[SUGGESTION] [split] Map repository

You know what we really need?

A Nexuiz and Xonotic file management site like this: http://lvlworld.com/

It would be much easier to release and update maps and would be far better for those who aren't on the forum.

Perhaps Antibody could create something like this and integrate it in the main page!

We've been over the map repository idea a ton of times. Here's what it boils down to: we can't have an *official* map repo that includes non-GPL maps. We just can't. Our official "map repository" is basically the map compile server for now. What we CAN do, however, is provide screenshots of maps to be included in XonStat. I'm willing to build that into stats, but I'm not willing to go and take all of the screenshots.

This is already too much offtopic, so if people are interested in taking this idea further, please create another thread.

I'll just add (as an incentive to get a new thread started perhaps) that I'm sure the team can also provide git hosting of a map repository website too, if somebody's willing to code and maintain that. But the website and the maps themselves can't be hosted by the Xonotic team.

A gpl-only map repository would always be incomplete and hence wouldn't add much to what we have already (beta.xonotic.org + forums).

I guess usually you get all the (most popular at least) maps from the servers..

Okay, I split this. Why was it even in that one thread in the first place?

asyyy, yeah, that's basically the whole point of mentioning that.

Thank Mr B, I just wanted to get my idea across.

Perhaps a fancy repository could be made when Xonotic becomes bigger and more stuff is made (I mean more than just maps).

And yeah, if the maps don't comply with GPL then maybe a group of players and not the dev team can host it.

Completely out of context now. I love it.

Haha indeed, I didn't notice that post... I'll leave it there because I'm lazy and it's fun. Sorry C.Brutail, feel free to repost it in the right thread.

What if there was a website where maps can be submitted, and make it clear that by posting the map to that website for use, the submitter is agreeing to two things:

First, that the map is being released into GPL for use in Xonotic.

Second, they will include a license with their map illustrating this fact.

How to ensure a license is included?

On the upload page, could a script be included requiring two separate uploads, one of which is a .txt file. Without uploading both files, the map cannot be submitted to the website. If the .txt file is NOT a license, the submitter is essentially surrendering the map to the developers of Xonotic. By doing this, I think you can really ensure that everyone includes the proper licenses with their maps. A simple tutorial with form-like files (where the author can include their name, map name, version, (etc.) ) for download might be nice, too. I know its an idea that's apparently been beaten to death, but its just a thought.

I think a combobox with a number of allowed licenses to select 1 of them would be better than uploading a txt file. For even better license compliance - the site should allow only uploading of map sources (and parameters for the map compiler if some unusual are needed) and should build the pk3 server side.

That would be a lot of work for the server though. And it would mean we would have a ton of maps excluded from the list, so we would still need something else on the side to be really complete.

You are also assuming that only mappers will submit their own work to the repository. I don't know if that's a good thing either.

We're going round in circles now, we already established that a GPL-only repo would be incomplete and fairly useless.

I think something like the old maps page at NexuizNinjaz would be fine for now. Then you need a much less complicated system. Possibly a liitle bit more complicated than the NexuizNinjaz page though, to make it more usable, searchabe and scalable. Both GPL and non GPL maps could be on it, as long as it's kept away from the official website/project.

I could both script and host this. Let's see what I can come up with this weekend if time and energy permit.

Then drop the GPL completely and use the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-n...deed.en_GB

Quadropolis.us hosts maps for Cube 2: Sauerbraten and Red Eclipse utilizing an author motivated licensing arrangement. The vast majority of these utilize this license.

Just something to think about,
-Kevin

Many maps don't come with any licensing information at all. We would have to find and contact all the authors, then convince them to license their maps under CC, which should ideally also mean bumping the map's version number so that clients get the map with the right licensing info on them.

This is unnecessarily complicated. I don't really see an urgent need to push mappers to license their work under copyleft. Mappers tacitly release their maps as redistributable anyway, so it's virtually BY-NC-ND already.

I think copyleft can be made a low-priority goal, but let's have a working repository first before we reach out to authors of the hosted maps.

I agree. For what it's worth, I hosted a git repository for maps for Red Eclipse. It was quite effective, and I'm sure there is an easier way to do this, the easiest being the autobuild tool. Just add a "map pack" folder into the truck that will update as maps are added.

Thanks for the input and contributions to the conversations, it was quite educational.

-R4V

Perhaps instead of having a centralized repository, hosts of games could also host maps in a machine-accessible way, ie: you wouldn't need to play on the server and get to each map, you'd just have to hit a "collect maps" button and you'd get a bevy (with avoidance of dupes and whatnot of course)

Perhaps instead of having a centralized repository, hosts of games could also host maps in a machine-accessible way, ie: you wouldn't need to play on the server and get to each map, you'd just have to hit a "collect maps" button and you'd get a bevy (with avoidance of dupes and whatnot of course)

Was already tried in a way. I had over 1000+ maps on a server which was running Drupal. We imported them into Drupal so each map had a page and you could filter them to a certain extent. Each map had an option to be voted on and tagged. Also uses could upload their own maps.

Original idea was was a map hosting repo so server admin could get their maps from there and use that repo as their map source.

There was over 10BG of maps on there. Its no longer up as I gave up on it and haven't played Xonotic for a long time.

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Here is a csv of the maps I had. This is not the final one which was used to import into Drupal DB. I think I still have the script written by Melano which created the csv when you would run it in a directory the house the map files.

http://198.27.65.14/eatstatic/maps/maps.csv

I think the biggest challenge is the cost, how we share the cost, and how we manage the versions/updates/customizations. In theory, having a centralized repo (preferably with automatic mirrors) serving all servers/clients will be very cost-effective. In practice, it's really hard to come up with a nice cost-sharing model that works for everyone. Currently, we rely on resource donations. So far it has worked.

I think the biggest challenge is the cost, how we share the cost, and how we manage the versions/updates/customizations. In theory, having a centralized repo (preferably with automatic mirrors) serving all servers/clients will be very cost-effective. In practice, it's really hard to come up with a nice cost-sharing model that works for everyone. Currently, we rely on resource donations. So far it has worked.

Donations don't work and then people expect great things for donating $5 once. The resources are cheap and you could do it with two $6 per month VPS nodes. This was the thread I had http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=4993

What could be done is have the maps on two vps nodes, have one node as the main node and then use a redirect on the web server software the get EU users to get automatically redirected to the EU repo. This can be done with lighttpd simple CDN module http://tech.sybreon.com/2010/07/15/lighttpd-simplecdn

Donations don't work and then people expect great things for donating $5 once.

Good point.

Currently, we rely on resource donations. So far it has worked.

I did mean that currently we rely on server admins donating their resources for the public.

There was over 10BG of maps on there. Its no longer up as I gave up on it and haven't played Xonotic for a long time.

Do you still have all those 10 GB of maps somewhere? And/or the backup of the reviews/posts?

Donations don't work and then people expect great things for donating $5 once.

Good point.

Currently, we rely on resource donations. So far it has worked.

I did mean that currently we rely on server admins donating their resources for the public.

There was over 10BG of maps on there. Its no longer up as I gave up on it and haven't played Xonotic for a long time.

Do you still have all those 10 GB of maps somewhere? And/or the backup of the reviews/posts?

I just got the maps again. Melano said he would create the script again to crate the csv file so it can be imported into Drupal. This time though will probably go with the file links pointing to a separate vps/server than the websites hosting the Drupal install. It does limit user interaction with adding in other maps but it can still be done but the admin would have to take the attached file transfer it to the repo and change the url on the drupal page to point to the file on the repo.

I also have the model packages that I found stored an another hd but missing some of the ones I had before.

I will try my hand at the repo one more time it will be located at http://www.null.media Gimme a few days to set it up

I will try my hand at the repo one more time it will be located at http://www.null.media Gimme a few days to set it up

Thank you!!