Well, I've read quite a few posts on "How do we use Sphere for 3d???" and then I look at the post counts of these people, which have been like 1 or 2 posts in a month or something. I'd assumed that they decided against Sphere when they knew of the work that it involved...
Maybe you're just reading posts selectively, but I read everything that's posted. Though there are posters like that, and even some scattered discussions of 3D, those still only make up a tiny sliver of the members and posts on this forum.
It's like being told, "Hey, look how many blue cars there are around these days!" and suddenly noticing every single blue car that you cross paths with. Your perspective is skewed because you're subconsciously looking for them.
It would be a possible plan for the future of Sphere though! There's no reason to stop working with it now!
The Sphere source code is large and very difficult to understand, maintain and change. It has some very fundamental design flaws, e.g. no separation between system and user files and folders. It's using an outdated source control system which makes tracking changes very difficult, and controlled experiments all but infeasible. The original author has left, and with him much understanding about the source base, as well as the overarching vision of the project, which is vital. SourceForge.net is clunky and unsuitable for project planning or management, the bug tracking section has turned from a vital feedback list to a forest of overgrown weeds, and same with the feature requests section. There are no automated tests, so there's no way to know if a change to fix something breaks several other things. It's basically a software engineer's nightmare.
I wish I could share your bright-eyed optimism, but with the amount of effort required to understand, modernise and lead the project in new directions, it'd be much easier to start from scratch and make a new project with similar goals, which would have the added benefit of using up-to-date technologies and simpler project management.
Another thing that would be interesting (I should probably add this to the feature request, but....) is if you could compile the entire project into a single .EXE file
We've had this discussion before.
that way you could hide your source codes from cheaters... (open-source junkies smite me).
Nobody on the open-source side of the argument even needs to lift a finger: an open-source license is included with
every single copy of Sphere, including the officially hosted CVS repository. 'nuff said.
Actually, it's this kind of "the project guys should just wave their magic wands" attitude that was part of the reason I made this thread. I'm not sure if you guys get how difficult these things really are. They're quite impressive feats, even in a fresh project, never mind something as old, creaking and convoluted as Sphere. I'm tired of having to disappoint people who want feature X or fix Y. Sphere works in that you can grab the source, compile it and it'll run, but beyond that, nothing's changing.
The only way Sphere is going to see even small changes, is if you take the source, make the changes yourself and make a patch. If you get a working patch, heck, I'll even help you get it into mainline. Otherwise, any request you make of Sphere is pretty much just shouting into the void.
