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Saturday, August 8

Romero [12:24pm]
An interview with John Romero has shown up at the Ultimate Commander Keen page. -Blues

Why did you quit your programming career to pursue game design?

I didn't quit programming, i just don't do very much of it nowadays because i have 7 programmers on my team. Game design has always been something that i've done since i started making games. I had to design them AND program them all by myself, including utilities, sound effects, graphics, etc.

Thief: Dark Project [12:24pm]
GamesMania has put together a new preview of Thief: The Dark Project with an interview with members of the team.

Tech Etc [12:24pm]

Microsoft is releasing its first update to the Windows 98 operating system, officially calling it a "multimedia update" as controversy over its purpose persists.

More Q2 Cinema [9:24am]
Check this email: " I just finished my second Quake2 demo using Keygrip. It is a run through of base2, using great camera angles and new views on the level. Goto http://www.nightech.com/orbotfive and click on the Products button to find it. It adds a lot more and has more attention to detail then my last demo."

Max Payne [6:24am]
Next-Gen has put together a new preview of Remedy's Max Payne project.

The press release for the game says that the "third person perspective in 3D will allow us to do a lot of new things that haven't been done in 3D action yet" -like what?

Petri: "The main issue with the third person is that finally the player is really able to see what he is doing and what is happening to him, and that's something that we're putting a lot of effort into. Also, third person means that we can do tricks with the camera (make grenade blasts throw the camera around, use the camera to peek round a corner), which adds immensely to the gaming experience."

I Needs Me A Banner [6:44am]
Well, as part of joining up my page with an advertising network. (I still havent made a cent on this page.. ugh) I need a banner to cycle throughout the network. I am artistically challenged so hopefully a couple of you have some free time this weekend and might be able to help me out. Here are the specs:

Banners: Square Banner - 145x60 pixels max, 10K max, gif89, gif or jpg accepted; Half Banner image - 235x60 pixels, 10K max, gif89, gif or jpg accepted, Full Banner image - 468x60 pixels, 9K max, gif89, gif or jpg accepted. Images should include Affiliate's logo or other identifying material.

Please nothing joking or offensive, this banner will be displayed on dozens of other pages.

[9] over DeathRow [7:04am]
Yea, pretty much of an ass beating too. [9] won 4 out of 5 matches in NetQuake, then did the same thing to DeathRow in QW as well. All on a LAN. Congrats to [9]. Check out PlanetQuake's coverage. Oh, and one more plug for my demos of R3V vs [9] over the net.

Heretic2 Demo In October[6:24am]
Blues News has word from a member of Raven that there will indeed be a Heretic2 Demo in October

I wanted to clarify for you that we are going to be doing a demo for Heretic II. It will be released in October. We are not sure yet which day in October, but there will be a demo

Unreal [6:24am]
Saw on VE that Word on Next-Gen about Unreal: SE has popped up.

Creative's announcement yesterday that its new environmental-audio Sound Blaster Live! card -- which should be arriving in stores any day now -- will include a special version of Unreal in the box's software bundle no doubt grabbed the interest of many gamers.

Then right after that there is also word of Unreal on the DreamCast console:

Next Generation Online has heard reli able information that the Unreal Engine is already up and running on one of the Dreamcast development kits now in the hands of developers around the world. No word yet on how it looks, but its safe to say, considering the Dreamcast's considerable power (and considering its PowerVR 2G acceleration) that it closely resembles a current PC running the game.

Lastly, Finalrest.com has put together the Unreal Resource Guide which covers anything and everything that is included in the Unreal package and where you can find it. There is also descriptions and information on everything as well.

SIN FAQ [6:44am]
The SIN FAQ has been updated finally with more information about the SIN demo and what we can hope to see in the full game

Views [6:44am]

Microsoft [6:44am]

werd
So like, yea..

 

Friday, August 7

Unreal Partial Converstion [3:44pm]
From Blue: "Crescent Moon Software has posted one of the first Unreal Partial conversions, titled Crescent Moon Squad. The add-on features 12 new
levels (and an ending), ten new deathmatch skins, two new deatchmatch levels, two new darkmatch levels, and three new music tracks."

Heretic2 Diary [12:44pm]
Just noticed that OGR has posted their new edition of the Heretic2 Designers Diary

We just started working on Hexen II, I was in Steve Raffel's office and we were talking about different game play issues for the different games we were developing at the time. Although I could have been in there swiping some of his music CD's. Anyway, Steve says to me, "we should do a real sequel to Heretic.

Speaking of which, Jim Gaynor sent Blue his hand-on impression of Heretic2 from GenCon

More Tech [12:26pm]

Pro Gaming? [9:07am]
With the hubub of the Cyberathlete organization and their CPL tourneys, and the the PGL forming shortly after and hosting online tourneys of their own, and then putting on top of that the big [9] vs DR match going on right now..... Check out this little Fortune blurb which of course has the obligatory mention of Thresh. Oh, and of course this is the topic in a poll on the front page over at PlanetQuake. -Ritualistic

Could playing computer games online become a professional sport?

It sounds like a ridiculous idea, but so do a lot of things that have become reality. In this case it's the notion that people might actually enjoy watching other people battle one another in computer games.

Friday Weekly Section [9:01am]
Yea, you guessed it. The revival of Reasons to Live. Dig on the new post or something and look back on the good ol' days.

StarSiege Tribes [6:31am]
For all you multiplayer buffs out there (yea, about 90% of you guys that read this page) Games.net has put together a great preview of StarSiege Tribes which is looking increasingly cool, especially for clan style games.

Starsiege: Tribes is a squad-based, first-person shooter devoted primarily to multiplay. Groups of gamers must form online tribes to battle for landholdings on the planet Septa Scarabae IV. Fans of Quake and other first-person shooters will catch on rather quickly, as this resembles Quake's online-clan community.

Messiah [6:31am]
GA Games has put together an interesting article discussing the badass visual quality of the characters in Messiah. If you still havent taken a look at this game you are like, missing out or something.

The characters that you see on the sites are the original models that are imported into the game. They range from about 80,000 up to 500,000 polygons. Now, when they get imported into the game and displayed when you're playing, the engine displays as many polygons as possible to create the same shape as the original model. The detailed textures over the top of the polygons stay the same.

Cyrix Next CPU [6:31am]
EETimes has gotten a hold of a bit of info concerning the next CPU coming our way from Cyrix: -Cyrellis

Armed with a hot CMOS process from parent National Semiconductor Corp. and an aggressive superscalar architecture, Cyrix Corp. is taking aim at the high end of Intel's IA-32 processor line. The company is planning to pop its next hot CPU core, code-named Jalapeno, just in time to catch Intel in mid-transition from the IA-32 to Merced.

"We are aiming Jalapeno at the 600-MHz Pentium-II performance level," said Cyrix vice president of engineering Mark Bluhm. "That will be much faster than any estimates we have seen of Merced speed on IA-32 code, and it should be competitive with Intel's IA-32 high end at the time."

Myth2 Shot [6:31am]
The Bungee boys have released another new shot of Myth2 which is kinda swanky looking. Not sure I'd sell off the wife and kids just yet though


A heated battle defending the steps of the Great Library against an army of undead and lightning- wielding Fetch

Win98 "Enhancement Pack" [6:31am]
I guess Microsoft doesnt want to call this a service pack, but a Windows 98 "enhancement pack" is due to be released in the near future. Check out the article on News.com -Cyrellis

The first update to Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system will be available on the company's Windows Update site beginning August 18, according to a letter sent out to beta testers yesterday.

Views [5:36am]

Tech [5:36am]

Sites

werd
I've got this really good friend, and I'm pretty sure if I asked he would let me pick his nose. Thanks Charlie! Perhaps if you are lucky, and get to know Charlie well enough perhaps you can pick his nose. drop him a line at wieder@ritual.com

 

Thursday, August 6

SIN Demo Patch [10:11pm]
The first real statement from Ritual that a patch will be released for the SIN demo is in Mark Dochtermans .plan file today. Dig it:

Demo News
=========
- the demo patch continues. Activision has been doing some QA on one, and some more stuff cropped up, but it shouldn't be too much longer. 3.17 has been successfully merged in the code. The network traffic has been dramatically reduced. Everything mentioned below has made it in there. Has anyone made their own HUD files out there?

DX6 vs DX5 [9:01pm]
Saw these benchmarks over at VE from Kinetic which compare performance of DirectX v5 to the new DX6 marks:

System: Pentium II 448 (4X112) 128megs ram dual Voodoo 2 SLI (creative 12meg), matrox millenium G200 8meg agp, ASUS P2BLS Motherboard with Cheetah 9.1g 10033rpm hard drive. 3Dfx card clocked at 93mhz

Crusher demo 1024x768 directx5 39.1 fps (with v-sync on)
Crusher demo 1024x768 directx6 40.1 fps (with v-sync on)

Final Reality overall directx5 4.34 (Using voodoo2s)
Final Reality overall directx6 4.75 (Using voodoo 2s)

3d Winbench 98 directx 5 991
3d Winbench 98 directx 6 1430

GameCenter & Q2 Mods [9:01pm]
The generally clueless GameCenter guys once again acknowledge they really dont know much about what is good/popular in our little Quake/Quake2 land of mods. -Cyrellis

Merced Doomed? [5:21pm]
Check out this article on News.com which discusses the future of Intel's Merced. Thanks Cyrellis

Touted as a major milestone for Intel and the computer industry in general, Merced, the company's first 64-bit chip, appears to be losing its luster because of delays, performance issues, and upstaging by other processor manufacturers.

More TNT [5:21pm]
Hercules has announced their new 2D/3D TNT based card.

Hercules Computer Technology, Inc., a leader in high-performance 3D graphics accelerators, today announced the Hercules Dynamite TNT, a high-performance 16MB 2D/3D graphics and software DVD accelerator based on NVIDIA® Corporation's new RIVA TNT™; 3D graphics processor.

More Views [5:26pm]

Heavy Gear2 (update) [5:26pm]
Another couple of shot of Heavy Gear2 have been released in the past 2 days. I find myself being pretty damn excited about this title, so I post that stuff here. Hey, it's a 3D shooter right? :) Dig the new shot. Also there is an update to the development of the project as well on the production team update page. Here is a quote from the email: "We've dropped a new image in the Screenshots section of this site, this time of a Black Mamba, recently unloaded from the massive Dropship behind it. Troops are getting it ready for an upcoming mission."

Descent3 FAQ [9:56am]
The Descent3 FAQ has been updated with some info on um.. I can't remember which game but it's in there. -Blues

Next-Gen 3D [7:36am]
A couple of articles have popped up on MeccaWorld as well ad 5Dimensions which discuss all the 3D cards we can expect to see and hope to see within the next year. I would generally agree with most of what MeccaWorld has to say, but the 5D preview says a few things which make me question the research. Hey, while you are at it check out this article as well from Coolinfo.com

[9] vs DeathRow Demos [8:55am]
A hell of a lot of you guys snagged my demos versus [9] from the weekly section yesterday, well here is what you were really wanting to see I think. , here ya go: http://www.rcc.se/~izno/9dr/ or you can also try here: www.demolition.org/ninedr Also don't forget this one http://www.svenska-nine.se/demos/spice/

Weekly Wack Links [7:36am]
Browsing through all the emails now.. should be up within an hour. Check out the older ones for now. Oh, you can stop bugging me already, a Friday section should be making an appearance soon. :) update: They are updated now. wee.

Half-Life MPEG [1:54am]
Just got this email from Bloodshot over at Conataminated.net This is footage from Half-Life that was shown at the most recent E3.

Heya everyone.
Took a trip to Valve today and Gabe was kind enough to give us their E3 Half-Life demo in MPEG form... you can get it here: offices.mpg
Just thought I'd let you know, be sure to visit contaminated.net ;)

Messiah [1:54am]
Gamers Alliance has put together a new preview of Shiny's Messiah. Thanks Cyrellis

When Bob put his wings on for work on the morning of the eighth day, he had not a care in the world. Things were looking good. The cloud was clean and tidy.

Eh? [5:14am]
What? You think I sleep? Mulling over a couple of ad contracts for my page right now. (finally getting somewhere) most likely I'll be going with UGO unless someone emails me telling me a UGO staff member killed your blind stepson with a tablespoon or something. Doubleclick is just taking too long. I'm in debt way over my head. =/ Any informative email would be appreciated.

Views [7:36am]

As for life with the Unreal engine, Klingon Honor Guard seems a mixed bag so far. There’s a lot more plot and structure, certainly. The story places the player in the role of a trainee with the Honor Guard, who is called away from an exercise to respond to an assassination attempt on Gowron, the boss Klingon. The ensuing carnage across many levels and different environments is focused on uncovering the extent of the treachery and eliminating same.

Tech [7:36am]

Our Lexicon says bump mapping is "a technique used in graphics to simulate rough or bumpy textures with irregularities in shading." And that's basically it. It's a way to show texture (not in the texture map sense, but in the real sense) and relief without adding polygons, by changing the shading of the graphics that are rendered. It takes a lot of processing power to do in software, so it isn't done much right now, but it really improves the look of graphics, especially when you get really close to texture maps -- instead of looking like flat skins, they actually look like they have texture.

Rendition's third generation product family, the V3000 series, is currentlyunder development. Rendition believes the first product offering from thisfamily, the V3300, will supplant the V2200 graphics accelerator as Rendition'shigh performance offering during the first quarter of 1999. The V3300 isdesigned for compatibility with 166 MHz SDR, as well as standard SDRAM/SGRAM,and is designed to include a 128 bit bus, AGP 2X execute mode support, 250 MHzRAMDAC, dual pixel engine, motion compensation and greater than 200 millionpixel per second fill rate and a greater than 3 million triangle peak set up.

werd
The Negotiator = good movie.

You guys like screenshots? I've contemplated doing a mini screenshots section on the page to cover the games that I think are really interesting or would interest you guys.

 

Wednesday, August 5

GL Unreal Soon [8:04pm]
Mark Rein made a post to the megaboard which gives a clue to what's up with the GL Unreal patch:

Good news and bad news...I tested our latest OpenGL yesterday before leaving for Europe where I am now. The performance was pretty good on a P200MMX with a Hercules Thriller 3D at 640x480 with all the options turned on. But I had some problems changing resolutions, going in/out of hardware/software modes and the interface to the Advanced Options Menu in Unreal wasn't hooked up yet so I wasn't able to adjust any settings to make it faster. On a machine like mine (a P200MMX) under OpenGL I would expect better performance at a lower resolution (512x384 which I use with the Voodoo1 card) and I'd like to be able to turn off one or two other features (the big hog ones like reflective surfaces) to see what extra speed I can get out of it.

So, we're still not ready to release the OpenGL driver, even in beta form. But we're definitely getting close.

Heretic2 & GenCon [8:04pm]
Kenn Hoekstra sent this email along since the Raven finger service is "under construction"

Activision will be showing HERETIC II at this year's Gen Con.  The conference is this weekend, August 6th - 9th, in Milwaukee, WI.  Representatives from Raven and Activision will be on hand to answer questions about the game and a PLAYABLE DEMO will be on site.  If you are in the area or planning on going to the conference, stop by the booth and play the game! It's going to be tons of fun! If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me. (khoekstra@mail.ravensoft.com)  If you have questions about the Gen Con conference in general, there is a great informational site at: http://www.andonunlimited.com/enter.htm#GENCON

[9] vs DeathRow Update [1:44pm]
Although DR made the switch to Quake2 a few months ago, they have attempted to shake off the rust a bit and play Sweden's top Clan [9]. PlanetQuake has coverage of the event as it happens right now. [9] won the 4 out of 5 games by a comfy margin. I've got a few demos of my own clan playing [9] in the demos section here. Congrats to [9] on such a strong showing so far.

Also, Bluemoon has some pictures of the event.

Messiah Shots [4:34pm]
A few new screenshots of Messiah have shown up on the Messiah.com website according to Cyrellis. Dig on the shots and tell your friends!

SIN Stuff [1:44pm]
Couple of bits of SIN info for ya, GamePen Insider has posted their look at the demo, and discusses the "war" or something with Half-Life etc. Then some goober who works at Ritual, Charlie Wiederhold is interviewed at GamersDigest.

Lode Runner2 Demo [1:44pm]
Word from AGN3D: AGN3D and Gamesexpo are proud to present the Lode Runnner 2 demo. You can pick it up here:

ftp.agn3d.com - LR2DEMO.exe (15MB)
Gamesexpo.com - LR2DEMO.exe (15MB)

Included in the demo:
5 levels from one world.
Ability to play as the Yellow Male Lode Runner only.
Single Player only

Included in the full version:
Over 75 levels spanning 5 worlds.
Ability to play as one of 8 colored Lode Runners, Male or Female.
Multiplayer Support: 8 player gameplay over a LAN using TCP/IP.
Many new objects such as the Cloak of the Mad Monk and Directional Bombs.
A custom level editor so you can build and play your own levels.

GameForge 3D Engine [8:44am]
No, I have no idea why I just plain didnt sleep tonight.. Check this out from the guys at GameForge

At GameForge we have been working on our landscape engine for over a year now, and we've got the results to prove it. Our terrain engine produces very realistic and highly detailed outdoor environments which can be used for not only games, but also in commercial applications. It is completely scalable,and thus able to achieve the best balance between detail and framerate on ANY machine. <snip> contact Bernhard Kotzenberg at bernhard@gameforge.com"

Please note that the latest drivers for voodoo2 and voodoo graphics based boards can be found at
http://www.3dfx.com/download/download.html - you'll need Glide3 installed to run the demo.

-Blue via VE (Shots from AGN)

Banshee! [4:54am]
Cyrellis has gotten a hold of a 3dfx Banshee card and run it through the tests to see just how good this card is.

First, the lack of a 2nd TMU on the Banshee is a large problem for any game that uses either the Quake2 or Unreal engines and their ncluded multi-texturing support. This means that games like Half-Life, Prey, SiN, SHOGO, Quake 3 Arena, Duke Nukem Forever, etc, will have much lower frame rate performance on a Banshee-based card versus a single Voodoo2 card or even some of the Banshee's upcoming 2D/3D competition.

For games that use engines which do not support the need to make two passes per clock cycle in order to run well like Turok, Forsaken, Incoming, etc, the Banshee is extremely capable, and turns in the high scores that you would expect from a Voodoo2-based product.

Hook & Sweeney on Unreal [4:54am]
Grandmaster B over at VE today features Brian Hook's look at the Unreal technology as well as a guest appearance by the guy who coded the engine, Tim Sweeney from Epic.

BH: - Unreal was designed originally with the software renderer in mind, which is why it is not particularly optimal with hardware.

Tim Sweeney: We had 3dfx support (but not other hardware) well before the renderer congealed so, I'd say that's why it's not particularly optimal with 3d cards that don't fit the 3dfx mold, such as the Riva 128 and i740, which are fairly slow with state changes.

BH: - Unreal's original source art is in RGB, allowing for very vibrant and gorgeous textures.

Tim Sweeney: Aw, thanks, Brian.

Half-Life [4:54am]
Cool over at VE has put together a new preview of Half-Life from visiting the offices recently. Thanks Cyrellis btw, Sierra was nice enough to fly me up to Valve next week to check out Half-Life and do my own little preview. Should be fun!

The console screen started up, and looked cool of course...then the game started, Gabe pulled out the glock (in the game), the first thing I noticed was the incredible detail all around you, and on the weapons, which are incredibly sharp and detailed, and the characters gloves which have a very awesome looking chrome effect which changes according to the surrounding light sources. Gabe continued down the hall and ran into a security guard who then said TO you "we better get the hell outta here!"

Anachronox Shots [4:54am]
Jay Hosfelt over at Ion Storm updated his .plan with news of some upcoming Anachrnox screenshots. (finally!)

What's this stuff I see falling from the sky?  Could it be rain???  I hope it will cool things off a bit.  The other evening I was driving home.  I was in the Miata and I had the top down.  The wind was blowing through my hair and I had the volume up high.  I was high on life, a high comparable to any drug high I've ever had in the past.  I felt light as a feather and my spirit actually released from my body.  My head really starts swimming and I glance up at a Bank sign and it says 106 degrees.  Well The new PC Gamer (Sept. issue) will have the first screenshots of Anachronox...EVER!!!  So go pick up a copy when it hits stands in a week or so, and catch a glimpse of what we've been working on for the past year;)

Mac Unreal Near Gold [4:54am]
Yup, word from WestLake via UnrealNation is that they have nearly completed the port of Unreal to the Mac platform.

We are planning to send a golden master of Unreal to MacSoft in the middle of the week, if it tests OK and nothing needs fixed that should be the version to go to duplication.

Weekly DM Demos [5:45am]
Well, picking out some of the best demos from the CPL tournament wasnt as tough as I thought it would be. The best matches really took place towards the end of the series. The RIX / Gollum finals match is incredible.

Views [4:36am]

Tech [4:36am]

DirectX 6 SDK [1:54am]
Probably useless to 90% of you guys, but the SDK for DirectX 6 has been released on the MS page.

werd
Why.. can't.. I sleep....

Oh my gee wiz, the page is actually fast again.. I just dont know what to do. Glad to see all you knobs reading the page again. Believe me I felt your pain with the slow website. Now if they fix my damn AC tomorrow things will be peachy.

Oh, and dont forget the hanus pic of the day.

 

Tuesday, August 4

Is It Fast? [7:34pm]
Hrm, the page seems to be loading at a reasonable speed once again. If you are having problems with load time drop me some mail and be sure to include your IP / DNS info. (It was some reverse dns problems apparently)

Which Voodoo2? [7:34pm]
Thanks to Cyrellis for the pointer to this new article on CNET mulling through the options of which Voodoo2 board is right to buy.

Now offering the Voodoo 2 chipset, 3Dfx has done it again. Yes, the technology is expensive, with the cheapest boards starting at $200 and deluxe models surpassing the $300 mark. And it may be overkill, considering that even the fastest CPUs don't push through enough triangles to keep the Voodoo 2 happy, and current games don't begin to tap the chipset's potential. But if you want the best 3D gaming experience on the PC today, you must have a Voodoo 2 board.

3DFX Day [6:34pm]
All kinds of stuff for you 3dfx owners today: New 3dfx Voodoo1 Rush reference drivers have been released on the 3dfx website. Voodoo Rush (Single Board) Release 3.0 Win95-98- Dual Boards Cards. Then we also got some new Voodoo1 reference drivers as well. Lastly, check out this announcement I got in email:

3Dfx, Sega, NEC and VideoLogic Settle 3Dfx Lawsuit
PR Newswire - August 04, 1998 17:45

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- 3Dfx Interactive(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: TDFX), Sega(R) Enterprises, Ltd.; Sega of America, Inc.; NEC Corporation and VideoLogic, Plc. today announced that an agreement in principle has been reached to settle the lawsuit 3Dfx Interactive brought against Sega, NEC and VideoLogic over Sega's termination of a development contract with 3Dfx Interactive for Sega's next-generation game console. On September 2, 1997, 3Dfx Interactive announced that it had brought suit against Sega and NEC and later amended its legal complaint to add VideoLogic.

The terms of the settlement will remain confidential, but the parties are
pleased to have successfully resolved the matter.

More TNT Numbers [3:54pm]
Redwood sent me this URL which has some more benchmarks of the Riva TNT in action over at GameSpot. To add to the fun my damn AC went out and it's incredibly hot here in Texas. Gonna shut down for a few hours before the PC and myself overheat.

But the one to watch, it seems, is nVidia's newest chip: the RIVA TNT. With dual rendering pipelines and a spec'ed maximum fill rate of 190Mpixels/sec, TNT may have the right combination of features and performance to be this fall's graphics champion. To put TNT's performance in perspective, a single Voodoo2 board can deliver a maximum fill rate of about 90Mpixels/sec, and while that number doubles when you run two Voodoo2s in SLI mode, that setup will set you back about US$400, whereas 16MB TNT-based cards will hit the streets at about $249. So without further ado, let's have at it.
<snip>
BOX SCORE:
nVidia RIVA TNT (DX6) vs. Diamond Monster3D II (DX6)

F22 ADF: 45.3, 44.4
Forsaken: 139, 101.1
Incoming: 79.8, 59.2
Turok: 77.3, 55.4
Quake: 77.9, 72.3
Quake II: 61.4, 58.7
GameGauge Score: 480.7, 391.1

Weekly [3:54pm]
A bit bitter today, yes I am. The weekly section for today has been posted.

Eh? [12:15pm]
Ok, the page is still moving slow for about half the world. Sorry about that. We've been bugging the hell out of Alabanza and our sys admin guys to figure out what's going on. I'll have the weekly stuff up in a bit, here's some stuff for you to chew on for now...

Rainbow SIX Gold [1:04pm]
Hadnt even really heard of this game much until a couple of weeks ago and now I've gotten word from http://rainbow6.telefragged.com that the game has gone gold as of today. Check out this page for more details.

More Views [11:06am]

Prax Interview [11:10am]
VoodooNation has done an interview with the lead level designer on Prax Wars being published by EA. Randy Pitchford.

5- Did you write the story so that it could expand in future games ?
<<<

Yes. Prax War is basically World War 3 meets Star Wars on Earth...You're team is like the Rebellion with you being Luke and PRAX Industries is like the Evil Empire. They've got a Vader. The similarities aren't too blatent, though...But there's an influence. There's plenty of room for more stuff in the Prax War world, but we'll see how people like this one before we commit to a ton of Prax War titles... I mean, we think it's cool, but we're not going to shove stuff players think is lame down their throats over and over again. I think people are going to dig it, though... If we like something, chances are others will too. The shit filter is king here.

Wheel of Time [11:10am]
The Wheel of Time update was posted yesterday. (Yes, I'm sorry I was gone all day)

Personally, I've been focusing on tightening the single-player story so that we can actually build it. In doing so, I've scripted a few of the more important cut-scenes and answered some lingering questions. In addition, we're making progress across the board. Characters are flowing in, and I'm in love with the black Ajah boss. Artifact effects are going great. Architecture and texture maps for Shadar Logoth look amazing, absolutely influenced by the tight, winding, medieval streets of Europe. Given the high-level design for the map, the creature designs for its inhabitants, and the beautiful architecture, something is sure to take your breath away here (perhaps for good).

Future 3D Engines [11:10am]
Gamesnet has put together an article looking into the future of 3D engines. A number of the engines out there being developed have been overlooked but it's a good preview.

Worried that every new action game or RPG for the foreseeable future will look like Quake II or Unreal? That proposition has crossed our minds here at PC Games. Despite the fact that id and Epic have crafted fantastic engines that have made major strides for 3D gaming, no gamer wants to see each new shooter looking like another mod of those games.

Duke4 Update [11:10am]
George Broussard of 3DRealms updated his .plan with a response to a recent blurb in a PC Gamer UK article as well as an update to the progress of Duke4ever:

We're about where we wanted to be after the swicth. The mappers are all 100% up to speed now and can do anything and everything with the editor. There is nothing in Unreal that they don't know how to do, and they've done some new things that make people go 'Whoa!' when they walk by their desks. The guys are all working on "real" levels now.

Textures and models have been continuing as if the switch never happened. Actually we seem to be able to have higher res textures under Unreal and still run fine, so you can expect that. We also know a few tricks to speed up Unreal and/or the maps to make it run acceptably on a P200 64 megs. I think 90% of the bog people are reporting are map abuse or texture usage related. These are things that are easy to control.

The programmers have been busy as well. We added a significant low level piece of tech I will talk about later, as well as basic stuff like the USE key. We also enhanced the Unreal keyframe, moving object system A LOT and now we seem to have nearly unlimited freedom. It's great to walk up to a swicth, USE it and see something happen. Something very complex at that. Also reworked the resource system so we don't have to recompile a 10 minute file every time we add a piece of art. Very hand for fast updating of data. In short, the foundation is there, and we're ready for the new and "fun" stuff. The programmers will be moving to AI, guns, and game play type things asap.

DirectX 6 [11:10am]
I thought I had only linked the Windows95 upgrade last night, so here is the DXCore update for Windows98 machines as well. I remember reading something about Direct3D having big speed improvements, go check it out and see for yourself.

More Movies [11:10am]
Here is another email I got for some Quake2 movie stuff: "Just finished a new Quake2 movie using Keygrip. It is a run through of Base1 with some cool camera angles. It shows how cool and powerful and easy Keygrip is. It can be found at http://www.nightech.com/orbotfive"

Views [11:06am]

Tech [11:10am]

werd
Yea, running late now.. bite me.

 

Monday, August 3

DirectX 6 [11:10pm]
Sorry was gone all day to Austin. Microsoft has released DirectX v6.0 which will only work for updating if you are running Windows95. The MS update for Windows98 probably will be released tomorrow. Grab your copy from the download page.

Oh, and I havent seen any email again for the past 2 days. This is getting really old really fast.

Max Payne [8:10am]
A game I find myself getting more and more excited about, AVault has posted a new preview of Max Payne which is looking more incredible by the day.

True, a good 3D game pushes technological boundaries, but engines come and go. A game must also capture the adoration of fans, though most titles reign for just a moment. When it comes to developing hot commodities with legs, 3D Realms knows the most important component is the central character.

The Suckage [8:10am]
Bask in the glory of my infinite wisdom. The Suckage has been posted for this Monday. Marvel at the insight, yadda yadda

The FRAG II = Quake2 [1:26am]
Details for the next big CPL event have been posted on www.cyberathlete.com showing off even bigger prize money in the Quake2 1on1 tournament to be held at the end of October. Here is the short cash list not including the tons of hardware that will be given to the competitors:

First Prize - $5,000 - Babbage's and Software Etc. Stores
Second Prize - $4,000 - ACT LABS
Third Prize - $3,000 - BSG Laboratories
Fourth Prize - $2,000 - Canopus Corporation
Fifth Prize - $1,000 - Bazooka Systems

Anachronox [1:26am]
Joey Liaw, one of the members of the Anachronox development team made a lengthy .plan update describing the work he is doing on the project and some of the problems he has encountered.

Keep in mind that all vertices in the Quake2 model format are stored as triples of BYTES, so in each cartesian axis there exists only 256 possible points on which the vertices of the model can lie. When the character waves his cane around, it drastically changes the offset/scale values that the anachronox refresh uses to recenter the model, and the increased model coarseness when the character waves his cane and drastically increases his model extents, combined with the different offset per frame, results in his sliding up to two texels, which is very noticeable. In addition, I need to stop writing confusing run-on sentences.

Quake Movies [1:26am]
Got a couple of Quake/Quake2 Movies for you guys to check out that are of interest. The first Quake2 movie is Diary of a Gamepad player which is only 35 seconds long but shows off some great camera work as well as ridicules people who play Quake2 with a gamepad. You gotta love that.

The 2nd movie, for Quake1, is Devil's Covenant which is an incredible 2hours and 10mins long. This movie comes our way courtesy of Clan Phantasm. I probably wouldnt recommend attempting to download this movie if you are bandwidth challenged. (Have a modem) but you LPBs should get a kick out of this. Hell even of this writing the guy hasnt finished all the uploads yet. Scenes 1 - 8 along with the pak files are available. Scenes 9-16 arent there yet though. Go ahead and start your download now though. :)

Qizmo [1:26am]
A new version of Qizmo has been released. Pretty much the ultimate proxy utility for QuakeWorld in terms of every possible feature you could ask for, and a hell of a lot of features you probably wouldnt.

- observer mode much improved, plus observing is now unlimited
- built-in QWSV priority controller
- support for higher video modes (for larger serverlists and stuff)
- tons of new teamplay enhancing features

UnrealED Manual [1:26am]
For those of you still haxoring on Unreal trying your hand at level editing, The Skarz unofficial UnrealED manual has been updated with some more tips and information to try and help you on your way to level design perfection. Check out the Skarz page too. -VE

EverQuest Shots [12:26am]
Some new screenshots of the EverQuest project have been released by Sony Interactive. Snagged a pair of them from AGN

Black & White Shots [12:26am]
Ok, I wont post these ones too just to save you guys some bandwidth, but check out the new screenshots of Black&White posted on the LionHead Studios pages.

SIN Orb [12:26am]
Everyone's favorite 3D controller the SpaceOrb works with Ritual Entertainment's SIN demo. Just check out the Birdman's Liar and snag a config file for those of you who use the controller. -Blues

SIN Projects [12:26am]
A lot of TC groups etc have recognized all the power they will have from using Ritual's SIN as the base for their projects and are moving over from Quake2 to SIN. BulletProof Productions is the most recent to make the jump. They even sent out a press release etc. They have a couple of job openings for those of you interested in getting involved in a serious project.

SIN Porn [12:26am]
For all you guys who just um, dont get out enough. Check out this page which features some some interesting new images of the female SIN character with a brand new skin. You better not hit this link unless you are over 18 buddy.

Views [12:36am]

Tech [12:36am]

The Cyrix Cayenne is Cyrix's next-generation processor core. CPUs based on the Cayenne core may be the first ever to leapfrog over Intel's processors, in terms of speed and performance. The weak FPU that plagued the original 6x86 and 6x86MX will completely dissapear in this new core, and these processors should be able to easily match Intel's Pentium II in any 3D application.

werd
So as many of you have noticed I only keep the last 2 days worth of news on the front page now to save some bandwidth. I've also yanked the images from the left frame to speed up the page as well. I'm taking a road trip to Austin today so won't be around till this evening. I got my sleep schedule all screwed up but this trip should straighten me out.

Oh, and yea I'm aware of the page being incredibly slow right now. Something is wacked out which should be fixed today or tomorrow.

3DNews.net Last Weeks News copyright Steve Gibson 1998