go to www.shugashack.com for up to date news.
| Saturday, March 27 |
Wanted! Quake2 Western Pack [10:15 am]
The fully playable demo of "Wanted! The Quake II
Western Pack" has been released. It can be downloaded from url: www.wantedq2.com Here are a few details on the pack:
66.5 MB download - Yes, its big....but read why. (125 Mb installed)
All Weapons, All Pick-Ups, All Textures, All Sounds (not Music),
5 active models in the Single Player maps.
2 Single Player levels (not in the final commercial version),
5 Deathmatch Levels....DM mode is fully functional and superb fun.
Q2 3-20 upgrade file.
Demo Story, Full Version story, Manual text.
Wanted Poster, Sample of Music, Pictures of all Models, Windows Background
BMP, Web Site Banner.
TNT2 vs Voodoo3 [8:45 am]
The guys at Riva3D have gotten a hold of both a TNT2 and Voodoo3 card and run them through the
3DMark and Unreal benchmarks on a p2-450. The article surprinsgly though doesnt
specify what models and clock speed though that the TNT2 or Voodoo3 are running at. It
shows the benchmarks of the 2 cards are nearly identical though, with the TNT2 edging the
win in the majority of cases. Quake2 however was not included, which the Voodoo3 has
historically been faster. Here are few of the marks:
| Test Type - 1024x768 | Score Type |
Voodoo 3 16 | TNT-2 16 |
TNT-2 32 |
| 3DMark Result | 3DMarks |
3744 |
3860 |
3799 |
| CPU Geometry Speed | 3DCPUMarks |
4236 |
4284 |
4278 |
| Rasterizer Score | 3DRasterMarks |
2614 |
2312 |
1898 |
| Game 1 - Race | FPS |
36.8 |
37.5 |
36.9 |
The article goes on to show the differences between image qualities of the 2 cards showing that the TNT2 is indeed a bit more purty. Hopefully the guys will update with Quake3 benchmarks, or I'll be able to get a TNT2 here myself and throw up some benchmarks for you guys.
On Voodoo4 Specs [8:45 am]
Remember those Voodoo4 specs that I posted last
night? Well here come the disclaimers. Apparently these numbers were a lot more
speculative than originally thought. Here's the letter I saw on Blues who got it from VE:
Okay, let me clear this up for you. These specs were printed in a sidebar to Michael Flemming's Voodoo 3 piece that appears in the Spring issue of Voodoo (on sale now at finer newsstands near you). Michael basically thunked up what he thought would be the most likely progression for 3dfx's next level of technology. Several times in his sidebar, Michael included disclaimers like, "I will have to resort to a mixture of conjecture and deduction..." and "Please bear in mind that all of this is conjecture and does not represent any kind of official statement or release from 3dfx Interactive."
3dfx is hard at work on the imminent release of Voodoo 3 and certainly doesn't need any (more) headaches caused by me. Can you please whack something up on the site that indicates that these specs were nothing more than blue-sky ideals by one of Voodoo's freelancers?
<snip>
TeamFortress Classic LAN Release [8:45 am]
PlanetFortress
sends word that the LAN only version of Team
Fortress Classic for Half-Life has been released and is of course available for
download. Here is
the download link.
KingPin Models [8:45 am]
A post on the Gangland.org
forums from the Xatrix Entertainment CEO reveals that in fact there will
only be a single new character model in the full version of KingPin. You've seen most of
them if you've played through the demo. Of course that demo alone is 100megs and full of stuff so
uh.. its not like I would call that bad news :)
Right now it looks like the skinny male model (man that looks weird in type) will be the only additional model to make it into the game. There's a ton of work that goes into bringing a new model to life, from the actual building of the character model to the skins and then the thousand or so frames of animation and programming.
Views [8:45 am]
Tech [8:45 am]
werd
I'm going to be gone for a while today. I'll try to
pop in when I get back in case anything exciting happened while I'm gone. Feels like the
calm before the storm huh? :)
This url should entertain ya while I'm gone: http://britneys-tight-ass.isfun.net/
Oh yeah, checked out Mech Warrior 3 briefly. Very damn cool. I do believe I'll be buying that game when it hits the stands. Can't wait to play through the demo some more when I get home.
| Friday, March 26 |
Voodoo4? [8:15 pm]
Tommy over at PCBlitz
spotted these speculation numbers in the
official 3dfx print magazine, Voodoo Magazine. As the
article says these arent solid numbers, but "highly likely, to near certain" The
Voodoo4 should be available in the 2nd half of this year. Here's the specs. Thanks
Darkener for the heads up.
- Massive fill rates (around 900+ MTexels/s)
- 32-bit color rendering with no speed penalty
- Full-screen antialiasing with no speed penalty
- Much bigger textures (2048x2048 or larger)
- Texture compression
- Support for 64 MB or more local, on-board memory
- Multiple, independent pixel pipelines
- Quad+ multitexturing per pass (2+ textures/pipeline/cycle)
- 24 or 32-bit floating point Z buffer
- 4+x AGP and full AGP texturing (for bullet pointing)
- New blending modes: may be extremely flexible
- Glide compatibility
- 8-bit stencil buffer
- 2D/3D
- True single-cycle trilinear filtering
- Extensible architecture (a variety of configurations possible)
For comparison, the Voodoo3 3500 has a fill rate of 366 MTexels.
SIN CTF3 [6:55 pm]
The new beta of SINCTF for Ritual Entertainment's SIN
has been released. Grab it here.
and here is
the .plan update from Mark Dochterman.
MechWarrior 3 Demo [4:35 pm]
The long awaited demo
for MechWarrior3 is here! The demo is about 34megs which is a pleasant surprise as
compared to other recent demos *cough* Here's the scoop from GameCenter (Saw the link on VE)
This demo features just one of the Instant Action modes, termed "Battle Progressive." The player will face 10 waves of enemy mechs, each wave stronger than the next either because of the number of mechs involved, or because of their size. The player can have up to 3 lancemates with him, as well as his Mobile Field Base, which can make armor repairs and provide more ammunition. The player also has options for invincibility, unlimited ammo, and no heat management (although this is "dishonorable"). The player is allowed to play as one of three mechs (MadCat, Orion, Bushwacker) and can encounter about 10 different types of mechs in this demo. Although all of MechWarrior 3's weapons and equipment are not available in this demo, there is a nice mix that allows the player to configure the mech in dozens of different ways
Momma Remembers [5:15 pm]
Just got off the phone with mom and we were talking a
bit about what an absolute hell-raiser I was at a kid. Mom suggested she document some of
my young adventures, (all true stories). She wasnt sure if you guys would be interested in
reading about stuff like the time I set my dad's car on fire, or that time I pulled the
fire alarm in the national guard regional headquarters. (hehe) Drop my mom some email and let
her know! Be nice though, I'll be watching. :)
Intel I752 Specs [4:15 pm]
The 740
guys have posted the specs for the next 3D chip from Intel. The 2 specs which should
interest you guys the most are below. Looks like the card wont be giving The
TNT2/Savage4/Voodoo3 any real comp.
3M Triangles/Second
100M Pixel/Second (Fill Rate)
Deus Ex Image [2:35 pm]
Beyond3D has
gotten a hold of a new
screenshot of the Unreal engine based Ion Storm project. It's 1600x1200 so watch out.
Descent3 [11:45 am]
Can't say I've ever been a Descent fan myself, but
the new preview over
at Games.net of Descent3 which features some pretty damn impressive screenshots
should really be given the once over. Thanks Hickster. While you're in the mood of looking
at purty pictures, have a look at these new Diablo2 image Billy spotted.
KingPin Stuff [11:45 am]
The guys at http://i.am/kingpin
have posted a pretty impressive compilation of maps, cheats, strategies, as well as a
lengthy console command list for KingPin. There is also another KingPin demo review over at
GameLinks for those interested. Lastly Tweak3D posted
these few TNT tweaks for you guys:
If Kingpin is too dark on your TNT, simply edit the autoexec.cfg file in the Kingpin Demo\Main\ directory using Notepad. Add the following:
set gl_modulate "2.5"
set intensity "2.1"
set vid_gamma ".8"
Reason To Live? [11:45 am]
In case Quake3Test within the next 5 days isnt enough
for ya, I've updated the Reasons To Live with a few more including the obvious Britney Spears
reference. :)
Steed on Models [5:55 am]
Well Paul helped us lead our lives and get chicks
yesterday, today he's back on that 3D modeling thing though. The guys at Q2PMP play host to an article
entitled: OPTIMIZING
3D ART: LESS IS BEST This is basically the lecture Paul gave at GDC this past week
which also includes a few images of the models from Quake3. Here is the shotgun,
and the default
player model showing off 3 levels of detail. Saw the link on Blues
GDC Quake3 Footage [3:15 am]
The AllGames's daily "240 Seconds of Gaming"
RealVideo show has a bit more footage of the demo of Quake3 that was showing at GDC last
week. Here is the direct
link to the 4 minute RealVideo
show. You can also get a chuckle listening to the host attempting to talk about LOD. Saw
that over at Q3Arena.com
Also, I did a lot of cleanup on the Quake3 messageboard.
UnrealTournament.net [3:15 am]
The official Unreal Tournanment website has opened up. Of
course as I type this I can't get to the website but I imagine there will a bit more
information on the game available there. Thanks PlanetUnreal
(update: ok it works now, here are some damn cool screenshots)
Wanna know how Unreal Tournament is so much different from Unreal?
Unreal Tournament's Single Player experience is unlike anything you've ever played.
Never before has a game provided a more in-depth and compelling Multiplayer experience.
Unreal Tournament in Five - count 'em, Five - games in one.
Your bloodthirsty inner sociopath is dying to find out more Unreal Tournament's brand new arsenal.
New Items! New Items, here!
How about a boatload of brand spankin' new Features?
What would a Tournament be without a plethora of brand-new, awe-inspiring Levels?
Deus Ex [3:15 am]
Speaking of Unreal etc, the Unreal engine based Deus
Ex from Ion Storm will be showing at E3 this year. Chris
Norden has the .plan update to prove it!
We're also getting ready for our first big E3 appearance...this will be the first time that we have shown Deus Ex to the public, so if you're going to be there, come by and see us. I'm really interested in how many people actually read these, so if you're reading this right now and you will be at E3, find me and say 'Hi' (I'll probably be in the Eidos booth in front of the Deus Ex computers almost the entire show.)
TF Classic Delayed [3:15 am]
Team
Fortress Classic for Half-Life looks like it's gonna be delayed about a week. Looks
like the press preview release was enough to dig up a couple of bugs. Here is word from Valve:
- The release of Team Fortress Classic (which is part of our Half-Life v. 1.0.0.9 update) to the general public, originally scheduled for tomorrow (Friday, Mar. 26), has been delayed a week (to Friday, Apr. 2) so that we can fix a few bugs and have time to test the fixes.
- The LAN Party release, originally scheduled for Wednesday of this week, should go out tomorrow afternoon (Friday, Mar. 26).
Bond & Quake3 Engine? [3:15 am]
Check this out which Blue
spotted in the MCV USA (Market for Home Computers and
Videogames) which is pretty interesting.
ELECTRONIC ARTS ENGINE QUAKES
MCV has learned that Electronic Arts will soon announce that the Quake III engine has been selected as its engine of choice for a 007-branded first-person shooter.
Q2DM Maps for KingPin [3:15 am]
I linked Dingleberry
Central a couple of days ago which had a map pack of all the Quake2 DM maps converted
for KingPin. Well they now have a few mirror sites setup to handle the load. Give it a
shot if you're just dying to play KingPin DM. Also e_T put together a map of his own over at this page.
Views [4:15 am]
Tech [4:15 am]
werd
Thanks to some helpful tips in E-mail I got fully
qualified for DSL here at the house. (Call early in morning when lines are cool, unplug
other phones from the jack and use a short cord) Plus I talked really sweet to the lady
making really dumb jokes.
I got a hold of some 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 & 3000 cards yesterday. Still no TNT2 though. I'm just gonna wait for Q3Test before running through all the benchmarks.
p.s. With all my rambling about Britney lately, don't go thinking I have any less respect for Jennifer Love Hewitt. She's a hottie as well. I would happily make bacon with either of them.
| Thursday, March 25 |
Valve AI Interview [2:15 pm]
Bot Epidemic has an interview with Steve Bond,
written by John Crickett, posted. Steve works as the programmer responsible for a lot of
the design and programming of the AI system in Valve's Half-Life. The interview covers
topics such as AI navigational techniques, the squad AI in Half-Life and Artificial Life
Ask Paul Steed [9:45 am]
He's not only making all those super cool player
models in Quake3, he's helping us be better people as well. Check out Dear Paul Steed.
over at PlanetQuake. (A pic on the front page of
PQ of Steed for the curious young women out there)
Team Fortress Classic [4:15 am]
Valve Software
released a preview copy of Team Fortress classic to several members of the press (myself
included) and of course we are flooded with tons of previews of the game in return. The
most comprehensive and informed preview has to be this one over at FiringSquad performed by
TF veteran Nemesis.
Rockets have a faster rate of fire in TFC; the trade off is that they travel slower. Also the rockets have a bright white smoke trail on the end of them, and are readily visible because of this. This flare and the white trail they leave behind them easily give away the position of the soldier that fired it: no more rockets from out of nowhere!
I took some time and played TFC myself. I've dabbled in TF for QW a number of times and participated in a few clan matches. Something I really disagree with is the absolute huge number of changes the Valve folks made to the gameplay aspects. I'm talking major things like soldiers being able to fire in the middle of reload sequences, rocket jumps being higher (You can actually jump to the attic on the Well map now), lack of instant weapon switch, different water physics (You cant rjump out of the water on 2fort anymore) and this is just the stuff that affects the soldier alone. I'm not saying the game is no fun (because it is), but the original focus of simply porting TF to Half-Life seems to have been lost. Personally I feel a little bit of change is good, but I guess we'll see this weekend when TFC hits what everyone else thinks.
[POST COMMENT | READ COMMENTS]
Your Linux Quake3 Desktop? [8:45 am]
From the guys at Ars-Technica: Now that we know Quake III Arena will be
running on Linux, it might just be time to start lookin' seriously at making an OS
switch. However, in order to break through that nasty command-line barrier, most
folks are gonna need something like the K Desktop Environment (KDE). Check out Ars Technica's
spiff review of what might well be your next PC desktop environment
KingPin Cheats [4:15 am]
Here you go, the long awaited cheat codes for KingPin
for all you wannabe-gangsters thanks to PlanetKingPin.
To enable the console in the Kingpin demo, begin the game with "kingpin +developer 1" this will enable the console and you can type in these cheats, thanks to $$*Midnight*$$:
give weapons: gives you all weapons (with out mods)
give ammo: gives you full ammo
give cash: gives you 100 dollars
give health: gives you health
god: god mode
noclip: lets you fly and walk though walls
KingPin Performance [8:45 am]
Ryan Feltrin of Xatrix updated his
.plan file with a few tips on increasing performance for KingPin. Here's the juice:
I was a little concerned after some "reviews" reported sluggish performance on 64mb machines. So I loaded up my old machine and tried the following settings, which seemed to make a huge difference:
--
Sound Quality: LOW
Sound Compatibility: MAX PERFORMANCE
Texture Quality: One notch back from MAX (Voodoo2, Voodoo1 might try a few more back)
MAKE SURE NO BACKGROUND APPLICATIONS ARE RUNNING !
--
Once you've made these settings, quit the game, and restart it.
While this won't make things perfect, they greatly reduced the in-game stuttering that occurs as new sounds and pics are loaded.
As for the level load times, these settings will help, but this isn't something we are turning a blind eye to. You can expect the final product to have a big improvement in this area.
Please remember that this is very early code, and we're very much committed to making sure the final game runs adequately on a wide range of systems. In many ways, the "demo" was more of a KPtest than an indication of the final product.
Speaking of which, PlanetKingPin has also posted a new demo for you guys to standardize your benchmarks with.
Phantom Menace Games [4:15 am]
LucasArts had
a big old shindig inviting all kinds of press to the ranch earlier this week, and today we
are given a look at all the games the folks at Lucas are working on with the Phantom
Menace (Star Wars Episode 1) theme. Here is a run down of a few articles Billy spotted:
GameCenter previews Phantom Menace titles
GameSpot UK previews Phantom Menace titles
PC.IGN previews StarWars Episode1 Racer
PC.IGN previews Phantom Menace Action/Adventure game
Next-Generation previews StarWars Episode1 Racer
Unreal Tournament Stats [4:15 am]
GreenMarine made an update to the Unreal Technology page talking a bit more about
the announcement a week ago that NetGamesUSA's Tourney Control System statistics
generation software will be included with the game.
The second type of stat logging is global logging. This is very very cool. Dedicated servers that have an external internet connection can turn on global logging. When a game is played on that server an encrypted log is generated. At the end of the game a batcher is called that sends the log file to NetGames USA's global stat compilation server. All of the stats for that game are entered into the global database and the relevant HTML is updated. This allows for some very cool things like: global laddering, player of the week, and clan of the week. You can even pull up your own stats and compare them to anyone else who plays UT online. Don't want to be logged? UT's internal server browser indicates whether or not a server is running global logging.
We are fully aware of methods of cheating and hacking that might be employed against the system. Log forgery is not possible because of safeguards and watermarks built into the ngLog system. There are a couple ways where hackers could ruin global laddering. If this happens, we'll remove the ladder. I'm hoping people will play nice and we won't have to do this, but there are lot of punks out there. Even if the ladder is compromised, there will still be a lot of other cool things, like global game tracking and personal stat tracking. These can't really be compromised, because if you get online and play legitimately than your own scores will reflect that. If you cheat up your own scores...no one else cares. You've only cheated yourself.
Views [4:15 am]
Tech [4:15 am]
Gaming [4:15 am]
werd
Thanks to all the folks who sent me oh so many
Britney Spears images and links to the Rolling Stone website. I now have enough data on my
machine for when the FBI siezes my computer to be prosecuted.
Also, I've just been giving a break to the weekly demos in anticipation of Quake3. Rest assured once the Q3Test comes out within the next 6 days I'll have an absolute assload of new demos coming out the door.
Grab the new Winamp btw. No more crashes!
| Wednesday, March 24 |
Tom's CeBit Blurb [12:15 pm]
SawTom over at TomsHardware of all places has posted a pretty good
article of his observations from visiting the CeBit show. He talks a bit about the
AMD/Intel struggle (not much) but more interestingly has a good amount about the TNT2,
Voodoo3, Savage4, and G400 stuff. I'm still just waiting on Q3Test and some benchmarks
before I decide what card I want. :)
Everybody that I've talked to at the show, who had the chance of comparing Voodoo3 and TNT2 thinks that TNT2 is way superior to Voodoo3 and each of you will be able to experience this when both chips are available in the shops. It was also interesting to find a complete lack of Voodoo3 3500-brochures at the 3Dfx booth, it seems as if only Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 will be available soon. Another rumor reached me just a few minutes ago. It says that Voodoo3 is manufactured by UMC only, a semiconductor company that is not exactly known for being able to supply large numbers of chips.
Q2DM Maps For KingPin [12:15 pm]
DingleBerry
Central (Great logo!) has posted a .pak file with conversions of all the Quake2 DM
maps to play with KingPin. Also included in the zip are full instructions etc. The
download is pretty slow, and the fact that you only have a shotgun or flamethrower makes
it not incredibly exciting.. But if you're desperate.
Quad Damage [12:15 pm]
Activision sent out this
press release announcing a new package of Quake2 products you can grab all in the same
box.
Delivering four times the killing power in one adrenaline-pumping dose, id Software's QUAKE II Quad Damage(TM) compiles four explosive QUAKE II games into the ultimate collector's pack.
FiringSquad Quake3 Preview [7:15 am]
Thresh's FiringSquad
has posted part2 of his
Quake3 hands-on preview. As always after you check it out dig on the shack.quake3 messageboard
which is always entertaining.
At long last, it's finally here! Thresh's long-awaited followup to the Quake III Preview Part 1! In this segment, Thresh discusses model animation, weapons cycling, teleporters, and the much-debated player classes.
Oh btw, I absolutely agree with Thresh on the personal teleporter and inventory items in general. Fine and dandy for FFA, but ditch that stuff when it comes to 1on1 or team games. :)
More KingPin Multiplayer [6:15 am]
I've updated the KingPin Multiplayer
hack page with some more information from O-Dog including a few more commands on how
to get to the multiplayer menus etc. If you havent grabbed the demo yet, here is a list of
mirrors to get that whopping 100+ meg demo from. Also, late last night a new kingpin messageboard opened up here
at the Shack. A lot of you guys are still posting to the general forum, cut it out! (There
are a couple of interesting posts there from CliffyB of Epic, as well as George Broussard
of 3DRealms I highly recommend checking out)
KingPin Demo Stuff [6:15 am]
The folks at Gangland.org
got some mail from Drew Markham, CEO of Xatrix
Entertainment. The folks of course behind KingPin. Here is part of the email
addressing a number of the questions that have come up since the demo release:
We have now reduced the "key count" in the demo (Episode 1) from seven to two. There will also be a mini-boss at the end sporting twin pistols with magnum mods and pack of wild dogs. We've added a few cool new things (well, added isn't absolutely accurate, since we wanted some of this stuff in the first place but just couldn't get it working in time), like the safe in the first level. No keys for it now, but you'll have to figure out how to do someone a favor to get the combo. Also, I added a Pawn-O-Matic in the bar in the level after the sewers so that you don't have to run back in the level 1.
<snip>
Also, we managed to track down why the game is running choppy on some systems; its all of the friggin' sounds! If you've got 128 megs of RAM there's no trouble, but on a 64meg system there's some definite hitting. We're working on a pre-caching routine, and we're also going to include native 11k sounds as well as the 22k sounds; if you choose to install with 11k sounds the game should run fine in 64 megs. If this works out well we'll be releasing the new sound files later this week for people having the dreaded "hit" problem.
KingPin Video Tweaks [6:15 am]
A number of TNT owners especially have been pretty
bummed out about the fact that KingPin is just too damn dark. Bill Farmer of idgamma fame sent this email to Blue that should be some good news to you guys though.
Check it:
I just wanted to let everyone know that you can use use Idgamma to brighten up the Kingpin Demo. First choose the 3d accelerator that you are using.Then pick Quake 2 as the game you want to brighten. Then simply put Kingpi~1/main (directory that contains Kingpin pak file) directory as the destination.
Also, check this bit out from the folks at Gangland.org on tweaking out the 3dfx. Apparently a few people with Banshee's have been experiencing troubles:
Dynamik770 sent in a tip for all you people with 3DFX cards, it seems the MiniGL that is packaged with the Kingpin Demo is really old. Grab 1.47 from 3Dfx's web site, extract them, and drop the Half-Life MiniGL into the Kingpin directory. That fixed a problem he was having with his Banshee. This should speed up the game for 3DFX cards also.
CeBit & NVidia's NV10? [6:15 am]
3DConcepts has posted a translated english version of
their report on the CeBit show which was held in Germany this past week. The most
interesting part is word on the next-next-gen 3D card from NVidia which Blue dug up:
It was also interresting for us, that we got the hottest infos at small OEMs, which I now can't tell of course. NV10 is going to be a hot iron, which is planned to hit the market in late authumn. If you compare the latest step from nVidia to the NV10, everything seems to be a small evolution – assuming that nVidia is goint to realize their plans. Expect more than 2 texutre units (4-8), geometry acceleration and a chip based on 0.21u manufacturing process. Clock frequencies are not yet available, expect something around 200+ MHz and support of 64+ megs of RAM.
Views [6:15 am]
Tech [6:15 am]
Gaming [6:15 am]
werd
Rumor has it Britney Spears is in the latest issue of
Rolling Stone, and she has been ever so kind to us at showing off what we all want to see.
Thanks sweetie!
So I did my DSL line qualification with SWBell yesterday, and they gave me "inconclusive" as a response. Apparently I do qualify, but I'm right in between 2 zones or something so instead of just deciding on one there they have opted that I dont get DSL at all until April 1st now. Rat bastards!
| Tuesday, March 23 |
KingPin Map Tutorial [10:05 pm]
The folks at PlanetKingPing
have posted a nice little
tutorial from Icarus on how he put together that KingPin multiplayer map. on how to
edit maps for the KingPin demo using QERadiant. It's pretty useful.
KingPin Messageboard [10:05 pm]
Due to the incredibly popular demand, I've opened up
a new KingPin messageboard here
at the old Shack. Feel free to share your stories of what it is like in your part of the
hood.
Raven Interview [10:05 pm]
RavenGames.com has posted a pretty big interview with several
members of the Raven Software team talking about their Soldier of Fortune project of
course, and whatever else comes to mind.
Quake3 Jersey [10:05 pm]
If you are still wanting to look smoove, those Quake3
jerseys are back. Check out the .plan update from Tim
Willits on the details of where and how to get your very own Quake3
hockey jersey.
Gary Tarolli of 3dfx [10:05 pm]
Dennis Van Roeyen spotted this article on the 3dfx website
from Gary T of 3dfx attempting to set the record straight on all the bad / misinformed
press who have been talking about the Voodoo3 and lack of 32bit support.
KingPin Multiplayer Hack [6:05 am]
O-Dog from
efnet #quakeed has written up this document which goes through the steps of how to get
some multiplayer action in the KingPin demo that was released yesterday. Also, Icarus from
efnet #kingpin put together this
new multiplayer map to play around with to boot. I havent had a chance to check this
out myself, but these guys usually know what they are doing :)
What one can do however in theory hack the bsps in the demo and make more spawn points and also add weapons. The only thing stopping someone from doing this is a lack of documentation on the entities but even this is much of a problem because the end of the bsp files give plenty of sample entities to use. Another funny thing is that Quake2 and Kingpin both use the same bsp formats, version 0x26.
Speaking of KingPin, I added a few more download locations for the demo, including a split file setup from frag.com
Ass-Wack Links [8:55 am]
The weekly sampling
of why we love the internet has been posted. Hopefully at least some of you will be
offended.
Wheel of Time [7:05 am]
The weekly
development update from the Wheel of Time Unreal engine based game has been posted by
the Legend Entertainment folks. Thanks as always to Demandred
(BORK BORK BORK)
Levels themselves are looking sweet, more polished and content-laden. James' Approach to the FoL has tons more stuff in it, while Scott and Ryan battle the scripting monster in Saving the White Tower. Warren has been trying his hand at coding a monster puzzle in the Bowels (believe me, I've learned from experience that you don't want to call a level, 'The Bowels'. The jokes don't get any better than the obvious, but they certainly get a lot more numerous).
MechWarrior3 Demo This Week [6:05 am]
Word from GameCenter is that the
MechWarrior3 demo will finally be seeing the light of day some time this week. Seeing as
how things go with demo releases you can probably count on Friday or Saturday. Speaking of
GameCenter, they offered me the honor of carrying a button for their page recently. I of
course responded saying I'll return that favor since I'm so nice and let them carry a
button for my page as well. How come they ignored me?
433Mhz Celery [6:05 am]
Here you go, picked this up from the boys over at Ars-Technica. So what can we overclock these
things to?
Intel has launched its new 433MHz PPGA Celeron. It should be available for $169 in lots of 1,000. According to this ZDNet article, Intel is planning on rolling out new Celerons every few months to coincide with events like the beginning of school or the holiday season
Views [6:05 am]
Tech [6:05 am]
werd
KingPin is like, impressive as hell. Xatrix did quite a fine
job. I've only had enough time to play it for about 10 minutes so far, but I'm hoping to
sit down and play through the entire demo today.
| Monday, March 22 |
Q3A, IHVs, & GDC [9:25 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Newly opened 3drant has posted a bit from a Mike of Real3D and his
final impressions on GDC. I've taken the goods for you guys:
The next day a talk was given about id's Quake III Arena. This title looks impressive but Brian Hook voiced a nagging doubt that I have had for a while. This title is NOT the huge leap that happened between Wolfenstien 3d and DOOM. Nor is it the leap between Doom and Quake. It really does have some cool neat new features but to the normal game player, it really doesn't look all that different that Quake II. Brian also briefly touched on an idea that I had from attending this conference. There is a fallout on the horizon for Video Card vendors. The video card market is standardizing and there are fewer and fewer selling points for these cards. This is GREAT for developers and consumers because price/performance becomes the only differentiation and all cards will have the basic functionality needed. It is BAD for card vendors because there are no bullet points to set them apart from competition and he who can sell the cheapest will win (ATI, Maybe S3). I think that we will see some LARGE changes coming down the pike and graphics vendors will start dropping like flies.
Quake III really shines when run in 32-bit color with 32-bit z (8-bits for stencil) the stencil buffer shadow effects are REALLY cool and add a whole new dimension to the game. Objects even cast shadows onto themselves and he showed us a view of the Quad Damage thingy and you could see the object casting a perfect shadow onto the ground as well as onto other parts of the object. That was ok cool but then he fired a rocket and the light from the rocket correctly cast a shadow of the object that stretched and moved according to its position. That will look pretty cool in a hot and heavy deathmatch with rockets firing all over the place.
In other words, you can't lose with any of the next generation graphic boards. Now is a great time for 3D because the new cards don't suck :-)
BB Q&Aed by VR [9:15 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
dave of VR conducted a little interview with Brian
Burke of STB. Nothing juicy at all, BUT, readers can submit their own (tough) questions
in.
I will pick the top 10 questions and pass them along UNEDITED to Brian to see if he can knock them out of the park. So don't believe the few rumors or complaining that's going on because you never know who the source is... Here's your chance to get the straight scoop from the horse's mouth. Send in your questions to vr@voodoomag.com and good luck!
Unreal Mission Pack [11:15 am]
The GT Interactive website has been updated with information on an Unreal Mission
Pack. "3 Brand New Weapons. 3 Brand New Baddies. 17 + Brand New Levels. Unreal
Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali. Your senses expanded...Further. " etc. Yeah, just
gimme the 223 patch ok? Thanks to GA-Source for the
news.
KingPin Demo Released [10:45 am]
The 107 meg demo for KingPin is now appearing on ftp
servers around the world. I have set up a list of mirrors that I will update through the day to keep you
guys posted. You can check out the readme.txt and salivate while you wait though. Still
waiting? Here are some screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 also here is a
quote from drew at Xatrix:
Well, the KP demo is REALLY done. No more bs spam, this is for real. Hats off to all the guys at Xatrix for really hanging in there. The testing sessions over the weekend were really wild. Lots of screaming and yelling, stories about great kills, limbs being blown off, etc. Its hard to believe that we started this thing only a year ago; it feels like 2 years right now! But, we've managed to get most of the elements into the game as they were originally envisioned, and we've also managed to get in a lot of new elements along the way.
A small note, I personally lead the "thug life" so if you are curious what it is like to live in the ghetto and pop caps, but cant download 100+ megs, I'll just record a day of my life instead. Oh yeah, if you are lucky enough to be on a big fat net pipe, drop your comments on the msgboard, we are all (myself included) interested in some gamers opinions.
Suck?
[9:35 am]
Oh yeah, the weekly suckage has
been posted. Did I mention it sucks?
KingPin Demo Today? [3:25 am]
Yeah, we've heard that one before. Well it looks like
Xatrix Entertainment did indeed miss their original
target date for this weekend, but PlanetKingPin
has word that Xatrix still thinks they can make it out some time today instead. Of course
considering the damn thing is gonna be 100 megs, it may come out today and you still wont
be able to play it tomorrow when the download is done :) Here is the quote from PKP.
Thanks Caliban and PseudoEnemy for the mail.
The boys at Xatrix send word that they have been working on the demo just about nonstop the last couple days to clear up some issues and get the demo out this weekend. They are trying to get it out still but it isn't looking like it is going to happen. They are going to shoot for a Monday release and I'll post more info as I recieve it.
note: just got word from Gangland.org the demo is "ready for upload" and will possibly be available in the very near future. Keep your eye here and I'll have word on it ASAP. Apparently it's being uploaded to servers now. I'll have download urls the moment it is available.
Daikatana Troubles? [3:15 am]
Computer Games Online has posted a very interesting
article concerning a new employee planted by Eidos into Ion Storm to help "deal
with problems surrounding the development of Daikatana"
CTW reports that Eidos Interactive has sent publishing director John Kavanagh to Ion Storm's offices in Texas for three weeks in an attempt to deal with problems surrounding the development of Daikatana.
Eidos is claiming that Daikatana is due to be released in June. CTW cites a knowledgeable insider, who indicated that "September may be a more realistic date."
Feel free to post to the Daikatana messageboard. Hopefully one of the Ion employees will be kind enough to address the quetions you guys have.
SIN Stuff [3:15 am]
A few things on the SIN front. There are a couple of
.plan updates from Mark Dochterman covering some CTF issues,
as well as a workaround for those of you having problems
with 3DNow etc.
Views [3:15 am]
Tech [3:15 am]
Gaming [3:15 am]
werd
MTV Spring Break 99. Oh my god. I dont think I'm
gonna ever change the channel again. I think there are boobs burnt into my tv tube. I
swear its all they show. Actually, I'm going next year wherever it is. Damn it. Guess
what, Britney will be legal
by then too! Spring vacation 2000 man... I'm there.
Oh yeah, the FTP stuff for IE5 can eat my ass. What an absolute pile.
| Sunday, March 21 |
Neon not a peon? [6:15 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Some PVR 250
numbers and comments on PVRGen indicate that this DreamCast pixel pusher might end up
to be worth something after all. Something that would totally rock is if those DreamCast
games actually made it to PC, preferably on OpenGL or D3D and not PowerSGL. Chances are it
would be D3D, seeing how Microsoft has DX5.x in the mixture. There was some talk about 2
pass multitexturing, but I don't really understand how that equals better than single pass
multitexturing. Though I'm guilty of not following the PVR stuff that much. Keep in mind
that the Neon 250 may not see the light of day in North America.
We were able to check the NEON 250 to get some benchmarks and here they are the first benchmark results of a nearly final product with beta drivers (expect the final driver performance to be higher!)
System: P III 500MHz with 128MB & NEON 250 early drivers Benchmark: Quake 3.20 with beta miniGL drivers
Mode: testdemo 1
1024x768x16: 61.8 fps
800x600x16: 95.5 fps
640x480x16: 118.2 fps
Mode: crusher demo
1024x768x16: 49.7 fps
800x600x16: 55.0 fps
Benchmark: 3D Mark 99 Max 800x600x16: 4202
HexArena [6:15 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Y'know, I still play ClanArena in QW. Anyway, here's
the stuff straight from HW: Just in time for the HexenWorld Multiplayer Resurgence!
The public beta release of HexArena
(1.85 MB) is hereby released! Big wh00ps and Congrats to BludBath and Christian, who saw this project to completion.
Any and all bug reports go to BludBath, and
questions or any other comments about the project should be sent to Christian. Please note, HexArena
requires HexenWorld (which, of course, requires Hexen II) to run.
Report 3 from 'squad [6:15 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
Calbear and soso report about the final day at GDC,
talking about the "new" Logitech Wingman Mouse (great mouse, but I need the
wheel), S3TC, Homeworld, Q3A, and some other RTS games. Some 'bout Q3A on da Rage128Mac:
Unfortunately for Apple, the PC version seemed to be running a lot smoother. The Mac version froze inexplicably at times, then would start running again. The ATI person wasn't exactly sure what the problem was, although we both suspected that OS 8.x was leaking memory (surprise surprise). Also, when demos would get to big firefights, the Mac version would chunk excessively, while the PC version cruised right on through. To Apple's benefit, the Mac version had noticeably more vibrant colors. I asked why the PC version looked so washed out compared to the Mac and was told it the problem would be fixed later - something about using different RAM in the PC card.
And some 'bout its competitor, UT:
Graphically, the color palette gets away from that fantasy sci-fi feel, and more into a techy real world atmosphere. I only got to see two of the maps though. One big difference was the console interface. It's not command line driven anymore (like Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, etc.). Rather, they use a GUI style interface that emulates how Windows works. It still needs some work, but with some refinement, the GUI style could make tweaking much more accessible for casual gamers who don't have the time or inclination to learn about mipcap, gl_modulate, kick_pitch, and all that tweak monkey stuff.
Clash of the titans [5:15 pm] - Marcus 'Majesty' Yam
All this noise about the upcoming 3d cards has lead
to much rivalry already...even before the chips are fully released, people are bickering
about which is better. The guys at review zone have matched up the
V3 3500 and the speculated highest end TNT2. I say speculated because nv hasn't
officially stated what kind of clock speeds they'll get (and how many). Nothing is certain
until the board hits the shelves. Anyone remember that even AFTER the first batch of TNTs,
the clock speed had to have been reduced another 10MHz in a BIOS update?
What do we know about the contestants? The Voodoo3 is no longer just a 3D chip, like the Voodoo2, but a 2D/3D chip, coming in three flavors: the 2000, 3000 and the 3500, with only 16MB of RAM. The Voodoo3 is due for release in mid-April. The TNT2 is similarly a step above the original Riva TNT, with a better rendering pipeline and support of up to 32MB RAM, and also comes in three flavors. The TNT2 is due for release in late April.
y0 [5:15 pm] - Marcus
'Majesty' Yam
So like, I got up this morning (well, closer to
afternoon) and I decided to drink some milk...and lo and behold! sTeve's mug was top
billing on the side of the carton! Oh well, it's a slow day but if the Kingpin (prime
target for misinformed, tightwad senators) demo rears its head, you'll be the first to
know.
Just here to spit out some interesting news for you guys, no scraping here :-) Oops, took me a little longer than expected. The Ars Technica guys thought they could sucker me into a game of Quake2. The Railgun worked pretty well even with 600ms lag! (Prolly luck)...ARGH I hate that stupid font bomb in OLE4! Does OLE5 fix that?
And yes, I like rambling.
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