A new article at iDevGames has been posted which discusses the Mac port(s) of the open-source 3D engine Crystal Space, a general-use software engine which can be adapted for 3D games of any type. If you have an idea for a 3D game or application, this engine may be a great place to start.

Eric Sunshine is the author of the article, and also the person maintaining the Mac OS X version of the engine (along with Rhapsody, Open Step, Next Step, and BeOS ports). In the piece he notes there are two distinct versions of the Mac port: one for OS 9, and his version, which is written in Cocoa for OS X. The former is a problem because this Mac OS 9 version has fallen out of date, and is not currently compatible with the later versions of CodeWarrior. However the article author has found someone to take over the project:

One of the pre-Carbon MacOS/9 port maintainers, K. Robert Bate, has just returned from a prolonged absence and has once again started updating on the MacOS/9 port of Crystal Space. His most recent work involves updating the CodeWarrior project files (which were extremely outdated) and ensuring that the project can be built with the most recent version of CodeWarrior. Mr. Bate has also stated his intention of Carbonizing the MacOS/9 port, however it is unknown as to when this task will be completed.

And be sure to check out the rest of the article for more information on the CrystalSpace engine and what it takes to get started developing with it. The CrystalSpace web site has screen shots, code examples and test binaries to download.

Official CrystalSpace Web Site

iDevGames Article on CrystalSpace

Mac CrystalSpace for OS 9 Web Site

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