Front-Page

[kortemik]

We have a very nice front page here: http://opentechengine.github.io/

It's generated out of this repository: https://github.com/OpenTechEngine/opentechengine.github.io

I think it needs some improvements to be more fancy. Feel free to pull request your updates. Please note that the repository is quite huge (1.5G) due to doxygen.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@kortemik GitHub Pages allows you to use a Git submodule on the Pages repository.

I think it would be better if we had a separate repository only for documentation where you would put the Doxygen files, and then add this documentation repository as a submodule to the Pages repository.

This way, when someone wants to work on the project webpage they don't need to clone all 1.5GB, they will clone without submodule, make changes and commit.

[kortemik]

Yes I agree with that.

There is already new repository for Doxygen which for push is in progress at the moment.

i cleared doxygen directory from history of opentechengine.github.io.

@Anthony-Gaudino please feel free now to edit the pages!

[Anthony-Gaudino]

Great @kortemik, the Doxygen repository can now be added as a submodule on opentechengine.github.io repository. This way, we can add a web link to the Doxygen documentation from the webpage and users will be able to access the Doxygen documentation by just clicking on the link.

I will try to create a little website on the GitHub pages repository for the project using Jekyll.

Can you please provide the OTE bulb logo in SVG format so I can add it to the pages. If the logo was not created in vector I will redraw it in vector. You can place the logo on the opentechengine.github.io repository.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

Thank you @kortemik.

Before you sent the logo I decided to try and make a new logo. I also used the id tech 5 logo as reference. The current logo is too tall compared to the text inside, so I did a more compact logo. I also replaced the BFG by ENGINE or an gear icon since the project is called Open Tech Engine and we always call it by this name or OTE.

I searched on the Internet for the fonts used on the original id tech 5 logo and found very similar free ones.

I did some different logos, to see which one looks better. Bellow are two of them. I really liked the one with the gear myself because it also looks like an engine with an open area where you can see the inner workings, which fits very well on Open Source software where you have access to the code (inner workings of the software).

If you like the idea of updating the logo, please let me know, and I will send you the .svg.

[kortemik]

I like the idea of P melding into the Tech-base. However the overlapping letters do not work in long word like "open". Original is way shorter, I didn't even notice it as it's only two letters. I'd say the idea of lamp bulb could be perhaps dropped. @DanielGibson's idea of electron tube was fun although as said it's bit too large. I'd place the gear in left of the text. Could you try that?

We are different, no need to look-a-like bethesd#. Black&White with the word tech like that is enough.

The other one is quite off because having three different fonts is against all logo design practices.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@kortemik, I wasn't sure the current logo was a light bulb or a vacuum tube, the glass format looked more like a light bulb, but then the 4 connectors in the bottom makes it look like a vacuum tube. I searched on the Internet and I did found some vacuum tubes with a format similar to a light bulb.

I tried to create a vacuum tube design, but it looked bad and I gave up on it.

The second logo has only two fonts, the TECH font is the same as the ENGINE but I reduced it's height so it would look more similar to the id tech 5 logo.

I did as you suggested, I placed the gear on the left side of the text and separated the letters of open:

With more teeth on the gear:

Google style?

Maybe @Yetta1 and @BielBdeLuna can help suggesting a design.

[BielBdeLuna]

why does "Tech" use one of the fonts of the product "doom3" when there has been more games using idtech4?

why not instead of a gear we use a wrench? while a gear suggest an engine, a wrench suggest manual labor, as if the user has to do something manual, and since we need to suggest that the tech is open, manual labor and open would go hand in hand here.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@BielBdeLuna, I based the logo on the id tech 5 because the current logo is based on it too, but as @kortemik also said, it's not necessary to be similar to the id tech 5 logo.

We can have both a gear and wrench. I also changed the font to the Fira font:

[BielBdeLuna]

it looks cool, I like the shadow effect, pretty idtech4ish! :)

[kortemik]

I would rotate perhaps the wrench 45 degrees counter-clock-wise. Although atm it almost resembles quad damage which is quite nice for a reference.

Doxygen didn't fit the repos so it's hosted here: https://xnet.fi/code/OpenTechBFG/Doxygen/

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@kortemik, here's it with the wrench rotated by 45 degrees in both directions, first counter clockwise, second clockwise:

Here are some other designs I was trying out. First is a cut out gearbox with access to the mechanism; second is an open door, but I don't know how to fit tech into it; third is an jet engine that, like the first one, was cut out, but it's much more complex in details.

[BielBdeLuna]

what about a toolbox, you know the typical red toolbox, it's open in it itself because it serves to fix and to do anything, because it's not geared towards doing anything in particular as most tools are. in a toolbox you have the most diverse tools that you can use to do the most diverse things, so toolboxes are very useful for that. you can always fins the right tool in a tool box.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@BielBdeLuna I don't think a toolbox would work well for this project, we usually see toolboxes being used to represent "fixing something", so if it was a maintenance software it would work.

... But your suggestion gave me a great idea, and I did this design:

Logo design must be as simple as possible, and this is the simplest one I could get by now that has both the open idea, using the open box, and the tech engine using the gear, it's clean and "legible" even in small sizes.

---

@kortemik, what did you mean when you said Doxygen didn't fit the repos? Is there a size limit on the project or you just think it's better to host it somewhere else?

[kortemik]

@Anthony-Gaudino there is size limit of 1GB for LFS and for normal repos, it's purhaceable to get more, 50GB and 50GB bandwidth with 5€/month blocks.

However I measured even some 200MB page loads with call graphs so 50GB bandwidth would be consumed instantly.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

Here's another design using an open padlock:

And here is the box again, but with the lids open a little more:

I think that this last "open box" logo is the best by now, I will just "finish it", and post it on a logo critique website and see if they can give me suggestions on how to improve it.

If you have any more suggestions, please tell me.

[BielBdeLuna]

I don't quite see it as an open box, it's too abstract to me (if I were to see it first hand without any prior knowledge that is)

if idTechX is a 3d engine why not represent an actual box with open lids with maybe a logo of the gear in the side, so it's not a purely 2D image but a item cleary represented in 3d, what do you think?

[Anthony-Gaudino]

The project name is also abstract, that's why I'm having trouble in finding the best logo for it.

With a 3D box, the best way I found to do it is this way:

[BielBdeLuna]

still a 2d ish image don't you think? why not make it showing some of he side.

on the name, maybe it's too ambiguous, open tech engine, engine for what, tech for what. it's not clear

[Anthony-Gaudino]

It doesn't really need to be clear, the problem is that it's too abstract. If it was "red apple engine" I know I would draw a red apple with something else, but "open tech engine", it makes it much harder to develop a good clever logo.

Open means "free software", you can use it, browse and change code. Tech means technology. Engine means a framework, in this case, for making games.

Putting all this information in a single image is tricky.

---

@BielBdeLuna, please note that a logo must be as simple as possible, making it more 3D will add more details.

I want to create a logo like this: http://logopond.com/gallery/detail/189277 try to find the mouse! Or this: http://logopond.com/gallery/detail/187983 or this: http://www.sparklogix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/logofaves.png

[BielBdeLuna]

I found some "box" logos that show the 3d-ish nature of it that I'm referring to: http://designbeep.com/2013/08/15/21-smart-box-logos-for-inspiration/

[kortemik]

@Anthony-Gaudino This logo https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2439728/11228427/374201f0-8d6b-11e5-81db-db49d8f50310.png

With these colors https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2439728/11311255/6e2e047c-8fad-11e5-96e6-baef2ecaee53.png

Or black text. And perhaps bigger gear.

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@kortemik, relax :baby_chick:

[ghost]

Part of the cover page I made a while back for the artist guide I'm working on. However the guide is on hold, having issues with performance when blending shaders. Will discuss those issues on another thread.

[BielBdeLuna]

@Yetta1 I find difficult to read OTE in the logo you proposed, it's not difficult not to read the line of the T and the E as an added line like the other two lines in the design, and the fact that the top added line cuts the E makes it even more difficult to read that last letter as an E, at first sight you could say it says OIH or even OIT with the T rotated counter-clock wise.

besides that I like more the less gear-like of the two.

I'm not convinced on that design sorry

@Anthony-Gaudino Another idea could be imagination, or freeing imagination don't you think?

[ghost]

@BielBdeLuna It's ok, I didn't put much effort in the design and made it in a few minutes.

[BielBdeLuna]

:)

[Anthony-Gaudino]

Coincidence!

I'm also working on a design with the initials:

It uses white space to make the "O" and "E".

And if you put a curve under it:

It looks like a happy face :D

I can improve this one latter, I have to do some things right now, I come back to it in a few hours.

---

@BielBdeLuna, I also thought of the idea of using a bird to express freedom, and an open head to express open knowledge, but I didn't worked on those ideas yet.

[BielBdeLuna]

flying gear man! gears flaying free XD

[ghost]

@BielBdeLuna Lol the gear I did was for that very purpose, to create an intro video for the game engine showing gears in a machine with one flying off then morphing into the OTE logo.

[ghost]

Then again thinking about it now, it might give the impression that the engine is breaking. :|

[BielBdeLuna]

XDD

[kortemik]

How is the page layout btw?

[kortemik]

http://opentechengine.github.io/doxygen.html I added some more useless docs

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@kortemik, I'm still working on the logo thing, I will start working on the Jekyll pages as soon as we have a good logo. The page design will also depend on the logo, so it's better to have it first.

---

I just did this new logo which combines everything in the OTE name:

• The open, with an opening on the plane.
• The tech, with the circuits coming from the sides of the opening.
• The engine, with a gear painted on the inner side of the opening.

[kortemik]

That's awesome for me. Text on the right could be something too. Now the pages?

[Anthony-Gaudino]

@kortemik, OK, I see you really want the pages, so I will work on it full time now.

Just relax, don't try to hurry up things.

Here are some cute animals to make you relax: :cat: :hamster: :bear: :panda_face: :baby_chick: :bird: :mouse: :penguin: :rabbit: :dog:

[BielBdeLuna]

I like it too, but I'm not convinced that you get that it's a 3D engine form that logo, it seems a logo more fitting for a tech company don't you think?

what if we use this idea of the PCB copper vias as a tech reference, but instead of them being in a undefined plane, let's add them in a box (and open box ) now what is this box? this box it's The engine (instead of a mailing pachage)

and we can see it's the engine because inside we can see the cogs, but let me reinforce the idea of imagination: let's add three cogs, one inside and tow of them flying away (now, obviously cogs don't fly, only if we use our imagination to make them fly)

I'm thinking with that logo as the reference to those cogs fliying: http://cdn.designbeep.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/16.box-logos.jpg but with all the changes that you contributed in that last logo you posted,

what do you think?

[Anthony-Gaudino]

The black and white colors make it harder to see that there is a hole in the plane. With colors it gets more visible:

I was working on a 3D box like this one in the link, but since @kortemik wants the pages so badly, I will finish this design latter and then I will post a comment with it.

I will do it as you suggest, with the cogs flying out of the box.

[BielBdeLuna]

but only do if you agree pal! I like your designs, they are great! :+1: