The surprising effects of open source computer graphics development
Ever Knock Over an Ant Hill?
I’d like to bring up a comedy routine from one of my favorites, Brian Regan.
Do you ever knock over an ant hill? Ever notice how they just start building it again?
You’d think there would be at least one of the ants who’d go:
“OH MAN!!!!! I DON’T BELIEVE THIS!!!!!”
We are that one angry ant and that’s why it’s funny. We care about the things we build, and we get upset when someone knocks the whole thing down. Ant behavior seems counter to who we are. Instead of a single controlling interest, a collective hive mind just builds, without any drive but the creation of the ant hill itself.
I think this is the perfect analogy to think about open source. Brian Regan is also hilarious.
Open source?
In my day job, I use pretty fancy pieces of software to do computer graphics. These days, it’s mainly Autodesk’s Maya, Adobe’s After Effects, and the super duper Unreal Engine from Epic. I’m amazed at the advances these pieces of software have every year.
However, when a community rallies around a free piece of software, the effects can be even more astounding.
Blender is an open source 3D package and production suite which, for free, allows for the creation of models, rigs, animation, textures, compositing and editing! Every major part of the animation pipeline has an independent group of developers solving a critical production problem. The community also shares videos about how to build things, provide plug ins and updates, and contribute to an infinite amount of chat rooms, websites and documentation.
Projects like Blender, the Godot engine, Open Broadcast Software, and the painting application Krita, are part of a growing world of open source computer graphics software. Essentially, a quality graphics pipeline can be created with software that have no licenses.
At it’s core, open source projects stay independent and free, which allows others to adopt it more readily. When community pain points are discovered, the users themselves can simply take it upon themselves to fix it.
This is key.
See, if I want an update to the Unreal Engine, I have to wait for the developer, Epic, to get around to it. (Here’s the Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/TTAVI7Ny/ue4-roadmap) Even if there are 100’s of world class developers working on the problem, because the system is closed there are only a (relatively) few number of people working on it.
- I have been informed by an Ureal expert that the above is not true. Unreal provides a semi-open source license which allows for opportunities for non-Epic developers to contribute to the code.
- k. Back to the Rambles.
For an open source project that I use, there are usually communities working on the same problem sets I have. The bigger and more active that community becomes, the more powerful the tool becomes. The users aren’t boxed out of the development in order to be monetized. The users (and the knowledge they have) become part of the development process itself.
Below is a visualization of python. You can see how the development of it twists and turns with the needs of the community. What closed company development pipeline would ever create a library like this?
Open Source for the Ecosystem
For the time being, the software packages and systems I use in my graphics work are closed. I work in companies, and business models are tied to a mechanism to control scarcity. Most software focused companies will continue to license, use subscriptions or SASS, because that’s how you make 20th century money.
What I wonder is:
How long will these closed systems be able to maintain their lead on the rest of the pack?
How can a localized graphics pipeline compete with an infinite group of user/developers and an ever increasing collection of models, animation and art? Yes, it’s true, that perhaps that our graphics ecosystem will be controlled by Epic, or a titan like Amazon, or Microsoft Azure.
It also may also be possible that that people will want a free ecosystem, filled with free software, and the value will come from the singular hive mind that is set on building with it.
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you next week.
Reference and Links:
Software –
Autodesk Maya: http://autodesk.com
Adobe After Effects: http://adobe.com
Epic Unreal Engine: http://unrealengine.com
Blender: http://blender.org
Godot: http://godotengine.org
OBS: https://obsproject.com/
Krita: https://krita.org/en/
Reading –
Yokai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks.pdf
The Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/
Comedy –
Brian Regan Official Site: http://brianregan.com/
And I found his “Ant” routine here: http://inviewmedia.org/index.php/media-gallery/1408-brian-regan-ants-fishing?category_id=12
