go to www.shugashack.com for up to date news.

Saturday, June 5, 1999

werd? [9:15 pm]
Steve here. Well, as you guys see I had a little bit of trouble getting to my page while out on the road. I've got everything all setup now though so things should go much smoother tomorrow. At any rate I'll be coming home Sunday night so the Monday updates will be timely as usual.

Oh yeah, and being on a modem for the first time in a while I realized this page is just horrid on 28.8. I've figured out a couple of ways to help things and will fix it up on Monday.

Top Ten Games That Never Sold [5:55 pm] - Jack
Thanks one of you.  CNET's GameCenter (the site with more ads than you can shake a shack at) put up a neat article on the top ten games that ever sold. I agree with a lot of it, except that two of them are sports games (which suck :) ) and one is Dark Earth, which my friend Andy said wasn't work the $5 he paid for it. That leaves seven though :)

Here's the link.

Views n' Shots n' Hardware [5:55 pm] - Jack
Thanks Blue and VE for all this.  And stop mailbombing id, Huntsman.  Prick.

PC Paradox: How many levels will there be? Multiplayer? Single?

Scott Herrington: Since it's using a portal system, there really aren't any level breaks, per se. We've got the world roughly divided into 14 distinct areas, each with numerous sub-areas that should give everyone plenty to do and see in the game. We're shipping only the single player version first - since we really want to concentrate on that experience. But, shortly after the game's release, we'll probably post a multi-player patch to the game that should make all the death match people out there quite happy.

How to get people mad at you 101 [5:40 pm] - Huntsman
Graeme Devine and John Carmack have updated their .plan's concerning the fact that some idiot(s) have been email bombing them. Graeme asks that you please stop it, and try to at least have the courtesy to do it in english. John C says he won't be reading email for a while, so if you are doing this because you are upset about him changing the jumping stuff in Q3, you just made love to the poodle. Grow up, just because you're a l33t hax0r1ng script kiddy doesn't mean you should mess with people.

BTW, who keeps letting Jack update? I'm really going to have to steal his TV now. Hmm. I bet Jack's bombing them.

G400 Interview [5:40 pm] - Huntsman
Saw over at Voodoo Extreme that AGN has an little interview talking about it's earth shattering performance at high resolutions but its rather embarassing performance (comparatively) at low resolutions. I want to get my hands on one of these things and play Expendable at 1600x1200 with that neeto bumpmapping action.

[update - Jack]

Wanna see charts and other fun stuff showing the G400's perfornance in low and high resolutions? Check out my handy-dandy benchmark analysis of Hook's numbers.

Unreal 225f Re-Posted [2:15 pm] - Jack
Thanks VE.   The Unreal tech page has been updated once more with the news that 225f has been re-posted. It was posted and Tim asked big news pages not to post it.  It was then taken down after some big news pages posted that the D3D performance was better.   Now, it's up on some mirrors.  Here they are:

3DFiles.com mirror list
3DGamers.com direct download

Blue(sp?) Interviewed [2:15 pm] - Jack
Thanks loonyboi.   On loony's page, they mention some guy named "Blue" (Bloo, Blu, Baloo maybe?) being interviewed. I've never heard of him, he must be a friend of the Avault guys or something?  Maybe he's the guy that stars in Blue's Clues on Nickelodeon? Who the hell knows, I'm just posting it cause loony did.

Jobs at Valve [2:15 pm] - Jack
Thanks Blue.   Go work for Valve, they have positions open.  Here they are.

Unreal Contest Winners [2:15 pm] - Jack
Thanks Blue.   The Make Something Unreal contest, sponsored by MPlayer, Epic, GT, 3dfx, Aureal, and Action Xtreme, has its early bird winners posted right now. You can download the maps, and discuss them with other people and such.

New Tribes Server [2:15 pm] - Jack
Thanks Blue.   Tribes Server version 1.4.4 has been released.  It's mostly miscellaneous bug fixes, including a crashing problem in NT.  Here's the file from Blue.

News For Wimps [2:15 pm] - Jack
Thanks Blue and VE and Stomped for all this.

Jack's Word
Looks our friend Steve hasn't gotten his hoochie's hostmask added to the FTP login, so I'm making a quick update to bide the time.

 

Friday, June 4, 1999

Ion Storm [7:05 pm]
The StormTroopers guys have put together a triple feature taking a look at the games in development over at Ion Storm. Check it: I. Intro - II. Anachronox - III. Daikatana - IV. Deus Ex - V. Misc E3

PGC Technology [7:05 pm]
Wondering about that running 3D cards in paired up mode ala Voodoo2 SLI? The Hive has some pictures of the AlienWare PGC technology in action.

GearBox [4:35 pm]
GameSpotUK has an interview with Randy Pitchford of GearBox Software asking about their Half-Life mission pack which is in development.

New Logitech Drivers [4:35 pm]
Some new drivers from Logitech have been released which include something that will make a lot of you happy. Included is a sampling rate adjuster so that you no longer have to use an external program to crank your sampling rate up to 200hz. Thanks Jeff. Mouseware v8.4 to be exact.

More Views [11:25 am]

Top Ten List! [1:45 pm] - Huntsman
Everybody loves a good top ten list, right? Well an old aquaintance of mine, RadPipe has put together the "Top Ten Things I'm Going to do at QaukeCon99". It's currently got submissions by Levelord, Paul Steed and Radpipe himself.

Shack 3dfx Newsgroups Live [6:15 am]
Some late night hax0ring going on here at the Shack. A feature that used to be in old messageboard has returned. You can now use the Shack messageboard to read the 3dfx newsgroups. Check out the 3dfx.Voodoo3 and 3dfx.Voodoo2 boards. Hopefully I'll be able to hook you guys up with a web based interface for the NVidia newsgroups in the near future. (Gonna look into that next week)

Unreal 2.25 Not Just For Servers? [6:15 am]
I got this email from Ross over at Riva3D who seems to be pretty impressed with the latest Unreal release. Check out what he has to say:

Guess what? Curiously, Epic did not speak to the fact that the Unreal 2.25 patch improves D3D performance by an average of 20%. Not only that, but you have many more D3D settings under advanced-rendering-D3D menu, including options for Triple buffering, multitexturing, etc. I've posted a little blurb in the news, with fps improvements over 2.24 shown at 8x6 res, with a link to the patch

Quake2 SuperJump [6:15 am]
I've gotten a number of emails about this new trick that has just come up in Quake2 that is "all the rage" so I figured I should share. Check out this email and alias that illz sent in. Warning though, apparently this causes a hard lock on a large number of computers, so I hope you dont mind taking a risk of a lockup, some of you may get lucky though.

Howdy. Chances are someone else has sent you this, and if they did their alias could well be better than mine. In any case, there is a way to do a double rocket jump in quake 2. I overheard someone say it's based on setting cl_maxfps to 0, so after a half hour of fucking around, I've come up with these aliases that work reliably. Change "!!key!!" to the key you want to use to do the super rj (it's in 3 places). Look down at the ground, hit the key once, wait for 1-2 seconds (longer = higher) and hit the key again. You will FLY.
// ----- [ rj.cfg ] -----
alias waitn "wait;wait;wait;wait;wait;wait; wait;wait;wait;wait;wait; wait;wait;wait;wait;wait;wait;wait;wait"
alias bigwait "waitn;waitn;waitn;waitn;waitn;waitn"
alias s_rj1 "+attack;+moveup;wait;wait;wait;cl_maxfps 0;bind !!key!! s_rj2"
alias s_rj2 "bigwait;cl_maxfps 190;-attack;-moveup;bind !!key!! s_rj1"
bind !!key!! s_rj1
// ----- [ eof ] -----

Daily Discussion: Pickup Lines [6:15 am]
The greatest American pastime. Pickup lines. You know you use em, you know you think you're smooth like buttah. Share your best (and worst) ever pickup lines that you've ever used, would like to use, or have had used on you. Here are some of my favorites. Thanks BillyZ for the topic today. :)

I Wish... [6:15 am]
The latest weekly section to be added is finally getting updated. (Only a couple of months late! YEAH!) At any rate If you are wondering what a skinny po' white boy in Texas who works on a web page would wish for, you're in luck. Check out my list.

Views [6:15 am]

Tech [6:15 am]

Gaming [6:15 am]

werd
My back is killing me. What the hell, I'm like just over 20 years old too. Must be all that mouse lifting and opening the fridge.

Image of the day you ask? Check this out and marvel at our president and his sexual prowess. I'm guessing there is an intern just a few feet off to the left outside of the picture.

 

Thursday, June 3, 1999

Zoid on Quake3 [8:55 pm]
Zoid has been busily working away on Quake3 and has decided to share with us in his .plan file the things that he is working on up there in Canada. Most of the work he is doing is related to team games and CTF, as well as all of the Linux porting.

- New vmsg and vmsg_team client to server and server to client command.   This is the same as say and say_team, except it takes the name of a sound  file to play along with the message.
- Major additions to the client menu system for new team messaging menus for pre-recorded model sayings.  The menu system stuffs vmsg commands to perform its work.

That is only a bit of it, you can read the full .plan update right here.

Muphy Michales To Ensemble [8:40 pm]
Well, we've lost one guys. Murphy Michaels formerly of Ritual Entertainment who made such glorious .plan updates is leaving our little 3D Action gamers guild in favor of the RTS land over at Ensemble Studios. In his words: "Otherwise, this is my farewell to the "Quake community" and first person shooters, plan files, and whatever else it all entails. Dont' talk about me when i leave the room........ "

Carmack Updates on Gameplay [5:10 pm] - Jack
Found this one all by my lonesome. Of course, Carmack's got inundated with email from strafe-jumpers, so he wrote this, and tagged some gameplay stats too. Here's a link to the update. Here's the whole update. I even put the stats in a table for ya'll just to be a gem.

Whee! Lots of hate mail from strafe-jupers!

Some reasonable messages have convinced me that a single immediate jump
after landing may be important to gameplay. I'll experiment with it.

Strafe jumping is an exploitable bug. Just because people have practiced
hard to allow themselves to take advantage of it does not justify it's
existance. When I tried fixing the code so that it just didn't work, I
thought it changed the normal running movement in an unfortunate way.

In the absense of powerups or level features (wind tunnels, jump pads, etc),
the game characters are supposed to be badasses with big guns. Arnold
Schwartzenegger and Sigourney Weaver don't get down a hallway by hopping
like a bunny rabbit.

This is personal preference, but when I play online, I enjoy it more when
people are running around dodging, rather than hopping.

My personal preference just counts a lot. :-)

btw, here are the current weapon effects:

gauntlet 50 pts, 400 msec / punch
machinegun 10 pts, 100 msec / shot
shotgun 11 pellets of 10 each, 1000 msec / shot
rocket launcher 100 pts direct hit, or 100 pts splash damage falling off over 120 world units, 800 msec / shot
plasma gun 20 pts direct hit or 15 pts splash damage over 15 units, 100 msec / shot
railgun 100 pts, 1500 msec / shot
lightning gun 8 pts, 33 msec / trace, max range 768 units
grenade launcher 100 pts direct hit, or 100 pts splash over 150 units, 800 msec / shot.
bfg 40 pts instant splash damage over 100 units, 100 msec / shot
flamethrower to be determined, but short range / wide angle

Splash damage is calculated from the edge of the player's box, unlike
quake1, where it was calculated froom the player's origin.

New PingTool [6:25 pm]
A new version of PingTool has hit the streets. There are no major changes to this version but mostly just minor bug fixes etc. Still if you're looking for a GameSpy alternative for some reason or to piss Jack off it's worth a look.

GameSpy Investing [6:25 pm]
Speaking of GameSpy, some Former Disney execs have dumped a bunch of money into GameSpy Industries according to this CNet article. Also SailorScout's GC has an email from Fargo on the matter. Here's a snip:

They're going to be our "agent." The same way a movie star has an agent working to get deals and talk to people -- that's more how the relationship is going to work. They invested in us for a small chunk of the company, but the company remains under our control, so our style won't change.

Levelord Interview [6:25 pm]
U-Games has a new interview with Richard 'Levelord' Gray from Ritual Entertainment.

Hook's Move Confirmed [5:10 pm] - Jack
Why thanks, Blue. Hook's move to Verant has been confirmed by way of a press release on Stratics Everquest News Page. Not much spicy info in the release, other than the fact that he's indeed going there.

San Diego, June 3rd, 1999 - Hook, formerly of Id Software and programmer on both Quake 2 and Quake 3, is a veteran of the games industry. His credits also include being one of the chief architects of the Glide API during his tenure at 3DFX; development work on the OpenGL code base at Silicon Graphics; and he has written numerous articles for magazines such as Dr. Dobb's Journals and Game Developer. He brings with him seasoned talent and an immense knowledge base.
<snip>

Now that Dallas is shittily hot, it seems like a good time for him to be going to California anyway :-)

GearBox Hiring [12:25 pm]
GearBox Software, the guys currently working on the official Half-Life mission pack are now hiring both level designers and programmers. You must have at least shipped one known commercial product though. Check out the www.gearboxsoftware.com web page for details, or drop Randy a line.

Quake3 Changes [6:15 am]
Looks like Carmack is up late again working on Quake3, he's made a number of interesting changes tonight that are worth taking note of. One of the larger ones being rocket velocity has been increased by about 12.5%. The direct hit damage on rockets is now down to 100 from 120. Also of note is the fact that you can no longer jump like crazy which should make a lot of people happy, as well as piss a few people off. Here is the msgboard thread discussing the 250ms delay.

* 250 msec minimum time between landing and jumping again I hate having players bouncing around all the time...
* new lightning and rail beam drawing
* player torso twitches with pain sounds
* increased rocket speed to 900 from 800 decreased direct hit damage from 120 to 100 splash damage same as 1.05
* allow different servers to respond to a challenge, allowing redirecting server proxies

There are a number of other things that Carmack did that you can read here. Also according to Graeme Devine's .plan update yesterday we may be seeing all of these changes "soon" so keep your eyes peeled.

Daily Discussion: Best Control Setup [6:15 am]
Through the years of playing FPS games I've seen some pretty amazing and different configs out there. I've seen a guy that only uses a mouse to look left and right and the keyboard to look up and down. I've seen footpedals used, I've seen one of those Flight sim thruster looking things used. What config do you use? Why do you think it is the best? Here is my config and my thoughts/reasoning behind it.

Q3A Q&A [6:15 am]
FiringSquad has a quick Q&A with Graeme Devine of id Software talking about a number of issues which may interest you guys. On that note, the reason I dissapeared this evening was to head down to id and playtest the 1on1 maps with RIX and give some feedback to the guys there on the latest tweaks and changes they have been making. I'll know tomorrow if there are any details they dont mind me giving out. I also asked Brian Hook how he was liking his new job working for Tom's Hardware. He had no comment at press time.

Q: Are we going to see any additional features in this release? Perhaps a new model, different  colors to choose from, etc?
A: We’ll probably release 1 new model at some stage. Probably Sarge.
Q:  How far along is Q3test from an engine development standpoint? Will it  keep progressing until several weeks before release, or will you have it in   code freeze to maintain consistency with implemented designs and tools?
A: We’re pretty happy with it from a stability point of view. Almost all the crash bugs are driver related. The code is looking very very solid!

Monolith Stuff [6:15 am]
The Monolith guys have given a facelift to their website over at www.lith.com which is looking good. They also have some new information and screenshots of the No One Lives Forever game that is in progress right now. Here are some shots for you guys to check out. shot1 , shot2 , shot3 , shot4 , shot5 , shot6.

Wisdom [6:15 am]
After a couple of months of "collecting my thoughts" the Wisdom finally makes a return. Let me help guide you through the turbulant life of a computer gamer and help you achieve a brighter future. Or at least mess it up a bit. What is even more fun is that I still call it Tuesday.shtml!

Views [6:15 am]

Tech [6:15 am]

Gaming [6:15 am]

werd
So considering I didnt have a CD-repair kit or Turtle Wax handy in the house, I grabbed some toothpaste and slapped it on my monitor in an attempt to remove the scratch. Guess what, it's working! I only did a little bit to see if it was worth trying and indeed white tooth paste (Crest) works like a charm. The best method I found was using a papertowel with a large amount on it and applying a *lot* of pressure.

Pic of the day you as? take a look at this pic to keep you entertained. Feel free to email me other stuff if you guys like.  Keep in mind Yesterdays image was about as crazy as it will get :)

 

Wednesday, June 2, 1999

Rune [6:35 pm]
Another Rune update, this time from Chris Rhinehart in his .plan update talking about using the Unreal technology and implementing LOD stuff. It's fairly interesting and the game looks pretty cool from the screenshots. The game is being developed by Human Head Software.

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest savings with LOD wasn't just rendering fewer polygons. Since Unreal gouraud shades the mesh objects, a bunch of lighting calculations must be done on a per-vertex basis. As a model is decimated, there's obviously fewer vertices that must be lit, resulting in a noticable savings on mesh lighting

Hook To Verant? [6:35 pm]
There has been no confirmation or denial about this from Brian Hook just yet, but it seems the most popular rumor has gotten out that he will be heading to Verant Software to work on the next EverQuest title. Check out what GameSpot has to say, and Redwood has posted it as well. You might notice in his .plan file that he said "You won't be surprised" and of course the ongoing debate about where he is going seems to be leaning towards that as well. Just keep in mind, this is only *rumor* and the only reason I post this is because you fruit cakes keeping asking me wtf is going on. Well there you go.

New Q3Test "Soon" [4:15 pm]
Woah, talk about oversleeping. Sorry about that. Anyways Graeme Devine, designer/project manager over at id Software has updates his .plan file with word that they are in progress with the next version of Q3Test which will be coming out "soon" Check it out:

We're working on a new Q3Test update, no schedule other than "soon", but the fixes are almost all internal. We've still got a few issues we want to get going internally at id (notably multi-network machines).

Brian is leaving, and I just want to wish him well. He shall be missed. We're not going to be bringing anyone else in during Quake3 development.

Read the full .plan update here.

Wheel of Time [4:15 pm]
The Wheel of Time page has been updated with some development progress. They also have put up some new screenshots of the cut scenes in the game to boot. Have a look at shot1 , shot2 , shot3 , shot4 , shot5 , shot6. Thanks Demandred, you're smoove.

Scott's original White Tower level (which was supposed to be a small citadel editor mission) has reproduced by cellular division into four full missions (it divided again over the weekend).  One very small (it turns out) section of this mission was shown at E3. James' Fortress of the Light map divided recently as well.

More Views [4:15 pm]

More Tech [4:15 pm]

Brian Hook Leaving id [6:15 am]
From late last night: Brian Hook has revealed in his .plan las night that he is leaving id Software. It's a pretty lengthy update of course explaining how much he has enjoyed his time there, and developing Quake3. No announcement though on where Brian is going. You probably won't be surprised.

... Crap, I'm getting all teary eyed and shit, so instead of turning this into some James Cameron acceptance speech, let me wrap up.

I will probably remain here another week or two cleaning up loose odds and ends, getting things transfered over cleanly, and saying my goodbyes.  For  business stuff, if you are an IHV your interim point of contact will be  Graeme (zaphod@idsoftware.com).  I expect that I will continue to receive  e-mail here for a bit, so I will start forwarding relevant e-mails to the  appropriate parties.
<snip>

This is from glen on the Quake3 Messageboard:

I'll betcha he's going to work for Tom at Tomshardware.

Nihilistic's Vampire: Masquerade [6:15 am]
CaliGirl has posted her interview with the guys at Nihilistic which is quite good. Nihilistic is working on their own 3D game Vampire: Masquerade which stunned number of people scoring some "best of show" awards even at E3. Blew me away there too, it's looking awesome. What is it? Here is a bit from Ray Gresko:

Vampire is a 3d action-rpg set in the ‘World of Darkness’, a world like our own, but one in which vampires exist. The game is based on White Wolf’s extremely popular pen-and-paper game, and places the player into the role of someone pulled unwillingly into a horrifying existence as a Vampire. As a vampire, you have incredible powers and dark abilities, but also must contend with intense moral decisions, decisions which affect how well you hold onto the remaining strands of your humanity.

Daily Discussion: Hook Leaves id [6:15 am]
Well now, wasnt this one a tough topic to come up with. Well a thread has already started on the Quake3 messageboard polling on just where Brian Hook is going to. Here is my 2 cents on the issue. Feel free to post your speculation on where Brian will end up, my money is on the TomsHardware.com thing though. Or.. AOL might have bought him. :)

Views [6:15 am]

Tech [6:15 am]

werd
I've got this really bad habit of staying up till 7am and waking up at noon. I'm pretty sure it is less than healthy. Thanks for all the emails concerning the monitor scratch thing. The tips I got were:
Use a CD scratch repair kit
Use Tooth Paste (Not gel)
Use Turtle Wax (car polish)
Call a glass shop.

Anyone having problems with the new layout? Place your bets on if ShackWare will be updated today by Huntsman. Oh well, if anything you can count on the wisdom being posted tomorrow, I'm ahead of schedule!

Image of the day you ask? You absolutely must check this out.   (Mature audiences only, or well.. not really mature. Just dont mind somewhat sexual content) No, I dont know who that is in the pic.

 

Tuesday, June 1, 1999

Unreal Tournament Footage [9:45 pm]
Straight from the man CliffyB over at Epic. It's a 24.5 meg zip file, so it will take you a while. Check out the Next-Gen story. (Where the file first came from)

Unfortunately, no one can be told what Unreal Tournament is. You have to see it for yourself. ut1.zip
Took Mark and I a while to put this badboy together, but we're rather proud of it.
Go.
Download.
Spooge.

"Ion Turmoil Ending" [8:25 pm]
Some knob sent me this link to a GameCenter article talking about just exactly what has been happening at Ion Storm. Here's a bit of it:

John Romero finally got fed up with Porter and O'Flaherty, phoned publisher Eidos Interactive, and told the company that the deal for 51 percent of Ion Storm was off unless the terrible two were bounced. You can imagine the glee on Eidos's end, since it was going to can them anyway. Eidos called all four Ion owners (Romero, Porter, O'Flaherty, and Tom Hall) and told them to be down in the garage at 6:30 in the morning to be picked up by the limo. They were then whisked off to California where the word came down.

Wheel of Time Shots [6:45 pm]
The guys at Speedy3D have scored 5 new screenshots of the Unreal engine based Wheel of Time game from Legend Entertainment. Thanks ^RickB. (Correction, saw on Blues that only 3 of them are new)

Hook and Tom, Round2 [5:05 pm]
Brian Hook has a .plan update in response to a Tom's Hardware article benchmarking and old copy of Quake3 on several cards using his illegal IHV copy of Quake3. If I may quote Brian on this: "Tom's numbers, methodologies, and motives have all been suspect." I don't know Tom personally, but my own results, as well as Brian Hook's seem to differ quite a bit from Tom's. Read the whole .plan update here.

- irrespective of legal issues pertaining to his possession of the IHVTEST, it is not a valid benchmark program since the code in it is radically different than the code used in Q3TEST.  So if you want to know how fast your card runs with IHVTEST, then use his numbers.  If you want to know  how fast your card will run with Q3TEST, use ours.

If you wan't accurate benchmarking done with the latest code on legally obtained software, check this out.

Fixed! [5:05 pm]
Well now, that only took me an hour.. Page load times should be a bit improved. I was using a hacked up several small images loading style for the page before, it was like 8 gifs or something. Cut it down to 2 gifs, and fixed 800x600 to boot. Now someone give me a cookie.

btw, anyone know how to repair monitor scratches? got a big mark gouging into the plastic coating on the front of my sony screen :(

AOL = Evil [1:15 pm]
This should scare you guys a bit. It looks like AOL has bought out WinAmp, along with Shoutcast and Spinner.com. Check out the press release. Maybe if we're lucky they can totally screw up the MP3 industry. Here is the news.com article also, thanks Maverick.

Q3Test RocketJump Alias [1:15 pm] Hoonis
OK, all you kiddies waiting to figure out a rocket jump bind in Q3Test, here's a nice one courtesy of old-skewl quaker [R2]SoulTaker. To use this, save it as "XXX.cfg" in the baseq3 (you must rename your demoq3 directory to baseq3). When you start up the game, do "exec XXX.cfg". Change the key bind to something that makes sense for you (I like it on the mouse).

set uhhh "wait;wait;wait;wait"
set rjump_1 "set freelook 0;set cl_pitchspeed 999;+lookdown;vstr uhhh;+attack;+moveup"
set rjump_2 "set cl_pitchspeed 140;-lookdown;set freelook 1;-attack;-moveup"
set rjump "vstr rjump_1;vstr uhhh;vstr rjump_2;vstr uhhh;centerview"

Unreal [1:15 pm]
More updates to the Unreal Tech page from Tim Sweeney. Some stuff about Unreal-ED as well as the possibility of people hax0ring and cheating on servers.

A few server admins have been reporting a cheat that enables clients without administrative rights to change the speed of the server's game (as if typing "slomo 0.5" from the console in a local game).    What's the trick?  First person to give the exact steps to duplicate the cheat gets a free signed copy of Unreal Tournament as soon as it ships.  Send reports to unreal225@epicgames.com with a subject "SLOMO CHEAT". Include your shipping address.

Wack Ass Links [2:45 am]
Our weekly exploration of the ass-wackiness that is the world wide web has been updated. Join me on on the journey and discover the wonder that is our information super-highway. Oh yeah, did I mention the suckage was actually updated yesterday? Amazing!

More Views [1:15 pm]

M$ mice and controllers [11:45 am] >> Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Nope, not completely done with E3 stuff yet. Here now is the next report on the offerings Microsoft had at the show. Remember their translucent red bottomed optical mouse they spoke of not too long ago? It's in the report; in addition to bits about their new game pads. Hey, get this, they even have a new controller just for first person shooters for our beloved games (and it is not a mouse and keyboard combo!). Check it.

Anachronox [3:05 am]
U-Games has a new interview with Tom Hall of Ion Storm, lead man on the Anachronox project. Have a look see at what Tom has to say in the interview. It's a great read:

You start as a down-on-your-luck space detective who needs a job badly. He takes a bodyguard job and gets this guy to another planet. This planet promptly splits in half and they narrowly escape. Then they find out that someone is dumping matter into our universe, trying to make it collapse.

Rune [YESTERDAY]
Human Head Studios has just fired up a finger server and to celebrate the monumental achievement, Mike Werckle of HH has posted his inaugural .plan update talking about progress on their Unreal engine based game, Rune:

--Paul and I tweaked out the dynamic head-look animation for skeletal characters. Added a slight tilt to the head as it turns which helps it look much more nartural. Also, bringing the torso into play sooner helped us avoid the broken neck syndrome, common in some other games.

--Cranking out a skin for a Deep Underwater fish. Skinning isn't my forte, but I'm having fun doing it. Getting a chance to find out what Softimage can do in this arena. I'm finding it to be quite flexible, but I wish the UV update in the 3D paint tool was quicker.
<snip>

Daily Discussion: JarJar? [1:45 am]
Keeping the theme of not having a theme, this is a topic I just can't pass up on. Jeff "ZigZag" Gardner writes: George Lucas tells you that you can be in STARWARS: EP 2 but you have to play JAR JAR BINKS? *You cannot take another role* What do you do? Speaking of StarWars the original thread talking about Episode1 is still going.

Views [1:45 am]

Tech [1:45 am]

werd
I combined a bit of the news from yesterday with today for those of you who werent around and goofing off for the holiday. Hope you guys dont mind. The response for the "Who Are You?" discussion (part1 and part2) was just nuts. I'll try and get a real poll put together soon, it's surprising to me the # of readers who are over 21.

Image of the day you ask? Check this one out by illwill.

 

Monday, May 31, 1999

Matrox G400 Pre-Order [3:15 pm]
Good news from Matrox - their online store will start taking pre-orders for all G400 based boards starting tomorrow. Check this:

Montreal, Canada, May 31, 1999 - Matrox Graphics Inc. today announced that it will be taking online pre-orders for the Matrox Millennium G400 Series as early as Tuesday, June 1, 1999 at 12:00 noon EST via Matrox's online store, located at http://onlinestore.matrox.com.
Customers can pre-order the high speed Matrox Millennium G400 16MB for US$149, the blisteringly fast Matrox Millennium G400 32MB for US$199 and the shock wave speed Matrox Millennium G400 MAX for US$249

Solaris Quake2 [11:25 am]
The guys at SolarEclipse have posted a Solaris Quake2 client for you guys to mess with. The first requirement being that you are running Solaris as your OS. Thanks Blue

Oh yeah, and check this out for some Carmack .plan amusement.

Raven Visits Samhell [5:45 am]
SamHell here and his 10 Questions have crossed paths with Eric Biessman of Raven Software. SamHell and Eric trade somewhere in the vicinity of 10 questions and answers together, touching on Soldier of Fortune mostly and a few other general questions.

Making space bases and gothic castles allows the designer and texture artist to do whatever the heck they feel like.  Since this is all grounded in real-world locations and areas, we need to pay special attention to how things correlate to each other and we need to make sure that everything fits together perfectly in a visual sense.  After all of the 'fantasy' games that we have made, it is hard to break out of the mode!

Daily Discussion: Who Are You? [5:45 am]
Something I've been thinking about doing for a while now is a bit of a demographics poll here on the page. Thousands of you guys come here every day, yet I only know a handfull. Check out this post and answer the questions if you got some free time, and find out who else is reading the same stuff you do :)
update: Ok I added a new link, if you want to see the first hundred or so check out this one.

Suckage [5:45 am]
It's up, and it sucks. Listen to me piss and moan about stuff that I find disagreeable.

Views [5:45 am]

Tech [5:45 am]

Gaming [5:45 am]

werd
Have a good holiday kids. Make sure and stay out of trouble. It's only trouble when you get caught though. Image of the day? Don't have one! Make sure and send em in.

Sunday, May 30, 1999

Descent3 Gold [6:25 pm]
Lets try this one again, after a bit of a false start everyone is now pretty sure that Descent3 is "golden" now. Here is word from the Interplay "Gamers Club" via Blue:

Descent 3 has just gone gold and is expected to ship June 15th!!  For only $49.95 (plus shipping and handling) you can get your game and the free unique collectible Descent 3 hat. So pre-order now and reserve your copy!!  You can order immediately from our web store at:   http://www.interplay-store.com/direct/d3q2.html

PowerStrip [6:25 pm]
The official v2.50 release of PowerStrip is now out letting you tweak out your 2D/3D card to your hearts content. Support for the Voodoo3 and TNT2 is in there now, and it's not just a beta! You can grab it at 3DFiles

More Views [6:25 pm]

Carmack on Linux [3:15 pm]
Feeling a  bit under the weather today, sorry about getting up late. John Carmack has made another .plan update, this time talking at length about his experience with Linux and the recent build of RedHat 6.0. He also goes on to talk about Matrox and the G200 public source stuff.

An accelerated X windows OpenGL driver has been put together with this by building on top of the existing Mesa and GLX projects.

It actually runs quake, quake2, and q3test.  It doesn't run them FAST, but the quality is good, and I am impressed nonetheless.  It is bordering on playable with all quality options set to the minimum on a fast computer, but it still has a ways to go before casual users should take a look at it.

Messiah [3:15 pm]
Mike "Sax" Perrson, lead programmer on the Messiah project has updates his .plan with word on the "completion" of the Messiah engine. He talks about quite a few things that are involved with the engine, pretty interesting. Thanks Marcus

Quake3 Work Log [5:45 am]
The always interesting work logs from John Carmack busting some moves on Quake3 code have been updated by Mr. Carmack.

* dynamic curve level of detail r_subdivisions determines the maximum level  of detail, r_lodCurveError determines how quickly polygons are pulled out with distance
* devmap sets cheats 1, map sets cheats 0
* change weapon item upscale to 1.5 instead of 2
* always toss items forward, even if looking up or down
* draw ammo in grey while weapons are reloading
* change railgun shader while reloading
<snip>

Sweeney on 3D Engine Licensing [3:25 am]
Another update to the Unreal Technology page by Tim Sweeney talking about his impressions from the MSNBC article that most people were checking out yesterday.

In this MSNBC interview, I think John Carmack hit the nail on the head on the "build vs. buy" decision that goes into licensing an engine: "If you want to aim for something that's 100 percent proprietary and you're willing to take 18 months longer on the project to develop the technology while running a significant risk of abject failure, you make your own game engine. If you've been to a few E3's, you've probably seen a dozen instances of somebody making a really, really cool demo that's showing off some new technical direction - then the game never comes out." Though game engine licensing was occuring over two years ago, we're still very much in the early days of this rapidly growing and evolving market:
<snip>

Daily Discussion: Quake3 Hardware [3:25 am]
So, I see Carmack is doing the dual-cpu support thing for Quake3, and like many others I'm sitting here with a slightly old P2 system and have been looking at those oh-so-overclockable Celeron's. So what is the best possible reasonably affordable system?

Techno Rage [3:25 am]
McTaggart over at 3DN posted this and I thought you guys might get a kick out of it. According to a new survey, many people become so frustrated with their computers that they'd like to physically harm their systems. Who's fault is it? Bill Gates of course! 

More than one-third of the 250 surveyed become so angry that they would like to throw their PCs out of the window, said Joe Michael, director of NOP Research Group, the London-based company that conducted the survey. To become angry enough to actually damage a computer is rare, however, he said. "To get to that level, they would have to be pretty psychotic to begin with," he said.

Many people do, however, hit screens and keyboards out of frustration, but without enough force to cause damage, Michael said.

Deus Ex [3:25 am]
PCParadox has posted an interview with Harvey Smith of Ion Storm working on the Unreal engine title Deus Ex. Here's a bit of it to get you just oh-so-excited:

Your character is J.C. Denton, a person working for an espionage and anti-terrorist group called UNATCO. J.C., and his brother Paul, are the first humans to have nano-augmentations, which improve speed/strength, etc. In the game world of DeusEx, nano-augmented humans are subject to racial discrimination, which looks to be a sub-plot of the game. The player will be able to choose the race and appearance, if ION has the time, of the main character.

Unreal 225e Test Server [3:25 am]
Tim Sweeney has posted an update to the Unreal Technology page with word that a new server-admin-only patch for Unreal has been released. The full client release should be out pretty soon as well.

If you experience any server problems or server crashes with 225, please email your Unreal.log file to unreal225@epicgames.com Only download this if you are running an Unreal server: UnrealPatch225e.exe.

Views [3:25 am]

Tech [3:25 am]

werd
Actually got out of the house doing something non-computer related for a change. Weekends are cool like that. I'll be hanging around the house today getting misc. work done finishing up articles and.... (drum roll) actually doing weekly sections ahead of time.

Image of the day you ask? Check out aliengrey having some wacked out colors in Q3Test. Yes it's a driver bug.. but still it looks cool ok?

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