Archived News:
Sharp-eyed Chris over at VE spotted
that the 3dfx Interactive Voodoo3 2000-3000 Windows 9x Retail Drivers
page has an updated set of drivers for Voodoo3 2000 & 3000 accelerators
marked version 1.02.13. This is, in fact a new archive, in spite of the July 22
date, as the drivers released on that date were marked version 1.02.11 ( story).
Chris says they're not new drivers but a new combination of previously available
display drivers and OpenGL drivers.
Next-Generation
Online has posted a new preview of Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred,
Blood of the Damned, complete with ten new screenshots from the title. The preview
is a hands on one, and it's quite glowing - they praise the game as being the
best adventure game since Grim Fandango.
Xtreme Design has
posted two tutorials for editing using Kingpin: one on using the editor, since
setting it up can be intimidating for the first-time user, and one on basic
lighting techniques.
It looks like AVault has gone ahead and released Digitalo
Studios' Virtual
Reality Notre Dame demo today instead of its intended date of tomorrow ( story).
You can download the demo from AVault's
mirror now, and look for it to appear on the official site soon.
TacticalPlanet has posted a short
interview with Sierra's Rod Fung about SWAT 3 - Close Quarters Battle, Sierra's
upcoming game of tactical police operations. Among other things, the Q&A
catches up on the progress on multiplayer play, asks about the demo, and learns
that the sliding feet animation seen in a gameplay movie is a problem that's
been fixed in more recent builds of the game.
NVIDIA Introduces Industry's First GPU at Intel Developers Forum
is a Business Wire story outlining the schedule for the conference tomorrow at
the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) in Palm Springs where it looks like they will
be making their announcement they say will cause "the world will
change" ( story).
Thanks Redwood. Here's what they've
revealed so far: Integrating key features with the world's most powerful
PC graphics rendering engine, this new GPU will deliver more complex, lifelike
images, enhanced artificial intelligence and increased physics than ever before
possible on a PC. As part of this event, NVIDIA will also announce a series of
partners and OEMs who plan to support this new, highly-anticipated product with
their own individual product offerings.
Turns out the reason the download link on the Virtual Reality Notre Dame Cathedral Project
mentioned earlier ( story) isn't happening is that it seems the intended release date is tomorrow, as the link actually says
"demo to be available on aug 31." Apparently the currently-broken demo link has been placed their in advance to avoid that mad
rush of last minute HTMLing upon tomorrow's release. Sorry for any confusion we
caused. Thanks Flood.
The Adrenaline Vault News
has posted a story that sums up some recent rumor-mongering on the subject of a
possible sequel to Wolfenstein 3D to be done by a licensee outside of id
Software.
Thanks Frans. The article
mentions attempts to follow-up with the two other companies most commonly
associated with the rumor, Raven and Xatrix, reporting that Raven's Brian Raffel
out-and-out denied Raven's involvement in the project, while requests for
comment to Xatrix went unanswered. Incidentally, this is the exact same pair of
responses we received from each of those companies when we contacted them about
these rumors ourselves. The AVault did dig up some thing tangible on this, a
quote from id CEO Todd Hollenshead that mentions that id has been putting out
feelers for such a project: "I find the prospect exciting and have
been attempting to put the elements in place. If and when this becomes a
reality, we will have an announcement."
Word on the Insomniax TRIBES Mod page
is that a new version 0.9 of InsomniaX TRIBES is now available. InsomniaX adds
countless changes to TRIBES gameplay, that change the nature of gameplay significantly
(the fill list of features is on the page). The new release is updated through
the latest releases, so that TRIBES 1.7 or later is required for an InsomniaX
server, and other new features include "re-deployable" deployables,
Vengeance Missile System Pre-Sets, Station Ejection, and more. There is also now
an Insomniax TRIBES Mod Message Board
for discussion of the project.
ZDNN Analysis IE5 flaw makes PCs vulnerable
describes an ActiveX exploit (ActiveXploit?) called a "treacherous design
flaw in Internet Explorer 5.0 -- is perhaps the most serious ever. It allows
anyone with a Web page to take over your computer system via a few simple lines
of text within the HTML code that comprises the page. If you so much as visit
the page, your system may be subject to the exploit." There is word there
on how to plug the potential holes until a better fix is available. Sorry on the
lateness in posting news of this potentially dangerous exploit, this was posted
a few days ago, and I meant to post this when I saw mention of it the other day
on Sharky Extreme, and obviously
failed to do so. Sorry about that. Thanks Paul Baucom for the reminder.
Greg Stelmack's
worklog on the Rogue Spear page has been updated with the Rogue Spear core
engineer's rundown on the weapons and armament in the upcoming sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
Thanks again Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
The lowdown discusses weapons from the 9mm Beretta to the SPAS-12 auto-shotgun,
and ammo choices ranging from the hit man's favorite, Jacketed Hollow Point
ammo, to private Gomer Pyle's loadout of choice, the 7.65mm Full... Metal...
Jacket....
The demo for the Virtual Reality Notre
Dame Cathedral Project, has been released. This odd, but very cool project,
is an accurate representation of the Notre Dame Cathedral rendered entirely
using the Unreal engine - and yes, it's multiplayer. Here's a features list
for those of you not familiar with the project, which does not require
Unreal:
- Explore the cathedral in full detail, for as long as you like.
- Take photo-snapshots of anything inside the cathedral and save them.
- Take a guided tour by a genuine virtual friar tour guide.
- Learn about the history and heritage of Notre-Dame de Paris.
- Engage in interesting conversations with real historians and architects.
- Chat with other visitors, make new friends.
I can't seem to get the download link to work on my end, but it might
be my problem or a temporary glitch.
This update to the Mortyr Site follows up on the report from earlier about
the state of this back-to-the-future World War II first-person shooter ( story).
Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Here's the update, which talks of the game being available in Poland, talk
of pirated versions, and, like the other update, talks of finding an
International publisher, albeit with a bit less certainty than the earlier
report. There's also word that a second demo is indeed available for magazine
CDs: August 30, 1999
A last! Today, which is August 30, 1999, we started selling Mortyr in Poland.
We are talking with abroad companies about selling Mortyr in the West, and it
seems that possibly soon Mortyr will hit the world's shelves.
Soon more detailed, official informations.
In the meanwhile I'd like to inform that in spite of the great subtitles on our
Eastern brothers' versions claiming that their Mortyr, although unauthorised, is
"full", "final", "complete" - this is not true.
The old code, unoptimised levels, logical errors - playing that is a mess. I
know what I'm talking about, for I collect pirated versions of the game, I've
been taking big part with.
Next news: Mortyr Cover Demo is ready. Like the full, released version, it has
all the bugs of Internet Demo fixed (thanks to all the folks who wrote us
e-mails. You helped us a lot!). There are three levels in the demo - each of
them is compiled of several ingame levels, with different textures, lights,
weather and enemies. This gives you some cool stuff to play, while not
duplicating the game.
If you are interested in including our demo on you magazine's CD, please contact
us at mortyr@mirage.com.pl.
There are some new levels in Mortyr itself, so the screens,
section has been enriched.
3DFiles Tirtanium page
has a new version of the Tirtanium OpenGL/Direct3D benchmark that one suspects got
its name because the author forgot to use his spell checker on his first press
release.
Epic's Brandon "Greenmarine" Reinhart updated his
.plan with a question for all those Linux gurus out there, as well as the
current status on the Linux Unreal port (and even a goofy link in the spirit
of my
own from this morning). Here's the scoop on the Linux port: Question
for Linux Gurus out there:
If I create a new joinable thread (pthread_create) off of my main process, should
the results show up in ps as two entries or three? I'm only creating one additional
thread to handle sound mixing, but I'm seeing three "UnrealTournament"
entries in the process list. Its weirding me out. I'm pretty damn sure I'm only
creating one process, so I wanted to make sure the ps results were correct.
(I would have expected two entries.) Chalk this one up to my newbiedom in the
Linux world.
Anyway, the Linux port is doing very well. Sound code is done except for interpolating
panning (right now panning is absolute and therefore very abrupt if the player
is spinning quickly) and a crash that I'm having a hell of a time tracking down.
I just need to take a step back and dive back in with a fresh perspective.
Looks like you've still got time to send in your maps and skins for possible
inclusion in the upcoming Starsiege: TRIBES Extreme. The following was just
posted to TRIBESPlayers:
We've been getting more and more maps and skins in the last few days.
The deadline will be pushed back so that those just now finishing up can take
the extra time to polish everything. The amount that we have coming in right
now really shows that many are taking every bit of time to make their entries
the best they can be. I wouldn't want to lose any or have someone slight their
work because of some stupid date... So the Open call Date will be extended to
Sept 17th!
If you're interested in entering, swing by the
contest page for full details.
PlanetDaikatana's ports page
has posted an in-game movie showing off the Nintendo 64 port of the still in
development Quake II-engine game Daikatana, as well as some screenshots.
NVIDIA has updated their site with the
following text: "In 18 hours, the world will change..." Take this
as you will. Presumably it's the NV10 announcement The Register claimed would
be coming tomorrow ( story),
but hey...you never know. They could have nuclear capabilities. Remember to stockpile lots of canned food just in case.
Mortyr.net has posted seven new screenshots
from the soon-to-be-released second Mortyr demo (said to be coming soon to a
magazine CD near you). They've also gotten a tip (from an unnamed source) that
Mortyr does indeed have an American publisher (who will be announced soon) and
it should be on store shelves in about a month (thanks Frans).
GASource
has posted a handful of new screenshots from Russian developer New Media Generation's
Hired Team, showing off their proprietary Shine 3D engine. In addition, they've
also posted a
trailer that shows off the engine's features.
HumanHead has released details about the game's plot and central character
Ragnar, as laid out in this
press release. Screenshots are available on HumanHead's site if you're curious as to what the game actually looks like. Here's
an excerpt with some background info on Ragnar: Players take on the role
of Ragnar, a young Viking warrior on the brink of a sacred ritual into manhood.
With his physical prowess, intelligence and cunning skills, Ragnar shows great
promise at becoming a prominent warrior. He desires to prove his worth to his
village and take his rightful place beside his father, a great elder warrior
who trained Ragnar in the way of war and to respect the power of the Aesir,
the gods of Norse legend. Ragnar is a follower of Odin, the father of Asgard
(the Viking heaven) and Thor, the god of thunder.
Ragnar strives to use his warrior skills to protect his village, and champion
all that is right and just. Just before the ceremony begins, Ragnar and his
village learn that another Viking group, the Dark Vikings, led by the brutal
chief Conrack are pillaging and plundering their way through the lands, destroying
all creatures in their path. Hoping to prove his skills and powers, Ragnar follows
his father and other village warriors to defeat the enemy. However, as they
sail off to fight their enemies, a raging storm breaks onto the scene, causing
swelling waves and gushing winds. The ship is suddenly sucked into a whirlpool
and into the Norse underworld.
GASource has
posted an interview with Scott McCabe, a 3D Realms alumnus who's currently working
at Alternate State Entertainment on Second Genesis, a new role playing game
that's powered by the LithTech 1.5 engine.
Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford updated his
.plan with word that they're looking to hire a level designer intern to
help finish up their official Half-Life mission pack Opposing Force. Here's
an excerpt from the large update: We're looking for someone to hammer
at the game during our completion phase to help make sure Half-Life: Opposing
Force is the best it can be. This is a little more than a testing position because
development tools will be used, but less than a developer position because very
little new, creative work will be possible at this stage. This could turn into
a full time developer position at Gearbox, depending on the successful applicant.
Learn what's involved in shipping a top title from the inside as you work with
our experienced staff of level designers to fine tune Half-Life: Opposing Force.
This is a unique opportunity to get involved in the game making process on one
of the most anticipated titles of the year - even if you have little or no experience
Here's an interesting tidbit for you on this slow morning that I found over at Comics
2 Film about a movie based on Acclaim's comic/game character Shadowman:
Takoma's next big project is Shadowman based on the Acclaim Comics character.
Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube (The Players Club, Anaconda) is set to start in
the title role and co-produce as well. Michael Henry Brown (Dead Presidents)
and Paul Aaron (In Too Deep) have developed as script which is close to the
most recent incarnation of the character but is different from any of the comic
versions. The movie is now set to go into pre-production this October or November,
with filming set for January 2000.
Legend's Scott Dalton updated his
.plan the other day with a new image from the Wheel of Time editor, which
he released after seeing a really old one in CNet's preview from last week (thanks
devilbunny). The shot is definitely big, but impressive (and hey...he's got
great taste in web sites, don't you think?).
The DoomBot Homepage has a new
version 3.0 of the DoomBot, a CTF playing AI deathmatch opponent (and teammate) for Doom.
The new release offers a new node system, and teamplay with three deathmatch
modes: deathmatch 1,2 and 3. Thanks Bot Epidemic.
3DsoundSurge's
Slave Zero Interview takes their usual sound approach to a conversation,
asking questions of W. Scott Snyder, Sound Designer for Accolade about his work
on Accolade's giant robot game, Slave Zero.
Thresh's FiringSquad's
Savage2000 (GX4) Preview offers more about S3's newly announced Savage2000,
passing along word that they've got a comparison up "to the Voodoo 3, TNT2,
and Bitboy's Glaze3D," though they do not provide any
head-to-head benchmarks of the Savage2000 press release versus the Glaze3D press
release.
Jago's Map Portfolio has posted
a tutorial for creating curved surfaces using UnrealED (thanks Billy
by way of Rust). It should, of course,
be pointed out that they aren't curved surfaces in the same way that Quake 3
does them, but rather a clever manipulation of architecture. Still, it's pretty
cool stuff.
BXBoards has interviewed
David Cook, lead programmer on the WickedGL driver team at Metabyte. The interview
focuses on the drivers, which have been known to improve performance in high
resolutions on Voodoo 2 cards in Quake 3.
GASource
has posted two new screenshots from Take Two Interactive's third person action
title Codename: Eagle, showing off the newly redesigned interface.
I tell ya, some mornings are so slow that even crickets
aren't enough. So, in the interest of pleasing our readers (and well, since
I have nothing remotely interesting to say at the moment), I've decided to devote
this edition of "Fruit of the loon" exclusively to the link(s) of
the day. Because of this special edition, I've chosen five sites which truly
prove that people have way too much time on their hands. Choose from one of
the following options, but be warned...these are pretty scary:
Link of the Day (a): SimShatner:
The William Shatner Acting Simulator. Because it's just too funny.
Link of the Day (b): Stare
Down Sally. Because it's just plain weird.
Link of the Day (c): Duct
Tape on the Web. Because from time to time I think my hobbies are
silly.
Link of the Day (d): Just Toast.
Oh my.
Link of the Day (e): The
North Carolina Poop Counter. Because it's just plain sick.
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