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

Jack's Word [1:40 pm] - Jack
[updated 2:25pm]

Just to be more specific because I'm already getting hate mail.  My little rant below is only bitching about: The KDE window manager, and Redhat 5.2.  That means that I don't know about the other window managers and distrobutions, and thus I am not ragging on them.  I am just ragging on this specific setup.  So I am not general Linux bashing, just Redhat 5.2 with KDE bashing.   Until I install Linux, please no suggestions on what TO run...  When I go to install it, I'll let you guys know :)

[original]

Damn, Steve was up pretty late testing Q3.  Pretty nice of him to write up his thoughts on it.  Now I wish he'd get up so we can go run errands and grab lunch :)

Oh, after futzing with it some, guess what I've discovered about Linux?  Its hardware support sucks.  That's right.   Changing the video resolution, setting up a mouse, it all just sucks.  Hard.   Add to that that the window manager that comes with Redhat (the one that looks like Win9x) is quite sucky as well, and I can tell you that this OS will not be mainstream for quite awhile.

Now, I do like the stuff sitting underneath X a lot.   The file system, the kernel, the networking -- all that's nothing to sneeze at.   But man, if they want Joe Beercan using it, they've got a long way.

What do I like? I like NT. I've been using it at work now for the past two weeks, and it's been solid as a rock.  There's annoyances with NT too, but man, if that user interface is anything it's mature, and not too difficult to use.  You shouldn't *need* a command prompt for day-to-day use, and you don't in NT.

Wanna complain about what I just said?  Put it somewhere on Slashdot. :)

Q3Test Server Listing [1:40 pm] - Jack
Telefragged has put up a Quake3 Server List. Sorry ya'll can't use GameSpy yet, but as soon as the Win32 test comes out, a version of GameSpy will come out to support it.

The list is here.

SB Live Linux Drivers(!) [1:40 pm] - Jack
Looky here, I've gots me a scoop!  Wow!   Steve'll be happy when he reads this, as we were just bitching about this last night.

Creative's put Linux drivers for the SB Live on their website. They also put up Banshee ones, but I believe that Daryll Strauss had already done Banshee drivers for Linux that work on all 3dfx hardware.  Anyway, here's the scoop from Bill Ball at Creative:

Creative Labs has released early beta versions of Linux drivers for The SoundBlaster Live!
and the 3D Blaster Banshee.  The Banshee Linux drivers are the first from a Banshee
vendor.  These drivers were developed by Creative's in-house Linux driver team and are the
first of series of Linux drivers for Creative products.  As early betas, the drivers are
not supported officially; however, Creative is seeking user feedback at the Developer
Relations site.  For downloads and additional information, go here:
http://developer.soundblaster.com/linux/

I can't get to the site right now to check this out.   Seems Creative is swamped.  If you do get the drivers and they work, talk about it on the good ol' messageboard.

Tribes Server Update  [1:40 pm] - Jack
From Datumplane.   A Tribes 1.4.1 server update is out.  It's quite important that server operators get this version, as it plugs plenty of security leaks. Clients need not bother.

Get it here.

More Unreal News [1:40 pm] - Jack
Steve's post earlier was a bit vague, so I don't know if he was doubling up another one of my stories or was posting about the NEW update. Tim Sweeney updated the Unreal Tech Page with news that there were indeed bugs with 224t and they all need fixing. This means that it's a longer wait now.  In other news, Tim said he's inventing a new alphabet to allow for more internal releases per version.

Also, he mentions that the models in UT will have four skins, and each one of those will be customizable, which is pretty cool. How many people wanna guess at the number of guy faces on chick's bodies and vice versa there'll be now?

Also, he mentioned that each of the skins will be 256x256, making half a meg (!!) of textures per player in 16-bit texture formats.   Four unique players with unique skins on a Voodoo1 or 8 meg Voodoo2 and you start texture thrashing.  Cool!

For once, I didn't copy this story from anyone, but I'll be damned if that wily Blue didn't ask Mark Rein a few questions. He grilled him on the lateness of any official releases. Here's my summary of the interview for brevity's sake:

Blue: What the hell?  Can you just put out a release already?
Mark Rein: Nope.

Blue: Do you guys know when to say when on features?
Mark Rein: Nope.  But we're researching how to figure it out.

Quake3 [5:55 am]
So, I spent a couple of hours playing around with Q3Test in Linux and I figured if all the ranting on the Quake3 messageboard wasnt enough for you, I would share my own thoughts on what I've played so far considering the majority of you guys don't have linux installed. (Or you're still struggling with trying to install it.. heh)

Physics:
I'm fairly happy with them. I would like a little bit more control while in the air, I kind of subscribe to the more control you have, the more room you are given to improve and display skill. It's pretty solid feeling in general though, and from what I've seen and heard the majority of players on servers agree. Nothing to worry about there.

Weapons:
Gauntlet: Yeah, they ditched the chainsaw.. and um. This thing blows. I havent found anyone yet who likes this thing. Just remove the 1 key from your keyboard...

Shotgun: Pretty cool, the effects on the wall are neeto and the power seems about right. One gripe, what the hell is with that huge puff of smoke when I fire it? Aside from the fact that it's just incredibly big, it's not even coming out near the gun barrel...

Rocket Launcher: Speed is good, and you can bounce players etc. The smoke trails looks awesome when attached to the projectiles. Looks goofy on the Shotgun, but *extremely* cool with rockets. I feel like the damage could be kicked up a bit though.

Plasma Gun: Firing rate, damage etc are all great. But.. the effects obstructing your view are a bit overdone. That was fine and dandy in Doom2... When you were firing on a flat plane, and only worried about usually 1 other guy...

Railgun: The reduced damage doesnt bother me, I kind of like it.. Doesnt make the weapon so bah incredibly overbearing and conducive to the "luck shot" turning a game around. The huge gripe though.. that new effect. Ack. There is no real "center" to it.. If a weapon requires pinpoint accuracy, I would like to have something representing that pinpoint when I fire. Just a red streak down the center or something... Anything.

Misc Stuff:
- The +showscores... why isnt "time connected" or "packetloss" included in there? Dunno. I mentioned it to Carmack a couple of times during visits. I'm pretty stunned that those werent included really.
- It's still difficult to see players sometimes. The fact that I havent messed with gamma though probably has a lot to do with that. The gamma slider under Linux is grayed out, and the gl_modulate command is gone.
- Net code.. feels like it flakes out sometimes, I imagine that it isnt final though. I "snap" back into positions once in a while, kind of like the early QW days. In general though it's still probably the best on the net.
- The game in general will pretty much blow you away in visual quality. Screenshots don't seem to do the game justice. Of course that's the case for most games.

Also speaking of Quake3, aCtivision of course plans to premier Quake3 at the E3 Show this year. Check out a snip of the PR action I snagged from VE:

The title's single-player game replicates a deathmatch experience in which people must annihilate opponents as they battle through more than 30 maps to win the ultimate deathmatch battle. Rather than solving puzzles, players engage in non-stop action and experience the visceral thrill of enemy combat. Navigating dynamic environments filled with obstacles, gamers sharpen their abilities to hunt down and vanquish their enemies. Players are pitted against sophisticated AI that matches their own gaming patterns. As players advance through each level, their opponents progress at a similar pace.

Gathering @ E3 [5:55 am]
The Gathering of Developers have opened up a new section on their website talking about all the E3 plans they have going.

Gathering of Developers is planning for an apocalyptic E3. Going against tradeshow convention, the company will be located at "The Promised Lot", a parking lot across from the LA Convention Center's main entrance on the corner of Pico and Figueroa. There the company will be showcasing eight games:

Dephine Software's Darkstone
DMA Design's Grand Theft Auto 2
Terminal Reality's Nocturne
Ritual Entertainment's Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2
Third Law's KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child
Rune from Human Head Studios and Epic Games
Max Payne from Remedy Entertainment

Unreal? [5:55 am]
Another week, and still no Unreal release. Tim Sweeney has made more updates to the Unreal technology page though talking about the latest release candidate in the hands of testers and some information for mod authors.

Prey? [5:55 am]
U-Games was kind enough to forward this email statement from Geourge Broussard of 3DRealms mentioning that the primary focus on Prey right now is just finishing up the technology that the game will be based around. Just about everything else is subject to change.

Prey has been going so long and had so many setbacks, that we're not sure what the final version will look like.  We may very well change up the plot/story just to keep ourselves interested.  The primary thing is finishing a new engine.

Views [5:55 am]

• KISS Psycho Circus Shot
  EvilAvatar has posted a image from the recent CGW article showing off the first known screenshot of the Third Law LithTech engine based game. Also at EvilAvatar is a "Rogue Gallery" shot showing off a few of the player models to be included in Quake3 that Paul Steed sent him.
• Phantom Menace Shots
  AGN3D has posted 8 new screenshots of the StarWars Phantom Menace 3D game in development.
• Valve Interview
  From the folks at TechRadio via PlanetHalflife: "Our 40 minute interview with Gabe, Robin, and Yahn from Valve Software is now available in both Real Audio and MP3"
• FlashPoint
  3D-Unlimited has posted 6 new exclusive shots from iMagic's upcoming shooter, Flash Point.
•  

Tech [5:55 am]

• Web Based V2 Overclocking
  PC WEB - has made a web page that overclocks your Voodoo2 card. No Downloads needed ( well, you have to save the O/C page to your HD)
• Voodoo3 vs TNT2!
  Oh man just can't get enough of this one can you? Review-Zone compares the latest incarnations of the 2 cards.

Gaming [5:55 am]

• Kane Interivew
  www.schroet.de has posted an interview with Kane, the 2nd place finisher at the recent TGI Tournament.
• QTracker w/Quake3 Support
  Sometime this weekend, a new Qtracker v2.3 BETA will be released with support for Q3Test. This new BETA also introduces a new feature called PlayerWatch, which allows you to locate your friends and clanmates wherever they're playing.

werd
Well, as anticipated by the linux junkies I know, now that I've installed linux on my home machine I find myself booting back and forth into it just sucked into wanting to learn the OS more in depth. That whole not crashing every 20minutes is a nice bonus. The lack of USB support is a total pisser though.

For You Hax0rs.. [8:25 pm]
John Carmack updated the .plan with news that he has written up a brief technical document for Linux developers working on 3D accelerator support for Quake3.

WereWolf [6:35 pm]
Welp, back online.. and with a DSL no less. Amazing how many ways they can break your phone lines. At any rate the PlanetUnreal guys have come up with some footage of WereWolf The Apocalypse. Why do they have it? Because the game is based on the Unreal technology they licensed from Epic. Check out the video. Make sure you have Apple QuickTime to play the thing.

Heretic2 EP [6:35 pm]
There Heretic2 Expansion Pack has been updated with a new version. The pack includes 8 new DM maps, A3D and EAX support, and a number of other cool multiplayer type features. Grab it from 3DFiles.

Voodoo3 Drivers [6:35 pm]
The 3dfx page has posted some somewhat new drivers for their Voodoo3 cards. Both Windows98 and NT versions. I've gotten a couple of emails saying that the Glide drivers included are new, while a number of people also already have those drivers. It's always fun to install new video driver though right? Go have fun!

Linux Q3Test Released [YESTERDAY]
From yesterday, since it's kinda important. It's out, the new version of Q3Test for Linux as well as updated binaries for the Win32 dedicated server and Mac versions. Check out www.quake3arena.com for more details, here are some of the Linux Q3Test mirrors. Also, Zoid was nice enough to send me the documentation for the files that you guys can check out while you download.

Telefragged  tar.gz or i386.rpm
BluesNews  tar.gz or i386.rpm
ClanWorld tar.gz or i386.rpm
QuakeCity tar.gz or i386.rpm
Stomped tar.gz or i386.rpm
Q3Arena.com q3test/linux/
WarZone tar.gz or i386.rpm
Barrysworld tar.gz or i386.rpm
Heat.net tar.gz or i386.rpm

Note: Some servers may not have the files uploaded yet, but will later tonight. Make sure and check out the Quake3 messageboard and tell the rest of us what you guys think of Q3Test!

Notes From Carmack [YESTERDAY]
Also from yesterday, but late night. John Carmack made this .plan update following up the Linux Q3Test release. Check it out:

Q3 can run networked player movement in either an asynchronous or synchronous manner.  The default mode is to allow all client movement to be done asynchronously with the servers advancement of time.

The primary reason is to allow player movement to be predicted on the client side.   The primary drawback is that while your movement is smooth, the other players that you see running around in the world move with a jerkiness that is relative to their framerate and network connection quality.  It is NOT necessarily relative to their ping - a player on a fast system with a clean modem connection can move smoothly.  If you see a player stuttering around, either they have a bad franerate, or the network connection between them and the server or you and the server is poor.  The amount of stuttering is sort of the sum of the dropped or variable packets on BOTH connections.

You can force Q3 to run all clients synchronously by setting "g_synchronousClients 1" on the server.  This will make Q3 behave similar to Q1 for networking.   All movement will be lagged except view angles, which are still short-circuited immediately.

Some people claim to prefer synchronous movement when everyone had a very good ping, but I don't personally think it is ever a play benefit.  It makes leading players a bit easier, but I think the crisp movement control of client side prediction is a much better tradeoff.

However, there is still a reason for using it:  recorded demos come out a LOT smoother looking when running with sync.  Note that q3test does not allow demo recording and playback, so this is just for future reference...

I'm snagging the files still right now and will give this stuff a shot tonight or tomorrow to let you guys know how it works. I'm also going to try to work out a setup guide for those of you having difficulty getting Q3Test working under Linux.

A Day in the Life of a Game Developer [5:55 pm] - Jack
The life of a Game Developer is one of constant excitement. Twists and turns at every corner, the peaks of emotion a constant. To prove that, I present a day in the life of...

Patrick Hook of Ritual Entertainment.

Today, Patrick woke up at 8:30, and showered. He them came in to work at 9:30. He started working on levels, skipped lunch, and is still working on levels now at 6pm.

That's EXCITEMENT. Don't you want to be a game developer now?

Soldier of Fortune Interview - VE and Blue [5:55 pm] - Jack
Check it out, another SOF Interview, this time with the whole team! Here it is.

Lots of Q3A Screenshots - Blue [5:55 pm] - Jack
Want to see some more screenshots of Quake 3 Test, Windows users? Here, here, here, and here.

Unreal News Items - VE and Blue [5:55 pm] - Jack
Plenty of Unreal Tournament news today! Packed it all into one bite-size section for you!

• Unreal Tournament Image
  Blue and loony got a hold of a huge (3118x2004) UT image. If you have the bandwidth, check it out. It's 1.83 megs, which is a ten minute download for those of you on 28.8k modems, and an 9.9 minute download for most 56k modems :-)

• Tim Sweeney Tech Update
  Tim Sweeney made an update to the Unreal Tech Page. They internally testing 224t, and if there's no showstopper bugs, we'll be seeing a new version out soon! Also, he gives mod authors information on how to make their mods compatible with the Unreal Mod Installer.

• UT Weapons
  The last of the weekly Unreal Tournament weapons has been posted on GT's Unreal Tournament page. They show the minigun and a first-person view projectile weapon called the Redeemer. I guess when you fire it, your dude just stands there like a dufus while you control the rocket...

Heretic 2 Enhancement Pack 1.5 - Blue [5:55 pm] - Jack
Raven's released 1.05 of the Heretic 2 Expansion Pack. You can get it from here (at AVault). What's new? Here:

Adds 8 new deathmatch maps
A3D 2.0 support
EAX support
New defensive weapon: Whirlwind
New shrine: Boots of Speed
Custom skin and model support
Additional skins
Network download capability for skins, models, and maps
Team deathmatch games with grouping by models or skins
Staff-only "Bladematch" mode
Advanced swordstaff moves
New blocking capability
Keys can no be easily bound for quick defensive spell usage
On-screen Armor meter
All new death animations
Much, much more

Jack's Word [12:38 pm] - Jack
[update - 2:25pm]

Seems Steve hasn't gotten around to updating. Oh well. I'll do an update in an hour for you guys if he's not back by then. In the mean time, here's something pretty funny we just heard at On The Border from a waiter. "I see you've got an Internet shirt on, do ya'll work for The Internet or something?" I nearly said, "No, but I've got The Internet on my computer."

I'm sure in the quote that there were actually a few "ya'll's" and "dadgum's" thrown in there that I left out.

[original update]

Yeah, so I screwed up the page for like 15 minutes. Bite me. :)

We just go the DSL installed at the house, like, 10 minutes ago. Steve's still setting some shit up, so come back in like an hour or so and he should have something.

Also, later tonight I should have the info on my home-theatre setup at the house posted, as a few people have asked me to. I'll also include our mailing address and directions to the house so someone can steal it all and sell it on eBay.

I'm also considering a "day in the life" feature thingy tonight that I might do (a weekly thing). It depends if anyone here at Ritual wants to participate in it or not.

Also, let's see if Steve makes the first I Wish... weekly section update ever. That'd be rad.

Linux Q3Test Tonight! [8:15 pm]
Graeme Devine of id Software sent along this update due to the finger server over at id Software being down right now. Here is what homeboy had to say. The big news, Linux Q3Test! Speaking of which, here is a little Quake3 Linux article some of you may be interested in.

We're about to update (tonight) the executables to 1.03 of q3test, there is a seperate download for win32 and mac that just contains the updates, and the main files have been updated as well.  Win32 is still only available as a dedicated server. We're also releasing the Linux version of q3test, this will available as a RPM and as .tar.gz.

If you have a G3 system, I highly recommend the new firmware update from Apple, that gave us a noticeable (to humans) framerate improvement.Here's the update list:

Mac specific
------------
improved networking stability
improved device scanning
improved speed
improved memory checking
improved sound latency

Generic
-------
global motd/update server
added drop shadow to field characters and fixed scrolling
fixed edge-of-bounce-pad misprediction error (server side)
removed broken weapon-stay dmflag
made menu gfx never picmip
cheat protect r_lightmap
cheat protect r_nocurves
clear sound buffer before any file IO
continuous scoreboard / ping update when tab is down
put version number on menu background
dim out behind floating menus
fixed server crashing string bug
adjusted scoreboard for 8 players
show hostname on connection screen
fixed null model warning on startup
more space for hostname on local servers screen
sv_privateClients, sv_privatePassword
"server is full" message on connect screen
archive handicap in config file

Prey Not Dead [8:15 pm]
Contrary to what GamingInsider is saying, George Broussard of 3DRealms updated his .plan with word that Prey is indeed still alive, however not anywhere near release:

FACT: GT has not "dropped, cancelled, pulled support,  or poo-poo'ed" any part of Prey.  They have always been   supportive of our products.

FACT: Prey has had it's problems, but this is not news to  anyone.  We're designing a new engine (announced late last  year when we hired Corrinne Yu).   We parted ways with two  key Prey developers last November (lead coder and project  leader).  These moves were made because we weren't happy with the tech in Prey.  This is all old news.  While new  tech is being developed all content developers in the  company are busy on Duke Nukem Forever.  We didn't think this was such big news, but apparently we should have  called 60 Minutes? ;)

Wheel of Time [5:15 pm]
The folks at The Hive has posted another new interview, this time around it's Glen Dahlgren from Legend Entertainment, who is working on the Wheel of Time Unreal technology game.

I can't speak about Unreal 2 at this point, although Mike Verdu is hard at work designing the foundation for the game. Although we won't be showing anything for Unreal 2 at E3, we will be displaying the Unreal Level Pack, so be sure to check it out.

Prey = Dead? [3:15 pm]
According to GamingInsider it looks like the Prey project over at 3DRealms has finally bit the dust. Although I'll have to say those portals always just got my panties in a wad, it sounds like the game will never see the light of day. Check it:

No, I'm not dead... yet.... but Prey is... at least as far as GT is concerned. Sources say GT has pulled support from the product and 3DR has no one working on the project at this time. Another (mild) surprise: despite recent pr spew that said otherwise, The GT booth will feature Duke4 front and center. It should come as little surprise that GT is cutting the ropes on projects left and right.... and will no doubt crank the marketing into high gear for marque projects like Duke. No doubt the shotguns are fully cocked in Texas!

What does this mean for Corrine Yu? The technology programmer 3DR picked up from Ion Storm a few months back? The first guess would be another 3D engine still, just not to be used for Prey. Duke Nukem 5 anyone?

Satan & Quake3 [3:15 pm]
Disruptor from id Software, after watching a huge thread go on about the "Demonic Imagery" in Quake3 made this post to the Quake3 messageboard.

The reason it's in there is because it adds to a creepy atmosphere. It's there to stay. No way am I going to get rid of all the flaming skull torches, goat heads, crucified jesuses, and pentagrams in my maps. It just makes things look way too evil and creepy. Our next game should appeal to all you people who don't like the demonic imagery. It will be bright, cheery, and colourfull. The levels will all take place outside in grassy fields with blue skies, butterfly's flying around, birds chirping, and ponds gurgling. You will see Amish communities in the background with horse buggies and carts. You will feel so joyous when playing our next game. It will only have one weapon. "The Gun of Love and Happiness". Every time you shoot someone with it, it takes away from your "Happiness Points" and gives your "opponent" "Love Points". The person who loses all their "Happiness Points" becomes chronically depressed and is out for the duration of the level while it goes to a cutscene of you receiving therapy from a psychologist. The person who has the most "Love Points" at the end of the level wins.

More Ion Storm [3:15 pm]
The folks at the Dallas Observer who just love Ion Storm have posted some more info on the 51% Eidos buy up of Ion Storm which was rumored on GameSpot a few weeks back. Thanks Blue

According to people in a position to know, Eidos may acquire 51 percent of ION, making ION more or less a part of Eidos. But the same sources say that ION's remaining shareholders John Romero, Todd Hall, Jerry O'Flaherty, Todd Porter, and Warren Spector will not get rich from the deal, which apparently involves no cash. Instead, Eidos will forgive a portion of its advances to the developers in exchange for its chunk of ION — a move that will enable Eidos to keep closer tabs on ION's operations

TRIBES v1.4 [11:25 am]
Thanks to Datumplane for the word on a new TRIBES patch. There is a rather long list of things changed in 1.4.   Most important is probably the mission wizard, which allows easy creation of missions, as well as fixes for OpenGL support although it is still in beta.  You can read the readme at readme14.txt and the patches can be downloaded from 1.4patch

New MesaQuake [11:25 am]
Loonyboy has word that there is a new version of MesaQuake released (v3.1b9) which should let you Mac users play Q3Test on a Voodoo1 card without thos annoying crash problems.

Quake3 Week [11:25 am]
The GameSpot UK Quake3 week feature continues. They are doing a hell of a job with all kinds of interesting stuff going online each day. Check out what they've got going today.

• Playtest impressions ­ so what's it like? We tell you!
• The new model for the single-player experience
• The Carmack Interview ­ the full-low-down from id founder and Quake III lead programmer John Carmack
• Weapons ­ what's in there so far in the work-in-progress version
• New AI ­ we quiz id's AI guru John Cash on how Quake III Arenas 'bots' will get their 'smarts'
• The Model/Animation System
• Programming Quake III Arena
• Features At-A-Glance
• Quake Lexicon ­ the jargon de-mystified

Views [11:25 am]

• WereWolf
  CGO has a new preview of the Unreal engine powered WereWolf title being developed by DreamForge.
  
  
• Decay
  SharkyExtreme takes a look at the impressive looking Decay title.
  
  
• Nocturne
  GameSpot has a new preview of Nocturne coming from TRI and Gathering.
  
  
• Heavy Gear2 Shots
  Billy over at VE has scored 3 new screenshots of HeavyGear2. Check out shot1, shot2, and shot3
  
  

Tech [11:25 am]

• New TNT2 Scores
  From the RivaStation guys who just got a fresh piece of TN2 hardware: "I made some 3DMark99 MAX runs with this card. You can compare the results  with the STB Velocity 4400 and the ASUS V3800 (TNT2) BETA card, both  running with Detonator v1.20. Besides of the higher end results you can see a three times higher Fill Rate and a double Rasterizer Score  with this card compared to TNT. Speaking of which, the Viper3D reviews list has been updated.
  
  
• Dual Celery
  From the FiringSquad folks: "We've just finished a review on SuperMicro's TRM-006 Celeron Slocket. These slockets are different from what you'll normally find because they have the Dual-Celeron modifications built in!  No extra components to buy and no soldering!"
  
  
• Guillemot Interview
  GA-Source interviews the Guillemot folks asking about their future 3D accelerator plans.
  
  
• Fast CPUs
  From VoodooExtreme: "Ace's Hardware, have posted Part 4, to their on-going series on High Performance CPUs, this time with a bit entitled "Getting the Most Out of Each Clock Cycle".
  
  

Gaming [11:25 am]

• Intellimouse Explorer
  The CGO folks take a look at that newfangled optical mouse that Microsoft announced a little while back.
  
  
• 3DNow! List
  The AMD 3DNow! accelerated games list has been updated again, thanks to AMDZone
  
  
• Lithium
  The Lithium II Mod for Quake2 v1.24 has now been compiled for Linux AXP, Solaris Sparc, and Solaris x86.
  
  

werd
I'm going to be messing around with the fonts and text layout of the news here today while the DSL installation guy kicks me offline for a while. If you guys have any ideas or suggestions feel free to email them to me or even attach some html.

GearBox [8:45 pm]
The Hive has posted an interview with Randy Pitchford of Gearbox who is heading up the development team working on the official Half-Life mission pack for Valve and Sierra.

Video Stuff [8:45 pm]
A couple of bits of news over at GameSpot worth checking out. Firstly it looks like Number Nine will be announcing another new video card, this tims licensing the 3D Savage4 chipset from S3 instead of going for the in-house thing. Also, Canopus is indeed working on a TNT2 video card.. so they havent dissapeared from the market after all :)

Quake3 Week [8:45 pm]
The GameSpot UK Quake3 Week feature continues, the feature today being the GSUK's own personal views on the Q3Test release as well as some pretty in depth analysis of what they think the full game will be like and the impact it will have.

werd
Welp.. yeah I fell asleep in an attempt to pull an all-nighter and hook you guys up with the "way early" morning update. By the time I did stumble my way to the computer Jack already had things covered a bit, I ganked those icons he slaps all over my page though since as nifty as they look, I can't stand them.. and they make server logs even more painful to download than they already are. Big thanks to VoodooExtreme and BluesNews though for helping Jack out :)

Speaking of downloads, I'll be getting DSL installed tomorrow via GTE here at the new place. We're like within shouting distance of one of the main GTE offices here. Modem connects at like 53.3.. it's crazy. For the curious it will be 768k up and down stream, costing $120/month but split 3 ways between Jack, Scott, and myself so only $40/month.

Don't know what happened to Huntsman's Shackware update.. I guess since I was MIA so was he :)

Oh yeah, and Britney Spears on Leno... man she was *not* in to that performance. There was certainly some apparent silicon influence though.. which was a pleasure to see.

Jack's Word [2:15 pm] - Jack
Guess it'll be a late update by Steve, so I'll fill in the werd section. There we go. All done. Wasn't that all witty and funny and stuff?

Hey, my stocks kicked ass today! Also, if you'll notice, I used the Copy/Paste icons lots today. That's cause I don't get emailed updates really, nor do I want to too much. Steve'll hopefully set up an IMAP account that we can all use. In the mean time, I need to gank news from other websites I check. Pretty bad that I had to read about the Ritual interview below from Blue's, eh? :-)

[update - 3:26pm]
Updated some of the wording on the site. Aldie here pointed out that I was being a bit of a dick :-)
Still no word on Steve. Rumor has it he's joined a cult that believes in IHOP's as houses of the Lord.

Ritual on Quake3 Tech [12:50 pm] - Jack
The ever-diligent followers of my company, Ritualistic, got three questions with Mark D. about the FAKK2/Quake3 news they found in CGW. He confirmed the rumor of us using Quake3 for FAKK2. Here's a quote:

We looked at all the available technology when we made our decision. In the end, the time investment we had in Quake technology was a major reason for us choosing Quake 3. Unreal/2/Tournament and LithTech are both great engines with their own strengths and weaknesses, but Quake 3 offered something no engine could, experience. Within 3 weeks of receiving the technology we had most of the subsystems we developed for Sin up and running. Accomplishing the same task with a brand new engine (to us) would have caused us to throw away a lot of the software engineering we had developed over the last two years. We were not ready to make that sacrifice.

Quake3 QuickTime [2:15 pm] - Jack
Looks like one of those evil Macintosh users recorded some Internet gameplay into a QuickTime movie. Check it out.

Hardware [2:15 pm] - Jack
For all of you who love the hardware news, here's a section just for you. Looks like it's a Billy Wilson hat-trick for the hardware news.

• AnandTech has posted a review of the TNT2. I hear it's a hefty read... I just look at the bar charts :)
• More comments over the feature set of the Voodoo3, and if it really needs that stuff. Voodoo3... Is it really that bad?
• Did you get a Celeron? This should make you happy. "Celeron trashes PII in new RegMarkTM tests"

Previews [2:15 pm] - Jack
No reviews to speak of so far today... Just previews.

• GameSpot UK's Quake 3 week continues today with a preview of the game. Probably nothing you haven't read before if you've been following news.
• PC.IGN has posted up a preview of Anachronox. Not exactly Steve-type news, but screw him, he's sleeping!
• PC.IGN has also posted up a preview of Legend's Wheel Of Time. Man, Billy's all over the previews today.

Solder of Fortune Interview [12:50 pm] - Jack
QuakeCity gives an interview to Raven coder John Scott. There's also some SOF screenshots in there. Apparently, they talk about Soldier of Fortune (Raven's realistic first-person shooter) and the upcoming first person Voyager game. Actually, all he says about that is that more info will be revealed at E3.

I wonder if the model of me as one of the grunts is still in the game?

Shhh... You Might Wake Steve [Noon. Yes, Noon] - Jack
Looks like Steve's getting a little extra shuteye than he planned. Rather, less open-eye, as I think he planned on staying awake through 10am. I'll be giving you guys a bit of news to whet your appetites in a lil bit.

On an aside, Britney Spears was on Leno last night and she was armed with more glitter than five strippers combined! I'll wait for Steve to wake up for him to objectify her -- I'm not that kind of guy or something :-)

Shack Quake3 Messageboard [7:45 pm]
Sander has been working overtime on the new Quake3 messageboard, threaded and non-threaded views, user authentication, as well as a search engine for author names as well as topics have all been added. I was a pretty big fan of the split frame layout myself, but it seems the vast majority of people prefer the new style... so there you guys have it. Enjoy!

Amen [7:35 pm]
The Afflicted.net website has another shot of the CaveDog Entertainment level editor in action working on their 3D action title Amen: The Awakening which we should get a much better look at this E3 in a little while. There is also word from Jay Wilson on his departure from Monolith productions to join up with CaveDog on the site.

p.s. I pulled that U-Games Duke4 article after word from 3DPortal that there was no actual "new" information and much of the article was taken from other sources without proper credit..

Max Payne Movie [4:45 pm]
As if having Third Law Entertainment making a game based on the KISS Psycho Circus universe wasnt enough involvement in the PC gaming community, Gene Simmons of KISS has bought up the movie rights to Max Payne from Remedy Entertainment. Here is what 3DPortal sent along:

The three page screenshot-filled preview of Max Payne entitled "Taking Action to the Max" on page 104 of the June 1999 issue of Computer Gaming World reveals that Gene Simmons of KISS has secured the rights to a film based on Remedy's upcoming third-person shooter

Wack! [4:45 pm]
Oh my goodness, I'm closing in on actually being caught up on email.. Sorting through the mail you crazy folks sent in among other things the latest list of wack-ass links. The weekly sections should be resuming now that I'm "on target" again.

Quake3 Week [3:15 pm]
The GameSpot UK Quake3 Week feature continues today. Today features some Q&A with Paul Steed focusing on the models and animations you can check out in Q3Test. There is also some talk with John Cash about the bot system to be included in the full Quake3 release.

Tarolli @ 3dfx [1:15 pm]
Gary Tarolli from 3dfx is interviewed over at Beyond3D

John Carmack [7:25 am]
Well now, isnt Mr. Carmack in the spotlight quite a bit recently? He updated his .plan file again with more work log stuff late last night going over a few things that have come up and he's fixed. Most notable is stuff he is adding to "cheat protection" such as the r_lightmap 1 command etc. Also the folks at Next-Generation have posted the online version of an interview that was conducted with Mr. Carmack a couple of months back in their print magazine.

George Broussard [7:25 am]
HardOCP has an interview with George Broussard of 3DRealms asking some pretty good questions (21 to be exact) about what he's up to over at 3DR and of course a few Duke4 specific questions. Here is the quote Billy at VE ripped:

Software only is dead now. We will support whatever Unreal ends up supporting. Right now Glide is the best API for Unreal. Clearly we want to support D3D as well, since it will reach every other card. OpenGL is fine, but considering the state of the drivers, I think D3D is a better way to go. The bottom line is that drivers SUCK for 3D cards now. People need to get their acts together and give developers a good, solid, supported API.

Q3Test Movie [7:25 am]
The folks at this page have put together a movie with footage from just about everything you can possibly see in the Q3Test which is out on the Mac platform right now. Character animations, level architecture, and weapon effects. All of em! There are a couple of different files for the bandwidth impaired as well. QuickTime Demo 1 High Bandwidth Medium Bandwidth Low Bandwidth QuickTime Demo 2 (q3test2 Network Play) High Bandwidth (674k)

Wheel of Time [7:25 am]
The weekly Legend Entertainment Wheel of Time development update has been posted at www.wheeloftime.com of course. With E3 looming closer the folks at Legend are busting some butt to get ready for the big show and make us want the game more than we already do. :)

Deus Ex [7:25 am]
The guys at Deus Ex Incarnate have been scouring the Ion BBS for posts from employees to put together an updated version of their Game Info Page with all the public information available on the Ion Unreal engine title. Saw that on Blues

Views [7:25 am]

• CGO on Quake3
  The first reviews of the Q3Test are coming out. the folks at CGO give their 2 cents on the test after playing it for a few hours.
  
  
• More Quake3 Art
  Check it out, you thought that last piece of art from Steven Garofalo was cool? Here is his 2nd image (and last one)
  
  
• More Quake3 Shots
  Saw this one on BluesNews: The Q2PMP has posted a Visor toy reference pic,
  
  
• Drakan Shot
  Another new screenshot of Surreal Software's Drakan: Order of the Flame has appeared over at Drakan.net
  
  

Tech [7:25 am]

• Celeron 466 = Ready
  Ars-Technica has word on the release of the Intel Celeron 466 processor. For highlights of the release and just what this means including some chit-chat about the 810 chipset check out Ars-Technica for the skinny.
  
  
• Beta Rage128 Drivers
  ATI has posted some beta Rage128 drivers - try 'em if you like, but remember they're beta...
  
  
• Metabyte PGP (TNT SLI Stuff)
  There is a new update to the Metabyte PGP technology which is just about done, check out SharkyExtreme for the scoop on just how far away it is before you can pair up those TNT2 cards in PGP mode.
  
  
• K6-3 Articles
  Review-Zone has a couple of more AMD K6 reviews on tap for you guys wondering what the K6 can really do. Wait for the K7 kids.. That's what I'm doing :)
  
  

Gaming [7:25 am]

• Model Viewers
  Got a few model viewers for you guys to check out if you're into that sorta thing. Rorshack has a preview of their model viewer which is in the works for Quake3. Also this is from VoodooExtreme: Mete (chUmbaLum sOft) sends word that he has released a new version of his Half-Life Model viewer (v1.1) and his Quake2 MD2 Model Viewer (v1.3)
  
  

werd
Well now, I'm down to about 700 emails left to read through after my little marathon yesterday. I apologize for the bit of lacking in content outside of Quake3, I'll be picking up on that stuff (hardware etc) later this week. I'm not even *close* to being caught up with email after being gone over the weekend.. so if you emailed me anything incredibly important and I dont respond to you by tomorrow, you may want to send it again.

Also..
Page width at 800x600 = busted. Will be fixed today
Links section = oops. I'll try to get to that this week
Files section = soon. Contemplating a couple of approaches.

I sneezed one of those nasty super-snot sneezes a couple of hours ago, it was kind of cool. If you like snot.

Even More Quake3 [7:45 pm]
John Carmack made a small addendum to his original .plan update featuring a bunch of console commands for you Mac owners to tweak your internet connection for playing Quake3.

"cl_maxpackets" will restrict the maximum number of outgoing packets to prevent client to server rate problems.  This does not limit the client framerate.  This defaults to 20, which might actually be a bit low.   You might try experimenting with raising this to 40.

"cl_maxfps" still exists, but it will never need to be used or networking reasons.

Action Half-Life [7:45 pm]
The folks at Halflife.org have snatched 4 screenshots of the conversion of the ever-popular Action Quake mod to Half-Life which is in development right now. Check out shot1, shot2, shot3, and shot4

Ritual Licenses Quake3 [4:45 pm]
The latest Computer Gaming World has word that Ritual Entertainment has licensed the Quake3 engine from id Software for their FAKK2 project. The majority of the gaming and developer community were under the impression that Ritual had licensed the LithTech engine from Monolith. Looks like that isnt the case. I actually got to read the CGW article a couple of weeks ago before it went to print, and can personally confirm that this is the case. Big thanks to Ritualistic for word.

More Quake3 [4:25 pm]
John Carmack has made another .plan update this time explaining the "lag-o-meter" which is similar to the netgraphs in QW/Q2. Here is a snipped up version of the update, or you can check out the full update which includes some more explanation on the choice of "RATE"

The upper graph (blue/yellow) slides one pixel for every rendered frame.  Blue lines below the baseline mean that the frame is interpolating between two valid snapshots.  Yellow lines above the baseline mean the frame is extrapolating beyond the latest valid time.  The length of the line is proportional to the time.

The lower graph (green/yellow/red) slides one pixel for every received snapshot.  By default, snapshots come 20 times a second, so if you are running >20 fps, the top graph will move faster, and vice versa.  A red bar means the snapshot was dropped by the network.  Green and yellow bars are properly received snapshots, with the height of the bar proportional to the ping.  A yellow bar indicates that the previous snapshot was intentionally supressed to stay under the rate limit.

The upper graph indicates the consistancy of your connection. Ideally, you should always have blue bars of only a pixel or two in height.  If you are commonly getting big triangles of yellow on the graph, your connection is inconsistant.

In a heavy firefight, it is normal for modem players to see yellow bars in the bottom graph, which should return to green when the action quiets down.  If you are getting several red bars visible, you may want to look for a server that drops less packets.
<snip>
Note that the optimal rate will be somewhat lower than a rate for QW or Q2, because I now include the UDP packet header length in the bandwidth estimate.

You can ask for a different number of snapshots by changing the "snaps" variable, but there isn't a lot of benefit to that. Dedicated servers run at 40hz, so stick to divisors of that: 40, 20 (default), 10.  A snaps of 40 will usually just cause you to hit your rate limit a lot faster.  It may be usefull for tuning rate, if nothing else.

You can adjust the local timing point with "cg_timenudge <value>", which effectively adds local lag to try to make sure you interpolate instead of extrapolate.   If you really want to play on a server that is dropping a ton of packets, a timenudge of 100 or so might make the game smoother.

Quake3 Namefun [4:15 pm]
In case you've been wondering, it looks like "namefun" is indeed a part of Quake3. Zoid sent me a couple of screenshots of his nifty character namefun. He's standing in the q3test2 bsp which there havent been a lot of screenshots of strangely enough. Check out shot1 and shot2 Here is some documentation on how it's done:

Quake3 has support for embedded color codes. They are present in Q3Test. In order to say or make your name with added color, you must preset the codes in your config file. Q3Test does not allow you to have external config files, so pretty much you are restricted to editing your name in the q3config.cfg file.

In order to embed the color codes, you must have an editor that lets you insert special character into a text file. In this case the <ESC> character. Some editors let you insert an escape character by using a special sequence such as Ctrl-P then Ctrl-[ (Ctrl-[ is the same character code as the ESC  character sequence). Your mileage may vary.

The colors are:
    <ESC> 0 -- Color 0--Black
    <ESC> 1 -- Color 1--Red
    <ESC> 2 -- Color 2--Green
    <ESC> 3 -- Color 3--Yellow
    <ESC> 4 -- Color 4--Blue
    <ESC> 5 -- Color 5--Cyan
    <ESC> 6 -- Color 6--Magenta
    <ESC> 7 -- Color 7--White

For example, in my q3config.cfg file, I have the following for my player name:
// Zoid.BC
set name "<ESC>1Z<ESC>5oi<ESC>1d<ESC>7.<ESC>3BC<ESC>7"

Where "<ESC>" is replaced with the ESC character code. Note that I added <ESC>7 at the end to return the color to white. This makes things look better. Have fun.

Loonygames [4:15 pm]
The latest issue of loonygames is on the stands featuring an interview with Graeme Devine of id Software as the "new guy" over at id and his involvement with the development of Quake3.

Views [1:45 pm]

• Soldier of Fortune
  The folks at GamePen send word of a new Soldier of Fortune interview with 3 Raven Software employees asking about the development of their Quake2 engine based title.
  
  
• Levelord
  Puppet has posted an interview with Richard "Levelord" Gray of Ritual Entertainment who is workin on the FAKK2 project right now. There is also another Levelord interview at U-Games
  
  
• Quake3 Art
  Check out this nifty new piece of artwork sent along by Steven Garofalo
  
  

werd?
I'm about 1/3rd through all this damn email. I apologize to a number of folks who I havent responded to. It looks like you guys are really liking the new Quake3 messageboard layout that Sander put together in time for the release.

Quake3 Week [2:45 pm]
GameSpot UK has fired up Quake3 Week opening things up with an interview with John Carmack talking about some of the single player aspects of Quake3 we can expect in the full version of the game. Thanks again Rick.

GameSpot UK:
You mean those four deathmatch levels get thrashed to death in multiplayer, yet in the single-player levels get seen once?

John Carmack:
That's one important point. I want everything that we do to be something that people actually see. A lot of times people never get to the last five or 10 levels in the single-player game. Ploughing your way through lots of media is making game development really expensive for companies, and when you have to do it with each new generation of graphics technology, it takes even more effort. Those same 30 levels that took us a month and a half to do in Wolfenstein took nine months to do in Doom ­ and up to a year and a half for Quake.

Q3Test Bug List [1:45 pm]
Graeme Devine over at id Software has updated the old .plan file with a huge list of bugs that have been found/reported with the release of MacQ3Test a couple of days ago.

Here's the most common bugs we're getting. The first two bugs account for 75% of all the bugs we're getting. After that, the texture corruption bug seems to be the most common, and then the rest are noise or install related. Generally, unless the detail is clear, I've waited to get a bug twice before reporting it. If you get a crash, and it's repeatable, the Macsbug app syslog would be greatly appreciated!

Q3Test Work Log [1:45 pm]
John Carmack's .plan revival tour is in full swing. Mr. Carmack is now updating the .plan file with his work log of stuff that is being fixed and changed in Quake3.

* converted cvar allocation to indexes to allow range checking
* cgame converted over to use vmCvar_t instead of cvar_t
needed for interpreted cgame
* fixed server crashing string bug
* adjusted scoreboard for 8 players
* show hostname on connection screen
* fixed null model warning on startup
* more space for hostname on local servers screen
* fixed mac Open Transport memory buffer bug
this was causing most of the mac crashes
* made Info_ValueForKey() case insensitive
* sv_privateClients, sv_privatePassword
this allows you to reserve slots on a
public server for password access while
allowing most to be freely available
* "server is full" message on connect screen
* archive handicap in config file
* cheat protect r_nocurves
* byte order independent zip checksum
* removed cl_stereo, use glConfig.stereoEnabled

Translation by certified cunning linguist Steve Gibson: "I fixed stuff that was busted"

New Quake3 Model Shots [1:45 pm]
Blue has gotten a hold of a few new images of Quake3 from Paul Steed showing off a new female model that Mr. Steed has just completed with the new skin compliments of Kenneth Scott. Speaking of Quake3 screenshots, screenshots.net has all the screenshots you could possibly want of Q3Test in action.

Tech [1:45 pm]

• New Rage128 OpenGL ICD
  The ATI page has been updated with a new OpenGL driver for their cool (hah) Rage128 card. Maybe you'll get to play Quake3 on it one day! Thanks Rick "Sneard" Wittle.

werd
Steve here. Found my way home late last night. Caught up on sleep now and will be working on catching you guys up on anything the pair of monkeys missed over the weekend. Hope you missed me :)

Samhell Interviews Ridah @ Shack [12:00 am] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Just like the headline states, Samhell has updated his interviews page here at this old shack. This week, he interrogates Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin of Xatrix, which we all know is hard at work on the impressive Kingpin.

Carmack clarifies [12:00 am] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
John has once again updated the .plan talking about the performance of a Wintel machine versus a MacOs machine (and a small bit about his Ferrari F50). The cool part is where he explains stuff that sucks:

Some people seem to think that I just make up these performance comparison numbers. I don't. I measure things, and I understand control conditions.

In this discussion, assume "wintel" is a 500 mhz PIII with either a agp rage128, or an agp TNT card, and "macos" is a 400 mhz G3 with the pci rage128.

At the highest level, you can make application class comparisons between platforms. For instance, CodeWarrior on the mac compiles faster than VC++ on wintel, but stuffit is way slower than winzip. This is useful data, but says more about the application design than the relative merits of the platforms. CW uses a single object file repository, for instance.

A better comparison is an identical app on both platforms.

Photoshop is often faster on macos than wintel. There is certainly a lot of common code, but individual filters are optimized for each platform. Some of these hand optimized operations are significantly faster on the mac.

Quake1 was the counterpoint to that. Quake1 had significant amounts of hand tuned asm code for intel, and the PPC version never got as much attention. The PPC version was noticeably slower (you would have to time at 640*480 to avoid unfairly penalizing the mac for lack of low res modes).

So, clearly, hand tuned asm code can make either platform pull ahead. It also shows that the two platforms are at least fairly close in performance. I never said macs were SLOW, just not quite as fast as the best intel systems.

Quake3 doesn't software rasterize, so there isn't any great place for lots of asm code (the great place is in the OpenGL driver). The code is essentially identical on all platforms.

Q3 is definitely faster on a wintel system than a macos system. When the wintel version is released, everyone will be independantly repeating that
measurement.

Even this measurement isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison, because the OpenGL driver and 3D card are still a significant variance. The two can be broken out farther: Q3 can be run without 3D output to test just the identical compiled code. Wintel is still faster, although somewhat less so. The OpenGL + 3D card setup can be benchmarked separately on the axis of throughput and fill rate, which show the intel system being significantly faster. I can't break that apart into the two separate components, but I will guess that the OpenGL driver is probably as efficient as the wintel drivers and the performance delta is due to the system interface and the video card. The current mac rage128 cards run at 75 mhz, which is a third slower than the PC cards. AGP is also more than just a faster PCI, it can influence the structure of communication with the card.

It has been my observation in the past that most of my code tracks just about midway between specint and specfp for performance comparisons. There is a lot of floating point, but it is all short vectors, rather than the massive vectors of scientific computing. If we discount the graphics subsystem, Q3 follows this reasonably well. The intel system does slightly better than projected.

"Sucks" is a subjective description that can be dismissed as opinion. Note that I have NEVER said that the hardware sucks, or the user interface sucks, just that the mac OPERATING SYSTEM sucks.

"Faster", when qualified with testing conditions, is objective, and all the wishing in the world doesn't change it.

Objectivity and quantification are the paths to improvement.

I will be very happy if Apple can produce a desktop system that is faster than anything else you can get. I respect good engineering from any source. Altivec should be better than the PIII extensions (trinary ops -- yeah!). The upcoming system architectures look good. They have a shot at it, but they won't make it if they complacently think "oh, we are already faster than any pc system".

My twin turbo F50 can still be outrun at the dragstrip by much cheaper race cars. Many ferrari owners would not dare set foot at a drag strip, because they fear objective measurements that may not show their important possession in the best light. I would rather have the facts, so I can base future decisions on logical grounds.

Pics from a Mac [YESTERDAY] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Thought I would carry over the pic pages from yesterday, since Q3Test looks so schweet.

http://www.colossal.org/ (Thanks Mike)
http://astrotek.realtime.no/quake3/ (Thanks Astrotek)
http://hope.res.cmu.edu/ (Thanks tyme)
http://www.columbia.edu/~gks4/ (Thanks Zerospace)
http://linux.alphacomp.com/index.html (Thanks Rotten)

Views [12:00 am] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam

• No Payne, some gain?
  House of Payne sends word that the Max Payne team will not be at E3, but instead will be devoted to working on the game full tilt (they are working hard to meet that release date of "when it's done"). There will be still a video showing off some of the new features of the game however.
  
  
• GL Heretic
  Billy, the VE daddy, told me that GLHeretic v0.1 (first non-alpha, first beta) has been released over on Kokak's GLHeretic page.
  

Tech [12:00 am] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam

• MacVoodoo and Q3Test
  Mark sends this link about getting Voodoo cards to work with the newly release MacQ3Test.
  
  
• KLH Speakers
  Chubs over at 3DHW told me that I have to check out these KLH Soundbite speakers because they're pretty cheap and good.
  

y0 [12:00 am] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
You still can't make me play MacQ3Test with a green and white plastic cookie.

BTW, I hope to see some video card action (I still need to get those V3s and TNT2s) here soon, hopefully with some Q3Test numbers.

Oh, and thanks to [R2]Hoonis, here's a link that's pretty wack.