Graeme Devine has a .plan update of mention to follow up the Q3Test release. Here's a bit of it, straight from that supercool fingershack.com page:

Also, keep in mind that this is a test, and not the final product. There's a lot in the test which is very temporary, so while we've taken great pride in putting out very solid test releases, we're still working hard on the final product and very much appreciate your feedback (q3feedback@idsoftware.com) in getting this product right for you - the players -
I get a bunch of feedback from people wanting this product to be more like Quake 1 or Quake 2, while others look for us to innovate and make something brand new. Quake 3 is arcade deathmatch, nothing more and nothing less. It's not Quake 1 nor Quake 2, but does nod it's head in the direction of the online DM version of both those products (and apparently pissing off both parties at the same time).

Because I'm such a sweetheart to you guys I've slapped together a new GameSpy filter which will show all the v1.07 servers for you guys to play on. Just hit View / Custom Tab / Import and point to the file and you'll be dandy. Have fun!

The Quake3Arena web page has been updated with word that the v1.07 Q3Test should be hitting the net shortly. Just keep checking back here and I'll have the word as well as links to the new files the moment they are available. Here is what Disruptor has to say:

I've removed the Win32 v1.06 archive from our FTP server. We should have v1.07, as well as an upgrade path from 1.06 available on our FTP site around 7pm CST barring any horiffic problems.

Oxygen Tank has posted a new Q3Test tourney map DM guide for those of you looking for a few tips on how to master the latest DM map in Q3Test which will be played at the upcoming QuakeCon event. Gotta say I completely disagree with the author on weapon choice though, to rank the shaft 3rd behind the SSG is just crazy. I'll get some demos out there to prove it. :)

joao was browsing through the Quake3 .pk3 files (use WinZip btw) and spotted an elusive.cfg file in the latest build of Q3Test. Upon further inspection the config file shows the name "Mr Elusive" in the config. Why is this news? Well Mr Elusive is a bot programmer well known for his work on the Quake2 Gladiator bot which in many eyes was the best Quake2 bot created. What's it doing in Quake3? Has id Software recruited some outside help on the Quake3 bots? I've fired off some email so maybe we'll get a response today from id.

Several people on the Quake3 messageboard noticed that with the new cheat protection stuff that id Software put in the latest 1.06 test that they goofed and overlooked demo recording. I sent in a trusty bug report to Graeme and got word back from John Cash that we can count on 1.07 to have demo recording capabilities. Thought that shack demos section was gonna be in jeapordy!

A follow up .plan update from Graeme Devine says that the new Q3Test wont be coming out tonight, and also that the update will be about 3-5 megs and not a full 30+ megs. Thank goodness.

Graeme Devine has a .plan update announcing that a new build of Q3Test is in the works that fixes quite a few things that seemed to have slipped through. Also word on the Mac and Linux ports. Here is a bit of it: (Thanks Vic)

We're testing a new version of the build right now that has some new stuff in it:

- the ; key now remains bound (for all you lefties)
- the timescale exploit has been plugged (again, actually this was in the last
version of the test and a lot of people were silently using it)
- LAN servers display properly
- IPX is working
- the enabling cheat exploit has been fixed
- CPU time for servers should be nicer
- an exploit in the tourney map has been filled
- joystick support (there is no conspiracy here, but this might require more time
to fix than just tonight)

We're looking to get win32/Macintosh out there, hopefully tonight, but probably tomorrow by the time we're through checking all this out.

Since that GameSpy v1.06 filter I made yesterday was such a hit, Givens McNeill put together 3 more filters which will seperate servers for you even more. The new filters will show v1.06 servers, teamplay servers, FFA servers, and 1on1 servers in different tabs. All 4 are included in this .zip file. If you are having problems the guys on the Q3 messageboard are especially helpful.

Quake3 benchmarks abound this morning. Got a few places for you to check out. I would recommend checking out the FiringSquad article to have a look at the K7 Athlon and Dual P3's in action. Looks like the TNT2 is blowing away the V3's on the higher end systems. The guys at Ultra3D has a lengthy article which is worth reading as well.

A|Citizen of Team Abuse send word on a simple fix for those of you playing the new Q3Test under WindowsNT. Apparently footsteps are broken! Well all you have to do is type set s_mixprestep "0.1" at the console and you should be dandy. He also has some dual-cpu Quake3 benchmarks on the page while you're there if the 2 articles above arent enough for ya.

Sujoy has a write-up of the new Q3Test. Also, Oxygen Tankr plays host to an article by Zapaan which may get some of you newer members of the 3D gaming scene bent out of shape.

Graeme Devine has a new .plan update with word on the SOCKS proxy support now built in to the latest Q3Test. Here ya go kids:

SOCKS Proxy Support There are five cvars that control it. They are only settable from the at init time (from the OS command line).
+set net_socksEnabled 1
+set net_socksServer
+set net_socksPort
+set net_socksUsername
+set net_socksPassword
Please note that you use the address (name or IP number) of the SOCKS server (firewall machine), NOT a Q3ATEST server. The port number defaults to 1080, you should not need to change this. It supports no authentication and username/password authentication method (RFC-1929); it does NOT support GSS-API method (RFC-1961) authentication.

I put together this Version 1.06 GameSpy tab for you guys to import into GameSpy if you are having problems finding a server that is compatible with the new Q3Test that was just released after seeing people bitch on the Quake3 messageboard. Make sure and right click and "save link location" or shift-click.

AnandTech has quickly posted some new Q3Test benchmark figures with SMP enabled on a dual P3 450 system. They run through the resolutionss- it's pretty bad-ass even though things might not be fully optimized. Makes that dual celery system all worth it eh?

Some inevitable .plan updates at id following the release of the updated Q3Test. Graeme Devine updates about some variable things they missed or are hard to find in the readme:

g_gametype

A value of 0 here indicates classic “Free For All”, a value of 1 indicates “Tournament Play” and a value of 2 indicates “Team Deathmatch”.

So, to start a dedicated server in tournament mode, you would use:

quake3 +set dedicated 2 +set zone tournaments +set g_gametype 1 +map q3tourney

The warmup time for tournament play is set with g_warmup. A tournament game is implicitly a one on one match, and further players are automatically entered as spectators (note, when the game starts, all clients, including the spectators respawn). You can follow the players by using “team follow1”, “team follow2”, and you can be a scoreboard by using “team scoreboard”.

Graeme continues on about broken joystick support and the master server bobbing up and down.

Serberus has just sent word that he has released the first beta of his Q3 config tool. Here's what it's supposed to do in a nutshell:

Quake3Arena Configuration Tool helps players exploit Q3A console commands not found in the in-game menus and provides the facilities to tune Q3A for best performance, best visual quality or a combination.

and this is what it did for him (btw, what is he doing with a Voodoo1 on a P2-450?)

I had a look at the new Q3Test this morning. Pretty cool, I don't know if Carmack has been busy optimising performance but I was surprised to see when I chose the 'Best Performance' option in Q3Tweak my lowly Pure3D (Voodoo 1 - 6MB) held a steady frame rate of 60FPS!!!

Here's some stuff that you guys might want to muck around with now that the new Q3Test is out- to enable cheats (thanks gibbles:)

Start a map in the console using:
devmap q3test1
devmap q3test2
devmap q3tourney

To get all weapons and the grappling hook simply hit F4. For god mode, hit F10.

And to get some "true" benchmark numbers, here's the timedemo feature (thanks Moto-Chow)

• Pull down the console
• Type timedemo 1
• Type demo q3testdemo1.dm3 or demo q3testdemo2.dm3

While you're all patiently <cough> waiting for the new Q3Test Phase4 download to complete, I've ran around and taken a load of screenshots of the new map and shaft (lightning gun) for you guys. Don't worry, all the shots are at 640x480 and compressed in jpeg. Each shot hangs around the 40KB range so it's not going to dent your download that much (especially if it's crawling). Enjoy!

• Shots of the new Q3Tourney map and lightning gun:
  [shot 1] [shot 2] [shot 3] [shot 4] [shot 5] [shot 6] [shot 7] [shot 8] [shot 9] [shot 10] [shot 11] [shot 12] [shot 13] [shot 14] [shot 15]
  
• Q3Test1/2 item placement and Railgun changes:
  [shot 16] [shot 17] [shot 18] [shot 19] [shot 20] [shot 21] [shot 22]

Well, if you check out the MOTD on the Quake3 servers as you join they are saying that the new Q3Test will be out tonight. No word on what time but I'm guessing that tonight would be a good estimate. I'll have word for you guys the moment it hits the net along with a mirror list etc. In the mean time that little preview I did and the Quake3 messageboard seems to be keeping people entertained. Also here is a .plan update from Disrupotor:

To expand some more on Graeme's .plan update, I've just sent out the release build to the mirror sites and asked them to beat on it for a while on their LANs. We don't forsee any problems with the release, but want to play it safe by getting them to beat on it for a few hours.

Tonight, we plan on releasing a Win32 version only. The Mac and Linux versions are not ready to go yet.

If all goes well with testing, I'll be giving the mirrors the go-ahead to publicly post the file on their sites around 10pm CST.