Cube (video game)
As of the August 29, 2005, release, there were 37 single player maps and 65 deathmatch maps, for a total of 102 maps. Multiplayer uses a networked game code and a thick client/thin server model. The single-player game play includes two modes. A plain single-player mode in which items and monsters do not respawn and have a fixed position; and a deathmatch-style mode (where there is a fixed number of monsters, ten per skill level) and items respawn. Multiplayer gameplay includes twelve modes: The "Cube" engine was designed as an outdoor engine, i.e. it's designed for maps that are outdoors rather than "Doom" and "Quake", which are optimized for indoors. It utilizes a pseudo-3D world model similar to the "Doom" engine, based on a 2D height map. This imposes some limitations (e.g. no rooms above rooms), but does permit slopes and 3D props, which in turn can be used to make up for most limitations, for example, to create bridges with a passage below. The engine is based on "zero-precompilation" philosophy—all map data is interpreted dynamically, with no need to recalculate such as shadowmaps or BSP data. This makes realtime in-game map editing feasible. Cube supports multi-user, realtime map editing. The engine is compact and relies on simplicity and brute force instead of fine-tuned complexity. The engine was reused for several other games, the developers usually modified the engine to adapt it to the needs of their projects. However, there also are changes of unclear nature. The main reason for this is that the engine code is not clearly separated from the game code. Such changes of unclear nature appear both in modifications of "Cube" and in other games using the "Cube Engine". When the engine is modified, the changes tend to be minor but there also are cases where the changes are significant, such as in "AssaultCube" (released in November 2006) and its fork "AssaultCube Reloaded" (released in December 2010). Intel ported the game to OpenGL ES to demonstrate a new mobile 3D chipset at the Game Developers Conference in 2005. A "Cube" port, intended as a technology demo was submitted to the iPhone in 2008, and was released to the iPhone App Store on November 18. A version of AssaultCube for Android was released in may 2021. "Cube 2: Sauerbraten", released in 2004, is the official successor of Cube. It uses an other engine, the "Cube 2 Engine". Even if the earliest revisions of "Cube 2 Engine" were based on the "Cube Engine", it became with time very different. There are many differences between the "Cube Engine" and the "Cube 2 Engine". One important difference is geometry. Unlike the Cube Engine, that has 2.5D geometry, the Cube 2 Engine supports real 3D geometry. Another important difference is the fact that the source code is foldered. The code of the engine and the game specific code are in two different folders and a third folder contain shared code, allowing communication between the game specific code and the engine. This third folder is named "shared" and the one containing the engine is named "engine". the name of the folder containing the game specific code is often the name of the game but not always. In the "Cube 2: Sauerbraten" source code, the one of "Sauerbraten" is named "fpsgame" and the one of "Eisenstern" (the RPG embryo that come with most releases of "Cube 2: Sauerbraten") is named "rpggame". Alongside these folders, there are other folders, containing libraries used by the engine, the game(s) or both. This does not prevent engine modifications. "Blood Frontier" then Red Eclipse (before the version 2.0 of "Red Eclipse") used modded versions of the Cube 2 Engine. A part of the features of these modified versions, such as the rain particles effect, were later added to the official version of the engine. Several forks of the Cube 2 Engine were made but only one of them is its official successor, "Tesseract". This engine actually share its name with the game it was made for, unlike its predecessors (the "Cube Engine" was made for "Cube" and the "Cube 2 Engine" was made for "Cube 2: Sauerbraten"). "Cube" was used in a computer science course at Brown University 2006. "Cube" was reviewed positively by LinuxDevCenter in 2002 and awarded with the "Happypenguin Award" for "Best Free 3D Action Game" by The Linux Game Tome in 2003. In 2005 in an O'Reilly article on "Open Source Mac Gaming" "Cube" was recommended. MacUpdate rated the game's latest release 4.5 stars out of 5. "Cube" was downloaded between 2004 and May 2017 alone from SourceForge.net 2.7 million times.
Development
It often is mistaken with its engine (zlib-licensed), the Cube Engine. The engine and game were developed by Wouter van Oortmerssen. A popular spin-off called "AssaultCube" was released in November 2006. An official successor has been made called "Cube 2: Sauerbraten" (also simply known as "Sauerbraten"). Released in 2004, it uses an other engine, the "Cube 2 engine".