News Archive: October 1999

New logo on Bluesnews [12:02 CET by chiller]
I checked Blue's News earlier today, when I noticed something strange. I could not put my finger on it, but suddenly I realised that he had a new logo! Check it out on Blue's

Omikron Demo [13:56 CET by cosmo]
More demos... Saw on PlanetSmurf that The official Omikron: the Nomad Soul site has the demo for this third-person action/adventure game by Quantic Dream. Grab the thingy from this link.

The bad boy is a massive 182 MB and is available in five parts ranging from 9.5 MB to 67 MB, or as a single download.

Now, back to the links... Hope chiller, Doff and NoName will help me a bit with the news. They sure has the last days. Give them a gift or something

Mac Unreal Tournament Demo Released [13:52 CET by cosmo]
FirstOfAll: The reason for not being around here lately, is that I'm quite busy with the new Cosmo3D Link section... It's expanding every day, and soon you'll wake up to the new Cosmo3D! </offtopic>

The Macintosh version of the Unreal Tournament demo v3.48 is up on 3dfxgamers.com. However, the Mac Unreal Tournament Demo Resource Page on MacGamer's Ledge is a nice place to stop by if you need more information. Here's a mirror list:

• 3D Action Gamers (thanks Frans)
• UnrealNation (thanks Vitaliy)
• FilePlanet
• UnrealEngine
• 3DAction-net.de (thanks Christoph 'Voodoo' Hamar)

Hercules live on [23:48 CET by chiller]
Today Guillemot announced the acquisition of Hercules Computer Technology.

"Our objective in acquiring Hercules was to reinforce our products branding worldwide ", explains Claude Guillemot, President of Guillemot Corporation. " We intend to continue to build on Hercules' name for high performance graphic products".

UT MPEG [8:21 CET by cosmo]
The busy guy called zero @ Telefragged, Unrealism and ValveWorld sent over a bit about an UT Movie

Idoru from Telefragged got an exclusive MPEG of Gary Coleman playing Unreal Tournament. You can check it out here. Be forewarned that we all had a good laugh while watching this one, don't be upset if your side hurts after watching it :)

3DFX releases drivers for Voodoo Banshee [21:54 CET by chiller]
The last release from 3DFX for Voodoo Banshee was when the Quake3 test fist hit the net (Back in March sometime) and they where buggy. You can read more here.

Tim Sweeney Invterview [21:07 CET by cosmo]
This week's interview at EuroGamer is with Tim Sweeney of Epic Games. With Unreal Tournament nearing completion, they guys over there talked
to him about the game's origins, reaction to the demo, and "the other game", as well as what the future holds for Epic and the gaming industry. Here's a little snippet he included:

id Software owned deathmatch gaming at the time, so we were concerned about overlap between the two games", Tim told us. "But all along we've had Steve's bots and a very unique look and feel to differentiate UT. So we were never discouraged by id's plans.

Demo of Ages Of Empires 2 [19:28 CET by chiller]
Gamespot has the new demo of AOE2 for download. This is snipped from their page (Where you can download the demo):

The demo you've all been waiting for has finally arrived! Microsoft has improved upon the original Age of Empires and delivered one of the year's best strategy games.

UT Windows Theme [12:05 CET by cosmo]
Nogbad let us know that he have upped his Unreal Tourney Demo Theme. It looks pretty well, and you may grab it from Nogbad's Black Castle.

And sorry for the news lack over here these days - I'm very busy with the new Cosmo3D. It gonna rock!

Matrix HL clear-up [16:03 CET by NoName]
Techno Kill sent this e-mail to the betatester-mailinglist to clear up the confusion about the Matrix mod for Half-Life (see my earlier post a little down). Here goes

From: mhlbeta@hotmail.com

Sorry for confusing everyone so far. Here's what has happened with the beta test.
Here was our original plan for the beta to be released.

1) Send the servers the files, and get them set up and ready to go.
2) Send the clients (you guys) the files, and jump on the servers.
-End

We found out two hours after we sent the servers the beta, that we had some major bugs. We got all of them fixed except for a modeling bug. Which is very nessecary seeing as how you can't tell who is on what team, and defeats the purpose of the mod. Plus, some cheating problems. Once we get these bugs fixed, which is ripping Poop's ass apart (no disgusting pun intended), we will ship it off to servers again first, and make sure they run fine, and then give you the beta. Is that cool? Cool.
Sorry guys.

The Techno Kill
Matrix HL

Unreal Tourney Tweak Guide [9:15 CET by cosmo]
Julio Franco sent me a mail, leaving the note "Epic recently released a new version of the UT demo fixing a couple of things, so we thought it would be a good idea to make general revision to 3D Spotlight's Unreal Tournament tweak guide before the full game ships". Here's a dirt from the srticle:

There are some general settings, which you need to change before you go messing around with anything else. Once again, go into Advanced options (at the console type in “preferences”, without the quotes), open up, "Advanced", then "Game engine settings". Set CacheSizeMegs to between 4 to 8MB. I've mine set to 6MB. Next, go into the Display options, choose your "GameRenderDevice", I've a Voodoo3, so Glide it is, Direct3D is the next best to Glide at the moment for most of the other cards but if you aren’t satisfied you can still give OpenGL a try.

100 Cool UT Things [9:08 CET by cosmo]
Corey from Mac Gamer mentions that they've put together an article titled 100 Cool Things About Unreal Tournament. So all you Unreal fans... Head over there and get happy!

More WoT News [9:06 CET by cosmo]
Noticed over at Unreal Universe that Sam Brown of Legend Entertainment has posted some news over in the Wheel of Time forum. I'll gank it for you here:

+ I don't know what the minimum requirements will be on the box, but I can say that our target machine and primary test platform was a P-2 266, 64 RAM, Voodoo 1.
+ No bots.
+ Yes, there will be a soundtrack, but I don't have any information on when it will be released.
+ Yes, if you wanted to, you could probably make your own levels since WoTEd is included with the game. However, don't expect it to be easy, all of our custom modifications make knowing what to do and how to do it a VERY difficult task.

That's all I can come up with off the top of my head...hope it will suffice.

Now, everyone, go back to your corners and wait patiently for WOT to hit shelves...I guess we'll tally everyone up when it's all over and see who didn't gnaw off their own arms and legs in anticipation...

UT Soon Gold? [9:05 CET by cosmo]
Just spotted over at UTCenter that WOT isn't the only Unreal Engine game going gold. Apparently, UT is almost there too! Here's the story from GameFan:

Speaking of Unreal-engined games, I recieved an unconfirmed report from a person close to the project that Unreal Tournament is extremely close to going gold as well, and could go gold as soon as today... If they're both going gold this week, these two games could start showing up in stores at the begining of next month!

Interview with Cliff Bleszinski [23:30 CET by Doff]
Blue's News writes that RPOV has an interview with Cliff Bleszinski of Epic, talking about Unreal Tournament, his role and favourite things about the game.
Haven't read it myself yet, but since it's UT stuff, you should go check it out :)

Homeworld walk-through and Guide [17:53 CET by chiller]
I dropped by Bluesnews and saw that Gamespot has a guid for Homeworld. You can follow this link. It has all the info you need to become a good player!

Possibility of SiN 2 [17:49 CET by Doff]
Ritualistic posted a comment from Ritual Entertainment programmer, Jim Dosé, today, where he explains the possibility of a sequel to SiN.

Ritual does own the rights to Sin. Activision has (under certain contract conditions) first right of refusal to any sequel to Sin, which basically means if they turned it down we could publish it with someone else. We haven't specifically talked to Activision about the possibility of a Sin 2, but I don't think they'd be interested. That's not to say that a Sin 2 is out of the question, it's just not on the top of our todo list. :)

-----------
Jim Dosé
V.P./ Programmer
Ritual Entertainment, Inc.

Matrix HL confusion [0:29 CET by NoName]
I haven't posted a lot lately, and due to the very busy life I live, I prolly won't be doing it much in the near future, but I promised to keep you updated with the MHL stuff, so here goes (even if it's not extrely fresh news). Seems like their site has been slightly re-designed, and although it has improve, I still hated that background-sound over and over again. Anyway, seems like there is some confusion about the beta test. On Sunday Techno Kill updated saying that they'd just released the beta and found two major bugs, but no one on the beta-tester's mailinglist has gotten any info. People there seems to be slightly confused about what's really going on, as the beta release has been postponed since the "late summer of 99" or sumthing. Yeah, I know we should be patient for such a kool title as The Matrix mod for Half-Life, but the makers kinda confuse us when stating that the beta testers (ie Doff, I and 23 - or was it 48 - others) would be the first ones to hear something when the beta test was out, and then they tell _everyone_ that the beta is out through their site, w/o giving us any link to download it. As Doff put it clearly on the beta tester's mailinglist Saturday; "Yesterday it [The Matrix HL site - NoName's remark] said that the beta\alpha\whatever would be out friday, and that didn't happen (probably what they were talking about there). I didn't get any link either, so..........if we don't get anything later today, what the hell ARE we!? hehe, 'cause it doesn't seem like we're the ones, then.......let's just hope for tonight? :)".

Wheel Of Time is GOLD [22:17 CET by Doff]
Noticed at Blue's News that The Wheel Of Time, the Unrealengine game that is based upon the bookseries "The Wheel Of Time", by Robert Jordan, has gone GOLD, in other words, it will be in stores in a few weeks.
This is one of the titles I have been looking forward to the most for a looooong time.
/me is happy ;)

WOS CTF beta4 [19:49 CET by Doff]
There's not many SiNners left out there, but I am one of them (and proud of it, too). The expansion pack, Wages of SiN, recently saw a betarelease of a CTF-mod, and a new version of it was posted today (beta4)at Ritualistic.
Unfortunately, there's no update if you have the previous beta (beta3), so you'll have to download the entire 12.6 mb's
Go fetch

Q3A Total Control [0:37 CET by chiller]
Now you can take full control over Quake3 with Q3A Total Control v. 0.4. Download it from Borderfield software.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation demo [14:08 CET by Doff]
Blue's News has word about a demo of the 4th Tomb Raider game (subtitled The Last Revelation).
Available at Gamespot or 3DGamers

Nerf Arena demo [14:00 CET by Doff]
As reported yesterday, Hasbro Interactive's Unreal Engine based action game, Nerf Arena has gone gold. A demo has been released today, according to Blue's News. Weighing in at just over 22 mb, supposedly, it's worth the download
Get it at Meccaworld, 3DFiles or FilePlanet

New UT level of the week [13:56 CET by Doff]
The official Unreal Tournament site has a new level of the week up. A domination-level called Condemned is the chosen one this time. As with all the previous levels of the week, there's pictures, too :)

Cosmic Status [12:45 CET by cosmo]
I'll be on a trip to the woods from... ehh, now - to Sunday 15:00.

I'd hoped to get the new Cosmo3D up today, but let's say... before Tuesday?

Hope the Doff and Untitled guy can cover the news until I'm back ;)


-Axel

Nerf Arena GOLD [23:27 CET by Doff]
Ok, this is kinda old news, I know, but, still..... :)
Hasbro Interactive's Unreal engine based Nerf Arena has gone GOLD, meaning that it is in mass production, and will be in stores in a few weeks.
Nerf Arena is supposedly a shooting game aimed at kids, with no deaths or blood, which will likely mean something positive for the realm of 3dFPS-gaming, which has been aimed at by the media because of several violent episodes worldwide. PlanetUnreal had a preview a couple of days ago, and they seemed pretty excited about this game.

IntelliMouse Explorer Review [19:44 CET by cosmo]
Spotted on QuakeCity that 360 Degrees has posted their review of the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer. This sounds, indeed, like a cool mouse...

Spec Ops 2 Demo Released [17:54 CET by cosmo]
Saw on PlanetSmurf that the Spec Ops files page on SpecForce.net has the playable demo of Spec Ops II, Zombie's upcoming sequel to their tactical first-person shooter.

UT Fixes and Stuff [23:31 CET by cosmo]
The UT Demo Bug Page over at the Unreal Technology site has been updated with a plethora of known issues and bugs with Version 348 of the UT Demo. Here they are:

Issues with the Final Version of the UT Demo - Version 348

Direct3D

You need DirectX7 to use Direct3D.  Get it on Microsoft's href="http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp">Download Page.   Make sure you have the latest Direct3D drivers for your card.

• TNT 1, TNT 2 and GeForce 256 users with less than 128MB of RAM may experience heavy virtual memory swapping. This is a known issue with the current Nvidia Direct3D drivers. We are working with Nvidia to improve this situation.
• In 16-bit color, weapons may interpenetrate walls when you get real close.
• I've had a report of very ugly up fonts in the game on a TNT, looking like this. The solution is to go to your D3D options inside the TNT display control panel, and change the value of the "Texel Alignment". A value of 3 fixes this problem, although you should try other values if you're having similar texture weirdness.
• Running the DirectX 7 debug or development drivers apparently causes rendering problems. Please use the release version of DX7
• 3dfx users should not use Direct3D - you'll get better performance with Glide.
• Users of S3 Savage 4 chipset cards should try using the S3 MeTaL driver specific to their card.
• Some Rage FURY users are having problems with game in D3D.  We are looking into this.

OpenGL

• Direct3D should always be faster for TNT1 and TNT2 users. But we have had reports from users that it runs better than D3D, so if you are unhappy with your D3D performance, it's definitely worth giving a go.

Networking

• In 3dfx Glide, if you alt-tab away from Unreal while connected to a server, you will time out and be disconnected. If running a listen server, all other clients will time out.
• We have many reports that internet gameplay performance sucks with all games for users with WebTV installed (particularly the version bundled with the Voodoo3 3500). Try uninstalling it.
• On some machines - usually with a Voodoo Banshee, non-dedicated servers will return to the desktop at the end of the game, when the server attempts to process and upload the ngWorldStats for the game. The only solution at the moment is to turn off ngStats for the server, from the Stats menu.

Audio

• A3D adds a LOT of overhead to the sound occusion calculations.  We recommend you turn off 3D sound because of this, as many users have experienced extreme framerate stuttering. We are looking into this. You can disable it in Advanced Options.

Linux Server

• It is recommended that you do not run your Linux server as the root user.
• If you run it as a non-root user you'll need to change the remote-admin webserver's ListenPort to a value greater than 1024 in your UnrealTournament.ini file. For example, set ListenPort=8000 in the [UWeb.Webserver] section of the ini file. You can then access remote admin with the URL http://locahost:8000/ServerAdmin
• You must be using glibc 2.x.  If you're using libc5, you'll need to upgrade - see this link.
• There is currently no ngWorldStat for Linux.  Please don't try to enable it.
• Make sure your LinuxThreads is up to date.
• The Linux port does not run on Cyrix procecessors, or anything less than a Pentium I. You will most likely get Illegal Instruction errors if you try.
• Please send bug reports about the linux port to utlinuxbugs@epicgames.com.

Input

• Some versions of the Intellimouse Explorer drivers don't allow you to bind the middle mouse button if DirectInput is enabled.  We believe this is a driver issue - other games exhibit the same behavior.  You can work around it by using the Intellimouse Explorer software to map a key (eg shift) to the middle mouse button and bind that key in UT.

Demo Recording/Playback

• Version 348 crashes when you attempt to play back a demo. Please download this fix (488KB).

Q3Arena vs. Unreal Tourney #2 [20:22 CET by cosmo]
WarpDude @ Digital-Clips.com let us know that the mad guys over there have posted the second part of the comparison between id Software's Q3Test and Epic Megagames' Unreal Tournament on its site. According to Warp, "The second part involves a detailed analysis of gameplay, controls, weapons, and netcode, amongst others". Check the thing out here.

The first part of the comparison, analyzing the graphics and histories of the games, can be found here.

New UT demo for Linux [22:27 CET by Doff]
Blue's News writes that the Linux version of the newly released UT demo, ver. 348 is up at FilePlanet, or, to be more excact, here :)
A readme can also be located here

Unreal Tournament v3.48 Demo [15:40 CET by cosmo]
The new UT Demo is out:

• Changes in this version
• Official mirror list
• List of known issues is placed over here

Delta Force 2 is GOLD [23:38 CET by Doff]
GoneGold kindly lets the world know that they've recieved information directly from NovaLogic, saying that Delta Force 2 has now gone gold, meaning that it is finished, in mass production, and will probably be in stores in a few weeks

R6: Rogue Spear v.2.04 [23:23 CET by Doff]
A patch for Red Storm's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, the sequel to the original Rainbow Six is available. Get the patch here, from Redstorm themselves. Tons of bugfixes and new feautures is listed at the downloadpage. Check it out

Half-Life for Mac cancelled [22:52 CET by Doff]
PlanetHalflife recieved a mail from Valve Software today, announcing the fact that the Macintosh version of the internationally acclaimed Half-Life. A long note, but I'll post it anyways, 'cause Half-Life is so cool ;)

We recently had to make the difficult decision to cancel Half-Life Mac. Here's a note from Gabe that explains why we did this:
From: Gabe Newell

There's been a lot of speculation about Half-Life for the Macintosh - its feature set, its compatibility with the PC version, and so on. Andrew Meggs at Logicware has been doing a good job on the port, and it's mostly done. At this point we've spent a bunch of money on the Mac product and have spent a lot of time thinking about what we need to do to make sure Macintosh users are happy with it when it ships.

Which is why we are canceling the Macintosh version of Half-Life.

When we started Mac Half-Life, there was a lot of optimism about the opportunity for Macintosh games. As someone who worked on Macintosh software starting in 1983 before the 128K Mac had shipped, it was pretty exciting to think that there was going to be a resurgence in the Mac gaming market.

However, as we got closer to shipping the product and reality set in, it was increasingly obvious that in order for us to break even on the Mac version, much less be profitable, we were going to have to cut some corners. OK - I guess we won't have Team Fortress Classic available at shipment. Maybe people will accept it if we update them with TFC later. OK - I guess I understand why we don't have an automatic update facility. Maybe people will accept that they have to manually update. OK - I guess I understand why we might carve out a separate multiplayer space for Mac users from PC users because of the on-going interoperability issues. Maybe that won't be the disaster I think it will be.

But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that this was nonsense. Our existing Half-Life customers are really happy with us. They were happy with the original game, they were happy when we released TFC, they were happy with our on-going investment in Half-Life, and there's even more coming for them in the next couple of months. They are happy because we do our best for them, and that's what they expect from us in the future. Given the realities of the Mac gaming market, our Mac customers were always going to be mad at us. They were always going to be second-class customers where we couldn't invest to the same degree in the Mac version as we did elsewhere. I don't want to be in that business. I would much rather we just eat the money we've spent so far than take money from Mac customers and short-change them.

It's disappointing to me on a personal basis that we won't ship Half-Life for the Mac. Everyone here, and I'm sure the people at Logicware are disappointed. The Mac gamers who were looking forward to Half-Life are undoubtedly disappointed as well. However that's a lot less disappointment than what would have happened if we had tried to get Mac gamers to accept second-class treatment on an on-going basis.

Gabe

Mac Total Annihilation Demo [16:32 CET by cosmo]
The Mac version of the Total Annihilation Demo is now up on Inside Mac Games.

Just another Matrix HL update [20:06 CET by NoName]
Life currently sux, but I managed to stop by The Matrix HL web site this afternoon for updates. Seems like "Techno Kill" updated yesterday. I won't make any comment on it this time, just read it. And if you have absolutely no idea of what the Matrix HL is (yer new here, huh?), you may just scroll down a little. Or visit their site.

Here's a biggie. We got four new screenshots out today, featuring 4 new weapons in 2 new maps. The catch is they're on the french site this time, so head over here to check them out. Also, tomorrow night, we'll be sending out a Teamplay DM beta of Matrix HL to people we specifically contacted who are running servers. This will be a team testing phase. Once we have some bugs corrected, and can add in some more models, we will release it to the private beta testers, which will hopefully be this week. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not write in asking to host a serve for us. We already have people picked. If you write in, you will not be acknowledged.

John Carmack update - No new test [18:51 CET by Doff]
john Carmack, head producer of Q3A, updated his .plan, saying, among other things, that there won't be another testrelease of Quake 3, but instead, the full demo.
Go read it :)

Unreal Tournet Audio Review [19:48 CET by cosmo]
PascaL @ Ear on Games let me know that he has posted a review of the audio in Unreal Tournament. The thing mainly focuses on the A3D and EAX support in the game. Here's a snip:

Unreal Tournament supports the two leading 3D sound standards - Aureal's A3D 2.0 with their proprietary Wavetracing technology, and Creative's Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX). Games that support both of these standards are always a particular joy to evaluate and test, as the decision of which soundcard renders a better experience is not as clear as with a game that supports only one. I've been playing this demo at least an hour a day since it was released and I've found the results with both the Soundblaster Live!, and the MX300, quite interesting.

Unreality Map Section Opens #2 [19:43 CET by cosmo]
Preacher of Unreality sent me a mail saying something about if I didn't do a piece on his mapreview section, he would come around and slap me...

I'ts posted b4, but just to be sure, here it is again:

http://www.unreality.org/map_reviews.asp

Matrix HL update [16:38 CET by NoName]
Another update from Techno Kill over at Matrix HL yesterday. Here's what he had to say

Can you believe this? It's Saturday night and yours truly is sitting at home! The last time I was at home on a Saturday night was when I got grounded for taking out Pappy's Jeep while he was at dinner last winter. How about that. Anyway, a lot of cool stuff got added into the mod lately. The power meter is now implemented, as is dodging bullets. We got an ability button in there, and a few other things. If all goes well, we're going to try and send it out to a few of our private test servers tomorrow night or Monday night. We don't want a ton of e-mails and ICQ messages about this alright, because what you see here is all you're gonna hear. (Haiku, hooray!)

New IP-Checker [3:05 CET by cosmo]
I've released the long-awaited version 1.21 of IP-Checker, which is a nice little freeware program showing your local IP-Address. It also includes some handy and useful functions for server administrators etc.

With the latest version, you may choose to have your IP-Address copyed automatically to the clipboard, save it in a textfile and more! Here's the new stuff:

• New Installer
  
• The needed DLL-files are now included with the package
  
• Most of the program code rewritten. Should be more stable
  
• New About-dialog with a handy "System Information"-button
  
• You may now choose the directory and filename for the "Save IP to Disk" feature
  
• You can also print the IP-Address with your printer
  
• Program should work fine for people only using the keyboard
  
• New Error Handlig system will make it easier to track bugs
  
• Cosmetic Fixes
  
• Fixed some issues with the Apply-button
  
• Generally fixed and tweaked everything
  
• Other small changes and bugfixes

Half-Life Bots [20:49 CET by chiller]
There is a new version of "The Jumbot" for Half-Life, You can download the new version from Rich's Project Warehouse

I'm going to bed [2:38 CET by cosmo]
Well. Cya tomorrow. Probably the first weekend I'm not busy with scouthing or something strange ;)

The lauch of the new Cosmo3D is getting closer, and I'm really excited. The new design looks good. And the huge link database is a delighted sight... Cool to get rid of this Frontpage-stuff... Back to validating, good old HTML 4, baby!


-Axel

New Nocturne Demo [2:32 CET by cosmo]
Spotted on PlanetSmurf that there's an updated release version of the Nocturne Chicago 1933 demo up on The Nocturne Website. And a little note: The bad boy is 120MB... Wow.

Game Name Builder [2:25 CET by cosmo]
As we didn't have enoght of this nifty programs. The second release of a program that creates fun and colored for games today ;)

This time it's the Game Name Builder (how original) version 1.63, which adds support for Unreal Tournament and StarCraft servers not located on Battle.net plus some minor bugfixes and stuff.

Eidos Contest at GA-Source [2:21 CET by cosmo]
Saw on AGN3D that the mad guys over at GA-Source, together with Edios - will give away tons of stuff in a huge contest... Here's the dirt:

GA-Source and Eidos Interactive are teaming up to give away prize bundles containing copies of Omikron, Revenant, Thief Gold, T-shirts, watches, and much more! Enter now to win some one the most anticipated games coming out this year. This contest will end on October 30, so enter now! 6 First Prize winners will receive an Eidos Game, a collectable Lara Croft Watch, and an Eidos T-Shirt. 6 Second Prize winners will receive an Eidos game.

Carmack Interview [0:43 CET by cosmo]
That crazy Untitled guy (NoName, you fool) asked me to post this because his web-access was kinda', uhmm, stupid...

Slashdot, or actually - some lucky SlahDot readers - has done an interview with id Programmer monkey John Carmack. This is one of the better interviews! Here's a nice little snip:

Making Snow Crash into a reality feels like a sort of moral imperative to a lot of programmers, but the efforts that have been made so far leave a lot to be desired.

It is almost painful for me to watch some of the VRML initiatives. It just seems so obviously the wrong way to do something. All of this debating, committee forming, and spec writing, and in the end, there isn't anything to show for it. Make something really cool first, and worry about the spec after you are sure it's worth it!

I do think it is finally the right time for this to start happening for real. While a lot of people could envision the possibilities after seeing DOOM or Quake, it is really only now that we have general purpose hardware acceleration that things are actually flexible enough to be used as a creative medium without constantly being conscious of the technical limitations.

Two weeks ago, I pitched a proposal to develop some technology along these lines to the rest of the company. I may wind up working on some things like that in parallel with the next game project.

Unreality Map Section Opens [19:34 CET by cosmo]
Preacher sent word that the map section over at Unreality finally have opened it's doors... Check it out.

International Driver Patches [15:38 CET by cosmo]
The non-US / Canadian version of the patches released for Driver can now be grabbed from The GTIS Driver Downloads page. Seen on Blue's.

New Name Maker Studio [15:37 CET by cosmo]
A new G2 4.00 version of the Name Maker Studio is now available for download. NMS is an editor that helps you create fun and colored names for Quake3: Arena, QuakeWorld, QuakeWorld mods, Quake2 - RivCTF, Quake2 - Viking, Hexen II, and Hexen II mods. This new release lets you edit your name in a fully WYSIWYG environment.

Reviews [15:35 CET by cosmo]
Here's the daily review-stuff-thingy ripped directly from PlanetSmurf - though they are courtesy of Frans at 3D Action Gamers

• GameSpot UK reviews Rogue Spear.
  
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews Rogue Spear.
  
• PlanetRainbowSix reviews Rogue Spear looking at the action aspects of the game.
  
• PlanetRainbowSix reviews Rogue Spear looking at the strategy aspects of the game.
  
• EuroGamer reviews FreeSpace2.
  
• Gaming Age reviews Sinistar Unleashed.
  
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
  
• Game Revolution reviews Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
  
• Gamecenter reviews Silver.
  
• Gaming Age reviews Homeworld.
  
• GameSpy.com reviews Cutthroats.
  
• Gamecenter reviews Flight Unlimited III.
  
• Gamecenter reviews Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
  
• 3DGaming.Net reviews the Thief Gold Demo.
  
• Glide Underground reviews the second Treadmarks demo.
  

John Carmack .plan update [14:23 CET by Doff]
John Carmack updated his .plan filethingie, listing lots of changes\fixes\additions they've been doing lately to Q3A.

Darkstone 1.0.3 Euro [1:28 CET by cosmo]
The European version of the Darkstone 1.0.3 patch is now available for download at Delphine Software's Patch Page.

Urban Chaos shots [22:54 CET by cosmo]
Saw on VE that UrbanChaos.net has posted some new screenshots from Mucky Foot's upcoming game, Urban Chaos. For those stuped enought to dunno what Urban Chaos is - here's a little explanation I've grabbed from Billy. Lucky for you.

Based on a Nostradamus prediction for the end of the world, the antichrist is coming at the turn of the century and you have to stop it happening. Using 2 main characters Darci (the cop) and Roper (the ex-cop, turned vigilante).

The game has a lot of similarities with Tomb Raider, but its AI is much more sophisticated, with a strong background story and more important:

Mucky Foot are working really hard (by using high order Mathematical functions) to bring almost 100% freedom of movement and involvment to the game.

The AI gives life to the cities, with everyone in the city having a purpose, their own aims and objectives.

Urban Chaos is primarily designed as a single player game, but there is a possibility of playing UC on a LAN.

Windows 2000 delayed (Big Surprise) [22:50 CET by cosmo]
Saw a link to an ZDNet article entitled Promise broken: Windows 2000 delayed. What a surprise! And - BTW - here's the comment Steve Gibson included in his post at 3DNews:

From what I've seen of Win2k it's an improvement over Win98 in a lot of ways and for once I'm actually looking forward to a Microsoft product. Yikes.

I'm fixing, ya know [22:41 CET by cosmo]
I've added a new search-feature to Cosmo3D, so now you can search through the news archive. There's also a new option, which let you view all news item on one page.

Both of the thingys are available on the bottom of this page - and is being added to the news-archive section right now...

nVidia GeForce 256 DDR Review [22:15 CET by cosmo]
Sharky Extreme has posted it's nVidia GeForce 256 DDR Guide, where they take the GeForce through its' paces and puts it up against some other cards:

We took a GeForce 256 DDR-SGRAM, a regular GeForce 256, a TNT2 Ultra, a TNT2 UltraSE and a Voodoo3 and put them through their paces on a PIII 600MHz, Celeron 450MHz and the Athlon 650MHz. As well as the benchmarks, we took a hard look at the technology involved, made some forecasts on future GeForce skews and finally give you the low-down (with benchmarks) on how to overclock your GeForce 256 if you fancy it.

Half-Life - 'Best PC Game Ever' [22:14 CET by cosmo]
Jenni Gant from Valve sent word to QuakeCity that PC Gamer has selected Half-Life as the winner of the "Best 50 Games Ever" list, and sent along this press release:

HALF-LIFE NAMED BEST PC GAME OF ALL TIME
Story-Driven Thriller from Valve and Sierra Studios Tops PC Gamer’s All-Time List

Bellevue, WA (October 13, 1999) – Half-Life, the blockbuster debut game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra Studios, was named “Best PC Game Ever” in the November 1999 issue of PC Gamer, the world’s best-selling PC games magazine. The other top five games in the “50 Best Games Ever” include Civilization II, Quake I & II, StarCraft, and System Shock 1 & 2.

"PC Gamer's annual Best 50 Games Ever listing has always been notoriously difficult to compile, but Half-Life emerged as the clear winner this year. There was little disagreement among the editorial team that the game's incredible fusing of action and story has forever changed the face of PC action gaming,” said Gary Whitta, editor in chief of PC Gamer magazine. “…Aside from its revolutionary significance it (Half-Life) is, quite simply, the most addictive and fun PC game I have ever played. Hundreds of games vie for a place on our coveted list every year, but only 50 can make the grade – and only one can top them all."

Half-Life has been a huge critical and commercial success since its release. It is the most honored game of the year, having won over forty-five 1999 Game of the Year awards from leading publications around the world. Half-Life also won seven Spotlight Awards earlier this year, including Best of Show. The Spotlight awards are especially significant because winners are chosen by fellow game developers and announced at the annual Game Developers Conference. To date, Half-Life has sold more than one million copies worldwide. During the month of July—almost eight months after release--Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition was in the number one spot on PC Data’s best seller list by both units and dollars. Valve's second game, Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms, which is slated for release next year, was given the E3 Game Critics’ Award for Best Action Game and Best Online Game at the electronic entertainment industry tradeshow E3 in July 1999 Later this year, Sierra Studios, Valve, and Gearbox Software will release Half-Life: Opposing Force, which is an entirely new episode that runs on top of the Half-Life engine.

Founded in 1996, Valve develops entertainment software. Half-Life is Valve’s debut title. Since its release in November, 1998, Half-Life has won over 45 game of the year awards from publications that include PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, and CNET’s Gamecenter. Valve’s upcoming title, Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms recently won the E3 Game Critics’ Award for Best Action Game and Best Online Game. More information about Valve is available through the company’s web site at www.valvesoftware.com.

Sierra On-Line, Inc. http://www.sierra.com/ is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is a division of Havas Interactive, a global leader in interactive content, and is one of the world’s largest publishers of education, entertainment and home productivity software. Its divisions, Blizzard®, Coktel, Knowledge Adventure®, Sierra™ and WON.net™ are famous for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles. Havas has operations in the US and in Europe and is a subsidiary of the French publishing house Havas, part of Vivendi Communications.

Grand Theft Auto 2 GOLD [22:02 CET by cosmo]
Saw this article on Gamer's Voice, and smart as I am, I noticed that the sequel to the nasty-cool driving-game Grand Theft Auto, GTA2, has gone GOLD. According to GV, the game will be in stores the 22nd of October.

MacTourney news from Westlake [16:20 CET by cosmo]
Westlake Interactive have whiped together a Status Report on the Mac version of Epic's Unreal Tournament. Here's a taste:

Work continues on the Unreal Tournament Mac Demo, which are currently expecting to release in about two weeks. We originally hoped to have it out sooner, but we decided to go ahead and integrate the changes to the 338 demo on the PC (released a couple weeks after the 3Dfx demo, version 322). This requires some work on the Mac code and some further testing, but will mean Mac users will start with the latest demo and shouldn't have to download a 50MB demo based on 322, followed by a 10 to 50MB update to 338 later.

Current plans are still to release the 3Dfx and Software rendering version of the demo first, followed by the Rave and/or OpenGL versions a week or so later.

Nocturne demo Voodoo fix [16:12 CET by cosmo]
Saw on PlanetSmurf (I just had to rip this from NoName) Nocturne Lead Programmer and Co-Designer Mark Randela has word on a fix for Voodoo 2 & 3 users using the second Nocturne demo (53 KB). Here's the thingy:

For Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 users
Only to be used for Nocturne Demo #2

"DirectX is a very complicated API. Nocturne uses a blit function in the DirectX API that 3Dfx does not implement yet in their D3D drivers. Other 3D games do not use real-time shadows, and do not exercise some of the DirectX functions that we use in Nocturne.

This TRIDX6.DLL contains code to emulate this blit function using the main CPU instead of the Voodoo card. Because of this software emulation, Nocturne will not run at an optimal frame rate, because normally Nocturne can do other work (like cloth simulation) while the hardware takes care of this blit.

Please remember that Voodoo cards can only render in 16-bit mode. Nocturne is optimized for 32-bit mode, so you'll have to decide whether you like 16-bit hardware, or 32-bit software mode best.

Due to the software memory blit function, please only run 640x480x16bpp with this video driver for the moment. Any other resolution will probably crash immediately. Usage of this video driver is governed by the software license agreement that you agreed to when installing the original product.

3Dfx is scheduled to release their next Voodoo3 update on October 15th. This update contains the blit function that Nocturne uses, and Nocturne will run at full speed with this new driver. When you download this driver, please delete this TRIDX6.DLL and use the original one that we ship with the game."

On UT Mod Compatibility [0:47 CET by cosmo]
Saw on the Blue Site that NGNetwork has posted a two question Q&A with Epic's Tim Sweeney, talking about the next patch for Unreal nr. 1 as well as this thing regarding mod compatibility between the demo and full versions of Unreal Tournament:

When the full Unreal Tournament ships, we expect UT demo mods will need a small amount of upgrading and modification, rather than having full binary compatibility. After UT ships and we start patching UT, we expect few mods to break. The game, AI, and server framework is really solid now. The kinds of things that are likely to break are mods that use the C++ headers (rather than pure UnrealScript), and mods which tie into implementation details that might change, like server browser minutiae.

Themes Central Contest [0:37 CET by cosmo]
ph0tek was kind enought to let me know that he is running a contest on Themes Central, whose prizes include a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, a copy of Homeworld, QuakeIII: Arena, and UT.

Wheel Of Time update [23:05 CET by Doff]
The Wheel of Time page has once again been updated, and it looks like it's very near going gold. This is one of the few games I'm strongly looking forward to, so this, of course, is very exciting ;)
Go read the full update from designer Glen Dahlgren.

Tiberian Sun Review [21:18 CET by cosmo]
Saw on VE that Eidolon has written a review of Westwood's Tiberian Sun. Here's a scoop:

The gameplay is what matters in an RTS, right? It's the meat on the stick, the filling in the doughnut, the sausage in Tommy Lee's pants. However, not much has changed since the inception of the original. The interface is still the exact same, with buildings and units listed on the right side of the screen. What's annoying about this is that units and buildings are added to the list as they become available (Due to prerequisites). This means that usually your infantrymen will be at the top (As the barracks is one of the first buildings you build), but if your barracks gets destroyed and you rebuild it, the infantry guys will be at the bottom of the list. While this may not seem like a big deal, I don't want to have to look for my damn guys to build in the heat of battle. The order should be fixed.

Deus Ex Shots [21:16 CET by cosmo]
The official Deus Ex Website has some new shots from this Unreal Engine-powered game in their Screenshots-section.

CPU Price Guide [21:13 CET by cosmo]
Spotted on 3DNews that the guys over at Tech-Review have updated their CPU pricing guide. Here's a dirt on the subject:

After last weeks introduction of the Athlon 700 at $860, that price quickly dropped $117 to $743 with the 650 Athlon dropping a nice $42 as well.Pictures and specs have finally showed up for the ASUS Athlon motherboard which IS going to be the choice for Athlon owners when it's released in November. The new board will take full advantage of the Athlon's overclocking options. Finally a board to match the quality of the Athlon.

New HL mission [16:15 CET by NoName]
A new singleplayer mission for HL has been released. It's called RES, and was released by clan BSP. Here's a dish from the storyline:

You are Gordon Freeman, it's been a while since the little problem at Black Mesa. Somehow you escaped and have been hiding for a while, everything has been pretty quiet up until today. Early in the day you got a radio message from a research facility code named 'RES' which has received some of Black Mesa's creatures after the accident. The scientist gave you the location of the back entrance to the facility which is where you are headed now. While you're driving there, he explains how the aliens took over the research labs, but since RES's containment system is better, it managed to contain the aliens in the research labs... unfortunatly the scientists are stuck down there too and now the military are entering the base to kill everything and everyone related to the accident. He also tells you about how some of the security force has gone berserk and are also killing scientists.

Matrix HL beta anytime now [16:02 CET by NoName]
Got a mail from Techno Kill @ Matrix HL, the people who are making the Matrix mod for Half-Life, yesterday, and it seems like they're having the beta release ready any time now. The beta is only for the exclusive chosen beta testers (like Doff and I ;o), so I'll let you all know how great it is before the full version is released. Here's the scoop )oh, I love to say that (:

Good news!! The coding for Matrix HL is pretty much complete for the beta. We're compiling it now. We're finishing up the models, and we are pretty much waiting for maps right now. I wouldn't be surprised to hear from us in two to three days about where to download the mod. Tonight, the MHL team is testing it internally cause we are so money, and then tomorrow, package it up all nice, and hopefully, if the maps are done by then, ship it Wednesday or Thursday. We'll be releasing the .fgd publically tonight if our fackin' host ever gets there crap together so we can get into the server and upload some stuff. See ya.
The Techno Kill
Matrix HL

Command & Conquer: Renegade [14:57 CET by Doff]
Westwood, the makers of everything Command & Conquer, is now making an action game in the same universe; Command & Conquer: Renegade They've put up a little preview at the official site.

Æstats 4.26 [14:44 CET by Doff]
Æstats, a logfile parsing utility for 3DFPS games has a new version out, that adds support for Heretic II, Sin, Unreal Tournament (3.38 Update) and U4E (UT demo mutator), plus updated support for Hexen II. Supported lots of games already, so go check it out

Cosmo3D Tracked [1:19 CET by cosmo]
A note to let you know that Cosmo3D now is tracked by the ultra cool .plan and news-tracker Webdog! Cool, huh?

I'm now going to bed. Cya tomorrow, folks!

Carmack's Work Log [0:59 CET by cosmo]
id Software's John Carmack made a .plan update with his most recent Quake III: Arena Work Log:

* handle window close events properly
* enable r_displayRefresh selection and feedback on mac
* avoid AGEN_IDENTITY when CGEN_DIFFUSE_LIGHTING
* colorized railgun muzzle flash, impact flash, and mark
* exactly synced animating textures with waveforms and collapsed all explosion sequences into single shaders
* removed unneeded black pass on hell skies
* fixed grenades sticking to steep slopes
* scan for next highest fullscreen resolution when exact mode fails (fixes SGI flat panel failing to init)
* all cgame cvars now have a cg_ prefix (crosshair, fov, etc)
* clear clientinfo before parsing configstring
* make all feedback voiceovers share the same channel
* fixed nodraw curves
* fixed obits from shooter entities
* fixed chat char issue
* separate gentity_t fields into sharedEntity_t
* reintegrated q_mathsys with q_math
* cg_forcemodel also forces player sounds
* unknown cmd commands don't chat
* fixed strip order on text quads

Ask Carmack about anything! [21:37 CET by NoName]
Slashdot (/.) has managed to get probably the most known gaming personality wordwide, John Carmack, the maker of the Doom and Quake games, in the electric chair. Or in other words - they're having an interview with him. 'Cept this time YOU ask the quetions. John's answers will be posted on Friday. Wanna pop?

GeForce 256 Review [16:49 CET by cosmo]
Razor @ Planet RIVA let me know that the guys over there have kicked up a review of nVIDIA's GeForce 256 reference board, featuring the DDR RAM Technology. They have packed over 20 pages of information, screenshots and benchmarks in a cool mix over there, so check it out!

Back from a rainy weekend. [16:47 CET by cosmo]
First of all - big kudos to NoName and Doff, that have kept the site updated over the weekend, while I visited the woods around their home city, Bergen. As you may remember - I said I was going to the Official Norwegian Championship in SCOUTING. Because of the seven hours of train-travel, I missed the awarding-stuff, but I'll let you know how the thing ended.

New Matrox Drivers [13:11 CET by NoName]
This is kinda old, but anyways. I noticed on AGN that Matrox has released their 5.30 drivers for all Millenium G200 and Matrox G400-based card running on any Win9x system. Go there and check it out yerself!

New BattleZone2 Shots [13:04 CET by NoName]
Noticed on Blue's that there are 5 new screenshots from this upcoming Panademic release at PlanetBz. They're all hi-resolution (1024x768), and according to the staff over there, more are on its way in the "next week or two"...

Problems with D3 patch [0:30 CET by NoName]
Doff earlier updated with a word on the arrival of the new *full* Descent 3 patch, 1.2. But some people seems to have problems with upgrading from the beta patch to the full 1.2 patch. Hey, don't worry, Descent3D has got a word on how to fix it. However, you'll have to make some changes in the registry, so they ask you to be careful in there.

New UT Demo next week? [13:30 CET by NoName]
Eric over at UTCenter got a mail from Tim Sweeney about a new UT Demo. Here goes:

There will be a new demo version in the next week or so with some bug fixes and optimizations.

Another demo level looks unlikely.

-Tim

Matrix HL not this weekend [13:19 CET by NoName]
I stumbled across The Matrix HL site this morning, and it seems like they're updating their news quite heavily these days. Anyways, the beta is not ready for release quite yet. Here's a scoop by Techno Kill from yesterday:

Well, I don't think you'll see the beta test this weekend private beta testers. We are still scratching our heads on a nasty spawning bug. So, we have to fix that among a few other things. The upside to this is there is going to be a few new features in the beta that weren't planned to be in right away. This is probably the last update you'll see from me until probably Monday. Poop's also out of town too, so I am not sure if the page will be updated at all. The new site layout should debut soon.

Descent 3 v.1.2 [16:35 CET by Doff]
Yup, the 1.2 patch for Descent 3 is out, available through the game's autoupdatethingie. It includes, as usual, bugfixes, and new features.
Among them:

- Reduced network traffic in multiplayer games by not sending position packets for dedicated servers, dead players, and observers.
- Additional Pentium III enhancements: motion blur on robots and powerup sparkles.
- Under Linux, service mode (invoked with -service) now works like a true service.
- Secondary weapon fire packets are now sent relialbly.
- Added support for EAX 2.0.
- Changed the controller (joystick) code to use by default the Windows API. Version 1.0.0 used the Windows API, but 1.1.0 used DirectInput. To use DirectInput under 1.2.0, use the "-directinput" command-line option (which does the same thing as the "-alternatejoy" option.) DirectInput should be used with joysticks that don't work with the Windows API, such as the Wingman Interceptor and other multiple-hat sticks.

AvP Q&A [12:24 CET by NoName]
According to loonyboi over at Blue's News, AliensvsPredator.com is conducting an interview with Fox Interactive's David Stalker, the producer of Aliens vs. Predator, and they're soliciting questions from fans. You can head over there to get your voice heard. Myself, I couldn't stand their flash site, so I'm just taking loony's word for it. *Gosh*, that site made me sick. :/

New Q3 site [1:56 CET by NoName]
Quake III shop, yet another site that focuses on the upcoming id release, has just been launched. Go there and judge yourselves. Saw this on STOMPED.

WoT shots [1:37 CET by NoName]
Gamespot UK is now focusing on one of next years biggest game releases, the Wheel of Time. At this moment, they've got 102 shots up, and more are to come, just hear what they say:

As the title nears completion, we've persuaded publishers GT Interactive to part with some of the closely guarded beta code to bring you the latest news from the Wheel universe.

First up, we've a huge selection of screenshots and in-game art for you to have a look right now.

Early next week, we'll be bringing you the results of our searching and exhaustive hands-on playtest, as well as revealing details on both of the brand-new Arena Match and Citadels multiplayer incarnations of the game.

Tribes 1.9 [1:25 CET by NoName]
Finally home from that LAN party, and the first thing I spotted at Blue's News, was the arrival of the new Tribes patch. I'm sorry for being such a meat loaf, but I'm just quoting the scoop form the Blue guy:

TRIBES Players site has posted the version 1.9 patch for Starsiege TRIBES is now available as both an update for version 1.0 or for version 1.8. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers. Here are local copies and lists of mirrors for the patch to update version 1.0 (767 KB), and the patch to update version 1.8 (385 KB). The patch is described as fixing, "some server side bugs".

I'm leaving town [21:21 CET by cosmo]
Now there is the Official Norwegian Championship in SCOUTING. Yup, me and my buddies got the 2nd price in the Oslo-cup, so now we are heading towards Bergen, which btw is NoName's hometown.

I'm in a hurry. You'll hear from me again after the weekend.


-Axel

Misc news [1:39 CET by NoName]
Seems like the cosmic guy and the chillin' dood are busy at school or something, and since Doff and I are at a LAN party (w/o any net connection), there have been a little news lack here. Regardless, here's a summary of the most important news the last 24 hours. News spotted on Stomped.com, Blue's and VoodooExtreme.

• 3dfx Announces Resignation of L. Gregory Ballard, its president and CEO. Resignation effective October 31, 1999. Read the story at Yahoo Biz.
  
• Darkstone News has posted a new Darkstone Patch (1.0.3).
  
• Gamespot UK has posted another TR4 preview.
  
• ATI Rage Fury MAXX has been announced, and seems to outbeat even the TNT2 chipset.
  
• New drivers for TNT2-based Creative cards, both Win9x and NT.

New HL Game Launcher [1:22 CET by NoName]
Saw this on VE:

The Half-Life Game Launcher 3.0 is out ! This is probably the last version of the soft, except if some patches are needed. There are many new features in this version.

Here's a bit :

• Added a filter option in the avaible maps list.
  
• Preset system with own filetype (*.hlgl)
  
• "Custom Mod" mode is now able to list the map in the mod directory
  
• Splash screen is customisable (only JPEG files)
  
• You can now save your map list into a text file

The Half-Life Game Launcher 3.0 is downloadable on the download page, and on mirror servers as soon as possible.

UT Sniper Mutator [18:50 CET by cosmo]
Preacher mailed a short note on a new sniper mutator on Unreality. Here's the scoop of what it does:

• Every player starts with the sniper rifle (modified shockrifle)
• As players gain score they will be awarded new enhancements:
• a (cheesey) lasersight
• the ability to zoom (altfire)
• explosive shots (doesn't that animation look familiar?)
• enhanced damage
• Players gain score for kills, lose score for dying
• If you're hit in the head you'll take x3 damage
• If you're hit in the leg you'll take 1/2 damage but have a movement penalty
• If you're hit in the torso you take normal damage

New AMD chip today [16:12 CET by NoName]
Last post from me today, I saw on VE that AMD is unveiling a new chip today. Here's the sauce from Reuters:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. plans to unveil Tuesday a new microprocessor that would compete with a new chip Intel Corp. named Monday, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.

The 64-bit "SledgeHammer", designed to compete with Intel's new "Itanium", represents a change in strategy for Advanced Micro, the Journal said.

Rather than copying Intel, with the new chip Advanced Micro is introducing a chip that isn't compatible with software written for chips made by its larger rival, the paper said.

Intel's "Itanium" is expected to debut in the second half of 2000, while Advanced Micro won't launch its chip until 2001, the Journal reported.

Kinda NO: Winamp 2.50e released [15:58 CET by NoName]
This is kinda off-topic, but still not totally irrelevant, so I'm posting it. I think I'll just quote the whole dish, from ian over at Winamp.com:

Winamp 2.50e is ready for public consumption. It brings a souped up cdda_in.dll, and many critical bug fixes to Winamp's Mjuice support. If you're trying to play files created using Mjuice's Digital Rights Management solution, we recommend you upgrade to Winamp 2.50e now!

Creative Labs GeForce press releases [15:33 CET by NoName]
I'm really on a LAN party with no Internet connection at the moment, but I'm home now to check my mail and stuff, and the cosmic dude had actually blesssed my inbox. He said he was in a hurry, but asked me to post something he got from Christopher "Razor" Gordon @ Planet Riva. Here goes...

Hi guys,
Just in case you haven't seen this quite yet, Creative Labs has put out two press releases announcing two GeForce video cards they will be producing. The first is the 3D Blaster Annihilator:

http://www.soundblaster.com/corporate/news/geforce256.html

The second is for the 3D Blaster Annihilator Pr, which will feature DDR RAM technology (for about double the bandwidth of conventional RAM technologies):

http://www.soundblaster.com/corporate/news/3db-annihilator.html

Summaries of both PRs can be found at Planet RIVA.

FragFacility is online! [9:06 CET by cosmo]
Dooing sent over a mail regarding his new Unreal/UT DM site, FragFacility. Here's the dirt on the subject:

FragFacility, the new name of a former page called " The Holy Shrine of Deathmatch" is online again! Here you can find the best custom Deathmatch Maps for Unreal & soon Unreal Tournament aswell. FragFacility works like a Hitlist, you can vote for maps and the ratings will be updated from time to time. But the best is, the maps are organized by map size, author and map type. A searchengine will follow soon! Don't waste your time and bookmark FragFacility
now!

GameSpy 2.16 Shareware Released [14:06 CET by cosmo]
Fargo let me know that version 2.16 of the Gamespy 3D server-browser is available as shareware for non-registered users. The new version adds support for both Unreal Tournament and Deer Hunder 3. Here's a snip from the mail I got:

Note for Unreal Tourney users: When GameSpy connects you to a server, Unreal Tourney will open with the console window active. Hit 'esc' a couple times to get into the game. This will be fixed in later versions of UT

Thief Gold has gone gold [13:58 CET by Doff]
According to Voodoo Extreme, Thief Gold, the enhanced version of Thief, has gone gold, and should be in stores in not so long. For a full list of changes in this gold version, check out Voodoo Extreme (kinda long)

New UT Mutator [13:49 CET by cosmo]
Chris "Stallion" Lambert fired off a mail letting us know that Mod Central have posted a new Unreal Tourney mutator, which enlarges the weapons and pickups in-game. Here's the full dirt on the subject:

Another great mutator from Mongo, this time, its Jumbo Pickups. This mutator enlarges all "pickups" in the level (weapons, health, ammo, jump
boots, etc.) by three times. It also enlarges weapons (3rd person view, leaving first person normally sized -- so you can see more than half your screen ;) to create some enjoyable and funny gameplay. I had great fun combining this with Soul Harvest, Fatboy, and Half_Pint. Without anymore of my ado, check out: Jumbo Pickups (5 KB)

System Shock 2 Review [3:07 CET by cosmo]
Saw on Sharky Extreme that Pete Closs has put up a cool review of System Shock 2. Here's a dirt from the article. Yup, SS2 sounds like a cool game:

System Shock 2 is harder than a solid steel bulkhead and takes longer to complete than your average interstellar journey. It is also one of the best games released this year. In short, System Shock 2 is a brilliantly executed, thoroughly engrossing and utterly frightening game that should appeal to anyone but the most ardent RPG hater. In fact, any article on it doesn't need a conclusion. It needs a health warning.

The new Cosmo3D coming your way soon... [0:56 CET by cosmo]
First of all, do a warm welcome-thingy for Doff, da guy! Just scroll down and take a look at his first post ;)

Then, over to the subject - I have said it b4, and I'm saing it again! Soon, Cosmo3D will be redesiged, and the site contents will be changed a bit too... Mainly because I cannot keep all pages updated all the time, so I got to choose a few things to concentrate my work on. Right now, it looks like an always-updated honey-roasted news section, as well as a new and big link index. Tell me whay you think!

New UT level of the week [0:52 CET by Doff]
First of all, hey :) I'm a new updater, so....welcome me ;)

OK, happened yesterday, but I wasn't an updater then ;)
The official UT site has been updated, showing off a new UT level of the week, this time it's CTF-Facing Worlds, a CTF map on an asteroid in deep space. Pictures, too, of course :)

Tim Sweeny on TNT/TNT2 in UT [19:40 CET by cosmo]
Saw on Blue's that Epic's Tim Sweeney updated the Unreal Tech page with an explanation of the problem where TNT/TNT2 cards suck down an extra 25 MB of system RAM in UT. Here's a little part on the tweak-stuff:

• Play in 16-bit color, which is significantly faster than 32-bit color.
• Turn the detail options down in the Preferences/Video menu.
• Use the "-" key to reduce the HUD size.
• In Preferences/Game, turn off the display of your weapon.
• If you have enabled Advanced Options / Audio / Use3DHardware audio support, TURN IT OFF for now! Big driver performance problems.

Experimental improvement for the brave:

• Try NVidia's Beta Detonator 3.34 drivers (thanks to Anandtech's site for the link).
• Try putting this new D3DDRV.DLL into your \TournamentDemo\System directory. Please back up your existing one first!

These two downloads are beta and haven't been rigorously tested yet, but in our gameplay sessions here, they're a huge improvement on low-RAM machines with the TNT, TNT2, and GeForce256.

Please let us know how these work for you, by emailing utbugs@epicgames.com

AGN News [18:22 CET by cosmo]
Joshua Krane let me know that AGN has posted the following items:

• Marvel G400 (video and text reviews)
• ActionTec Camera Connect Pro
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I'm back! [18:20 CET by cosmo]
I'm back from some cool days in yeah... far away ;) News coming soon.

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