OpenTaxa:News

This page collects OpenTaxa original releases and other activities in a linear way, and also includes activities that don't make it into this website such as file mirrors across different external projects. For a taxonomically-sorted list of releases more focused on OpenTaxa originals, see the Index.

2022

 * 19 May: We released a set of CC-BY-SA 4.0 sprites with top-down depictions of Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda (the Mangrove Horseshoe Crab) in a high-res pixel art style. These include bodyparts in separate layers, seaweed and barnacle overlays, and the source file.


 * 20 April: Released a remixed pack of white clover (Trifolium repens) photos in PNG format, cutout with a transparent background. This unifies several previously existing photos from OpenGameArt, identifying them and fixing several small issues in the files, as well as adding a new flower cutout. This release is licensed as CC0, making it suitable for all projects with no restrictions.

In other news, the category tree for species is being worked on, as well as template maintenance and ongoing work on mirroring free files across libre repositories.


 * 4 April: Two updates to our low-poly Adansonia release were made in April 2022: An alternate set of retro textures was created for our model, and from this model, a series of pre-rendered assets for use in 2D projects. Isometric, top-down, and profile views of the tree were created, including isolated canopies, isolated trunks w/ canopy shadow, isolated shadows for canopied and leafless versions, leafless trees and canopied trees, both with and without shadows baked in. Relevant images have versions from all 4 directions. In total, 100 renders were included in this release.


 * 11 March: We released a derivative of a freely licensed low-poly model for Adansonia grandidieri, the giant baobab. This version, isolated from a savanna scene, includes cleaned up geometry, fixed scaling, and new textures.


 * 9 March: We released an original asset pack of 4 images concerning Furnarius rufus, the rufous hornero or red ovenbird. It can be found linked in that page. In addition, assessments in existing pages have been updated to include free 3D scans and low-poly models from Sketchfab.


 * 8 March: Our first commissioned set of assets was released today, by the artist Bluecarrot16. This set of Baobab trees was created following the LPC style common in OpenGameArt.org, and includes 7 trees of the genus, plus variants for canopies, shadows as separated layers for all different variants, and sourcefiles. It is now indexed in the Adansonia page.

2021

 * 29 September: Started mirroring public domain photos from the book "Family guide for fruits and seeds" into Wikimedia Commons. Most are the only images available for fruits and seeds of certain species.


 * 8 September: As our first original release, all icons related to flora in the Inkwell art pack (otherwise under a commercial release) are published as CC-BY-SA 4.0. For future potential contributors, we recommend this method of selecting nature-related assets for partial free releases (demos) as a way of collaborating with the project, for artists who still depend on sales of their other assets as a way of generating income.


 * 15 July: General Guideline and copyright information pages are finished. While creating original files, I'll consider commissioning artists with something of a following for images to release into the public domain once it's time to start advertising the project. That way, we might draw in more attention with their contributions.


 * 9 July: Started mirroring files from Museums Victoria's open access collection into Wikimedia Commons. Many species depicted on these files previously had no image to illustrate them on Wikimedia projects (e.g. Pseudomys fumeus had no images at all, Trapezites sciron had no photos). Still thousands of files remain unmirrored. This type of "external" work is something we'd have to do eventually anyway (reference-hunting), and OT never aimed to be anything if not an aid for other open access projects.


 * 2 March: OpenTaxa's draft concept is started. For now, I won't advertise the project until there is a good amount of images to be found, and I won't start focusing on producing them until we have a solid base of guideline pages.