Archived News:
Dynamix' Tim Gift updated his .plan
with an update on the status of the Starsiege: TRIBES 1.7 patch, which he says is off to QA for testing. Here's the scoop: Put a few fixes into
the current patch (should end up version 1.7); the elevator bugs (displacing
deployables through floors, and player warping). No more flying through ceilings
with vehicles, a few other misc. things. JohnA fixed a number of bug's in the scripts, and the palette problem
should addressed (DaveM). The release notes will have the full list.
We'll hand
a version to QA this afternoon so they can start testing. I hope this wraps
up my TRIBES 1 work for a while. With the vacation, catching up on all the emails
and the patch fixes, I haven't been doing much on TRIBES 2 work for over a month.
James Monroe, lead programmer for Raven's Quake III: Arena engine title Star
Trek: Voyager - Elite Force updated his
.plan with some Q3Test benchmarks he's taken using a pre-release AMD K7
running at 600 mhz: I am testing it out on a wonderful new K7-600 AMD
was kind enough to send us. Man this thing rocks! I'll get some meaningful timings
if anyone cares. But i assure you it flies!
q3test 1.07, on the k7-600, voodoo3 3K agp
graphics mode normal: (640 x 480)
q3testdemo1
1653 frames, 33.5 seconds: 49.3 fps
q3testdemo2
1528 frames, 23.9 seconds: 63.9 fps
graphics mode fast:
q3testdemo1
1653 frames, 26.8 seconds: 61.8 fps
q3testdemo2
1528 frames, 21.0 seconds: 72.7 fps
PlanetStarsiege has posted the
second part of their two-part interview with Mark Frohnmayer. This part focuses
almost entirely on TRIBES 2, with a slew of questions about the upcoming sequel's
new features. I found this quote to be especially interesting, given that Starsiege:
TRIBES already handles 32 player servers with remarkable grace: PlanetStarsiege:
Scott Youngblood said the Dev Team was shooting for more players per server,
how do you think you can accomplish that?
Mark Frohnmayer: I've optimized the network code in several ways to get rid
of unnecessary searches. I've also designed out a new object collision database
with Tim and Dave that should speed up the server considerably. Also, it's possible
that we could see some serious speedup on multiprocessor machines.
As promised earlier ( story),
ASC Games has updated their official Werewolf:
The Apocalypse - The Heart of Gaia site with this month's slew of content.
In addition to all the stuff mentioned earlier, there's five new screenshots
from the game as well for your viewing enjoyment.
This week's edition of the Mail
Bag is a suck fest, with topics such as sucking in Vampire: The Masquerade,
Romero's Suck-ful battle against Chris Taylor, and of course, why we suck. There's
some other stuff in here, but let's face it, it doesn't get more entertaining
than that. Swing
over and check it out.
An updated version 0.7 of Mortyr.Net's Mortyr
FAQ is online with more new info added about the demo. Also, there is a brand new N64 Quake II FAQ on GameFAQs,
with the initial version number 0.25. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Though not noted on the Kali Homepage, there is a new
version 1.99a, described as a version 2.0 beta of the Kali server browser. You can get a full version here (direct link -
2721471 bytes), or a patch for
1.99 to 1.99a here (direct link - 532795 bytes). The new version adds new layout
options, a stand-alone Game Lobby window, and more.
Though they didn't plan anything special for today's partial lunar eclipse, the
lupine-loving folks over at ASC Games are having
another Werewolf The
Apocalypse - Heart of Gaia extravaganza tonight as they do on each full moon. What
this means is tonight they will post Part nine of their ten-part Prequel Series, their 9th
installment of "Rants"where guest ranter Rich Rosado rants about
"GIFTS," which is how they handle magic in the Werewolf universe. Finally, they
give word of a chat with the developers of this RPG next week:
Next Wednesday, August 4th, from 8-9 PM EST we'll be hosting a chat in the ASC
Games Chat Room. Guests will include members of the Dreamforge development team and
our very own Travis Williams!
The Railgun Project (a MacQuake site) has the release of a new beta 1.01b1 of the Eraser bot for Quake II, adjusted to work properly under the Mac port of Quake II. The new version fixes various file i/o
problems so that even Mac-only files should work now, along with a few other adjustments.
The next step in this project will be to port the source of the Eraser version 1.1.0 to the Mac.
Sharky Extreme's First
Glimpse at Halo is a hands-off look at Bungie's upcoming action title, along with some
video capture screenshots.
GASource
has posted an interview with Paul Whipp, producer on Virgin Interactive's Evolva.
The game is being developed by UK based Computer Artworks, and is an oddball
3D shooter of sorts, with a plot that centers around the after effects of the
Human Genome Project's completion.
Quirky though it may be, they've posted some new screenshots so you can see
what we have to look forward to (hey, at least it's not a resonance cascade,
right?).
The Ministry of Development
(clever name, guys) has posted an interview with Gearbox software's Landon Montgomery,
talking about their upcoming Half-Life add-on pack Opposing Force. OpFor, you
may recall, is the official add-on pack that puts you back in the Black Mesa
facility, only this time as a soldier.
There's a new Spec Ops II screenshot on
Before It's Done showing off a soldier from Zombie's upcoming sequel to their game of
realistic tactical combat.
Soldier-of-Fortune.com has been updated
with a few questions gleaned from the SoF forums and corresponding answers supplied by
Raven's Rick Johnson and Keith Fuller in an attempt to satisfy some common sources of
curiosity about their upcoming Quake II-engine game.
John Carmack Talks Q3A Dreamcast on
SegaNet has some excerpts from a recent Gamer's Republic interview with John Carmack
where the id programmer discusses the Sega Dreamcast. Thanks Matthew Rorie. Among other
things, the Q&A discusses the odd history of plans for a Q3A port for the Dreamcast,
which is not on the boards, in spite of Carmack's enthusiasm:
So then more months pass and then they're all hot again to get Q3A as a modem
pack-in on the DC, which I would love to do. A console game with a fixed function network
interface moving Q3A with really good modem level networking and everything would be
great. You'd get better performance modem-wise on the DC, mainly because you wouldn't have
a bunch of other operating systems fighting for space and interfering with the network
capabilities of the system. I still think it's a good idea, and they basically had a deal
on the table which we were ready to sign and they mysteriously pulled out at the last
minute, perhaps because they lost a quarter of a billion dollars last quarter and they
just didn't have any money. I don't really know.
ActionXtreme.com's
Harvey Smith Interview talks turkey with the man from ION Storm more commonly known as
Witchboy about his work on ION's upcoming Unreal-engine role-playing game, Deus Ex. The
interview is a nice in-depth conversation, refreshingly presented in a single sitting.
The
Adrenaline Vault's Thief 2 Developer Interview is up talking about Thief 2: The Metal
Age, the upcoming sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, talking with one-time AVault Editor-in-Chief
Emil Pagliarulo now that he's crossed to the developer's side of the fence.
Saw on VE that GamesMania's
Quick Q&A With Matt Candler talks with the former Associate Producer of Mechwarrior
Mercenaries, who is currently manager for many different Activision games, including Dark
Reign II and Vampire: The Masquerade, though the Q&A mainly discusses
Battlezone II, the upcoming action.RTS sequel.
UGN3D interviews Raven's Brian Pelletier about their upcoming Star Trek Voyager
game. Also, Raven's Jeremy Statz updated his
.plan talking about progress on the curved surfaces in Star Trek Voyager (which uses
that oh-so-curvy Quake III engine):
Work continues on Voyager... we're trying to see how far we can push the curves
at this point, and it's resulting in some really unique architecture. The fact that
they're scalable is a nice bonus for these levels, too.
Now that SoF has deathmatch going, I'll have to actually finish those levels I started.
heh
You have become better at Updating! (23)
SystemLogic's Age Of
Empires 2 Screenshots show off the sequel to MS' RTS. Also, Act One - No. 125 - Large
is the new Diablo II screenshot of the week, regular as clockwork. Also, word is Blizzard
has released the official
gameplay AVI of the Barbarian in action (direct link -- about 25 MB).
The 4th Dimension Interactive page
has version 1.1i of the Crush Depth mod for Quake II, putting you behind the scope of your
own submarine. If you are installing the update over a previous version of C.D., you
should delete the old files first.
Datumplane::Starsiege's one-on-one
Starsiege ladder is underway looking for the top gun in Dynamix' giant robot game (I
thought this was a one-on-one TRIBES ladder at first, which got me to scratching my head
in puzzlement).
The Gameart competitions winners have been
posted. Congrats to winner Rowan "Sumaleth"Crawford. also, this week's Blue's News
game knowledge quiz is up and running, so fire up that brain and head on over.
A couple of glitches to keep tabs on this morning: The index1.html that carries the headlines
seems to have been nuked recently, probably in aftermath of the full drive incident, so if
you are a headline user, you should be back in business now... sorry about that (thanks
ImageOmega for the heads-up). Also, the BlueTracker is still messed up, it seems to be
detecting updates, but the tracker is perpetually one update behind. I may need a bigger
monkey wrench.
Link of the Day: Japan in
lather over human washing machine reports CNN Thanks devilbunny.
Image of the Day: Jack-
by dhabih eng. Not really gaming-related, but damn cool.
eBay Sale of the Day: Young Man's
Virginity, minimum bid is $10,000,000 (I'm assuming he'll pay you in
installments--wait--you mean he thinks he's collecting the 10 mil??). Thanks file_id.diz.
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