Editing Myth (video game series) (section)

===Community-driven development===
Despite the official [[End-of-life (product)|end-of-life]], the ''Myth'' series continued to have an active online fanbase, particularly ''Soulblighter''. The first organised group of programmers, artists, and coders from the game's community was known as MythDevelopers, who requested and were granted access to the [[source code]] so as to continue its development.<ref name="Code">{{cite web |last=Wen |first=Howard |date=June 10, 2004 |title=Keeping the Myths Alive |url=http://linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/06/10/mythdevelopers.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130111043717/http://linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/06/10/mythdevelopers.html |archive-date=January 11, 2013 |access-date=October 6, 2024 |publisher=Linuxdevcenter.com}}</ref> With the permission of Take-Two, Bungie released their entire archive of ''Myth''-related materials to MythDevelopers, including the source code, artwork, all creative files (such as maps, 3D models, scripts, etc.), and documentation, over 80 [[Gigabyte|gigabytes]] of material.<ref name="Code"/> MythDevelopers was also granted access to the source code for ''The Wolf Age''.<ref name="Code"/> Bungie also [[Open-source software|open-sourced]] their ''Myth'' [[metaserver]] source code in 2002.<ref name="Server"/>

MythDevelopers used this material to improve and further develop the games. Although their initial focus was on the bug-ridden release version of ''The Wolf Age'',<ref name="Code"/> they also worked to update the first two games to newer [[operating system]]s on both Mac and PC, fix bugs, and create [[unofficial patch]]es to enhance both the games themselves and the mapmaking tools.<ref name="Code"/> They also developed their own library, dubbed the Myth Core Library, which provided networking, input routines, and other [[Low-level programming language|low-level functions]]. This enabled MythDevelopers to avoid the necessity of licensing any external libraries, and instead allowed them to develop everything in-house. This was part of their deal with Take-Two, as they couldn't incorporate anything into the games which they would be unable to give Take-Two the rights to should the company ever ask for the source code back; all modifications remained the intellectual property of Take-Two, who were free to use them in a future commercial version of ''Myth'', if they ever wanted to re-release an upgraded version of one or more of the games, or incorporate the modifications into the development of a new ''Myth'' game.<ref name="Code"/>

In April 2003, MythDevelopers released a v1.1 patch for ''The Wolf Age'' for both Windows and Mac. Fixing over forty gameplay and stability issues, and addressing numerous bugs, the patch also included new multiplayer maps and gameplay modes.<ref name="Patch 1.1"/> MythDevelopers disbanded in December 2003, with Project Magma becoming the main development group for ''The Fallen Lords'' and ''Soulblighter'',<ref name="PostmortemSB">{{cite web | url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2380/postmortem_project_magmas_myth_.php?print=1 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227113608/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2380/postmortem_project_magmas_myth_.php?print=1 | url-status=dead | archive-date=February 27, 2008 | title=Postmortem: Project Magma's Myth II 1.5 and 1.5.1 | first=Alexei | last=Svitkine | website=[[Gamasutra]] | date=August 23, 2005 | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref> and FlyingFlip Studios for ''The Wolf Age''.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://flyingflip.com/ | title=FlyingFlip Homepage | access-date=May 8, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001140554/http://flyingflip.com/ | archive-date=October 1, 2007}}</ref> Magma's final patch for ''The Fallen Lords'' was v1.5, released in 2005, which added support for [[OpenGL#OpenGL 1.3|OpenGL 1.3]] for both PC and Mac.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.projectmagma.net/downloads/tfl/ | title=Myth TFL Patches | publisher=Project Magma | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref> FlyingFlip's final patch for ''The Wolf Age'' was v1.3, released in 2004, which introduced multiple gameplay and stability improvements, as well as bug fixes, and performance enhancements.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://tain.totalcodex.net/items/show/myth-iii-1-3-1-patch-pc | title=Myth III 1.3.1 Patch (PC) | publisher=The Tain | access-date=May 3, 2016}}</ref> FlyingFlip disbanded in 2007.<ref name="Flying">{{cite web | url=http://elusivemind.net/index.php/elusivemind/comments/to_the_myth_community/ | title=To The Myth Community | publisher=ElusiveMind.net | date=October 1, 2007 | access-date=May 2, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016054749/http://elusivemind.net/index.php/elusivemind/comments/to_the_myth_community/ | archive-date=October 16, 2007}}</ref>

''Soulblighter'' received considerably more attention from the modding community than either ''The Fallen Lords'' or ''The Wolf Age''. Between 2003 and 2013, Project Magma released multiple major patches, each of which included fixes for bugs, graphical problems, gameplay problems, and interface issues, as well as improve the Fear and Loathing tools and the online multiplayer mode. However, each patch also tended to feature one or more "major" enhancement. For example, v1.3.2, developed in association with MythDevelopers in 2003, allowed ''Soulblighter'' to run natively under [[OS X]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://projectmagma.net/downloads/myth2_132/ | title=About Myth 1.3.2 | publisher=Project Magma | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref> Also developed in association with MythDevelopers in 2003 was v1.4, which introduced OpenGL support for the OS X version and allowed the player to play ''Soulblighter'' with ''Fallen Lords'' style gameplay (dubbed v''TFL'').<ref name="Patch1.4.3">{{cite web | url=http://projectmagma.net/downloads/myth2_143/ | title=About Myth 1.4.3 | publisher=Project Magma | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref> In 2004, Magma released their first standalone patch, v1.5,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://projectmagma.net/downloads/myth2_151/ | title=Myth II: Soulblighter Patch 1.5.1 | publisher=Project Magma | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref> which was originally intended as a minor clean-up patch for some of the problems introduced in v1.4.<ref name="PostmortemSB"/> For example, v1.4 broke a number of fan-developed plug-ins. Additionally, as the developers did not have access to ''The Fallen Lords'' source code when designing v''TFL'', the feature was unreliable.<ref name="PostmortemSB"/> Magma's plan with v1.5 was to get the gameplay and plug-in compatibility back to the standard of Bungie's last official version of the game, but retain the v1.4 features that worked. During development of v1.5, they also gained access to ''The Fallen Lords'' source code, and so completely rewrote the v''TFL'' option.<ref name="PostmortemSB"/> Magma's final patch, v1.8, was released in 2013,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://projectmagma.net/downloads/myth2_180/ | title=Myth II: Soulblighter v1.8.0 | publisher=Project Magma | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref> and added several new game modes to multiplayer gaming, improved the usage of [[Central processing unit|CPU]] resources, added a new texture decompression code which loads sprite frames twice as fast as before, enhanced both the texture mapping and the [[Shader#Pixel shaders|pixel shader]], and included (for the first time in a Magma patch) [[Linux]]-specific improvements.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://projectmagma.net/downloads/myth2_180/Readme_1.8.0.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://projectmagma.net/downloads/myth2_180/Readme_1.8.0.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live | title=Myth II: Soulblighter Version 1.8 | publisher=Project Magma | access-date=May 8, 2016}}</ref>

In May 2023, an archive said to be the largest historic collection of Myth items was placed on the [[Internet Archive]]. At well over 1,200 Myth maps, the source centers on 3rd party versions of solo, network, and scenario entries between the initial November 1997 Myth release through early 2023.<ref>{{citation |url=https://archive.org/details/UltimateMythMaps |title=World's Ultimate Bungie Software Myth Maps Collection |publisher=Internet Archive|date=21 May 2023 |access-date=19 December 2024}}</ref>