Archived News:
Datumplane::Starsiege has posted an email reply
from Dynamix' Tim Gift saying he's "sure" they would do a TRIBES2 Linux Client,.
Here's the encouraging news for Linux fans:
I'm not totally suprised that there are that many players interested in a linux
client, there has always been interest here in doing one :) Given the response though, I'm
sure we will do the port as soon as we get the chance.
Raven's Mike Gummelt updated his .plan with a bunch of stuff about what he's doing as far as
programming for Raven's upcoming Star Trek Game talking about some of the Raven created
stuff he's psyched about, as well as the improvements in the most recent builds of the
Quake III engine they've received from id Software..
The Burpfish Network sends word they've
posted another new screenshot from ION's upcoming Anachronox, on top of the bunch posted
earlier ( story).
Power Gamerz interviewz
Christian "Disruptor" Antkow talking to the id Software level designer
about Quake III Arena, gaming in general, and other assorted topics.
You guessed it, more screenshots, Unrealism has
posted five new screenshots of their own from Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament in a group
that seems to place emphasis on special effects.
And continuing the shot binge, Act Two - No. 77 - Large
is the new Diablo II screenshot of the week showing off the "Eye of Zeus."
Satan's Shogo Validation Page has posted
a new anti-cheat measure for Internet Shogo: Mobile Armor Division games that requires
both client and server to run a validate.rez file. Saw that on PlanetShogo.
This ASUS FTP directory has
new final version 2.08 drivers for their TNTX line: V3800 Display Driver for
Win9x (direct link) and V3800 Display Driver for
WinNT (direct link), as well as a new version 3.4 ASUS Live for V3800
(direct link) and version 2.02 of their V3800 Tweak Utility
(direct link) which you use to "Change Max. level of Engine Clock from 160MHz to
190MHz for Ultra Card"). More on what's new is on this index file. Thanks BetaNews.
There's a Tomb Raider 3 Patch on 3DFiles
to enable AMD 3DNow! support in Eidos' Tomb Raider III.
3D Realms' Joe Siegler updated his
.plan with word that they've released an MP3 file over on the
3D Realms page from the "Music to Score By" CD that's coming out
soon, which features a number of bands doing Duke Nukem-related music. The released
track is Megadeth's cover of the Duke Nukem theme song. Along similar lines,
Volition has posted the first of their weekly MP3 files over on Freespace2.com,
showing off the soundtrack to their space shooter.
Dynamix' Mitch Shaw has updated his
.plan with word that he's created a new mission type for Starsiege: TRIBES
that's currently in QA, and will be released soon. It's a large update, but
here's an excerpt that gives the general rules of the mod: Basic concept:
you "freeze" instead of dying. When your health hits zero (or basically
close enough to not matter), you get knocked into observer mode around your
(still standing) body. Frozen players have a blue armor skin and are stuck in
the "using PDA" pose. You randomly throw all the ammo you're carrying
and lose your pack when you get frozen. You remain frozen until one of two
things happen: your entire team gets frozen (bad) or one of your teammates hits
the enemy's switch (good).
If a whole team is frozen, they respawn and the other
team gets one point. If a teammate hits the switch, everyone on that team gets
unfrozen and the player who touched the switch gets 1 point for everyone who
was frozen. You get full ammo for every weapon you're holding when you get unfrozen,
and also receive a repair kit. You will take damage for leaving the mission
area, just like in Deathmatch. All the missions I've converted for Freeze play
were originally CTF maps, and the switches are exactly where the flags used
to be (exception: Desert of Frost, the new version of Desert of Death, has the
switches inside the pyramids but not inside the holes
in the floor.)
Is it just me, or is today "let's release some screenshots day" or
something? Go fig. Anyway, Anchronox.com
has posted seven new screenshots from Tom Hall's (who as everyone knows is like
a total chess god) Anachronox. Thanks to ION's
Daily Informant for the tipoff.
GameFan has
posted two new screenshots from Unreal Tournament, one of which shows off the
"Insta-Gib Mutator" one of the really funky new weapons, and the other
features the redesigned Flak Cannon.
Interplay sent along these
six new screenshots from their 3D RPG Invictus. The game is played from
an isometric perspective, and utilizes an engine that mixes voxels and polygons.
Interesting stuff, so check
it out.
German site MagixX ("ist entertainment
pur und taeglich frisch!") has posted what are to the best of my knowledge,
the first screenshots from Warhammer 40,000, the upcoming FPS game that runs
off the Mortyr 2 engine. If you want to read the accompanying text on the site,
try squishing a Babel Fish in your
ear (although the text on the images page is in fact in English).
- GameSpot
UK has posted some new screenshots from Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear (thanks
Billy).
- A handful of new shots from BattleCruiser 3020 AD have been posted at the
official site.
- VoodooExtreme has posted four new shots
from Nocturne.
Aftershock Productions has
posted version 9A of Classic CTF the first beta release of their Capture the Flag mod for
Half-Life, based as you would imagine, on Zoid's classic Threewave CTF for Quake. This
initial version is described as stable "with the exception of Roger Wilco
support," which hasn't been properly tested.
QuakeStarter's Official HomePage has a new
version 0.72b of this front-end for Quake, Quake II, and Q3Test. The new release adds a
password field to the deathmatch options; adds the gametype options for Q3Test; adds a
server MOTD option; improves Quake II Gladiator bot support; and fixes bugs in the SOCKS
options, dedicated server options, and MaxFPS option.
PC Gamer Online previews Tachyon: The
Fringe, an upcoming Space Simulation from NovaLogic they say is due sometime this
Fall. The piece offers screenshots, as well as some quotes from an interview with Mike
Maza, the producer of Tachyon.
The Adrenaline
Vault News has a post up with more info bout Irrational Games' upcoming (as in this
Thursday) RPG, System Shock 2. The post describes the "OSA" character, a
"secret ops military-based character focuses on infiltration, espionage and
intelligence."
NVIDIA and SGI Set Direction of
Strategic Alliance is a Business Wire report with more details about how the
SGI/NVIDIA strategic alliance will impact the manufacture of new graphics technology at
both companies. Here's an excerpt:
As a major initiative to bring a dramatic price/performance discontinuity to the
visualization market and accelerate product time-to-market, SGI will incorporate NVIDIA's
graphics technology into new desktop graphics systems. As part of the initiative, SGI will
transfer a world-class team of 3D graphics engineers to NVIDIA to work on its next
generation technology.
Speaking of SGI, SGI cutting up
to 1,500 jobs in reorganization is a CNET News.com
report of some job cuts there.
TRIBES Lead Designer Scott Youngblood updated his .plan with the news that he is departing
Dynamix for Electronic Arts. Here's the skinny:
This friday (the 13th) will be my last day as an employee of Dynamix. It
has been a GREAT 9 years here in Eugene and I will always look back on these years fondly.
The decision to leave was very difficult for me to make but I have an
opportunity in the bay area that I cannot pass up. I will be joining Electronic Arts
in their Online Games division as a lead designer on an upcoming multiplayer title.
Tribes 2 is progressing very nicely and it with great sadness that I will not be
able to help finish it. I still plan on being an active member in the Tribes
community (playing for Western Alliance)... see you online.
Scott
p.s. You CAN buy Mirror Pond Pale Ale in the bay area... woo woo!
CornBoy! is good people, in the caffeine-swilling Blue's News tradition, and we wish
him all the best.
Inside Mac Games Chat is planning
a live online chat session with Bungie's Brent Pease to talk about progress on Bungie's
upcoming third-person fighting game, Oni. The session is tomorrow night (August 11) at
10:00 PM Eastern (7:00 Pacific). To join the chat, all you need is to visit the page using a a Java-capable
browser. Also, a reminder that on tomorrow's eve of the release of System Shock 2, the
first-person RPG sequel, Irrational Games' Ken Levine, project leader on the game, is
hosting a live chat at 9:00 PM EDT on the IRC server polaris.starchat.net in #system`shock`2.
PlanetQuake
has posted an interview with Activision's John Tam that was conducted at last
weekend's massive QuakeCon event, talking about Raven's Soldier of Fortune.
Another one of those Kingpin beta patches (version 1.17c) has been released and is available
for download at the Kingpin beta
site (thanks Da' NoMaD). Here's a list of changes in this version:
- Improved new file transfer system (isn't hampered by lag, and pretty much
maxes out the given connection speed)
- Fixed "Illegible Server Message" after failing a download
- Fixed deposits field
The official Outcast site has
been updated, and now features new screenshots, MPEGs with goofy "out takes" from the game, and behind the scenes footage (thanks GASource).
sCary's Shugashack has posted
an interview with Diehard-r3v, the winner of last weekend's big ol' QuakeCon
Tournament, and who is being called by some the best one on one Q3 player around.
The Shugashack's QuakeCon 99 Picture Page
is up with some reminiscences from the event, and over 70 photos Huntsman took along the
way, all with captions.
Looks like the CPL is targeting New York City as the site for their next event, the Ground ZERO Website is up with a
cinematic teaser courtesy of Flash that promises more details "coming soon."
Fortunately, if you're burning with curiosity, I have a few details that aren't on the
website right now: The event will run from Thursday, September 9-Sunday, September 12,
1999, and here's a description from Angel at the CPL: "The four-day event will host
the finals for the Quake 2 Female Frag Fest, an official CPL Quake 3 tournament, a massive
LAN, exhibition booths for hardware and software companies, workshops and more."
defraGGed's Q3Test1 Overview
is a printable map of Q3Test1 offering a key to show the way to weapons, ammo, and armor.
One of the last, but assuredly not among the least of the reviews we've posted for the
Athlon along with some other reviews this AM:
Avault's Guide to Hidden & Dangerous
Exposed and Disarmed is up, offering what they say is the most comprehensive strategy
guide you'll ever find for Hidden & Dangerous, the "squad-based arcade-like
action title" from Illusion Softworks. They describe it as one of their most
ambitious undertakings ever, and the lengthy guide offers a Walkthru, reference sections
such as The SAS, The German Guard, and The Weapons of War, and
assorted other guides, like their Sniping
tutorial.
Saw on Voodoo Extreme that Gone Gold has word of the release of a 55 MB playable
demo of Abomination,
described as a "team based Strategic and Tactical Combat game."
On the heels of yesterday's release, comes a new version 1048.2 of the Q3Tweak Q3Test tweaking/optimization
utility. Thanks Jason Winter-Roach. The new release fixes a bug that sneaked past
pre-release testing, and takes the opportunity to add Savage4 support.
True old school gamer Avatar has posted his own write-up of John Carmack's talk
at QuakeCon, or as he put it, his "rehash of the things [he] can remember Carmack
talking about at his Qcon speech, with a little added interpretation on [Avatar's]
part." This write up also includes a couple of photos, and a summary of the Q&A
session.
John Carmack at QuakeCon on
3D Action Planet, is a write up about the talk the id lead programmer gave at
QuakeCon, written by Fargo and crt, and illustrated with photos. Here's the description:
Cool Things Carmack Talked About:
- What's under Quake 3's hood
- How it's different from Quake or Quake II
- The current state of 3D technology
- The future of 3D technology
- The Doom movie
- How broadband will affect action gaming
- 100+ player games
- The Sega Dreamcast and net games
Next-Generation Online's
Exclusive Halo Interview is a short Q&A based on a "marathon interview
session with with Nathan Bitner, Producer of Halo" (Marathon, get it?). Also, Next-Generation Online's
Halo Preview is another look ahead at Bungie's upcoming third-person multiplayer
action/strategy title, again, based on Bungie's recent tour to show off the game to some
online publications.
Version 0.23b of q3dmstats, the first
public release of this freeware Q3Test log parser, is now available. This program is
described as "pretty crude right now," but it has been released to get feedback
on its future direction. The page offers some sample output of what the program
does.
Drakan.Net has posted a pair of new forums, Drakan-
Troubleshooting and Drakan-
Clans, both fairly self-explanatory, if a trifle early, for this third-person action
title that's gold, but not yet in stores.
Ritual's Robert Atkins updated his .plan with more on Ritual's attempts to hire
a 2D artist to work on Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2, though the Adrian Carmack part may be a
tall order (Adrian, no relation to John, is one of id's co-owners, and 2D artist supreme).
Here's word on their job hunt, and related art test (unfortunately electronic, not
on a matchbook):
Heavy Metal 2d job update: We are currently *still* looking for a 2d artist the
likes of the pixel-master Adrian Carmack. =)
There have been a great number of talented artists who have sent art in response to the
first time that we posted this position. For the most part, we have been very impressed
with their work and have even done a bit of interviewing, but the one thing missing in
most portfolios is a health set of high quality game tiles and skins.
This is nothing new; game companies have this problem every time they try to find someone
to create tiles and skins.
In the past, the way we have handled this problem is by giving certain interested
candidates an "art-test." No reason to freak out, it's super simple! We give you
example tiles to look at for quality. Then your objective is to create your own tile set
to submit for review.
To be perfectly honest, I really never look forward to go through this process. However,
looking back, I should have prepared the "art-test" the first time I announced
the job opening. Every 2d artist ever hired at Ritual has completed the
"art-test" before we even looked at any of his or her other art.
If you have never created game tiles, this is the perfect exercise to see if you got what
it takes. Plus for those artist that are just coming out of school or those trying to make
a career changes, 'with no real tileskin experience', this the type of specific
"game" art samples that companies like Ritual are looking for. So, even if you
don't get hired at Ritual, after completing the test, you now have a great new portfolio
sample to submit the next time you apply at your favorite game company.
Go here http://www.ritual.com/files/arttest.zip
and download the zipped file, unzip it, read the doc and check out the art samples. Next,
get to creating a sample tile set that even mom would be proud of, then send it to roba@ritual.com.
After you take a look at the files and doc, and still have questions just mail. I get back
to you ASAP.
- Relic News' HomeWorld Contest
offers the chance to win either a copy of HW or one of two concept sketches, each item
having been autographed by the development team at Relic.
- There's a new Vortex of Sound contest
giving away "an Aureal Vortex2 SuperQuad Digital PCI sound card for the best 3D audio
on the PC, dual 3dfx Voodoo2 SLI accelerators for heart-thumping pixel-pumping graphics,
and plenty of Aureal goodies!"
Settling back into the groove here in the Blue tower... loonyboi got home safely today and
should be poking his beak into things tomorrow, after some well-deserved rest. A little of
the old pop culture yesterday, Christopher J. Meyer sends along a reply quote:
"I ain't through with you by a damn sight - I'm gonna get medieval on yo' ass."
Link(s) of the Day: The
Gimp's Box, Nocturnus'
Pulp Fiction Page, and the The
Ultimate Pulp Fiction Page in honor of today's pop culture game.
More Athlon, half of it also dealing with the big I:
GameSpot's Third Person
Shooters Enter the Second Age is a CGW look at "the next generation of action
games, including Oni, Giants, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, and more."
Halo In Motion
is a GameSpot sneak peek at Bungie's upcoming Halo.
This is another preview based on a visit from Bungie that we missed posting while at
QuakeCon. Here's a quote about cutscenes, or lack thereof:
But Halo isn't about cutscenes. It almost mocks the concept by doing everything
in real time - by making every area you're playing in look and feel just like a
cutscene.
Looks like sCary got the go-ahead to spill the beans on The Shugashack about something I
was told might be happening: The post talks of id's Graeme Devine mentioning the possibility
of the release of some way of viewing the demos recorded at this weekend's QuakeCon,
either as a new Q3Test, or something else. Word is nothings for sure, but sCary's post
calls it a "good possibility."
Taking
root in Dallas on the Houston Chronicle says "A gathering of geeks from a handful
of companies in North Texas is developing a host of blockbuster games in an atmosphere of
healthy competition and with a sense of communal pride." Thanks Billy for the reminder that we never posted this
(even though Dwight from the Chronicle gave us the URL at QuakeCon - d'oh!
The Battlezone 2 Center has conducted a
brief Q&A with Matt Candler of Activision talking about the plans for a real
multiplayer demo for Pandemic's upcoming Battlezone 2, talking about a September target
for the release, discussing the size of the download as well.
Dynamix Programmer Nels
Bruckner updated his .plan with word that TRIBES 1.8 finally accomplishes what TRIBES
1.6 originally set out to do, as well as giving word on some new game types:
Wow... it looks like we finally got it right with 1.8! Third time's a charm, eh?
:) Seriously, it looks like 1.8 is (finally) what we were shooting for with 1.6, plus a
few small bug fixes. As usual, it is highly recommended that server ops get the new
version.
Later this week we will be releasing a couple new game types for Tribes. Both these game
types were developed by Dynamix employees, on "spare time". They are the popular
"Hunter" by Tinman and "Rabbit" by Eric Lanz. There may also be a
third type, but it isn't quite done and we may hold it for later (it's a game called
"Freeze" that Mitch Shaw has been working on). The reaction around the office to
these new game types has been really fantastic (I've never heard as much loud cursing as
when the Tribes team plays Hunter). I think they will be very popular with the Tribes
community at large.
GamePen previews Revenant
trying to gauge this upcoming action/RPG's potential as a worthy successor to Diablo.
BZ2.COM has just posted word on a playable demo of
Battlezone 2 that's now available as part of the 3DGameGauge
suite that turns out to be an older compatability test of the game. This isn't exactly
approved of by Pandemic Studios, though they aren't going to the extent of trying squash
distribution. They would like to stress the age of the material, however, and stress that
this test is not really a good indicator of the game. Here's the post from Pandemic,
courtesy of BZ2.COM:
"The material that is being circulated was an old compatibility demo which
was released to selected sources several months ago. It was never publicly released. You
are certainly welcome to take screenshots and distribute them if you want to, but please
bear in mind that the graphics and technology seen in the demo are old and do not
represent the current state of the game. (For instance, the pre-alpha framerates are far
from optimized, and many graphical elements have been changed, altered, and updated. Many
people don't realize that code governing performance isn't implemented until much later in
the game development cycle.) While we won't try to prevent you from posting the demo on
your site, we would rather that you didn't because it is old material. If you choose to
put it up, please make it known that the material is months old.
A new version 1048 of the Q3Tweak Q3Test
tweaking utility is out, adding a benchmark option, and fixing a few bugs. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
Hercules Computer
Technology Dynamite TNT Drivers page has Windows 95/98 Drivers and Utilities, Version
1.71.10208 that offer release 2.08 of the Windows 95/98 software for the Dynamite TNT,
TNT2, and TNT2/Ultra. Thanks XP-FroDaddy.
Halflife HQ sends along news they got from Jenni
at Valve on the status of the Half-Life patch that was expected yesterday, saying it was
delayed, and is now expected "midweek."
Dynamix' Dave Moore sent along an email to add some info and corrections about the
Starsiege TRIBES tweaks posted in the story that follows. Here's the scoop:
Just wanted to drop a note about the news items re: TRIBES OpenGL tweaks. Some
of these are out of date since PC Gamer's articles are written (I believe) several months
before actual publication, and this article seemed to be based on a version of TRIBES that
included only beta OpenGL support (1.3 or 1.4). I thought I'd correct a few items that
have been changed in later patches, and add some info on what some of the other flags do.
$OpenGL::Enabled and $OpenGL::overrideLights: Both of these are obsolete flags now, OpenGL
is always enabled in the latest patches, and dynamic lights are always enabled. There is
no longer any need to create a special autoexec.cs.
$pref::OpenGL::NoAddFade == false: This flag should always be false unless you are
attempting to run TRIBES in OpenGL mode on a RIVA 128. This prevents the additive effects
like the plasma bolt from fading slowly out, as the RIVA 128 lacks the [SRC_ALPHA,
GL_ONE], blending function. Because of some limitations in the TRIBES 3Space engine (and
time constraints), we were unable to modify this to work with existing blending modes on
the RIVA 128. (i.e., [GL_ONE, GL_ONE], with a constant color GL_MODULATE texture
environment.)
$pref::OpenGL::NoPackedTextures == false: You should let the Options::Video setup for your
card set this for you. (It probably will anyway...) This value should only be false on
nVidia architecture cards. The packed format we choose is optimized for the RIVA
128/TNT/TNT2, and is not necessarily well supported on other cards. 3Dfx cards have
trouble with this packed format evidently (the format takes a non-optimal path through
their drivers).
$pref::waitForVSync: This flag has no effect on OpenGL, it exists only for Glide. We have
no control over whether a SwapBuffers() waits for VSync or not in OpenGL, this is driver
dependant. (You might check the advanced properties tab for your video card in the Windows
Display Settings, this option is sometimes hiding in there...)
$pref::mipcap = 13: This has no effect on OpenGL in the latest patches, only on Glide. 9
is the last meaningful value for textures that shipped with TRIBES. Since we constrained
ourselves to 256x256 textures for Glide support, textures can have at most 9 miplevels.
This option is very useful for increasing Glide performance on 4/2/2 Voodoo2 and Voodoo1
cards though.
Overall, the tweaks from PC Gamer are quite good, and still relevant in the latest
patches. OpenGL power-user types will find that the most effective speed modifications are
in the pref::interiorLightUpdateMS and pref::dynamicLightDistance variables. (Particularly
if dynLightDist is set to 0, and intLightUpdateMS is set to something ridiculous like
10000000.) $pref::OpenGL::Use32BitTex can give a rendering quality improvement on cards
that support 32 bit rendering, though as noted in the PC Gamer article, this won't really
help if your card is set to 16 bit mode.
...dave
Some assorted things of interest to Starsiege TRIBES fans, most of which I noticed on Datumplane::Starsiege:
"...You will then need to browse to your tribes\config folder and create a
file called autoexec.cs (if it doesn't already exist). Then open it up and enter these two
lines into it:
$OpenGL::Enabled=true;
&OpenGL::OverrideLights=true;
Also, within the console.cs file, the following lines should have these values:
$pref::OpenGL::AlwaysRGBA="False";
$pref::OpenGL::NoAddFade="False";
$pref::OpenGL::NoMipmapping="False";
$pref::OpenGL::NoPAckedTextures="False";
$pref::OpenGL::NoPalettedTextures="False";
$pref::OpenGL::Use32BitTex="True"; (only works if your desktop is in 32 bit
color mode)
Save the file and then start Tribes. Go to the options/display menu, and select OpenGL as
your full screen renderer...
Now for the general tweaks... within your config.cs file, the following lines should be
changed to read as follows:
$pref::interiorLightUpdateMS="20"; (smoothes things out...)
$pref::waitForVSync="False"; (if you have problems with flickering or atrifacts,
set this to True)
$pref::TerrainVisibleDistance="10000"; (increases visual range in sniper-mode)
(PSS Note: May be considered cheating)
$pref::mipcap="13"; (13 for TNT, lower for other cards - default is 9)
$pref::dynamicLightDistance="300"; (changes the length of the dynamic
lighting)"
Depending on your card, your mileage may vary with these tweaks. Be sure to install the
latest patch for TRIBES before making these changes."
Here's a Rogue Spear Weapons
chart showing "what's hot and what's not," as RainbowSix.Net (where I saw this) describes it, as
far as FirePower in Red Storm Entertainment's new Tom Clancy game.
Missed this one while we were gone: CNET Gamecenter's sneak peek at Halo
Saw on Adrenaline
Vault News that Irrational Games' Ken Levine, project leader on System Shock 2,
the first-person RPG sequel, is hosting a live chat this Wednesday, Aug. 11 at 9:00 PM EDT
on the IRC server polaris.starchat.net in "the game’s official chat room."
This chat comes on the eve of the game's release, as it's been announced the game will
first be in stores Aug. 12. Word is: "Other developers are expected to attend as well
to discuss the features and gameplay and answer questions from fans."
Damage Gaming has posted a
teaser for a Q3Test movie Trintin Films is working up called Quad God. This not a hacked
demo that's illegal under the Q3Test EULA, but rather a movie in a streaming Windows Media Player format, which I'm told is okay with id Software to distribute.
There are three
exclusive Gothic Screenshots on GA-Source showing off some action in the dungeons ( "Bring
out the gimp!") of Gothic, an upcoming action/RPG from Piranha-Bytes.
Just for the record, I would like to formally announce that Blue's News fully supports the AMD Athlon as well, and you can freely use one to browse this site, should you be lucky
enough to have one. Where was I? Oh yes, some slightly more significant announcements on that same subject:
Still more on the new AMD Athlon Processor. If
there's a shortage of systems to start, it may be a result of all the review units out
there:
3DsoundSurge's
Outcast interview talks with Infrogames' Gil Damoiseau (sound engine development),
Franck Sauer (sound design), and Lennie Moore (music composition), about the sound and
music in Outcast, the third-person action title currently available in Europe, with a US
release expected sometime soon.
GA-Source
talks to Dave Taylor on Red Hat's IPO asking a few economically-worded questions of
ddt, formerly of id Software and Crack dot Com, noted as a Linux supporter long before he recently joined Linus Torvolds' TransMeta.
Power Gamerz interviewz Ryan
"Ridah" Feltrin talking with the Xatrix programmer talking a bit about
Kingpin, technology, and game design.
Freespace2.org has posted a quick
interview with Jasen Whiteside, lead artist on FreeSpace2 concerning headway being
made in fixing the feature that allows players to join a game already in progress.
Kokak's Doom Page has a new version 0.9 of
DoomGL, a Win32 OpenGL port of the publicly available source code from id's classic
shooter Doom. Thanks Billy "Imp" Wilson.
A couple of bots plucked from the AI loving pages of the Bot Epidemic: The Gladiator Bot page has a new version 0.96
of the Gladiator Quake II bot for Linux. The release includes the source code, if you want
to try to add the Gladiator to another mod. Also, in anticipation of the reportedly
imminent new version of Half-Life, TheFatal has released The Jumbot, a bot for
Half-Life (thanks Bot Epidemic). The problem,
according to the page, is that you probably will not be able to get it to work, and it definitely will not work exactly as it should, until the new Half-Life patch comes out (which was originally
expected "hopefully" yesterday ( story), so it may be out soon). Apparently it can possibly
be made to work now though, so if you're feeling adventurous, you may want to take a shot. Either way, the mod apparently doesn't
work at all under Windows NT.
The Kingpin Beta Testing page has a new
version 1.17 Kingpin beta. Thanks Gangsta Billy at Voodoo
Extreme. Here's the deal on the latest update to Ridah's ongoing beta patch to Xatrix'
life o' crime game:
+ Invisible player models for unknown female skins
+ Chasecam observer mode
+ New "Push Download" tech for faster file transfers
+ Make download system backwards compatible with old servers AND old clients
+ Server's send "deposited" to GameSpy via "deaths" field
+ Disable CD check when enabling CD music in options
The World of Drakan, a
German Drakan site, has a new piece of music from Surreal Software's upcoming Drakan:
Order of the Flame, expected in stores August 20 ( story). The music runs 3 minutes 43 seconds, and is in MP3 format.
If I don't keep up, I'll fall behind:
Drakan.Net has posted the seventh and final
screenshot in their series showing off the seven dragons featured in Surreal's just-gold
game, Drakan: Order of the Flame. The final shot is of the big-guy, Arokh, and as a bonus,
the other six dragons are included for company.
AnandTech's QuakeCon
'99 article is up, giving a look at the hardware used at the event, as well as the event itself, through the eyes of the crack AnandTech staff. The piece includes photos (including one of me, but not in the cowboy hat), and the brief analyses of the hardware
includes discussion of the Athlon systems used (where we learn they were non-production motherboards), the ATI Rage Fury Pro, the G3s used in the press tourney (as well as an
iBook on display), and the simply marvelous switched network supplied by Lucent and
Lynksys that resulted in <10 ms pings across a network of hundreds of machines, and
supported something like 112 players in a single Q3Test map.
There are four Soldier of Fortune
screenshots on 3D-Unlimited showing off action from Raven's upcoming shooter of
mercenary action.
PlanetQuake
interviews Jake Simpson talking to the Raven programmer alternatively known as
"the Gent" (or "the Gumby," if you saw him at the rodeo at QuakeCon).
The Q&A discusses progress on Raven's upcoming Quake III-engine game base on Star Trek
Voyager. They have also posted a write-up of the
Jake's Workshop, also talking about Voyager.
This week's 10 Questions With SamHell
interviews Cliff Bleszinski talking with the Epic designer about Unreal Tournament,
level design, and of course, the infamous Cat-scan site.
Version 2.01 of the Direct3D Quake
Viewer is now available. This is an updated release of that program that was
originally released on the Microsoft DirectX site a while back. Here's a bit on what this
program does: "This demo program allows viewing of Quake levels. It requires a
Direct3D compatible 3D card. This program was originally written in 1997 to utilize
DirectX 5. This latest version (v2.0) has many enhancements, although it has been
superceded by the Quake2 version (not yet released), which has been rewritten from
scratch."
The embargo on Athlon (K7) reviews has ended, so you can expect to see a bunch of those
over the next couple of days:
The ClanBase 1on1 League is
launching a new international Half-Life 1on1 duel league, to go along with their Quake II,
Q3Test, Half-Life, and TFC leagues.
FPS3D.com's 3DCool.Com giveaway is a
contest offering 11 different cooling products as prizes.
- Gamecenter's
Online Gaming Services round-up offers comparisons between GameStorm, Heat.net, Kali, Mplayer.com,
MSN Gaming
Zone, TEN,
and WON.
- As the name suggests, Configs By Request
offers custom Half-Life config authoring...
- The Game Name Builder
Official Homepage has a new version 1.11 of this program that can make fun names for a
bunch of games, including the latest version of Q3Test...
- The Unreal Map Depot is now open for
business, a repository of levels designed for Epic's Unreal...
- Speaking of Epic, Tales From The Hellmouth is a
new site by Epic's Cliff Bleszinski
"dedicated to exposing and sharing stories of peer and administrator abuse in the
public school system." The about this
site page describes the purpose for this, which is "in the hope that something
will be done. If this website makes one tortured kid feel better, or makes one
administrator or parent intervene in abuse, then it has served its purpose." Thanks
Mongoose...
I'm back from the event actually known as QuakeCon, and quite the event it was. I was
blown away by the level of organization throughout, id Software (Anna Kang, in
particular), the sponsors, and the crack staff of QuakeCon volunteers (who are some of the
nicest, hardest working folks you'll meet--no matter how big these events get, they still
have the feel of pure "community" to me) did an unbelievable job of organizing
the event, and keeping things rolling oh-so-smoothly. I had a great time throughout, as
did everyone I spoke to. The Press Tourney was fun: as loony reported I lost my match
(actually in the second round, I had a resounding first round victory when my opponent
failed to show) 9-8 to ZyFly, so at least I didn't embarrass myself. I saved that for when
I wore one of the cowboy hats that ATI gave out at the rodeo for the evening--there are a lot
of folks who decided they needed a picture of that -- I'm sure the blackmail threats are
on the way.
Another site has posted another attempt at hit-mongering with a "favorite news
site poll" -- again, no links to it here, just my snide remark to try and encourage
others to avoid these in the future.
Link of the Day: CNN
- Man's attempt to get Pepsi jet fizzles. Where's the justice? Thanks devilbunny.
Image of the Day: Nothing
Covers Texas Like Blue, another actual billboard from QuakeCon. Thanks crash, who is,
as always, the man (after he managed to round up some Bawls, I should just make Gamecenter the link of the day to pay him back ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif) ).
|
Twitter 
