In Memoriam: Tai'lahr
OpenUru.org, along with the rest of the Mystonline community, is mourning the loss of Tai'lahr on October 16th, 2019.
Rest in Peace, friend.
CyanWorlds.com Engine/FAQ
The content of this page is a "work-in-progress" and is subject to change. Do not place undue reliance on the completeness or accuracy of the material presented here!
General
Does Cyan actually know you're doing this?
Yes. Please see the official announcement on the mystonline.com forums.
I want to play NOW. Where do I download the game?
You can play on the official Cyan Worlds MOULagain server by downloading the client from mystonline.com and registering for an account: http://mystonline.com/en/play/
How is this licensed?
The client and plugin source originally developed by Cyan Worlds is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3). However, note that some of the necessary libraries and SDKs are subject to incompatible licenses and cannot be re-distributed within a GPL package. Please refer to the library summary: CWE Libraries and SDKs. Cyan Worlds content (models, sounds, Ages...) is also currently unavailable for distribution, although efforts are underway to change this (see Cyan Content Licensing Proposals and the appropriate forum thread).
Is it now legal to run a public shard?
Yes, provided that you use only Open Source or independently developed products and respect the rights and licenses applicable to any content.
Is it now legal to run a public (or private) shard using the "Complete Chronicles" or "Until Uru" codebase?
No. Only the Myst Online: Uru Live codebase has been open sourced. All other Cyan Worlds developed or licensed products are still subject to the applicable copyright and End User License Agreements.
Where do I get the content?
For the time being, we have been advised that the MOULagain server will supply the Cyan Worlds developed content. In practice what this means is that you need to have run the MOULagain UruLauncher.exe (the "patcher") to download the content files. If you have recently played on Cyan's MOULa server then you don't need to re-download the files - you can simply copy them into your CWE client installation.
What's the license on the content?
Cyan produced content is still covered by the End User License Agreement for MOULagain; there is presently no license that permits redistribution or modification of content.
What are my open source license (GPLv3) responsibilities as a user, developer or server operator (e.g. shard owner)?
Open Source, and in particular GPL, places no specific responsibilities on "end users" of an application, whether they are users of the client or the operators of a server. However, if you develop or distribute applications ("distribution" can include anyone passing on a copy of the work as well as shard operators offering a client download), then you need to comply with the terms of the GPL and with the terms of any libraries included in the distribution. In summary, this means that you have to offer a means to obtain the sources for the distributed application where GPL applies (not necessarily by download) and you must pass on the license terms to the recipient - this may be in the form of an included text file containing the license (reference to the license text via a URL is generally unacceptable as there is no guarantee that the URL will remain valid over time).
Libraries present a particular problem as they frequently use licenses that contain clauses that are additional to or contrary to the GPL: Consequently, it is usually easier to distribute the sources for these separately under their own licenses. GPL allows for the inclusion of incompatible libraries within the binary distribution, but you must still provide any acknowledgements required by the included libraries. See also CWE Libraries and SDKs and Why are there empty folders?.
I'm an age (world) builder - Do I need to make my ages GPLv3 too?
"Content", such as an age or a component within an age, is considered to be separate from the game engine, and indeed Cyan have chosen not to release their MOULa content for redistribution or modification at this time, so there is no obligation for your ages to use the same license as the engine. In fact, GPL is probably inappropriate and you would be better to consider one of the Creative Commons licenses for your work. For example, if you'd rather that others didn't modify your work then the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND which permits redistribution only in an unmodified state and with recognition that it is your work may be a suitable choice.
Client
Why are there empty folders?
You will find several empty folders in the source code structure: These are where libraries and SDKs have been removed. These are items that cannot be freely redistributed except as part of compiled application. Generally, the missing elements can be downloded from the licensor by the developer.
How do I get this to build?
Please refer to the build guidance notes: Build the client with MSVC 2003
Please note that CWE was originally built by Cyan using custom Python scripts and C++ code, not the Microsoft IDE Project files that are present.
Server
Where's the Cyan server download?
Cyan needs to do more work on the server code to prepare it for Open Source - it won't be soon. However MOSS is an alternative Open Source server.
What's this MOSS thing?
MOSS (Myst Online Server Software) is an Open Source server for the CyanWorlds.com Engine (Myst Online Uru Live). Please see the MOSS project page for further details.
I want to set up a shard. How do I download and run a server?
It is not currently possible to download Cyan's server code which runs on Windows Server 2003. You can however use the MOSS server software instead, provided that you can supply a suitable Unix/Linux platform with PostgreSQL. Download and installation instructions are on the MOSS Project page.
Plugin
Where are the sources for the 3ds Max Plugin?
The plugin shares much of the codebase with the client. Consequently there is no separate source download for the plugin - you will need to download the combined client and plugin source.