OpenUru.org

Hi I was known in the cavern as Dogwood I was/am a greeter and was wondering if the cavern was reopened in any way shape or form(via a shard).

Officially (as in "operated, approved or sanctioned by Cyan"), the answer is "no". Unofficially, there are some "underground" UU shards operating - these are of dubious legality, since (for one reason) by bypassing the Cyan Auth server they're technically in breach of any licence agreement that went with UU.

Less controversially, you'll find "Uruite" communities in SL, There, etc., if those things are your bag, where some have re-created elements of the cavern as we knew it, as well as new Uru-like areas.

Since I have little to do with any of these alternatives, I'll leave it up to some of those community members to "promote" their own environments. Meanwhile, we're all still waiting on Cyan starting the process of releasing material into the Open Source community, so we can start on building Open Uru communities.

Hi Dogwood,
Depending on whether you just want in the Cavern or to hook up with friends will decide where you need to look. To get in an underground cavern... I guess there are several meanings to that... visit the Uru Guild of Writers (GoW) and look for their invitation threads. Access is usually by invitation only. I can't give you any idea how many fans are participating in those caverns or how many there are.

For solo play there is Drizzle a converter that allows one to import MOUL into Complete Chronicles (CC) as well as new fan content. See GoW for details on using Drizzle.

For hooking up with friends the Uru Guild of Maintainers is the group one finds in most of the alternate virtual worlds where Uru fans hang out. While the forum is very quite you can find information on THERE and Second Life (SL) on the GoMa site; Uru-Myst Second Life Visitors Help Document. Plus questions are usually answered quickly. Be sure to scroll down and and find the post on the groups to contact in Sl to hook up with the community. There are about 600 fans in SL and about 300+ are active and logon at least once a month. There are 50 to 100 concurrently logged on any given weekend. The Dni Voice is published Monday thrugh Friday and lists the various events and community related news. Contact any one in the D'ni Refugees group to help you get through SL orientation/learning. The SL help tutorials and welcome areas are useful but we can get you to the fun stuff faster and help you avoid the ...there is no accurately descriptive adjective to put here - I'll use surprising... noob experiences.

Also in the PROJECTS portion of the GoMa site is a section for THERE, which is more family oriented.

A large number of Uru fans are in Guild Wars. When Uru Obsession is back up check out their threads on GW.

GoMa's Andy and some others are in EVE Online. Contact him for info about EVE at GoMa.

The fan forums are quite just now as we are very uncertain when we will see open source released. Cyan is also involved to some undefined extent in Magic Quest Online... everyone has speculated on what that might mean for open source (MO:OS or any number of other acronyms). You can find the threads on the MOUL forum.

Welcome back...

It is hoped that this site will be a destination for Open Source Uru projects, hence its name, possibly with one or more shards demonstrating progressive proofs of concept. Not simply a portal of references to current alternatives like the above, though information about all efforts is certainly welcome.

I expect that is what OU will become.

I am seeing some people talking about their various projects in various VW's and in other virtual world and game engine software. Team Fortress, Unity and others are posting at MOUL. I don't really have a place to send them here. I can refer them to the forum here but once here they are somewhat lost. It is not like the idea this is the place for your project and we have all these neat resources for you to use is in there face. Don't get me wrong, you have made it quit clear that is the case. I do know several of us have been concerned about starting only vaguely related Myst-Style builds and non-MOUL related software projects here. That tells me something in the promotion of OU is lacking or not working.

Members can't start new projects here. That may be good for keeping the forum organized. But it is an obstacle for those starting new projects. Finding how to get a project started while overly obvious to you it somewhat hidden to new arrivals.

It has occurred to me that I could change how I post when directing people here. I could tell them to contact you (JWP) or Mac to open a project. I could do promotion of OU differently and include references to the resources in a more explicit way.

Promotion may be lacking because its purpose awaits - patiently - the source (get it?) of its inspiration. There won't be much movement until Cyan gets to the release of licensing and code. That's why at least projects of infrastructure are relevant because there are certain common sense necessities.

It might be good to define what it means to start a project.

There is a How to Submit Project Applications post of JW's on the "front page" of the forums, but it isn't exactly eye catching, I suppose.

I guess the other thing is that no-one has really had the time to build a better Home Page for the site: What's there right now is a pretty basic page with links to the tools. Possibly if it was a bit better presented with a bit more description of the site and some "How To" pages linked from it (they could be done in the wiki), then it would give a better "landing zone" for newcomers.

Nalates wrote: I could tell them to contact you (JWP) or Mac to open a project.

Don't confuse me with a site admin - that's JW! I've got admin rights on the wiki and I'm a global mod on the forums, but that's it

I understand the hold up because of no source code.

I am thinking of the fan spit ups because of fans moving into other VW's and game engines. I am sure that each engine has its forum. All the VW's have theirs. For the Uru fans to work together when open source arrives we need to find a way to keep them together. If we have a place where they can gather and work together now it may be much easier when we have OS. The SL forum is overwhelming. The GoMa forum provides the SL information specific to Uru fans. Dot is thinking we possibly ought to put Hypergrid wiki on GoMa. I'm of mixed opinion but either or both works for me.

I am guessing that we won't see much movement on open source from Cyan until later this year, some time after MQO is online. You guys have to stop coming up with new fun ideas... well... no... don't do that. But, this means more people will be off doing their thing. I think it is a good idea to make a handy place for those builders that get into other engines. We will have common challenges.

Even if we place all of the non-Plasma projects in one project. It may be good to have them here.

I think Mac_Fife makes a better admin than I do. I didn't even think (or remember) to mention my own post on "How to Submit Project Applications." He's been very good for and to this site, and gets my attention to do some of that admin stuff.

Shorah Dogwood! Welcome back to the community. Nalates has already answered your question, but I'll just add that, if you're looking for Greeters to hang out with, there are still many in Guild Wars, and more info on that can be found in the GW thread under General Gaming on the GoG forum. There are also several in Second Life and if you decide to come there, be sure to IM me (Tailahr Winnikow) for assistance in finding your way around.

As to the other discussion prompted by your post... (this is to JW, Mac & Nalates): What would y'all think about maintaining a list of Myst-Uru projects here - even if they're not using this site to organize them? The list could include links to wherever they are being organized and/or contact information on the project leader. I think it would be appropriate here simply because it would help identify community members with various talents that might be useful when OS finally happens. I'll volunteer to organize and keep it if you'll direct me to the most appropriate place for it here.