go to www.shugashack.com for up to date news.
| Saturday, February 6 |
P3 Design [5:15 pm]
Majesty sent word of this URL which shows of some new pictures
of the P3. Here's what Marcus had to say:
The the casing, unlike the P2s, now expose the cache chips and the core. That's due to cooling needs. On the last pic, the specs of the CPU were listed. Funny, P3s are supposed to run at 1.8v core, whereas the picture indicates 2.0v. Engineering sample?
Diamond v550 Drivers [5:15 pm]
Keep forgetting to mention this one, there are some new drivers for the
Diamond TNT v550 card out there. I got some mail warning of possible problems with
Quake2 acceleration, but havent had any myself.
Kali v1.62 [5:15 pm]
The latest version of Kali
is out offering support for TRIBES. Kali of course support play of just about any
multiplayer game you can think of for play over the net. Including those old IPX only
games you thought you could never play over the internet with. Grab the full version or the patch.
PingTool v2.5 [10:15 am]
If you just can't wait for GameSpy support of TRIBES (coming
soon) the PingTool guys have already included it in
the latest version of their server browser utility. Here is the direct file link.
Romero Chat Log [10:15 am]
Thanks to Spiderus for the heads up on the chat log from
yesterday's online chat with John Romero about the upcoming Daikatana DM demo. I for
one am really looking forward to the game.
DeadlyDAN: Why is Daikatana taking so long?!?
KingPin [10:15 am]
The GameCenter boys are the latest ones to take a look at KingPin coming our way
from Xatrix Entertainment.
Like so many other new games, Kingpin also promises to blend genres, mixing its action with some adventure and light role playing. For starters, players will have to gather and buy items to solve puzzles. They will also have a reputation that changes during the course of the game. "There will be certain guys who you'll try to hire and the guy will say something like, 'No, you're a punk,'" says Markham. "You'll go back to them later in the game and that same character will say, 'You're the guy who killed Nicky. Sure I'll run with you.'"
GameSpyder [6:25 pm]
From the ashes of Slipgate Central rises GameSpyder. It's a pretty good directory of all
websites that are gaming. You can even rate web pages from 1-10 to share your feelings
with the world.
Tech [10:15 am]
werd
Well I'm not sure what caused this one, but Pointlessaudio.com seems to be pointing to my
page. With the cancellation of Captain Immy's show I guess someone over there decided to
just point the domain here. I just want to say thanks for the sentiment whoever made that
happen :)
Oh btw, the latest Computer Gaming World has a copy of the MacWorld Quake3 AVI. It's nothing new though.
| Friday, February 5 |
TRIBES v1.2 [7:15 pm]
From the Planetstarsiege
guys: "The much awaited 1.2 patch for Starsiege
TRIBES has been released tonight and is available for download now! This is definitely
worth a download considering it has numerous server side fixes and a few on the client
side as well. Along with that this patch also includes a very cool "Buddy List"
so players can keep track of one an other.:
| 1.0 - 1.2 Patch ftp://ftp.cdrom.com ftp://ftp.epix.net |
1.1 - 1.2 Patch ftp://ftp.cdrom.com ftp://ftp.epix.net |
Redline Demo [6:55 pm]
Thanks to Lorien over at Gamers Alliance
for the word on the release.
The new Redline Single and Multi-player demos are now available at http://www.redline2066.com. The Single Player demo is 47 megs and includes two single player missions, two training levels, AND the new 8-player Multi-player demo. The Multi-Player only demo is 17 megs and contains only the new multi-player portion of the demo. The two demos are compatible so, with either one you will be able to play multi-player.
Multiplayer demo/ Singleplayer demo
Celery Cheap! [3:45 pm]
Redwood sent this
link that should interest all of you guys looking to buy that new gaming rig. The Intel Celeron CPU
prices are going to be dropping through the floor next week. Looks like the AMD guys
are following suit to stay competitive.
| Intel Celeron 400 MHz: From $170 to $140 366 MHz: From $130 to $100 333 MHz: From $90 to $70 300 MHz : From $71 to $60 |
AMD K6-2 400 MHz: drops to $60 380 MHz: drops to $55 366 MHz: drops to $50 333 MHz: drops to $40 |
Daikatana Shots [3:45 pm]
Mplayer.com/ActionXtreme has four new exclusive screenshots
online of John Romero's Daikatana, you can find them online at the Daikatana Deathmatch Tournament website
Screenshots [3:35 pm]
Insomnia Software shot out a few more screenshots of
Decay to the GA guys. Of course a couple of them are just new angles on the same room,
but 2 of them look like new rooms.
Also, SharkyExtreme has posted some screenshots of Outcast.
AMD Losing Money [1:15 pm]
Couple of pieces on the AMD
CPU front I didnt mention yesterday. First off check out the article on CNN (Thanks
Ariel) describing AMD and the current situation with them actually losing money.
Analysts said the warning stems from the fact that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based firm is currently engaged in a price war it cannot win unless it's able to make a dent in the high-end PC business.
Then you should check out the AMD roadmap that SharkyExtreme put up yesterday taking a look at AMD's plans for 1999.
Voodoo3 [10:05 am]
The FastGraphics guys got a good look at the upcoming
Voodoo3 recently, having talked to members of 3dfx getting as many details as they
can. There is also mention that 3dfx will most likely be unveiling another 3D chipset
which will be even more powerful (I assume) than the current announced line.
Tony and Nick made clear that Voodoo 3 is not the big thing that the hard core gamers are waiting for. If you have a SLI config, don't get Voodoo 3 is the advice. When asked if there's gonna be a product for the hardcore gamers we didn't get any direct answers, but it's clear that 3Dfx will come with a new chipset before the end of the years which is "supposed to satisfy the hardcore gamers"... I couldn't get more info, but Tony said that at E3 they would probably give more info.
You guys plan on getting a V3 anyways? Or just gonna get a TNT2 or Rage128?
Legal Battles [10:05 am]
Desslock has published a 5 page interview with
George Schultz, the lawyer acting for the plaintiffs in the famous Ultima Online
lawsuit, which discusses the terms of settlement, whether or not the lawsuit was a
success for the plaintiffs and other gamers and any lasting implications that the lawsuit
may have on the gaming industry. Thanks Lorien @ Gamers
Alliance
The PSX emulator lawsuit seems to have failed, which may or may not have an impact on the Nintendo plans to sue the authors of the recently released N64 emulator.
Quake3:Arena Shot [10:05 am]
The GameSpot UK Quake3 screenshots area
is online. You have to wade through a lot of old screenshots but if you're lucky you will
find one shot that apparently had not been released before.
Ion Storm Chats [10:05 am]
The MPlayer folks will be hosting
a chat with John Romero tonight for those of you interested in talking to John. The
hot topic of course will be the pending DM demo of Daikatana slated for release this
month. Show up around 4PM PST. After you've finished playing with John Romero, check out
the Ion Storm website for details on the Anachronox
development team chat which will go down at 6PM PST.
Weekly Mayhem [10:05 am]
What? That Britney Spears video isnt enough for you? You
need more reasons to live? I've got a
bunch of "real life" stuff to handle today. It's gonna have to be pushed back to
this evening. Sorry guys. :(
Views [10:15 am]
Tech [10:15 am]
The first program will let you change your front side bus speed on the fly! Now instead of having to reboot to test overclocked settings, you can do it from your desktop in Windows.
The second program will tell you all the details about your CPU.. all that information you really want to know (a lot of people have been asking me for a program like this)
The third program lets you see your current CPU speed.
The fourth program, one of my favorites, lets you adjust the L2 Cache Latency on the fly. This can help make your CPU more overclockable, because often times the L2 cache is the biggest factor limiting your maximum overclocked speed. This weekend I'll try bringing my old dusty P2 266 to 400 MHz and I bet using these utilities it will happen!
werd
Got a number of comments on the comments system. Here's the
list of stuff to add:
- Thread overview on a single page
- Counter on front page for # of comments
- Link to the other comments after posting your own
Oh yeah, and to answer a question I got yesterday quite a bit. I am in fact a professional poet. There is actually a poetry league where we attend tournaments around the world. It's really competitive. Our team didnt do very hot this season, but that just means we get to score the high draft picks for next season. Can't wait!
| Thursday, February 4 |
Steed Model [6:25 pm]
Doh, forgot to mention this one earlier. Steve over at NetCombat.net has posted a model from Paul Steed of id Software which may possibly be included in a
follow-up pack for Q3A.
Prax War? [2:25 pm]
Randy Pitchford of the recenty dissolved RBR game company
who were working on Prax War did an interview
with WarZone. Keep in mind Randy sent a statement to me stating that the RBR engine
technology is planned to still be completed by the programmers even though the game itself
has been cancelled.
Drakan Shots [12:25 pm]
Surreal Software has
released 4 new
screenshots of Drakan to the Gamers Source guys. shot1 , shot2 , shot3 , shot4
Developed by Surreal Software, Drakan is a 3D action adventure that catapults the player through a fantasy world on the back of a fire-breathing dragon. Over the course of nine intricate worlds filled with puzzles, traps, and fearsome enemies, Rynn, the heroine, and Arokh, her dragon companion, battle against the Dark Union
KingPin [11:55 am]
KingPin getting enough attention recently? The Stomped guys
have done up a interview with Drew
Markham, CEO of Xatrix Entertainment. Check out
the feature list:
32-bit color , True Gourard lighting on all models , Sprite effects, like coronas around lights, gun flares, etc. , Procedural smoke and fire effects , Fog , Environment mapping , Material differentiation (metal, concrete, wood, etc.) , Team AI functionality ,15-segment character models with location specific damage
Romero & Ion [9:15 am]
Hey, a test for the comments system! (look below) Got a .plan update
from our favorite rock star John Romero over at Ion
Storm talking about Daikatana which Ion Storm
is claiming we will have a demo in our hands in a matter of weeks. Here's a quote tallking
about one of the cool features in Daikatana. This idea actually was first mentioned by the
QTeam guys many moons ago, but what the hell.
Also, one of the cool features of Daikatana Deathmatch is that, depending on the number of maxplayers your server is set for, the map can open up new areas or keep them closed off. If you want your DM map to be scalable for 1-4 players, you just put in a special wall that blocks off access to the other areas if maxplayers = 4. Likewise for the other maxplayer levels (8, 16 and 32). This allows DM mappers to create one single map that is good for 2 players to 32 players! You'll see this feature in our Daikatana Deathmatch Demo...
The latest couple of issues of Ion Gate, part1 and part2, have been posted over at 3DN. Check out a quote of our man Sam in action talking about the recent CDMag article as well as FlameThrower busting out with some more email concerning Ion.
Computer Games Online recently visited Ion Storm's palatial offices in Dallas Texas, and they've put up a very amusing piece on the visit. Bear in mind while you read it that the deathmatch-only demo is coming out in two weeks! Being forced out the door, actually... since the AI is still missing, the Daikatana (weapon) isn't in the game yet, and the maps are still being built.
Unreal Tournament [7:45 am]
The GT Interactive monkeys have opened up the official
Unreal Tournament page which features a few new screenshots, a nifty screensave and a bit
more info on the game that most people probably didnt know. Check out the shockwave page or the no-shockwave page.
Oh yeah, check out this quote from the page you guys should enjoy:
Features:
FIRST tournament/arena 3-D shooter game of it's kind
OVER 30 unique levels - waterfronts, oil rigs, speeding trains, floating castles, pirate ships and much more.
I guess the GT guys are really trying to push the idea of "This is nothing like Quake3:Arena, honest!" on us eh?
Weekly Demos [10:45 pm]
I've got a grab bag of demos for you guys to check out today. Got a bunch of complaints from
people wanting DM clan demos, so I obliged. 1 demo is going to be a bit late today, but 2
others are already up.
Max Payne Shots [7:45 pm]
Copied this over from late last night: There are some new screenshots of Max Payne posted on the official website you guys should check out. The game
is looking just plain awesome. Here are my favorite three:
Doom & Duke Movies [7:45 am]
Saw a couple of blurbs on Blues
because of his deep hollywood contacts. :) Coming Attractions posted this
bit about the often rumored but never surfacing Doom movie:
Moe Lospinoso, one of the two producers of the Doom movie, contacted us today to announce that Todd McFarlane's deal has been finalized; in other words, McFarlane will be working on Doom movie. "We are very pleased to be working creatively with them," commented Lospinoso.
Then you should also check out Den's Daily Movie News which has a bit more info on the Duke Nukem movie.
Views [7:45 am]
Tech [7:45 am]
werd
Ok the comment links right now on the Ion story are a pretty
crude way of doing comments. Just testing how popular this would be. Will shoot for a
better interface, thread overview, and a couple of things assuming things go over well.
Doin anything cool? Hrm, pretty slow day. Time for some poetry!
You guys give me gas
(_o_)
Thats my ass
With the gas
When you pass
You think im crass?
Sometimes i go fishing for bass
Even back when i was a young lass
I liked the bass, i would place it in my ass
Makes for some nasty gas
Please dont harass my ass for the gas, give it some time. time will pass.
Then gas will pass through my ass
Yes, I'm a 13yr old trapped in a 22yr old's body.
| Wednesday, February 3 |
QuakeCon99 [2:41 pm]
The QuakeCon99
website is now online with a new look as well as some details on the id Software sanction
tournament / event to be held on August 5th - 8th. Tournament signups begin on April 9th.
Check out the list of sponsors they already have:
- id Software (heh)
- Activision (duh)
- AMD
- Apple
- ATI
Unreal Tournament Shots [11:41 am]
The GA-Source guys have scored a pair of Unreal Tournament
screenshots from the nice folks at GT. Here is shot1 and shot2
GameSpy & TRIBES [1:21 pm]
I'm not really sure who this guy is, but Jack Mathews
claiming to be a member of the GameSpy development team updated his .plan
file (strangely enough, hosted by gamespy.com) with some good news for TRIBES players.
Support in the next version to be released.
Cool news! Tim got Tribes support (when they release the next patch) put into GameSpy! Woo hoo! Now you can find your friends on there and stuff. Not quite sure when we'll be releasing it, just wanted you all to know it was coming
Comments System [11:41 am]
I do believe a system for making comments and reading others
on particular news posts ala slashdot should be in place within a few days. I know I
mentioned this over a month ago, but hey things move slow eh?
Wheel of Time [8:45 am]
The PlanetUnreal guys
have done up a good little article interviewing Mark
Poesch of Legend Entertainment talking about his current Wheel of Time project. They
have also scored 3 new screenshots of the game as well. Wheel of Time is based on the
novels by Robert Jordan. The game uses a heavily modified Unreal engine.
Q: In your opinion what is the most impressive feature of Wheel of Time?
A: It's hard to narrow it down to a single feature. For now, I'd have to pick the citadel architecture as #1, and the way the Angreal (the "weapons") work as #2…. The work that the level designers, our texture art team, and our lead architect have done is stunning. On the other hand, we have lots of new things that we've *just* added (including the particle effects) that are incredible.
KingPin [8:45 am]
The SharkyExtreme KingPin preview
is now online featuring several new screenshots of the game and the always interesting
writing styles that just make me quiver.
Kingpin has only been in development for 8 short months, but it's already shaping up nicely. The team has reached a time in the development process that everyone in the industry lives for (second only to gold mastering); the time when individual pieces start fitting together and begin to materialize into a more complete whole.
TRIBES Stuff [8:45 am]
As we all know those GameCenter guys are just gaming
experts, they have put together
a tips list for those of you looking to get an edge in the game. Also got a TRIBES FAQ for you guys to check out. Then
you can also have a look
at the review that the GamesDomain guys have put together. Lastly here is a bit on the
TRIBES patch we're all waiting on from Mark Frohnmayer:
We're putting the finishing touches on our first major patch, dealing mostly with gameplay/interface tweaks and server stability. We should have it out in a day or two.
The OpenGL patch hasn't been delayed - Dave's wrapping up the functionality and testing it with various configurations - it should be available Real Soon Now. We're working with Riva to improve the the TNT performance.
Ass-Wack Links [8:45 am]
The latest updated list of the reasons why the web is so
great has been updated. Check out some wackass links.
Voodoo3 Shots & Info [8:45 am]
Saw on VE/AGN3D that 3DConcepts
has put together an interesting
article taking a look at the Voodoo3 chipset after attending the big press deal that
3dfx held up in Germany not too long ago. Here are a couple of quotes that Billy snagged:
There will be at least 3 Versions of the chip, Voodoo 3 2000, V3 3000 and V3 4000. V3 3000 and 2000 will be available in April 1999, possibly already in March while V3 2K will be targeted to OEMs. It may be possible that the launch of the chips will be at Cebit '99 (germany), one of the largest computer shows on the world.
Voodoo 3 4000 will arrive later, perhabs June. 3Dfx says that it will be the same as Voodoo 3 3000, but offering (and not requiring!) AGP4X w/o AGP-Texturing, which will be available about at the same time as Intels Camino (440JX) Chipset.
As well as a blurb about a card coming from Quantum3D!?
Quantum 3D will not offer Voodoo 3 Boards at consumer level, but may bring products design for arcade machines or even a high-end-product for PC. Furthermore, as GNN reports, Quantum 3D seems to be planning a single Voodoo 2 - Board called "The Brick", which uses 4 (!!!!) Voodoo 2-Chipsets
Views [8:45 am]
Tech [8:45 am]
"There is a new revision of the Rage 128GL chip which is 215R4GASA22. It does not include any functional changes however it is a completely modified substrate which improves the power supply of the chip and the heat diversion. (...) All the shipping products have revision A22 of the Rage 128GL chip. You can do a 48 hour test with the Rage Dawning Demo in 1024x768x32bpp and you will not see any missing triangle. At this point I disagree with you - the Rage 128GL A22 chip does NOT need any cooling. As an evidence I will send you an XPERT 128 board (Rage 128GL, 16MB SDRAM)."
werd
What are you looking at punk?
I snagged www.3dshack.com a couple of days ago just for the hell of it. I figure it's a bit easier to spell/remember for those of you trying to tell someone else a url.
| Tuesday, February 2 |
Q3 & 3DNow! [5:35 pm]
Brian Hook has made another .plan update going quite a bit
in to details concerning work on Quake3 and 3DNow! support that is not yet implemented.
Here's part of it, check
out the full thing.
I guess somebody setup a Web page with a "threaten Brian to put in 3DNow! support RIGHT AWAY or we'll never buy Q3" banner. Grrr.
Okay, to clarify the deal with SIMD instructions in general. John and I simply have not had time to pursue writing SIMD code, we're too busy working on the core game. PIII systems aren't shipping yet, and 3DNow! isn't even CLOSE to the size of the market of Intel systems.
Unreal Tournament Scans [12:35 pm]
The guys at www.netcombat.net
have scanned the latest magazine advertisement for Unreal Tournament which includes a
couple of screenshots. There are a couple of other ads running I've seen recently as well.
Gonna have to buy a scanner one of these days eh? Here is shot1 and shot2.
TRIBES Stuff [12:25 pm]
A couple of TRIBES related things for you guys to check out.
Mitch Shaw of Dynamix has put together a crosshair pack for those of you guys who dont dig
on the default crosshairs in the game. Check out
his .plan update for details. There is also a new map pack posted by Xtreme Gaming which I saw on Blue's. Here
is a link to the file posted by Planetstarsiege.
Quake3 Net Code [8:35 am]
Avatar traded a bit of email with John Carmack asking about
moving platforms and rotating objects and how they will be handled with the new Quake3
network code. Here's what Johnny had to say. Originally posted on the Q3 Messageboard
Q: Is Quake Arena using bmodels as extensively as Quake2, and if so, will they be predicted correctly? In Quake2, with say 350ms of lag, you have to jump for a rotating platform 350ms early, or you miss it (at least this is my understanding and experience). I get the idea that in Quake Arena, platforms are being phased out in favor of these trampoline style boosters. Is this because they're easier to do prediction for, or are bmodels going to be accurately predicted now afterall?
A: We still have bmodels, just not as many. They are extrapolated by trajectory, so they move smoothly even with dropped packets, but I don't predict them up to the current time, so there is still the timing issue. There will be an option to run the player at the server time (prediction only for smoothing extrapolation), which will lag the player, but put the player at the same timing as the plats and other objects.
I don't expect precision bmodel action to be part of the gameplay very often.
- John Carmack
Certified linguist Steve Gibson translates:
I've been hax0ring up the moving object code for levels when you play over the net. Bust it. The stuff wont wiggle when you lag money! Or, if you are into that wiggle thing like I know some of you is, you can turn off my cool code and just chill old-school style. I aint got a whole lot of moving parts in levels in Quake3 anyways though G.
Wisdom! [9:55 am]
So I bet you're thinking to yourself, "Hot damn that
Steve guy seems awful mature and wise, I wonder if he would give me any advice on how to
lead my life?" Right? Well you're in luck! I've made some time between Mensa meetings to share my wisdom on this very
morning!
Wheel of Time [6:45 am]
Thanks to that Swedish monkey Demandred (Bork! Bork! Bork!)
for word that the Wheel of Time website has
posted another development update for their hotly anticipated Unreal engine based game.
Here's a snip:
... the entire team is working hard to make alpha happen. We just played a huge multi-player arena match tonight to gauge performance and, while we had to share the game with a bunch of bugs, it was a lot of fun. It definitely demonstrated that we've got our work cut out for us, but we also enjoyed it immensely. One step closer. Now, we have to look at all of the logs and figure out what happened and why.
Quake3 Female Model [6:45 am]
After taking a look at the latest threads on the Quake3 Messageboard
here at the shack, Paul Steed fired out this email hoping to clear things up a bit about
some confusion you homeboys might have.
I just read a couple of the messages posted on your boards about shauna and the Q3A chick, etc. Here's the scoop. As of now we plan on three female characters, one light class, one medium and one heavy. A battle worn Q2 space marine chick will be the medium class character. Enclosed is some pics of her mesh with no makeup or pretty Kenneth Scott textures. Note she lost her pony tail during the Stroggos War to a berserk Gladiator blade.
As far as Shauna goes... People. Get a fucking clue.
(Sigh) As in the case of the Crackwhore, Shauna is just the product of Steed's Weird Science. Rest assured all you feminists, female gamer activists and fellow philogynists, she is not going to be in the goddam game. Okay?
The .avi's I put up on that loony TOTB was done as a very basic introduction to animation and took all of about 15 or 20 minutes to produce. In no way does it represent the level of art or model or animation in Q3A. My models with Kenneth's textures and some mocap-enhanced keyframe animations will knock our corner of the virtual world on its collective fat ass.
When people see the finished product, 'Depends' will quickly go out of stock. Our character stuff has more horsepower than John's TR. Once you see the characters (and the rest of the game) you'll wonder even more what the hell other people are doing with their free time (other than trying to reach a bar raised yet again by the most bad-assed game company on the planet.)
And yes, I'm a little peeved right now.
He also included these 3 images of the medium female player model for you to check out. I slapped it together into one image since they are kinda small.
Decay Update & Shots [6:45 am]
The GA-Source guys have gotten a hold of some new shots of
Decay as well as some talk with the developers of the game.
We would also like to make sure that your readers have 'the right impression' of Decay. Some other site kinda over-exagerated the 'roleplaying-elements' in Decay. It's important for us that you understand that Decay is an action-game all the way.
Team Fortress Classic [6:45 am]
Saw on Blue's that the PlanetHalf-Life forums has a post from Harry
Teasley of Valve Software mentioning the progress of the Team Fortress Classic port to
Half-Life as well as the SDK:
We had an intensive playtest this weekend and it shows we have some more balancing to do before we release Team Fortress Classic. Development on TFC and the SDK are coming along nicely. Look for more news as we get closer to releasing both the SDK and TFC, which should happen in the coming weeks.
SIN Update [6:45 am]
Mark Dochterman over at Ritual made
a .plan update concerning the v1.02 SIN patch which is going to be packaged with the
SIN mission pack from 2015 we should be seeing shortly.
The 1.02 version contains:
- AMD 3DNOW support
- Creative EAX 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 fixes1.02 is FULLY COMPATIBLE with 1.01, so servers will not need to upgrade unless they want to. 1.01 save games will be FULLY COMPATIBLE with 1.02.
Quake3 Servers [6:45 am]
As Brian Hook promised a little while back, he has followed
up with a bit more information on what it will take to run a Quake3 server in his
.plan update. Brian also mentions that 3DNow support is planned, but can not be
promised out of the box at this point. Here it is:
Two common questions I'm getting are "How much net bandwidth do I need for a server, per player?" and "How important is floating point performance for a server?" General rule of thumb for now is that you need about 2-3K/sec of bandwidth per player for a server.
Floating point performance is still very important for a server. A safe assumption is that a Cyrix or K5 CPU will be able to support only about half the players of a comparable Intel CPU. K6 isn't nearly as bad as the K5 and Cyrix, however it's not as good as an Intel for regular floating point stuff, so figure (VERY rough) about 75% of an Intel processor. Obviously a LOT of this depends on the complexity of the underlying maps.
So, just pulling numbers out of thin air, you could say:
Intel PIII/500 - 40-50 players
Intel PII/300 - 25-30 players
AMD K6/300 - 18-23 players
Cyrix MII-300 - 12-15 players
Views [6:45 am]
Tech [6:45 am]
werd
Man I dissapear for an afternoon and all hell breaks loose.
Still got a bit more of stuff to post but this should keep you guys occupied for now I
hope. :)
| Monday, February 1 |
New 3dfx V2 Drivers [4:35 pm]
Thanks to 3Fingers
for the heads up on new 3dfx Voodoo2 reference drivers
released:
Win 98: Voodoo2 v3.01.01 & Voodoo2 Control Panel for vsync
Win NT: Voodoo2 v3.01.01 & Voodoo2 Control Panel for vsync
Savage4 & Diamond [1:45 pm]
Thanks to Amer at SE
for the heads up that Diamond has
announced their new Savage4 based 2D/3D card that we should all hopefully be able to
pick up in the near future.
Daikatana Demo This Month [1:45 pm]
Billy over at VE spotted the
specs for the Daikatana demo. Ion Storm is planning on
releasing the Daikatana demo this month believe it
or not. Nothing has really been said about how much later the full game will come after
the demo, it doesnt look like it will be a simultaneous release though.
- Levels: Two episode one deathmatch map
- Weapons: Ion Blaster, C4 Vizatergo, Shotcycler-6 and Sidewinder
- Options: Straight deathmatch and skill boosts for the five skills
System Shock2 Shots [10:45 am]
SharkyExtreme has
posted 9 new
screenshots of System Shock2 from Looking Glass Studios which is looking pretty cool.
ProjectV1 Shots [10:45 am]
The aCtion eXtreme guys are just getting all kinds of stuff
from the Project V1 guys. If you are looking for an assload of screenshots of an Unreal engine
game, look no further. :) shot1, shot2, shot3, shot4
Suck! [10:45 am]
I'm going to be doing some long needed organization of the
suck pages. The download times on those things was just getting a bit too big. Like 200k
of html. The latest pissing and moaning
by yours truely is now online.
Quake3 Advertisment [5:45 am]
Ok well this isnt a real advertisement, but it's such high
quality I was fooled into thinking it was before I read the email along side it. Check it
out and e-mail STELTH to tell him what a good job
he did. :) If you are super-bandwidth stud you might wanna check out the full 1600 width 230k version.
Here is the slightly
scaled down one I did for the bandwidth impaired:
Heretic2 Expansion Pack Info [5:45 am]
The AGN3D page has gotten a
hold of a bit more information on the upcoming Heretic2 expansion pack. You can also take
a look at the recent .plan update from
Pat Lipo.
There is a lot more in the ENHANCEMENT PACK for H2. There are some nice new DM levels that everybody should like along with a new DM character Keira that has 2 new skins. There is also Co-Op in Single Player. The Tornado spell is very nice indeed it is great for blocking foes but I am trying to get the programmers to have it redirect arrows and such like reflect, maybe in the final build we will see this but I don't make any promisses.
As of now that is all I can say about it. I am the only tester on the H2 patch so don't expect it to be out too soon, but on Monday we should get 2 new people and we will work very hard to get it done.
We are running through all the Single Player game in Co-Op to make sure things are not broke and we are trying to insure the most enjoyable experience
Need Hardware? [1:45 am]
Huntsman did a bit of organizing in the hardware section. He's pulled apart 3
different systems and dug up the best prices for different price ranges prices now
including all hardware including mouse/keyboard. You can score a full Celeron system
w/17" for just over $1,200 now!
Contact RBR [4:45 am]
After the cancellation of Rebel Boat Rocker's Prax War
project, it looks like a lot of the former employees are in need of a new job right? Well
if you're looking to hire some talented developers, here is the contact info.
Loony [4:45 am]
The latest issue of Loonygames
has been posted this morning. All kinds of interviews and articles with several members of
the gaming community.
Views [5:45 am]
inter5 inter6 inter7 inter8 inter9 inter10 inter11 inter12 inter13 inter14 inter15 inter16 inter17 inter18 inter19
Tech [5:45 am]
werd
Damn, whole assload of email about that post Sunday morning
eh? It seems I forgot to include my own opinion on the subject yesterday. Well I dont
think maps should be copied over from the previous games. I do *strongly* believe that the
basic themes and layouts from previous maps should be looked at and studied though for
reference.
If you look at the most popular DM maps in Q1 and Q2, there are a few patterns. The map is generally split in two, with a strong and weak side. Quake1 had DM4 (top/bottom), DM6 (ra/sng), and DM3 (rl-shaft/sng). Quake2 had Match1 (top/bottom) and Q2DM3 (one side with armor/superhealth) with those layouts as well. I realize I am over-simplifying quite a bit, but work with me here. :)
I certainly dont want clones of those maps, but the formula used to create those maps seems to have worked in both Quake1 and Quake2 even with quite different weapon styles. Strong similarities to previous maps are welcome in my book. There are of course several other formulas for a successful maps, but this isnt a level design page now is it? You can check out Q3Arena.net which has a poll up actually asking for what maps you would like to see converted.
| Sunday, January 31 |
Q1 & Q2 Maps for Quake3? [7:45 am]
So I've been keeping an eye on the poll at 3dnews.net (over 6,000 votes) which asks if players would
like to see themes for maps from previous id Software games included in Quake3. There are
a few options in there, but here is what it basically breaks down to:
| Players who would like maps carried over, or
at least the layout "themes" |
58% |
| Players who do not want any older maps and
prefer all new maps for Q3A |
28% |
| Players who dont care either way, they just
want Quake3 already damn it! |
14% |
Thats a bit over 2:1 for players in favor of map copies or themes from previous games. A good example of this is Match1 for Quake2. Some people dont realize that Match1 is based on one of the most popular Quake1 maps, DM4. Match1 is easily one of the most popular and loved maps for Quake2. Having been chosen by both PGL and CPL as an official tournament map. Undeniable proof that map themes carried over can be popular and very successful.
So, now we have Quake3 coming up. Currently the #1 played map for Quake2 is Q2DM1, and for Quake1 it would be DM3. DM3 for Quake1 is also unique by being the #1 DM teamplay map by a huge margin in the USA. Think we will see map themes from Q2DM1 and DM3? Just something to think about while you watch the SuperBowl today. :)
There is a thread on the Quake3 Messageboard right now entitled "The Big One" if you want to share your thoughts.
RBR1 Engine? [7:45 am]
Randy Pitchford formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker sent me this
quote concerning the future of the RBR1 engine technology:
Me: What will happen with the RBR1 engine?
Randy: I'm not sure. But, the engineers at RBR let me know that they intend to finish it. And, while I'm sorry that the tech wasn't finished within Prax War's schedule and budget, I'm convinced that when they do complete it it's going to be something awesome. I mean, killer-awesome. Their engine, when finished, will be very special and I'm sure they'll have many begging for a license.
Unreal Tournament [7:45 am]
Ripped right from AGN3D:
3DUnlimited has posted an interview with Mark Rein, talking about Unreal Tournament. Here is a
bit from the interview:
Q2. There hasn't been much released info about Unreal Tournament, can you tell us a little about the gameplay and some features?
A. Unreal Tournament is a game focused on play against out best bots yet who know how to play 4 different team-based gametypes; Domination, Assault, Capture the Flag and an improved Deathmatch. You play through a ladder against differing opponents in different venues and with different rules to try to become Unreal Grand Master. You can also play the new game types on-line and we've made it all easier to get into with a hot-new graphical user interface
Heretic2 Mission Pack [7:45 am]
VoodooExtreme has posted this quote from a H2 Mission Pack
tester which gives you a couple of details on what we can all expect to see in the pack:
New shrine...(Run). Let's you run at what seems to be more than 2X normal speed.
New defensive spell...(tornado). Great for casting as you flee, to wound those who would chase you (f/x are purty for this one too). New staff skill...(blocking). Kicks major ass. If you have your opponent within a certain field of view and you remain still, you will automatically BLOCK an opponent's strike. Then, a quick attack on your part always catches them off guard. If you've ever played DM with this game, trying this new skill feels VERY intense
Views [8:45 am]
Tech [8:45 am]
Sup? [1:55
am]
I think I wanna be a MTV VJ. From what I understand all I
have to do is talk like an idiot, look like an idiot, say "true dat" and
"fly" a lot, and be able to recognize good looking women and bring them on
camera.
I can do that. Why the hell hasnt MTV called me yet? Communists.
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