News Archive: December 1999
[1:01 CET by chiller - Post a Comment]
John Carmack made another update to his .plan. This time a bit shorter. There is no need for me to write alot of bs here so I'll just qoute it: Several people have mentioned an existing anti-cheat QW proxy that
should also be applicable to modified versions:
http://www.students.tut.fi/~zibbo/qizmo/ [0:49 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
I'm not sure how many of you Cosmo3D'ers out there that still plays good ol' Half-Life anymore (except me, that is ;), with UT and Q3 firmly placed in any avid gamesplayer's home. (Please, post a comment if you do, though :))
However, the Half-Life online community is still a strong one, and the mods keep growing, both in numbers and quality.
Counter-Strike is a very popular one, something that is proven by the fact that an early build of the latest version, Beta 5, actually has been leaked, and treated as warez around the net.
However, the time has come, for an official release tonight the Linux Server port was first, and the Windows client has now also been released. For those of you that plays Half-Life online, I recommend this mod strongly, so, go here for a list of mirrors.
The windows version can be downloaded either as a full download (weighing in at 31 mbs), or a smaller update from the previous version, beta 4 (which is 12 mbs). You can also download the linux server from the same page. [0:26 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
Gosh, like I wasn't tired when I wrote that last post, but this was kinda important... I'm just gonna quote what I read at VE. Oh, and it says "today" - I guess that's for our American readers. Cause I ain't seeing much of a day over here, that's for sure... (better go to bed now before I make a fool of myself - people may think that I'm drunk). Just in case you missed this sucker, Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart, Programming whiz over at Epic Games, has made a .plan update saying that the Unreal Tournament Open Source stuff will be out later today. Here's the word from Brandon:
Open source stuff will be out today. I didn't get a chance to release it yesterday because I never made it into the office. Had to wait until 6 for the movers to arrive with my furniture (they didn't call and say when they were arriving) and then they closed down the office building to work on a power main or something. [0:09 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
According to loonyboi over at PlanetSmurf, BZ2, the first person strategy/action title from Pandemic Studios and Activision, is now avaiable in stores across the star-sprangled country... So just head over the pond, fellow (European) gamers... ,) [22:45 CET by chiller - Post a Comment]
The guys over at Avault got their hands on a movie show off some sweet watering effects in GT's upcomming game "KA-52 Team Alligator", the effects are made with "Bump Mapping". Download now! [11:13 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Well, I'm leaving the house for some relaxing days on the good ole' Norwegian mountains - and I'll be back on Sunday night.
So, I'm going to use this probably last possibility to wish the readers a HAPPY NEW MILLENIUM! Hope that all of your compus will survive y2k =)
Then, there will be a little news lack, but we have some other dudes in the crew ready for serving you some news, and NoName should have a new feature up on New Year's Eve too! See ya all soon; happy new millenium! [11:09 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Was sufin' around at 3D Spotlight when I spotted that Asus has released a new set of drivers, as well as BIOS updates for the V6600 and V6800 graphics cards. Here's the plug: 66-362.exe
V6600/V6800 Series driver for Windows 95/98 (v3.62) 12/29/99.
66sg204r.exe
V6600 BIOS Flash program (v2.10.02.04 for SGRAM) 12/29/99.
For SGRAM chipset recovering from SDRAM version. Does not support SDRAM chipsets.
66sg204.exe
V6600 BIOS Flash program (v2.10.02.04 for SGRAM) 12/29/99.
66sd104.exe
V6600 BIOS Flash program (v2.10.01.04 for SDRAM) 12/29/99. [11:06 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
John Carmack updated to his .plan last night, a pretty big update BTW. Looks like Carmack has been dossing around with Quake III Arena on a 28.8 modem (wheee), and fixed some problems with the code, so everything should be slightly smoother now (dammit! after release every time =)
Here's a little snippet from the update, which you can read entirey at Webdog: I have been playing a lot of Q3 on a 28.8 modem for the last several days.
I finally found a case of the stuck-at-awaiting-gamestate problem that turned out to be a continuous case of a fragment of the gamestate getting dropped. I have changed the net code to space out the sending of the
Note that there have been a few different things that result in stuckat gamestate or stuck at snapshot problems. We have fixed a few of them, but there may well still be other things that we haven't found yet.
You can still have a fun game on a 28.8 modem. It is a significant disadvantage, no question about it, but you can still have a good game if you play smart. If there is someone that knows what they are doing on a server with a ping in the low 100s, there won't usually be much you can do, but a skilled modem player can still beat up on unskilled T1 players...
Make sure your modem rate is set correctly. If you have it set too high, large amounts of data can get buffered up and you can wind up with multiple seconds of screwed up delays.
Only play on servers with good pings. My connection gives me a couple dozen servers with mid 200 pings. 56k modems often see servers with sub 200 pings. If you ignore the ping and just look for your favorite map, you will probably have a crappy game. Seen on PlanetSmurf. [1:34 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
PC Sports Daily has posted their review of EA Sports' "soccer-sucker", FIFA 2000 (thanks Adam). The review concludes with a whooping 4.5 out of 5 possible, so if you are interested in Ronaldo & co, you might gie this a try. [1:30 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
3DFiles has posted an alpha 1.01 massive 136MB demo of Thief II: The Metal Age. If you're not seriously high on bandwidth, you might hold off this one for a couple of days - for a bit fater Access =) [1:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A Talent For War has posted a new playable demo of Starshatter, a light sub-7 meg file. Here's the scoop on WTF this game is: STARSHATTER is a new space combat simulation game that is currently in the middle stages of development. The game offers a new type of combat experience in an original science fiction universe. Unlike most other games, which limit the player to flying fighters and other small craft, STARSHATTER gives you the opportunity to directly command a wide variety of ships, from agile atmospheric and space-based fighters to giant battleships and fleet carriers. STARSHATTER aims to simulate the complete space combat experience -- from planet surface to interstellar space -- with several dynamic campaigns set in a persistent simulated universe. [1:25 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Cinematix just posted an updated version 1.11e patch for Revenant.
The patch, that also is mirrored at Avault, has a lot of new stuff to come up with, so if you own this game - you should grab the sucker! [1:22 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Paul Jaquays at id Software made a short .plan update, making the Quake 3 Arena Shader Manual available for public consumption. WTF is a Shader Manual? Should be guiding you to make models in Q3A. Here's the poop: 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. [1:19 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
id Software has finally cooked up their collection of Frequently Asked Questions on Quake 3 Arena, along with the right answer (duh). If you are experiencing some trouble with the game, I suggest you check the bad boy out. [1:16 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The mad gang over at Voodoo Extreme has slapped up a little Q&A with Dynamix' Rick Overman, senior programmer currently working on Starsiege: TRIBES II, planned for a spring-2000 release. [17:45 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Visiting my buds over at TeleFragged, I spotted a story I forgot earlier today - a new version of a="http://www.captured.com/assault/">the Assault modification for Quake II. Here's the new stuff: Fixed Linux __bzero bug- New chasecam feature
- Size optimized HUD
- Check the maxentities cvar for invalid values
[17:35 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
You may download the new version 1.1 of the Q3A log analyzer MKLog is up at Killer's Map Repository. Here's a link to the light 35kb file. [17:31 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Chris at VE let me know that Game Marks has scratched together a little comic strip on Quake 1 and 3, John Carmac and stuff. Speaking of comics, Illiad's Dec. 29th edition of my fave User Friendly is up, shouting on some y2k-problems. [15:46 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
I'm kinda tired of Half-Life now, but somehow I got dragged over to Halflife.net, and I noticed something about a new modification called Termination. Here's a snip from the Termination homepage Termination is a deatmatch, teamplay modification for Half-life.
It's a total fragging party. The teams:
There are two teams: red and blue ( do you know a good name for a team mail me )
Every team has got:
1 Master
Protectors: need to protect the leader (duh!)
Freelancers: these guys may just walk around.
When the master dies one of the Freelancers becomes the master.
If you win (your team)
Every team-member gets 15 points.
You need those to buy: weapons, ammo and armor. [15:43 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Frans PlanetSmurf posted a note on Red Orb's new official FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions, duh!) for their 3D action adventure-game Prince of Persia 3D (PoP1 was my old fave, ya' know). [15:37 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Epic's man o' love, Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski made a sweet lil' .plan update with some tips for you dudes running an Unreal Tournament competition. Here's the sauce: 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. [15:31 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
S3 Planet has released a new version of S3 Tweak for the Savage family of video cards, bringing the current version up to 1.07a. Here's the juice on What's New: Choosing Help now takes you to the main contents page for easier navigation.
Added xxxx_GammaType flag so gamma settings can be By mode, By bpp, or Global.
Fixed default AGPsize amounts for Savage4 driver.
Fixed L2 cache size detection for Athlon CPUs.
Added custom AGP size list.
Changed DirectX fog (EF) to non-DX fog.
Added QuickRes-like TweakRes menu, with confirmation dialog and 15-second cancel period.
Fixed Savage3D default settings, so AutoAGP is OFF. [15:25 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
DiabloII.net has slapped up an extensive Diablo II Overview: From Acts to Zoom. After three days of non-stop gaming at Blizzard, they have learned most about the game - and cooked up a huge nine page Put Your Ass In The KnowTM. [15:19 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Maaren over at The Shack has slapped up the results of their Best Of '99 poll, a list of the Good Things from the last year in this millenium.
id Software's Quake III Arena was chosen by The Shack readers as the Game of the year... Wheee! Unreal Tournament came second, with System Shock 2 right on the heels (I'm planning to buy this one).
I suggest you read this little interesting news story for your sweet ass for the rest of the results. [11:20 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Was just surfin' around at Sharky's, when I spotted their well-written and quite in-depth 1999 First Person Shooter Shootout.
As you may guessed, this is a round-up of the 10 best FPS-games in this year, concluding with UT at the top. Check it out. A nice read. [11:15 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The busy gang at GameSpot have posted a massive guide to Quake III Arena. If you want to learn something about strategies, the use of weapons and powerups, deathmatch, tournament and CTF maps, an addtition to a bunch of other stuff, you'll better check this baby out.
[0:09 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Busy dude George Broussard over at 3DRealms' mailed in some Better Late than NeverTM-answers to Stomped's survey of developers Best of 1999 picks. Here's the answers that just were added to the answer collection I posted a note on some days ago (some damn good if you ask me): 1. What, in your opinion, was the best PC game released in 1999 (and why, if you wish to explain your answer)?
EverQuest. Bar none. It's one of the most important games ever released. Why? Because of the scope. You are playing in a huge virtual world with thousands of other players simultaneously. You can walk for hours in any direction and endlessly explore. The importance of interacting with real people cannot be overstated. You buy, sell and trade with people. You group with people to fight larger monsters. You help people out that need it, or let them die, it's your choice. You cannot imagine the scope of this game until you've played it and watched 50 real people run around near you all with their own agendas, just like in real life. In the end you do far, far more than run around and shoot things. You experience a true alternate reality complete with friends and enemies, missions and goals. They don't call it Ever-Crack for nothing. Try it or you're mising out on the future of online gaming. This will simply be the way all games are played in the future. Period.
2. What PC game scheduled to be released in 2000 are you most eager to see (and why if you wish to explain your answer)?
Probably Warcraft 3 because I was a huge fan of Warcraft 2 and look forward to something different. Also Team Fortress 2 because I'm getting bored of plain vanilla DeathMatch. It's very clear that team/class based gameplay and massively multiplayer games are going to take over in the future.
3. What one single gift would you most like to receive for Christmas (this answer is not restricted to games)?
I've got everything I need. I'd like to have the ability to skip sleep, so I could get more work done. [23:56 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Virotype just announced that PlanetQ3's Newbie Guide just got a facelift. Word is that all parts of this handy lil' guide where you will find information regarding Quake 3: Arena from a newbies perspective were totally rewritten, and some new sections were added as well. [23:45 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Thresh's FiringSquad has whipped up a review of Gearbox's expansion pack, Half-Life: Opposing Force. The thing concludes with a 4 stars out of 5 possible, along with this comment: This is easily one of the best expansion packs I've had a chance to play. In terms of quality and gameplay, Opposing Force ranks up there with Brood War, Rise of Rome, Ultima VII: The Silver Seed and MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy. It is, quite possibly, the best first-person shooter expansion to date. If only it was a bit more affordable or if they could give a few more hours of play (hey! That's a compliment!), I'd be completely happy with Opposing Force. Thanks to my buds over at Voodoo Extreme for the heads up. [23:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Halflife.net has received word from Jenni Gant at Valve Software that Nikki Six of Motley Crue will not be doing the music for the upcoming Half-Life 2 releasem as an interview in the December 1999 issue of Incite indicated. Apparently Sierra passed on the offer some time ago. [23:30 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Oxygen Tank has posted an exclusive shot of the altar that will be shown in the Head Hunters 3 Total Conversion for Quake III Arena. Spooky shot, IMHO. [21:34 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
This .plan update from Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart has a lot of sexy tidbits on the Linux port of Unreal Tournament. The most interesting part, however, is the start - explaining more about the source code being released: I'm back from visting relatives and I've been rolling on the Linux open source stuff. I've got my project approved with Source Forge. Once I get everything set up, I'll announce the URL but I'm sure the sneaky will be able to find the page.
I've chosen the Artistic License. I feel that it allows mod developers a lot of freedom with the open code, while not putting Epic into any weird positions with the undisclosed part of the engine.
I plan on open sourcing the following libraries:
XDrv
XMesaGLDrv
GlideDrv
Audio
XLaunch
In addition, the release archive and rcs will include the public headers for the other engine libraries (core, engine, etc). Some of the above libraries compile both under Linux and Win32. I'll write up some specific guidelines for contributing authors. For example code that is contributed to the GlideDrv library must compile under both Win32 and Linux. [21:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Extreme3D has kicked up an interview with Managing Director at Promethean Design, Russell Ritchie, currently developing a 3D stealth action game respectfully entitled Picassio. Here's a few Q&A's from the thing: Vinny: What do you classify this game as?
Russell: Picassio is a mass-market stealth action game, best described as a sneak-em-up
Vinny: Can you give us a little background information about this game?
Russell: We came up with the idea about 3 years ago and spec'd out the game in detail at the time. Psygnosis wanted the project however with our technology at the time the game could not have been done to our standard. We decided the project was timeless and the interest we have received has now proved it. The story is that in an opulent Country Club, two business tycoons boast of their exquisite and outrageously valuable art collections. The gentlemen cannot agree who owns the most, and so they vow to out-do each other in obtaining the world's greatest art collection. [21:25 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
MeccaWorld has posted a 5 meg Quick Time movie showing off Acclaim's ip-development game South Park Rally, featuring those sick, but yet cute guys from that little city 'o love. [19:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spotted on VE that a new version 4.0 of Heretic Fortress, a class-based multiplayer mod for Heretic II has been released. Since I'm in the Good MoodTM today, here's the What's New enclosed: The new version now fully support custom player models for every class (for a grand total of 17 models) and also includes some new player models (warrior with a broadsword, cleric with an hammer, rogue with a hood, etc). More custom player models are also available for download on the website (some imported from Quake 2 like the famous "Winter Faerie" by Brian "Evil Bastard" Collin"). [19:32 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
My buds over at Maximum3D have kicked up their review of the Elsa 3D Revelator, some 3D Goggles for an enhanched gaming experience. Here's a snippet: I think the 3D Revelator by Elsa is a superb product. It has some stiff requirements for the average computer user, but for a die-hard gamer, this is a must-get. Especially at a retail price of around $80, this is cheap for 3D.
I guarantee that once you get used to this thing, playing a game in 2D will seem like sitting in the yard watching the grass grow. I would definitely recommend the 3D Revelator to anyone interested in getting the most out of their games. For this, I give the Revelator the Maximum3D Editor's Pick Award. [19:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Now it's beginning to look like all the authors of Quake-serie type 'o utlities have planned an almost simultanios release of new versions. But enough about that, as we need some new stuff to post these slow news days =)
Now it's a new version 0.6 of Borderfield Software's Quake III Arena tool, Total Control. Hence the name, this nify-sweet program gives you, err, total control over id's new cash cow - including a Server starter, Integrated server browser, Intuitive Config Editor, Userfriendly key binder, FunName editor, Dial-up Optimizer that can reduce lag up to 30% by optimizing your Windows modem settings, and a PK3 Explorer to check out the contents of pk3 .files.
According to Voodoo Extreme, new in this version are a completely redesigned interface, as well as a remote server administrator. Right now I'm getting a DNS-error on their homepage, so blame the maniacs at Billy's house o' love if anything's wrong in this post =) [19:16 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new version 4.23 of the sound-reactive eye candy plug-in and screensaver Geiss may now be grabbed from Ryan Geiss' Realtime Graphics Homepage.
Actually, it's only the Winamp version of this nifty thing that moves in time with the music on your compu that's up to the most recent release, the screenserver is still lacking at a boring 4.01. The site also notes that screensaver version 4.2x (in other words - this one) has a pretty massive bad-ass bug that should be fixed, so expect the non-plugin release the nearest days. [19:10 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The always-busy gang over at GameSpy have tossed up a nice interview with Age of Wonders dude Lennart Sas at Triumph Studios. Folks interested in this quite special just-released strategy/fantasy-game should check this sucker out, as it is dusting off some aspects of the game I didn't know about. [17:01 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
KLR8 updated his Java MD3 Model Viewer Homepage with a new release, bringing this Q3A-model viewer/VRML-exporter up to version 1.2.2. Here's the What's NewTM - There's a new splash screen and icon, made by David 'dines' Durrenberger.
- Added export to the Alias Wavefront .obj file format.
- The different parts of a player model are now automatically assembled when you open one part.
- Added detach part functionality to model menu.
- Added apply texture to mesh functionality.
- Textures are now exported to the same directory as the .wrl file when exporting a model to VRML97.
- Donald Gray contributed to the project by writing a Autocad DXF exporter.
- Various bug fixes and more
[15:54 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Quite off-topic, but it's sweet =) This page has translations of "Oh my god! There's an axe in my head" in 52 different languages. You never know when you need that lil' sentence - lets say you are on vacation and gets an axe in your head? Check it out. [15:50 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The dudes over at CNET Gamecenter have cooked up their preview of Raven's Soldier of Fortune. There's a buttload of shots of this second-quarter 2000 sheduled game as well, so you might take a look. I just keep wondering; how many SoF reviews popped up the last weeks? [15:34 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A story named "Anachronox Looks Likely for Dreamcast" on dc.ign.com is quoting an unnamed source at ION Storm on a possible port of Anachronox to the Dreamcast. It's dated 21 December, but I haven't seen it before and it sure sounds interesting. Here's the most interesting part: At any rate, when we inquired specifically about the Dreamcast, comments got even more interesting: " I don't want to say something is in the bag before it is, but we've talked to the appropriate people and we're moving forward with discussions. We're hoping that we'll have something to say in the spring, and that it will be good news for all."
In light of comments such as these, an official confirmation can't be too far away, but you can expect the full skinny as soon as it comes our way. [14:54 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Phreeeekz 69 over at Interstate '82 HQ uploaded some various I'82 hacks he collected from some members of the community. Here they are: - Here's a playable robot from Storm, works in single player only.
- This will give you access to three secret cars not normaly availible in I'82, from Oxide.
- This will let you put more weapons on cars that usual, works in single player only, made by Osiris
- This will give you hover tires for virtualy any car, works in single player only, also made by Osiris
And if you didn't grab the editor released the other day, check this post. [14:48 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Billy's house of love spotted on Rust that there's a new 2 meg beta of the Q3Build front-end for helping you compile your Quake III Arena maps available. I really don't have another excuse for quoting the update from raYGunn than that I suck ass (not literally, well I did it once but i needed the money). So here it is: The newest version of Q3Build adds so much new and cool stuff I'm just in shock. All the compiling stages have all the available options now (that we know of) and there is full BSPC support now for creating .aas bot navigation files. You can view batch files before using them and you can view .bsp info. You can specify what type of game you want to launch. If also has an offline version of the Rust Q3Radiant FAQ and hotkey list as well as links to all the helpfull editing info. This version is beta still so only comes full version at 2megs. I'm updating the documentation for it today. Grab it here.
[14:37 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Liew Khong Jye's MGA Optimization Tools Homepage was updated with a note on a new release of MGA Tweak, bringing the baby up to version 1.20 b018. With help courtesy of Francois-R Boyer, this new release offers improved NT 4.0 support.
Also, there's word on a new energy-saving Matrox DPMS screensaver included with the tweak package. Good news for NT and energy-dudes, in other words. [14:31 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Always-busy dudes at AVault have slapped up a review of Accolade and Infogrames' Test Drive: Off Road 3. I'll rather classify this as a "warning", not a "review", as the sucker only scored 1½ out of 5 stars... Since I'm a bad-ass, here's the conclution of the review ganked for your Viagra-enhanched eyes. Wheee: While I have learned through painful experience to expect less from off-road titles than conventional racing offerings, there is no concealing that Test Drive Off-Road 3 is a major disappointment. The dated graphics are the low point, but its other features are not much better. While I can conceive of someone enjoying the realistic types of vehicles and settings involved, I think this would be the exception rather than the rule. The Test Drive Off-Road series faces a really rugged ride if it is ever going to make it to the top of the heap. [13:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Holy posts, Batman! Yet another one on the Quake1 cheating possibilities first commented in a .plan update by John Carmack. Now there's the Open Source P1mper, Eric S. Raymond that has added a comment to Carmack's eariler post on the Slashdot Forums. Here's a tiny lil' snippet from the post: To recap, the real lessons of the Quake cheats are (a) never trust a client program to be honest, (b) you can't have real security if you trade it away to get performance, (c) real security comes not from obscurity but from minimum disclosure, and most importantly (d) only open source can force designers to use provably secure methods.
So, far from being a telling strike against open source, the case of the Quake cheats actually highlights the kinds of biases and subtle design errors that creep into software when it's designed for closed-source distribution and performance at the expense of security. These may be something we can live with in a shoot-em-up, but they're not tolerable in the running gears of the information economy. Avoiding them is, in fact, a good reason for software consumers to demand open source for anything more mission-critical than a Quake game. Don't see what this is 'bout? Click here for a round-up of the news posts on this one. [13:21 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
New tools for the Quake-series just don't stop, now there's a new version 1.0.1.0 beta 2 release of the Q3Logger log parser for Quake III Arena. No clue on what's new in the beta 2 compared to the beta 1, but I guess there's some small fixes and stuff. [13:16 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Quake2 version of OnTheWay is now available for download, with some last changes, fixes and additions to this final release server launcher and front-end for good 'ole Quake2. [13:12 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new release on the heels of the recently released Quake source code; The Genebot Project. It's descibed on PlanetSmurf (I'm a lazy ass) as a server-side bot for QuakeWorld, said to operate exactly like a real player, and is usable with any mod.. Check it out. [12:49 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Andre has released a new version 1.0.3 of Linux Heretic, his Penguin-sweet port of Raven's spooky game. This new release adds multiple game resolutions and SDL support, in addition to a sweet lil' Penguin Heretic logo on boot. [12:43 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The unofficial gameplay FAQ for Quake III Arena has get a massive facelift, now numbered as version 2.0. The update has tips and tricks for the Q3DM8 through Q3DM12 maps, as well as Q3TOURNEY3. Word is that there's a buttload of small changes and additions throughout the document as well. [1:09 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Thanks to John for letting us know that EuroGamer has posted the first installment of their millenium round-up, today focusing on the best games of last year in the aptly titled "Games Of The Year 1999" article (blah - yet another one!). Here's the traditional festive snippet: Ultima IX might have been kicked out the door before it was ready, and Command & Conquer : Tiberian Sun may have been something of an anti-climax for many people, but generally 1999 has been a great year for gamers.
Games like Outcast and Age Of Kings have stood out, and the year ended on top form with Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena both reaching shelves in time for Christmas. But what were the true gems of the year? [1:08 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Allegiance Vault, a newly launched site dedicated to Microsoft's online-only spacecombat/RTS game, has posted a Q&A with five ho-hops on the dev. team. [1:08 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
SOFNews.com has posted two screenshots from Raven's upcoming Soldier of Fortune, showing off some winter scenes from the game. Also, Kenn Hoekstra has updated his .plan with a little twinkie-poiter to a Real-movie from the OEM version of the game, smacked up by Now Playing Games. [1:08 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Lots of editors released these days, which is very good for you map-techies out there =) Activision has released the map editor for Interstate '82, offering "a number of powerful features to help you create action-packed multiplayer environments". Here's the scoop on what to expect: - The 2D view for painting large areas of elevation, placing roads, connecting intersections, etc.
- The 3D view for sculpting more detailed terrain features, precise texturing, and object placement
- AI Mesh creation to help keep your Instant Action AI vehicles driving more like humans
- Multiple layers which can be hidden or revealed to keep things simple and less confusing
- Objects, bridges, and intersections which automatically snap to one another
- Extremely precise placement of objects, vehicles, and colored lighting
[1:07 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
GA-Source has posted two screenshots from Monolith's new engine in development, LithTech 2. The engine should be the base of both the game formerly known as No One Lives Forever, as well as yet an upcoming SpecOps-game, the III version. [0:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Planet Half-Life brought word that The Incite issue of Dec '99 had a short Q&A with mad-ass Nikki Six of the 1958 band. According to that little piece o' talking, him and his band 1958 are going to do the music for Valve's upcoming Half-Life 2. Here's the sauce: Why did you decide to do the music for Half-Life II?
When they heard some of the 1958 loop-based music, we all felt it was a marriage made in hell.
What did you think of the game?
Its whacked.
Why did you decide to do this with your side-project, 1958, instead of with Motley Crue?
The [loop-based] music is more fitting.
Did you write original music for the game, or are these songs that will appear on 1958's album?
Both. Some of the more warped 1958 tunes will appear in the game, and we'll also do some just for the game.
If your two bands played Half-Life against each other, who would win?
Crue woud kill 1958. [20:46 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
TRIBES Arena (inspired by the popular Q2 mod Rocket Areba) version 2.1 just got available for download. It adds Match Mode, a time limit, removes heavies from the game, and more. [20:43 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Paul Steed at id Software has just added three .bips from Quake III Arena to casManG's. The files are showing off sample character animations that can be imported into Character Studio "to give your models some motion" (Hunter, Klesk, and Visor). Seen on Blue's. [13:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Missed this one earlier today, but it's quite interesting news of digging for Nocturne Mappers, so...
Spookhouse has word on that Terminal Reality has released a Nocturne Level Editor. According to 'em, it has everything you need to create your own missions, skins, and it includes easy to read documentation as well. [13:35 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Noticed over at 3D-Unlimited that they've posted the list of winners in their grand-bastard Holiday Contest, with prizes for over $3000 (which I won the whole shit, BTW).
Speaking of contests Gamers Voice are giving away 3 Baldur's Gate Prize Packs. [13:28 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The mad gang over at Voodoo Extreme has great news, the good ole' fave 'Ask Hook' is back, three times a week! Todays edition of the Q&A with Brian Hook, has a question on what makes a good programmer, and one on "Hardware T&L and Display Lists".
Questions about video cards, BSPs, networking, APIs, motherboards, getting some nookie, or why American beer really does suck can be sent to the dude if you wonder. Check it out, wheeeee! [12:24 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A lot of flush around this the latest days, which is very good thinking of the slow news holoday-days this is... Stomped got a note from [FeaR]Lightsaber, with word on Zoid's addition to the Q3 Mailing List - concerning that Q1 cheating-issue. Here's the post: Sorry, no dedicated server files here. That was the first thing I wanted to
> fix... the WinDed.exe server really blows compared to QWSV.
Uhm, winded is obselete and was obselete the day winquake came out. Running winquake -dedicated was the same functionality as winded (console mode only dedicated server). That's why we never updated winded.
Besides, it's actually easy to build a dedicated only binary. Remove d_*.c, r_*.c, cl_*.c from the project, add *_null.c and define DEDICATED and it should build a dedicated only binary.
"Justin Miller"
>
> Ah yes, and those of us that still play QW are now preparing for the
>onslaught of hacked-up QW clients with cheats galore. Fun fun.
Cheating has always been an issue. I've gotten a bunch of hate mail the last couple of days from players screaming at me because now that the source is out, people are going to hack it like crazy.
Of course, you'd have to know how to program to hack it. Or get a programmer to hack it for you.
QuakeWorld has had a lot of cheating issues. I even placed measures in the code to try and curb it (pmodel/emodel checks). One of the reasons I pretty much stopped QW development about a year ago was because of all the hacks. I just ran out of energy trying to fight against it. The last thing I did was the remote screenshot feature and that was only for one of the last QW tournaments.
I think the benefits of the source release far outweighs that of cheating. Don't really undrestand what this really is about, check this news story, as well as this one. [12:12 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
VE brought word of an update to Reverend's Pulpit - that 3dfx Page, ya know. Here's the quote: Anyway, I've been emailing with a OGL contract staff of 3dfx over the last week. Take a look at a few postings over on my site about some future driver goodness from 3dfx, specifically:
1) Christmas Eve posting regarding performance boosting drivers next
2) 23 December posting regarding the ability to FINALLY regard Voodoo3s as good and able Q3 level editing card.
3) 22 December posting regarding setting to 32bit Color Depth peculiarity in Quake3 for a Voodoo3.
[12:09 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Tread Marks Homepage I'm regarly checking after I spotted the GOLD-story there, as been updated with a some news from the dudes behind this tank racing andcombat game: We've just updated the About the Game page now that the final version is done and the final features are in, and the shipping Game Manual in HTML Format has also been put on-line if you're interested in reading it before deciding to buy the game. Interested in this game? Head over [12:00 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Billy has word on Ga'ash Soffer (formerly of Anand's) new article named "Year's End Bitching, Games". As you guessed, it's about... err... bitches and games and 1999, so if you'r interested you can head over here. [11:57 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Was surfin' the World of Dreams when I spotted that ApocX has released his texture pack #2 for WoT. Check it out, looks cool. [11:55 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Thx to The Preacherman for letting me know that Some (that's a name, dammit!) at his site 'o love, Unreality, has posted some tips for getting your D3D Card, especially the Creative Labs GeForce 256, up and running perfectly.
I'm not giong to quote the thing here, but bitches running that card and UT as well, can head over to this Unreality News Story. [11:49 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Flying Penguin's Quake Coop was updated with a s story named "3dfx aware of bugs in V3 DX7 drivers". It's early morn' so, err, here's the dirt: 3Dfx Tech support is asking for detailed system info from users experiencing problems with the latest drivers in DirectX games (like System Shock 2 and the disappearing weapon models). They seem to be working to address the problem. If you want to help out, go to their thread post in the V3 Support forum on 3DFXGamers.com. Be prepared to provide a LOT of detailed info, like your mobo's model, BIOS version and BIOS date (you'll have to cold boot to read it from the screen at bootup). Don't bother posting if you aren't going to take the time to be thorough. [11:44 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Quake Army Knife Homepage, popularry called the Official QuArK Homepage - was updated with word that Quake 3 map editing support is on the way. Here's the update:So Quake-3:Arena is out, big deal. So Q3Radiant is out, whats the fuss?
There's been many people, who've asked when Q3A support in QuArK is finished. Well, as some of you might not know, it does takes a long time to implement support for a new game, because every game has its differences; let it be models, map-structure, texture-formats, you name it. All I can say is, that Armin and crew are working at it, trying to decode whats available of information about the Q3A .MAP-format and texture/shader stuff, so please be patient. Come back once a week, to see if there are anything new. [11:40 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The dudes over at GamersDepot have taken a closer look on ATI's Rage Fury MAXX, the dual Fury bad boy. Quite interesting, as I can't recall to see a review that ATI are kickin' asses... Here's some saycey lovin' for your viagra-enhanched eyes: No big surprise here as the ATI, as usual, kicks the crap out of the GeForce under 32bit. 32Bit rendering is obviously an area that ATI has focused much efforts on as they have typically beat out other cards all the time in this mode. This is great news for gamers because more games, especially ones built on the Quake 3 engine, will be using true color textures.
I do hope that in time ATI will go back and re-optimize their drivers so they can also get better 16bit speed as there are still quite a but of gamers that, for some lame-brain reason, still want to run their games in 16bit. Also because only are the more recent games supporting textures higher than 16bit. [11:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
This new day started with some shots and sketches from Digital Anvil's and Warthog's space combat sim, Starlancer. Just check 'em out yourself. A good start of the morning. [1:53 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Props to the news maniacs at Billy's house of love for the next late-night stories.
Art Director/ Level Designer/ 3D Dude Shane Caudle at Epic made a post to a thread on the UU Forums named "New models?", regarding Unreal Tournament and 3rd party models (models made by people other than the developers). Here's the scoop: Actually the programmers here at Epic are adding a new player model class just for using 3rd party models. These models will use 3 256x256 textures.
BTW, Digital Extremes have released a cool new plugin for 3dsMax3 that exports the UT format. It also includes direction on the process. You can get it here.
http://www.digitalextremes.com/Files/UTexporter.zip [1:48 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Yet another article 'bout violence and gaming... This time it's Quake Marines-member Paxed, with a new article entitled "Computer Gaming, Acts of Violence in School" on Q3 Center. Among other things, it actually blames id Software and their games for the violent school shootings. [1:45 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Not qute sleeping yet - and when on the net to upload some stuff I'd forgotten, here's some news for ya...
Elsa has posted some new Win2k RC3+ beta drivers for their TNT2 Ultra-powered 2D/3D card, the Erazor III. [1:18 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Kinda tired right now, after finishing the Mortyr Review with only two left fingers (scroll to the top for some reason-stuff) - so I'm going offline to sleep tight in my bed 'o love...
Holiday peace to you all. Nightie-nightie. [1:18 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Kudos to PlanetSmurf for letting me know that a new thread on the on Slashdot Forums (try to pronounce their main URL over the phone, BTW) has popped up, with the peoples thoughts on John Carmack's .plan update on Quake1 Cheating after the source code release (story).
Looks like Mr. C. has gone deeper into the explanations with a post in the mentioned thread. Here's a short juice from Carmack's post: There are server-side countermeasures that look for sequences of moves that are likely to be bot-generated and not human-generated, but that is an arms race that will end with skilled human players eventually getting identified as subtle bots.
Media cheats can be protected by various checksums, as we do in Q3 with the sv_pure option. This is only effective if the network protocol is not compromised, because otherwise a proxy can tell the client that it's hacked media are actually ok.
If the network protocol is not known, then the extra-information cheats generally can't happen unless you can hack the client source. [1:07 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spotted over at 3D GameForce that CNET has posted a review of Windows 2000. Looks like it's a bit old, but in case you missed it; you should head over there. [0:54 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Kudos to Lee Shand for letting the world know that Snipers Alley has posted a short review of Novalogic's Delta Force 2. Here is a taste
of what to expect: It’s the middle of the day as you walk through the trees. Up ahead you see a clearing so you slowly head towards it. As you emerge you are shot at by a group of terrorists. No it is not a walk in the park, it’s Delta Force 2. [0:51 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Another news from Lee 'o love; Anger has posted an article on minimum requirements for games and stuff. A fine read, that's for sure. Here's a snippet: Too many people have aging systems (like my P-233) and are hesitant or unable to upgrade every so often. I bought my system about 4 years ago when P-166’s just hit the street (I later upgraded to 233) and just now am going to be buying a new system. That, I believe, is because my wife has heard my ranting and raving while I’m trying to crawl my way through a game and is either sick of hearing my griping or has taken pity on me. [0:48 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spotted over at Damage Gaming that the Engineering Room has updated their Quake III Arena Console Commands listing. Word is that the thing now only have 57 commands "uncovered". Bad-ass nifty job is my word...
[0:18 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
I've been waiting a long time to post this poppie; cool news. I just opened the doors of our new Features-section, starting the party with a review of Mirage Media's nazi-shooter, Mortyr. What's the Features all about, then? To quote my self, "it is the page of all, err, features from Cosmo3D". Like reviews, previews, articles, interviews and stuff. Ya know.
So now, get your lazy ass over to the Mortyr Preview! NOW, DAMMIT! [0:05 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Evil Avatar and Sybex sure are in the good mood today, announicng that they'll give away 5 copies of the Asheron's Call Strategy Guide, as well as 5 copies of the Planescape Torment Strategy Guide. Check it out if you feel lucky! [23:58 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Noticed over at PlanetSmurf that the recent release of the Quake1 source-code has made some souls a bit sceptic, and many in the community are feeling that online cheating now will be easier. Code monkey John Carmack at id posted a lenghty update to his .plan to address this issue, and here's a snippet: There are a number of people upset about the Quake 1 source code release, because it is allowing cheating in existing games.
There will be a sorting out period as people figure out what directions the Quake1 world is going to go in with the new capabilities, but it will still be possible to have cheat free games after a few things get worked out.
Here's what needs to be done:
You have to assume the server is trusted. Because of the wau quake mods work, It has always been possible to have server side cheats along the lines of "if name == mine, scale damage by 75%". You have to trust the server operator. [23:50 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new version 0.75b of the Quake-series frontend, QuakeStarter, may now be downloaded from the QuakeStarter Homepage. Word is that this release adds finally brings the program in sync with the reatil Quake III Arena, adds a new server selector window, and a lot of improvements and bug fixes as well. [23:40 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Noticed over at VE that Creative has released new version 2.04 GeForce drivers for both Win9x and NT. No clue on all the new stuff here, but CL GeForce folks should grab this right away! [23:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Game-Authority has posted a review of Mortyr, giving it a poor rating. Here's a snippet from the review, that I... do not fully agree with: Other than the storyline, Mortyr is a standard first-person shooter, plain and simple. We even get the triumphant return of the "find the gold key to exit the level" school of game design. Now, I may just be a jaded gamer, and maybe I've seen as many FPS games as any sane person wants to see in a lifetime, but I think I've moved beyond this run around and find the key crap. Games like Half-Life, System Shock 2, Shogo, Rainbow 6 and others have proven without a shadow of a doubt that games should be about so much more than this. Yet here we are, on the brink of the new millennium, and we're back where we started!
[23:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The busy bastards over at 3D Files has slapped up a new patch for Refraction Software's Codename Eagle. Here's a little What's New: - Voodoo3 2/3000 1024x768 and above video resolutions.
- Menu crash bug fixes.
- Mission bug fixes.
- Multiplayer scoring system improved.
- Multiplayer internet fixes.
- In game console for game tweaking and multiplayer settings.
- Multiplayer time/frag/score limit.
- Better weapon handling.
[23:20 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
You may now grab version 1.4 of this sweet-ass ) OpenGL Winamp-plugin, Winamp Goes 3D. It rocks, so - you might, err, plug it in... [23:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
I was nearly going to give a damn shit in this post, because the heavy 4.5 of 5 star-rating of this lame card... Nyway, CGO has posted a review of ATI's Rage Fury Pro. Here's a little juice from the thing:The Fury Pro is based off the improved Rage 128 Pro chip, which adds texture compression, improved texture filtering, and AGP 4X support to the Rage 128 chip that powered the original Rage Fury. The clock speed is also increased, though it's still a very modest 125MHz. This is probably why it couldn't quite keep up with our TNT2 Ultra baseline measurement, but performance is still quite adequate for the casual computer user, and with support for 32bit color, large textures, stencil buffers, etc., users should have no problem running current and near-future games. ATI's new Rage Theater chip is also included, with composite video input as well as video-out. There's no TV tuner, but you can still capture and edit from a VCR or video camera. [23:14 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Raven's Rick Johnson made a post to his Soldier of Fortune Forum, regarding the release of the SoF Demo: In answer to your question, a demo will NOT be available this year. The holiday season disrupts the whole development process too much (as well as QA won't be available). Sorry, but we aren't rushing this out. Same shit if you ask me. Isn't a long time to y2k! [22:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Billy's house o' love has word on "a new program to simplify the creation and editing of Quake3 shader script files", entitled Shaded. Here's a brief description of the sucker: Shaded is a tool designed to simplify the creation and editing of Quake3 shader script files. It has features that are friendly to new users, whilst being a powerful tool for more advanced users.
It currently features: - Simple error detection and correction
- A list of shader keys and values
- Supports up to 100 scripts in each shader file
- Supports up to 100 keys in each shader script
- Add menu for easily adding common effects
[22:32 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Q3Offline has hit the net in the first-ever release. Basically, it's a program for configuring single player Quake III Arena games. It looks like a nifty-keen little utlity [22:15 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Yet another one of these... pc.ign.com has posted their "Quake III vs. Unreal Tournament" roundup, taking a look at most aspects of this quite simular games. [13:22 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spotted over at Blue's that Edios has whipped up a new patch for the latest game in their endless Tomb Raider Series; Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. You can grab the file over at Edios' FTP site. According to Voodoo Extreme, this patch fixes corruption issues in 32-bit mode, and adds the ability to remap movement keys - in addition to other changes. Note that old save games will not work once the patch is installed.
I'm now leaving the house for some food stuff at my good ole' relatives, but I'll get back in some hours to p1mp some news with my stupid wrist =) [13:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
It looks like the nazi-shooter Mortyr from Polish developers Mirage is available in US stores right now.
I bought this sucker a while ago (not every game is available in Norway a moth before US...) - and a preview is soon up - so watch the space. [1:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
My arm was in the mood for some updating this late christmas eve, so I slapped up some stories of note, a bit doo-doo for your snowy eyes. Heh, it looks like Clinton did the last-minute shopping just as the lazy guys here at Cosmo3D, BTW... [1:35 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Novalogic has released a new version 1.04.119 patch for thier popular first-person shooter Delta Force 2. You can grab the updated using the game's in-ehh-game, ehh, updater. [1:33 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
CogniToy has released a new patch for their 3D strategy/programming game, MindRover - bringing it up to version 1.01. This 3DFiles page has the skinny on this patch, so if you have the retail version of the game, snag your ass over there! [1:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The sweet dicks over at always-busy AVault has the 27 megs demo of Infogames' Test Drive 6 (which, as you guessed, is a driving game). [1:24 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new version of the nifty-ass 3D Studio MAX export/import plug-in mentioned some days ago is now available for your viagra-enanched download proggie right here (55Kb direct link).
If you are a skin/model dude, I suggest that you point your browser o' p1mpage over to this news story at Quake3Mods.Net. [1:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Grooving to the rythms of the Norwegian ass-kickers T.P. Allstars, I noticed that that StrategyFirst has released a demo of their adventure/action RPG game, Clans. The imaginally named game demo weighs a bit above 20 megs, and here's a tiny description to spiff you up: A dark tide of death and destruction is raging over your once-peaceful realm, turning brother against brother, clan against clan. Summon your courage and raise your sword for a fight to the death against a demon monster who feeds on hatred and despair. Charge twisting, turning passageways writhing with danger. Cut down demonic legions in brutal battles of supernatural magic and superhuman might. [1:14 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
SBSoftware.com was updated with a new release of DeeP97 earlier today, bringing the DoomX editing program up to version 9.79B (I just luv' those version numbers). Check this page for download links, and this one for the What's News-thingies. [23:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
In spite of my banana-stoopid broken wrist, I'm saying a quick merry christmas to you all (I luv' ya, u know).
Here in Norway christmas eve / all the presents and stuff are celebrated on the 24th, so I've gotten a few cool presents from my good ole' releatives 'o love. My arm hurts, so I'm gonna finish quick. I got a new portable MP3-player (I-Jam Play! with 64MB mem. for techies), sponsored the 1/2 of my snowboard and season card, a lot of clothes, some CDs and a bonch of more... Escpecially fell in love with T.P. Allstars new rrap-CD; "Norske Byggeklosser". It kicks heavily ass.
*arm-alert*. Well, huge hugs from the cosmic dude - merry chritmas to you all!!! [13:13 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
Planet Half-Life yesterday had a word on their new walkthrough for the new HL add-on. So, if yer having problems with it... Go there!
Oh, and merry X-mas everyone! [2:47 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Blue's reports that a post has been made to Pandemic Studios' forums, stating that it might even be released before the end of the year!
You heard it here first. Battlezone II was code released today by Activision, has gone to press, and will be shipping later next week. It's possible that it will appear in stores before the new year. Our thanks goes out to our many great fans out there who have stood by us and supported us these last few months as we have worked to complete the game. Hope you enjoy it!
[1:17 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Planet HalfLife has recieved an email from Mike at WON.net, a gaming server-network that among other things, runs a Half-Life Master Server, about an update they will be conducting in their systems: Beginning January 3rd 2000, WON.net will be upgrading its backend services. This upgrade will be taking place over the course of two weeks (1/3 through 1/17). The additional equipment will provide several benefits, including:
-Better connectivity for many of our users (especially those outside of the United States).
-Support for additional instances of WON.net services for a larger user base and better response times.
-Provide an additional redundancy to help minimize any downtime for WON.net services.
During the upgrade, there may be some minor down time of WON.net services. We will make every effort to minimize any down time as well as attempting to limit down time to low usage periods. Please bear with us during this upgrade; the result will be a better WON.net for all of us.
[1:02 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Well, I'm not sure if two maps are enough to call it a map-pack, but Digital Extremes has launched their site, together with two CTF-maps for UT, and a 3dsMax 3.0 model exporting tool.
The response for the maps, are, supposedly amazing, so, why don't you go check'em out, too? [0:58 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
VoodooExtreme gives word of a new version of 3DTop, a cool-looking 3D-desktop-kinda...thingie :)
If my description doesn't cut it for you, try the official one: 3DTop is a study into the usefulness of a three dimensional GUI (Graphics User Interface). For too long have we denied ourselves the freedom that is only offered by 3D games. A 2D Desktop is all well and good for simple procedures, but after a while it can make you feel cramped and limited by what you can do. As technology advances, so too should the basics of our software, after all, everyone who uses a Windows OS, or even a GUI within Unix depends on their desktop for the vast majority of functions they will ever use.
In short, 3DTop uses the icons that are present on your normal desktop and represents them in 3 dimensions instead. This approach enables you to fly around your desktop, change the shape of the icons and arrange or drag them in 3D also.
In addition you can create coloured spotlights, paintings (bitmaps), background and floor textures, clocks, flags (shortcuts) and whatsoever the future may bring.
[0:47 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Origin has released a patch for Ultima IX: Ascension, bringing the game up to version 1.07, over at The official site.
While you're downloading, you might wanna read the readme, as well as a short update, ripped from The official site: We have been working hard to provide a comprehensive second patch before Christmas, and we have completed testing on it just in time! This patch will address many critical issues, including speed, D3D support, and a list of other issues. We have been deeply concerned by the feedback we have received up until this point, and believe that this patch will greatly enhance the playability of the game for many of our players. Your constructive feedback on the Ascension forums was a great help, and we appreciate the time and effort you put into it.
[0:06 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
Heh, not about the Half-Life mod this time, I'm talking about a new version of the Matrix screen saver. Not hundred percent relevant here, but whattheheck. The little bastard at spinky 65 kb is based on the opening scene of the world's best movie. Check it out! Spotted at VE. Oh, and they seem to have a word on a Southpark 3D screensaver, as well. All ass-kickers follow link to read story. [23:47 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Kenn Hoekstra updated his .plan, and officially confirming the rumours that's been going around lately, conserning the delaying of the SoF demo until next year:
Work on the demo continues here at Raven, but the rumors you've
heard about the demo slipping into the new year are correct. As
Rick Johnson pointed out on our message boards, we don't
have the QA or development resources to adequately finish off the
final demo stages because of the holiday season. A good percentage
of Raven employees are taking vacation and there won't be enough
staff here or at Activision to adequately support a demo release.
We want to give the demo our full attention and support and that
just can't happen at this time. When? Soon... We thank you for
your patience.
[20:01 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Mirabilis has "released" an updated version of the well-known ICQ, bringing it up to version 2000a, build 3060, version 4.18 (erm...does that make any sense to you?).
The thing is, Mirabilis seems to have recalled the release, named it "Private", and recommeds that you try again later. However, BetaNews seems to have an available download, but if it will install is uncertain (I couldn't do it, myself).
Also, it IS an alpha, and you should be an experienced user if you choose to install, and it looks like it can do nasty stuff to your old ICQ. All in all: it's a longshot, but go for it if you don't feel like parachutejumping today :) [18:25 CET by Insomnis - Post a Comment]
Do you always end up loosing when playing Q3? Well then you should check out the kick-ass gameplay FAQ Jim Mazurek just posted over @ Gamefaqs. [12:03 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
The above headline was the exact subject of an e-mail I got this morning from Techno Kill, the leader of the mhl team. Seems like they've released another alpha of the Matrix mod for Half-Life. This release is only for the beta testers, but hold on, it seems like they're getting closer to an official release... Okay, there is a new beta available this time. Here are the major changes: - The alpha can now be downloaded from http://***.***/*** and the one file contains both the server and client files...making is usable for LAN parties...but please don't leak it everywhere guys...we don't need that. Use it wisely.
- The model bug works correctly and it is fixed now. It's pretty cool.
- Changed the mhl_reckoning map name to reckoning cause Half Life hates underscores. This means the reckoning map (our best one so far I think) is now accessible via the menu.
- Head shots were toned down in damage a bit.
There is more fixes and that stupidy ass bug with the white stuff is still there...but at least this one works...and yes, you'll have to download another 6 megs, this will be the last time. The next patch (and the last one, which is considered the pre-public QA) will just be a patch. The file structure probably won't be changed, therefore, you won't have to download a whole new thing. Oh, and if you don't have a clue of what I'm talking about, I think you should try Cosmo3D's search engine with the keywords "Matrix Half-Life", or sumthing. [0:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
I managed to slap up a little update (of the 100s planned) before I went to bed. My hand hurts heavily right now, and since every word takes about 10mins to finish, I'm just signing off right now =)
Unlightened vistors may check this short news post from earier today for an explanation. [0:35 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
DemoNews has slapped up a demo of VRBilliards, a realistic pool demo that is both a "computer game and a study tool" (sounds quite nice t me). The sucker needs an OpenGL-compatible card, and owners of 3D Sterio Glasses can also chunk some support goodies out of this one... Compared to a lot of demos released recently, this file weighs in at a light 10MB only, so bandwidth impaired may try this one too =) [20:47 CET by chiller - Post a Comment]
Wanna play the ZDoom modification of id's classic Doom in glorius GL? Head over to Kokak's DOOM Page and grab the new version 0.3 of ZDoomGL, which finally brings in sync with version 1.22 of ZDoom. New in this release are floor mirror support, with several bugfixes as well. [20:40 CET by chiller - Post a Comment]
id Software dude Zaphod have uploaded an updated plan, wich in short lists some of the bugs in Quake 3 Arena (what? you don't know what that is? Shame on you!), that id will be addressing in a future patch. Here they are: - New scoreboard.
- New team scoreboard
- Voting can change the gametype if the new map doesn’t support the current gametype
- Misc icon fixes
- Team overlay tidied up
- Spectators can go through doors
- Late player start on screen score display fixed
- Re-add mouselook
- Callvote nextmap
- Extra/different pakfile disconnect bug fixed
- Packetloss on the scoreboard
- Delay deferred loading of players until after death
- Server browser remembers "show full"/’show empty" status
- Server browser will not refresh on stopped lists
- Show IP address in server browser
- Compressed sound support
- JPEG from disk support
- Cache filefind results so we do not requery the filesystem every load
- Make 10.x.x.x and other public addresses not use auth server
- Protect CD key into a different file
- Improve overall error reporting to user
- Make sure everyone can command the bots
- Load/Save config re-added
- Bots don't start kill, hitnokill, or hitnodeath chats when there are nearby enemies
- Awaiting snapshot/gamestate issues resolved
And oh, you can read the whole .plan at Webdog. [20:39 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
Due to his little accident, cosmo asked me to post a story featured on PlanetSmurf yesterday (I don't really read those things myself anymore :/ ). Since I'm a lazy-ass, I'll just quote the smurf. id Software's lead programmer John Carmack has released the full source code of Quake, including the WinQuake, GLQuake, QuakeWorld, and GLQuakeWorld versions. The archive can be downloaded from id's FTP site (which is always pretty busy) and its primary mirror at Walnut Creek (3.2 MB), as well as 3D Action Gamers. The code has been placed under the GNU Public License right from the start (this happened with the DOOM source only much later), and the accompanying text file can be downloaded separately.
And here's Mr. C's word on it
This is the complete source code for winquake, glquake, quakeworld, and glquakeworld.
The projects have been tested with visual C++ 6.0, but masm is also required to build the assembly language files. It is possible to change a #define and build with only C code, but the software rendering versions lose almost half its speed. The OpenGL versions will not be effected very much. The gas2masm tool was created to allow us to use the same source for the dos, linux, and windows versions, but I don't really recommend anyone mess with the asm code.
The original dos version of Quake should also be buildable from these sources, but we didn't bother trying.
The code is all licensed under the terms of the GPL (gnu public license). You should read the entire license, but the gist of it is that you can do anything you want with the code, including sell your new version. The catch is that if you distribute new binary versions, you are required to make the entire source code available rce code available for free to everyone. [20:29 CET by chiller - Post a Comment]
Novalogic has released a patch for their first-person shooter Delta Force 2. You should be able to get it through the in-game auto updater. [13:05 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Holy shit, Batman! Sorry for not hanging around here yesterday, but I kinda' have an OK reason for that... I managed to break my wrist on the right arm, and geez - it hurts like whoppa hell... There will probably be a bit lack of news (I've been writing on this post for 10 mins now, damnit!), so you may check Blue's, VE or some other news sites for your daily doze with gaming news (unless my lazy news crew helps out, which is rather unlikely to happen). Blah, this sucks...
[insert some more useful news here] [21:44 CET by chiller - Post a Comment]
Those crazy dudeds over at Gamer's Depot Have a review of a 72X CD-ROM drive! Read the full review at Gamer's Depot. [12:38 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Grabbed a few stories (not normal coverage, but..) from Billy's house of love the last minutes, so you have an update to mess with. I'm now gonna go out for a trip and some snowboarding, so - cya later this 'eve. [12:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Quake3mods.net have posted two Quake 3 Arena import/export plug-ins for 3D Studio MAX R3. If you mess with skins, models and stuff, give 'em a try. [12:34 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Westwood has released a demo of their Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun! Here's the word on this one for your viagra-enhanched pleasure: Tiberian Sun is the stunning sequel to Command & Conquer. Set in the near future, GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod continue their epic battle with high-tech advanced weaponry, 3D dynamic terrain, immersive graphics and highly addictive game play in solo and multi-play modes.
The demo features two brand new levels of Tiberian Sun. The first mission is a tutorial about how to play T-Sun. The second mission gives you a heavy dose of C&C action. [12:33 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Voodoo Extreme has posted the chat log for last night's developer chat with four ho-hops from Raven Software. Some cool quotes there, so be sure to check it out if you're a fan of their games. [12:30 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new patch has been released for TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter, fixing some problems with freeze-ups etc. Grab the sucker here. [12:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
3DFiles have posted Interplay's new playable demo of Renegade Racers, and you can grab the 'semi-hefty' (VE quote) 61.4MB file right here. [12:25 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
AVault has whipped up an updated demo of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, which now contains a new level called "The Times". Word is that this patch is a massive 33megs, 20MB more than the first release. [12:23 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
AVault has posted a new (2MB) version 1.1 patch for NHL Championship 2000. Grab the patch right here, and check the notes on this release right, err, here.
[12:21 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The busy bastards over at Developer's Corner has posted a third pic with conceptual art from Shiny's upcoming multiplayer game, Sacrifice. Check out the first and second post if you missed 'em either yesterday or this morning. [12:19 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
CGO has posted their preview of ATI's upcoming dual Rage Fury Pro powered card, the Rage Fury MAXX. According to the CGO folks, the card is quite powerful, so you might take a look at this one. Here's a blurb: The card we tested was definitely a beta product. Image quality was usually pretty good and the card was generally stable, but some textures in Unreal Tournament popped in and out and there were similar problems with 3DMark 2000. Other programs, like Quake III Arena, ran flawlessly. There is still plenty of time for ATI to tweak and improve the performance and stability of their drivers, and of course, for their competition to do the same. When the card is released January, ATI will have to contend with similarly-priced GeForce cards using faster DDR memory, which might close the performance gap between the two cards at high resolutions in 32bit color. From what we've seen so far, ATI is providing power-gamers with an excellent product with the Rage Fury MAXX. It's definitely not a card for the casual gamer with a slower computer, but it should provide those with fast machines with some of the fastest frame rates and best image quality around. Even if it doesn't end up leading the pack, it won't be far behind. [12:16 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Developer's Corner has posted the second pic in their art series from Shiny's upcoming multiplayer sucker, Sacrifice. The story 'bout yesterday's pic is located here. [12:12 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Aqua's Quake 3 Guide has been updated with some more about framerate and vusual tweaks in the two most recent Quake-games. According to Billy, thus guide is covering EVERYTHING from bots and weapons to framerate, visual, and connection tweaks. So if you gonna p1mp some more power out of your game, be sure to check this one out. [12:10 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Ars Technica has posted a little What is SCSI?-section, with some more infos 'bout the most of my compu. Check it out. [12:07 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Thanks to my main man Preacher for letting me know that his Unreality.org has posted The first usermade Assault map for UT, entitled AS-Central. According to Preacher, it's a small map where one team have to destroy the other teams radiocentral. You can grab the file here, and a shot is available here. [12:02 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Half-Life Launcher Homepage was updated with a little note regarding the source code of this sweet lil' program: I think I will relase the Half-Life Game Launcher source code, if the other programmers agree with this. If you are interested by the source code, feel free to mail me. [0:02 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spent the whole day shopping for christmas presents and stuff, in addition to fixing my new and kickin' hard-drive.
The day went on pretty fast, and now I gotta go; just had to mention my new hd before I left the building. It's a Western Digital 18.3 GB Ultra2 LDV SCSI-disc, kicking some serious ass, BTW =)
Tomorrow I'll update with some new poops from the good 'ole net (sorry 'bout today), and a comment of NoName's nick (next story) will also be made public as well. [21:52 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
God*mm*it, cosmo, you just ruined my day after I read that article from yesterday... I'll just quote the part I'm refering to... (...)
But saying that, don’t go trying to confuse people with a strange handle, or make up something that basically says you’re stupid. Names like "Player", "Noname" or the default for the game (like "Blackhawk" in DF2) just scream out that you don’t know what in the heck you are doing. Other players will take no pity on you, and will continually blast away at you just to get their kill count up. So, yup, I definetely need a new nick. But I'm not gonna ask you, remember... Whatever you do, do not let your friends choose your handle, just because you can’t be bothered to come up with a decent one yourself. Ahem. A merry christmas to you too, Mr. Stinger. Right. [23:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Yikes, seems like i missed this story from yesterday, but since there's so many really stooopid nicks out there (like a friend of me that entitled himself as Moni85) - I'm gonna p1mp the saucy lovin' anyway.
The Gamer's Press has their Sunday Shooter article up today, calling attention to choosing a handle/nick/name in the good ole' multiplayer games. Here's a rather weird snippet from the article: After you play for a while, your handle may become your alter ego. If you play multiplayer a lot, in real life you may start to think, "Hmm, how would Stinger handle the boss ticking me off like this? Maybe a few claymores strategically placed around the doorway to his office, or just a light approach and throw a couple of flashbangs over the cube walls to shake him up a bit?" OK, so you wouldn’t really do what you’re thinking of doing (Postal workers, should be especially beware of this, OK?), but hey, it sure is fun to fantasize about that, eh? [23:32 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Saw just surfin' around over at Game Forces, when I spotted their fresh review of Ubi Soft's new strategy title, Shadow Company. The review concludes with three out of a possible five stars, and a comment like "The problem behind the interface and camera is that they are simply too hard to manage quickly...". [23:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
NVIDIA's dev. pages was updated with an article entitled "Cartoon Rendering on the GeForce 256", explaining how to do cartoon rendering on a GeForce 256-powered card without the annoying CPU overhead. [23:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
NVIDIA's Demo Page just got updated with some sweet 3D demos to demonstrate how your TNTx/GeForce-card rocks heavlily (well, all display adapters supporting DX7 should be able to run it, but personally I think that it'll probably look a lot better on GeForce 256-powered cards =) [21:04 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Big kudos to Tactic and Redwood over at Stomped for helping me tweak the comment scriptiong a little. Give this a comment and check the new output.
Date & Time are added, added numbers to each posts, better style etc...
UPDATE: The script seems to b0rk a bit. I'll get it to work ASAP. [20:33 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Hardware ho-pop over at Voodoo Extreme have posted his review of Elsa's Erazor III, another bad boy of a graphics adapter to use nVIDIAS TNT2-chip. [20:31 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Thresh's FiringSquad have slapped up their review of the second version of Abit's popular BE6 motherbouard, the 200MHz and Intel Coppermine-sopporting bad boy; BE6-II. Motherboard dudes should check this one out. [20:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Asus are p1miping out new drivers these days, which is quite good - but none of 'em gives a clue on what the changes are about :() Today it's some new version 2.27 beta drivers for the Asus 3400, which can be grabbed from here. [20:26 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Developer's Corner now has some new art from Shiny's soon-to-come Sacrifice. There's also some new stuff to be posted over there tomorrow, so watch out! [20:23 CET by cosmo - 2 Comments]
Missed this one earlier today, but it's worth a post anyway. An article named "Brazil bans 6 video games, links one with shooting" at Yahoo! mantions that Brazil has banned a bunch of PC games from being sold in the countrly, mostly first-person shooters.
Doom, Mortal Kombat, Requiem, Blood, Postal and Duke Nukem are the ones that have been singled out at the moment, and other games might be banned as well within the next 4 months. The reason for this sortout is a mass shooting the 3rd of November, killing three people. According to Blue's, Brazil are blaming Duke Nukem 3D for inspiring the shooter (forget that he was also on drugs and had a history of stress related problems). [20:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Back from a nice snowboard session to post some news for ya...
BorderField Software have posted a new version 0.5 of their Q3A - Total Control. Hence the name, it gives you, err, total control over id's new cash cow, Quake 3 Arena. Word is that it includes Server starter, Integrated server browser, Intuitive Config Editor, Userfriendly key binder, FunName editor, Dial-up Optimizer that can reduce lag up to 30% by optimizing your Windows modem settings, and NEW IN THIS VERSION: PK3 Explorer to check out the contents of pk3 .files, and that this version has been brought up to date with the retail version of Q3A. [13:43 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Westwood has released a new version 1.17 patch for their strategy game Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. This release features mainly multiplayer improvements - including improvements to the interface and fixes for latency issues in addition to bug fixes and gameplay tweaks.
You can Westwood Online's auto-download feature, or download it from Voodoo.dk. It should also soon pop up on Westwood's own File Updates/FAQ page. [12:16 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Right on the heels of the UT Review, Sharky Extreme has posted a review of Quake 3 Arena. It is (as usual) a damn fine read. Here is a snippet for you my friend: Quake III Arena's graphics are just plain gorgeous. We're pretty sure most of you have downloaded at least one of the test demos that id released over the past several months. But if you haven't done so, and if you haven't gibbed a camper at 1024x768, and if you have not seen the entrails fly in that macabre ballet of bloody body bits that only Quake III Arena can produce, then you just do not know the meaning of the word "gib!" The explosions are great and weapon shots and gore are the best ever, but we're going to break it down even further. We see three major strengths in Quake III Arena's graphics: the use of curved surfaces, excellent and creative use of brilliant 16-bit and 32-bit textures and the wide variety of complex character models to choose from. [12:13 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Viagra-enhanched dudes over at 3D-Unlimited have dived into an early version of Soldier of Fortune, to post a little preview for your viewing pleasure. Here's a little snippet: The heart and soul of SOF is in the GHOUL Rendering system. Which features some of the coolest and move innovative features I have seen in an rendering system or game engine in a long time. The graphics in SOF look nothing like Quake II. But there is a huge difference between Quake III: Arena and Quake II indefinitely. The only give away in SOF of the Quake II engine is the "boxy" feel of the engine. You take for granted the curved surfaces in Quake III: Arena, there is a huge difference if you play Quake III: Arena and then Quake II. [12:09 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new version 2.5 Build 1088 of my favie little program Webdog, THE .plan and news tracker around. Current users should automatically receive the update in the program, and new users can download the file from their Downloads Page. Here's the What's New: - Deleting custom groups no longer takes 10 minutes (give or take...)
- Added search and filter options to the Quick Link editor
- Custom groups no longer disappear or get renamed to 0
- Database Changes dialog now shows the latest entries/removals at the top
- Fixed up some other bits and pieces
[12:05 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
GameSpot has posted their "Top Ten Best Endings" in the computer gaming world. I do not agree in all their choices, but... blah. [12:02 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new version of the Game Explorer server browser (no version number), can now be brabbed from here. - Fixed server ping times for Q3.
- Added support for id's master.
- Fixed color name support under Q3.
- Better serverinfo handling for rules.
- Added support for Unreal Tournament servers.
[11:59 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
I.AM/Half-Life's famous Half-Life FAQ has been updated with a tons of frequently asked questions and answers related to Half-Life. Check it out, as I.AM/Half-Life is a cool site =) [11:55 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
This article at GameSpy announces a new GameSpy and MPlayer partnership, saying "MPlayer has teamed up with GameSpy to provide GameSpy-powered server browsing to the MPlayer service. The new partnership helps broaden GameSpy's reach and MPlayer's services." [11:53 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Quake3 Player Log, also named Qplog3 - version 1.1 is now available for download. According to Blue, Qplog3 is a PERL script that parses Quake III Arena log files and generates player statistics in HTML format. The program works in the background, and can even upload player data to a remote web server. [11:46 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
PlanetSmurf has word on a new GameHost release, adding rudimentary support for Unreal Tournament. [11:44 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Gibworld Networks have posted their review of the fourth game in the Tomb Raider series, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. [11:43 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Gathering of Developers have tossed up a new version 1.2 patch for their fantasy-based real-time strategy, Age of Wonders.
This lil' 5MB file has a huge abount of changes, fixes and additions, so it sure is a worthy download. [11:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Qtracker Homepage was updated with a new release of the sweet lil' server browser, server launcher, MP3 streaming audio browser, and HTML server list generator - Qtracker, bringing it up to version 2.3 Beta 14. This is kinda plump, but anyways - here's what's new: - Added support for new colored name formatting in Q3DemoTest.
- I forgot to add this to my work log from the last release: changed the file format of skin images from BMP to PCX.
- Updated id Software Quake III Arena master to work with the full version of Quake III Arena.
- Added the Mplayer Quake III Arena master.
- Fixed several minor memory/resource leaks.
- Re-wrote game filter support. Filters are now plug-in (file) based, which means you can download and install new filters easily. The directory structore filter files are stored in is reproduced in the Filter menus, this allows you to organize them anyway you want.
- Added tons of new game filters, including a Quake III Arena Retail filter.
- Added custom icon-based menus. Wow, 5 days of work summed up in 5 words. Jeez.
- Added the Mplayer Unreal server listing.
- Added the Mplayer Unreal Tournament server listing.
- Filter menus are now sorted alphabetically.
- Mods and their URLs are now extracted from the filter plug-ins.
- Filters are now broken up by game type in the menus.
- Fixed QuakeWorld master support. I broke this a few Betas back and didn't realize until now. All the QuakeWorld masters work now.
[11:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Thanks to our bud Vitality for letting us know that Gameaholic is giving away copies of Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena: Elite Edition.
But as usual, this giveaway sucks since only stupid americans can enter the contest ;p [23:40 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
GameRush brought word on Daily Radar's recently finished poll on the question asked all the time; which game is best? Q3A or UT?
[insert spooky trumbs here] Check out the results right now =) [23:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
As a new twist on all these "Blah of the Year" round-ups, 3D Wars have slapped up their "PC Babe of '99" - a cool read on this slow Sunday 'eve =) [23:33 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spotted over at Voodoo Extreme that Masamune Online have posted <="http://www.masamune.com/stevei.html">an interview with freelance artist Steve Garofalo. Word is that Steve "has done all sorts of contract work for game developers", and it is a pretty damn fine read. So go check it out. [23:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Voodoo Extreme have arranged a little chat with four of the dev dudes from Raven Software. Word is that they'll answer any questions that you may have about Raven Software, Elite Force, and Soldier of Fortune - but I'm probably asking them stuff about Santa Claus, sex and dogs. Just as you knew. Wanna jion? Here are the details: Who: Raven Software -- Dan Kramer, Jake Simpson, John Scott, Mike Schulenberg
When: Monday, December 20, 1999 at 9:00 PM ET, 8:00 PM CT, 7:00 PM MT, 6:00 PM PT
Where: http://community.gamefan-network.com:88/eshare/server?action=4 in room Raven Chat Event or on IRC server community.gamefan-network.com using an IRC chat client such as mIRC.
Topic: Raven Software, Soldier of Fortune, and Elite Force
Plug: Click the link above and register your nickname with the GameFan Chat Network to participate in the chat (be sure to hurry up because there is only one thousand spots left!). The chat room, Raven Chat Event, will open up on Monday, December 20, at 4:00 PM PT. You will be able to ask as many questions as you would like when the chat begins (we will have people taking questions and sending them to the moderator).
For those of you who would much rather do the chat shindig on IRC, you may participate on IRC, too! All you need to do is register your nickname and connect to community.gamefan-network.com using a IRC chat client such as mIRC and join the channel! [23:04 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
My favorite little o/cs at Overclockers Australia have posted a shot from AOpen's funky/nifty new feature on their latest video card, entitled "Open BIOS".
This feature is currently implemented in their PA3030 (based on the TNT2 Ultra), and lets you adjust the core and memory speed, core voltage, i/o voltage etc, pretty much like on a cool motherboard! It looks like it rocks big ass, so you better check it out. [22:57 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The mad genioses over at Avault (well, at least David Laprad) have posted their in-depth review of Unreal Tournament, giving it a high 4,5 stars out of a possible 5 rating. Here's a plump bastard of a snippet I stole from Billy's house of love, Voodoo Extreme: Epic has organized these various contests into a tournament ladder that culminates in a battle against the ultimate bot, which is single-player lingo for the “boss character.” A story is loosely attached to these proceedings--something about legalized slaughter being the entertainment of the future and deathmatch offering untold riches--but its sole purpose is to launch people into the Tournament, a one-person game that is played on your computer, not the Internet. The first thing you encounter is the character creation screen, which lets you select a character and modify your gender, appearance and team affiliation; there are more than 300 possible combinations of models and ability levels from which to choose, allowing you to tailor the game to your own preferences. You also select the difficulty level at this point, and as I will reveal on the last page of this review, you must choose wisely since you cannot change it once you start climbing the ladder. The next screen allows you to select a game mode; initially, you will only be able to play deathmatch, but eventually three team-based modes will become available, including Domination, Capture the Flag and Assault. The first rung in each of these modes is a tutorial that teaches the basic mechanics and explains the interface, though people wanting to ease into things a little slower can test their metal using the practice mode, which allows instant access to all of the game types and most of the maps. The action is fully configurable in the practice mode, meaning you can play against 15 of the most evil creations ever to inhabit your computer or slap some sense into a single simpleton--the choice is yours. [22:53 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The Q3A Resource has slapped up it's ANSI C Guide, a handy guide that should familiarize one with ANSI - the language that Quake 3 Arena was developed in. If you plan to make mods and stuff to Q3A, you should take a closer look at this one. [22:49 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Hakeem and Sujoy over at XSReality have slapped up their "Mouse warfare", a round-up of the best mice on the market. I think you definetively should check this one out, it's an interesting read. Here's a snippet: Although many alternatives have been tried, the mouse still remains the king of controllers for the FPS genre. Despite this fact, many players tend to overlook the mouse as a fundamental part of their gaming setup. Some are quite happy to stick with their $5 serial mouse that accompanied their PC when it was bought, while others spend hundreds of dollars on mice attempting to find the 'perfect' one for them. Of course, a lot of the decision lies solely with personal preference - some people may like one shape, while others hate it. [22:44 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Cliff Bleszinksi, or normally entitled CliffyB, fired off a mail to the whacky bastards at Voodoo Extreme, attaching a set of two new and exclusive screenies from the upcoming FREE expansion pack for Unreal Tourney. You can take a closer look (1024x768) at the shots here and here, or eventlually check them out my local copies: Shot 1 -- Shot 2. [22:34 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Here's another predicted "Top Blah Blah" round-up... Adventure Gamer has posted the next and 14th game in their "Top 20 Adventure Games Of All Time" series, today taking a closer look at Broderbund's The Last Express. [22:31 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Gamespot's guide to Half-Life: Opposing Force is now uploaded and ready for reading, giving frustrated gamers a clew on what to do right. If you are stuck in the game, want to learn or something, check it out. [22:24 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
This is the nifty Time 'o The Year when folks are posting this sweet round-ups, taking a peek at all the goodies during the last year.
Now it's Speedy 3D's turn to keep the annual tradition up, with their "Gear of the year", taking a look at the hottest additions related to computer hardware in 1999. Here's a snippet from the thing, which I belive all hardware interested folks shold read: Welcome to the first annual addition of the Speedy 3D "Gear of the Year" awards. In this article we tried to pick and choose the best computer hardware related products of 1999 and list them all here with an explanation of why we chose them, and our thoughts on each item. Our choices were based on price and performance. If a product is extremely expensive, but only offers a 5% performance increase over the product that is $200 less, we choose the cheaper one. I think you'll find this the most honest, and comprehensive "gear of the year" ever. [22:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
My buds over at Thresh's FiringSquad have whipped up their review of Asus' latest cash cow based on the GeForce 256 - the AGP-V6800 Pure. Here's some saucey lovin' from the review, actually more about the release dates (which I'm kinda keen to learn more 'bout): According to ASUS, the AGP-V6800 Pure is scheduled for a mid-December release, and the Deluxe version should be available in early January 2000. We managed to get our hands on an ASUS AGP-V6800 Pure card for review. [21:49 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
The official Wheel of TIme site has once again been updated by Glen Dahlgren.
This time around, he says what's happening in the WoT community, shows off of WoT being action game of the year over at Gamespy, and some reviews.
Go. Read. [17:01 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Sharky Extreme has posted a review of Elsa's new 3D goggles, the sweet ass 3D Revelator. Here's a snip from the review, which, as always on Sharky's, goes quite in-depth (well, not actually - but there are just a pair of goggles we are talkin' about!) The 3D effect is there, and depending on the program, can be anything from ok (Unreal Tournament), to pleasant (Re-Volt), to totally mind-bogglingly stunning (3DMark 2000). In every supported program we tested, there was at least a noticeable improvement in the 3D effect and overall looks. There is a long list of supported games because of the card's usage of D3D, including Half-Life, so you'll be able to use the Revelator on many of your games, past, present and future. Frankly, it's just pretty darn cool! I'm now going to visit my good old grandmother, to eat some food and stuff. There's pretty much traffic over here today (don't we love ya all?), due some links from VE, Blue's etc (wheee!). I'll try to get my p1mpin' ass back to my compo ASAP, to serve some fresh news to you naughty boys... And the chill'down-dude is home, so he may help out a bit, too =) [16:52 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Electronic Arts' FTP Server now has a new patch for the uhm, Theme Park-game, Theme Park World. The patch fixes some various problems you may experience with the game - so if you get any nasty errors (or some of the problems mentioned below), it can be a Smart ThingTM to download the update. As seen on VE: - If you choose to clear a huge area of land your game returns to the windows desktop?
- If you choose to buy an area of land and include an area that already contains attractions your game returns to the desktop?
- Intermittent failure when visiting or publishing parks online causes the game to freeze?
- If you build a particularly complex park the game may sometimes drop out to windows desktop
- Intermittent freezes when handling staff?
- Your tally of Golden tickets sometimes appears incorrect?
- Park visitors sometimes become lost or stuck on a ride?
- Your advisors voice sometimes seems to break up?
- Intermittently some sounds effects may not trigger?
[16:43 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
ASUS has posted a new set of beta drivers for their cards based on NVIDIA's TNT2-cihp. More precisely, it's about their V6600 and V6800 boards.
There's now word on what this new drivers does, but there sure are something. You may double your framerate if you're sticking with a good 'ole 386, so you better check it out anyway =) [16:39 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
NoName just left the buiding - I had a short, but great time with the only untitled dude in the crew over here. So now over to the usual news p1mpin'...
Noticed over at Voodoo Extreme that Bjorn 3D has posted the full chat log from tonight's chat with NVIDIA dudes Jen-Hsun Huang and Mike Hara (story). Here's a nice little scoop from the log: (TTEOR): now that you guys got T&L in the checklist what is the next big speed/quality improvement we can expect in the 3d accelarator market?
If FX1 will be used by game developers and is available on D3D and OGL, we'd be happy to support it. [16:14 CET by NoName - Post a Comment]
Whee!! Hanging around with cosmo right now, at his house in Oslo (capital of Norway), and having a great time. We couldn't resist bumping into Voodoo Extreme and spotting that Planet Fortress has posted some new shots from TF2. Enjoy. [12:57 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Microsoft released an updated version of DirectX yesterday, bringing the must-have thingie up to version 7A.
As far as I can understand, the "update" in it, is improved force feedback performance, and better compatibility with various devices
If you feel confident you need it, just get it! [12:48 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
3Dfx has released a new set of drivers for the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000. (In other words, if you're the proud owner of a 3500 TV, you'll have to wait for the specific drivers)
Now go get'em [1:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Yup, then I'm going to bed. Really looking forward to tomorrow, because I'm gonna meet the Untitled dude (NoName, actually), who is visiting the town to buy some presents to Christmas. Err, no.
Also, I'm hoping for a bit more snow, cause I really have to test my new and shiny snowboard! Cya then. [1:14 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Looks like this is the day for exclusive shots of all sorts - now there's the mad bastards at Sir-Tech Canada that fired off an exclusive screenshot to Evil Avatar, showing off "some horrible jelly-looking things" from their upcoming 3D Role Playing Game, Wizardry 8. You can view the shot from this news post at Evil's, or this local copy. Here's the juicey text attached: The universe is on the brink of change. Vast forces are preparing for the final confrontation. A small group of heroes from afar must plunge into this storm, uncover forgotten secrets, and bring about a new era. The destinies of entire worlds lie in their hands.
Wizardry 8 brings an entire world of fantasy to life in one of the most eagerly awaited games ever. [1:08 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
NetGamesUSA has posted their step by step list of everything you need to know about how to set up ngStats for Unreal Tournament - making it automatically keep track of every game, score and ngStats for every player and provide for a permanent post event archive of the party! If you're hosting a LAN or something, this is a definitive hit, so you better check it out.
[0:53 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
John at EuroGamer let me know that The Online Gamers Association, which BTW officially launched on Monday, have crosed the magic 500 members line. He also claims that the OGA has also become truly global, with members from Norway (Heh, that's my country :) to New Zealand, and Canada to China!
Wanna join? Direct your browser 'o p1mpage here. [0:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The chUmbaLum sOft Homepage just got updated with a new MilkShape 3D release, bringing it up to version 1.1.0 Beta.
Word from the information page sounds pretty much like this: "MilkShape 3D is a lowcount polygon modeler, which is capable of importing and exporting various (game) file formats", and here's the sauce on this version: Good news today ;-) I've released the new beta (and hopefully last beta). I didn't have time enough to implement all of the TODO-LIST, but the old beta expires on Dec 18 1999. I'm forced to release another beta, so that users can continue with their work. This beta expires on Jan 16 2000. Another 30 days of free usage. [0:32 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
News to excite all Sid Meier fans around the world. Firaxis' official page on Sid Meier's next game have opened its doors. It does not have an official title yet, but they have announced that it will be based on Dinosaurs, which appearently was the guy's dreams as a kid.
[0:28 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
PlanetSmurf mentions updates of two FAQs today. First off, the unofficial Quake III Arena gameplay FAQ has been updated with more information on Q3DM6 and Q3TOURNEY2, as well as a few other changes.
Activision's official Quake III Arena solutions FAQ (?) have also gotten a new Problem/Solution; "Quake 3 won't start. I have a 2D card with limited 3D support and a Voodoo 3D card" [0:12 CET by cosmo - 2 Comments]
HumanHead's ho muffin' Tim Gerritson sent over an exclusive new shot to GameFan, showing off this upcoming Unreal-engine powered Viking Action Game, Rune.
It looks sweet (I'm a viking from North ya know) - so you better go check it out; either the GameFan story, or my local copy. [0:07 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Saw on PlanetSmurf that www.n-o-p.com has a new fresh version 4 of this Q3A/UT log file parser. Here's word on installing this version, as well as the usual Whats New: NOP v4 is done. It's a rather big update, many things have changed. This means you'll probably have to re-install the whole package, since old configuration files wont work.
Here's a list of changes / additions:
- added daily / weekly / monthly stats generation
- added Q3A bots support, new color codes, fixed game_type
- added work around for Q3A timecode bug
- added Q3A full and UT full weapons support
- added CTFCaptures, CTFGets, CTFReturns & CTFPoints
- output is now 100% customizable
- completely rewrote FTP stuff
- fixed sorting for FPH/FPG
- fixed bug "winning more games than playing"
- fixed timezone bug
- updated ASP / CGI scripts Check the NOP Homepage for downloads and information =) [23:58 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Longbow Digital Arts' off-Road battle tank racing and combat game, Tread Marks - is now decleared as GOLD, which means that it should be ready for shipping out right to your local gamestore (well, not until January 2000, though)
You can check the Tread Marks News Page for more information. [23:51 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Death at Quantum9 has posted a little preview of Sudden Strike, a game to be released early next year.
With comments like "imagine the battles of Command & Conquer: Red Alert ; add in realism, much better graphics, better sound, and useful buildings.", this game is something to watch out for. It didn't hit your plastic christmas tree, though. [23:38 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The honey-roasted site has word on an upcoming chat with NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang.
You can join the folks with your favorite IRC client (such as mIRC) on #bjorn3d at bear.openprojects.net. Time for the talkin' will be Friday, December 17 at 4:00 PM PST, which I belive is in the future (ya know, I'm usually posting these too late anyway). [23:20 CET by chiller - 6 Comments]
Some weeks ago I was surfin' the good 'old Internet, spotting a contest over at Mortyr.Net. I p1mped out a sweet ass (?) Winamp Skin for the contest (duh, that's it was all about, stoopid) and entered.
Two days ago I got an e-mail from one of the guys over at the nifty-keen Mortyr.Net - and guess what; I WON a fresh copy of the nazi-kickin'-butt-game Mortyr! (Well, actually we all won, it was only three of us entering the contest =) [23:10 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Checked the net-home of my fav PC mag, PC Format - and spotted an article regarding bleem!, Sony and sueing. Nothing unusual - before I checked the headline in detail. "Bleem to sue Sony". Yup, "Bleem to sue Sony" - the company that makes PlayStations is being sued by the company that makes the emulator.
Head your browser 'o p1mpin' over to this page for details. [22:51 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Spotted on Evil Avatar (which shamelessly ganked it from Unreal Universe) thet Shadar Logoth has made available his nifty-keen Multiplayer Strategy Guide for Legend Entertainment's fantasy action game, Wheel of Time. [22:35 CET by cosmo - 1 Comments]
The 'AMD demonstrates 900-MHz chips' story at EETimes has word of AMD demonstrating two versions of their upcoming 900mhz bad boys of some Athlons.
The first one uses the company's standard 0.18-micron process with aluminum interconnects, while the second is produced at the same line width but comes from AMD's Dresden, Germany, fab and features copper interconnects.
Looks like Intel only see the ass of AMD right now - I know the AMD dudes have no prob of pushing the MHz higher in the skies, as a computer manufacturer named Komplett Data here in Norway have sold a 1000MHz, also known as 1GHz - supercooled 750MHz monster for some months already...
According to the article, the 800-MHz Athlon will be out next quarter, with the 1GHz coming out summertimes '2000, hopefully before my b'day, so I can gank out somie more CPU power =) [19:22 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
I think I've posted some of this items before, but I got blessed by the quick round-up of today's GameSpy Features - mailed in by Gary Koltookian. So here's the blurbs: - Best of 1999 Final Installment! Best action and adventure games of 1999. Hats off to Wheel of Time and Nocturne!!
- GameSpy picks THE BEST Game of 1999 - Unreal Tournament! Read here to find out why, plus read fan input about the decision.
- GameSpy special category awards: See who won for outstanding graphics, sound, music, story, AI, multiplayer, Genre-bender and Best Console.
- Planet Fargo takes a look at deciding the game of the year, how long it takes to decide, and what the most common phrases are when people write in to vote.
- Older news: Best of 99' Part 4 (best RPG and best Sports Game)
- Swat 3 Review
[19:14 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Beta Bites has word that Ellipse Studios is looking for 150 gamers to beta test the multiplayer features in their upcoming real-time underwater strategy title Submarine Titans.
Word is that beta testers must have a 28.8k modem (wheee!), Intel-compatible PC with a minimum Pentium II 233Mhz and 6-8 hours free each week. You can get more details on their online application. [19:10 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Another thing i spotted on Beta Bites that pc.ign.com has whipped up a fresh and sweet preview of Mindscape/TopWare Interactive's upcoming real time strategy game Earth 2150 Preview. [18:57 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
I missed this one earlier today (though it's on top at Stomped), but it sure sounds sweets, so here it is - fresh and p1mped =)
According to Redwood, the Quake 3 Server Admin Center is a new site, intended to be the one-stop-shop for briefly all your Quake3 administration needs. Lucky asses having a fast speed to the server - because the guys over there have unlimited both bandwidth storage =)
Just note that right now I only see an empty page with no links, and hence the URL (/q3sactest/) and title (New Page 1) - Redwood might have spilled the beans on this post, e.g. the site is not up yet... Anyways, I'll keep you updated. [18:23 CET by cosmo - 2 Comments]
Uhm, just fixed a bit on the comments scripting, which made all posts older than this 'uncommentable'. Sorry 'bout that, but at least it should work better now ;) [16:45 CET by Doff - 1 Comments]
Well, it's possible to get a lot of stuff from Santa Claus, but Daikatana will, unfortunately, not be one of them.
The Avault reports the few words they have been given from ION's John Kavanagh:
"After much effort, we finally have Daikatana to the point where we can say we have a great game on our hands. Unfortunately, we are too late for Christmas, but as always, we have put quality first. I realize this is frustrating to anyone supporting this title, but I'm sure you will agree it is imperative that we begin building the reputation of Ion Storm as a premier quality developer" [15:13 CET by cosmo - 3 Comments]
Noticed over at Stomped that id Software has released the Mac version of the most recent Quake 3 Arena Demo. You can grab it from id's Q3A Demo Page, or this direct link.
The file weighs in at a pretty p1mpin' massive 45.8MB, so bandwidth impaired may want to wait a few days for all the Mac Die-Hard gamers to download the bad boy.
Or, as Chris at VE states, "if you're not on the big fat porn-pipe, you might be sitting here twiddling your thumbs for a while. Anyways, if you're runnin' the good 'ole Macintosh, and want to get some fraggin' in Quake III-style, you might want to check out this baby". [15:04 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Preacher from Unreality sent in two stories of note today. First off, he got an exclusive shot showing off the upcoming free levelpack for UT. Anyways - I've spotted some new shots from the baby at both PU and UU, so you might check out those as well. Preacher also mentioned that there is a big possibility that there will be a couple of Unreal 1 characters in the pack too!
Secondly, he let us know that Macross has put together a page with UT fan art. It looks cool, so check both of the stories out, i suggest =) [14:52 CET by cosmo - 4 Comments]
Alex "Sharky" Ross sent word on Editor Pete Closs' Skarky Extreme review of Unreal Tournament. The review is quite huge and in-dpeth, covering most aspects of the game. Rated by a character of 9.5 out of 10 possible, it looks like UT is going to be a decent hit under the christmas tree! Here's a snip from the thing: While the story is merely average the gameplay is far from it. In fact it is absolutely top notch. From your first match against mere frag bait to the final, heart racing battle against the incredibly good Xan, Unreal Tournament delivers adrenaline-fueled, mouse crunching, and immensely fun gameplay by the truckload. The weapons in deathmatch are all very original, very balanced, great to frag with and accompanied by earth shatteringly good sound effects. The addition of a secondary fire modes serves only to make things even more interesting.
Most importantly the game's levels are excellent, varied and great looking with different locations including snowstorms outside, electrical storms below you, galactic phenomena above you and gorgeous textures covering every wall. If you are after pure deathmatch levels then Unreal Tournament definitely delivers. Whether you prefer tight corridors or open arenas, it offers both. If you want more interesting and strange levels, then it offers battles atop skyscrapers, fights aboard a sea bound Galleon and even a Space Ship speeding through hyperspace to blast around. It has become a reviewer cliché now to say this but it truly was hard resisting just one more game of Unreal Tournament in order to finish this review. You'll feel the need to fight harder and harder bots, continually widen your domination victory margin and shave more seconds off your best Assault times just as we did. [14:47 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
CodeShark, the owner of "Yo Moma" patch group let us know that him and his crw have made a nifty little hack for Unreal Tournament which allows you to use the "Boss" "Robot" voice for a "Male" characters voice... They've entitled the new voice selection as "War Machine" instead of per say "Male Three" simply because it is not a male voice... I've upped the tiny 2KB file at my UN Account here. [23:31 CET by cosmo - 3 Comments]
I'm now going to eat, and then to bed.
I've used the whole damn day to write stuff to a project 'bout Russian Technology (ugh)... Bah. And when we're finished tomorrow, I'll try my new Snowboard (rocks ass), but I'll do my best to keep things alive here.
And Saturday, my plan is to meet NoName, our own untitled p1mpin' dude. [23:28 CET by cosmo - 1 Comments]
A demo of one of the last (probably) games to support 3dfx GLIDD only, WasatchWare's Road Trip 2000, may now be grabbed from 3dfx Mania (11.2Mb). Here's a nice juicy snip on the boy: Road Trip 2000 is a state-of-the-art driving simulator. This game offers much longer and realistic tracks than the most popular driving simulator games for the PC.
Major features include:
- GIS generated scenery using real DEM and DLG data products
- Photo realistic textures
- Two way traffic
- Track lengths of 70 miles
- Optimizable for your particular hardware platform
3dfx card REQUIRED [23:25 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
3DGPU has made their GEForce 256 tweak guide available to the masses. The guide covers both image quality and speed, so if you want to p1mp the extra goods out of your already-oh'-so-hot card, be sure to check it out! [17:59 CET by cosmo - 3 Comments]
155&Rising at BarrysWorld have whipped up a review of the recently released Q3A CTF Maps from id (story). The reviews goes quite in-depth, and there's a buttload of shots there too. [17:44 CET by cosmo - 1 Comments]
Hot damn mothafucka, lotsa new releases of varios Q3A Tools/Add-ons today! Well, I guess that's just fine.
A new utility to analyze Quake 3 Arena log files and create HTML files with cool and sweet ass nifty stats is Q3 Logger. The bastard of a release is named BETA 1, and you can get more information/downloads here. [17:41 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
A new version 5.1 of the competition Quake modification CRMod++ may now be downloaded from the ClanRing Mod Development Page. [17:37 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
The OnTheWay Downloads Page has the first public version 1.00 of the Quake 3 Arena Server Launcher OnTheWayQ3A available for download. [17:34 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
is Software p1mp o-head Dave "Zoid" Kirsch recently made a post to the Quake 3 World Forums, announcing the new Threewave Capture the Flag Maps for Quake3! CTF is a genious type 'o game, so all owners of Q3 should d/l this thing as soon as possible. You can get more infos about the maps and more in Zoid's post, or just grab the babies in one of the following formats (8MB): [17:25 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Lots of posts related to Quake3 and Linux these days, but... Good news from id is that they've officially released the Linux Demo of Quake 3 Arena!
This game sure is a hit, so if you haven't bought the whole shitload from the shelves yet, you should definetively grab this p1mpin' poop from id! [23:32 CET by cosmo - 2 Comments]
Lucky BastardTM Steve at the Shugarized Shacckie got nine new and exclusive screenshots from id Software's Zoid. The shots are showing off the soon-to-be-released Quake III: Arena Capture the Flag maps. They looks kinda, cool, BTW. [23:29 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Well, not actually - but a little bit...
Interplay have slapped up some parts of the source code for their good'old Descent 2 (yup, THAT old). There's word that this code will not compile as some code had to be removed in order for the source code to be released. Seen on VE. [23:27 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Lotsa good news for the Linux fans these days - now it's 3dfx' turn to excite the guys...
They've released new drivers for both the Voodoo 3 and Banshee. Appearently, they fixes some probs with Quake III: Arena (so the thing is worth an upgrade). [22:20 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Avault have posted a new version 2.0 patch for the US version of Driver, the - err - driving game. You can grab the 1.43 MB file from here, and here comes word on this patch: Added a user-definable dead zone amount (10, 20, 30, 40 & 50%)
Added a control to switch between analog and digital (mainly for joysticks that don't report what they are correctly)
Allowed keys to be used when in joystick control.
Made the analog steering have much more range than before.
NOTE: that existing user recorded replays that use joystick control will no longer work.
Brightness setting is saved into Config.dat
russjump.mcd supplemenatry file for Rail Road Cops cheat.
Lang.eng file incorporates New Menu Options
CD Sound volume adjustment compatibility has been improved.
Note: If a non-keyboard device is chosen a setting of NONE in the "Joystick Redefine" is required so the "Keyboard Redefine" option is enabled for a particular in-game function. [22:17 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
Raven's Rick Johnson made a .plan update with the conclution on his earlier questions about IPX in Soldier Of Fortune, where he asked if support was nessicary (story). Here's the whooping poop 'p1mping: Well, I got a whole ton of responses over the IPX. About 65% of the people said to drop IPX. People who wanted IPX in were mainly those who run LAN parties a lot and find IPX easier to configure and get going. So with that, SoF will support IPX. I brought over the bug fixes I did for Heretic2 and we'll do some testing on it to make sure it works. So once the demo is released, please let me know if there are any issues with IPX that need to be addressed for the final game...
There's no announced date yet for the demo (learned that lesson from the past...) but once we complete it and get it QA'd, we'll pick a date for it to be released... [20:18 CET by Doff - Post a Comment]
Microsoft's Windows 2000 has, indeed, gone gold today, in other words: It is completed, and has been sent to manufacturing.
Supposedly, it is going to be released worldwide on Feb 17. 2000, according to the official accouncement
If it is a good thing, or not, will remain a question to that very day... [19:54 CET by cosmo - 1 Comments]
Inside Mac Games Newsbriefs has word that Unreal Tourney for the Macintosh has gone gold. We can expect the bad boy to appear in early January in the next millenuim, for a cost of $49.99. There's more over at IMG. [16:36 CET by cosmo - Post a Comment]
News to excite the Linux fans; Mesa3D, that OpenGL-fan API - can now be downloaded as a fresh new version 3.1. No word on what the new thingie changes, but there have to be somethin'... [16:10 CET by cosmo - 3 Comments]
I'm working on getting up a script for adding comments to the news posts. The comments posted doesn't seem to show up, but I'm working on it right now...
UPDATE: Fixed the bug, so fire off your frustration! [14:56 CET by cosmo]
This story at Stomped has the new id Software Quake 3 Arena Level Editing Tools, a 4.47 MB file, including Q3Radiant and other editing tools. Here's two direct links you can p1mp: [14:52 CET by cosmo]
id software'd Graeme Devine made a .plan update with some y2k and Q3A humor. I actually laughed my ass off (err, no), so you should check it out... Here's a taste: 3. The world’s nuclear arsenal goes off because of a Y2K glitch.
Q3A does not survive a nuclear war, although the authorize server will continue to run.Actually, we were unable to test this. We’re just guessing. We really don’t want to test this out, so we’ll just it as golden that we’d be in big trouble if this happened. [14:48 CET by cosmo]
The version 2.5 final of my favorite news- and .plan tracker Webdog is now available for download at the Webdog Downloads Page. Err, not quite right, cuz the links is down due some setup trouble (I've fired off a mail to my bud Richard at Webdog about that). There's some cool additions in this version. Dig 'em: - Proxy Support
- Multiple user profiles (similar to Outlook Express)
- Easier interface
- Improved "wizards" for easy configuration
- A new, easy-edit quick-link bar
- Major (major!) speed increases!
- Integrated web-browser
- Update rules to stop updating when you're playing your favorite games!
- New dialogs, menus, options, and more! [21:18 CET by cosmo]
Christian "Xian" Antkow at id Software updated his .plan, which really don't need a detailed explanation from me: A frustrating part about reading reviews on Q3A, is how reviewers don't state the correct facts sometimes. 98.2% of the reviews I've read state that Sonic Mayhem did the background music for Q3A. This is only 50% true =) There are 12 background tracks in the game. 6 were indeed done by Sonic Mayhem, and the remaining 6 were done by Bill Leeb and Chris Petersen of Front Line Assembly / Delerium fame.
If you view the PAK file with WinZip under baseq3/music, you'll see 6 sonic*.wav tracks and 6 fla*.wav tracks (Some of the FLA tracks were broken up into two parts for an intro and a repeating loop part) [21:17 CET by cosmo]
Tinman at Dynamix made a .plan update with some scoops on the cancellation of TRIBES Extreme, as well as posting a new version of the Hunters add-on: This fall has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, so I thought it was about time to do another update. The cancellation of Tribes: Extreme was of course, dissappointing. Being part of the AI team, we had some great successes with the bots - there were some levels I worked on and playtested for hours, and am very sorry to see that they can't be released. But thinking of what we'll be able to do with an extra couple of months - I can't wait. Tribes 2 will leave everyone with no doubt that concentrating our efforts on one product, *without* having to cut features because of such "Extreme" time constraints, will pay off bigtime!!!
On a happier note, an improved Hunters1.3 is now available!
The highlights are:
- Three new missions have been added. PandorasBox by Matt "Ptavv" Timlin, ValleyOfTheWolf by Tyler "MITTENMAN" Sten, and PathOfDaggers by Eric "Griffon" Soulvie. Much thanks guys - especially for how much work I made you all do until your levels got the golden "thumbs up"!
- The official website for Hunters has moved to http://www.tribesplayers.com/tribesplayers/hunters Much thanks to "Starlord" and "Schnoz" from Datumplane (R.I.P.) for all their hard work and support!
- When a person has picked up enough flags to break the current record for that map, an announcement goes out to everyone. Hopefully this will paint a bullseye on him and make setting a record just a bit harder! :)
- A minor bug fix: for people who call: remoteEval(2048, HuntersFindTarget); to find a target, if they set themselves an alternate waypoint, it would be overwritten once the previous target picked up another flag. A new function has been written to cancel the auto-targetting. Execute: remoteEval(2048, HuntersCancelTarget); [20:01 CET by cosmo]
According to Westlake Interactive, who is porting the PC version of Unreal Tournament to Mac, the porting is soon dome. This is a snip from the story: Unreal Tournament for Mac is in the final candidate phase, we have produced what could be the gold master CD and are shipping it off to MacSoft for final review and approval. Our testers have been very pleased with the game's stability and speed, and have been have way to much fun playing. [19:41 CET by cosmo]
Canopus have released new drivers for the Spectra 2500/3200/5400/ series of cards (powered by nVidia, AFAIK), and there's Win9X and WinNT releases over there:
- Spectra Win 9X Drivers
- Spectra Win NT Drivers
[19:37 CET by cosmo]
Lots of demos pooping up today, too bad for bandwidth impaired ;) The Russian guys at New Media Generation have released a test demo of Hired Team: Trial. Courios people; the Test version of the Trial is an early test of the multiplayer-only version of their upcoming first-person shooter. Wow, dude...
That became a total ripoff from Frans at Blue's, BTW... Ah shit, it seems like VE did the same thing: "This work-in-progress demo features two deathmatch levels and a few weapons from the full game, is playable over LAN and the Internet, and supports Direct3D and OpenGL accelerators. One note is that you need to start the demo via the 'bin/Shine.exe' executable and not from the Start menu, due to a setup error.".
There's also roumors around on russian servers in the bad mood, so, in addition to the original direct link - I can tell you that Frans have upped a mirror to 3D Action Gamers. [19:29 CET by cosmo]
3DFiles have posted the first War in Heaven Demo. I'm kinda lazy ass on info, so... you better head over here if more interested in war, heaven and stuff. [19:26 CET by cosmo]
Though there are so many commercials despeately trying to get some grandmothers to buy a nifty-ass sweet game with an innocent little Jesus-dude to their small 10-years grandchildren this christmas, it looks like Shiny can't p1mp the game out yet.
An article explained as "Shiny's Dave Perry was in London yesterday to tout this revolutionary 3D action game and to explain why we'll have to wait until the next millennium to see it" at GameSpot UK states that the "sophisticated 3D engine had some devilishly sophisticated graphic card incompatibilities". There's also a bonch of new shots of the game here, so if you feel blessed today, you may jump over here. [19:20 CET by cosmo]
The Delta-Force2.com site 'o love has posted a new and sweet program imaginally named IP 4 DF2. This boy allows Delta Force 2 players to connect to servers directly through IP, rather than going through the NovaWorld servers. Die-hard gamers can specify up to 10 IP's to be directly launched in this version. [15:32 CET by cosmo]
Quake 3 World has the edited chat logs from last night's Australian / New Zealand chat with Tim Willits and Paul Steed at id Software. Here's a snippet from the thing, in fact - my favorite part: <steed> I have no Hangover
<steed> I eat lots of honey
<moderator> <Morgoth> #Auditorium.Room01 -> Point Releases - What kind of features will we see implemented? New CTF maps, bug fixes, new weapon models (Lightning Gun) new modes of play?
<steed%gt; and Ozzie girls But there's a bit more interesting one, concerning a new Wolf-game to be directed by id: <moderator> <choc> #Auditorium.Room01 -> how about doom 2000 and wolfenstein 3d updated any hints?
<Willits> a version of wolfenstein using the Quake 3 engine is currently in development
<DarkViper> awesome news
<Willits> ...but not by id software, under the DIRECTION of id software [15:26 CET by cosmo]
Sweet ass genie Marty Saxton let me know that PingTool.Com has word on that they've been acquired by a neat "broadband software company" called BroadJump.
With the merger comes the annocement that PingTool will now be freeware, which means that it will cost a buttload of bad ass money. Nah, just kidding, it'll be free (gocha)!
Also, it is going to be developed by a larger team of people, which translates into better software (more features, more supported games, better support, more all around coolness). There's also a new version 2.6 of the nifty utility (did I mention it's freeware?) available from the Downloads Page.
This sounds very cool, indeed. I've been using the shareware version of GameSpy 3D the last months, bet the fact that PingTool is getting a new kick in the ass to do things better, is great news! For more information see the full press release, or visit PingTool. [15:13 CET by cosmo]
The Roger Wilco Downloads Page has a new beta version of this nifty (voice)chat program. Check it out if you feel to... loose bandwidth... [15:06 CET by cosmo]
Raven Software's Rick Johnson updated his .plan with word that the Soldier of Fortune demo should be finished soon. Thanks Redwood. The dude also had a question about IPX support in the game, here's a pimpy-stompy blurbie: We're getting close to putting out a public demo of SoF. While we are busy working on that, along with finishing up the main game, we've also been working hard on networking and various DM games / modes. My question to everyone is, how important is IPX support? Does anyone really use this anymore (i.e. can we drop support for it in SoF)? Let me know... If you feel like you need to express your opinion on the SoF IPX support, then drop Rick a line. [15:01 CET by cosmo]
VE has word on new Turbo GL drivers for the Matrox G400 line o' cards.
According to Matrox monkeys, you shoild "point your browser o' pimpage over to the release notes" before installing. [14:58 CET by cosmo]
Avault has a new patch for Dirt Track Racing, not mentioning what the changes are. [14:55 CET by cosmo]
GA-Source has upped an interview with PR dude Brian Burke at 3dfx.
The interview focuses on 3dfx's decision to release the source code for their proprietary Glide 3D API, how this will effect the gaming community, and the usual stuff. It's a damn good read, so you better check it out. [14:52 CET by cosmo]
I was just surfin' my dayly porn.. eh... site tour, when I spotted that the famous WebbieWorld award/searchengine have whipped us up at a nice Hot Picks-thingie, with a even nicer comment: "- An excellent 3D gaming resource"!
I added a sweet ass 'o bunny button at the left side, so if you feel like voting for this fine establishment or somethin', just kick the baby, er... click the button. Now return to normal news. [22:39 CET by cosmo]
Seems like I'm being too lazy these days, because I kinda missed the release of a new v1.22 release of ZDoom yesterday, which was really bad - cuz it was a "cricket-chirping-quiet Sunday" (as Blue said).
The new release includes a couple of additions to the script compiler, as well as several bug fixes. Win32, Linux and source code are provided. [22:36 CET by cosmo]
Code monkey John Carmack @ id updated his .plan (which reminds me of Weddog's move to UGN/Blue's) with an enourmus, great, supya - err - a lot on development of OpenGL drivers and applications.
Since the main page over here now looks noofed up with too lenghty quotes, I'm not giving you bastas' the whole thing. But - I have a sweet ass nice little blip for you here: I think there is a strong need for a proactive, vendor-neutral OpenGL watchdog, or even a small group, especially in the linux space.
I have been working on the utah-GLX team for quite a while now, and while I have been very pleased with the results, I would like to see more effort spent on doing things as right as possible. Because the developers (me included) are basically just doing the work in their spare time, testing usually only consists of running their favorite OpenGL application, and a few of the mesa demos, or some of the xscreensaver hacks.
Recently I did the initial bringup of a RagePro driver on linux, and I was much more conscious of the large untested feature space, and the tunnel vision I was using to get it to the point of running Q3. [22:27 CET by cosmo]
The Unreal Technology Page has word on a problem users are experiencing when connecting to an UT Server, running the never-really-released version 401 of the game. Here's the saucey lovin': If your server is running version 401, it is not 100% compatible with 402 clients. 401 was a beta patch that was never publically released. Please upgrade your servers to 402!
We believe this is the cause of 402 clients getting the following crash in network games:
Critical: appError called:
Critical: Assertion failed: ActorClass [File:E:\unreal220\Engine\Src\UnChan.cpp] [Line: 714]
...
If you get this error while playing, check the version number of the server to which you were connected. If its version is 400 or 402, please send a bug report to utbugs402@epicgames.com - include the server version, the map you were playing, and your unrealtournament.log file. BTW, there's an older update regarding foreign language installs with the latest UT Patch - which I accedentally missed the other day. Since I love you guys (Yikes. Clichè. Shish Ka Blah), here's the whole blurb:Another patch glitch has been reported. Foreign language versions of Unreal Tournament are changing to english after the patch is applied.
To fix it, after patching go into your Unreal Tournament system directory (e.g. c:\UnrealTournament\System) and open the files UnrealTournament.ini and Default.ini with a text editor. Change the line (in the [Engine.Engine] section) Language=int to Language=frt (French), Language=itt (Italian), or Language=est (Spanish). [19:38 CET by Doff]
There is now a possibility to Sign up to betatest Baldur's Gate for Macintosh, over at IMG magazine!
So, if you're the proud owner of a mac, why not? :) You'll get the chance to play it before most others. [18:36 CET by cosmo]
3DFiles have whipped up Artifact Entertainment's demo of the RPG Demise. The blip weighs quite a massive 110 MB - and here's a blurb on what the thing is: You start your adventure in the city of Dejenol, which will be your sanctuary from the dangers of the dungeon. Here in the Library, the combined wisdom and research from thousands of years of scholarly activities is contained. Perhaps here you can find some clues to aid you in defeating the Ku'tan Jenal....
Characters:
9 races (Human, Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Yeti, Ogre, Saris, Troll, Giant)
12 guilds (Artisan, Warrior, Paladin, Ninja, Thief, Barbarian, Explorer,
Villain, Mage, Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric)
3 alignments (Good/Neutral/Evil)
2 Sexes (Male/Female of course!)
18 player pictures included, or import your own
100+ spells [19:15 CET by Doff]
The official Wheel of Time site has been updated by the main WoT man, Glen Dahlgren.
Basically, the update describes the newly launched Server Front End (Ooops, I guess I didn't post news about that), a possible patch coming soon, and the latest review-news! [17:46 CET by cosmo]
Spotted over at Stomped that Unreal Universe has word on that Epic Megagames soon will release a level pack for Unreal Tournament, and best of all - it's going to be free!
There's also a new shot from one of the levels from CliffyB, entitled DM-MojoII. [23:47 CET by chiller]
Paul Jaquays updated his .plan with an explanation for why you can't find all the maps and models that were in some early screenshots of Quake3 in the retail version, in adittion to a buttload of more stuff. The update is kinda lenghty, but yet interesting - so I'm ganking the whole shit: Been a while since I did a plan update ... and even longer since I did one discussing Quake III Arena. Since the game is out now ... I can talk. I recently posted a version of this on one of Scary’s discussions boards and thought I’d make it available in a more general forum. This is what happened to some of the "lost" things that have appeared in older screenshots, but not in the final game.
Lost Models
There’s been some discussion on various boards as to whatever happened to the "designer" models that appeared in early screenshots. They were intended as tests for Steed and Carmack to work out the kinks in the MD3 models. They were fun, but they weren’t final. Even with the eclectic mix of our final models, they would have been out of place. And like the unused maps, the way they were constructed (including the use of multiple component piece skins) is not completely compatible with the final model versions.
Lost Particles
OK, now let’s talk about that weapon with the particle trail that the "xian" model is shooting in some old screen shots. I’m pretty certain that was an early version of the plasma gun. It looks cool and I like the particles. We certainly could have done some awesome things with them as the shader functions matured, but as a game feature in Q3A, they were problematic at best. While testing Q3Test2 (now Q3dm17), we learned that a single rail shot added an instant hit of 3000+ triangle faces (all Q3 particles are made of polygon triangles) to the map. In bigger space maps that followed, it would have been far worse. So the feature changed. We had similar problems with other functions using particles. And so, particles left the game.
Many Hands
Touching on Tim Willits’ comments about many hands touching the maps. Generally speaking, one designer created the map ... usually after discussing feature ideas with the design group. He would work out the play concepts and establish a general architectural style. At some point during development, the map would be handed off to another designer to fix problems involving curves, tweak some play problems, and maybe punch up the appearance of some of the architecture. Then the artists would get involved, making special models and custom textures. They did for our maps what an interior decorator does for real world buildings -- taking fairly drab settings and making them into pieces of art. And while everyone outside the company seems to want to pigeon-hole our artists into narrow task functions, I’d like to point out that ALL our artists worked on the arenas, not just Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack. I’d like to mention that several arenas owe their distinctive and totally awe-inspiring appearances to Kenneth Scott’s phenomenal "set design", model building and texture-making abilities (and everyone thinks he just does skins ... Hah!).
Lost Maps
Back on the topic of "lost" maps. Anyone who has ever made a map, professionally, semi-professionally, or just for fun, knows that map development goes through stages. You build stuff. You make it look as "pretty" as a map guy can. You test it, debate it with your peers and then rebuild the parts that didn’t work. If it’s your job, you do this a lot. Along the way, you leave a pretty hefty debris trail. Quite a number of the "lost" maps that show up in early screenshots are prototypes of the final maps (or at least things that ended up in the final maps).
By way of example, I can discuss Q3DM8: Brimstone Abbey. This map originally began as a sprawling, mostly flat map; a literal maze of corridors. Several early screenshots show parts of that "lost" map. As the game matured, the design concept for that map was deemed inappropriate. That map was scrapped, but at least one feature was salvaged ... the cathedral room. The next iteration was another big map combining the cathedral with the base portion of a CTF map that was under development. It was scrapped, but now the cathedral had balconies and a lift up to the high ledges that connected to the power-up ledge. That level consisted of the central cathedral, some halls around the upper level (with stairs to the lower) and a large courtyard (where the drowing pool is now located). The cathedral lift became a jump pad. Stairs were scrapped, the large courtyard became a pool (to show water at E3), the hall connecting the drowning pool with the cathedral was redesigned based on a suggestion from Jim Molinets of Rogue and the rocket launcher courtyard with it’s distinctive "pop-up toaster" jump pad was added. But architecturally, it’s not far removed from that long lost original.
I took a look through the screenshots of the "lost" "organic" maps that everyone is mooning over. They probably could be built with the current status of the engine (please note that the way we built curves changed at LEAST three times over the course of Quake 3 development). But as you map makers will soon discover, curves are great, but their cost in polygons adds up fast. Add some fog and it only gets worse. The IHV version of the mouth that appears in Q3DM1 had to be completely rebuilt to make it a playable area with a manageable polygon count.
Pining for the Great Outdoors
Regarding large, outdoor maps that seem to be on everyone’s wish list. I spent a lot of my development time trying to make naturalistic looking outdoor terrain work, including using both curve patches and the Q2 terrain-maker, Gensurf (which I really like). During that period of development we had some issues with sloped surfaces, which made movement over the terrain something between unsatisfying and nearly impossible. And, as it is with the space maps and large curve areas, when a lot of the map is in your view field all at once, those polies add up quickly. None of these experiments developed into satisfying DM maps. So when the maps were sorted and culled into the final tiers, there were no outdoor maps selected for final development. I haven’t abandoned the idea of large outdoor terrain maps and I am planning on more experimentation in that area.
Finally, we haven’t thrown out the old "lost" maps. If we do anything with them, it will be to go through them, pull out the workable ideas that didn’t fit the final production maps and include them in new maps.
Paul Jaquays
designer
id Software, inc.
And, by the way, a lot of the Q3A reviews I’ve been reading lately look a little rushed to me. I can’t help but wonder if they would been far better if they just had more paragraphs in them. ;-) [15:06 CET by cosmo]
I spotted a link on VE, leading to a story on Bloomberg.com, entitled "Creative Technology Loses to Aureal in Court Fight Over Patent. Shortly, it means that Creative has lost their lawsuit against the makers of my soundcard, Aureal. Here's a scoop: Creative has 80 percent of the sound market for computers", said Bill Anthony, a lawyer for Aureal. "The verdict means that Aureal can continue to compete in the computer sound market, which it very effectively had done before this lawsuit." [15:02 CET by cosmo]
The Unreal Technology page have been updated twice today, the first one from Brandon 'GreenMarine' Reinhart, with a nifty list of things to do when starting to do UT Mods/whatever. Here's a snip from the light part: I've upated the UTMods doc and UTMagic docs. Should I announce every update or not?
A few people are still confused about scripting with Unreal Tournament. We aren't going to release an SDK, you already have the SDK! All of the tools you need to program UT mods came with Unreal Tournament. And then, the most recent one, courtesy of Steven Polge - has a workaround for 402 patch on minimum installs. I suggest still courios ppl should head over to the Unreal Tech Page for more infos. [0:37 CET by cosmo]
Zero, from Unrealism, mentions that he has a bunch of Unreal Tournament info for all those of you in the need to know. From the looks of it he's got it all in there... [0:33 CET by cosmo]
AVault has the downloadable version of the Decent 3 Patch 1.3, which until now only was available via the auto-download option in the game. Here's a shortened list courtesy of VE: - Fixed randomness in ambient sound patterns.
- Miscellaneous fixes for DMFC. See the DMFC readme.
- Fixed a couple small bugs for add-on table files.
- Fixed a byte-ordering problem with PXO, introduced in version 1.2, that caused stats to be lost.
[23:15 CET by cosmo]
Voodoo Extreme mentions Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with info on a bug in the Linux 402 patch: The Linux 402 patch was not meant for distribution yet. It contains a bug with forking processes to launch the ngWorldStats batcher.
Since the patch has been released and distributed, I'll fix the bug right now and release a shared lib to fix the problem. Note, only the Linux patch has this bug!
UPDATE: As a follow-up on, err, this post, I'll mention that sweet ass GreenMarine's made an update to Steve's last post post on the Unreal Tech page - mentioning that the updated patch is released and available for download. Actually, this is what he had to say: The initial Linux 402 patch was not meant for distribution. It did not contain an important fix for a problem with ngWorldStats crashes. The new 402A patch contains this fix and should be distributed. The Linux 402A patch can be installed over any previous version of Linux UT, including the old 402. Please download this patch. Server operators: the 402A patch fixes problems with servers crashing when ngWorldStats is enabled. There will be no 402A patch for Windows as the problem was Linux specific. Thank you This means: Go grab the updated one. NOW! [22:59 CET by cosmo]
id Software's Todd Hollenshead made a post to the Quake 3 forums (VE don't mention which) with some info on some "lamers trying to con people out of their CD key". Here's the little gankin' goodness: Just to let everyone know that we're aware of this and I'm looking into it. You could also take this as a warning to people who try and duplicate this scam. In a word, it's illegal.
Also, all of the so-called KeyGen programs out there that we have seen are actually virus programs. They do NOT generate valid keys, but they DO take your key and email it to an anonymous email address. Please don't download these and run them or you're just asking for big time trouble. If you want to inform us of them, emailing a link to Graeme or I is all you need to do. [20:41 CET by cosmo]
I spotted at Blue's that Aureal, the makers of (among others) my soundcard [btw - now I think they should send a new Vortex2-based card to me], did a somewhat odd thing and reviewed Unreal Tournament. Although the review is ok this is of course a way to point out the fact that A3D is a great 3D sound API and that UT exploits it to the fullest. Here's a snippie from the thingie: Pump up the bass and prepare for war—Unreal Tournament's support of 3D reflections and occlusions creates an incredibly convincing sonic environment. You'll wince as gliding razorjack blades scream past your flesh, ricochet off a wall, and tear back towards you. From the manic chattering of the Minigun to the shrieking of the Redeemer warheads, UT's devastating weapons will tantalize and brutalize your ears. Tantalizing my ears, huh? 8) [16:34 CET by cosmo]
As expected, the guys at Epic have released the 402 Patch for Unreal Tourney. The word on trhis patch at The Unreal Tech Page follows: Bug fixes:
- D3D detection works properly
- Fixed NT crash on exit
- removed log warnings for players ghosting out of the level
- fixed saving last start spot for players
- timemessage sounds play correctly if viewing another player
- don't allow spaces in names when using console name or setname commands
- suicide can now end overtime of tied game
- fixed stuck animation if killed while coming out of feign death
- no connect time on team scoreboards in single player
- attach decals in post begin play when zone is properly set
- fixed player sounds appearing to change location when using 3d sound
- turn fog off by default for D3D - was causing texture thrashing w/ D3D drivers
- fixed CTF-coret alternate path problems
- fixed guided warhead blowing up if no client response with 300 msec after spawning
- players can no longer switch to illegal team if server is full and force team balance set
- fixed bots not always playing take hit sounds
- don't kill spectators in the pressure chamber!!!
Server performance improvements:
- Don't replicate actor properties of GameReplicationInfo
- Don't replicate actor properties of ZoneInfo
- Less frequent visibility checks for currently relevant actors
- don't keep checking visibility of optional effects
- less frequent checks for temporary actors after 0.2 seconds
- reduced playerreplicationinfo update frequency from 5/sec to 4/sec
- inventory class-specific scripted replication only done if bNetOwner
- native replication for weapon, pickup, levelinfo, and ammo classes
- don't spawn decals on dedicated server
- don't spawn non-replicated effects actors on dedicated server
- sort static actors so can ignore non-replicated static actors when testing for replication
New features:
- Cache.ini file records all packages in your cache (whatever packages are auto-downloaded from servers)
- added flesh hit sound to bullets
- automatic path builder (documented in updated UT_AI.htm)
- postnetbeginplay() called for actors spawned on network clients
- Pawns use PostNetBeginPlay() to make sure they have a valid skin and mesh
- improved D3D texture pool allocation when world and actor texture detail is medium
- Pawns add momentum to velocity after effects of damage mutator
- Optional package downloading implemented. Epic's Steve Polge mailed in the thing, and I'll try to get a local copuy up here ASAP. In the meanwhile, check it out at FilePlanet. [16:25 CET by cosmo]
p0rn dude Thug, ehh, Preacher @ Unreality let me know that one of his hosted hounds, Painster, has posted 3 new UT skins on his mondo-cool skin site, Painful Detail. Laso, p0rnPreacher claims that he's got some nude chicks for you, so hop over there now and do the nasty. [16:17 CET by cosmo]
Mad ass Swedish buddy Karl Söderström let us know that GameArena.net has posted their review of Epic's Unreal Tournament. Here's a poop: Now to the multiplayer game. This is where I spent most of my hours. Trying to beat the best...it's not easy. But it's so easy to join an Internet game. The Internet is only one click away. It's that simple. They have built an In-game server-querying tool, thank you! So let the fragging fun begin. Kill your friends or why not team up with them against a team of bots. There are so many variations you wont get tired of it. This is as good as it gets in multiplayer experience; it's the best out-of-the-box multiplayer support ever. Plug in your modem and enjoy the ride. [18:16 CET by cosmo]
Preacher "madbad" Dude mailed in word on that appearently, MadBren86 grabbed Epic code-baluba monkey Tim Sweeney by the... hair, and asked him a bunch of questions. The sweet-oh-lama also included a scoop: Bren86: Read today on avault.com/news/ that 3Dfx has made Glide open-source. Earlier you made a small comment on Voodoo Extreme that in the course of making "next engine" you wouldn't be focusing much on proprietary APIs. Does this change your mind about Glide in a future engine as to how it will be implemented?
Tim S: Glide was an awesome API in 1997 because it exposed 3dfx hardware perfectly and all the standard API's were slow and unusable at that point, as far as PC gaming goes. The Unreal Tournament engine will be our last engine to support Glide -- from here on, we're 100% multi-vendor API's. Direct3D and OpenGL. [17:13 CET by Doff]
For the Linux-users out there, it must be pleasing to know that Quake 3 for Linux has gone gold and is in mass production!
It should be in stores SOON, and if you have preordered from Loki Software, it should be in your hands within the week. [14:34 CET by cosmo]
Sweet ass Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen sent word on that he has finished a little article with some ideas and tips for taking cool and action-filled screenshots in Unreal Tournament. I actually thought that you could't write a long and interesting article on someting so basic than taking screenshot, but the Captain have definetively done it - so head over here to read the thing. [0:06 CET by cosmo]
The boys over at SquareSoft have, as announced, released a playable PC demo of Final Fantasy VIII (err, that should be eight). The boy weighs in a pretty massive 70Mb, and supports D3D. As Billy states, console-types already know what this game is all about, but here's a sauce on the game 8quote, blah): While calm in appearance, the serenity that blankets the world is merely a curtain over the turmoil that threatens to surface...
An unprovoked attack against a neighboring country, an assault by a strike team deep into enemy territory, and a declaration of war against the world plunges a previously peaceful existence into bitterness and chaos.
Notes About This Demo: - THIS GAME IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT. There will be NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT offered for this demo.
- You have to sit through a long intro sequence before you can play.
- This demo can also be found in the January, 2000 issue of PC Gamer.
[0:02 CET by cosmo]
Saw on The Honey-Roasted Site that Outrage has released a new 1.3 patch for Descent 3. According to Billy, the patch is not available online yet, but you can use the auto-update feature, which is the most easy way anyway ;) Here's the juice on this one: - Miscellaneous additions for Descent 3: Mercenary.
- Significant memory savings, which should help performance. If text for a particular langaguge is not found, the English text is used instead.
- In the file dialog, double-clicking on a directory will open that folder.
- Added the -mlooksens command-line option to change the mouse sensitivity in mouselook mode. Usage: -mlooksens . Scale determines how much the player moves when the mouse is moved. The default value is 9.1; smaller values give more precision.
- Added the -mission command-line option. This causes the specified mission file to be loaded at program start, and makes that mission the default when starting a new game. Usage: -mission .
- Added the ability for objects to cast "negative" light. See the DMFC documentation for more info.
Added new mission file keyword "SHIP" to override default ship.
Added support for add-on data that's not mission-specific.
Fixes for Version 1.3.0: - Fixed randomness in ambient sound patterns.
- Miscellaneous fixes for DMFC. See the DMFC readme.
Fixed a couple small bugs for add-on table files. - Fixed a byte-ordering problem with PXO, introduced in version 1.2, that caused stats to be lost.
[23:57 CET by cosmo]
The Croft Times, an ezine dedicated to mega-breats-girl Lara, has been updated. There's a buch of interesting stuff (mostly about the latest IV release of the game) for all you Lara lovers out there, so be sure to check it out. [16:23 CET by cosmo]
Saw on the Voodoo.dk rock-ass site that Avault has posted some new cheats for a buttload of games. Here's the list: [15:24 CET by cosmo]
Novalogic's Delta Force 2 Developers' Notes Page has word on a v1.03.09 patch, available from the auto-update-thingie in the game. [22:52 CET by cosmo]
id's Graeme "Zaphod" Devine updated his .plan with some words on hacker attempts. Here's the sauce: Okay. Hacker attempts with invalid keys are outnumbering real keys by a factor of 2:1 or so.
Obviously this is somewhat validating the use of CD keys.
So far I've seen issues with the servers being able to see the auth server and clients using IP forwarding not having the correct setup on the IP forwarding server. If it's a Linux IP forwarding machine use something like:
modprobe ip_masq_quake ports=26000,27000,27910,27960,27950,27951,27952
Modulating characters within a key sequence will not work. It appears to work because when you've validated your IP with an authentic CD key you've "leased" that IP address for a period of time. Even if you enter a junk string, that will work because your IP address is still valid.
The actual algorithm is a 64 bit DES key encryption method open to a very small window. The chances of coming up with a real valid key is in the range of billions and billions to one. A random pass through the available keys shows no sign of repeating sequences, it looks like good old chaos
(in fact, statisical math proves this).
The client has no idea if your key is really valid or not, it just checks on the correct characters being entered. [15:56 CET by cosmo]
Challenge-US has whipped up an article entitled "Quake3Arena Review From a Professional Gamer's Point of View". According to Kulprit, this is a very lengthy review that breaks down each weapon, item and map. The fact that the review is done from the point of view of a professional lamer, err, gamer (:p) brings out the little details in the game that have been overlooked. Check it out. [22:39 CET by cosmo]
loonyboi made a post on Blue's, dusting off a new and nuggy trick for Q3A. He don't mention a source, so I guess the guy found it out himself: "If more than one person is playing Quake III Arena singleplayer on your computer and you want to keep your game intact, simply rename the "q3config.cfg" file to something else. When you start the game, you'll have to re-enter your CD-Key, but the singleplayer settings will be reset. To restore your game, simply change the name of the file back." [13:53 CET by cosmo]
Apache at Unreal Universe got a nifty mail from the guys at Epic, including a fix list for the upcoming 401 patch for Unreal Tournament. The patch should be released Monday, weighing around 3.5 megs. Here's the scoop: Bug fixes: - D3D detection works properly
- removed log warnings for players ghosting out of the level
- fixed saving last start spot for players
- timemessage sounds play correctly if viewing another player
- don't allow spaces in names when using console name or setname commands
- suicide can now end overtime of tied game
- fixed stuck animation if killed while coming out of feign death
- no connect time on team scoreboards in single player
- attach decals in post begin play when zone is properly set
- fixed player sounds appearing to change location when using 3d sound
- turn fog off by default for D3D - was causing texture thrashing w/ D3D drivers
- fixed CTF-coret alternate path problems
- fixed guided warhead blowing up if no client response with 300 msec after spawning
- players can no longer switch to illegal team if server is full and force
- team balance set
- fixed bots not always playing take hit sounds
- don't kill spectators in the pressure chamber!!!
Server performance improvements: - Don't replicate actor properties of GameReplicationInfo
- Don't replicate actor properties of ZoneInfo
- Less frequent visibility checks for currently relevant actors
- don't keep checking visibility of optional effects
- less frequent checks for temporary actors after 0.2 seconds
- reduced playerreplicationinfo update frequency from 5/sec to 4/sec
- inventory class-specific scripted replication only done if bNetOwner
- native replication for weapon, pickup, levelinfo, and ammo classes
- don't spawn decals on dedicated server
- don't spawn non-replicated effects actors on dedicated server
- sort static actors so can ignore non replicated static actors when testing for replication
New features: - added flesh hit sound to bullets
- automatic path builder (documented in updated UT_AI.htm)
- postnetbeginplay() called for actors spawned on network clients
- Pawns use PostNetBeginPlay() to make sure they have a valid skin and mesh
- improved D3D texture pool allocation when world and actor texture detail is medium
- Pawns add momentum to velocity after effects of damage mutator
- Optional package downloading implemented.
[13:06 CET by cosmo]
Dave "zoid" Kirsh @ id Software made a .plan update, announcing the new Linux Dedicated Server binary for Quake III Arena. According to Billy, this allows Linux clients to run the full Q3A server program. [13:04 CET by cosmo]
Wicked got word from GTG on how to play Unreal1 maps in Unreal Tournament. Dig it: To play Unreal 1 maps in Unreal Tournament, some people are copying all their maps and textures in your unreal directory into your unreal tournament directory .
Here is a way to have Unreal Tournament recognize all your Unreal 1 maps without copying or moving them!
Just add the line:
Paths=c:\games\unreal\Maps/*.unr
Under your [Core.System] section of the Unrealtournament.ini
Where "c:\games\unreal\" is the location of your Unreal 1 game.
If you have custom maps with custom textures or custom sounds add more paths to your Unreal 1 directory.
This way UT recognizes all your Unreal maps, and you dont have to do anything. [2:23 CET by cosmo]
Sorry for being a bit lazy on the news today and yesterday, but I've been quite busy with school and stuff. Sorry to those frustrated folks not seeing the requested post... But anyways, I'll be ready to fight by now.
And anotherthing - 30 mins ago, on my way back from chiller, a car crushed into a big powerthingie, and a guy came out of the crashed car. He began to run, and some secs later the police were there. He continued running right against me, before the big policedog kinda scared him into the police officer's hand. Became kinda, scared, u know. Well, I'm going to bed now... I'll cya tomorrow! [2:19 CET by cosmo]
I mised this mail from Thomas Meeks at Unreal Universe earlier today, but it sure sounds cool - so I'm not going to let it pass away. They have a few nifty things going on over there - like 64 new map reviews, complete with screenshots, an exclusive interview with Brett Foster, creator of Unreal's CTF, and have plenty more things coming in the near future. [2:16 CET by cosmo]
Suds, respectfully entitled 'Coordinator of the European Tribes League 1999' sent me a massive mail on the, ehh, yeah - Tribes League 1999. The mail had a big-ass amount of sauces, so head over to the ETL homepage if you're interested. [2:13 CET by cosmo]
Ah, damn those! From the 10 mails I've got about UT reviews various places on the net, I picked out two of the neatest; Some @ Unreality's UT Review (thanks Preacher), and EuroGamer's definitive review of Unreal Tournament (thanks John). [14:40 CET by cosmo]
id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan twice with some explanations on some Quake 3 Arena issues. Here's the first blurb: IMPORTANT!!!!!
You MUST enter your CD key in lower case letters. If you do this through the menu it's automatic, but if you set it from the console, upper case letters will not work.
IMPORTANT!!!!! And here's a second nugget to chew on: Why do I get booted back to the main menu?
It's because you've got a 1.11 client and you're trying to join a 1.09 (demo test) pure server. Since the protocol # is exactly the same, you see all the 1.09 servers in the browser, but when you try and join the game you get booted because you aren't "pure".
We'll switch off support for 1.09 listings in the browser once 1.11 demo is out for the Mac and Linux. Meanwhile there's not much I can do since I can't tell from the client side if you're a 1.09 or 1.11 client asking for list of available servers. [14:37 CET by cosmo]
According to this new OpenGL FAQ, OpenGL after all WILL be supported in Microsoft's Windows 2000. Here's the nugget: This FAQ was sent to the OpenGL Game Developers List by Microsoft. It makes it very clear Microsoft will be supporting OpenGL in Win2000. Just as they do now, Microsoft will ship the OpenGL DLL (the link library), and IHVs will ship the hardware drivers (ICDs) for their chips and boards. OpenGL 1.2 support is planned for a service pack after Windows 2000 ships.
[14:35 CET by cosmo]
Spotted over at h-r VE that Fileplanet has posted two new tabs for the GameSpy3D server-browser that will help separate the new Quake3 demo 1.11 servers from the retail demo 1.11 servers. Dig 'em: Retail tab:
http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=34643
Demo tab:
http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=34642
Simply changing the directory (GameSpy -> Games and Filters -> Q3Test) to reflect which version you have (demo in /q3demo by default and retail in /program files/quake3/) will get you going until a "retail compliant" GameSpy3D is released. [14:31 CET by cosmo]
Thanks Mystik for letting me know that a new version 1.3 patch for Descent3 is now available via the auto-update feature in the game [23:52 CET by Doff]
Lotsa updated drivers being released these days, it seems :)
Anyways, for those of you still using the good ol' Voodoo 2, 3Dfx released updated drivers for them today, adding support for Direct X 7, plus fixing various bugs.
Get'em here! [21:47 CET by chiller]
Today ID software released another quake3arena demo. You can download the file directly from id here . [19:48 CET by Doff]
Glen Dahlgren, the main developer-dude of Wheel of Time, has updated the game's main site with news concerning a patch that appearently will be coming soon, some review-news, and some stuff about a volleyball-injury (of all things!)
The whole thingie can esily be found at the site's news-page. [17:36 CET by Doff]
New drivers for everyone's favourite graphics-accelerator (well...almost everyone's, that is ;)), 3Dfx's Voodoo 3!
The updated drivers, that adds DirectX RunTime support, updates OpenGL support, fixes desktop corruption issues, plus power management and screensaver issues is for all of the cards; the 2000, 3000 and 3500 versions of the card.
For 2000 and 3000
For 3500 [15:27 CET by chiller]
Jonathan let me know that he have made a page for all those disappointed customers that don’t get drivers from Diamon/S3. You can support him here. [14:48 CET by cosmo]
Finally, Creative Labs have updated their driver for their Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT, 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2, 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra, Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT2 Value (32Mb) and 3D Blaster GeForce - based on some newer reference drivers from nVidia.
This is a non-supported beta thigie, but at least they are newer =)
The chill'down'dude told me something about the reason for not making a driver based on th 3x-set from nVidia some weeks ago, and I think it was related to some bug-stuff.
And as a note to TV-OUT dudes, this driver does not support TV-out, which means that you have to switch back to the old 2.08 ULTRA drivers if you want to get a bigger screen or something (like myself..).
Speaking of CL, their driver page is kinda hard to navigate... Ah, wotever. [14:36 CET by cosmo]
Preacher fired off a mail letting me know that earlier today he asked Epic's CliffyB regarding good'old'Unreal'eh, set up to Unreal Tourney. Dig it: How do u consider Unreal now?
Tranining grounds for UT, still a cool game or a thing of the past?
Unreal1 may had its issues but it was (and is) still a damned fine game. It amazes me how many editors who review Unreal Tournament like to try to downplay Unreal's success; Mark and I were just talking about this the other day. Mark was saying how it makes for more interesting journalism to go from extreme low to extreme high. Unreal sold over a million units worldwide, won numerous awards and was very much groundbreaking.
I'm not going to try to coat this with PR BS, we had our issues. The netplay took a while to patch into shape, the arsenal wasn't all of what it could have been, and the levels (while beautiful and detailed) were a bit slow moving, etc...
I'd like to think of our track record as going from good (Unreal) to great. (UT) The future is very exciting for Epic. [14:33 CET by cosmo]
Another news from Preacher, his hosted monkey Pain Supplier has posted 3 new Unreal Tournament skins on his site. They look pretty nifty, so check 'em out. [14:31 CET by cosmo]
Hm, does the Preachermat ever sleep? He let me know that one of his hosted doodes, Pianist Envy, has upped a hilarious comic about a hidden gametype in UT.
All trademarks used are properties of their respective owners.
Copyright © 1998-2000 Axel Sjøstedt. All rights reserved.
| 
![[Button] games extreme](/site/images/gx-btn.gif){kind=small}
![[Button] Snipers Alley](/site/images/snipersbut.gif){kind=small}
![[Button] deCyber](/site/images/decyberbutton.gif){kind=small}
![[Button] Webdog](/site/images/webdog-btn.gif){kind=small}
![[Button] LatestUpdates.com](/site/images/latestupdates_button.gif){kind=small}
