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Daikatana Delayed
ION Storm's Daikatana project has had the release date pushed back all the way to September according to this OGR article by Doug Ratcliff. :(
There are some new renderings though for you to look at. The only Quake / Quake2 engine based games I know of now that havent been delayed are SiN from Ritual, and Duke4 from 3DR.
Interviews
Yup, weekends sure are slow. Just a few interviews for you to read though:
Preview / Review Land
What everyone else (Usually Tom) is saying about the games you play and the hardware you use:
Prey FAQ
The official Prey FAQ has been updated to version 1.2 now. 3DR has been a bit hush hush about Prey recently, maybe they are about to release? heh, ok maybe not.
TF Ring
Here is the email I got from Spaceman Spif:
Greetings!
It is my great honor to announce that the Team Fortress 2 Ring is now open for business! This ring is for TF 2 as well as TF 1 sites and replaces the first Team Fortress ring. A few enhancements have been made to the ring as a whole, including a hot new site!
The location is http://tf2ring.quake2fortress.com. This is a gift to the community from the guys at the TF Newswire http://tfnewswire.tfdomain.com .... Enjoy!
Messageboards
.plan Wagon
werd
Well, figured out why several of my links all of a sudden broke, the path on the box my web page was hosted on got moved up a directory, really messed up all those local url's. I'll see if I can get that fixed.
Also, I've been struggling with an appealing way to have the update tracker thing going. I just want something subtle in the corner that will notify people if the page has been updated in the 6hour timeslot. It's always the simple things.. blech.
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Preview / Review Land -updated
What everyone else is saying about the games you play and the hardware you use. (Or would like to play, and would like to use.. heh)
We have been working very hard to design the best Voodoo 2 board and to deliver it as soon as possible to our customers. Pure3D II will be our own original design, incorporating the innovative features that you have come to expect from Canopus. We have been evaluating a lot of new ideas to achieve this, but we still need more time to decide the final specification.
3D Exposed
A great article which I figure all of you puds should read, "3D Exposed" the 2nd part has been posted on GameSpot. Keep in mind, when I refer to you as a pud, it gives me this warm little fuzzy feeling. Well, except for Wieder.. that guy drives a truck. wtf? -Redwood's
VRGN Q2 64 Player Server
Chris Roberts has setup a 64player server on the 10mbit side of the VRGN connect while the routing for the 45mbit side is worked out. Make sure and connect to 209.39.134.5 for some 64player action. :)
The DM and CTF servers at VRGN are damn full 24hours a day btw..
TeamFortress
Moriarty dropped me some email about his website at http://citadel.tfdomain.com and he sweet talked me just enough so that I felt obligated to link his page right up here. :) It's a Team Fortress oriented website with strategy tips and even a few stories for ya.
Hardware
While the 3D board market is always competitive, the new launch of Voodoo 2 has caused some rather serious squabbles and allegations to fly between several OEMs and 3Dfx. The brunt of the complaints leveled at 3Dfx stem from a lack of shipment in volume to the majority of the OEMs. Currently the only board manufacturers who have received allocation are Creative Labs (whose board hit shelves earlier this week) and Diamond (whose board will hit shelves in mid-March). In the mean time, several of the OEMs Next Generation Online spoke to were promised allocation in volume by the end of March. As such, these OEMs went out and sold to distributors upon this presumption only to be told recently by 3Dfx that they would in fact not be getting allocation until much later. How much later? Well, the OEMs still don't know.
Screenshots
Purty pictures:
Releases
Interviews
Sites
.plan Wagon
As far as binding
a key to the grapple goes, that was a pretty weak excuse, but to be fair I will help my fellow boat rocker in his time of need and share the secret to grappling success.
alias +grap "use grapple; +attack"
alias -grap "-attack"
bind mouse1 "+attack"
bind mouse2 +grap
bind mouse3 "weapnext"
there you go. the uberconfig for your three button mouse. Now if only instant weapon switching existed in q2, mouse3 might be more useful ... but for now it's really only good if you only have one or two other weapons.
werd
Heh.. well it seems everyone wants a VooDoo2 for a prize in a Quake tournament.. that's fine and dandy guys, but try and think a little bit bigger eh? Hm.. ok, let's put a $3,000 price cap on the 1st place prize, think of something cool.
btw, I got this cold sore.. it TOTALLY SUCKS.. that and I hit my damn toe on the table.
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Hexen2World "Soon"
Rick Johnson of Raven Software has word in his recent .plan update on the status of the Hexen2World project:
We are going to try to have a private alpha test of h2w over the weekend of March 7-8. This private alpha test will only include the software renderer and the demo levels. A server version will not be released (which dictates you must connect to a server we will be running).
If you wish to be considered for the testing, you must be on a modem connection from 28.8 to 56 kbps. You must have an ok ping time to our internet (try pinging to mail.ravensoft.com). You must also be able to retrieve files via ftp.
If you meet those requirements, send an email to h2w@mail.ravensoft.com with the following info:
Name
Age
Location in the world
Amount of experience with quake1, quakeworld, quake2
Ping results from pinging mail.ravensoft.com (paste the whole contents from the dos prompt)
Computer specs (processor type, speed, ram, modem speed)
Operating System (Win95 / NT4)
Do not expect an email response, as I'm sure I will get swamped. I will be selecting around a dozen or so individuals. Also, this is not a firm date for when it will be tested, but just a likely date as the way things appear to be working out.
Daikatana II
GameSpot has posted an article talking with John Romero with some inital talk about the Daikatana 2 project. Apparently Daikatana2 will most likely be using the Epic Megagames Unreal engine.
Riot: Mobile Armor
The official Riot: Mobile
Armor page, has been updated with 8 new in game screenshots. You can see all of the
new shots here: http://riot.lith.com/shots
. The weekly shot has also been updated with this very cool shot here: http://riot.lith.com/weekly.asp?pic=14,
which shows the Ordog firing rockets. Incase you haven't already heard we have posted
movies that show off some of the animation of the enemies. You can read the update and
view the movies here: http://riot.lith.com/new
BSP Q2 CTF Support
BSP HeardQuarters has posted the new entity set for BSP users to use when attempting to create Quake2 CTF maps.
VooDoo2 Stuff
A number of VooDoo2 related happenings:
Here are all the Voodoo2 variables stored. You've got two different folders:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\3Dfx Interactive\Voodoo2\D3D and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\3Dfx Interactive\Voodoo2\Glide. Right click on one folder after the other, selecting 'New' -> 'String Value'. Call the new variable 'SSTV2_GRXCLK', which will then show up in the list of variables, with the value "". Now double click on the 'SSTV2_GRXCLK' variable name in the list and enter the number you want the clock to run at. Default is '90' for 90 MHz. I have tried up to 100 MHz so far. The percentual framerate improve you get is less than the percentage of the increase in clock speed. Voila, now you only close the registry editor and your Voodoo2 board will run at the new clock speed as soon as you start a game, you don't need to restart your computer. I'm sure that there will soon be special software available which does this registry editing for you. Diamond promised me a slider in the display properties for the Monster 3D II. Thomas Pabst
Oh.. and no.. I'm not going to tell you how to edit your registry. Also, for that guy who emailed me not knowing what Linux is, nosir you don't need it. I would have answered your email directly but YOUR DAMN RETURN ADDRESS WAS WRONG.
Interviews
Speaking of Legend Entertianment, they are looking for some help over at the http://www.wheeloftime.com/ homepage. This is your shot at working for a game company, w00.
Downloads
Preview / Review Land
What everyone else is saying about the games you play and the hardware you use:
.plan Wagon
Yea, guess what.. my .plan tracker isnt updating again.. aint that peachy?
Contests
werd -updated
Well, there ya go.. the Wack Links have finally been updated, omg!
This image though, has to be my absolute favorite. heh
Damn it, I'm hungry. I'm gonna go grab some Ramen or something and update the pages a bit more in an hour or so. I'll have the new links for you to enjoy as well. :)
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Preview / Review Land -updated
What everyone else is saying about the games you play and the hardware you use:
Verite GL Driver
Rendition has released an alpha driver for their Verite chipset over on the www.rendition.com website, go to the download page and snag a copy. -Blue's
This ICD release provides full accelerated OpenGL support under both Windows 95 and NT. As this is an alpha release, some features have not been implemented yet, andmany bugs may still exist. Be sure to read the included release notes before using.
Trinity Pics
Paul Steed sent Sharky over at VooDoo Extreme some new screenshots of "Tina's Sister" here is a quote from Mr. Steed:
I made her to be seen close-up at NTSC scale (720 x 486) so her face is mapped at about 800 x 600. She's also about 6 inches taller than Trina, but voluptuous nonetheless since hasn't undergone any sort of rack reduction :p
And here is one of the 3 shots. Check out VE for the other 2.
MarkD on SiN
Mark Dochterman of Ritual made a lengthy post to the aCtivision message board addressing a few questions on SiN, thanks to HardCorps SiN News.
Hopefully the LAST word on co-op:
As of right now Sin will include a co-op mode. I don't exactly know how the rumor got started that Sin wouldn't have a co-op mode, but I think it stems from the fact that due to Sin's different more single-player orientated gameplay, co-op presents several problems.
The problems I am referring to, is the fact that we go out of our way to make the SINGLE player experience really memorable. In this regard we often do things to change the flow of the level dynamically. Now if a bunch of people are playing a level, and you all stick together for the most part, everything will work great. If on the other hand, you separate completely and run around the level going nuts, there may be some continuity problems. We aren't going to fix these problems, because as much as we'd like to, Sin is a single-player game first, a multi-player game second and a co-operative experience third. Now, that doesn't mean that co-op is going to suck, it won't. The AI deals with multiple enemies at a time, so shear number of "players" is not a problem. It just means that co-op won't be as cohesive a game as single player will.
Any other questions let me know.
Re: client-side DLLs:
We have talked exetensively of doing client side DLL's in Sin. That was our plan from day one, when Sin was going to use Java for all game and client code. Unfortunately client side dll's will probably not make it into the initial release of Sin for two reasons:
1. The time it will take to implement another API, just isn't there.
2. Security. It is one thing to have a server with a custom DLL, but another to have every machine in the game have to have a new DLL. In order to make the DLL's safe an online review board would have to be setup to take a look at each dll, to make sure it isn't formatting your hard-drive. Frankly, I just don't see this as a good solution in the near future. I REALLY want to give you the flexibility to program your own client-side effects, but I just don't think it is going to happen with Sin. I will tell you that the client-side effects we do have are a lot more powerful than the ones in Q2. We learned from Scourge of Armagon, how important localized "flash" can be in improving server performance.
Quake2 v3.13 / CTF / Linux
First off, Disruptor sent out word that the latest patch for Quake2 has been released. There are 2 different downloads for you to grab. Thanks to Ant, Zakna, John Cuyle, and TitusC. :)
Quake2 patch:
- The version
3.12 to version 3.13 patch. (550k)
- The full update from retail version to latest
version. v3.10 to 3.13 (9 megs)
Quake2 CTF version v1.0 to v1.01
- The version 1.0 to version 1.01 patch. (270k)
Quake2 for Linux version 3.13
- The full patch. (9 megs)
Here is a bit snipped out of the readme for this new patch:
NOTE: This patch IS NOT COMPATIBLE with your current saved games! DO NOT install this patch if you MUST be able to resume previously saved games!
This patch will upgrade you from v3.12 to v3.13. Please note, you should have downloaded the point release (q2_312.exe), prior to using this patch.
Please run q2_312to313.exe and extract the contents to the root of your Quake II directory.
.plan Followup
On this glorious occasion of the file releases from id, the boys over there decided to do the old .plan update thang as well.
Version 3.13 of Quake2 is being released as I'm typing this. For all of you with enquiring minds, I'm posting a log of changes since 3.10. It's in no particular order. I plan to release the game dll source in a day or two.
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Please stop getting all bent out of shape if you send me a bug report and I don't respond. That doesn't mean I didn't get it, didn't read it, or don't care. I get over a hundred emails a day, many more right after a release, so there is no way I could respond to them all. I do respond to quite a few emails, but I guess percentage-wise I don't do so well. One more thing, I despise fake email addresses and usually just delete the message. Spam by any other name still ain't real meat.
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A couple more points before the list. Spelling mistakes are not bugs. A feature that doesn't work the way you would have made it work is not a bug. A feature that we decided not to implement is not a bug. No high bit characters in names; we decided that a long time ago and made use of the alternates to make things more readable. We are open to suggestions, but don't take it so personal if we decide not to do it.
Quake2 Stuff -updated
Interviews -updated
Doh, forgot to add these interviews last night:
WinGlide
An amazingly cool little DLL that lets you use your 3dfx to render scenes then blit them back to your 2d card for 3d rendering in a window. VooDoo Software has posted a new version of WinGlide. This new version boasts increased performance over the previous version, and is now at the big version 1.0. w00.
Patches
werd
Aha! The link to Tuesday's weekly section was incorrect (Oh, and yes the "If I were king" section does pretty much reflect on the fact that I want to rule the world, who doesnt though?) , thanks to John for dropping me a line. Today is Wednesday, so that means it is demo day. I'll have something for you guys to download.
I spoke with the VRGN at length yesterday and I ran over a few ideas with them. They like what I would like to do with the pages, so expect some changes during the week. I will be implementing a "update tracker" which will be the main thing. This means I will be scheduling updates during timeframes. 3 updates a day, every day. in 6 hour time brackets.
Also, I have begun work on a VRGN Quake1 tournament. I have quite a budget to work with, so if you have anything you think that would be cool to win in a Quake tournament, lemme know. (I have cash, but would like to send people on trips etc)
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MegaMaps
To celebrate the occasion of the release of id's "megamaps" here is Paul Jaquays .plan update:
MEGAMAPS -- THEY'RE HERE!!:
In case you missed Christian's .plan announcement yesterday, the megamaps are available for download. Special thanks to those of you who have written and expressed your enthusiasm for these maps. Nice to know that my work is appreciated by you guys and gals ... and that I make the best Death Match maps ever made. :0)
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Positive or negative, I'd love to hear your critiques on the mega-maps.
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Q2 NEWS & STUFF:
Slowly cranking away on my Mission Pack unit. Just ripped out a bunch of stuff because it added size without adding fun (they were mostly duplicated hallway modules).<snip>
Paul also touches on the fact that people still dont understand how to put a correct working email address in their email prog so that he can actually reply to you. If you havent correctly configured your email prog so that a reply works, then you are a moron. Plain and simple. I'd send you an email about it but I don't know your damn address!J#K$
(Sorry.. heh, this irks me a bit too)
Patches
.plan Wagon
Few other .plan updates of note as well:
Hardware
Screen Shots
Some new screenshots of a couple games for you fellas to look at:
Sites
werd
Heh.. VD Extreme.. no that wasn't on purpose... Sometimes you guys give me more credit than I deserve :)
Oh.. guess what, I forgot all about what to do with the weekly demos section.. I mean, you guys must be totally sick of seeing demos from my perspective.. All I play now is Clan Arena these days. If you guys have any ideas or preferences for what type of demo, just drop me a note. Don't you even DARE attach a demo to email though.
Ah, another minor note, yea we are still on the lookout for hpb's in Clan r3v. Our lpb squad is pretty solid now. Guess what though, don't email me about it, Look for Fatality|r3v on west.gamesnet.net in the #clan_r3v channel. The clan is highly competetive, if you are a casual player please don't waste Fatality's time. :)
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Quake2 64 Player Maps
Disruptor sent out this mail with the news that id Software has released 3 new maps for 64 player Quake2 mayhem:
Here are three large deathmatch maps that we've cooked up for Quake II. It is recommended that, as a client, you have at least 32 megs of RAM to use these maps. As a server, you should get the beefiest processor and as much memory as you can get your hands on if you wish to run a 64 player server. In tests that we ran here at id, a PPro200 peaks at about 50 clients, and our 400mhz Alpha started sweating at about 64 players.
The maps should be extracted to your \quake2\baseq2\maps directory and they are named as follows;
base64.bsp - Tim Willits
city64.bsp - Paul Jaquays
sewer64.bsp - Christian Antkow
These three maps run in a loop.
Enjoy,
-Xian
While you are at it, check out this web page that Disruptor has been working on to display Quake2 servers.
Unreal Bot
If there was any doubt that Unreal would take advantage of hiring Steven Polge a while ago. (Author of the famouse Quake1 reaper bot, the most used DM bot to date.) Well, Cliffy of Epic answered this question on the MegaBoard that should excite some people:
Q: Will there be an automated deatmatch player like the ReaperBot? A: Yup.
Cliff
Patches
Doh, I forgot a section in this mornings update.. here ya go:
Preview / Review Land -updated
What everyone else is saying about the games you play and the hardware you use:
More Q2
Several items of note pertaining to Quake2 and the point release etc:
Don't send any bug reports on the 3.12 release to me, I just forward them over to jcash. He is going to be managing all future work on the Quake 2 codebase through the mission packs. I'm working on trinity.
3.12 answered the release question pretty decisively for me. We were in code freeze for over two weeks while the release was being professionally beta tested, and all it seemed to get us was a two week later release.
Future releases are going to be of the fast/multiple release type, but clearly labeled as a "beta" release until it stabilizes. A dozen professional testers or fifty amature testers just can't compare to the thousands of players who will download a beta on the first day.
I have spent a while thinking about the causes of the patches for Q2. Our original plan was to just have the contents of 3.12 as the first patch, but have it out a month earlier than we did.
The first several patches were forced due to security weaknesses. Lesson learned -- we need to design more security conscious to try to protect against the assholes out there.
I'm doing some work on a webpage to display a list of servers from our Quake II master, however, by default, dedicated servers do not report their presense to our master.
If you would like for your server to start reporting to our master, "set public 1" in the console of your dedicated server (by default, servers run at "public 0"; They don't report to us).
I should have more news in a few days, and thanks in advance for your co-operation.
VooDoo2
Guess what this is, VooDoo2 related stuff! :
PII 266 OC 300 Asus MB with the FX chipset 128Meg EDO 50ns WD 6.4gig UDMA Matrox Millenium II for 2d
Wizmark=122,573
Quake 1: 640x480=118Fps
Dual Cards in SLI mode
Wizmark=137,545
Quake 1: 640X480=124Fps
1024x768=107Fps
The day of Voodoo2 is at hand.. I'm working with OEMs to bring you all the straight poop on the new cards, and a few articles on what Voodoo2 will and won't do for you. There's been a lot of speculation about SLI/AGP configurations and exactly what they're good for. I can tell you this; a low-end system (P90-P133) will benefit from Voodoo2, but to REALLY see the peformance you need to eliminate the CPU bottleneck and upgrade your system. But, ANY system with Voodoo2 will run at 800x600 faster than Voodoo can run 640x480.
WinDoom
Bruce Lewis sends along word that he has released a new version of his WinDoom project, along with the source code for all you hax0rs to get your hands on.
Hexen2 Level
HexenWorld sent out mail about a new Hexen2 level "The Temple Of Chaos", Egyptian theme, medium size, no puzzles but lots o' Brutal Pain and Death (tm). let the map speak for itself... You can also get the file locally. http://www.hexenworld.com/files/temchaos.zip
Interviews
Sites
Here ya go, more web sites for you guys to visit:
werd
Ill be damned, QuakeFinger is working again. Thanks to dwoemer for fixing it right under my nose. :)
Yes, take note, the weekly sections are officially revived as of this Monday. Due to a flurry of email telling me that Stuff that Sucks must stay, I guess it will stay and lead off our Monday mornings the way they should, in suckness :)
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