Call me paranoid, but I think Microsoft may have bought Mojang because Cura uses the minecraft engine and M$ wants to write their own slicer and/or sue the Cura project and/or shut down the Cura project.
Originally shared by Linux Game World
This is just a brief overview of my thoughts on Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang in podcast form, including what I think it could mean for Linux.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppYIbDVHP9k
Don’t laugh, but I shortly thought of @Daid_Braam too when I heard these news…
Cura does not use any code from Minecraft. If by “uses the minecraft engine” you mean “uses a 3rd party tool for importing minecraft world data for STL conversion,” you’re still off the mark… there’s basically nothing in http://github.com/mcedit/pymclevel that would be a valid legal attack vector for M$.
Furthermore… they already have their own 3D printing program. It’s called 3D Builder, and it’s been available for almost a year.
Ms is likely writing their own slicer but currently using netfabb. They are very open about it. I was with ms and netfabb at the Build Conference.
Make no mistake, writing a slicer is no small task. Slicers today hold the keys to the kingdom for cloud slicing- where we all will be going soon.
I talked to a genius programmer in London about slicing and he swears we need to start fresh and do it right - too complicated to go into here. I got his contact info! The tinyg folks have some very interesting thoughts on this as well. I talked to a google employee about options but after researching it, he said the licenses of current slicers out there aren’t compatible with google values. Huh.
It’s a land grab right now and I’m worried for the open source lovers like me. We need an open alternative. But again, it’s a tough nut to crack.
Brook
@Helping_Hands thanks, yes. That’s exactly the case. It’s silly to think Cura uses anything from minecraft directly. And the data used to create pymclevel (which saved me a lot of time) is publicly available.
I do think Microsoft is just crazy for paying that much for minecraft. Sure, it has a name. But that’s crazy amount of money for a name. The game itself, you could re-create that in a few months with a bunch of programmers. (Which is also why you see a lot of clones, or minecraft like games)
@Brook_Drumm I don’t think cloud slicers are place to be. Slicers use a lot of CPU and memory. Which is exactly what is expensive in the cloud.
Also, if AGPL isn’t the proper license for cloud slicing, then you’re not really being in the spirit of open-source. As that exactly the license you want for cloud slicing. As it prevents you from keeping changes behind a webserver. Which is also the exact reason I picked AGPL for the CuraEngine. I’m fine with people using it for cloud slicing, I’m not fine with people keeping improvements for themselves.
Also, lots of programmers I talk with say exactly what you heard from the “genius”. However, nobody actually does it, or finds out things don’t work in the way they expected when they do start. Basic slicing isn’t that hard. Proper slicing, that’s hard. It’s scary how much information about slicing is in my head… (and ended up in the CuraEngine) and how many silly suggestions I get.
other cash grab
Well, I guess I did not understand the Cura engine very well. I am glad to hear that it would not be affected by the M$ purchase.
How about the Minecraft level importing? Will it still be able to import Mine craft levels of the current format?
@Daid_Braam At any rate, we all know that corporations like to sue, so please be careful to have things worded in pymclevel ( https://github.com/daid/Cura/blob/104a8c2e050226e807690c240024381b7fbaa790/Cura/util/pymclevel/LICENSE.txt ) to keep asshole lawyers happy. I would hate for Cura to be impacted in any way by MicroShaft (my nickname for Microsoft) buying policies.
I love the Cura engine. There are some things that I can’t get it to slice in a way that gives me good results, but I love it. It definitely kicks butt compared to Skeinforge, SFact (aka Skeinforge2 ) and Slic3r for at least speed and often more.
@NathanielStenzel pymclevel is not my project, so I respect that license and keep it in place. Also, reverse engineering for compatibility between programs is legal here. So there is no way they can do anything to halt this feature. But I also do not think they really care. Thinking that they would is silly.
Not to forget that they pretty much could have bought Ultimaker and Cura for that kind of money. (Everything is for sale for enough money)
@Daid_Braam if we did a slicer in the cloud, we would use cura. We are big fans. Google employee said it doesn’t fit their rules - whatever those are. talked to Eric from Ultimaker last night, he said cura cloud slicing is feasible but it would be a cost. I like the fact someone has implemented cura in octoprint for the Rpi. maybe that could become fast enough with better hardware. I’d love to have octoprint and cura on all our electronics. Gina’s work on a plugin system may enable cloud apps. Printrbot will be mobile centered moving forward, not desktop. getting all of it done on cheap hardware is the issue. I hope to see an open ecosystem emerge that isn’t owner by any one company. someone will have to host the accounts and payment system though. it’s feasible to sidestep this but vetting is an important part. and a central App Store would be convenient for users. if cloud slicing is implemented, taking a 20-30% cut to keep it all running and paid for might be necessary.
brook