2 DAY OLD NEWS ARCHIVES
| Saturday , February 27 |
K6-III review [11:45 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
AMD is now using Roman numerals with their generational
names, just like Intel. Sure, it's more marketing goodness, but no where near the
hype that comes with the PIIIs. Review Zone has a 12
page review on AMD's 256k L2 wonder. Now only if they had a comparable FPU
coupled with good support for 3DNow!...Thanks Charley!
What’s more, there is no new set of instructions (like the SSE, formerly known as KNI, for the PIII) for the K6-III. It uses 3DNow!, the same 21 SIMD instructions as used by its predecessor. This means that you can harness the power of the K6-III without having to upgrade your display drivers or update your software with patches. This is, of course, assuming you already have software that takes advantage of 3DNow!
One thing that AMD is certainly bragging about is the K6-III’s tri-level cache design. The phrase “tri-level cache” does not refer to a new, third cache being introduced by this CPU, but refers to the existing L2 cache of the motherboard. Since the CPU carries both L1 & L2 cache, the L2 cache fixed on your motherboard will be switched automatically to L3 cache. When this happens, your system will experience a performance increase ranging from 5% to 8%, depending on the size of the L2 cache on the motherboard.
Q&A about Q3A with John Carmack [10:15 pm]
Got this Q&A with John Carmack forwarded to me, thanks
Chris!
1. You are taking over bot development after Q3ATest. Does that mean you have lost confidence in John Cash's ability to code a bot that can stand up to critical review?
I'm just going to start working on their tactical behavior. Cash has the navigation and strategy code pretty close to finished. The bot code IS lagging the rest of the game's development, though.
2. The interview sounds like it was somewhat off the record. When you mentioned 3DFX's future plans for a 32 bit part, that sounded like a breach of NDA. Was thi interview meant to be off the record? If it was, then what are your thoughts about having your off the record comments posted up for wide release?
I try to operate as if everything I ever say is "on the record". 3DFX is obviously working on a 24 bit part. I am looking forward to the time when I don't have to make complex qualifications about anything I say regarding 3DFX.
3. There are plans for a petition to put in 3D sound for Q3A. You are known for not bowing to public pressure. Would a petition make any difference at all to you?
Petitions and public outcry make absolutely no difference to me. My mind can be changed be argument or evidence, but not by vote. The real issue is that 3D sound just doesn't excite me very much, and
I have thousands (literally) of other things that I can be working on. However, as I have been informed, A3D does work on NT, so there is a decent chance I will implement some support for that.
4. About the "Beginner Levels". Given the fact that Quake 3 Arena requires a basic level of 3D accellerated hardware, what guarantees that your Average Joe would buy the game anyways? It seems to me that having basic levels to introduce your dad to 3D shooters is mutually exclusive with the fact that it requires that your dad may very well might not have any reason to have a 3D accellerator. "
3D accellerator" includes the rage pro, which is basically the standard pentium II video card by volume. Riva128 also works fine, and now permedia II can at least limp along. That covers plenty of market. You are very hard pressed to buy a computer without a 3D accelerator in the last year or so. Anyway, a lot of experienced players will love the simple maps.
5. Can we have a definitive answer here as to whether bots will be available for the teamplay modes such as CTF?
They don't function that way right now, but it is our intention that they will.
John Carmack
Hardware! [10:15 pm] - Clay
"Huntsman" Mitchell
Dig on the updated
Hardware Sections. I've started a new "Hardware Ramblin'" section so I can
spout off about various hardware issues. Feel free to ignore it. Actually, the name sucks.
If somebody can come up with a name I like
better, I'll hmm... be your friend? Anyway, read dat hardware!
Info On Win98 OSR Beta 2 [10:15 pm] - Clay
"Huntsman" Mitchell
Saw on the ever-cool site BetaNews
that Microsoft has apparently decided to "skip" Service Pack 1 (they skipped
DirectX 4) and gone directly on to the OEM Service Release. (Thanks Agressiv for
correcting me.) Here is a couple examples of the cool stuff coming up:
Internet Explorer 5: An apparently stable browser (i've been running it for a month, only one crash, and while running LiteStep. Outlook Express has some nice improvements also
DUN 1.3: The lastest dial up networking!
ICS (Internet Connection Sharing): So your ISP won't let you plug your adsl/cable modem into your uplink port on your hub? Here comes a free solution! No silly proxy servers or complicated set up. Rumored to be a "big hit". I think NT5 has this in it to. Let me know if I'm wrong.
Quake 3 Preview [11:52 pm] - Clay
"Huntsman" Mitchell
Though these are approximately one dime per dozen, Chanodin
Rahl has a preview of Quake
III Arena. Though there are no startling revalations to be found, Chanodin does a good
job of compressing all the info out there into one easy shot. He also uses big words like
"superfluous",
"paradigm",
and "austerity".
This guy clearly knows what he's talking about due to his use of unabashedly capacious and
occasionally erroneous terms in his possibly ostentatious monologue. (taa daa).
(Mmm...possibility of Doom 2000...oh yeah, and don't forget to check out our very own Shugashack Quake3 Preview. Still want more? Then you must see the high-res screenshots! -Maj)
John Carmack [8:15 am]
Matt Bettinson of PCGWorld payed a visit to id Software and checked out Quake3. Here is his story. which has now been updated with an
audio interview with John Carmack. It's a pretty damn interesting interview. The US edu
mirror worked best for me.
| John Carmack Interview part 1 (24kbps mp3 32min) - general Quake 3 Arena direction, bots etc. (5.7MB) | Local T1 mirror | US 'edu' mirror | Barrysworld UK mirror |
| John Carmack Interview part 2 (24kbps mp3 60min) - Technical discussion, graphics, 3D audio, networking etc. (10.5MB) | Local T1 mirror | US 'edu' mirror | Barrysworld UK mirror |
Interestingly about 18minutes into the interview John Carmack mentions that the project is going very well and the bot technology is the only real point of contention right now.
Daikatana Update [8:15 am]
GA-Source has posted a development update
from John Romero of Ion Storm telling the tale of what those guys are up to. John also
mentions that the target release date is June of this year.
The mapping team has completed episode 1's maps while Map Lead Chris Klie is polishing E1's maps while the map team works on Episode 2. The AI is working out pretty well now that the node system is final. Custom AI code for E1 monsters is being completed right now. We're planning on releasing Daikatana in June
Also, Cyberathletes have announced that Daikatana will be showing at the big EA Tournament.
OpenGL TRIBES [8:15 am]
Still waiting to play TRIBES on your TNT? Check out the .plan update
by Dave Moore it's a hella big update covering more than just the reasoning behind GL
TRIBES taking so long, but I figure that's the major point you guys would be interested
in. Make sure and check out the Tim Gift update
as well.
I can't see any general solution to this dilemma that does not begin with the card manufacturers. OpenGL is manifestly the best way to develop, except for these frustrating stopping blocks. We may end up adding DX6 support to Tribes, simply because we are determined to have multi-card support in the game, and refuse to accept that these cards are incapable of handling the load we place on them. We will be releasing what we have thus far for public inspection soon, with listed support for the TNT, and the i740. G200 support will be added as soon as some driver issues are resolved. After that? We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available
Unreal Tournament Textures [8:15 am]
From PlanetUnreal
via VE there is a .plan update from Jack Porter
going into a bit of detail on just how they are handling the texture system in Unreal
Tournament. Have a look at the new http://ut.telefragged.com
page too.
The main thing which has changed since Unreal 1 is the multiskin feature which we use for all our player models. Our skins are now 512x512 pixels. A lot of popular 3D hardware (ie 3DFX) has a maximum texture size of 256x256 pixels, so we've split our skins for our player models into 4 seperate 256x256 pixel textures. The way the skin is divided into the four textures depends on the player mesh - in James Schmalz's Male Commando, the legs are in texture 1, face and arms in 2, lower body in 3 and chest in texture 4. Each of the 4 textures have their own independent palette, so you could have more than 256 colors on a single player, but with a maximum of 256 unique colors in any of the individual textures.
Duke4 FAQ [8:15 am]
Dunno about you but I'm dying to just get some sort of new
info about Duke4. Havent seen anything out of these guys since that interview with
Broussard over at 3DGN. Well the FAQ has been updated
which might hold you over for about.... 2 minutes.
Views [8:15 am]
Tech [8:15 am]
Sup? [6:45
am]
Marcus just went apeshit yesterday evening posting stuff
while I was getting my beauty sleep. I spent a bit more time this morning hax0ring on some
file template stuff here. Yeah, the next goal for Shack is to open up a files section.
Going to be running a few tests over the next week to see how things work.
It looks like the Daikatana messageboard is taking off just like the Quake3 one did. Very cool. Looking forward to the Daikatana DM demo. Last I heard it was supposed to come out in February. That would only leave them this weekend to release though. Cross your fingers or something.
| Friday , February 26 |
More Metabyte [11:20 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Just moments ago, another article from Electronic Buyer's was
posted regarding the software tech, which made the same observations that Gonzo and I made
earlier. Here is something I found interesting:
"If this is implemented successfully with [Nvidia Corp.'s] Riva TNT and [S3 Inc.'s] Savage4, it's still going to be all relative," as far as the performance of each graphics architecture is concerned, said Bob McQuillan, PC add-on card analyst for market research firm Jon Peddie Associates, Tiburon, Calif.
"But this is going to force people to compare whether a chip works best as a single-board product...or whether you can get the same performance from a different chip using two boards," McQuillan added
...
Although it was not known whether Metabyte intends to license the technology, observers speculated that Metabyte's innovation would be duplicated by other companies. A spokeswoman for card maker Creative Labs Inc., Milpitas, Calif. declined to comment. But Rick Myllenbeck, director of public relations for Creative, said, "I think we're working on something similar in our labs, but I'm not sure."
Likewise, a spokeswoman for card maker Diamond Multimedia Inc., Fremont, Calif., also declined to comment on the company's research efforts.
Not sure eh?
Wicked3D Stepsister [10:30 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
FS has their hands all over Metabyte's
Stepsister (let's hope for everyone's sake it's not the ugly one). They still
use "SLI", but they recognize the misnomer. It'll probably become a
Kleenex or Xerox thing. Enough news about this stuff? The flood has just
begun.
TNT SLI, not! [10:00 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Not as much news as insight, but I still think this is quite
interesting, especially for those of you who are still calling it "SLI".
Dr. Gonzo at Ars Technica and I have been conversing
about this new technology, and its misnomer. Then the good doc decided to post his
views, "It's not SLI, dammit", on the page:
...SLI stands for Scan Line Interleave, a term that should be used exclusively to describe 3Dfx Voodoo2 hardware right now. What the dual Voodoo2 setup does (in a nutshell) is have one Voodoo2 render the even lines on the monitor, while the other handles the odd lines. Hence, Scan Line Interleave means that the video cards alternate which lines on the monitor they draw.
The Metabyte TNT setup does something totally different, which I think may not be as effective as the Voodoo2 SLI setup in certain situations. The Metabyte rig splits the scene into top and bottom images; one card handles the top half of the screen, and the other card handles the bottom half--so this is in no way SLI...
Why don't I think this is as good a technology as the 3Dfx SLI? Although Sharky reports that the TNTs do some sort of load shifting, scenes which are top heavy--that is, scenes with high poly counts or higher-complexity top halves (the sky in Unreal or Q3A, anyone?)--will take more processing time than the lower-complexity floor half. My experiences with load shifting in software make me hope that Metabyte has implemented this technique in hardware, or the CPU load may increase a disproportionate amount. Of course this is all pure speculation. I'm hoping we will be able to get some test hardware and see how this all works first hand. Until then, I'll speculate no more
It's actually not Metabyte's fault at all...it's just the early reports of this technology gravely misnamed Metabyte's software innovation.
Want the official Metabyte PR (that is not supposed to public yet). Check out Riva3Dfor the early scoop, which is dated March 1st, 1999 (Monday is when it's supposed to hit news). Not mah problemo :)
P3 Roundup [9:50 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Roundup? Isn't there only one Pentium III (core)?
Yeah, but there will be many major manufacturers making these pricey monsters, such
as HP, Dell, and Compaq just to name a few. Techweb has a roundup of the first batch of the
machines:
What follows is a one-of-a kind look at 11 new systems-all but one of them features the 500MHz PIII. (One features AMD's new K6-3 450MHz processor with 3DNow technology--the K6-3 system actually holds its own against a similarly equipped PIII system.) These systems from vendors like Micron, Dell and Gateway span the spectrum of PC offerings, from corporate desktops to SOHO systems. They also demonstrate the raw power and potential of the new processors. And they give a hint of things to come.
No accident this was posted today, the official P3 day. It's official, I need a P3. No real reason, it's just a "new toy" thing.
Sin 1.03 [9:40 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Still playing SiN are ye? The 1.03 patch has been
released now, grab the goods at Ritualistic.
Thanks Mike! Here's a bit from the Readme:
- AMD 3DNOW support
- Creative EAX support
- A3D 2.0 support
- specific support for 2015's mission pack, "Wages of Sin"
- save game fix, which fixes crash in Area 57
- software crashes on Dam
- various bug fixes
- A multiplayer menu bug in Sin 1.02
CPUs for Gamers [9:30 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Saw on VE the big bit on
GameCenter about their "Gamers'
Guide to CPUs". Of course we all know how well those Celeron 300As run when
we overclock the spit out of them. Hell, that's what I'm using now...unless if
someone decides it's time to donate some P3 action to the Shack ;)
Also, while cruisin' for more "AMD is kicking some ass" articles, I found another on Techweb.
id Visit [5:55 pm]
Matt Bettinson of PCGWorld payed a visit to id Software and
checked out Quake3. Here is his story.
Quake3 Bots [5:05 pm]
John Cash of id Software
answered a few questions about the bots he is working on for Quake3 at the Telefragged/Metro messageboard:
1:How well are the bots going? I haven't see or heard anything about them, since, well.. a long time ago. Any chance we'll see them in Q3test? That's two questions BTW ;-)
1a) They are coming along nicely. It's quite a different task to develop the bots for a game that is still under development itself. Features come, features go, features saty on the "to do" list. Every time we add a new mode of movement (like the bouncy pads), I have to rework the navigation system to handle it. You haven't heard anything because I've been doing a lot of R&D and nobody else knew anything much to say. The best status I can give you is to say that the bots are winning games now :-)
KingPin Shots [4:35 pm]
It's just screenshot day. www.planetkingpin.com has opened up and scored a
couple new screenshots to boot.
Drakan Shots [4:35 pm]
The folks over at Drakan.net
have posted 3 new screenshots of the Surreal Software Drakan title which is looking
smoove. They also promise some more shots next week so keep an eye on the page. Saw that
at VE
Raven & SoF [4:35 pm]
GameLinks has cranked out an interview with Scott Rice of
Raven. Scott is the lead artists over there on the Soldier of Fortune project. Also
the guys at Raven-Games.com are going crazy with
all kinds of stuff.
Game Industry Growth [3:25 pm]
Duncan Lamb pointed out this interesting article over
at CNN talking about the huge increase in revenues in the gaming industry.
The industry saw a 25 percent increase in revenues in 1998, with sales of video and PC games jumping from $4.4 billion in 1997 to $5.5 billion last year, according to market research firm NPD Group. About 181 million PC and console games were sold in 1998, compared with 134 million a year earlier
Not sure how much that interests many of you. But it floated my boat so I linked it!
Unreal Tournament [2:25 pm]
Got an interview with everyone's favorite Green Marine who
is currently working on the Unreal Tournament project for Epic Games. Have a look see as
Brandon tries to sell us on their latest title.
In order to hook in newbie players, each game type has an interactive tutorial that demonstrates how to play. The bot skill levels can be finely tuned, so if you are a terrible deathmatcher you can still feel like Thresh himself. If you think you kick ass, turn up the heat. Its actually a lot of fun.
AMD Out Sells Intel? [12:45 pm]
Woah, whooda thunk it? I just spotted this article over at news.com
as well as this
zdnet article which is um, surprising from looking at the headline.
AMD'S K6 line accounted for 43.9 percent of all desktop PC processor unit sales in January. AMD benefited from a strong demand for sub-$1,000 PCs, which made up more than 65 percent of the market in January, the first time this price segment has exceeded 60 percent of overall unit sales.
"This is a major milestone for AMD. This is the first time that a processor family, other than one manufactured by Intel, led the U.S. retail market," said Stephen Baker, senior hardware analyst at PC Data.
Pretty slow day. *crickets chirping* I'm having what one calls creative block or some crap on the weekly section today. Drawing a blank.. BAH.
Hook on Q3 Hardware Part 3 [5:15 am]
Brian Hook is just gettin goofy
with all the .plan updates. He is up to #3 now and this time we all hope he has all
the bases covered so you guys leave him alone with all that email :)
So there are basically "chips we have to support", "chips we like to support", "chips that aren't terribly relevant but we'd like to support anyway", and "chips that we could give a damn about". Chips we HAVE to support include the Voodoo, Voodoo2, and Rage Pro because they are out there in HUGE numbers. Chips we like to support are NVidia RivaTNT and ATI Rage128. Chips that aren't terribly relevant but that we'd like to support well include Rendition V2x00, Savage S3, and Permedia2. And chips we could give a damn about are things like TriTech Pyramid3D, Virge, and Number Nine Ticket To Ride.
3DN Industry Interview [5:15 am]
From 3DN: This week - the 3DNews industry interview.
In a huge interview people from companies like id Software, Raven software, Legend
Entertainment, ElectroTECH, Monolith productions, Shiny entertainment, Interactive Magic
and Metropolis tell you what they think about things like violence, high system
requirements and patches. Here
are the latest updates.
Savage4 [5:15 am]
The Fullon3D homecuts have gotten a hold of Paul
Crossley of S3 to talk a bit about the future 3D chipset coming our way called the
Savage4. Mmmmm. AGP4x.
Q: Savage 4 is supposed to be playing on the same field as TNT2, PVR250, Rage 128 GL, Permedia 3 and to a lesser degree, Voodoo 3.Where in this pecking order would you place your product and for what reasons? Who should be buying a Savage 4 board?
A: We're better than all of them combined =) Seriously, it depends on what you're looking for and how much you want to spend. Take Voodoo3 for example, it will cost more than a Savage4 board, but it won't deliver features such as texture compression, AGP texturing, true 32-bit color, support for textures larger than 256x256, support for 32MB of memory, hardware DVD acceleration, etc. In pure frame rates, it may be faster in some benchmarks and a few "twitch" games, but does that make up for all its other shortcomings? We don't think so.
Soldier of Fortune [5:15 am]
The next Quake2 engine based title we can expect from Raven Software, Rick Johnson have a .plan
update giving the lowdown on some of the hardware support issues.
Right now, we are putting in some of the 3dNow! enhancements made to the Q2 engine. Not all of them are usable, as some concentrated on the software renderer, and other routines that we have changed are no longer compatible with the original 3dNow! changes. So we should have some 3dNow! support out of the box. As for how much support we will have is uncertain, as getting the game completed is a difficult enough task, let alone, adding MMX, 3dNow!, and PIII special instructions all take time.
ISP Bills Rising? [5:15 am]
This should interest most everyone, The FCC has ruled that calls to your ISP are
interstate calls in nature. So now the phone company has free reign to charge
consumers for calling their ISP. Thanks CalBear for the heads up. Of course, then there is
this word from FiringSquad:
OK now I'm really confused. There's a story on Techweb that says the opposite of what the IDG story says. I'm more inclined to believe the Techweb story though, so I guess you can give your federal representatives a break and not send in that nasty letter. Oh and no need to burn down your phone company either ;) If Techweb is right, calls to your ISP remain local if they're 7 digit calls. Thanks to everyone who wrote in to point out the Techweb article.
Daikatana Messageboard [5:15 am]
With the ever growing popularity of the Quake3 messageboard,
and the soon to be released Daikatana DM demo. One would think why not open up a Daikatana
messageboard yes? Well
here you go. Have fun and don't poke your eye out.
Views [5:35 am]
Tech [5:35 am]
Hercules has considered the possibility of doing Non-3Dfx based SLI products. Currently, we're working on a number of other enhancements that we're very excited about as well. Stay tuned...
Gaming [5:35 am]
werd
I miss anything cool?
Damn server choking up this morning. Raised some hell with our hosting puds though and things should be cool now.
| Thursday, February 25 |
More Quake3 Video [10:35 pm]
Got a follow-up
.plan update from Brian Hook on the Quake3 Video card front. Basically a quick FAQ
from all the questions that he got from bringing the subject up. I'm sure he expected the
mailbomb though :)
- "What are your new minimum system requirements"
This is still up in the air. While it should _run_ on any Pentium, that doesn't mean it'll run _well_ on any Pentium. We haven't done wide scalability testing, but with a small viewport and greatly reduced LOD on models then something like a P200MMX w/ Voodoo should be playable. No promises though until we have all our features implemented and have had time to do some optimization work on a wide range of hardware.
- "Would you recommend the vertex lighting mechanism for Voodoo?"
Yes, for maximum performance then I would recommend the vertex lighting mechanism and/or running at 512x384.
- "Is a V2 SLI going to have any benefits for Q3"
Obviously, more fill rate is better, but a lot will depend on the screen resolution you're running at and the quality of 3Dfx's OpenGL drivers when we ship. If their drivers aren't performing well, then a V2 SLI isn't going to be much help since we won't be fill rate limited. If their drivers are performing well, then yeah, the V2 SLI should kick ass. Keep in mind that a V2 SLI in our lightmapped case provides the equivalent of 360Mpixels/ second of rendering, which is REALLY REALLY fast.
I hope to have new benchmark numbers posted in a couple weeks after the IHVs get a fair chance to update their drivers.
Sorry I dissapeared this afternoon. Got a few other things going down and I'll catch you puds up later tonight/morning.
Matrox G400 [12:35 pm]
Forgot to mention this one in the morning update. SharkyExtreme had this blurb with news that we
can expect the next chipset from Matrox in the 2nd quarter of this year:
Sources close to Matrox Graphics have revealed that their next generation processor, called the G400, will be previewed for the first time at CeBit '99 in Hanover, Germany (March 18th). Initial release dates of cards based off of the chipset are for Q2 of 1999. No more details are available at this time.
CPUs [12:35
pm]
Another catch up article. I failed to mention the TomsHardware article
comparing the AMD K6-3 to the Intel P3. It's a great read with benchmarks galore. I'm
looking forward to the new K7 from AMD. Mucho cache action.
Quake3 & Video Cards [4:30 am]
Brian Hook updated the old .plan file with some pretty
interesting talk about work he is doing on Quake3 to optimize for several of the pieces of
3D hardware out there that dont support all the latest cool functions. Here is a bit of
it, check out the full .plan update with more info.
Quake3's range of scalability is going to be very good. My hope is that we can get fairly consistent performance from a PII/233 with a Rage Pro all the way up to a PIII/550 w/ Rage128/TNT2/Voodoo3.
<snip>
A couple cards have sort of been nagging at the back of our minds when it comes to market saturation, compatibility, and performance. While working on Quake3 we've primarily tested and worried about the real high performance, high quality accelerators such as ATI Rage128 and NVidia RivaTNT, and we know other accelerators such as Permedia3 and Savage4 and Voodoo3 will run our stuff just great. But there are a few cards that have been problematic for us because A.) they don't have all the features or performance we need and B.) there are about a zillion of them out there in our customer base.
While differences in fill rate are a source of concern, it's easy enough to scale for fill rate by moving down video modes (320x240 has 1/4 the pixel fill rate requirements of 640x480). Triangle throughput, however, is much more difficult to compensate for since we don't do level-of-detail on the world, and we only do a very coarse LOD on models. Going to a vertex lit model halves the number of triangles rendered in the world compared to lightmapping, which helps both slower graphics cards and slower CPUs.
Quake3 Screenshots [YESTERDAY]
Carried these over since you guys are just going crazy over them. Here are some new super
high-res shots of Quake3 from id Software and aCtivision! You might recognize a pair of these
shots, but I do believe this is quite a bit higher resolution that was out there
previously, as well as wide screen in these versions. 1024x768 even. Here they are, please
clean up the chair when you're done ok? (And then make your favorite as your desktop
wallpaper -Maj)
That not enough for you? Ok ok.. check out this 2048x1152 275k version of the first shot. How about a 2048x1152 version of the 4th shot as well? That good enough? If you still havent checked out the preview of Quake3 I did a couple of weeks ago maybe now would be a good time yes?
Also I'll remove that 3DShack watermark in about a week from the images for those of you that it bothers. :)
Unreal Tournament vs Quake3? [4:30 am]
A friend of mine pointed the way to this post on the Epic
Megaboard from GreenMarine who is working on Unreal Tournament for Epic Games. Homeboy
isnt stating it as a fact, but it's nice to see some pretty big confidence I guess eh? :)
<snip>
I also think that UT is going to be a much better game for the newbie or average gamer. Chances are you're going to get a better experience out of UT than Q3A because UT will have the single player aspect. I don't know what Q3A's single player is going to be like, but I think they will actually be hardpressed to top ours. (That's my opinion, however. We'll all have to wait and see.)
UT is a very strong product that stands by itself. I can easily see a person buying both games and I can easily see a person buying UT over Q3A.
TNT SLI? [4:30 am]
Got some more followup on that whole possibility of SLI mode
for TNT's that Metabyte has been working on.
Firstly, Brian Hook of id Software made a bit of noise in his GrandMasterB deal over at VE:
Honestly, I think there is either some serious misinformation or wishful thinking going on. If an actual press release materializes, I'll take it more seriously. The article itself had some questionable comments (I don't recall Carmack making claims of 25% speed improvements for SSE) and flat out inaccuracies ("256K x 256K" and "2000K x 2000K" texture size limitations...you mean "256x256" and "2048x2048"? And SLI configurations should not have any bearing on CPU performance since the work is done at scan out time, i.e. by the hardware).
And the conjecture about Q3A frame rates was WAY out there -- guessing framerates for an unreleased game on unannounced hardware is, well, stupid
Also, Majesty dug this bit up yesterday from SharkyExtreme but it kind of gut buried:
Did you ever think that you would be able to play Quake2 on three monitors with every available slot filled with Wicked3D graphics cards? with eyeSCREAM? Thought not - I have... :) Anybody interested?? How many slots would you fill?? Would you use more than two?? Just curious. :)
Quake [4:30 am]
Couple of bits on the QuakeWorld front. The latest version
of Qizmo, the last word in proxy utilities you'll ever
need for QuakeWorld has been released. There are all kinds of advanced packet
stuff in the new version that will let you kick that /rate up quite a bit higher on
those slower connections. Also, saw this bit on Blue's:
The European Quake Championships 1999 are getting
underway this weekend, PlanetQuake's
EuroQuake Coverage will keep you up to date on all the festivities
Weekly Demos [4:30 am]
Got some damn
exciting demos for you guys to check out this week. The QIL2 finals finished up last week with My own clan,
R3V pairing up against Clan Versus. The amount of attention these matches got was just
insane. Pure-r3v busted out with some great frags in game1 to save our butts, and I did my
part in game2 to lead the way in frags for the blowout in game2.
Views [4:35 am]
Tech [4:35 am]
showing off the Voodoo3, interview with the product manager, interview with Thresh and a tour of the manufacturing facility where they happened to be making a TNT card...
The second show was a live one with Diamond in the studios showing off their Savage 4. We even hit on SLI TNT and Savage 4 as well as much more.
werd
Um, once again you guys absolutely pegged my server because
of something Quake3 related. I've got this sneaking suspicion that the game might be kinda
anticipated.
In light of the Daikatana demo coming out in the very near future, I'm gonna go ahead and open up a shack.daikatana messageboard here and see how you guys like it. Probably have that badboy online tomorrow. Cool?
| Wednesday, February 24 |
Industry Interview [11:00 pm]
The 3DN feature interviewing members of
several different game development houses on 10 different topics has been updated
again. Topics today includes graphics anc company size.
Good. I amost vomit when I hear games developers saying: "it's the gameplay that matters" or "it's art, so pictures are more important than the game's mechanics". Here, in Metropolis, we want to have it ALL. Excellent gameplay, excellent graphics. If the game has great gameplay, but sucks in graphics departament (or otherwise), then it's basically designers' fault. There are many great games out there, and you don't need to waste your time for the game that is good only partially
Disruptor interview [7:00 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Christian Antkow is interviewed at PQ, talking about misc.
things such as the typical Disruptor day, and of course, Quake 3 Arena. Lots of good stuff
here, check it out.
"zfar is calculated at level load time and buffers are resized as needed. So we can see a lot further now than was previously possible. Mind you, you still need to keep the triangle counts in line, but if you work with simple geometry, you can see *REALLY* far."
The maps are set to come in two distinct flavours - "Gothic and Techno with various offshoots and melds of both styles". There's still no official word on how many maps will appear in the final version of Quake III Arena, but it should be a few dozen, covering all bases from small duel maps to large teamplay and free for all levels. Unfortunately only one of those will make it into Q3Test, so we'll just have to wait and see...
UT single player side [7:00 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
CliffyB's .plan
quoted Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart on the deal with Unreal Tournament, bots,
and how there will be a single player aspect with bots and ladders. Here's the gist
of it (Slashed up by yours truly. If you want more info, read the .plan :)
The single player game consists of a ladder through each of the four game types, plus a special ladder at the end. Every map has a bit of story that describes how the various environments fit together. Before entering a team game you have a chance to customize your team and view the bio's for enemy bots.
The bio's are very cool. You might run into a criminal from the Mars Prison Colonies who is a total psycho. His description will tell you that he enjoys close quarter fighting...likes to rip his enemies up and when you play against him he'll move in close with the Impact Hammer. The bot combat in Unreal Tournament isn't just a training mode. Its an actual single player game. Sure, you aren't running through the normal single player environments, but you are playing an organized series of games. Each match has a bit of story behind it. (More than, say, a Mortal Kombat match.)
The skill levels in UT are very controllable. If you really suck at deathmatch you can play on the lowest skill level and feel like a frag master. We've also included tutorials for every gametype (including deathmatch) to get people started. Of course, if you are a badass, you'll be hard pressed to beat the game on the hardest skill level.
For team games in the single player where bots are on your side, there is an orders menu that lets you deploy the bots as you see fit. You can tell them to guard specific locations or general tasks like "roam and attack."
Sounds familiar ;)
About That Quake3 Video... [12:05 pm]
Anna Kang of id Software made a post to the Quake3 messageboard
addressing a few concerns people have had about these Quake3 videos that have been popping
up and if they really represent the game very well. Here ya go:
Just wanted to clarify a few things to those who are wondering why id has not made the Intel and Apple demos available to the public. When we create the demos, they are done with the specifications that they be shown in the proper hardware. These demos are more meant to show off the hardware than the software so it doesn't really show Quake III Arena in the light that our hardcore fans expect from an action packed game. The demos show off the pretty things that are capable with good hardware, but it doesn't do much to show you the playability of the game or the fast action that is present when you have a good bout. In addition, when these demos get transfered into AVI, the degredation in quality doesn't do the demos justice. The triple layers in the skies, shiny surfaces, pulsing organic walls and heck of a lot more don't look as good as the original. We're fairly sure that these things would cause a lot of people to start being too critical about the game without even playing it.
My suggestion is to have a little patience. The test should be out soon and the game will follow shortly.
Wisdom! [10:00 am]
Yoda? feh. The guy has nothing on me. If you are looking to be a successful chick savvy
popular confident stallion, then you need look no further. I have the words of wisdom to help you on your way!
Wheel of Time [10:00 am]
Gamedesign.net has posted a
"pretty whacked" interview with the lead level designer of Legend
Entertainment working on the Wheel of Time project.
What is your favorite level that "you" made?
I made this one really cool cube with a bubbly texture on it... It rocked, but it was too slow so I had to scrap it. Next to that I'd have to say Sparsatorium. It was one of my earliest levels, and looking back it shows my inexperience with editing, but in the gameplay department it saw a lot of refinement. It got played a lot amongst my group of friends and we always had a blast on it. I have the spirit, I do the dance
Drakan Day [4:35 am]
Got all kinds of crazy Drakan stuff for you guys. First off the boys at Drakan.net have scored a new AVI with footage from
inside the game the Surreal Software folks are working on. There are only a few choice
games I'm really looking forward to right now, and Drakan is one of them for sure. Can't
wait!
This is a 15 second AVI which showcases the very impressive Fire Ring effect in the game. This effect was coded by Tom Vykruta, and the dynamic object burning (Wartoks) was done by Armen Levonian.
After you check out that cool AVI, Surreal & Psygnosis have also released these new screenshots for you to take a gander at showing off the first ever images of the multiplayer functions of the game. Flamelands has also posted a couple of screenshots of their own. Make sure and check out www.drakan-game.com as well.
Quake3 @ 3DGaming.net [6:45 am]
3DGaming.net has put together a new preview of Quake3:Arena
which is a pretty good look at the game. They didnt get to play the game or anything but
did a good job compiling up all the information that is currently available on the net for
a tidy preview.
As John Carmack said a while ago, "Quake2 was a hacked-up, modified version of Quake as far as rendering technology went." To correct the recent trend of browns and grays in the game, the whole engine was redone from the ground up. Sporting a new 24bit-color depth, expect to find a lot more variety in the levels. But it's a lot more than just color. Q3A has many new features that are sure to wow any crowd...
Views [6:45 am]
Tech [6:45 am]
It has come to my attention that there has been an article posted on Sharky Extreme referring to our future plans for a TNT 'SLI' graphics configuration. I have to apologize that this information was made available to Sharky Extreme without authorization from us.
Marcus here [6:45 pm] : I figure we'll get the "official" word on these wicked drivers within a few days now. In the mean time, SE has another nugget of news:
Did you ever think that you would be able to play Quake2 on three monitors with every available slot filled with Wicked3D graphics cards? with eyeSCREAM? Thought not - I have... :) Anybody interested?? How many slots would you fill?? Would you use more than two?? Just curious. :)
werd
I bet you are sitting there doing all kinds of cool shit knowing you're the money and
wondering if I know how money you are. Well don't even try to hide it man, we all know it.
| Tuesday, February 23 |
P3 Security broken [10:00 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
From 3DN: The resident
hardware guru at c't Magazin fuer Computertechnik, a well-reputed German online magazine
supposedly managed to activate the heavily disputed serial number during runtime via
software without the user noticing or consenting. It was done using a procedure devised
from public information, and an Intel spokesperson has already verified that the procedure
is valid, and does indeed re-activate the serial number. Check out the article here.
Intels new technique for securing E-Commerce transactions already caused quite a stir as the Pentium III presentations approached. Privacy advocates expected the readable serial number to act as a "permanent cookie" and to produce the completely transparent surfer. The processor manufacturer appeased with the guarantee, the user would have full control whether he would allow the read-out of the serial number. Once switched off, the corresponding processor command could not be activated until the next cold start.
This description has proved wrong. The processor expert of c't magazine, Andreas Stiller, has figured out a procedure to switch on the command for reading out the serial number by software. This procedure is based on specific features of the system architecture that are documented. They would have got around in cracker circles sooner or later. A spokesperson from Intel confirmed upon inquiry by c't, that the serial number can be re-activated this way.
I'm pretty paranoid myself, but I still want a 550MHz Pentium III. I have nothing to hide, I think.
P3 review and SSE info [9:30 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
AnandTech has a full review of the
Pentium III. I think good ole Andrawes helped out too. To be frank,
Anand's intros are my favorite parts to his review. Take the P3 review for instance:
We all remember the platform shoes, and the tacky suits on the bodies of the dancers that dominated the dance floor, bouncing to every bump of bass in the catchy beat of the Beegee's Stayin' Alive. No, we're not talking about your high school dances in the 70's, rather CPU manufacturer, Intel's MMX campaign of 1997.
Awesome. Now then, there has been much talk about those KNI/SSE instruction sets in the new chips (since there really isn't anything new about them). Ga'ash has the details.
One of the most notable differences between SSE and 3DNow is the addition of 8 new 128bit "vector" registers. Unlike 3DNow's SIMD implementation which uses the 8 existing FP/MMX 64bit registers, SSE will have its own dedicated set of registers in order to minimize mode switching and maximize parallelism between FP, MMX, and SIMD instructions. Applications which make extensive use MMX and SIMD will benefit from the new registers.
Deus Ex update [9:00 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
The ISDInfomant
has an update from each of the Deus Ex crew on this 3D RPG in the making. Sounds
like they're really working!
TNT... SLI [7:25 pm] - Clay "Huntsman" Mitchell
Couldn't find sCary around so I had to stick this up myself.
I'll let Amer from Sharky Extreme (cool friggin
site) take it from here:
Now that the hooplah of "Voodoo 3 Day" has subsided, we turned our attention towards the other chipset manufacturer, nVidia. In our quest to dig up more information on their upcoming TNT 2, however, we stumbled onto a little surprise... and oh how surprised we were. We'll sum it in two acronyms: TNT SLI.
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/metabyte_tntsli_p/
Guys, I'll be back later... gotta go clean up :)
Majesty: Actually, I'm here now. I feel asleep :| Oh, and "Metabyte" SLI looks great. They have some smart cookies at the Wicked3D board company.
The internal code name for the Metabyte project is "Step Sister" (don't ask us, no one we talked to remembers where this name originated from) and it heralds a new dawn as far as linked high-powered video options go. Our Metabyte sources answered "Yes, yes, and yes" when asked if it was possible for the Step Sister program to be adapted to work with the S3 Savage 4, 3Dfx Voodoo3, TNT2, or another brand new chip architecture. Although it's unlikely in Metabyte's mind that they'll do a Savage4 or Voodoo3-based SLI product...
Uh, yeah. I think it's unlikely that 3Dfx would allow another OEM in North America to make boards. So how much is this tech worth to ya?
Voodoo3 @ Shack [6:15 am]
A number of webmasters were invited down to Dallas, Texas
last week to check out the soon to be released Voodoo3 cards. Luckily enough my humble
little page was the ticket to get into this little shindig. Co-written with the new
hardware guy here, Marcus Yam. We've
put together a nice look at the Voodoo3 including benchmarks @ 450mhz. (For those who
didn't catch that, it's 450MHz - Maj.)
In the middle of development of the Voodoo3, 3dfx announced the purchase of STB. There were several implications in this purchase. Firstly 3dfx now has complete control of their products, from design to completion to distribution in the retail market. What seperates STB from other video card manufacturers is the fact that STB owns their own assembly lines. With this power, STB has always been capable of quick turn-around times on orders from OEM manufacturers. Consequently STB has a large share of the OEM market while companies such as Diamond, Creative, and Canopus all do not have this advantage.
Savage4 [10:15 am]
Saw this on AGN: 3DSpotlight
has posted an interview with S3 on the subject of their Savage 4 chip. Here is a
bit from the interview
Q: How will the Savage4 PRO stand against the Rage128, TNT2 and Voodoo3 in terms of features?
A: All-around, we have a better feature set than any of these three products. If you look at Voodoo3's feature set for example, 3Dfx does not support 32-bit color, 32MBs, textures larger than 256x256, digital flat panel, accelerated DVD, etc.
Wheel of Time Screenshots [6:15 am]
The Unreal engine based game, Wheel of Time from Legend Entertainment is looking
pretty straight up dope and fly. Thanks to Demandred for sending word on the new images.
After the completion of this project, the Legend guys will be taking on Unreal2.
Ass-Wack Links [8:15 am]
With the help of all you folks out there digging up crazy
stuff on the web every day, I've got a
few more wackass links for you guys to check out this week on the web. Just cuz I'm an
asshole, I call it wednesday.htm even though it is updated on Tuesdays now :)
Industry Interview part2 [6:15 am]
Part 2 of the 3DN Industry Interview article
has been posted. With bits from tons of employees and several game companies. Check out
the second set of questions sent off to the likes or Raven and id Software among others.
We continue our industry interview where we left off yesterday. Adrian Chmielarz from Metropolis, Scott Herrington of Shiny, Robert Stevenson of Interactive Magic, Paul Steed from id Software, Raven's John Scott, Paul Butterfield of Monolith, Legend's Glen Dahlgren, and ElectroTECH's Alan Gassanov give their opinion.
Question 3: About 3D-Sound.
Question 4: About game packaging and eye candy
Quake3 Footage [YESTERDAY]
(Carried over from yesterday) RB-Anubis spotted
this bit on ZDNet which has some more footage of Quake3. I
havent had a chance to check it out yet but Anubis says it looks new and he also said he's
pretty sure he spotted the lightning gun in there. Forward to about 1minute 20seconds into
the video. Make sure you've got a RealPlayer too. All
the folks on the Quake3
messageboard are just going googly over it. Also here is some other formats of the
footage from 3DN via Blue:
56kbps (modem, single ISDN): [stream] [download ZIP] (197KB)
80kbps (dual ISDN, slow cable, slow xDSL): [stream] [download ZIP] (474KB)
220kbps (ethernet, fast cable, T3): [stream] [download ZIP] (1.15MB)
400kbps (keep it for posterity): [stream] [download ZIP] (2.32MB)
SIN v1.3 Soon [6:15 am]
Word from Ritualistic
is that a new version of SIN, v1.3 to be exact should be released in the near future.
-Sin update 1.03 This is the update that we will issue this week including EAX, AMD3DNOW, some bug fixes and maintenance. If they don't have 1.03 installed they should download the patch. You need to at least have 1.01 before you install 1.03 because 1.03 does not have the pak4 from 1.01.
-WoS 1.03 final. WoS includes the 1.01 patch assets (the new maps from pak4)
Views [6:15 am]
Tech [6:15 am]
y0
Dead tired. Was rectifying odd problems (as opposed to
normal ones), V3 preview stuff, making graphs and charts...all that fun stuff.
Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime is the sound of late.
werd
Awww jeah, I've sucked down way more cherry pepsi than the
surgeon general suggests.
I hope you guys enjoy the Voodoo3 review. The benchmarking section is really not what I had hoped for, but of course when the full retail version of the Voodoo3 is out there with more refined drivers, we can give it another stab. Hey, my grandma is for sale.
| Monday, February 22 |
Aliens vs Predator Demo [11:35 pm]
Got another new demo of the Aliens
vs Predator title for you guys to check out. This time you get to play the Alien and
whoop up on some ass. It's a 30meg demo so go do something productive like watch TV while
you wait for the download.
Fox Interactive's Alien vs. Predator combines elements from the Alien and Predator movies for a game of survival. Choose one of three first-person gaming perspectives and experience a completely different 3D world of fright. Become the Alien and your arsenal will include a lethal set of claws, two lethal sets of jaws, a forceful tail, and unique wall-crawling abilities. Become the Predator, the ultimate hunter, and find yourself armed with wrist blades, a shoulder cannon, and other savage energy and projectile weapons. Or choose to be the Colonial Marine and use your military training and heavy ordnance to stay alive
Voodoo3 or TNT? [11:35 pm]
Saw this one on VE, In case you were confused, a TNT is
nowhere close to a Voodoo3 in speed. Of course you can't guy a Voodoo3 yet, but it's just
a couple of weeks away. Here is an article on
Riva3D on the topic:
First off, this card is unbelievably fast. Especially so considering that the drivers are beta 1 level, and the card used here came off a test run at the plant. To give you an idea of what the V3 can do in a high end machine, the test unit in Dallas (obviously in a high-end P2) scored 3900+ on 3DMark 99 at 640x480. What's just plain scary is the fact that there's more horsepower left to be tapped, and in comparison to a TNT speed-wise, the V3 handily outguns the TNT anywhere from 30-50%, depending on the application.
Suck! [11:35 pm]
Just to be safe I've gone ahead and pushed the Voodoo3 article back another day. Majesty
is hax0ring away on some graphics right now and I'm busting out with some late night suckage. It's online now so
have a look and tell me what a whiney bitch I am!
Voodoo3 Reviews [1:35 pm]
Word from 3dfx is that the Voodoo3 articles around the web are going live. The article
here won't be online for a few hours, but you can check out the 3dfx list of articles and find your
favorite one.
AMD K6-3 Released [1:05 pm]
Here you go, a link to the official
press release from AMD.
The AMD-K6-III/450 processor is priced at $476, and the AMD-K6-III/400 processor is priced at $284, each in 1,000-unit quantities.
Soldier or Fortune Interview & Shots [10:05 am]
The guys at GameLinks.net have a Soldier of Fortune feature going this week. The front page features a pair of new screenshots from
the Raven Software Q2 engine based title, and
they've posted an interview
with Kenn Hoekstra to kick things off for the week. Check out screenshot1 and screenshot2
We've been working on Soldier of Fortune for quite some time now. At the time we started the project, using the Quake III code was not an option for us. We wanted to start on the game right away with completed technology. That's why we chose Quake II as opposed to Quake III
Industry Interview [6:15 am]
3DNews.net is busting out
with a gigantic Industry Interview asking 10 questions with members from several
different successful or soon to be successful gaming companies. Here is the list straight
from Blue: Adrian Chmielarz from Metropolis,
Scott Herrington of Shiny, Robert Stevenson of Interactive Magic, Paul Steed from id Software, Raven's
John Scott, Paul Butterfield of Monolith, Legend's Glen Dahlgren, and ElectroTECH's Alan Gassanov. Here's a quote on
system requirements:
Paul Steed, id Software
Upgrading machines is an inevitability. With the cost of new systems becoming lower and lower, the choice of whether to upgrade becomes a question of 'when'. Since the development of a game takes on average 18 to 24 months, by the time the game comes out there are plenty of compatible machines out there to run it.
John Scott, Raven Software
If people want games that can be played on their low end machines, they can buy PC games from the time their PC was "high end". This also improves the shelf life of a game considerably. With the speed of development of computer hardware, and the relative timescale of game production, it makes it difficult to actually judge what a typical machine is at the point you will be released.
3dfx & AMD [6:15 am]
Billy spotted this little PR number from 3dfx. Not really
sure if we will ever see any actual improvements, but here's hoping. :)
All 3Dfx Interactive accelerators, including the currently available Voodoo Banshee™ and Voodoo2™, have been optimized for 3DNow! technology. The optimizations will particularly benefit the new Voodoo3 product family, recently unveiled by 3Dfx to deliver the world’s fastest 3D and 2D performance and support ultra high-resolution displays. All of the application programming interfaces (APIs) supported by Voodoo3 – including Microsoft®’s DirectX®, Glide® from 3Dfx and OpenGL® from Silicon Graphics – have been optimized for 3DNow! technology
Also of note is the K6-3 is supposed to be unveiled today. I'll have any info on that when it becomes available.
Soldier of Fortune Info [6:15 am]
It looks like we'll finally be getting some more cool information on Soldier of Fortune.
The current Quake2 engine based title under wraps over at Raven Software. After having a
look at what those guys pulled of with Heretic2, SoF should be the bizomb. Here is the
.plan update from Eric Biessman with the word.
Shack Hardware [6:15 am] - Clay [R2]Huntsman
Mitchell
What's that tingling in my stomach? Either the peppers and
anchovies from Bob's Pizza Shack last night are acting up, or its time to catch a new
edition of the Shugashack
Hardware page! (Ok I watch to much Talk Soup). Anyway, we've got a new addition, the
long awaited sound system choices. I'm currently lusting after these. Check those out. Who needs a
pitiful 4 speakers?
Views [6:15 am]
Tech [6:45 am]
Quake Tourneys [1:41 am]
Got a couple of tourneys and results for you guys. I'm thinking I'll start trying to cover
this stuff a bit more, considering I play in half of these damn things anyways huh?
werd
Yummy! Monday! The voodoo3 article here is gonna run a little late into the afternoon,
couple of dorky delays with graphics and benchmark crap to always mess stuff up. Haven't
done a hardware article here before so I want to make sure it's done right the first time
:)
Suckage after breakfast, a bit more news updates as well.
| Sunday, February 21 |
Blood2 Pack Info [6:45 am]
The PlanetBlood
guys have whipped up just about all the info you could want on the upcoming mission pack
for Blood2. They also posted an updated walkthrough yesterday as well.
The official Monolith pack will be named Blood2: Nightmares. And to get you acquainted with Lith's latest, I've whipped up some game information sections about it. Enjoy, and if you have any info, let me know!
Enemies Multiplayer Models Screenshots Story Weapons Wishlists
AMD K6-3 Soon [6:45 am]
Check out the article Billy spotted
on the next-gen CPU from AMD we might be able to get our grubby little hands on soon.
The AMD (NYSE:AMD) chip has a new three-level cache design, which integrates 256KB of Level 2 cache and includes an additional external 512KB of Level 3 cache, both of which increase performance. The chip will support up to 2MB of Level 3 cache.
The 400MHz K6-III, priced at $284, will begin shipping this month. A 450MHz version, priced at $476, will be available next month, said AMD officials. Also due this month is a 450MHz K6-2 chip; the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's next-generation K-7 chip is slated for release at the end of the second quarter
KingPin [6:45 am]
The recently opened Gangland
has posted another interview. This time they get a hold of the CEO of
Xatrix Entertainment and bust his chops for some info on the hopefully soon to be
released KingPin.
Slade: Recently a lot of game companies have been taking heat for releasing games that have had a lot of bugs, and in some cases a patch was needed to finish the game. What steps if any are you taking to ensure this doesn't happen with Kingpin.
Drew Markham: I know that this won't be an answer that most people want to hear, but this situation isn't going to get any better with time, for us or any other developer. Every title that we start is much more difficult than the one that preceeded it. There's the new technology curve, the fact that somebody else's game will do some cool little thing that everyone expects you to have in yours, models get more complex, textures have to approach photo-realism, on and on. The only real way to put out a bug-free title is to make it, finish it, test the crap out of it and fix all of the mistakes. That, or just doing a "cookie-cutter" game that essentially rips-off a proven title with cosmetic changes. Unfortunately, there are very few developers in the biz right now who can afford to do that.<snip>
Amazing! an honest answer? Can it be?
CliffyB & Unreal Tournament [6:45 am]
Blue spotted this 10 question interview with
CliffyB of Epic Games.
Q: Hey, I'm a Multi Player mad man............why the hell should I pass up all those other cool DM games coming out and buy your stuff?
A: Because, in addition to having that kick-ass single player tourney, UT offers loads of online gaming goodness for the hardcore DM monkey. First, the weapons rock. Unloading the new Flak Cannon into someone's face is joy-inducing...the recoil of the gun, the high-res skin that shows peeling metal, and the explosion of body parts...Second, the incredible variety of environments means that you'll always find a game online that you want to jump into, be it CTF, Domination, FFA Deathmath, or Assault! Finally, the net performance is so damned good now that you'll be able to find oodles of servers to jump onto and kick butt!
KNI vs 3DNow! [6:45 am]
VoodooExtreme has all kinds of
quotes from Tim Sweeney discussing AMD's 3DNow! technology and the KNI instruction set
that is included with the soon to be officialy released Pentium3 CPU.
Ok, to summarize: 3DNow can handle four simultaneous operations per clock cycle, but only with 4 sets of registers, only if both operations are not both multiplies, and also not adds, but not on Tuesdays where the date is divisible by 5 but not one greater than an odd prime number except for 31, void where prohibited, and you must be a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old to enter
Views [6:45 am]
Tech [6:45 am]
Yo [5:44
am]
Jawbreaker is a horrible movie. Office Space is pretty good though for the first 3/4ths or
so.
Contemplating some format changes. The page is looking awful out dated and it's time for a make-over. If you guys have any suggestions feel free to drop me a line. I apologize in advance for not responding to everyone though. :)
Sorry about the Quake3 messageboard being offline for so long yesterday. Don't know what was wrong... Doh.
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