Carbon Engine

Carbon Engine is the open-source game engine originally developed for Eve Online, now made publicly available by Fenris Creations. The technology behind this long-running sci-fi MMO has been released to foster community engagement, code transparency, and collaborative development. Carbon Engine is designed to allow anyone to inspect, use, and contribute to its codebase, with the intent that improvements benefit both the original developers and the broader community of users.

The engine is distributed as a collection of modules, most of which are licensed under the MIT License, a permissive open-source license. 0, and IO is licensed under the Python Software Foundation License. None of these licenses include commercial restrictions, so all aspects of Carbon Engine can be used freely, including for commercial projects. Users are permitted to fork the engine and develop their own versions, similar to practices common in open-source operating systems.

Carbon Engine's open-source release is intended to encourage contributions from developers, whether through code improvements, security fixes, or new applications built with the engine. The platform has already seen community members submit pull requests, particularly addressing security issues. While the initial focus appears to be on projects related to the Eve Online ecosystem, the engine can be used to build any type of application, including creating entirely new MMOs. Fenris Creations has emphasized the importance of community involvement and the benefits of collective improvement to the codebase.

The core technology team at Fenris Creations manages the review and integration of community contributions, with dedicated time allocated in their development process for handling pull requests and monitoring changes. Security remains a priority, with the open-source model providing additional scrutiny and opportunities for third parties to identify and address vulnerabilities. However, certain proprietary components, such as the Eve Online in-game economy, remain closed source. The release of Carbon Engine marks a significant step in making the foundational technology of a major MMO accessible to a wider audience under open-source principles.