OpenRA

Hello,

Currently OpenRA uses art assets in the .shp format, for obvious reason to use original Red Alert and C&C sprites. I'm wondering though, how realistic would it be to support an image format unrestrained by licences, copyright etc. the immediate choice being PNG. OpenRA could then be used as an RTS engine for truly free/libre, or commercial projects, without relying on a proprietary format.

Things to consider here are, first, developer time and interest and then also possible technical limitations and difficulties the PNG format would bring.

Any thoughts on this?

SHP is a multi-image format, PNG is single-image (AFAIK).

Ah, you mean in a way .gif can have multiple frames in a single file? From the technical point of view, PNG could then be used as a sprite sheet. Of course, then there's the "detail" of implementing this different way to handle sprites.

OpenRA.Utility --extract allows you to get the SHP from a MIX file
OpenRA.Utility --png extracts the SHP into a PNG
OpenRA.Utility --shp repacks your (edited) PNG file to SHP

If you want a truly free engine that does not rely on proprietary legacy file formats for game files have a look at something like http://stratagus.sourceforge.net/ or http://springrts.com/