Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

New V2x00 OpenGL ICD Beta  [9:32 PM EDT]
The Rendition Software Download page has beta 2 of the Win95/NT OpenGL Installable Client Driver for Vérité 2x00 cards. The new release includes optimizations to support GL Unreal (not yet released). Thanks RedGuru{VxK}.

Capture! Released  [8:44 PM EDT]
Capture!, a Quake II CTF enhancement (Quake II CTF is required) has been released, a little earlier than they planned, because "we all wanna just play!" New features in Capture! are Visible armor, damage skins, an optional off-hand grapple, the return of the dreaded grapple kill (you can also grapple teammates for a piggyback ride), positional damage, and much more. Thanks Eric Conway.

Video Cards: Sorting the Mess  [8:44 PM EDT]
Video Cards Sorting the Mess Again is a feature on HardwareCentral that does a good job of living up to its title, explaining what a lot of the features and numbers mean when discussing the upcoming crop of video cards. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Prey 360 Degree Screenshot  [8:03 PM EDT]
A second 360 degree screenshot from Prey has been posted on the Apogee 3D Realms Site. Pan and zoom (but no damn gun).

S3 Savage3D  [8:03 PM EDT]
I got a chance to see a Savage 3D in action today as some folk from S3 dropped by the Blue Tower with what was described as a nearly final version of the card (though the drivers are said to be far from final). The image quality was high and it cruised through some D3D stuff, but I imagine you can guess the numbers I was most interested in. Yup, Quake II demo1 timedemo (PII 400 64 MB RAM, VSync off):

That's no SLI, but pretty impressive for an inexpensive 2D/3D combo, and they have that texture compression dealie going in this (supported in DX6), so it is hard to choke this thing if future games go large texture crazy (too bad there's no D3D or OpenGL Unreal to check this out with). I just want to say hats off to these guys for managing such a turnaround from the ViRGE. Word on availability is "end of summer."

Newer PowerVR Sin Driver  [8:03 PM EDT]
Vik Long sent along a second PowerVR PCX2 Sin minidriver (88 KB), said to be tested in both solo and network play, and described as offering better visuals than the first minidriver.

Linux Sin  [8:03 PM EDT]
onethumb updated his .plan with a last call for Linux programmers:

-[ Linux Sin? ]-

Now that the demo's out, there's a strong possibility that we'll start work on the Linux Sin port soon.

I've already emailed those who responded to me earlier about doing the Sin Linux port, but if there are any more of you out there, we're looking for a volunteer to port Sin over to Linux. And you must live in or near Dallas.

Email me (onethumb@ritual.com) if you're interested.

Quake Launcher  [8:03 PM EDT]
Version 1.0 of Quake Launcher is now available, offering automatic file type association, a variety of command line switches, and improved address book, and more.

Intensor Chair Review  [8:03 PM EDT]
There's a review of one of those subwoofer-powered Intensor gaming chairs up on The Game Complex. Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.

H3D/Wicked3D FAQ  [8:03 PM EDT]
An H3D and Metabyte FAQ gives the lowdown on the differences between levels of support for H3D stereo glasses, and how developers can get the best enhanced effect out of their games. Thanks Jeff Magill.

Max Payne Interview, Screenshots  [3:20 PM EDT]
Universal Gaming Network has an interview with Petri Jarvilehto from Remedy Entertainment talking about their upcoming 3rd person shooter, Max Payne in a feature that offers two new screenshots.

Rainbow Six FAQ  [3:20 PM EDT]
An unofficial Rainbow Six FAQ is up at the Rainbow 6 Retreat with some Q&A on this upcoming realism-oriented shooter based on the Tom Clancy novel..

Half-Life, Heavy Gear II Shots  [3:20 PM EDT]
Phoebus sends word of another new Heavy Gear II Screenshot, and thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme for word that Half-Life.Org has a shot from the recent Half-Life magazine ad (not a scan).

Doom Projects Merge  [2:08 PM EDT]
The Official WinDoom/glDoom Homepage has word of a merger between some of the most well-known Doom source code projects, including WinDoom/glDoom, DOSDoom, and TeamTNT's "Boom" project. Details are sketchy at these early sages, but as current versions of each project are stabilized, design discussions for the next phase of the combined engine will commence, and the plan is that eventually all of these projects will come from the same source tree.

Secret Sin Room  [2:08 PM EDT]
Ritualistic has posted a tip on how to get into a secret room (the basement near the helmet) in the SinCity DM map by using the old "shave and a haircut" knock (just be sure Roger Rabbit isn't around).

New Intel740 Drivers  [2:08 PM EDT]
This Intel740 Driver Download page has new reference drivers available. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Moto Racer II Demo  [2:08 PM EDT]
AGN3D has posted a 40 MB playable demo of MotoRacer II. There's no carnage in this one at all (unless you count wrecks), so I normally might not note it, but MotoRacer was durn cool.

Updated Recoil Demo  [11:31 AM EDT]
Word from the Intel Owner's Club is an updated version of the Recoil demo from yesterday (story) is now available here, offering "much improved effects."

More Messiah, Trespasser Screens  [10:06 AM EDT]
The Messiah Feature on 3DGAMING.NET offers a preview of Shiny's upcoming game, and interview with Dave Perry, and 14 screenshots said to be exclusive. Also, following their recent Trespasser screenshot coup, Trespasser Central has scored 11 more screens, which they are in the process of doling out one per day. They're on the second, with nine more to go.

Thief Interview  [10:06 AM EDT]
This Adrenaline Vault Feature Article takes a look at Thief: The Dark Project (formerly just The Dark Project), talking to Looking Glass's Greg LoPiccolo, the game's Project Leader. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme..

G200 Review  [10:06 AM EDT]
A Matrox G200 review on Bill's New "Straight Poop" Video Page (and they say all the good names are taken) offers one of the first looks a Matrox's new card, including benchmarks. Thanks again Billy at VE.

Zoid Update: Linux, QW & Q2, CTF Manual  [4:11 AM EDT]
Zoid made a .plan update with a rundown on what he's up to from Linux stuff to the next versions of QuakeWorld and Quake II, with a mention of the new CTF manual along the way. Here's part of the update:

Q2CTF Stuff
-----------

The Quake2 server at satan.idsoftware.com:27913 is running the new Q2CTF version 1.09BETA. This version features stuff such as server map rotation, elections for remote admin, map warping, and a full tournament mode. We're going to let it run on Satan for a day to beat on it and if things go well, I'll be releasing the new beta version publically probably tomorrow.

The new code is a server only upgrade. A full manual that covers all of Q2CTF including the new server options and the competition mode is available at http://www.idsoftware.com/q2ctf/.

Other stuff
-----------

In other news, I'm working on the official QuakeWorld 2.3 version that clears up some bugs found in the 2.29 beta (which is why it was a beta). I'm liking the idea of doing public betas such as I did with 2.29--the feedback and testing was much more useful this time around than using closed beta testers. I took some heat from people complaining about the different versions (and how they were not compatible), but overall the response has been very positive.

I'm also working on Quake2 3.18. This version will address some bugs in 3.17 (*cough* water surface friction *cough*) and offer some new features. A new Quake2 release is needed for the upcoming Rogue mission pack, Ground Zero, so I'll try to tie it all into one release. Other stuff in 3.18 is server controlled air acceleration, server specific map rotation, and other minor features that makes life easier for server admins and players.

Unreal Linux & Solaris Server  [4:11 AM EDT]
Saw on PlanetUnreal that a Mark Rein post to the MegaBoard announces that Mplayer is working on the Unreal Linux and Solaris server ports:

Linux support for Unreal Server is coming!

Mplayer, who is currently working on a Solaris (Solaris = Unix for Sun computers) port of the Unreal Server, told me yesterday that they'd happily release and support a Linux version of their Unix port of the Unreal Server to the public when it's finished! Woo-hoo!!!

This is AMAZING news!!

Many of you have been telling us that you think supporting Linux is the answer to having a LOT more servers out there. We know this but this was not something that could be started until Unreal was finished.

Mplayer has been working on their Unix port for a few months. They haven't given me any estimate of how long it's going to take to finish (so please don't ask!) but I've been watching some email exchanges between their programmer and Tim Sweeney and he's giving them all the advice and support that he can.

We'll let you know any news as soon as we know. I'm sure at some point in the near (or not so near) future we'll want people to join a game of Unreal on Unix or Linux server over at Mplayer to help with some playtesting!

Until then, I wanted to thank Chris Early and the entire gang over at Mplayer for their generous support and remind you that if you're into Unreal multiplayer then Mplayer is your friend!

Tom Hall Gets Demented  [3:53 AM EDT]
The Daily Dementia at the MeccaWorld for today features a conversation with Tom Hall about his upcoming Anachronox, as well as Geoff from GameSlice

Sin Chat  [3:53 AM EDT]
RitNews has posted a raw log of the Sin chat last night featuring OT and Paradox. I have no idea how I managed to miss advance notice of this--I think it was opposite Shooters as well, but I swear that wasn't a factor (how bad does that look?).

Requiem Shots  [3:53 AM EDT]
Hell on Earth has a couple of new screenshots from the upcoming Requiem: Wrath of the Fallen.

RIVA TNT Benchmarks  [3:53 AM EDT]
PC Gamer Online has benchmarks posted for a RIVA TNT-based STB Velocity 4400 they got to see when STB paid them a visit. Thanks Planet RIVA.

Quake II Utilities  [3:53 AM EDT]
Server Watch is a utility to ping a Quake, QuakeWorld, Quake2, or Hexen II server, and display the number of players on the server in the system tray...Version 2.30 of the Eraser Bot Launcher is now available...Quake 2 - ServerConfigMOD 2.2 for Quake II 3.17 is out.

Mplayer and CIH  [3:53 AM EDT]
This ZDNNews News Burst mentions an mplayer auto-updater as another possible carrier of the CIH virus. Thanks Vlad_Drak.

Out of the Blue  [3:53 AM EDT]
It's sweeping the nation: Pin the Head on David Hasselhoff!

New Starsiege Alpha Technology Release  [10:36 PM EDT]
Starsiege Tribes On the Warpath, a sneak peak at Dynamix's upcoming multiplayer game, Starsiege Tribes, and offers the second official Starsiege alpha technology release for download (at 29.4 MB). Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers, who points out that 3DAG has the file mirrored here.

Shooters Updated  [6:35 PM EDT]
Tonight on Shooters we will talk to KillCreek about her new gig at ION as a game tester (she's also currently interviewed on ION's site), as well as what's up her sleeve for the future, and we will talk with Epic's T. Elliot Cannon (Myscha the sled dog) and Cliff Bleszinski about Unreal. The fun and frivolity all begins at 8:00 PM Eastern time, RealPlayer, or some reasonable facsimile thereof, required.

Also on the audio front, a new SmokeBreak is up, and a few new shows have come to my attention: PyroPimps on Descentia (I don't think it's just about Descent), Game Waves currently offers a Sin demo review, and CF TF has a RealAudio show devoted to TeamFortress.

Rocket Arena2 Server Fix  [4:40 PM EDT]
I recently asked crt, the Goddard of Rocket Arena2, if there was an exploit out there impacting RA2 servers, which seemed to be crashing a lot. Turns out there's a simpler explanation. RA2 server ops should take note of the new address to point the mod to for stat reporting:

Recently I have been getting reports of RA2 server crashing for no particular reason. At first it seemed that there was a new exploit floating around, but it seems there is a much simpler explanation.

In the "server.cfg" file for servers it sets the machine for network stats logging to "ripper.stanford.edu" this machine has moved to "ripper.planetquake.com" and the previous domain name was just unregistered. Servers are getting errors trying to resolve it, causing them to crash.

The simple fix is for all servers to change their set netlog ripper.stanford.edu:21998
to
set netlog ripper.planetquake.com:21998

Sin Demo Patch Planned  [3:04 PM EDT]
Mark Dochtermann updated his .plan with word on what's up with the demo of Sin, including a list of known issues, and word that a patch will be forthcoming to address them. Here's the poop:

I am blown away by all the cool things happening online with Sin. The response has been beyond words, and the team spirit at Ritual is high. We are anxious to finish the rest of the game as I am sure you are anxious to play it. Here is some info:

- There will definitely be a patch to the demo to fix a number of issues, most of these have to do with multiplayer:
1. Remove cheat codes we overlooked (sorry)
2. Speed of net traffic (there were a few optimizations that didn't make it in before the demo)
3. Fix Zombie problems on servers
4. Fix dedicated server heartbeat problems.
5. Camgun problems in Bank
6. Menu options which are active but don't affect anything in game (these will be disabled)
7. Initial 3D Audio support
8. sounds not playing when fov > 90
9. A bunch of other stuff that escapes me.

- Don( OneThumb ) will be putting a known bugs section in front of the Sin Bug submission form, so we can cut down on dupe submissions.

- It is great to see benchmarks out there, BUT please keep in mind that Sin has really not gone through the optimization phase yet. This is something I had planned before the demo, but alas, time sux. The numbers you see around are sure to increase by the time the game ships. We will most likely still   be a little slower than Q2, because our world and model poly counts are just plain higher, but I think the benchmarks will be a lot closer.

- look for a Ritual surprise next week :)

- One more thing, Sin is not a 3rd person game, but if you hit F6 or "toggleviewmode" it will put you in 3rd person, the update to the demo should have the 3D crosshair we had in at E3, which actually allows you to play the game from a 3rd person perspective. This can be fun.

Sin HUD  [3:04 PM EDT]
More from Ritualistic on the Sin demo, this time in the form of a tip on how to use the different Heads-Up Displays in Sin, even though there's no menu option to do so. Just use the following commands at the console, substituting a number between 1 and 4 for the # sign:

cl_hudfile "hud0#.hdh"
hud_restart

Doom2000.Com  [2:26 PM EDT]
After John Carmack's talk last Friday when he mentioned Doom2000 as an example of a game id Software might make down the road, I've gotten some email from alert readers who noticed that id has registered the domain name Doom2000.com. Do not take this as evidence that such a game will definitely happen, registering that was actually just a precautionary measure in case some Bastard decided to snag the domain and refuse to give it back (you should have seen Dis bolt for a computer as Carmack said it). Here's Disruptor's reply to my request for a comment:

"Registering DOOM2000.COM was pretty much a just-in-case plan. Wanted to make sure that we snatched it up to avoid potential future pain-in-the-ass problems with getting domains back from people who've snatched them up ahead of us. (ie: quakearena.com)"

Delta Force  [2:26 PM EDT]
NetGamer has mention of Delta Force, a new game (at least this is the first I can recall seeing of it) from Nova Logic offering first or third person perspectives, 32 bit color graphics, and more. here's the skinny:

Over 40 missions created with the assistance of a former Delta Force Officer Premiering Voxel Spaceª 3 graphics terrain with 32-bit color Choose your action in either 1st or 3rd person Expansive real-world outdoor environments. Free* large-scale multi-play via novaworld.net

Plus:

Hundreds of miles of different outdoor terrain Choose your Delta Force weapons: the M40A1 Sniper Rifle, M249 SAW, Barret Light .50 caliber and many others Accurate ballistics Motion-capture video

K6-3 in 1999  [2:26 PM EDT]
Profits 450-MHz chips to come from AMD is the headline of a News.com article that says according to Advanced Micro Devices CEO Jerry Sanders, AMD "will release a 450-MHz version of the K6-2 and the first K6-3 chips toward the first part of 1999, and will turn a profit by this year's end." Thanks coreyfro.

Recoil Demo  [12:05 PM EDT]
The Intel Owner's Club Download page has a 36.3 MB playable demo of Recoil, a first person tank game. For more on the game, check out the Recoil page.

Giggler Update  [11:57 AM EDT]
A brief conversation with Giggler posted on Ritualistic gives Ritual's knowledge of his plans to join Charlie and Gary's new company as the reason for his departure from Ritual (though the word "fired" is not actually used), and gives few other bits about his work on Sin, and whether that .plan update had any part in this situation. Ritualistic is also reporting that "Ritual will not be hiring any new level designers for the completion of SiN yet will in fact have a replacement for Mike." Unless I'm missing something that sounds like a promotion from within (or Jim Dosé's been working on merging some AI into SinED).

Elexis the Centerfold  [11:57 AM EDT]
Also on Ritualistic are instructions on how to view the Elexis Sinclaire model from the Sin Demo naked. Simply take off your clothes and look at the model. No wait, those are my instructions on that. Over there they have instructions on how to see the naked Elexis model too. As always, parental discretion advised (in other words, be discrete with this around your parents).

Daikatana Chat Tonight  [9:28 AM EDT]
Tonight at 8:00 PM Central time there will be a chat with the Daikatana team hosted by StormTroopers. If you have a Java-enabled browser you can access the live chat through ION's website, or you can log into www.ionstorm.com with an IRC client (yes use their webserver as the IRC server), and join #ion.

Colors Quake II Mod  [9:28 AM EDT]
The first release of a new mod for Quake II called Colors is now available. here's the lowdown on this mod from the authors:

At its most basic level, Colors is a game of control. Instead of picking up items, you must claim them for your team by standing on them for a few seconds. Up to seven colored teams compete for the items, and the frags. Colors also includes a plethora of other features, such as menu based control, a built in competition mod, gibstats logging, player identification, chasecam, custom map support, an admin code separate from rcon, silence and ignoring of other players, a new hud, online help files, and full vwep support.

Currently, we have a server up and running at 206.153.169.85:27910, which will always have the latest build of the mod. At least three more servers will be up within the week, and people are more than welcome to set up their own ;)

Outcast Video  [9:28 AM EDT]
This Outcast news page has the latest game footage (in RealPlayer format) from this upcoming game intended to show off the game's advanced 3D engine. Thanks Billy "Outcast" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme.

Trespasser Interview  [9:28 AM EDT]
There's an interview with Kyle McKisic on Raptor's Den giving some gameplay info on Trespasser.

Shogo Contest  [9:28 AM EDT]
A Shogo Game Giveaway on the Shogo Mobile Armor Division page tells of how you can win a copy of this upcoming animé-inspired mech game before its release. Thanks Maym's Games.

Darkness CTF Level Pack  [9:28 AM EDT]
The Darkness CTF Level Pack has been released featuring new sounds and graphics along with two new Quake II CTF maps (small pack, eh?).

Misc. Sin Stuff  [9:28 AM EDT]
This page on RitNews tries to keep tabs on all the Sin demo resources available ... There are some Sin benchmarks on CoolComputing using 3Fingers new demo (story), and some more benchmarks on HardwareTechs.Com ... sCary has posted an opinion piece about the Sin demo (complete with evidence, conclusion, the whole bit, his best one yet) ... This Games Domain Review gives the full review treatment to the Sin Demo (thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers) ... Alon Albert sends along the Sin tip of the day: If you are tired of logging in every time you start the demo, change your command line to: "sin.exe +set player <yournamehere>".

Unreal Guides  [9:28 AM EDT]
Two new Unreal strategy guides: Unraveling Unreal on GameCenter (thanks CiDcO at StormTroopers), and GameSpot's Unreal Strategy Guide went up a day or two ago (I think, as Billy, who pointed this one out also notes, GS doesn't seem to date their articles).

International Tourney  [9:28 AM EDT]
This QW/CTF Tourney is planning on pitting Canada versus the USA in QuakeWorld Capture the Flag.

IntelliPoint Drivers  [9:28 AM EDT]
Redwood sends word that there are new version 2.2a drivers for the Microsoft IntelliPoint mouse available.

Image du Jour  [9:28 AM EDT]
Here's the Image of the Day. Check out those reflections: Can you do that in the Quake II engine? Nah, but it looks cool.

etc.  [9:28 AM EDT]
Hardware Group Therapy is a web-based sampling of what the discriminating folks on USENET have to say about such topics as 3Dfx Banshee, Savage3D, TNT and more ... OGR has posted some details about their being sold, confirming a popular rumor that's been floating around (seems most rumors get more than their share of popularity these days) ...

Out of the Blue  [9:28 AM EDT]
Had some 'net problems last night so bagged today's first update until this morning (a few hours off was good for my brain, too). Got to play on the second Sin DM map, which is fun too, and a lot net friendlier (SinCity rules, but for modem players, it's kinda designed like E1M7 from Quake).

Descent III Preview  [10:00 PM EDT]
There's a new Descent III preview on Next Generation Online that looks at the next installment in this flying shooter series.

New Sin Demo ReadMe  [8:10 PM EDT]
onethumb updated his .plan with word on the updated red me for the Sin demo:

Updated our README to include some more tips & tricks, information about dedicated servers, etc etc....

http://www.ritual.com/news/SinDemoReadme.html

Unreal Multiplayer Update  [8:10 PM EDT]
Tim Sweeney updated his Unreal Technology page with word that he is hard at work on a patch to make Unreal Internet play a reality (thanks John B. Sprague). Here's the poop:

Still at work

I'm continuing to beat the network code into submission. I have a decent set of incremental improvements lined up for the next patch, which improve Internet play somewhat more on slow connections. I've also been looking closely at the root problems behind the lag and overall slow performance many people are experiencing. I have lots of ideas on improving things more signfiicantly. Addressing these issues will require changing the protocol, some major testing/debugging before release, and a large downloaded patch. So, I'll try to coalesce these in with all of the gameplay/control fixes later on, for one single monster-sized update that's not network-compatible with previous versions.

Brandon has the new server querying interface and GameSpy support in great shape, and it will be ready very soon. After that has been released, he'll be fixing and adding functionality the TcpLink class, so it can serve as a better framework for new kinds of Internet mods. In the community, an IRC chat interface is in the works, as is a very interesting R&D project I'm not allowed to talk about.

Here is another project that is shaping up to be extremely cool: Naliwood Production Studios.

Sin Demo RUSH Fix  [8:10 PM EDT]
A fix for problems of owners of Voodoo RUSH cards running the Sin demo is in onethumb's .plan:

Some people have reported (most with Rush cards) that their screen just goes grey and doesn't start the game... Or that it gives them a glide error and dumps them out... Here's the solution:

Either run Sin from a command-line prompt, or edit the menu item in your Programs menu and use this command-line:

"sin +set vid_ref soft"

(without quotes)

Sorry for the inconvenience, we didn't test on Rush, assuming that it was going to function just like Voodoo/Voodoo2. Other cards/setups may have exhibited this problem as well.

You can then set up your settings properly using the Video config mode, and the settings will be saved to your player profile for later use.

And this from a later update:

Make sure you set your 3Dfx video renderer options to "Fullscreen: YES" on the video options menu if you are trying to get Sin to work on Voodoo Rush.

New PingTool with Sin Demo Support  [4:25 PM EDT]
Version 2.2 Beta 1 of PingTool is now available at its relocated homepage.  New to this release of this server browser is the addition of support for servers running the Sin demo. Here's a neat feature of PingTool (shared by GameSpy) that I wasn't aware of myself:

As with Quake2, PingTool is fully integrated with Sin's address book. You can update entries automatically every time you launch Sin from PingTool (by checking "Automatically populate Sin's Address Book with top 9 servers"), or manually (by right clicking on a Sin server and choosing "Add to Sin Address Book."  Once you've got some fresh addresses in Sin's Address book, it's very convinent to switch server right from within Sin: hit the [ESC] key to bring up the menu, choose Game > MultiPlayer > Join Multiplayer Game. Sin will ping all the servers in the address book and allow you to choose a new server.

Sin Autoexec Creator  [4:25 PM EDT]
DanTech Autoexec creator, the online utility for config file creation is now offering a Sin Autoexec creator in addition to the Quake II version.

Linux Quake HOWTO  [4:25 PM EDT]
Version 1.8 of the Linux Quake HOWTO offers updated explanations on how to install, play and troubleshoot Quake, QuakeWorld and Quake II under Linux. The authors are actively seeking feedback on the HOWTO in case you know of omissions or corrections.

Anachronox  [4:25 PM EDT]
The ION Storm site has news that Anachronox leads of the coverage in the September PC Gamer print issue's coverage of "the top 10 games of 1999," in a profile that looks at designer Tom Hall, and offers five never-before-seen screenshots.

Sin Timedemo  [3:09 PM EDT]
3 Fingers has whipped up another of his big ole demos to stress your system to the max for framerate benchmarks, this one for the Sin demo. Here's killer.dm2 (77 KB), along with instructions for use.

Tweaking the RIVA 128  [3:09 PM EDT]
DanTech is a page with some helpful hints for RIVA 128 owners to optimize their cards for both visual quality and performance. Thanks 3 Fingers.

Giggler to Join Ex-Tribesman  [11:11 AM EDT]
According to a report on Ritualistic, Giggler's departure from Ritual (story) paves the way for him to join fellow ex-tribesmen Charlie Brown and Gary McTaggart. Here's the quote from Ritualistic:

Wewp, I just found out from Mike himself that he will be joining former Ritual Tribesmen Gary McTaggart & Charlie Brown! Together the 3 will be starting their own game company (still nameless). Congrats to the 3 of them! We wish all of them good luck with the company!.

New Half-Life Shot (Gordon Freewoman?)  [11:11 AM EDT]
Matt "Red Knight" Stevens of Wavelength Half-Life Editing sends along an image from Valve of the female player character form Half-Life, who recently debuted in a print ad:

New Trespasser Screens  [11:11 AM EDT]
Trespasser Central has posted seven new screenshots from Trespasser.

New Messiah Screens  [11:11 AM EDT]
There are nine new "exclusive" screenshots of Shiny's upcoming Messiah on Gamer's Alliance.

RocketArena 2 Eraser  [11:11 AM EDT]
David 'crt' Wright sends word of an exciting development for RocketArena2 fans, preliminary support for Eraser bots. Here's the scoop:

I've put together a new Eraser bot DLL that has minimal support for Rocket
Arena 2. Players can join an arena, throw a bot in, give weapons, start/stop the match.. etc.

This was primarily created as a demonstration of how easy it is for bot authors to add RA2 support, but it is sure a lot of fun to play with as well. The full source code is included for people interested in adding more functionality to the mod (it is unsupported, as we continue to work on the next version of RA2).

The RA2 Eraser bot (including source, requires full Eraser bot) is available at: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/quake/planetquake/servers/arena/ra2eraser.zip

I have gotten more e-mails than I can count from people requesting bot support for RA2 and hopefully other bot authors will now take the lead and add at least basic RA2 support to their bots.

DimensionX CTF  [11:11 AM EDT]
Dimension X Capture the Flag version 1.5 for Quake II is now available, adding flag status reporting,  an new Vampiric rune, and a slightly new look.

DirectX6 Pre-Ordering  [11:11 AM EDT]
The Microsoft DirectX page has an updated DirectX SDK order page where you can pre-order DirectX6 for soonest delivery after it's released. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Sin Tips  [3:34 AM EDT]
onethumb updated his .plan with a couple of tips on Sin play that he failed to include in the read me:

Sniper Rifle
To zoom in, simply hit "0" (or the key you've re-bound to be the sniper key) again once the weapon is out. To zoom out, hit it again. Etc.

Weapons Getting Shot Out Of Hands
You can shoot weapons out of people's hands, and they can shoot weapons out of your hands. Both in single player and in deathmatch. I noticed that Geoff Keighley mentioned this in his editorial. You can simply pick up your weapon again and begin using it... What's cool about this is that in deathmatch you have a fighting chance with the magnum against heavily-armed opponents still... It's quite a rush to shoot a rocket launcher out of someone's hands and then use it to finish them off. :)

I'll try to have something written up in the README later today, so hang tight.

Oh, and if you HAVEN'T yet read the Hardcorps: Classified section of the README, I highly recommend it -- your Sin game and understanding of the features will drastically improve.

wendigo Does Dallas  [3:34 AM EDT]
It wouldn't be a major LAN event without wendigo skulking around with his camera looking to catch photos of people picking their noses and in other dignified poses for wendigo's Photo Archive, and even if this year's event really wasn't called QuakeCon, his QuakeCon '98 pictures are now online. You think I kid about the stalking for poses, this photo has a note in the caption saying "Almost got you, Blue!" because I turned around to catch him barely missing catching me with my finger in my mouth.

Genesis 3D SDK  [3:34 AM EDT]
David Stafford sends word of the release of a beta of the Genesis 3D game-engine Software Development Kit tomorrow evening:

Beta 1 of the Genesis 3D SDK will be released to the public on the evening of July 30 at 10:00pm (central time).   Everyone is invited to participate in the beta.

The latest version of GTest will be included with the SDK.  This version offers several major improvements including multiplayer internet deathmatch play. You will even get the source code to GTest so you can modify it to create your own first-person shooter.

Pricing will be announced on the 30th.  You won't be disappointed.  Eclipse wants to change the world by putting the power of a high-end 3D engine within the reach of everyone.

For more information visit our web site at http://www.genesis3d.com

New QuickStart  [3:34 AM EDT]
Quick Start - Eraser Bot Wizard version 2.22 revision 1 is now available, offering mostly tweaks and fixes to this Quake II Eraser bot launcher.

Giggler Gone from Ritual   [2:14 AM EDT]
Jim Dosé's .plan has the news that Mike "Giggler" Wardwell is gone. There's no mention of which side initiated the split, the update simply says:

Mike Wardwell is no longer a member of Ritual Entertainment.

Out of the Blue  [2:14 AM EDT]
Are there any servers playing the second multiplayer map from the Sin demo? I haven't seen it anywhere.

Sin Bank Before and After  [11:26 PM EDT]
Mike Wardwell (Giggler) at Ritual updated his .plan with an explanation about how some coolness was amputated from his level along with some rspeeds on the road to playability. To show what he means, he offers a couple of screenshots of the level before it went to Jenny Craig.

Sin DM Feedback  [11:17 PM EDT]
Ritual's Matthias Worch updated his .plan with word that they are looking for feedback on Sin deathmatch.

Hope ppl like the SiN demo - there is a lot of stuff in there that WE don't like and is pretty obvious, so don't think we don't know, care or won't fix it for the final game ;)
BTW: All the stuff that you can see in SiN today has been in the design doc from day one, not added after seeing some other game at E3. Just felt like saying that :)

Anyway, the real reason for this update is that we'd like to hear what YOU think about SiN Deathmatch - we do care about your suggestions and will compile a list of what it is most ppl want.

Before firing up your mail client 3 rules, though:
- Don't expect an answer - we read everything, but we can't answer every mail and tell you what we think
- This is and will remain SiN deathmatch, so don't expect us to just change about everything. Mails like "Just make it like QW!" or "Make it like Q2!" won't really help, either ;)
- No bug reports to this adress, please, this adress is for DM feedback only. If you want to report a bug please use the Activison page at http://www.activision.com/games/sin/bugs.asp.

What we do wanna hear about are issues like weapon strength, speed etc. And of course the generell feel, levels etc. Thanx in advance, we're looking forward to your mails :)

And finally: the adress is deathmatch@ritual.com

Banshee Preview  [11:17 PM EDT]
Here's AGN3D's Banshee preview (or as Billy who sent this along puts it Binky on Banshee), complete with benchmarks in Quake, Quake II, Forsaken, and Turok.

The Future of Unreal Multiplayer  [11:10 PM EDT]
The Future of Unreal Multiplayer is an article on GameCenter that focuses on the game's failings at Internet play so far through quotes from postings to message boards and posts by the Epic guys, finishing off with talk of the second patch which can hopefully get this working. Thanks PlanetUnreal.

QW Head Soccer  [11:10 PM EDT]
The Famkebot/Head Soccer page has the first version of Head Soccer for QuakeWorld, a project reminiscent of QSoccer, but with the twist of adding bots for those with bad 'net connections. Sounds kickass, err, head....

Linux Kali  [11:10 PM EDT]
Telcontar's Empire of the Ages is reporting that Kali for Linux is underway, though I see no mention on the Kali page. Thanks Ant.

Heavy Gear II Multiplayer Shot  [7:06 PM EDT]
More interesting (to me) than the dark shot from yesterday is the look at a multiplayer arena on the Heavy Gear II page that shows what kind of DM environment to expect.

Turok 2 Preview  [7:06 PM EDT]
I missed Next Generation's Turok 2 Preview yesterday that talks of enhanced realism on the dinos, specific damage/physics depending on what area of the body is shot (which also apparently adds more gore), and, of course, the big new wrinkle, which is multiplayer play.

Prey Interview, No Shots  [4:47 PM EDT]
3DRealms' Paul Schuytema talks about Prey in an interview on the Universal Gaming Network.

Heretic II Interview, Shots  [4:36 PM EDT]
LA Reviews has posted an interview with Jeremy "Terata" Statz of Raven Software talking about his work on Heretic II. The interview includes some new screenshots (suitable for wallpaper), but since the full-sized versions are not posted, they are up on HexenWorld.

Blood2 Interview, Shots  [4:36 PM EDT]
Monolith Level Designer Bill Vandervoort is interviewed on GameHut talking about Blood2: The Chosen. There are also four new exclusive screenshots accompanying the piece.

The Sin Virus: Rumor?  [4:36 PM EDT]
I've received several mails suggesting that the CIH virus reports in the Sin demo were much more rumor than fact, and were circulating even before the demo's release (according to some accounts, there were folks on IRC playing around saying the demo being infected was the reason it was not released earlier, which got the ball rolling). Dunno what the real story is (certainly sounds like the way things work), but I doubt there is much more value in discussing it (just trying to set the record straight, or maybe cause more confusion, but this is certainly a nearly dead horse).

New Bot Johnny  [4:36 PM EDT]
Version 1.72 of the Bot Johnny bot front-end for Quake II is out, offering some new features like PCX viewing, and PAK file extracting/viewing.

Work at id  [1:59 PM EDT]
Kevin Cloud's .plan, in addition to some kudos for the Ritual gang on the Sin demo, gives word of an opening for a texture artist at id. Here's the lowdown:

Adrian and I are looking for a 2d texture artist to help create wall textures, skins, and interface graphics. Any one interested should send their resume to me at kevinc@idsoftware.com. I am looking for someone skilled as a traditional artist, with strong 2d art talent and good modeling experience. Experience as a professional computer artist is required with a preference on someone who has worked on 3D games. I'm looking for a person willing to put in strong hours, is easy to work with, and doesn't require a lot of oversight.

Quake II Code Exchange  [1:59 PM EDT]
The Code Exchange has launched (re-launched?). The CE, as the name implies, is devoted to the sharing of source code, and information for mods, etc., and the creation of modular code that can be so shared. The latest release up in a new version of their Damage Skins mod, which, as the name implies (to re-use a phrase), better helps show battle wear and tear on you and your victims in Quake II. There's also the first pass at the Code Exchange mod, a combination of five separate projects they've created.

Quake II W.A.R.  [1:59 PM EDT]
The Ultimate W.A.R Homepage has a new beta version of the W.A.R. mod for Quake II. The new release offers a hit-rate counter showing your shooting accuracy (I've always wanted to see that myself), and "Full persistancy [sic] when client disconnects...If the client crashes, you can just reconnect and continue. If the Server crashes, the same normally applies."

KHG Preview  [1:59 PM EDT]
GameSpot's Klingon Honor Guard Preview is online, looking at this Unreal engine game set in the Star Trek Universe. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Intel Price Cuts  [1:59 PM EDT]
Redwood just shot along a TechWeb article called Intel Provides A Price-Cut Surprise that outlines the big I's next set of price cuts.

Blood II: The Chosen Update  [8:41 AM EDT]
The weekly Blood 2: The Chosen update is online, this time out the topic is AI pathfinding. I saw that on Billy's and failed to remember to post it without a kick from Frans at 3D Action Gamers, so thanks to both of them.

Sin Virus Story  [8:41 AM EDT]
Gamers believe 'SiN' carries CIH virus is a ZDNet story about the reports of Sinfections. Thanks Tim Hitchings.

Security Issue  [8:41 AM EDT]
If you use Outlook Express, you probably want to check into a security patch MS has released. Win98 users can find it simply by hitting that Windows Update dealie on the Start menu. Thanks Sean Connelly.

Sinpressions  [6:09 AM EDT]
Wow, had a load of fun playing multiplayer Sin, so much that it kept me from going back and finishing off the single player portion, which is quite compelling as well. I have to join the many who say the demo has achieved its goal admirably: I have always been eager to see this game, but this has increased that by a considerable factor. I share my opinion on the demo because, heck, that's something I'll do around here occasionally, but I admit I don't think it's necessarily appropriate getting all worked up and reviewing a demo (the idea of a demo being to let people judge it for themselves), but you make you own call on whether these are valuable to you (thanks Redwood of  a couple of these links): OGR's first impressions of Sin; GameSlice Sinpressions; 3DGAMING.net Sin Demo Review; Thresh's SIN Demo review (hey Thresh, try the "USE" key to skip the cinematics); Half-Life Haven's Review; 3D-Unlimited's SiN Demo Review; Yohann's Reviews and Commentary; Cyb's Soapbox SiN Roundup; Game Post Preview SiN (Preview?); Righteous 3D II Page; and Maym's Games Sin Demo review.

Hook on the SIGGRAPH Shot  [6:09 AM EDT]
There's a quote from Brian Hook on Voodoo Extreme giving the real deal on that "Q3: Arena shot" from SIGGRAPH posted yesterday (story). Here's the poop:

Can you offer some comments on your SIGGRAPH talk, which also included probably the first screenshot that I've seen from Quake3: Arena?

Brian Hook: Sure thing. I did a lecture at SIGGRAPH with some other folks (including Gary Tarolli of 3Dfx) about 3D acceleration for consumer PCs. I was talking about things from the "game developer" side of things. It's hard to get that much information from the talks -- John probably gave out more up to date and thorough information

The screen shots should really be taken with a grain of salt, they weren't intended to give a sneak peek at Q3, but instead were trying to illustrate the concepts of multipass rendering. As astute observers will note, that's one of Tim's BASE levels from Q2. It is also using 8-bit art and doesn't demonstrate our specular lighting, curved surfaces, or volumetric fog. The fog pass was a distance fog hack, which we deplore as being very uninteresting, but when the screenshots were made our volumetric fog code wasn't implemented yet in the current build, so I had to make do with our TESTFOG command.

At some point I'm sure that we'll release a "real" screenshot, but I don't know when that will be. Unfortunately a lot of our newer technology is difficult to appreciate from a single screen shot, e.g. curve LOD tessellation and specular lighting, but as it stands the SIGGRAPH stuff was NOT indicative of our new technology.

Brian

Amen Preview  [6:09 AM EDT]
An Amen preview on Gone Gold takes a look ahead at Cavedog's upcoming 3D action/adventure title Amen: The Awakening.

Chaos Deathmatch  [6:09 AM EDT]
Quake II Chaos Deathmatch version 1.03 is now available. Thanks Slade.

DM DB  [6:09 AM EDT]
Word from The DeathMatch Database is they've now got over 2,500 players listed (and growing).

Quake II Comic Preview  [6:09 AM EDT]
FutureShock Design has a short preview of a Quake II comic titled The Adventures of Razor & Mojo: The BFG Bandits that looks like a potential winner.

Win a Beast (S3)  [6:09 AM EDT]
There's an opportunity to win a Savage3D based Hercules Terminator Beast on HardwareCentral.

Sin Sporb  [6:09 AM EDT]
Birdman's Lair has a SpaceOrb config for Sin posted.

Image du Jour  [6:09 AM EDT]
John Elway arrives at NFL champion Denver Broncos training camp, Unreal box in hand! Thanks Scott Ellerbrock.

Out of the Blue  [6:09 AM EDT]
It was fun in Dallas (though a visit to the planet Mercury would have had nicer weather), but it's good to be home too. It was a real pleasure being able to update the site from the road, and more or less keep up to date. Having a laptop all set up makes me feel like it's an easier tradeoff to travel, and trips like this will be lass stressful for me in the future (as well as less disruptive to the site).

The Q3: Arena Shot (Sorta)  [9:31 PM EDT]
I've gotten a bunch of requests/suggestions that I post this, so here, it's the final screenshot in the sequence posted in the notes on the Brian Hook (among others) lecture notes from SIGGRAPH (story) that shows the progression from Wolfenstein 3-D through Quake III: Arena (of course this is an example, not a shot from the final game). There's an analysis of what's represented in this image on QuakeCity.

More Banshee  [9:21 PM EDT]
A double dose: boot Benchmarks Banshee Board, and Billy at Voodoo Extreme sends word of an article called 3Dfx Avoids the Rush on GameSpot.

Unreal GameSpy Status  [8:19 PM EDT]
Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with word that Unreal GameSpy support is looking pretty ready for release:

Unreal GameSpy Status:
David Wright and I worked out the last bugs in Unreal GameSpy support and I've sent what I believe to be a solid build up to Tim.

Grim Fandango Demo  [7:48 PM EDT]
The playable demo of LucasArts' upcoming 3D adventure (that looks like a total trip) Grim Fandango has been released. The demo is here, all 56 MB worth. Thanks LucasGames.

PVR Sin  [7:29 PM EDT]
Vik Long over at NEC sent along an updated PowerVR PCX2 GL driver for the Sin demo (87 KB). To use the updated driver:

• Put the PVRGL.DLL file from THIS archive into your SiN demo directory.
• From the Video Controls menu, select "PowerVR OpenGL" as your video driver.
• For the Texture Mode, select "8-bit."

More Quake (II) Action Figures  [7:29 PM EDT]
A Quake Preview (Quake II actually) on the Independent Toy Newswire offers a look at the packaging and look of the upcoming toys. Shown on the page are the Male and Female Marines, an Iron Maiden, and a Tank. No word yet on availability. Thanks Davak the Preparer.

Sin GameSpy  [7:11 PM EDT]
A new unsupported version of GameSpy 3D is now available. Here's the note Bastard sent along:

An unsupported version of GameSpy 3d featuring support for the Sin demo has been released at www.gamespy.com.   Simply install this version over your existing GameSpy installation, auto-update your master servers and Voila! Multiplayer SIN goodness!

While this version appears to work flawlessly it has not undergone heavy testing.  Note that we will have a full release of GameSpy featuring support for the upcoming Unreal multiplayer patch "shortly".

As always refrain from driving for 2 - 4 hours after use.

Sin Server List  [7:11 PM EDT]
And for the new GameSpy, server lists: deicide is on the ball as usual, here's his Active Sin Servers list on the Quake Domain, and there's also a PQ server list (that I'm sure the new GameSpy has already).

Sin Demo Console Commands  [7:11 PM EDT]
3 Fingers sent along a list of all the console commands and cvars he could dig up in the Sin demo.

Brian Hook Lecture  [7:11 PM EDT]
Course notes and slides from Brian Hook's talk at SIGGRAPH are up in Adobe Acrobat format. Here's Billy's (who sends this news along) post that I ganked from VE:

Quite a few things of interest in this lecture! In particular Brian shows the transition from Wolfenstein to Quake2 and even Quake3: Arena (which is the first real shot of Quake3: Arena that _I_ personally know of). Brian filled this bad boy to the brim with all kinds of information on id and their future!

New ZDoom  [7:11 PM EDT]
Version 1.14a of ZDoom (Doom for Win32) is out.

Scream Like a Banshee  [7:11 PM EDT]
AGN3D has some hands-on first impressions of the upcoming Voodoo Banshee. Thanks 3 Fingers.

New QuArK  [7:11 PM EDT]
The Official Quake Army Knife Homepage has posted version 5.0.b9 of QuArK. Thanks Prophet.

Iikka Interview  [7:11 PM EDT]
Anachronically Correct interview with Iikka Keränen, designer on ION's upcoming Anachronox, and creator of the innovative AirQuake.

Akolyte Interview  [7:11 PM EDT]
Intelligamer Q&A with Steve Chan talks about Revenant's upcoming action title, Akolyte.

More on DX6 Prey  [7:11 PM EDT]
Paul Schuytema's .plan has more on Prey DirectX6 support after his recent development update on the subject:

I've received a few emails in regards to our Friday Prey web update-most have to do with DX6, so here are a few clarifications: Prey needs to support an "multiple card" API (like OpenGL or DX6). We've held off on fully committing for longer than we would have liked, but we were waiting for the field to settle down a bit.

OpenGL was our initial choice, but there have just been too many promises of full ICD drivers that have gone unfulfilled or ended up buggy and a mini-driver wouldn't work for us. In DX6, Microsoft has made some solid design decisions, so we decided that was the way to go to support multiple cards.

After Tom, William and Loyal examined the best path to implementation, we decided that using our earlier approach of a "video layer" was the way to go-sort of a Prey API that talks to the graphics API. We do a lot of stuff internally that's often shoved off to the API so that made sense. What that gives us is a flexible, well-engineered system which, in theory, will allow us to plug in OpenGL, Glide or Card X's own API if that's the smart thing to do down the road.

So, at the moment, Prey is a DirectX game, but the door has been left open to embrace alternatives, should they help us to support more cards on more players' systems (which is our driving goal: "quality gaming for the masses…" or some other political hooey like that ;) ).

Hope that clears up some questions…

Home!  [7:11 PM EDT]
Miss me?  =]

Giants Interview, Screenshots  [8:15 AM EDT]
GameSlice has posted an interview with Nick Bruty, President of Planet Moon Software (formerly of Shiny), about their upcoming multiplayer action game, Giants, offering some brand new screenshots along the way.

Off  [8:15 AM EDT]
Talk to you when I'm back in the Blue Tower this evening (knock wood: thanks Billy for the morning email reminding me planes are just too darn heavy to fly...).   =]

Quake III: Arena Order of Operations  [3:41 AM EDT]
Order-of-Operations and the Quake 3 Arena Graphics Engine is a fairly brief, but quite technical (not for the faint-of-heart) analysis of the impact some of the announcements John Carmack made about plans for Quake III: Arena. The article goes into specifics of how the decision to drop bump mapping can affect the order of operations, and offers comparative images demonstrating visual advantages this has for lighting, because it allows the light map to be applied after the texture map.

More on the Sin Demo (Virus Warning)  [2:30 AM EDT]
I'm not posting a list of mirrors to the Sin demo released yesterday (story) yet because I'm getting tons of mail with virus reports (most about a CIH virus, same as the one in the Eraser a while back), all sharing a common trait that it was from copies downloaded from sites other the original sites (download with caution only from sites you trust). onethumb tells me the Ritual/Activision builds are known to be free of the virus. Here is a local copy via FTP and via HTTP (approximately 33 MB). If those local copies look like they are on Ritual's server, it's because they are, but Ritual is hosted by GamesNET, so same difference. OT has also posted the Sin ReadMe, and there's a Sin Demo Problem Report Form on Activision's site.

Spec Ops Scripting Language  [2:30 AM EDT]
Cash's Fresh3d Demo has posted Zombie's just released Spec Ops Scripting Language, which includes a compiler, and all the scripts required to build the current version (AWAL2).

Out of the Blue  [2:30 AM EDT]
Heading back north to the Blue Tower today, again flying commercial (I think the problem in the BlueJet is with the Flux Capacitor. I'll be off in the morning, and will set down in NYC early evening (provided my layover is as scheduled, and not another seven hour jobbie).

Sin Demo Released  [10:11 PM EDT]
The playable demo of Sin (two single-player and two deathmatch maps) has been released. Copies of this demo that weighs in at about 33 MB are available on GameCenter at ftp1.download.com, ftp2.download.com, ftp3.download.com, and ftp5.download.com.

Commando  [9:53 PM EDT]
While tooling around on GameCenter (looking for some demo or another) I saw a short blurb I missed on Westwood's Commando, a first-person shooter based on the Command and Conquer franchise.

Unreal Map Pack  [6:57 PM EDT]
Snarf's Unreal Map Emporium has a DM pack with eight of the levels that have received the highest ratings in Sumepak 1.

New Unreal Art  [6:57 PM EDT]
Check out this awesome image of a Skaarj from Unreal done by Dhabih Eng:

Scourge done Slick  [6:57 PM EDT]
Finally got a chance to see Scourge done Slick all the way through -- this is just too amazing for words. I cannot recommend this more highly to anyone with the SoA mission pack. In fact this is a reason to get SoA if you haven't already. This is the best Quake movie ever. Also, it turns out there are Easter eggs in this bad boy too, in the form of demos showing off some funny bugs and other cool stuff. It's an Easter egg, so I'm not going to post how to find it right away, but it's worth searching for.

New Tectonic  [1:51 PM EDT]
Version 2.02 of the Tectonic Quake II mod is now available. New to this version are fixes to the broken CRBot spawning, problems with joining servers, and the broken dedicated server.

CPL Tourney Results  [12:58 PM EDT]
In an exciting final match, Rix defeated Gollum in a one-on-one in DM6 by a score of 10-5.

Scourge done Slick  [11:39 AM EDT]
As promised, the Quake done Quick gang have released Scourge done Slick, easily the most talked about film since Titanic   =]. SdS is a cinematically enhanced run through the Scourge of Armagon mission pack for Quake, including all manner of sounds and special effects. Huge kudos to the QdQ team.

D3D Prey  [11:39 AM EDT]
A new development update by Paul S. on Prey News on the 3DRealms Site offers a good bit of what they've been up to since E3 with their technology. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers. The update includes info on sound, the character L.O.D. system, and why they are going to support D3D over Open GL . Here's an excerpt on the D3D/OGL stuff:

On the coding side of things, we made a huge decision-we decided to move Prey into DirectX territory to support multiple 3D cards. As you know, we'd been developing under Glide and we'd been tentatively planning to utilize OpenGL as our support API. As we evaluated the whole 3D accelerator question more fully, it became clear that Microsoft had made some very welcome course corrections in DirectX 6, making at a very attractive option. That, plus their support assistance and the fact that we only have to deal with one fully-implemented API and vendor (and that every 3D card out there has some sort of DirectX support) made the decision easy.

OpenGL Unreal  [11:39 AM EDT]
Saw over on Billy's House o' Polygons that Mark Rein posted a large update on the state of OpenGL Unreal to the Unreal MegaBoard. Here's an excerpt:

We're still not ready to release OpenGL for reasons that I'll try to explain as best I can. Up until late last week I was under the impression that we were going to have different Unreal OpenGL drivers for each card. I was wrong. I learned that we have one single OpenGL driver and we're working with the Independent Hardware Vendors (IHV's, a fancy term for card manufacturers) to (a) make it run well on the target cards and (b) bring their OpenGL drivers up to speed so Unreal can run well. Most of the IHV's updated OpenGL drivers that are being tweaked are either NOT finished yet, not up to what is needed yet or just not ready for release. This means that if we released Unreal's OpenGL drivers there would be no cards that it would run well with. I do NOT want to release something that runs like crap because no one has the right drivers to run it with.

Half-Life Screenshots  [11:39 AM EDT]
Atomic Half-Life has posted a scanned Half-Life ad and some new HL screenshots (found on the Contaminated Forums), scanned from CGW, one of them showing off multiplayer play. Thanks Cyrellis 3D.

Revolution IV Screenshots  [11:39 AM EDT]
Cyrellis 3D has posted some screenshots showing off #9's upcoming 3D accelerator playing Forsaken and Incoming.

Quake Info Pool  [11:39 AM EDT]
The Quake Info Pool is a resource for Quake (1) including extensive bug lists with solutions / assumptions / suggestions about them, as well as console command lists and useful stuff like that. They are always seeking more bug reports for Quake if you have any to share.

Fixed  [11:39 AM EDT]
Doh. Fixed the Image du Jour, which I messed up when I first posted it.

Sin IRC  [4:23 AM EDT]
Don "onethumb" MacAskill's .plan has word on the early start on the Sin demo release (sometime today) with the hardcore types already congregating in IRC:

Sinday is 2 minutes away (in my time zone), the demo will be released later today (no, NOT in 2 minutes :), but there are ALREADY 300 people in #sin hanging out having a party!

How cool is that?

Come join in the fun! irc.3dnet.net <--- server

Join #sin

Have fun. :)

Red Rover  [4:23 AM EDT]
The first version of the Red Rover mod for Quake II is up on the Level Infinity LLC Website. In this mod one player starts off as the Red Rover with the goal of killing all the other players. As the players die, they are added to the Red Rover's team. When there is only one person left, a bounty will be put on him worth bonus points. When the last player is dead, he becomes the new Red Rover, and the process starts again.

Unreal Meets the Holy Grail  [4:23 AM EDT]
Oddities has their latest oddity for Unreal, which pits you and your Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch versus the scourge of the middle ages: the killer rabbit.

New H3D V2 Drivers - H3D Sin  [4:23 AM EDT]
H3D Entertainment has posted new Voodoo2 drivers for their stereo glasses. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme. There is also word up on their site on how to get the Sin demo working with H3D glasses (when it's released).

Reckoning Review  [4:23 AM EDT]
crash's Quake2 pages has a review of the Quake II mission pack, the Reckoning.

Autoexec Maker  [4:23 AM EDT]
The DanTech Autoexec creator is an online web-based interface to create config files.

Quake II Addictiveness Poll  [4:23 AM EDT]
PC Magazine's SecondLooks asks "What makes Quake II so Addictive." Thanks Garmachi.

Image Du Jour  [4:23 AM EDT]
By Sumaleth.

Out of the Blue  [4:23 AM EDT]
Where's the beef? Texas. In three day's I've had three steaks, and a serving of steak soup! Moooo  =]

Q2Comp  [10:05 PM EDT]
Version 0.30 of the Q2 Competition Mod is out. New to this Quake II mod designed to govern multiplayer matches is a spectator mode, a "shutup" command to prevent chatting during server setup; a "playerlist" command to show all players including team, status, and skin; optional respawn protect time, and more.

Sin 2015  [8:20 PM EDT]
There's a short interview with Tom Kudirka, the President of 2015, on Ritualistic. 2015 is making the Sin add-on pack.

More on the Carmack Talk  [5:41 PM EDT]
Gamer's Alliance CPL Coverage has a nice write-up on the talk John Carmack gave on Quake III: Arena, covering some of the bases I missed in mine.

New PERMEDIA2 Drivers  [5:41 PM EDT]
The 3Dlabs drivers page has new PERMEDIA2 Drivers for Win95/98. Thanks timschel.

Another New Kali  [12:32 PM EDT]
On the heels of 1.50 (story), version 1.51 of Kali95 is now available on their FTP site. Thanks Ryan.

Scourge done Slick  [12:07 PM EDT -- Updated]
Those speedy folks at Quake done Quick will be releasing Scourge done Slick, a speed run through Ritual's Quake mission pack, Scourge of Armagon (described as a "proper 'movie': full voice and music, new animations and skins, and scripted sequences to give the thing a proper storyline"). The release is in an an IRC release party Sunday at 6:00 GMT on channel #sds-party on 3DNet. Sorry for causing confusion by originally posting this was released already, all the Ritual guys commented on this in their .plans, and I assumed it was out (you know what Felix Unger would say about that).

John Carmack on Quake III: Arena  [6:12 AM EDT]
John Carmack gave his talk yesterday afternoon on Quake III: Arena (yes, one of the things he mentioned is that is the title, and not simply Quake Arena). Here is my best effort at what he talked about being included (or not), or planned for the game at this point (this is in the order they came up, not in order of perceived importance):

• Per-pixel specular light maps, described as good for metallic textures, and also helpful in creating natural lighting in brighter areas (so levels will not need "dark" design to look good).
• Morphing between multiple textures (good for explosions).
• A generalized mirror interface (can be used to create a rotating mirror, for instance).
• Levels will feature non-rational Bezier curves, which, especially when combined with the specular lighting, can be used to create more realistic curved surfaces.
• There will be no curved surfaces on characters, but it is conceivable that a mod could add this.
• L.O.D. (Level of Detail) has been implemented (not infinite), so the face counts of objects will drop as they get further away.
• Bezier curves can be used to create outdoor textures like rolling hills (though nothing like mountains). There will be no terrain renderer in the editor--outdoor areas will not be a strength of Q3A.
• The format of a level is currently ASCII text (it's uncertain if this will remain this way). This offers flexibility, but adds about 50% to the size of the levels (less of a concern since Q3A''s multiplayer nature will result in smaller maps anyway).
• Arenas will be specifically targeted at two, four, and eight player games, etc. Larger maps are possible, and may be included, but will be "unsupported" since it's going to be hard to load 64 bots into a level.
• The player model will be broken into two pieces, allowing separate movement of the torso and legs, allowing effects like running while firing, and a more realistic depiction of where a character is looking (looking up and down will no longer result in tipping back and forth on your toes).
• Models will have "tabs" where the weapon models attach. The same weapon model is used that you see in first person, in someone else's hands, or to be picked up (to create a new weapon for the game, a mod author needs to create a single frame of the model).
• Weapon changes are really fast: six frames or so, it's apparently pretty fun to watch someone (or even yourself) whipping through the choices.
• Muzzle flashes for the weapons return (the addition of frame interpolation in Quake II "broke" this).
• The game will likely be the best looking visual game of its type when it's released, but this is not the top priority, QA3 is not an effort to push the envelope significantly in this way.
• BSP, Vis and Light: BSP is essentially the same. BSP will stop sub-dividing polygons. Light is not yet determined: He's exploring "photon tracing," but this may be scratched because it is so CPU intensive, and also, determining photon collisions with curved surfaces problematic. Lighting will not be the "right thing" (tm) but will be a visual improvement (the numbers demand a trade-off on lighting). John would like to get to where all light is sourced from real objects in the world, but the level designers are fighting this.
• 3D Audio has never been a high priority, but sound cues are more vital in multiplayer play, so this 3D audio may end up included.
• He will probably include voice communication. This could have been in Quake II, but NT does not support DirectSound input. If this is included, it will likely be uncompressed for high-bandwidth users.
• Why no bump mapping in Quake III Arena: John feels this is an effect you need to stop and examine to appreciate, something that is less likely to happen in Q3A's multiplayer environment. B.M.'s carry a large overhead (and he doesn't want to ad it as a spot effect: he feels rendering effects should be fully implemented), and creating fully bump-mapped textures would more than double the work for the artists. Also, four pass rendering will not be possible on any but the fastest next-generation accelerators (TNT and Rendition's 3300 were cited as examples), not appropriate for Q3A's emphasis on fast, fun multiplayer play.
• On cheating. It is impossible to completely prevent cheating, but every effort will be made, including possibly pursuing legal options (making a strict EULA and prosecuting some offending cheat author). Interestingly, John feels that some of the cheats he's seen could possibly be the result of reverse engineering, but he suspects that someone has had some illegal access to some source code at some point to create some of the things he's seen.
• Q3A will include CTF out of the box, and Zoid will create the first add-on (undetermined: the example he threw out was "CTF Pro")

What's next?

• The success of this project will dictate id's next project, a success will probably spawn similar titles (QuakeLeague was given as an example). He would like to continue pursuing multiplayer play and leave single player to licensees.
• Surface Voxel technology is not as far off as many think. It will not be very long before you can render "Toy Story" quality images in real time (though he points out the frightening implications of how many artists and how much time was required to make all that movie's backgrounds).
• Doom and Wolfenstien 3-D sequels are still possible, perhaps done by another company, but he realizes that these projects are quite compelling for many. He intriguingly dropped the title Doom2000.

Sin Movie  [2:56 AM EDT]
Gearing up for the Sin demo release (scheduled for tomorrow), GameCenter has posted their fourth Sin Video this one weighing in at over 10 MB. Saw that on sCary's Shack.

Romero Interview  [2:56 AM EDT]
John Romero is interviewed on Gamer's Alliance CPL Coverage.

Scott Miller Interview  [2:56 AM EDT]
The Apogee Temple - Interviews Scott Miller of 3D Realms.

Messiah Chat Log  [2:56 AM EDT]
A log from yesterday's Messiah Chat is online (my downtime killed my advance notice on the chat, sorry)

Pure3D & Pure3D II Drivers  [2:56 AM EDT]
Saw on Voodoo Extreme that Canopus has released new Windows drivers for both the Pure3D and the Pure3D II.

QuakeWorld to RealVideo  [2:56 AM EDT]
Gibbed.Net has posted the first test output of a project designed to allow spectators to view QuakeWorld matches on a website using RealPlayer.

3rd Degree Skin Burns  [2:56 AM EDT]
id's Paul Jaquays points out an update on Quake2 Skin's Central reports the loss of their extensive skin archive to a fire. Perhaps someone has a line on where the site's maintainer can find some of the files they've lost.

PGL Season 3  [2:56 AM EDT]
The AMD PGL has announced their season 3 plans, which include a new Quake II playoff structure (described here), $70,000 in cash prizes, and StarCraft will be the strategy offering.

Rancor Quake II  [2:56 AM EDT]
Version 0.92a (hot on the heels of 0.92) of the Rancor QuakeII Competition Modification is out.

Quake II BattleGround  [2:56 AM EDT]
Quake 2 Battleground version 1.01 for Linux/Alpha servers is now available.

New Forsaken Demo  [2:56 AM EDT]
An updated version of the playable Forsaken demo is available here. The new release is now Win98 compatible. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Le DNF FAQ  [2:56 AM EDT]
FAQ non officiel sur Duke Nukem Forever - Version 0.1 (French Duke Nukem Forever FAQ). Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

etc.  [2:56 AM EDT]
Yegg's Diablo 2 Tavern has new details on the upcoming Diablo II ... CPL photos on Gagames ... Sniper God's Sniper (TF) Tips ...CNN - Communications Decency Act II attached to spending bill in Senate - July 22 1998. Thanks Falconeer ... Intel New Xeon Chip Delayed Til End Of July. Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance ... Word from Matrox is their G200's are shipping ... MS has announced that Motocross Madness has gone gold ... The scrolling (doohickey) mouse debate: Microsoft vs. Logitech ... MSNBC - Virus can overwrite BIOS kill data (I always figure that virus stories in the mainstream are not to be heeded, but) ... The first piece of Unreal fiction is up on the Quake Literary Guild ...

Out of the Blue  [2:56 AM EDT]
Okay, done playing catch-up, I think we're back up to speed for the most part.