The main document can be found here:
Infinity contributions design document.
You can also browse the SDK directory directly:
http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/
This doc contains links to docs, informations, data ( texture packs ) and data for all Infinity contributions. This is a must read for anybody willing to contribute to Infinity.
For simplicity, here’s a copy of its content:
- Artwork
1.1. Design document
The 2D / 3D artwork ( modeling and texturing ) design document is available here:
In PDF format: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/Infinity_Artwork.pdf
In Open-office format: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/Infinity_Artwork.odt
In HTML format: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/HTML/Infinity_Artwork.html
1.2. Internal Resources
Documents:
Kaboom22’s Sketchup F.A.Q: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/Kaboom22_Sketchup_FAQ.doc
Overview of Infinity’s timeline and story: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/Timeline&Exegesis.pdf
3ds max settings to import .OBJ: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/3dsmax_importOBJ.jpg
Models:
JoeB’s hardpoints and markers: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Models/JoeB%20-%20Hardpoints%20&%20Hardpoint%20Bases.zip
Kaboom22’s garage doors example ( 3ds max 7 format ): http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Models/Kaboom22%20-%20garage_doors%20example.max
Generic texture packs, to be used on your own models:
SpAce’s texture pack 0.95: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Textures/spAce%20-%20Texture_Pack_0.95%20-%2014%20September%202007.rar
SpAce’s detail kit 0.6: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Textures/spAce%20-%20Texture_Kit_0.6%20-%2018%20October%202007.rar
Shadowrayth’s hull textures: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Textures/Shadowrayth%20-%20HULL%20Textures.zip
Juan’s city textures: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Textures/Juan%20-%20Cities%20Textures%20-%201%20October%202006.rar
Checkerboard texture to visualize UV maps deformations: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Textures/checkerboard.jpg
Tutorials:
Petrov’s tutorial on texturing for Infinity – Varden in Blender: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Tutorials/Petrov%20-%20Texturing%20Tutorial%20for%20Infinity%20-%20by%20Petrov.pdf
Shadowrayth’s tutorial on texturing a weapon (.doc): http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Tutorials/Shadowrayth - Basic model texturing tutorial.doc
Shadowrayth’s tutorial on texturing a weapon (.pdf): http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Tutorials/Shadowrayth - Basic model texturing tutorial.pdf
SpAce’s tutorial on generic UV mapping and tiling: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Tutorials/ spAce - generic UV mapping tiling.avi
1.3. FTP site
An FTP server is available, on which you can upload all your work-in-progress and creations. Please prefer using an e-mail to [email protected] or a private-message to “InfinityAdmin” on the forums to submit the “final” version of your models, as the FTP site is basically public, so anybody can access and download files from it.
Prefer to host images of your work on the ftp site instead of using popular websites such as “imageshack”, since they will eventually get deleted when nobody’s viewing them anymore.
To access the FTP site, you need an FTP client such as SmartFTP:
http://www.smartftp.com/
Use the following login informations:
Address: ftp.fl-tw.com
Login: [email protected]
Password: ifc88xy1b
Port: 21 ( default )
Once connected on the FTP site, create a directory with your name, and upload your files there.
The FTP directory maps on the web to:
http://www.fl-tw.com/Contribs/
1.4. Community Media Bank ( CMB )
The Community Media Bank is an external website provided by SpAce to host your media files: images ( .jpg, .gif, .png ), audio ( .mp3, .wma, .ogg ), videos ( .mpg, .mov, .avi, .wmv ) and data files ( .zip ) related to Infinity. It does not replace the Infinity FTP site, but is a good alternative to present your work in a nicer form.
Direct link: http://3d-output.com/infinity-cmb/
For more informations about the CMB, please read this post: http://www.fl-tw.com/InfinityForums/viewtopic.php?t=5069
1.5. ASEToBin 0.7
ASEToBin is a viewer using Infinity’s engine to convert models from .ASE to our proprietary format, .BIN. It requires a video card with vertex and pixel shaders 2.0 or above.
With ASEToBin, you can visualize your models and textures in real-time to see how it looks in the engine.
The thread about ASEToBin is available here:
http://www.fl-tw.com/InfinityForums/viewtopic.php?t=594
The latest version of ASEToBin can be downloaded here:
http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/ASEToBin/ASEToBin_v0.7.zip
The latest doc about ASEToBin is available here:
http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/ASEToBin_v0.5.zip
1.6. External resources
Please refer to the following topics:
http://www.fl-tw.com/InfinityForums/viewtopic.php?t=562
http://www.fl-tw.com/InfinityForums/viewtopic.php?t=936
- Audio
The audio design document is available here:
In PDF format: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/Infinity_Audio.pdf
In Open-office format: http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Docs/SDK/Docs/Infinity_Audio.odt
- Copyrights and legal issues
3.1. Copyrights and right of use
Any work that you do, as soon as it’s “submitted” ( uploaded to the ftp server, or sent by e-mail / private message to one of the developers )… remains your own copyright. You will, of course, get credits for your work. However, you are granting us the right to use it in the game. This right is not exclusive ( you can still use your own work in any way you see that fits ). You can use this work in another project, in your portfolio, etc… You can even sell your work. It remains yours. But, once it’s submitted and integrated into the game, you cannot ask us to remove your work from the game - and that, independently on whether the Infinity project goes commercial or not.
Why this ? Simply to avoid having somebody submit a lot of work and once it’s integrated and widely used in the game, ask something else in return… or want to remove it from the game. A specific scenario that could happen: as you know, Infinity is a MMOG. If you are both a contributor and a player, and if you cheat or break the rules ( hopefully that won’t happen, but there’s still a risk ), you might get kicked or banned. This could cause some conflicts and we do not want the project as a whole to suffer from the consequences of these conflicts.
If you do not agree with this “rule”, your contribution will not be accepted. But I think everybody will agree that it’s quite fair both for us the developers, and you the contributor.
3.2. No guarantee
There is no guarantee that your work will be included in the game, especially if it’s not up to our quality standards. Note that some parts of it might be included. Also, your work can be removed at any time without further notice ( for example, to be replaced with a higher quality version ).
3.3. Updates and fixes
We reserve the right to adapt or fix minor issues in your work that would otherwise make it not fit in the game. For example, a spaceship model requiring side thrusters: if you haven’t modeled side thrusters, but the model otherwise is good, we might ask somebody else ( if you’re not willing to do it ) to add those side thrusters.
If you are a modeler but not a texturer, somebody else will take the charge of UV-mapping or texturing your model. Credits and copyrights remain the property of their authors: if you haven’t created the textures, you cannot take the textured model and use it for your own creations without seeking for permission from his author.
3.4. Profits and payments
As you know, Infinity will go commercial one day ( or at least, semi-commercial ) one day. We don’t want people to be disappointed by their work not being paid, or paid lower than what they were expecting, so to be clear here’s the plan:
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Money income will first be used to pay the monthly expenses ( includes, but not restricted to: servers hardware / rent / bandwidth, advertisements costs, maintenance / support costs, sub-contracting work, etc… ).
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Remaining money will be used to pay the investments / expenses made ( mostly by the developers on their own personal money ) during the development ( same list that #1 ), which probably means that you should not expect any payment during the first months after release.
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Once all of that is paid, the “profit” will be split depending on the contribution ( in amount of hours of work ) of everybody. Of course, since for example I ( Flavien Brebion ) have already spent ~5000 hours ( around 2.5 years almost as a secondary full-time job ) of work on this project, if you work a grand total of 10 hours on something, your “part” will be low, like 0.1%. So, do not expect to get “rich”, even if the game becomes midly popular.
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Your profit part will be based on simple rules, valid for everybody, to be determined later. Those rules will likely be calculated as an average estimation of the amount of work that went into each area ( for example: small ships, medium ships, large ships, one full music, etc… )
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If your part equals to less than the price of a premium account membership, you will be given a free account instead. This is to avoid having to pay only a few dollars to each contributor per month.
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We will only proceed with the potential payments once a minimum amount of money has been reached ( to be determined later, probably near 100$ ), again to avoid having to pay low amounts every month ( the overhead of processing the payments would be too high ).
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You have no right whatsoever on the sales or commercial plans for the I-Novae engine ( on which I’m building Infinity ), since these are well separated projects, and that your work will not be used at all in I-Novae ( which is a pure programming project ).