huh, I didn’t know ETC had a press. Very cool, sounds like there might be a couple books about Panda in the relatively near future! Thanks for posting here to let us know what is happening at CMU.
Heh,i havent been here for a long time.
Got more into modelling and another engine.
Does the BSD require credit to Disney?
When was the last version released by them?
I think thats the problem.Others make huge updates to the engine and its still “Disney this,Disney that”.
Just make a team.
Like Blender Foundation.
Forget Disney.If BSD allows that.
Cool, thanks for the update, MikeC. 
bestseclub, BSD would allow it, but Disney is the main developer to this engine, and without them Panda would not exist. I don’t know why you’re suggesting to go on without Disney but that doesn’t really make much sense given that Panda entirely depends on Disney (and Disney still uses Panda for their games).
me too - I’m wondering if they plan to put it on the web, as all the “big press” is going actually
I really can’t get why this bother you so much - I mean to give credits to ppl that spent thousands of hours of time to give you for free something.
Unless you’re fearing for “give credit” equals “give money” - in that case no fear cos with BSD you’ll have full rights to resell your job without to give a dime to nobody.
Well,i guess i didnt read the topic title,i thought its “Did Disney abondon Panda3d”.
Whatever,what i mean is Panda needs something like Blender Foundation is for Blender.Has CMU developed the new Panda releases?If no then we have 1 serious dev.So a team would be nice.
MikeC: Thats good news. I hope CMU is getting something going - and we get some more in depth contacts with you folks again.
bestseclub: Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to talk here “down to you simple folks”. There is a long time history that basically cannot be seen without CMU and Disney in the boat. We see progress in having Panda3D a true community driven project. First was the BSD licence, and second Disney saying that its giving its responsibilities over to CMU. They are still the BIG code contributors. But - as in the past - you shouldn’t brag with the fact that you are using the same engine as disney does in some of their games.
CMU on the other hand was the one publishing the Engine for a long time (Josh). That includes running some of the Panda3D “classes”, being the “server guy” and the general connection to CMU.
Currently we have one guy doing the server work (which is something that doesn’t require much energy once its all set up and running.) but we have had basically no connection to CMU HERE. There was an unstable mail contact - and thats it.
What is bothering me - or lets say “us”, is the fact, that pro-rsoft is doing work he wasn’t intended to do on the long run (and tbh: I understand him. I wouldn’t want to do that forever too.). Its just too much time and power consuming. Think about it. You want to contribute something new, neat. But are busy with bug squishing. This can drive you crazy.
So, yea, we need some structure. We need some help for bug fixing. Second can be done in cooperation with CMU. But of course CMU should also be involved in point 1. But after a year of basically no ETC-connection I hope its clear that CMU shouldn’t be the ones deciding important things alone. I hope there will be an solution where a couple of people work together to never have that gap we have had, again.
So short term solution needed: A second maintainer that can take over a lot of work from pro-rsoft.
Mid term solution: Have some sort of fundation with CMU onboard (my wish)
Long term solution: Have Panda3D development safe for the future (and for the community)
Regards, Bigfoot29
(3) Find a new company that is willing to develop Panda as their engine for their internal projects, shares the progress and keeps a liberal license. Transfer rights to them.
That’s exactly what Disney does, no? But they recently transferred rights to CMU.
Our problem is the maintaining of Panda, not specifically the development (which is done by Disney and others).
Have you thought of a page listing the jobs needed to be done and have a sign up list for a fixed amount of time?
Surely there has to be stuff even noobs like me and others can do?
And if the needs are listed the more advanced might be willing to pitch in for a specific task where they wouldn’t for an abstract duty.
JB
The launchpad thing was created for that purpose.
blueprints.launchpad.net/panda3d
bugs.launchpad.net/panda3d
Anyone can add blueprints and report bugs. I believe anyone can assign a blueprint or bug to himself (if not, just contact someone who can.) and change the status.
So feel free to add something to the list or to implement something.
Can we donate money for a blueprint, like target a donation for say better models for samples? That way maybe a skilled programmer could then either hire or purchase the models based on experience with a thought for what people new to panda would need to train with?
That way if somebody is really interested in a particular feature but they can’t program at that level they could still help?
Just a thought.
JB Skaggs
dang - I guess I totally missed that, good to know it
jbskaggs: The donation thing has been discussed already. The problem is that you can’t make sure when the “donations” have to be paid (quality and quantity of the result).
I would welcome that to force some parts of the development that aren’t covered enough by now. However, I wonder if we would find a solution for this to suit the needs for all ppl.
Regards, Bigfoot29
For the record, I’m back from vacation today. I’m glad to find this thread, and I’m on the edge of my seat to hear more from CMU ETC.
David
I thought Disney would develop the engine, but not share the progress with the rest of the world?
If they do so, then what exactly did Disney do recently for the engine? My impression is all recent progress comes from people here in the forums.
I didn’t want David (drwr) to be kept on the edge of his seat any longer! We at CMU are happy to see the fixes in 1.6.2 over 1.6.1 – thanks to pro-rsoft and all involved! Active summer work on Building Virtual Worlds (the CMU ETC flagship course that has produced many Panda demos here) materials packaging should be of use to the community. That will result in contributions later this summer, as will the work of the Crayon3D ETC project and perhaps a game sketching ETC project (items formerly broken in 1.6.1 now are working again in 1.6.2 – great!). As for maintenance and development going forward, a few key principals at the ETC are away at conferences or vacation, delaying things until next week. Conversations are continuing in smaller groups, but rather than post a day-to-day account here, rest assured that this thread has triggered CMU ETC attention. I am also gratified by the positive response to an ETC Press (see http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/) publication idea.
Thats again good news. Seems as if things start going (except for currently already active direct development of the engine).
By the way: current donations values are:
€9,46 EUR
$28,23 USD
(darn fees)
-> sums up to €29,38 EUR
Thanks to the contributors! If there is need, let us know. (currently its pro-rsoft and myself that are having access)
Once we have a sort of commitee watching over the usage, it will be easier, but for now its pro-rsoft and me discussing basically if it is needed.
Regards, Bigfoot29
David from Disney known as drwr here is one the most active forum members. Research his activity a little bit to get the opposite impression: most of the recent progress comes from Disney (and David in particular) 
PS: Of course, I don’t mean to underestimate exciting contributions by pro-rsoft and other community members.
I didn’t want to say something about the contributions and hoped for pro-rsoft. I wonder if there is a way to sum up code changes in CVS and sort them by contributors? I think 60-80% of the big code changes are disney based.
True, I could be wrong regarding the OSX-Port of Panda3D and some more recent examples stuff…
Regards, Bigfoot29
Uh, OK, I didn’t know drwr was from Disney. Maybe the Disney guys on the forum should get a special forum title 