Archived News:
Epic's Brandon Reinhart updated his
.plan with a status update on the Unreal Tournament master server, as well
as some other UT demo related issues. Here's the scoop: I've fixed problems
with the Epic master server and we're redirecting all UT clients to it now. (This remote updating stuff rocks!) The UT master
server should allow for much faster server list and
pinging than the GameSpy master server.
I believe there is a problem with UT creating a new WorldStats account for players
each time it starts. I'll look into that and either prepare a solution or integration
a solution into the next demo.
Jack has fixed some nasty issues with remote administration. Thanks to Smokey
for giving us the heads up on that one. A new remote admin tool will probably
be available soon.
Gamasutra
has posted an interview with the first guy at id ever to hold the title of "game
designer", Graeme Devine (thanks SawzAll). The interview covers his long
history in the industry, with specific questions about his days at Trilobyte
(and its subsequent demise), as well as how he found himself at id.
GameSpot has
posted the intro movie from Interstate '82 (thanks Frans).
This movie is different from the one released earlier this year, as it is the
actual five minute intro to the first mission in the game. The download is available
in your choice of a small, medium or large download.
Epic's Brandon Reinhart updated his
.plan this evening with a tip for the Unreal Tournament demo (and an Army
of Darkness reference): I live...again!
Just woke up. Getting caught up on demo release.
One thing to note: If you don't like using the orders menu with the 'v' key,
you can bind individual orders to keys using the
"Speech Binder" under Preferences.
Looking Glass Studios' Home Page has posted
the eagerly anticipated patch
(direct link) for their hit RPG System Shock 2. Thanks ActiveWindows.
Among the changes in the updated version of the game is support for cooperative
multiplayer play.
If you're having difficulty connecting to games with the just-released Unreal
Tournament demo, there's a post to the Unreal
Technology Page explaining why (thanks caudwell). Here's the scoop: It's
been reported to me that the ftp2.heat.net server, the PCGamer (futuregamer.com)
and Next-Generation download sites do NOT have the correct version.
The correct version of the .exe file is called UTDemo3dfx.exe and is 51,305,472
bytes. I have updated the in-game news page to inform users of the incorrect
version (Version 321) that they are not running the right version, and to let
me know. The 321 version was the version we sent to 3dfx before Hurricane Floyd
hit Raleigh, as a potential release candidate should the hurricane have knocked
us out for a few days.
hal[9k] has posted the Linux
server distribution for Action Half-Life. This download will allow dedicated
Linux servers to run AHL, and adds "spraypaint.wad" to your Valve
directory, as it was mistakenly left out of the Linux server package from Valve
and is required by some AHL maps (this is done with their blessing).
3dfx Gamers has released the much
anticipated Unreal Tournament demo. The demo's a big one at 50 MB, but it can
be downloaded from the mirror sites below. I'll keep updating these as more come in, and we'll try to get a local copy up soon. A reminder: this demo is for Glide enabled cards only, and will not run under OpenGL or Direct3D. A version that supports those is expected within the next few days.
The Unreal Technology Page has been
updated, and now features a
section devoted to running servers with the soon to be released Unreal Tournament
demo (thanks Unreal Universe). Topics
covered include starting and running a server from within the game, launching
a dedicated server, and the ever important remote administration.
PCZone's
preview of the third person title Command & Conquer: Renegade has been
updated with three new MPEGs from the game. They're available in both small
and large file formats, and show off the NOD Base, the NOD Buggy, and the interior
of a church.
Pandemic's Official Battlezone
II Site has been updated with a new screenshot, as well as details on two
new units: the ISDF and Scion Walkers (thanks croatboy).
Dave "Yellow 5" Lepore from PlanetUnreal
passes along an exchange they had with Tim Sweeney about system requirements for
the Unreal Tournament demo, obviously not just applicable to the imminent Glide
version, since other accelarators are mentioned. Here's the deal: The
demo should be kickass on a Pentium III / K7 400 MHz or above with 128 megs of
memory. It should be solid and acceptable on a Pentium III/K6 300 MHz with 64
megs of memory. It should be playable on any 200 MHz machine with at least 32
megs of memory, but the texture and skin detail settings need to be set to
"medium" or "low" for acceptable performance (which is done
by default now, so you shouldn't need to tweak).
UT now does a pretty thorough job of detecting your CPU speed, 3D card, and RAM,
and setting the default detail settings when you first run it. On a wide range
of systems we tested on, we tweaked this to achieve the best (in our opinion)
speed/detail settings. So, users shouldn't have to do a lot of tweaking to get
acceptable performance. Still, the demo is the first time a widespread audience
will get to try the code, so we welcome any feedback on performance, to help us
improve the default settings for different hardware.
3D cards:
The best performance by far now is on Voodoo3's with Glide.
Next up are Voodoo2's, TNT2's, Savage4, and the Matrox G400. The Direct3D cards
will improve in performance nicely once we update the demo for DirectX7, which
has improved performance.
The next tier is the Voodoo1, TNT1, Rage 128, and software renderer. They're all
about equal in overall performance.
Fortunately, those crazy "advanced options" settings that Unreal 1 was
so dependent on shouldn't be necessary for anyone except the ultra hard-core
users. Now we expose nearly all the interesting options through the in-game
menus, which are a more self-explanatory than Unreal 1's.
Thresh's Firing Squad
has posted an interview with BioWare's Trent Oster, talking about their online
3D RPG Neverwinter Nights, and discussing what makes the game different from
other titles such as Ultima Online and EverQuest. They've also posted a handful
of screenshots, although they appear to be the ones already released.
PlanetUnreal
has posted an interview with the level design team from The Collective, the
developers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen, a third person Unreal
engine title. There are some familiar names here, including Elliot "Myscha"
Cannon, one of the level designers on the original Unreal. There's also a bunch
of new screenshots from the game so you can see what all these guys have been
slaving over.
Epic's Brandon Reinhart updated his
.plan yet again with more on the Unreal Tournament demo, including word
that he's integrated the ngStats fix (so there's no need to download it manually),
and an explanation of the new ping method. Here's an excerpt: Sorry
the demo wasn't out yesterday. 3dfx worked all night on getting their infrastructure
ready to handle the demand. They are targeting demo release for Friday morning.
While they were working that out, Tim and I updated the demo archive. I put
the ngStats fix in there so it is not necessary to download it. That's one good
thing.
Based on feedback from testers, I've reevaluated my method of calculating ping
in UT. After ECTS I decided to convince Tim we should subtract frametime from
the ping calculation. This would result in the ping being a direct reflection
of network performance (or close enough).
In retrospect this was a flawed decision for various reasons. I have changed
the ping calculation to better reflect gameplay. This means that you might see
a ping higher than you would expect when you join a server. I feel that this
is better than seeing a lower ping than you would expect. I would rather you
say "I'm getting a good game here, although my ping seems high" than
"If my ping is this low, I should be getting better gameplay."
If you want to be set to frag like a champion in the Unreal Tournament demo when
it's released, you're in luck, as Epic's Cliff
Bleszinski updated his .plan conveying some of his expertise with the
various weapons and game types you will encounter, rundowns on general UT DM
strategies, as well as tips for each map. It's a lengthy update, but looks like
it will be very helpful (when that darned demo is released). In a virtually
unrelated note, except for the Epic connection, Brandon
"FusiaMarine" Reinhart's .plan has also been updated, Brandon
taking the time to clarify that if you think we're joking about the animosity
between us, you're wrong. Or is it the opposite, I get so confused (the one
thing I do know is that Tim writes all of OrangeMarine's really confusing
technical .plan updates).
To whet your appetite for the Glide Unreal Tournament demo expected to be
released today, Unreal Universe's
Unreal Tournament 3dfx Demo preview is up with screenshots of the demo and a
brief rundown on what to expect from it.
True Gamers'
Can UT take on Q3 talks to players who checked out the UT showing at the
Playing Fields at ECTS asking how it stacks up to what they've seen of Q3Test.
Also taking task with Q3Test is speKtrum views,
which offers speKtrum's views on why the Mplayer Daikatana demo is superior to
the Q3Test.
Computer Games Online's
Prince of Persia 3D Quick Take "Return(s) to a land of baggy pants and
silly hats," with a short look at Mindscape's imminent 3D sequel to the
side-scrolling Prince of Persia series.
The Wargamer's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear Contest
offers a free copy of Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear "and other cool stuff
to the most deserving budding terrorism-squashers among you."
Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers
for his help with these:
Jeremy from AGN3D
is ill, and is currently still in the hospital, and his condition sounds serious. Josh
from over there tells me he will pass along any well wishes that are sent along,
so I'd like to urge any who are so inclined to please take a moment to send
along "a get well soon" to lift his spirits. I like to believe these
things can help.
Things are (thankfully) settled down on the build an NT machine project
that's disrupted my days lately. Well, not exactly, since Tropical Storm Floyd
prevented the delivery of my CPUs, but at least today's chapter in that saga
didn't once again involve me abandoning loony to wander plaintively from store
to store asking for unstocked merchandise (though it certainly is another blow
to immediate gratification). BTW, speaking of Floyd, I misidentified the
then-Hurricane as Hugo at one point yesterday, thanks to all who wrote in with
the correction.
Link of the Day: THE REGISTER Lav me tender, lav me true.
Thanks Dennis Anderson and Ant. The
applications for geeks are countless.
There are no confirmations from Valve or Sierra, but a blurb on Next-Generation Online
quotes "insiders at Sega" as saying an "Internet
capable version of Sierra’s Half Life will appear on Dreamcast in the
near future." Word is Sierra could not be reached for comment on the rumor
at the time the story went up. DREAMCAST.IGN.COM
is even more confident, calling the word from Sega a confirmation: At Sega's
pre-TGS meeting in Japan, it was announced that Half Life would be seeing
release for the Dreamcast in late 2000. That's a long time from now, but the
waiting period is apparently due to Sega's desire to equip the title with full
online multiplayer capability.
The RS Toolkit Homepage
has the release of version 1.0 of the RS Toolkit, which is a new version of the
former R6 (Rainbow Six) Toolkit that also supports the Rogue Spear demo (and RS
conveniently stands for both games). The toolkit is in effect a front-end,
offering automation of several useful functions within the demo. Word is a
version with support for the full game will be released when the full game is.
The story on The Adrenaline Vault News
about Billy Zelsnack joining Valve as a contract employee that originally
referred to Team Fortress 2 as being "at least a year off" ( story),
has been amended to reflect updated information they've received from Sierra on
this, saying: [Note: Although we were originally told Team Fortress 2 was
''a year off'' from release, Sierra has amended this statement to say the game
is ''due out next year.'']
Pandemic Studios' Official Battlezone II Site
has posted a pair of new shots of more units from BattleZone II, the upcoming
combo action/strategy sequel. Thanks Battlezone Nav Beacon.
This week's units are the ISDF
Walker and the Scion
Walker, and there's a
new screenshot of an ISDF Mortar Bike in trouble.
Excited about Diablo II, Blizzard's upcoming sequel to their smash-hit RPG
Diablo, but afraid you won't know what to look for in the stores when it's
released? Never fear this Diablo II Box
Art Shot, and this shot of the
Diablo II box itself just posted on GameSpot
can serve as mug shots to track it down. Thanks Ant.
Oops, actually there is an explanation for the missing DF2 demo (next story) on The Adrenaline Vault News,
where they say it turned out to be "an internal demo not intended for
public consumption -- even though it was posted on their public ftp site."
Word is the demo should be out September 20.
There aren't any details to explain why, but The Adrenaline Vault
Downloads page that previously had the Delta Force 2 demo for download ( story)
has been updated simply saying the demo was pulled at the request of the
publisher. Thanks Jack Allen Beck Jr.
A
chat log from Blizzard's first chat session for WarCraft III, held earlier
this evening on Battle.net has been posted on The
Unofficial Diablo II Site. The half hour chat provided new information on
"hardware support, units for land, water and air, the ECTS Cinematic,
ladder system and much more."
Okay, so the demo isn't out yet, but that doesn't mean you can't patch it when
it does get released, right? Well, that's the reasoning behind Brandon Reinhart's
.plan
update that features this
link to a fix for the ngStats bug posted earlier. When the demo is released,
just copy this .exe over the one that's installed by default.
Digital Theatre has
posted an interview with John Folliard, a programmer for Dynamix on Starsiege:
TRIBES and TRIBES 2. The interview covers his background, the wild and wacky
world of programming, and even his thoughts on Quake.
GameSpot's Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver
Demo page has a new playable demo of this third-person vampire game from
Eidos. The demo is 16.3 MB, and there's word on the page about issues with RIVA
128 and ATI Rage Pro accelerators. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers. Here's a bit on what the game is all about: In Legacy of
Kain: Soul Reaver you play Raziel, stalking the world of Nosgoth feeding upon
the souls of your enemies. As you seek to destroy your creator, Kain, you must
battle vampire clans while exploring an expansive 3D world tainted by a vampire
dynasty's rule.
Epic's Brandon
Reinhart updated his .plan once again with more on the imminent Glide
version of the Unreal Tournament demo, describing a problem, and its equally-imminent
solution with the included release of ngStats, as well as a bit about the proper
use of the demo's skill levels: Okay, the version of ngStats in the 3dfx
demo has a problem with it. It causes the player's name to show up wrong when
you view your stats. The NetGames guys are putting together a fix and will have
a new ngStats for UT distribution on their website soon. Probably before the
demo hits the net. I'll update my plan and our various webpages with the URL
when its available. Only people downloading the 3dfx UT demo and playing with
[local] ngStats will need to get this fix. I suggest you get it when its
available because ngStats is cool and fun to play with.
What else?
When you first play UT make sure you pick a skill level that suits your
abilities. UT's first four skill levels are easier, so that if Joe Average buys
the game he can have fun without getting spanked by the bots. If you play
online, chances are you'll want to pick one of the top 4 skill levels. In the
full version of UT, the skill level will ramp up as you play. In the demo it
does this a little, but because there are only 5 maps its hard to feel the
ramping.
I'll mirror this update on the techpage.
The in-game News Page will report information on the status of the NetGames fix
once it becomes available.
Beyond 3D interviews
Nick Caddick of S3 in a conversation that took place towards the end of the
recently-completed ECTS in London. The interview discusses sales of the
Savage4, the upcoming Savage 2000, and their marriage to Diamond., among other
things.
Happy Puppy's Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator
preview is online, offering a look ahead at Monolith's
upcoming role-playing game, based on some hands-on experience with a beta
version. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
Brandon "BlueMarine" Reinhart updated
his .plan with word on the status of the 3dfx Glide Unreal Tournament demo,
as well as word on some stuff for server admins once it's available: The
demo is in 3dfx's hands. They'll release it once they and their partners are
ready to handle the demand.
Server operators should check out the remote admin tool in the demo. You can
turn it on under "Networking->Web Based Server Administration" in
the advanced options dialog.
When its on and you've set your username and password, surf to http://YourServersIP/ServerAdmin
to log in.
Server Admins should probably run servers with a playerlimit of around 8 to 10.
The deathmatch maps in the demo aren't really large enough to handle big free
for alls.
Also, if it wasn't obvious that the initially Glide-only aspect of this demo
was a sponsorship dealie, GA-Source
has a confirmation from Mark Rein that it is related to the "lucrative
bundling deal" with UT and Voodoo3s from a while back.
AnandTech
interviews Scott Sellers talking to the 3dfx CTO about the current sate of
the graphics accelerator market, reflecting on what's known about the newly announced
cards from S3 and NVIDIA. Here's a bit on the quest for the title of fastest accelerator,
and a seemingly newfound emphasis from 3dfx on running "color depths that
gamers demand": Once again, 3dfx has always been the speed king,
but this sounds pretty tough to beat and John (Carmack) certainly knows his
stuff. Do you think you'll be able to do it again? How and why?
Well, John C. has not yet tested our next generation product yet so the fact
that GeForce beats anything that’s currently on the market is really no big
surprise. The GeForce has an advantage with its onboard geometry capability for
lower resolutions and color depths, however we believe that our next generation
product will substantially outperform the GeForce when running at
resolutions and color depths that gamers demand. We have always placed a big
emphasis on being the premiere hardware platform for the Quake games, and expect
our next generation of products to continue to live up to that high standard.
3DRealms' Joe Siegler updated his
.plan with word that he's posted the commercial for Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
on the 3D Realms site in both MPEG and
Real Video formats. The commercial features a live action Duke (woo!) in addition
to plenty of in-game footage from this Nintendo 64 title.
A Warcraft III - Scroll of Knowledge (Frequently Asked Questions)
is now online to help those having problems understanding the concept of this upcoming cross-genre game.
IMG's Chat Transcript with Descent 3's Duane Johnson
is up, the "official" log from the event's organizers. The log is of a
recent chat with this rocket scientist (his day job is with NASA), who
moonlights as a programmer on the upcoming Mac port of the latest in the Descent
series of flying shooters.
The Official Soldier of Fortune FAQ at Soldier-of-Fortune.com has been updated with some new Qs and As about
Raven's upcoming Quake II engine shooter. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers, who says there are various changes, including an update to reflect
the game's expected November 1999 street date.
Saw on PlanetUnreal that the official
Unreal Tournament site has word
from Mark Reign that the 28.8 modem is again working in the Epic offices and
that the Unreal Tournament Demo may yet be released today as planned:
The office internet connection seems to be back. I'm continuing to upload a new
build for 3DFX and GT to test from my house just in case but Steve and Tim are
heading back to the office. Barring any further minor bugs we're confident the
demo release will go ahead as scheduled late today.
Gamers Central's
MDK2 preview is up, offering a look at BioWare's upcoming sequel to Shiny's
quirky first and third-person action game. The article discusses some of the
distinguishing aspects of the original game, and looks ahead at what might do
the same for the follow-up. MDK, of course, stands for Meshuganah Damn Kids(!).
We're not exactly in the hurricane belt here in New York, but it is the
eastern seaboard, and this is the season, so with Floyd making his run up the
coast things are getting a bit rough even up here. I just got word from loony
that while his ISDN is holding out, his voice line just went down, so I wanted
to mention the off chance that this situation would deteriorate and knock us
both off line. It doesn't seem like that's going to be the case, but hey, you
never know (now where did I leave that bilge pump?).
A bunch o' bits, including a bunch of ways to keep those hot components cool:
Epic's Alan Willard wrote in with a status update on Epic and the Unreal Tournament
demo in general (looks like the wrath of Floyd passed them by): We're
not dead, and we do have power. Floyd didn't hit anywhere near as hard as it
could have, and we only got knocked out for the night. We're going to continue
testing the demo to make sure we have a good release for today.
Thresh's Firing Squad
has posted a hands on preview of Unreal Tournament, which is based on a beta
build of the game. The piece is by Dennis "Thresh" Fong, and in typical
Thresh fashion it's very detailed, and loaded with lots of in-depth analysis
from someone who eats, breathes, and sleeps in deathmatch.
A 3.1 beta patch for CounterStrike,
the popular anti-terrorist mod for Half-Life has been released, and is available
for download at the official CounterStrike
page. This patch is purely a bug fix update, and you must have beta 3 already
installed before running it (thanks Stretch-E).
A new version of ZDoom, an enhanced
version of Doom based on the source code release from a while back has been
released (thanks Frans). This version
is labeled 1.18b.
A new version 0.7 of the Jumbot
for Half-Life has been released. This version has a great deal of new features,
including the ability for bots to run away if they feel they're at a disadvantage
in combat, and a whole bunch of other AI improvements and tweaks.
The Adrenaline Vault News
has posted seven new screenshots from Activision and Presto Studios' upcoming
Star Trek: Hidden Evil, an action/adventure game set following the Star Trek:
Insurrection movie.
The Adrenaline Vault Downloads Demo
has a 31 MB playable demo from NovaLogic's upcoming Delta Force 2, the sequel to
their voxelated first-person shooter that emphasizes tactics. Here's the word on
what this release can, and can't handle, as far as video: The pre-release
version of Delta Force 2, supports a limited number of 3D cards. Delta Force 2
will support cards that are truly 32 bit color polygon renderers, including TNT,
TNT2 and ATI Rage Fury. 3D card support is provided through Direct 3D. DirectX 6
or greater is required. Note that only polygon-based objects in the game will be
accelerated.
The Adrenaline Vault News
is reporting that programmer Billy Zelsnack has been contracted by Valve
Software to work on TeamFortress 2. Here's a bit of the update which describes
that, and also describes TeamFortress2 as being a year away, which, if it is the
case, is the first indication that the title is that far off: Now the
Adrenaline Vault has confirmed with Sierra and Valve that Zelsnack has been
contracted to assist the Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms development
team, and is doing engine enhancements for the next-generation Half-Life
technology being used for the title. Since the online-oriented 3D action game is
at least a year off, as a Sierra public relations representative mentioned
Tuesday when contacted about Zelsnack’s responsibilities on the project, both
companies turned down our request for an interview. But having him elbow-deep in
the code could mean very good things for the product.
Relic News sends word that they've
received a confirmation from Relic's Alex Garden that Homeworld is gold, and
this strategy/space sim should be available in stores in about two weeks.
Kickass Gaming Network Interviews
George Collins, director of BattleZone2 team about this upcoming sequel to
Activision's BattleZone, the 3D action/strategy homage to the arcade classic.
The article takes a very general approach to the game.
PC.IGN.COM previews Wheel of Time
looking ahead at Legend's Unreal-engine game saying, "It looks great, but
how does it play? We do some deathmatch, and give you the complete spell list."
The Thief Gold
website has some new screenshots of this upcoming follow-up to Thief, the
sneaky, stealthy shooter. Thanks GA-Source,
where they also have the shots posted.
Yup... thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers:
Well, I got my CPU returned, a matched pair on mail order to replace it. I got
what sounded like good advice to buy SMP CPUs simultaneously to avoid potential
problems, though I got advice on what looked like the best prices from mail
order after I ordered, so I'll save that for next time. I also finally
found a copy of NT (eight billion miniature Statues of Liberty in New York, and
one copy of Windows NT). It's finally getting through my thick skull that it's
historically always a soap opera when I go out hardware shopping, inevitably
requiring at least one return trip to the store, so I think I'm going to stick
to mail order from now on, which I've generally found much more reliable.
Thankfully, at least, for the first time in the history of this site, such a
saga (and this is easily at least the third time this has happened) didn't
result in a few days of spotty updates, as loony has been doing a great job of
keeping up as I've been gallivanting about buying components.
Link of the Day: Mitchell, South Dakota
Corn Palace. The world's only. No... really! Thanks toast.
News Story of the Day: ABCNEWS.com Fred Moody The Big Bang, Part 2
is another look at Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, already
discussed here previously, with an updated look at the potential problem. Thanks
LaRcEn.
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