Introduction
Crystal Space is a cool open source game engine. It's basically a framework for developing and creating 3D applications that are written in C++. The application is mainly used for gaming, but it can be used for any type of visual representation. It's a very flexible engine and can run on Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Mac Os X.
Gaming Engines
Game engines are tools for game designers to easily code a game quickly without having to build from the ground up. An open source game engine is very exciting if you're a gaming fan, when something like this is open source you get all sorts of people working on it, and it pretty much takes on a life of its own. Open source software is a great way of advancing video games. I wouldn't be surprised if this took off, and revolutionized the gaming industry.
It's cool to see something like this, because it will be a cold day in hell when you see major gaming companies releasing their own game engines for public use. I know Epic Games charges a pretty penny to license their Unreal engine to outside companies. Basically on one hand you have Crystal Space which is sort of like Linux (open source), and then on the other hand you have the major game engines like Unreal, Euphoria, Havoc and their creators who wish to control the technology themselves, not unlike Microsoft.
It's ashame the major game engines aren't open source, although who can really blame them. Some of them are really breaking a lot of new ground. The Euphoria character animation engine for example is something to behold. It was most recently put to use in Grand Theft Auto 4. Euphoria is based on a full simulation of the 3D character, including body, muscles and motor nervous system The physics are amazing. For example force at which you hit someone in a car determines the way in which that particular character model reacts. If you just nudge someone they may put their hand on the car to keep themselves from falling. Whereas if you hit someone at a high rate of speed they will fly through the air with their limbs flailing as they would in real life.
Crystal Space Details
Crystal Space has modules for 2D and 3D graphics, sound, collision detection and physics through ODE and Bullet. * Graphics: o OpenGL rendering o Supports hardware acceleration from all major card vendors o Allows use of shaders o Library of common shaders like normal mapping, parallax mapping and hardware skinning o Supports software rendering with limited features * Mesh objects: o Plugin-based mesh system o Triangle-based meshes with frame and bone animation support * Collision detection and dynamics: o ODE and Bullet dynamics o Simplified collision detection when full dynamic simulation is not needed