Archived News:
Following up on his earlier post ( story) John Carmack made a
second post to the thread on Slashdot regarding the future of graphics hardware.
This post is much more centered on id's next round of technology, and he confirms
that a GeForce 3 will run their new DOOM with all features on at around 30 FPS.
Here's his post: Obviously, any game done with the new Doom engine is
going to run slower than a game done with Q3 technology. You can make some of
it back up by going to the simpler lighting model and running at a lower resolution,
but you just won't be able to hit 60+ fps on a GF2. The low end of our supported
platforms will be a GF1 / 64 bit GF2Go / Radeon, and it is expected to chug
a bit there, even with everything cut down.
There are several more Q3 engine games in the works that will continue to run
great on existing systems, and Doom is still a long ways off in any case, so
there will be a lot more upgrades and new systems. We are aiming to have a GF3
run Doom with all features enabled at 30 fps. We expect the high end cards at
the time of release to run it at 60+ fps with improved quality. This is an intentionally
lower average FPS for the hardware cross section than we targeted for Q3, but
still higher than we targeted Q2 and earlier games (before hardware acceleration
was prevalent).
In the GLQuake days, light maps were considered an extravagance ("Render
the entire screen TWICE? Are you MAD?"), and some unfortunate hardware
companies just thought increased performance meant higher resolutions and more
triangles instead of more complex pixel operations. Five passes sounds like
a lot right now, but it will be just as quaint as dual texturing in the near
future. I am quite looking forward to 100+ operations per interaction in future
work.
Gas Powered Games has released a new movie of Dungeon Siege, available for download from FilePlanet (registration required). The movie comes as a 7.0 MB download in Windows Media Player format and offers a bit over a minute of in-game footage from their upcoming 3D role-playing game.
Saying that their early build is, "as polished, solid, sleek, and smooth
as a majority of finals we get around here," PC.IGN has posted a
preview of Freedom Force. As the previous sentence would imply, it's a hands-on
preview, and is quite enthusiastic, featuring the author's impressions and four
new screenshots.
While the game was originally to be published by Gathering of Developers but silently dropped from their release schedule early this year, Ubi Soft now announces that it will publish Shadowbane, the fantasy massively multiplayer role-playing game being created at Wolfpack Studios. The game is now scheduled for a release in "the first half of 2002," and "Ubi Soft’s online division will handle all back-end support for the game including network and server infrastructure, billing, customer service and in-game support." Thanks Gamedata for the tip.
There is a hands-on preview of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor on GameBanshee, looking ahead to the isometric RPG nearing completion at Stormfront Studios. The article is based on a recent press build and contains their impressions of the gameplay along with more than 15 new screenshots.
As promised ( story), id Software's Robert Duffy updated his .plan to announce the release of the Quake III Arena and Team Arena game source code for mod authors. The file can be downloaded from their ftp server (2.23 MB) and here is a local copy with mirrors. Here is what he had to say:
The 1.29h source is up on our ftp under quake3\source\. I don't anticipate many if any changes
before the 1.30 final.
As promised, the official Medal of Honor: Allied Assault site now offers the third of four gameplay movies for download, featuring more action from the WWII first-person shooter in development at 2015. This clip continues where the last week's movie ended with another two minutes of footage from the Omaha Beach assault level in QuickTime format.
A new preview
of Dark Age of Camelot is up at GameSpot this evening, looking at this massively
multiplayer title that's currently undergoing beta testing. The preview is brief,
but it contains information about the game's third (and final) realm that was
recently made available for beta testers, along with some general gameplay details
and new screenshots.
id Software guru John Carmack made a
post to Slashdot.org as part of a
thread about ATI and NVIDIA's upcoming battle for the next generation of graphics
hardware. As is to be expected, his post is somewhat technical, but it does
have some good points about the two company's plans and how id's DOOM engine
will perform on them (although it really is to early to tell). Here's his post: The
standard lighting model in DOOM, with all features enabled, but no custom shaders,
takes five passes on a GF1/2 or Radeon, either two or three passes on a GF3,
and should be possible in a clear + single pass on ATI's new part. It is still
unclear how the total performance picture will look.
Lots of pixels are still rendered with no textures at all (stencil shadows),
or only a single texture (blended effects), so the pass advantage will only
show up on some subset of all the drawing. If ATI doesn't do as good of a job
with the memory interface, or doesn't get the clock rate up as high as NVidia,
they will still lose.
The pixel operations are a step more flexible than Nvidia's current options,
but it is still clearly not where things are going to be going soon in terms
of generality. Developers are just going to need to sweat out the diversity
or go for a least common denominator for the next couple years. I fully expect
the next generation engine after the current DOOM engine will be targeted at
the properly general purpose graphics processors that I have been pushing towards
over the last several years. Hardware vendors are sort of reticent to give up
being able to "out feature" the opposition, but the arguments for
the final flexibility steps are too strong to ignore.
Following on part one ( story), the second Jumpgate Q&A is now online at Massive Multiplayer.org, this time grilling senior art director Peter Grundy about NetDevil's massively multiplayer space sim (thanks A Talent For War). Peter talks about this inspirations for the art and design of the game, the different looks of each race, the process of creating 3D models, and a few other topics.
id Software's Eric Webb made a
second update to his .plan today with the results of the Quake III Arena
test he performed earlier ( story). Here's the scoop: Wow!
We got some really positive feedback. Most of those that emailed me sent along
clear, concise, and to the point bug reports. MANY THANKS!
Based on your feedback, we feel that a large part of this problem was/is related
to people running several different versions of Q3. We had some internal problems
with the master and authentication servers during the weekend and the first
part of this week that could have been causing some problems as well. These
are now resolved.
If you are one of those that is still having problems, be aware that we're still
looking into it. VERY little changed in the net code from version 1.29f to 1.29h,
so we're pretty confident this should be resolved for you guys.
There's one last thing that I'm curious about. Can those of you that are not
upgrading to the beta (waiting for the FULL release) try connecting to a server
that you POSITIVELY KNOW is running the same version as you and let me know
the results?
Sierra Studios sends word that sign-ups for the Empire Earth beta test have now opened, allowing you to participate in testing this millennia-spanning 3D RTS that is nearing completion at Stainless Steel Studios. You can register online until August 13 and, if accepted into the "select group of beta testers," will have to download the 450 MB beta version, but another way to enter the beta testing program is to pre-order the game at several participating retail stores which will stock the beta version from September 1, and "thousands of gamers" will be able to join this way.
Activision has announced
that they have acquired the rights to produce games based on the upcoming Steven
Spielberg film Minority Report. Activision has acquired the rights through an
agreement with Fox Interactive and DreamWorks Pictures (not Interactive, which
was acquired by Electronic Arts), and although no specifics are named in
the press release, they do say that they plan on making games for PC, Playstation
2, GameCube, Xbox and GameBoy Advance. Minority Report is a sci-fi film staring
Tom Cruise which is based on the Philip K. Dick story of the same name, and will
be released in 2002.
Eurogamer has a preview
of Etherlords online today, looking at this upcoming role-playing strategy
game from Nival Interactive. The preview is hands-on and contains their impressions
of the game along with four new screenshots.
There's an Dark Age of Camelot interview on The Dr. Twister Network, talking to Internet relations manager Sanya Thomas about the medieval MMORPG being beta tested at Mythic Entertainment (thanks RPG Vault). Sanya discusses the game's AI and questing system, cheat prevention, PvP and trade skills, as well as getting a job in the games industry, and more.
The official Day of Defeat site offers a new beta version 1.3B of this WWII team-based multiplayer mod for Half-Life (thanks Stomped). You can get either an upgrade from v1.3 at 4.64 MB or the full install at 98.9 MB from a variety of mirrors, and this release includes map updates, new and updated sounds, new explosion sprites, fixes for several cheats, and other changes.
HomeLAN Fed has conducted a
Q&A with Sergey Zabaryansky, the lead designer on Codename: Outbreak
at GSC Game World. Codename: Outbreak is the game formerly known as Venom, and
Sergey talks about the reaction to the Venom demo, what will separate Codename:
Outbreak from the other first person titles being released this year and more.
id Software's Eric Webb updated
his .plan this morning with a request for people to help them resolve the
problems with Quake III Arena that have been attributed by some to faulty routers
( story), although he doesn't believe that's the cause of the
problem. Here are the details on how you can help: Ok, Several of you
have been on the message boards and writing into bugs@idsoftware.com
about router issues that you have been having. It is possible that these aren't
router issues at all. The three different versions of Quake III that have been
released in the last week can have problems connecting into each other. We need
a controlled testing environment so here's what we'd like you to try.......
Make sure that you have the absolute latest version of the point release (version
1.29h BETA). When in doubt.....run "Check For Quake III Arena Updates"
from your Quake III directory. I am going to set up a server here at id that
will be running that same latest version.
The IP address is 192.246.40.160
If you could hop into this server and help test we would greatly appreciate
it. If you can get in, then all of this confusion will clear up as more people
update to the current release. If you have any further questions about router
related issues, or if the above does not work for you, please email me at eric@idsoftware.com
and include "Quake III Router" in the subject.
RPG Dot has posted the
full intro movie from Gorasul, the upcoming isometric RPG from German developers
Silverstyle. The movie is available for download as a 16 MB AVI file and offers some two and a half minutes of cinematic footage.
id Software's Robert Duffy briefly updated his .plan with the status of the Quake III Arena game source, as well as the upcoming version 1.30 patch. Here is what he has to say:
I am going to get the latest source up for mod teams later today ( it might be late tonight ) but it
should appear soon. There should be minimal changes if at all before this turns into a non-beta 1.30.
The Operation Flashpoint Network
has word of the release of the first official Operation Flashpoint patch. They
have a link up to the version 1.10 patch on
FilePlanet as well as a couple of mirrors, and a list of what's new and
changed can be found in the read
me, and The Avon Lady's Operation Flashpoint FAQ
has likewise been updated with news of the update.
George Broussard is up on the soapbox on Soapbox.net
participating in a quick Q&A on the latest developments at 3D Realms. Topics
include when to expect a Max Payne Demo ("In about 2 weeks"), the
status of Duke Nukem Forever ("DNF is as much vaporware as people claimed
Max Payne was"), and Prey ("We stopped work on Prey a couple of years
ago"). Thanks Stalker for the tip.
The World War II Online
website has a new development update on the latest changes and fixes in the
works for the game, including a new user-interface, progress towards running a
single world server, and continued testing on version 121. A subsequent update
adds word that they've discovered a problem with the Service Pack 2 update to
Internet Explorer 5.5, which is the same as difficulties folks have had with the
IE Beta 6, saying: "We have identified the problem as Microsoft's change in
support for Netscape plugins which is (utilized) by our PlayGATE application
that launches WWII Online. Until we have fix in place which addresses this
change in support for Netscape plugins by Microsoft, we are discouraging our
players from upgrading."
The latest update to the Anarchy Online
website has word on a change in the concealment skill after the latest
server patch, reveals plans for a "new and improved account interface"
that will offer real-time information. The other topic at hand is that a couple
of patches were applied over the weekend to re-apply fixes to problems that had
previously been fixed by prior patches, but were re-broken by subsequent
patches. Word is they "know that it should not be happening in the first
place and are taking steps to prevent it from happening again."
A story titled Max Payne Coming To The Silver Screen
on GameSpot UK shows the value of following the old RTFM edict, as
they pulled the following tidbit from the Max Payne documentation: "Don't
worry, you'll be seeing more of Max in the future. Dimension Films and Collision
Entertainment are teaming up to make a feature film based on Max Payne - and
further adventures of this character are already in the works."
GameSpot UK's Command & Conquer Yuri's Revenge
preview is based on some hands-on time during a recent foray to Las Vegas,
where they tore themselves away from the gaming tables long enough to check out
the upcoming Red Alert 2 expansion. The impressions are of multiplayer play
based on participating in eight-player games on a multiplayer map called
Dinosaur Zoo, and they offer a couple of brief impressions of gameplay, as well
as reflections on efforts to make skirmish games last the proper length of time.
Commandos 2 complete
on GameSpot carries the report out of GameSpot Spain
that the PC version of Commandos 2: Men of Courage, the upcoming sequel to the
game of squad-based World War combat, is complete, and is still on track for a
September release. An additional note in the report is that lead designer
Gonzalo Suárez says that "that once the Sony PlayStation 2 and Sega
Dreamcast versions of the game are complete, he will leave Pyro Studios along
with 13 members of the Commandos 2 team to begin work on a new project."
Also, a
press release on the TalonSoft website announces that Divided Ground: Middle
East Conflict 1948-1973 began shipping to US retailers yesterday, this turn-based
strategy game will allow players to relive the historical battles of The Six Day
War, The Independence War, The War of the Waters and The Yom Kippur War.
Finally, the Shrapnel Games website
has news that Remote Assault, their 3D real-time wargame, began shipping
yesterday, and all backorders are expected to ship by the end of business today.
A thread called Awaiting
Challenge... on the Quake3World.com Forums, and another called Id...routers not working with Q3...Help
Us, which are carried over to this
thread on the DSL Reports Forum report on problems more than a few folks are
suddenly having playing Quake III Arena through their home routers. No plausible
theories on a cause have yet been presented, nor are any possible work-arounds.
ProMode.Org has the release of a new
version 99v of the Challenge Pro Mode Arena modification for Quake III Arena.
The new version tweaks LG knockback and lateral self-knockback, said to enable
"a more QDQ-ish style of rocket-running." Also included are "a
bunch of other fixes and tweaks."
Hot on the heels of the debut public release ( story), the Team Aerial Combat
website has a new version 0.42 of the TAC 2 modification for TRIBES 2
(thanks TribalWar.Com). The new release
is a server-only patch intended to address bugs, and word on the page is that
the update will "fix up 95% of the problems that have been reported."
The ELSA CPL European Championships
are set to kick off on Friday, and now the
seeding list has been posted. Also, the CPL Europe Berlin
page is already online, for the next planned event, scheduled for the end of
this month.
Official Tribes 2 Central Download Site
now offers the TRIBES 2 manual in .pdf format. The file is about a 7.5 MB
download.
There's a
Q&A with Myscha the sled dog on Lobbygods where he briefly discusses
some "do's and don'ts" of level design. Also, there's a Hands-On RED Preview on Volition Watch with an account of checking out the Red Faction level editor at Volition's offices, along with a report on the visit itself, and more FuzzyCam shots.
- As is their way, MAF-Soft Update Patches
has a version of the Quake III Arena 1.29h patch that will only work on
version 1.29g, as opposed to the "real" patch which can update any
prior version (there are other interim patches there, as well). The result
is a 712 KB patch, instead of a 26 MB one. Use of this these patches is at
your own risk...
- The Licensing Revolution, Part 1
on CG Online says "Bridge Commander leads the charge as sci-fi
juggernauts aim for a gaming renaissance," saying "Few things in
the gaming world can evoke as much excitement as the prospect of a game
based on a popular license," though disappointment is a word that can
often be used in place of excitement in that statement...
- Mimesis Online Developer Diary, Part 7
on RPG Vault offers thoughts from the team at work on this upcoming RPG
as they get set to begin beta testing...
Today is the 20th anniversary of the launch of MTV. I was not there at that
point, but was hired on a couple of months later to bother people with telephone
surveys about their favorite videos (what, and leave show business?). They are
throwing a huge party tonight to celebrate, but my invitation seems to have been
lost in the mail. That's okay, as you can imagine, working for them from 1981 to
1989, I got to attend enough of the kind of parties that inspire legends that
trying to relive that era would no-doubt be a let-down (besides the fact that
doing that sort of thing at my advanced age would probably kill me).
Link of the Day: Randomly
Generated Heart-to-Ass Lyric. Thanks .f00Dave.
Story of the Day: Video-Game Character Wondering Why Heartless God Always Chooses 'Continue'
(Onion). Thanks Jack Angert and EvilToast.
Wild Science: Supercomputer May Unlock Secrets of Universe
(Reuters). Thanks Troy Fisher. Duh... 42!
Follow-up: Explosive end to shark 'attraction'
(BBC). The aftermath of a recent story of the day. Thanks RVF400RR.
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