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.
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
- 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 |
 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 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
Alternative approach:
You can build and run the project using Docker. See Running with docker for more details.
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?
How can I help?
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.
/r/openage
openage 是由志愿者开发的开源项目，是 Genie Engine 的复刻版本。Genie Engine 是 Age of Empires、Age of Empires II (HD) 和 Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds 所使用的引擎。该项目旨在用现代化、易于模组化的引擎，重现原版的游戏玩法。