Archived News:
PlanetDaikatana
has posted an edited version of the chat log from last night's Cabana Chat with members of the Daikatana team. One of the topics is the eagerly anticipated
Internet demo, which according to the chat is still quite a way from release
(as it takes time away that team members could be spending working on the actual
game).
U-Games has
posted an interview with TRIBES 2 designer Scott Youngblood, talking about well...TRIBES
2 (you were expecting something else?). Thanks Frans.
A new version of Creative
Labs' MiniGL driver for their 3D Blaster Banshee and Voodoo 2 based cards
has been released (thanks JTJJ). This version (which is dated yesterday, June
16th) fixes a few bugs that plagued the last release (just a few days ago) including
the gamma calculation error and problems that occurred when switching from 3dfx'
driver to the Creative driver. A reminder: this is for Quake engine based games only.
GameSpot
UK has posted a preview of Max Payne, with a hands-on test of the game,
as well as a whopping 14 (!) new screenshots from this action title set in good
ol' NYC (unfortunately, I don't believe there's a Blue Tower level in there).
The Strange Company has released
a public beta of NiSplit, a Quake II utility that can be used to make Unreal-style
flythroughs in any normal level. A technology demo is also available, showing
off the utility's capabilities.
HepCat{WFC} sends along this letter that was posted to the hlds mailing list
from a Won.net employee, detailing the soon-to-be-released Half-Life server
update that is now internally testing: The new version of the Win32 server is now
posted on our FTP site for testing. This new server is backward-compatible with
the existing Half-Life client codebase, so players will be able to connect and
play on your server immediately after you upgrade.
In this new version:
* All known cheats/exploits are fixed
* Running hlds +<mapname> from the command line will heartbeat to theWON
master server.
Hlserver.exe (~80 MB)- This is the full download of the latest version of the
Win32 server. This includes all the files necessary to run a Team Fortress Classic
or Half-Life server.
Hlserver10101012.exe (~500k) - This is the update to the Primary Server Package
that will upgrade you from the previous update from WON (hlserver10011002.exe).
The current version of the Linux server is linux1010d.tar.gz, which was released
last Thursday the 20th.
It should be publicly available within a few days.
Next-Generation
Online is reporting that the Hyde Amendment has been rejected by a vote
of 282 to 146. This potentially prescedent-setting amendment would have made
it a criminal act to show any violent material to a minor.
Soldier-of-Fortune.com
has posted a couple of new screenshots from Raven's action-packed Quake 2 engine
title. Also, they're reporting that GameSpot
will have the E3-banned SoF movie available for download tomorrow.
The Extreme Audio Reality site has a new version
1.57 of the Interactive Around-Sound(R) audio engine that provides 3D sound placement,
even on soundcards with no 3D support. This is the same version of the IAS patch that
ships with Heavy Gear 2.
Apache sends word that Computer
Gaming Review has posted a new preview of Dynamix' upcoming sequel, Starsiege:
TRIBES 2.
Gamers'
Crypt interviews Paul Butterfield of Monolith, chatting about Monolith's upcoming
LithTech-engine James Bond shooter, No One Lives Forever.
Gamelinks previews
System Shock 2, looking at Irrational Games' imminent sci-fi RPG sequel to the cult
classic original System Shock in a piece that includes a bunch of screenshots. Also Billy
has posted a status report on Voodoo Extreme
from Irrational Games' "Art p1mp," Scott "Skarz" Blinn saying the game
is "basically done as far as implementation and content go," and that the
"play testers are working around the clock to try and catch any last minute
bugs."
The Adrenaline
Vault News has posted a couple of screenshots showing off what the David Bowie
character will look like in Omikron, the upcoming third-person action title from Eidos and
Quantic Dream.
AVault
has conducted an interview with Fox Interactive's Aliens vs. Predator producer
David Stalker, talking about the much debated save game feature, which will
be implemented into the next patch ( story).
There are a bunch of
new unreal Tournament screenshots on Unreal Universe showing off action from Epic's
upcoming game of head-to-head deathmatch.
A post to the OutCast
Central Forums by Appeal's Douglas Freese answers some of the frequently asked
questions from the forums about Appeal/Infogrames' upcoming action game, OutCast. Thanks
Certis at Altered Worlds.
Hardware reviews are up here this morning:
Computer Gaming Review interviews Dave
Perry talking to Shiny's happy shiny person about Messiah and other Shiny projects.
The Creative Labs interview
at Glide Underground talks with John Danforth, VP & General Counsel and Steve
Mosher, VP, Graphics Business Unit from Creative Labs, talking about the recently released
Unified drivers from Creative that allow Glide games to play on a TNT2, and the subsequent
legal action from 3dfx about those drivers.
Raven's Chris Foster updated his .plan with some clarifications about how gameplay will
unfold in Raven's upcoming Quake III-engine Star Trek Voyager game, mentioning that
even more detail on this stuff can be found in Mike Gummelt's .plan:
Ah, the joys of less than perfect communication!
In order to clear up a few items regarding our game, I felt it was necessary to update my
.plan file today.
First off...you play the Game as Alexander Munro, a security specialist aboard the
Voyager. A member of an elite force of away team operatives, Munro will be called upon to
defend the ship and its crew from the dangers in a hostile environment. Trapped in an
artificial pocket of space by alien beings, Voyager is disabled and beset on all sides by
ruthless scavengers as well as the race which has them trapped.
He will explore many areas on Voyager, (yes even the mess hall...), as well as numerous
alien craft also trapped within the pocket.
The game will be a single-player affair, with Holomatch options; including Deathmatch,
other team games and possibly Multiplayer Co-operative missions outside of the regular
single-player game.
Munro will have a number of weapons at his disposal throughout the game, some Federation
tech... some not.
Holomatch will basically be a Holodeck generated combat stage with the ability to fight
other players and score as if running a training exercise. When a player is 'killed' he is
transported back to the command staging area to reset himself, re-arm and then 're-spawn'
(i.e. randomly be transported back within the playing area).
As an aside, what do you all think about the idea of 'Siege' type missions for Holomatch?
Hope this answers most of the questions I got.
And No, you are not going to be able to play as Tuvok in the game, sorry! Possibly in
Multiplayer, but not in the single-player game.
Also...for a more concise definition of the Hazard Team (the 'elite force' mentioned
earlier) as well as a synopsis of the characters, see Mike Gummelt's .plan file!
Also, Raven's Jake Simpson updated his .plan mentioning an interview with him on
GameDev.net, and more on his unsolicited (and apparently un-agreed with) opinion about
the value of publishing Carmack's worklog, along with some accounts of his own work, which
I'm going to risk the possible disinterest of other programmers by quoting here, since it
covers some interesting stuff about LOD support in Star Trek Voyager game as well as a bit
about eye-candy in Soldier of Fortune:
So it looks like the LOD stuff I looked into may not be going into Star Trek.
The reasoning here involved low poly count models. Traditionally, Raven has been extremely
good at producing attractive low poly count models. This has come after years of
experience that our modeler have had, plus large amounts of beatings until they get it
right :) However, one of the things that LOD is traditionally NOT good at is reducing low
poly count models even further and making them look ok. Yes, it is understood that they
are reduced in size, so you don't notice this so much, but still, there comes a quality
issue and at some point, modelers and designers need to say "enough". Really and
truly, to do LOD so it looks correct, you should be building high poly count models to
begin with. Since we already have a decent amount of work done on the models and animation
for Voyager, there comes a point where the amount of time to redo it all is not balanced
by rebuilding everything and pushing our delivery date back. We are still investigating
the whole dynamic LOD approach, and are still undecided on its final form for Star Trek
right now. As my father would have said, if we have the time to invest in code
experiementation in an ongoing project, then we'll suck it and see.:)
I'm doing some eye candy for SOF right now. Its really cool to be free enough to have the
time to experiement with fluff stuff to try and get it right. Since I'm a free resource
right now, they are applying me to stuff that otherwise may not have been so addressed. It
looks like I'll have my hands in the effect scaling code too, which is fine by me :)
Nathan Albury has added a very cool Special Effects generating tool into the game code
base, something we've all been talking about for while. This takes effect generation out
of the coders hands, (thankfully, since it takes longer for a coder to do it than an
artist) and places it in the designer hands. I know I'm happy about this :) Doesn't stop
me making effects but it sure does allow everyone a fair crack at it now :)
PC Gamer Online previews Shadow Man
taking a look ahead at Acclaim's upcoming third-person action game based on the eerie comic
of the same name.
The Genesis 3D Engine Screenshots page
has new screenshots from GDemo1, described as a "wonderfully sculpted, technological
display of the power of Genesis3D." Word is the demo will be released soon, and the
update goes on to say "We have targeted this demo at high-end 3D cards (second
generation 3D accelerators or better) so that we could pack in all of the features of
Genesis3D for mass public consumption in the shortest amount of time possible. Don't worry
if you do have a first generation 3D accelerator, you will still be able to ooh! and aah!
as well. Who says you can't have it all!"
A couple of reviews of Descent 3 among this morning's festivities:
We're having a little trouble with Blammo since yesterday, it was difficult getting the
database to update after stories were added, and this causes a few glitches when it
occurs. Your patience is requested if things happen like getting CGI errors in place of
the headlines in the left frame which is an example of one of the problems that's resulted
from this at certain times, though I'm not sure this will continue to be a problem today,
as it seems to be okay so far (fingers crossed).
Yesterday was MrsBlue's birthday, and I will be spending the day today celebrating with
the light of my life, so I'll leave you in loony's able hands (wings?)... you've been
forewarned if he manages to crack his way into the liquor cabinet (or lick his way into
the crack cabinet).
Link of the Day: US scientists clone first human embryos - reports the Sydney
Morning Herald's Breaking News. Wild stuff. Thanks $ikander.
Image of the Day: This animated .gif mentioned
in Patrick Magruder's .plan, yeah that's pretty mean, but damn am I glad
Divx is gone.
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