Quake2.com logo by Walter |2| Costinak


Thursday, August 20, 1998 - Submit News!
FYI...
I didn't get a chance to inform y'all this earlier, but my PC has been in the shop since Monday, thus I haven't been able to make any updates at all. The service people have decided to replace my hard drive, and are waiting for the part to come in so I hope to have it back tomorrow, but that's probably a little too optimistic. Also, my email will be backed up with almost a week's worth, so if you were planning on emailing me personally, do me a favor and hold off on that until I get things back in order, thanks.

NetGuy

Wednesday, August 19, 1998 - Submit News!
New Quake2 Competition Ladder Opening Today
There is a new Quake2 Ladder opening Wednesday on Gibbed.Com called Gathering Of Champions. The url is http://champions.gibbed.com and it's open to the public. It has Open and Mixed Ping CTF, Capture! CTF, 2 on 2 CTF, and a one on one RailGun Challenge. More ladders will be added at a future date.

Weapons Factory For Solaris
Version 3.0 of Weapons Factory has been ported to Sparc Solaris. The g-zipped tar file can be found here.

New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
Help Wanted
Qbal is still in need of a mapper, programmer, and a texture artist. If you can be of help, please visit http://www.stuffx.com/qbal/index.html.

LadyICE

Tuesday, August 18, 1998 - Submit News!
John Carmack Updated His .plan
John Carmack has updated his .plan file. Check out what John Carmack had to say:
------ 8/17/98 -------

I added support for HDTV style wide screen displays in QuakeArena, so 24" and 28" monitors can now cover the entire screen with game graphics.

On a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen, a 90 degree horizontal field of view gives a 75 degree vertical field of view. If you keep the vertical fov constant and run on a wide screen, you get a 106 degree horizontal fov.

Because we specify fov with the horizontal measurement, you need to change fov when going into or out of a wide screen mode. I am considering changing fov to be the vertical measurement, but it would probably cause a lot of confusion if "fov 90" becomes a big fisheye.

Many video card drivers are supporting the ultra high res settings like 1920 * 1080, but hopefully they will also add support for lower settings that can be good for games, like 856 * 480.

---

I spent a day out at apple last week going over technical issues.

I'm feeling a lot better about MacOS X. Almost everything I like about rhapsody will be there, plus some solid additions.

I presented the OpenGL case directly to Steve Jobs as strongly as possible.

If Apple embraces OpenGL, I will be strongly behind them. I like OpenGL more than I dislike MacOS. :)

---

Last friday I got a phone call: "want to make some exhibition runs at the import / domestic drag wars this sunday?". It wasn't particularly good timing, because the TR had a slipping clutch and the F50 still hasn't gotten its computer mapping sorted out, but we got everything functional in time.

The tech inspector said that my cars weren't allowed to run in the 11s at the event because they didn't have roll cages, so I was supposed to go easy.

The TR wasn't running its best, only doing low 130 mph runs. The F50 was making its first sorting out passes at the event, but it was doing ok. My last pass was an 11.8(oops) @ 128, but we still have a ways to go to get the best times out of it.

I'm getting some racing tires on the F50 before I go back. It sucked watching a tiny honda race car jump ahead of me off the line. :)

I think ESPN took some footage at the event.
Quake2 Battleground v1.05
Quake2 Battleground v1.05 has been released, and is available at http://www.ogl.org/battle. This new release fixes the camera bugs in v1.03a, adds a full-combat warmup, automatic overtime, a HUD timer, better random spawning at match start, and more.

KRYPTYK Interview
You can check out an interview with KRYPTYK, the author of the RAMBOT at Bot Epidemic.

Exclusive Zaero Screenshots
Sgt. Hulka has some exclusive screenshots from Team Evolve's upcoming addon for Quake II: Zaero. Pay a visit to Hulka's Bootcamp and check them out.

Expert maps
The Expert team is currently compiling a selection of the best DM and CTFmaps for inclusion in the next release of Expert. Map suggestions can be sent to myrkul@myrkul.org. The current picks are running on the Expert Development server located at 171.64.206.117:27920. Anyone wanting to download the entire set in a zip (1.25MB) can do so here which should be unzipped into your \QUAKE2\BASEQ2\MAPS directory. Server administrators running Expert in DM mode can download a drop-in map cycle config here.

Z-Bot Article
Blaze at 3DScene has a new article up in which he discusses the Z-Bot, its unfairness, and how you can tell the difference between a Z-Bot and a person with exceptionally good aim. I have DM'ed against Blaze mahself, and he gives new meaning to the phrase "exceptionally good aim"!

QBS2 v1.05 Is Available
QBS2 v1.05 is now available at the QBS2 website.

New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
Help Wanted
LadyICE

Monday, August 17, 1998 - Submit News!
New Action Quake Map From PORTALS
"Altar of Kumanru", the first in a series of great Action Quake maps is now available for all you Action Quake fans at PORTALS. This map has brand new textures, and is good fraggin' fun ;)

HappyFun Bot Source Code Released
The source code and a previously unreleased Windows version of the HappyFun Bot has been released since the project cancellation. If you wish to take a look at them, go to http://www.gazpacho.net/.

NIQ: Solaris and Linux Builds Updates
There is a Solaris build for NIQ now available at http://www.telefragged.com/eclipse/; as well as a beta of the Linux build which is available at http://www.planetquake.com/niq/.

Fireteam beta 2.1 Review
If you are interested in checking out a review of Multitudes' Fireteam beta 2.1, head on over to chao's Corner.

LMCTF News
First the good news: there is now an online tutorial addressing the difficult set-up of the hourly updated Gibstats; server ops will be especially interested in seeing this. There is also a new LMCTF Bulletin Board for players, developers, and server operators. And for all of you LMCTF fans, PMS-QBitch has started the first LMCTF webring. And now, a little bad news: because of both virtual and real life demands, the Eraserbot project has been officially postponed.

New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
Quake Innovations, the group behind Quake Paintball, Hot Potato CTF, and Capture the Shambler, have just been captured themselves! Their new home is now at http://www.captured.com/qi/. Help them celebrate their grand opening at captured.com by stopping by and checking out their latest project...Ultimate Paintball, which is the sequel to their #1 Quake I Paintball mod.

Help Wanted
Team Trans-Pacific is looking for some talented artists, a couple of level designers, and a sound man to help out on their upcoming mission pack. For more details, go here.

New Hosted Site
TeamTNT's Quake2 project "LUC" is now being hosted at Quake2.com. LUC is an advanced and comprehensive TC, well under way at this time. TeamTNT is looking for experienced Quake/Quake2 level designers to help create detailed levels with a strong emphasis on single-player play. Members will get the opportunity to work with a team of talented graphics artists, modelers, and game logic programmers.

LadyICE

Sunday, August 16, 1998 - Submit News!
New QuakeStarter
Version 0.61b of QuakeStarter has been relased. This version has several new features, including the addition of HyperQuake to the mod list, and the ability to rename maps; along with the usual bugfixes and tweaks.

Tournaments and Contests
More Help Wanted
New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
  • Mr TV is a new comic strip site done by the graphics guy over at Quake2000.net. Hosted Sites Update
    4th Dimension Interactive has some more levels on their web page to beta test. They also have an opening for a programmer. Please get in touch with Matt if you are interested in applying. Beta Testers also welcome.

    TopGun Tourney Update
    The first round of the TopGun Tournament is over, and the scores have been posted. The high scorers are: Kane, Remourn, Shaolin, Pieman and Zifnab! For a full listing, head on over to the TopGun Challenge page.

    NetGuy

    Action Quake2 v.95
    Version .95 of Action Quake2 has been released, and is available here. New changes include all new maps, new weapons, external server choice map rotation, and much more.

    New Xtreme Quake 2
    Version 0.95 of Xtreme Quake 2 has been released. You can get more details on this mod from their site.

    Weapons Factory 3.0 Released
    The Weapons Factory has just released version 3.0 of The Weapons Factory mod. Version 3.0 is the first release built with the Mod Construction Kit; the Muli-Mod system allows one version of the software to run multiple class configurations. For download and more information on the new mod, visit their site.

    New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
    WorldSpawn is a new Quake 2 site dedicated to bringing real movie-like quality flicks to the Quake 2 engine. They have just released a trailer/promo of their upcoming Quake2 movie 'New World", so pay them a visit and check it out.

    Help Wanted
    LadyICE

    Saturday, August 15, 1998 - Submit News!
    Brian Hook Updated His .plan
    Brian Hook has updated his .plan file. Brian had to say this:
    ------ August 15, 1998 ---------------

    Y'know, I still get e-mail from people that are JUST now reading plan updates from three months ago and are peeved with me for my tone, content, language, whatever. This is the reason I quit doing plan updates of a personal nature months ago.

    Coming soon....early benchmarks for various 3D accelerators that we have in our grubby little mitts. I think there are going to be some big surprises. Smells about like this time last year, no?

    For those of you that need a fix of my sarcastic self, I have transitioned my personal rants over to the Ask Grandmaster B column at www.voodooextreme.com. Have fun, and don't send Grandmaster B related e-mail to me here -- I WILL delete it unread.
    Dave Kirsch Updated His .plan
    Dave Kirsch has updated his .plan file. Zoid says:
    Aug 14th/1998

    I have received more than enough beta tester requests. Thanks for the great reponse everyone! But, please, my mailbox is going to explode. :)
    /// Zoid.
    Quake II Tournament in San Francisco
    Rhythms NetConnections will be hosting a DSL Quake II tournament in San Francisco on Wednesday, September 9th., from 4pm - 10:30pm. There will be a total of 80 contestants who will be competing for a grand prize of $1,000. Aside from the grand prize...th ere will also be Canopus Pure 3DII Cards awarded to the semi-finalists, $50 American Express Gift Certificates for each of the Round Winners, event t-shirts to all contestants, and random prizes from idSoftware given out. For full details on this tourney , check out: http://www.rhythms.net/about/quake.html. Hmmm, how can I resist competing for such incredible prizes while playing my favorite game in my home town? I can't, so you just mi ght see me there!

    Quake 2 Scene Viewer ver 1.0
    Quake II Scene Viewer ver 1.0, (QSV), for 3dfx Video Cards is now available from http://www.planetquake.com/qsb. QSV is a companion program to the Quake II Scene Builder (QSB), and will allow yo u to view the scenes that have been built with QSB using your Voodoo™ video card. Once your scene is loaded, you can adjust the camera for just the right angle and take screen shots in bmp or jpg format. Check it out.

    QBS2 Fix
    If you have had problems switching QBS2 off, and not being able to switch it back on again, then you'll be happy to know that there is a solution. You will need to download this file, a nd place it in your QBS2 directory. This should take care of the problem. Also, QBS2 v1.05 will be out this weekend. For more information on the QBS2 utility, go to http://qbs.stomped.com.

    Rocketbot v0.76 Is Available
    Rocket Bot v0.76, featuring improved teamplay support, is now available here.

    CAPTURE! Server Side Version 1.06 Released
    CAPTURE! Serverside Update to 1.06 is now available. Clients do not need to download anything. Server operators should update as soon as possible. The update is for Intel, Solaris x86, Solaris Sparc, and Linux Servers. Checkout the website: www.planetquake.com/kunani/capture.

    Team Energy Quake For Linux
    Team Energy Quake now has a linux version and a pak file. You can download it from here.

    Dark Flame Tournament
    Dark Flame is holding its first Quake 2 tournament of the year, which will be Freezetag with teams of 3 people. If you're interested in signing up, go here.

    Quake 2 Article on Game Lag and LPB'S
    If you are interested in reading up on Quake 2 game lag, and the unfair advantages LPB's have, then go check out Blaze's article at 3DScene.

    New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
    The folks at Quake2 Depo have revamped their page, and are interested in your feedback. So go check out the new design and tell them what you think.

    Help Wanted
    Black Omega is working on a conversion for Quake 2 called The Stroggos Conspiracy. They are looking for a sound effects person, as well as someone to produce music for their in-game cutscenes. If you are interested in joining their team, go visit their s ite at: http://quake.execnet.com/Development/omega/public/index.html.

    LadyICE

    ICQ fixed
    Reports are that the buffer overflow that existed in the ICQ password mechanism has been fixed.

    Blitz

    Friday, August 14, 1998 - Submit News!
    Massive ICQ Security Problem
    If you use ICQ, do not use it for any sensitive information until the latest discovered bug has been fixed. It is possible to log in as *any* user you like, this is not spoofing, you will actually be that user and will receive any messages waiting for that user and be able to send as that user. I am not going to go into details of this exploit but anyone with a Linux box and an ICQ clone can do this.

    Blitz

    Dave Kirsch Updated His .plan
    Dave Kirsch has updated his .plan file. Check out what Zoid had to say:
    8-13-98

    I've been doing some work on the Linux ports of Quake and Quake2. There are several different versions floating around out there with some problems in each and some outstanding bugs. I'm ratifing all the ports to use a common set of code for video, audi o and input. I'm also adding some new support such as glX support for GLQuake/Quake2 ref_gl so that there will be a version of GLQ/Q2 ref_gl that is not dependant on the fxMesa code in Mesa 3-D and should work with all GL renderers that are available for Linux (tho it isn't playable without hardware support). I'm also working on building glibc5 versions of the executables as well. I plan to release both libc5 and glibc versions of the binaries in the future.

    These new glX based versions obselete the use of qkHacklib.

    I've also ported 3DFX's OpenGL miniport (GLQuake driver) for Linux. The miniport is implemented as a lib replacement for esaGL.so that emulates the fxMesa...() interface. It's faster than Mesa 3-D on lower end CPUs right now, and will support multitextu re on the VooDoo2s. Mesa 3-D 3.0 also supports multitexture, so it will be interesting to compare the speed differences between the two.

    My drivers support list looks like this:
    • SQuake/Quake2 ref_soft.so:
      - requires svgalib, preferably 1.3.0 or later. Console only. Requires root permissions (setuid).
    • Quake.x11/Quake2 ref_softx.so:
      - X11 based software rendering, requires X11. Doesn't need root if /dev/audio is writable.
    • GLQuake/GLQuake2 ref_glfx.so:
      - requires SVGALib for keyboard/mouse input, Mesa 3-D with fxMesa support compiled in. Only runs at the console. This version requires svgalib 1.3.0 now. Still requires root for both svgalib and glide. (note that ref_gl.so will be glX based now an d a new ref_glfx.so will be for old svgalib/fxMesa hardwired support).
    • GLQuake.glx/GLQuake2 ref_gl.so:
      - glX based and uses X11 for keyboard/mouse input. This version should work with all existing GL/glX implementations for Linux. Vendors of Hardware GL/glX implementations for Linux should contact me about testing with their implementation. This cu rrently requires root with Mesa 3-D because of the glide dependancy, but other hardware GL/glX implementations should not. You have to do a 'export MESA_GLX_FX=fullscreen' to hack Mesa 3-D into using the 3DFX instead of software rendering for now.
    I am investigating support for GGI as well, but haven't done any implementations yet. Any GGI guys wanna gimme a hand in this?

    I'm planning to release rpm installs of the new versions of Quake/Quake2 in the future that auto-install in /usr/games/quake and /usr/games/quake2 as needed.

    One of the reasons for this plan update is I need some beta testers to help in testing these implementations. I need beta testers with the following requirements:
    • Own a copy of Quake and/or Quake2
    • Be able to test software and GL renders
    • Be able to test libc5 and glibc versions
    • Report bugs and retest new versions.
    Please note, a beta tester is NOT someone who gets to play with stuff before other people do. They are someone who wants to help out in the development and evolution of Quake for Linux.

    If you feel you have the ability to run this new code and help out in finding and eliminating bugs, please drop me a line and I'll add you to the beta tester list.

    /// Zoid.
    Canopus Manufacturing Plant Tour And Pure3dIILX Contest
    The Canopus Corporation recently opened its doors to the staff of GameStats and granted their reporters access to the production and assembly lines of their San Jose California facilities. The result of which is a rare behind-the-scenes look at the assem bly process of modern powerful video cards.
    If you are interested in taking the online tour of the Canopus Manufacturing Plant, you can check it out at http://www.gamestats.com/specials/tours/canopustour/behindthescenesatcanopus.html. Also, the GameStats folks are giving those who take their online tour an opportunity to win a Canopus Pure3dIILX Voodoo2 video accelerator card. The URL for th e Contest is: http://www.gamestats.com/specials/contests/canopusLXgiveaway/pure3dIILXcontest.html.

    Sgt. Hulka's Logo Contest
    Sgt. Hulka needs help, so he has decided to have a logo designing contest. The logo is for Hulka's Bootcamp Alive!, a new Real Audio Radio show coming soon to a computer near you. You can win an autographed copy of Zaero: Mission Pack for Quake 2. Pay a visit to the Bootcamp for all the details.

    Know1 Cares
    Know1 has updated her column with answers to several new questions that plague the mind of man and Quakers everywhere. She has also added a new feature to her column called the Rectal Examiner, a revealing and hilarious look at the hell that is life in a clan, from a true 90's chick perspective. Go check out Know1 Cares at http://www.quakecity.net/know1.

    Recon Wars For Linux
    Version 3.25 of Recon Wars now supports Linux, and has some new addons. For more info on this new version, check out their site.

    Todd Hollenshead Updated His .plan
    Todd Hollenshead has updated his .plan file. This is what he said:
    8-13-98

    On Monday of this week the guys at www.qvt.com called to tell me that they had a huge increase in orders starting Thursday of last week. Thanks for the great response. The Queen Village Trinkets guys really do good work and they definitely appreciate th e business (as do we). I also hear a certain competitor/business associate of ours found the QVT stuff cool enough that you might see someone else touting QVT jewelry, etc. soon ;)
    m2m v1.1 released
    m2m, the only utility to convert maps from Quake1 to Quake2, has been updated to version 1.1, final release. It is available from http://www.planetquake.com/5thD. The final version provides so me small corrections, including the "plane with no normal" bug, and now has an OS/2 port available.

    CTF Guide
    S.A.S.'s Guide To CTF, a complete guide to CTF has been overhauled and is now available at http://freespace.virgin.net/s.grenney. This guide is especially helpful to newbies, but also has a few new tricks for the experienced CTF player.

    Tournament News
    The schedule has been posted for TopGun's upcoming tournament. If you signed up for this tournament, you can go here to see when you play.

    New Sites/Movements/Makeovers Help Wanted
    LadyICE

    Thursday, August 13, 1998 - Submit News!
    John Cash's Updated .plan Is On Time
    John Cash has updated his .plan file. Check this out:
    8-12-98

    ------ Y2K++ -----

    With all the media twits droning on and on about Y2K, they've missed that there are some other "fun" dates coming along that are as bad, if not worse, to correct than 1/1/2000. Did you know that:
    • The year 2000 is a leap year (and 2100 is not).
    • The ANSI C library breaks on January 1, 2010
    • The Unix time function breaks on September 30, 2034
    • The Unix OS time breaks on January 19, 2038 (at 3:14:07)
    Please, please, please don't email me about other fun dates. I've got quite a list and just wanted to share this little bit with the people who read my plan. You guys are light years ahead of the general press and those of you that didn't already know of these dates can at least comprehend the problems and their ramifications.
    ThunderWalker II 2.0 Linux
    Yesterday we told you that The ThunderWalker Team had released Version 2.0 beta of their new Thunderwalker CTF mod called "Rolling Thunder". Well they have now released the Linux binary for this Q uake II CTF game, and you can get the details at their site. Oh yeah, no one has claimed the can of spam yet by decoding the secret message.

    GameGirlz Interview Anna Kang of idSoftware
    Anna Kang, the woman who launched the first All Female Quake Tournament, talks about her new job as idSoftware's Director of Business Development. You can read the interview in GameGirlz Weekly Women Spotlights.

    Help Wanted
    LadyICE

    Wednesday, August 12, 1998 - Submit News!
    New Quake2 War Mod
    I saw on Blue's yesterday that version 1.0 of the Quake2 War Mod has been released. Working with the class-based teamplay theme, this release has several tweaks and fixes, and includes new skins as well as other new features.

    ThunderWalker CTF II 2.0beta
    Version 2.0 beta of the new Thunderwalker CTF mod called "Rolling Thunder" has been released. The readme.txt details all the changes which include faster speed, 4 new maps, new graphics, and of course the usual bugfixes. The Thunderwalker team is offering a free can of Spam to the person that decodes their secret message! mmMMMmmmm... spam...

    New Multiplayer Quake2 Announced
    Straight from the horse's email:
    Aerotic Software has posted a press release which can be found on their news page in relation to their future plans including the announcement of a new version of multiplayer quake 2 which will include an enhanced/tweaked deathmatch, or the server can choose a 'last man standing' type experience all within the same add on. It will also include 10 new high quality multiplay designed maps. this prduct is called Cataclysm
    Help Wanted
    New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
    NetGuy

    Tuesday, August 11, 1998 - Submit News!
    UrbanCTF Update
    The UrbanCTF page has been updated with a new list of features, some screenshots, and a team page. Version 1.0 of their mod is nearing release, and should be out sometime very soon.

    New Sniper Event
    The Sniper Network Gaming Group has announced their next Q2/Q2CTF/TF event:
    Tag Team Quake Action - August 23, 1998

    Sunday, August 23 the Sniper Network Gaming Group will be hosting a huge 35 player BYOC Quake 2 CTF and QW Team Fortress LAN Party in Vancouver, BC. Get out of the heat into our air conditionned banquet hall and frag on our lag-free LAN! For more information, check out our website at http://www.sniper.net or e-mail Grimoire@Sniper.NET.
    HappyFun Bot Canceled
    The HappyFun Bot project has been canceled to make more time for the team to work on other projects, including "Crusher." For more information on the bot and their other projects, drop by the site.

    Battle of the Sexes Tourney
    The Battle of the Sexes mod is having it's first tournament, which is being sponsored by the United Bots Confederation> Starting yesterday, the tournament will run for 2 months, so drop by either site and get more info!

    WQL August 98 Tournament
    The World Quake League's August 1998 tournament has been confirmed, as well as all 100 competitors. The tournament will start on August 21st, and run to the final game scheduled for August 25th. Drop by either the site or their IRC channel #WQL on irc.Quake2.com.

    Help Wanted
    3D Unlimited is looking for someone to join their news updating team.

    New Sites/Movements/Makeovers
    Hosted Sites Update
    It's back! Many of you have emailed us about www.quake2.com/dll, and we're glad to say that after a long stint of outside-coding, GreyBear has updated the site with a whole new set of Quake2 tutorials! New tutorials include a tutorial on spawning custom weapons into standard Quake 2 maps via the DLL, and a new four part tutorial covering all aspects of weapon creation and customization.

    NetGuy

    Archives