Archived News:
id's lead programmer John Carmack updated his .plan with his experiences while playing Quake III Arena on a 28.8 modem, resulting in finding "a case of the stuck-at-awaiting-gamestate problem" that should now be fixed. There is a series of tips for modem players to help them still find a good game, and the long update concludes with a pair of new options that he implemented to allow server operators to determine the kind of players that can connect to their games:
I just implemented "sv_minPing" / "sv_maxPing" options so servers can restrict
themselves to only low ping or high ping players. This is done based on the
ping of the challenge response packet, rather than any in-game pings. There
are a few issues with that -- a LPB may occasionally get into a HPB server
if they happen to get a network hiccup at just the right time, and the number
used as a gate will be closer to the number shown in the server list, rather
than the number seen in gameplay. I would reccomend "sv_minPing 200" as a
reasonable breakpoint.
SOF Center
interviews Jake Simpson talking with the boisterous programmer from Raven
Software about his work, which currently consists of work on Capture the Flag
gameplay on Soldier of Fortune, Raven's imminent Quake II-engine shooter.
On the heels of the screenshots they posted earlier, A Talent For War
has posted a new playable demo from Starshatter, an upcoming space action game.
The demo consists of four levels, including a training cruise, and is a modest
6.7 MB download.
Speaking of space sims, there are five
new exclusive Starlancer Screenshots on the StarLancer Vault showing off
some of the intergalactic action from Digital Anvil's upcoming space
shoot-em-up.
There's a Thief II The Metal Age
demo on 3DFiles.Com thanks to Gone Gold.
The demo is described as version alpha 1.01, which is described like this:
"It works great, movement is a bit hairy though." The demo of this
skulky first-person action sequel is a whopping 136 MB.
The Cinematix website has a new version
1.11e patch for Revenant. Thanks The Oxygen Tank.
Word is the patch fixes many issues with multiplayer and address performance
problems some have reported. A full list of bug fixes and what else the patch
does is posted here.
id Software's Paul Jaquays updated
his .plan with word that the Quake III Arena Shader Manual is available for
download, documenting one of the less understood aspects of making models
for Quake III Arena. Here's the scoop: The Quake III Arena Shader Manual
is available for download.
Yes, Q3A map and model makers, here's the Christmas present that Santa's elves
hadn't quite finished yet. It's in the format of an MS word document and has
some graphics nested in it, so it's a little large.
ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake3/tools/Q3Ashader_manual.doc
Kenneth and I are playing around with making a simple html version of it, but
that may be a little while yet.
id Software's official Quake III Arena
FAQ is online, offering everything from system requirements to
troubleshooting tips for Q3A, including the oft-requested answer to the question
of how to get the wheel doohickey working right.
BetaBites has posted a
preview of X: Beyond the Frontier, a game that's been available overseas
for some time now, but is just coming to the US next month. The preview features
eight new screenshots from this space sim/strategy game.
Q-Workshop 3 has posted nine new tutorials
on Quake III Arena level design, ranging from making your first room with Q3Radiant
to working with teleporters, mirrors, and even making rain effects.
Voodoo Extreme has posted a
Q&A with Rick Overman, Dynamix' senior programmer on Starsiege: TRIBES
II, which Rick says is still on schedule for release in the Spring of 2000.
Version 1.1 of MKLog,
a log analysis program for Quake III Arena has been released, and is available
for download on its
official site. The program parses the log files generated by either a single
player or multiplayer game, and outputs them into a detailed HTML file with
player, weapons, and other stats.
DiabloII.net has posted an
extensive preview of Blizzard's Diablo II, based on a three day hands-on
playtest of the game. The giant preview covers virtually every aspect of the
game, and features a boatload of new screenshots as well.
Red Orb has posted a FAQ page for their 3D action adventure Prince of Persia 3D. There are hints and tips to each of the levels in the game, and, as any FAQ becomes, answers to some general questions as well (though not all related to the game).
Epic's Cliff Bleszinski updated
his .plan with a description of some suggested settings as guidelines if you
are running an Unreal Tournament competition: If you're running a UT
competition I'd strongly suggest using these settings:
Official Epic Games Tourney Settings
One on One
----------
Weapons Stay- OFF
Game Speed- DEFAULT
NO TRANSLOCATOR
NO BOTS (duh)
Game Setting- HARDCORE
Mutators- NO REDEEMER, NO POWERUPS
Frag Limit- 20
Time Limit- 10
Suggested 1 on 1 Maps (my personal opinion)
-------------------------------------------
Liandri
Codex
Grinder
Turbine
Malevolence (to be released in upcoming free Bonus Pack)
Oh, and if you haven't downloaded the free CTF maps that Digital Extremes
created then you're seriously missing out.
www.digitalextremes.com
These are 2 top notch maps created by 2 of UT's best level designers and they're
above and beyond commercial quality.
A new version 0.99 beta 6 of the Assault
mod is now available, offering an update to this Quake II modification that
fixes the "Linux __bzero bug," adds a new chasecam feature, a size-optimized
HUD, and more. Assault is a team CTF mod where all items, power-ups,
weapons, ammo, health, and techs are removed to emphasize skill and teamwork. To
compensate for the lack of health and ammo, players regenerate ammo, armor and
health. There are plans for a Quake III Arena version of the mod.
Borderfield Software has
the release of version 0.6 of Q3A Total Control, their front-end for Quake III
Arena. New to this release is an entirely redesigned interface and a new remote
server administrator.
Also on the front-end front, Shooterzone,
the German gaming site, has a new version 0.4.2 beta of the Shooterzone
Gamestarter front-end for Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, and Sin. The new
release completes the program's support for Q3A, and also fixes some bugs and
offers newly-optimized code.
The routing glitch that's slowing access to the site for some is not 100%
cleared up, though I find the problem a lot better this morning, at least from
my end. Thanks to all who wrote in with the heads-up that the Chinese hackers
story posted for a while yesterday turned out to be old. Wow, I think watching
the Sopranos re-runs this week are more fun than the original go-through(s), even
though this is the third time I've seen a few of the episodes (I didn't like the
Meadow college tour episode repeated last night nearly as much the first time
around). I'll stop raving now, but damn is this great stuff.
Link of the Day: Dylan's NY 17 Exit Signs.
To confirm your worst fears about the web. Thanks Diehard.
Story of the Day: Linux community scores coup in Hotmail outage,
a confirmation from MS that a Linux programmer saved the Hotmail network over
the holidays by paying a $35 domain registration fee. Thanks Jacek Fedoryński.
Bonus Story: Games levy to fund adult learning
(BBC News) reports on a UK politician's proposal that "there should be a
levy of up to 50p on computer games to fund a big expansion of adult
learning." Thanks pRy.
Image of the Day: gXp
(German site) has a screenshot up showing off a smiley on a flak shell in UT,
apparently a long-rumored Easter egg.
|
Twitter 
![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif){kind=small}
...