2 DAY OLD NEWS ARCHIVES
go to www.shugashack.com
for up to date news.
| Saturday, October 10 |
Quake3 Info [6:25am]
Yo, sorry didnt get to post more before taking off
yesterday evening. Here is a post from the new and improved Quake3 messageboard
with a ton of great details on Quake3. (This is a clip, check
out the full post by Plague)
WEAPONS AND ITEMS:
It's supposed to have a lot of classics, as well as several new ones. They want to keep it familiar, so you know what weapon you're oppenent is using and what you are using (unlike some weapons in...Unreal). New weapons right now include a mace which can be powered up to instantly gib people (a la beserker in Doom). Another is code named the bouncy gun. Weapon change is very fast. Finally, they mentioned a batman type grappling hook and a jetpack.
PHYSICS:
Things are supposed to be a bit more rubbery. For instance, a rocket launcher could send you flying across the screen. Also you should be able to jump a lot higher and further. Then there's also that thing about holstering yo weapon to run faster.
PLAYERS:
20 players to choose from. Classic id guys should return, including Quake guy, Doomguy, and Hans (the beefed up chaingun boss in WOLF). Models are done in individual sections, so gibs will send realistic arms and legs and heads a flyin. Player models will be animated to show almost every movement including changing weapons. Also you can now see taunts in first person perspective (the player holsters his gun or whatever).
Of all 3D action games currently in production, I'm gonna have to admit that the prospect of Q3:Arena excites me the most as an avid multiplayer fan. It's still several months away but I'm already sick of waiting!
Heretic2 Soon! [9:25am]
Marcus Witlock over at Raven made a .plan
update talking aboutr the ever approaching Heretic2 demo scheduled for release in
about 8 - 15 days.
Well, as y'all know our demo will be out soon... but for us it's business as usual - i.e. we programmers are still cranking away relentlessly at squashing those steeenking bugs. Been working on netgame game stuff lately myself (coop play mostly). Yes, we'll be delivering coop play out of the box as well as deathmatch and single player. All this and much, much more folks - in just 1 year! Apparently, a certain well known developer (let's just say his name starts with C) described us as Gods for accomplishing this. Anyhow, we just hope all of you out there will enjoy the demo and decide you wanna splash the cash for the full game :).
Unreal2 Not By Epic [9:25am]
It looks like the boys at Epic are so impressed with
what Legend Entertainment is doing with their engine on the Wheel of Time project that
they asked them to do the Unreal2 project for them when they are done. Not sure what type
of technology Unreal2 will be, but I'm pretty sure that leaves the door wide open for
Epic's next game to be a pretty good technology leap. Here is the quote from BitchX's email bag:
Dear BitchX,
It was Epic's idea to have a 3rd party develop Unreal2 and we just closed the deal with Legend today. It's our game and they're making it for us, not GT.
Mark Rein,
Epic MegaGames
Heavy Gear2 Demo Soon [9:25am]
It's getting closer, a demo of Heavy Gear2. Check out
this latest press release from the homepage:
The three-mission demo will debut simultaneously Activision's Web site (www.activision.com) and on C/Net's Gamecenter as the "Download of the Day." The Heavy Gear II demo will feature one specially crafted single-player mission that will not be included in the final game. Players will also be able to pilot their Gears for the first time in true zero-G space combat, as well as a dense swamp environment in the demo's two multiplayer missions.
Weekly Section [9:25am]
In my rush to get out yesterday I forgot to mention
the weekly section was updated. It looks like most of you found your way there but for
those of you who didnt here is a link
to fridays section.
Views [9:25am]
Tech Etc [9:25am]
werd
nVidia was feeling generous and I just got my grubby
paws on a TNT. It's about 90% as fast as a Voodoo2, can do 3D stuff in a window, and the
image quality is just slightly worse than a Millenium2. Pretty good board. It was having
hard lockup problems though with my bus set to 75mhz, I had to drop my system back down to
300mhz at a 66mhz bus and things seem fine. (I gotta get me one of them bx boards and a
celeron.. yea i know) If you are getting a new system and dont own a recent 2D or 3D card,
I'd go ahead and recommend getting a TNT if you are on a budget, however if you got the
cash I'd say a Banshee and a pair of V2's would be the top stuffs to get.
If you guys have any ideas or suggestions for the messageboards, drop sander@3dnews.net a line and tell him. Just a few minor tweaks left to go.
| Friday, October 9 |
MessageBoards 2 [7:25pm]
Dig on these kids, even cooler now:
Q3:Arena Shots [7:45am]
Not sure how long these will be around, but if you
havent purchashed a PC Gamer from the UK, you are
missing out on these great high quality
Quake3 shots link that was posted on the ol' messageboard.
shot1 , shot2 , shot3 , shot4 , shot5 , shot6 , shot7 , shot8
Speaking of Q3, my comment on Quake3 player speed yesterday was an opinion. As much as you try to convince me, an opinion on what is "fun" cant be wrong. My favorite colors are green and blue, does that make me wrong for saying I dont like purple?
3dfx MiniGL Driver [11:15am]
Well I'm sure this is just the GL driver that is shipping with
Half-Life over at 3Fingers Shack:
This mini gl was just released in a new game and will give Quake2 & GL Quake users an increase in frame rate (depending on your system) in the neighborhood of 2-6fps. Just put the 3dfxgl.dll in your Quake2 folder overwriting the original 3dfxgl.dll. To use this mini gl with GL Quake/QW, just rename this 3dfxgl.dll to "opengl32.dll" and put it in the "Quake" folder overwriting the old opengl32.dll. The mini gl ran perfectly for me and gave me a 2 fps increase in Quake2 and a 5 fps increase in GL Quake. But...this mini gl is not supported. So if it does not work properly, don't email me with questions. Not sure if Voodoo1 users will see any increase.
Good Times just came on TV and I cant help but marvel at those afros. I count 9 people in the living room, 6 male, 3 female. Afro count = 7. Those are some pretty impressive numbers. DY - NO - MITE!
More Views [11:15am]
Pat Hook STILL Has A
Velcro Wallet [1:55am]
I'm not sure many of you are aware of this, but Pat
Hook, level designer at Ritual Entertainment is still living in the past
and using a velcro wallet I'm assuming he must have gotten in 6th grade. Perhaps you
should email him at phook@ritual.com and inform him
that we are now in the late nineties. Tell him Steve sent ya!
Drakan! [8:15am]
The Drakan
website has officially opened and has a signup form so that you can be notified when
there is a demo of the game released on the net and other updates for development as well
hopefully.
3dfx Stuff [8:15am]
Guess you guys can calm down about the speculation of
what the 3dfx website was hinting at. Although myself and my comrads over at 3dnews.net were hoping for a free monkey with every pair
of Voodoo2's, it looks like just a new push for the SLI which will be available for a bit
under $300 real soon. Thanks SharkyExtreme. Also, Brett "3 Fingers" Jacobs posted an interview on the
3dfx.products.voodoo2
newsgroup with 3Dfx executives. A lot of the interview focuses on investment oppurtunities
rather than the hardware itself, but quite a bit is interesting.
On The Future:
We now have multiple design teams hard at work on future products and technologies. We will continue to pursue a strategy that provides the highest performing, most extreme products for the avid gamers and other products designed more for the mainstream. A 32 MB card is a possibility, as is inclusion of a geometry processor.On The Son Of Banshee:
You can probably expect a first look near the beginning of the year with general availability in Q2.
Developers on a Desert Island [8:15am]
Check out this interesting article posted on
GameCenter asking several game developers what they would like to take with them if
they were on a deserted island and had some game choices to take with them.
We here at Gamecenter believe that if you're allowed to bring three albums to a desert island, then why not three games as well? After all, without Ginger or Mary Ann or the Professor (depending on your tastes), things can get awfully boring after a while.
Shogo [8:15am]
I'm Not much for the glut of SHOGO stuff, but check out the
latest from Mike Dussalt who is working on tweaking out SHOGO multiplayer. You should check out what
Craig Hubbard is up to as well. (He talks about AI and stuff)
Views [8:15am]
Tech Etc [8:15am]
werd
A big fat happy birthday goes out to a friend of mine
(I'm not much for birthday wishes, but this guy was such a sweet heart) Paul Caristino aka
b2 from Auran. The
big 22!
Bitch of the day: PLEASE for the love of god have your return address correct when you email me, I mean wtf is it that difficult? Bounced fuggin 4 emails in the past hour. ASS POTATOES!
| Thursday, October 8 |
Q3:Arena Shots [7:45am]
Not sure how long these will be around, but if you
havent purchashed a PC Gamer from the UK, you are
missing out on these great high quality
Quake3 shots link that was posted on the ol' messageboard.
shot1 , shot2 , shot3 , shot4 , shot5 , shot6 , shot7 , shot8
Speaking of Q3, my comment on Quake3 player speed yesterday was an opinion. As much as you try to convince me, an opinion on what is "fun" cant be wrong. My favorite colors are green and blue, does that make me wrong for saying I dont like purple?
Death of 3D Shooter? [7:45am]
From OGR: "Certainly the most popular genre this fall, the 3D Shooter has come a
long way. Before the deluge of new shooters due out in the next few months, perhaps we
should take a look back at how it all began, and where it's all going. OGR Contributor
Andrew S. Bub takes an exhaustive look at the evolution of the 3D shooter in this OGR Feature."
Weekly Demos [11:15am]
Went to Quake boot camp this week, lots of Clan
Arena. Much more higher paced and action filled demos than the standard clan style demos. Check em out and tell me how much I
stink at Quake! :(
Half-Life [7:45am]
Red's page is host to a new look at the
Half-Life:OEM demo from his homecut, (and Jack Mathew's best friend) Kraemer. Snip:
The game engine:
Lots of beautiful color. I heard mention of 24 bit color in some of the modes but I havent really tested that directly. I can only tell you that the game looks fantastic. The real shocker is how good the software renderer looks. Just try it in software mode, amazing!
The fantastic sound:
Let me some it up this way. Wherever you are at, thats exactly what it sounds like. Really. Close your eyes and you can still tell what you are walking on. Man, all I want to know is- can I get this in Dolby Digital?
The exiting story:
Lots and lots of good story, I can only say that this is the killer summer movie that Hollywood did not release this year.
Views [7:45am]
Tech Etc [7:45am]
werd
Thanks for all the email helping me out with ideas on
this ISDN router guys.
| Wednesday, October 7 |
Q3:Arena Stuff [8:45am]
Saw on Red's
page that the www.quake3arena.com webiste has
opened, kinda. It has a nifty Quake3 logo which has found its way to my windows background
though. Also, something I just caught on my message board is Hud
received this email from John Carmack concerning player speed in Quake3:
"We have three classes of players with various movement speeds. The middle is Quake 2, the faster is faster than quake 1. Its all tunable with a single server variable, in any case.
The aparent slowdown going from Q1 to Q2 is more due to the increased size of the levels than the 7% speed decrease.
John Carmack"
Ick, so I'm guessing from that email that the default player speed will be "middle" which equates to Quake2. The slower movement worked out well for the railgun, but in general isnt all that fun. I pray id puts out a Q3Test online and pays attention to the online community, because guess what, online players are their MAIN market now.
Half-Life Doesnt Slip [8:45am]
A user on one of the Half-Life boards posted this
email they got from a member of Sierra customer service:
...Thank you for contacting Sierra. It is true that Half-Life has slipped. I am not sure where EB got the 12/2 date. In reality that is probably a bit early. I have forwarded you message to the Marketing Director responsible for this product to make sure that the web is updated.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
OGR however posted this:
There as been some confusion about Half Life's release date. Electronics Boutique's web site has the game listed to be released Dec. 2nd, and there's been talk about the game being delayed. We contacted Genevieve Ostergard, Senior PR Manager for Sierra Studios, and she gave us the following statement: "We've seen what's been posted on the EB website and it is incorrect. Half-Life is still on track to go gold later this month and be in stores by November. We are contacting EB today to alert them of this."
GLDoom [6:55am]
Well, just go check out www.doomnation.com to cover whatever you want to
know. They dont slapped up some 1024x768 resolution screenshots of Bruce Lewis' GLDoom project in action. It's getting "close"
Weekly Sections [6:55am]
Reorganizing the weekly sections a bit. If I were
king is taking a break for a bit and is being replaced by Words of Wisdom. Weekly demos has
switched spots with Wack Links, and uh.. I did something else but I already forgot. You
guys will love the first link on the Wack
Links section this week to boot.
Requiem 3D Engine Licensing [6:55am]
Those 3DO monkeys shipped out a little announcement
today offering up the Requiem engine for licensing:
The 3DO Company today announced plans to license the engine for its highly anticipated game, Requiem: Avenging Angel, which is slated for release in January 1999. The Requiem Engine is a state-of-the-art foundation for the development of next-generation, first-person action games for the PC.
Trip Hawkins, chairman and CEO, said, “Many brilliant engineers have spent three years developing this engine and have taken full advantage of the newest PC hardware capabilities. The outstanding quality of Requiem: Avenging Angel, and the critical acclaim that is building for it, is validation that our engine is first-rate. The Requiem Engine will allow the best new games to be developed and we look forward to working with other developers to make our engine a force in the market.
New id Product? [6:55am]
Kinda hard to really decide what a "new id
product" really means. I'm guessing that since supposedly the guys at id are all
working on Quake3, its another project by a 3rd party company. At any rate, here is an interview with id Software CEO
that is interesting:
"It's also very likely that we will release another product for Quake II before Christmas, but the deal isn't finalized yet so I can't say much more about it. If everything works like we hope, it will be something very cool for all Quake II fans."
Engine Wars [6:55am]
Well, instead of me rehasing all the stuff going on
over at www.gaminginsider.com why not just go
check it out if you are interested in watching developers discuss 3d engine technology and
the merits and downfalls of each others' tech.
New GameSpy [6:55am]
Yup, just for the registered users who get the extra
special treatment, a new version of gamespy has been released over at www.gamespy.com of all places. Dont go installing it if
you dont have it registered though, you might get a bit upset when you cant do anything
and have to uninstall. :)
Views [8:35am]
Tech Etc [8:35am]
"Attention Banshee owners! Reference drivers for the Banshee should be
available early next week.
Stay tuned to www.3dfx.com for details........
Michael Herauf
3Dfx Interactive"
werd
Did you just touch my butt?
| Monday, October 5 |
Sweeney on Unreal Tech [6:35am]
BitchX has
posted a really interesting email from Tim Sweeney talking about all the cool stuff his
engine can do. Here's a clip:
1. Regarding broad 3D card support, our internal Unreal Direct3D alpha is looking and performing well on next-generation cards: G200, TNT, etc--the cards that will be prevalent in the timeframe of most of our licensees' games. So, by the time the "licensing wars" have played out, Unreal's 3D hardware support will be super.
Why has 3D hardware support been painful for us? We could have gone the "lowest common denominator" route, but chose not to. We really push the limits of 3dfx, with technical advances like:
SHOGO vs Messiah? [6:35am]
Hey, might as well check
out this link with an article comparing the yet to be released Messiah project with
the recent SHOGO demo. I was thinking of writing and article comparing Windows98 with
Windows 2020, what do you think?
Q2 Unseen [6:35am]
To quote Mr. Heaslip:
The Tequila Software page has a demo of
an expansion pack called Unseen for download. Here's the poop (note the warning about the
uninstall):
"...our Quake 2 Expansion Pack titled 'Unseen' is now 100% complete and we are talking to a publisher that is yet to be named and a deal is 100% certain. "A demo is now available of the finished product including one level at :- http://www.planetquake.com/qpp/unseen.exe
Loonygames [6:35am]
That looni dude.. he's wacky. Check out all the new
features this week at loonygames:
- The Community Summit: Representatives from Quake2.com, TeleFragged, PlanetQuake, 3DPortal, GameGirlz, Stomped, and of course loonygames sit down for this exclusive chat about the state of the community. [Monday]
- From the Mouth of Madness: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman takes a look at Asteroids and Apocalyse, two upcoming games from Activision. [Monday]
- Guest Editorial: Austin Grossman, one of the designers on Trespasser at DreamWorks compares the storytelling in his own game to Half-Life. [Thursday]
Code on the Cob: Chris Hargrove's popular column rolls on with a Q&A in addition to his normal tutorial. [Wednesday]
- PLUS: More "Pixel Obscura" [Tuesday], a community profile of Vangie "Aurora" Beal from GameGirlz [Friday], more Paul Steed [Tuesday], and of course, much, much, more!
Suckage [6:35am]
What sucks? well, aside from the fact that apparently
half the world cant count to 7, the
suckage sucks!
Views [8:35am]
Tech Etc [8:35am]
Morning? [6:35am]
I'll be damned, a whole new week of fun lovin news and stuff. New messageboards, (check
out the 3DN Test board) return of the
weekly sections, and possibly a surprise or two this week to boot. Should be fun! Just
remember to wear protection. Gonna install the new Eudora
today, hope nothing blows up.
Are you two brothers? No....... YHEAS!
| Sunday, October 4 |
Messiah [8:35am]
Not quite sure if all you knobs out there are as excited and interested in the Messiah project and technology as me, but if you arent
then you'll have to suffer through me saying how cool it is and read this stuff that Sax has to say:
Some licensing deals are falling in place (one big one in particular) and in a couple of days we should be able to announce the names of the lucky participants in the Messiah family.
<snip>
Our OpenGL and D3D support is now good enough that we have tried every major 3d-card out there. TNT rules, but still has quite a few driver problems (they are working hard to fix them though), Voodoo2 is fast as always, but lacks the color-precision (read crap 16bit), G200 has a very nice picture quality (read 24 bit) and is fast enough to get decent performance. I think we tried Savage and 740 also but I haven't seen those versions run yet
Trespasser Performance [8:35am]
Got word from the gobblers over at Trespasser
Central this blurb about expected performance on systems when playing Trespasser:
Now, the textures are generated by the engine so they never repeat, but the textures obviously can't be different ever time you look at them. So, why should the textures be generated by the engine while your playing the game, wasting precious CPU cycles, when they could have been generated before the level loads? My guess: they're not. Here's where my guessing comes into play. I believe that when the different areas are made in the editor, the designers feed it ordinary textures. The map editor is what does all the glorious graphics work. When the level is saved, the editor generates all the different ground textures, combining all the different "layers" and saving the result as a new texture. Now, if every texture is different, then that adds up to a _lot_ of textures the game has to load. You bet it is. This is most certainly why I believe Trespasser has such an enormous amount of textures. It also explains why shadows from the static objects (trees, leaves, buildings...) are not cast on to dynamic objects (dinos). This should free up a lot of CPU speed in trade of large memory and hard disk requirements.
Netscape v4.07 [8:35am]
I'll have to to check this out and stuff. Netscape 4.07 has been released, you can get it
from ftp.netscape.com
(NT or Win95/98)
Views [8:35am]
Tech Etc [8:35am]
werd
Yummy Sunday! Oh, btw.. remember I mentioned that new patch on Unreal and trying it out?
Lets just say I agreed with Tim Sweeney's decision with announcing an entire rewrite of
the net code on the Unreal tech page yesterday. :)
Oh, yea.. it's Sunday, and yes my favorite team is Oakland, and yes they arent exactly great recently, but as long as we beat those Dallas punks last week my NFL season is complete.
Lastly, I'm gonna agree with Jim Dose's .plan update, the recent PQ editorial was.. well, making statements as facts based on assumptions. Flawed logic, but presented pretty damn well for being wrong.
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