencies. See doc/building.md to get instructions for your favorite platform.
Build the project:

./configure --download-nyan
make



I compiled everything. Now how do I run it?

Execute cd bin && ./run main.
The convert script will transform original assets into openage formats, which are a lot saner and more moddable.
Use your brain and react to the things you'll see.



Waaaaaah! It...

segfaults
prints error messages I don't want to read
ate my dog



All of those are features, not bugs.
To turn them off, use ./bin/run --dont-segfault --no-errors --dont-eat-dog.
If this still does not help, try our troubleshooting guide, the contact section
or the bug tracker.
Contributing
You might ask yourself now "Sounds cool, but how do I participate
and get famous contribute useful features?".
Fortunately for you, there is a lot to do and we are very grateful for your help.
Where do I start?

Check the issues labelled with good first issue. These are tasks that you can start right away and don't require much previous knowledge.
Ask us in the chat. Someone there could need
help with something.
You can also take the initiative and fix a bug you found, create an issue for discussion or
implement a feature that we never thought of, but always wanted.

Ok, I found something. What now?

Tell us, if you haven't already. Chances are that we have additional information
and directions.
Read the docs. They will answer most "administrative"
questions like what code style is used and how the engine core parts are connected.
Read the code and get familiar with the engine component you want to work with.
Do not hesitate to ask us for help if you do not understand something.

How do I contribute my features/changes?

Read the contributing guide.
You can upload work-in-progress (WIP) versions or drafts of your contribution to get feedback or support.
Tell us (again) when you want us to review your work.

I want to help, but I'm not a programmer...
Then openage might be a good reason to become one! We have many issues and tasks for beginners. You
just have to ask and we'll find something. Alternatively, lurking is also allowed.

Cheers, happy hecking!
Development Process
What does openage development look like in practice?

extensive synchronization!
doc/development.md.

How can I help?

doc/contributing.md.

All documentation is also in this repo:

Code documentation is embedded in the sources for Doxygen (see doc readme).
Have a look at the doc directory. This folder tends to get outdated when code changes.

License
GNU GPLv3 or later; see copying.md and legal/GPLv3.
I know that probably nobody is ever gonna look at the copying.md file,
but if you want to contribute code to openage, please take the time to
skim through it and add yourself to the authors list.
