go to www.shugashack.com for up to date news.

Saturday, February 13

Pre-order Voodoo3's [5:15 pm]
Something I should have mentioned earlier is you can already pre-order Voodoo3 cards at the www.3dfx.com website for those of you who just cant wait. I'll be getting a close look at the Voodoo3's this Wednesday so hopefully I can tell you guys if it's worth the money or not. Thanks RavenGames for the reminder.

Gladiator Bot [5:15 pm]
The new version of the only Quake2 bot you'll ever need has been released. Gladiator bot is up to v0.9 now and features a bunch of new fixes. You can now also play just about any map you want with it. Check out the support list:

- Xatrix mission pack 1 "The Reckoning"
- Rogue mission pack 2 "Ground Zero"
- Rocket Arena 2
- Capture The Flag (CTF)

Speaking of Q2 mods, Orange Smoothie has just released their OSP Rocket Olympics mod. I had a chance to play this a couple of months ago and it's a real blast. Check it out for sure.

Duke4 FAQ [5:15 pm]
Dukeworld is proud to announce the release of the Official Duke Nukem Forever FAQ Version 1.0.  This FAQ by Dukeworld's Chris Day and Andy Morris covers everything from the technical side of things to editing to everyone's favorite question, "What about the strippers?", plus much more.

Webmaster Interviews [5:15 pm]
Got a pair of interviews for you guys. First an interview with Billy Wilson of VE over at GA. Then an interview with the appropriately named FlameThrower at Beauty of Madness.

Half-Life Guide [5:15 pm]
Halflife Analysis   has posted a section dealing with issues that arise and areas to focus on when designing levels. You can view entire article here.

Expendable Shots [5:15 pm]
GA-Source has gotten a hold of some new shots of Expendable which is looking pretty coolio.

In Expendable, you play a space marine who is dropped in to a series of unfamiliar alien worlds to fight for the survival of your race with a huge arsenal of weapons at your disposal. The ability of the game engine to freely mix outdoor and indoor environments (such as tunnels, underground bases, ruined cities etc.) creates an alien world for the player to explore and destroy!

Half-Life Networking [5:15 am]
Yahn Berniner, network guru over at Valve Software who did so much work on Half-Life wrote up this lengthy explanation/article talking about the network code of Half-Life. Yahn also explains the much debated ping versus latency issue.

The way Half-Life determines the "latency" value shown in its scoreboard is different than what users generally call "ping".  The word latency is a deliberate decision to emphasize that the value shown is a better representation of actual network play than a mere ping.  How is ping calculated and how is latency different.

Ping is a simple round trip time for a message from one computer to another.  It is independent of whether the machine is playing a game etc. It generally is a best case communication round-trip time.

In Half-Life, the server tracks round trip times for packets that it sends to the client.   The problem that arises is that the client, if it is not running at a high framerate, can have the message sitting in its network queue for a significant amount of time.  For instance, a client that is chugging along at 10 fps ( yuck! ) is using about 100 milliseconds to process each frame.  The scenario goes like this, on average, you can assume that a message arrives some time durring that 100 ms. window.   If you assume it can arrive anywhere in that time frame, it's quite possible that the client has already read messages from the network for that frame. If so, then you have to wait 100 ms. until the next time the message queue is read.  Then the client must act on the messages.  Finally, the client sends its next movement command to the server.  When the server receives this movement command, it looks at when it sent out the message that the movement command corresponds to and computes the latency based on that round trip time.  If the server is not running at a high frame rate, or even it it's running at 40 fps or so, then it's message queue can lead to inflation of the round trip time as the client's reply sits in that message queue.  These numbers are somewhat exaggerated, but you see the point.  The server computes the ping over the last 64 messages it received from the client ( ignoring dropped packets ).  If the client sees any kind of transient network backlog, or low framerate, it can really skew the overall average latency that is reported. 

It's pretty damn long. Here is the rest of it for you to check out.

Overclocker Toys [5:15 am]
Probably the coolest set of software toys I've ever seen. Tweak3D has word of some new versions of these great utils that I've heard nothing but good about. Here's the quote Billy snagged:

Version 1.4 of WCPUL2, the program that changes L2 cache latency (for better overclocking results) has been released.

Also, Version 1.1 of WPCRSET is available. The program changes PCI configuration registers. As the page says:

This program WPCRSET is with the device driver who changes PCI Configration Register at the time of OS triggering.Although WPCREDIT is soft the registration editing of conversational type, this WPCRSET changes the registration that it is designated to an optional value at the time of OS starting

Half-Life Demo Downloads [5:15 am]
Still looking to download that demo that came out? It's some new levels so even if you've played through the full version of Half-Life you really should check this out. (I havent gotten to yet, doh) Here are some download sites:

GameCenter Games.net AGN3D 3DGamers Sierra GameSpot Bluesnews Warzone

TRIBES Guide [5:15 am]
Planetstarsiege has posted a new guide for those of you late to joining up in the TRIBES game. Many a Quake player has become addicted to the Dynamix title. Give it a shot!

Requiem @ CPL [5:15 am]
The 3DO Company will unveil its new first person shooter masterpiece Requiem: Avenging Angel, by running in 8-player LAN game at the upcoming Extreme Annihilation. Along with 3DO, Creative Labs will be co-sponsoring Requiem: Avenging Angel, showcasing the game with their premier sound card the Sound Blaster Live along with the new standard in 3D sound optimization EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions).

Messageboard Action [5:15 am]
Oops, small goof up on the Quake3 messageboard last night. Things are working now though, You guys can stop sending me hate mail :)

Views [5:15 am]

Tech [5:15 am]

I received today from Hans Wilson (author of the Jedi Knight NT fix) an interesting NT 4.0 patch called SetDX 6 (beta).

SetDX 6 patch the version variables of the Windows NT 4.0 DirectX .dlls to 6.1. Many games check the DirectX version, detect DirectX 3 and won´t install. But after using this patch the game detect DirectX 6.1 and install.

werd
Get this problem. I un-install some video drivers and reboot. My damn windows directory is renamed! So I rename it back to windows, reboot again. Renamed again! So after pissing and moaning for a bust about some old school attrib commands and reboot again. STILL RENAMED argh. I dont get it. So long story short I ended up having to re-install windows. Joy. What a pain in the ass.

 

Friday, February 12

Thief Demo & Patch [4:55 pm]
The GameSpot guys have scored a new updated demo of Theif: Dark Project which feaatures an assassin level. Here is the direct link. You can also grab the file from cdrom.com or Blues

Secondly, there is a 10mb patch for the full version of Thief which of course fixes a few problems that have come up as well adding support for EAX and joysticks. Saw that at VE

Half-Life Playable Demo [1:55 pm]
Assuming everything is on schedule, the PCGamer.com page should have posted the playable demo of Half-Life within 5-10 minutes of this posting for those of you looking to get a taste of what is easily the best 3D shooter game to have come out last year. You can also get it at WarZone

Set 48 hours after the containment failure at the Black Mesa Lab, Half-Life: Uplink finds Gordon Freeman attempting to manually adjust the uplink tower so he and some scientists can reach the lower level of the compound. Along the way, he faces all sorts of horrors....

The official demo for Half-Life, Half-Life: Uplink features all-new material and consists of a mini-mission not included in the full game. The demo requires a Pentium 133, DirectX, 24MB RAM, and 80MB hard-drive space.

Quake3 Messageboard [1:55 pm]
The Shack Quake3 messageboard is now clear of a couple of jerk-offs so things are running a bit smoother. Quite a bit of discussion going on about the recent happenings. If you are looking to make a suggestion for Quake3 it's probably one of the best places to make one, the id guys are in fact watching. :)

Quake3 [1:55 pm]
Redwood sent along this link to a Houston Chronicle article talking about Quake3 that should get you all excited. There is also a sidebar article called "A Once raucous game maker tones down corporate culture" You guys should also check out the front page which features a new screenshot showing off one of the levels and the super shotgun model.

Quake3 & 3DNow! [1:55 pm]
Ga-Source has a quote from Todd Hollenshead that kind of goes against earlier statements about 3DNow! from id. Last I heard id Software promised to support 3DNow! technology, but said "it might not make it in the box"

"Quake III Arena has been developed from the ground up to take advantage of the latest technologies such as the 3DNow! technology, to deliver the next level of gaming experience,"

Mortyr @ Extreme Annihilation [1:55 pm]
iMagic Interactive Network has announced they will show their newest title, Mortyr, at the upcoming Extreme Annihilation Event. This will be the first time Mortyr is shown to the public. The Press Release has more details

Modem Half-Life & Unreal [1:55 pm]
The Unreal Technology page has an update from Tim Sweeney who spotted an article at Atomic Half-Life describing how to get Half-Life modem-to-modem play working. Tim says the same method works for Unreal as well.

nVidia TNT2 Info [1:55 pm]
Blue spotted the specs for the TNT2 on this page which everyone who is thinking about buying a 3D accelerator should find interesting. The big question of course is, "But how are the framerates in Quake3?"

Ultimate 3D experience with 250M pixels/sec and 5M triangles/sec
AGP 4x/2x with full sideband support, ready for future motherboards
No-compromise 3D image quality at frame rates
250MHz RAM DAC resolution up to 1920x1200 True Color 75Hz
16/32MB high speed video memory on board
DDWG (Digital Display Working Group) compliant Digital Flat Panel output up to 1280x1024
Video output for NTSC and PAL TV output support

3dfx Voodoo3 Info [1:55 pm]
It's just 3D accelerator day today. The www.3dfx.com website has a bit of a new look going along with having posted some more new information on their Voodoo3 line of cards. Here's the PR scoop from Blue, ther is also a few page article as always at SharkyExtreme. Thanks to Dr. Drain and many others for the heads up.

For $179.99 (suggested US retail price), the 166MHz Voodoo3 3000 AGP board is expected to generate 7 million triangles and 333 Megatexels per second at resolutions of up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels. Manufactured by STB Systems, Inc., Voodoo3 3000 designed for true 3D game enthusiasts, will feature a 350MHz RAMDAC, TV/S-Video Out capabilities as well as a yet undisclosed game bundle featuring best-selling titles. The Voodoo3 3000 will also feature 16 MB of SDRAM. The Voodoo3 is expected to lead in real-world game performance by delivering super-fast frame rates for the most popular games.

At $249.99 (suggested US retail price), the 183MHz Voodoo3 3500 AGP board is expected to deliver up to 8 million triangles and 366 Megatexels per second at resolutions of up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels. Designed to support the latest digital flat panel displays, the Voodoo3 3500 will include 3Dfx's proprietary flat-panel support, LCDfx. Manufactured by STB Systems, Inc., Voodoo3 3500 will be available in limited quantities for consumers who require flat panel support. Voodoo3 3500 will feature a 350MHz RAMDAC, TV/S-Video Out capabilities as well as a yet undisclosed game bundle featuring best-selling titles. The Voodoo3 3500 will also feature 16 MB of SGRAM.

So they have cranked up the speeds a bit more eh? No more 125mhz card, but they have added 143 & 166mhz versions.

Tech [1:55 am]

werd
Had one of those "I have absolutely no inclination to get out of bed" mornings. It happens...

 

Thursday, February 11

Half-Life PC Demo Tomorrow [7:35 pm]
Check out this Press release I just got sent to me. Thanks Doug! Good news for those of you who still havent had a chance to play the best 3D shooter of 1998.

Sierra Studios, Valve Software, and PC Gamer Online will launch Half-Life: Uplink, the official public demo for the worldwide smash hit game, Half-Life, today Friday at noon at www.pcgamer.com .

Half-Life: Uplink is a never-before seen mini-mission and the official public demo for the worldwide smash hit game, Half-Life. "Half-Life: Uplink is a free never-before-seen Half-Life mini-mission," said Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve. "In creating the demo, we wanted to give new players an experience that captures the essence of what makes Half-Life the Game of the Year, plus provide current Half-Life players with exciting, all-new content."

Turok2 PC Demo [5:25 pm]
Thanks to monkeyspank Amer @ SharkyExtreme for the word that the Turok2 demo for PC has been released. You gotta deal with some registration crap but it's still pretty cool so worth the time.

Because now we are offering the Turok 2 PC Demo exclusively (at least until everyone swipes it) on Acclaim.Net. The demo version fully supports Gamespy Lite (play in one multiplayer Rok Match level over the Internet with other demo downloaders - buy the game and play on over 30 levels in any of five game modes!) and offers gamers a chance to sample the hardcore weaponry, a single and a multiplayer level, the fierce enemies, the beautiful rendered textures, and everything else that makes Turok 2 the game of the moment.

Messiah Footage [4:25 pm]
The guys at MessiahWorld have a new AVI with footage from in game action of Messiah from Shiny Entertainment. Get a good look at what Dave Perry is so excited about. :) -VE

Celery @ 550 & 600mhz [4:25 pm]
Thetech.net has posted some more details on some ventures into getting the new Celeron 366 & 400mhz chips up to 550mhz and 600mhz respectively.

The Celeron 366Mhz came out at the same time the Celeron 400Mhz processor came out. So which one is better? I would have to say that the Celeron 366 was a bit more stable at the 100Mhz BUS, running at 550Mhz. Then it is very stable at 5.5x83 (456Mhz) on an Abit BH6 motherboard and is completely stable at 5.5x75 (413Mhz). So let’s look at the settings to reach these speeds

Heretic2 Expansion Pack [12:15 am]
Kenn Hoekstra sent word of a new review of Heretic2 at GameGenie as well as some details of the Heretic2 expansion pack which includes quite a bit of stuff. Here's the quick list:

On the Heretic II Enhancement Pack front, I am very pleased to report that we are "close" to releasing this bad boy. It is in the final stages of QA at Activision right now and I just gave a detailed feature list to the guys and gals out in LA. The list has dozens of new features and enhancements and I think that you will find that it's well worth the wait. I'll give you a taste of what's included in the EP and we'll provide a full feature list later:

1. Eight new DM maps from Raven's top designers
2. The new female player model...Kiera!
3. Team Deathmatch support
4. All new Ultra-Hard Armageddon mode for single player
5. An all new shrine and all new defensive spell
6. Staff Only "bladematch" mode
7. A3D 2.0 and EAX Sound Support
8. New skins for Corvus and Kiera
9. Custom skin and model support
10. New ignore feature so players can ignore the chat messages sent by other online players

Xatrix [12:15 am]
EvilAvatar's Gamer In Black has posted a new interview with the CEO of Xatrix Entertainment, the guys behind KingPin.

New Rendition Drivers [12:15 am]
Rendition has released some new drivers for their verite based cards. They include quite a bit of new stuff. Here's word from Renaddiction Saw this on VE:

"This is the latest reference driver from Rendition. If the drivers provided by your board manufacturer work with the software you wish to run, you should not use these drivers. These drivers are Windows 98 native and support DirectX 6, but are still Windows 95 compatible. These driver have built in OpenGL ICD support. NOTE: These drivers are NOT supported by Rendition. Use at your own risk. Multi-Mon supported - RRedline API supported - DirectX 6 supported - OpenGL ICD integrated.

Glide Wrapper [12:15 am]
The guys at GlideUnderground have a new Glide wrapper that works for several non-3dfx cards which will work for stuff like the UltraHLE N64 emulator among other things.

Weekly Demo [12:15 am]
I've got a single new demo posted this week. Some pretty good controlled team play 3on3 action. A few people have asked me about 1on1 demos due to the upcoming TGI Tournament I'll be attending in Sweden. I do plan on practicing quite a bit starting in a couple of weeks, but it probably would be in my best interest to keep those to a minimum. I will promise to record a lot once I do begin to practice and have a buttload once the tourney is completed. :)

Unreal Tournament [5:25 am]
3DGaming.net has fired up a new preview of Unreal Tournament from Epic with all the info you could ask for on just what those guys have planned for us. Latest word is Unreal Tournament should be hitting the net within the next couple of months.

Over the past 9 months, the Unreal engine has undergone many improvements including faster load times, less memory usage, greater/better 3D API support, and an improved interface. But most noteworthy would have to be the souped-up Internet performance

Next 3dfx Card? [5:25 am]
AGN3D has gotten a hold of some information on the next 3D accelerator after the Voodoo3 we might be seeing from 3dfx. Although it's mostly speculation, it sounds pretty reasonable :)

1. Rampage is no longer the "code" name of the product.
2. 32 megs will be the base amount of memory
3. It will be able to handle texture sized much larger then anticipated.
4. SLI revisited!
5. Upgradable! (both memory, and TMU's)
6. Prelim benchmarks are well over 100FPS on Q3 at 1600!
<snip!>

Shogo Tools [5:25 am]
Interesting in messing around with Monolith's Shogo? The tools were released a little while ago and the Monolith guys are just waiting to see what you guys can do. Check out PlanetShogo.

AMD Conference [5:25 am]
The AMD 3DNow! conference that was held yesterday was attended by several people including CPUReview. They wrote up a pretty good article talking about what's going on in AMD land. AMDZone has some good coverage as well.

Keith stated that AMD has placed more than 2,000 development systems with software developers since October, 1997; this must have helped AMD garner the significant support it is announcing from software developers.

AMD has been helping graphics chipset vendors optimize their drivers (DirectX 6 and OpenGL) for 3Dnow!; certainly the performance of Quake 2 on K6-2 systems was significantly improved by 3DNow support.

TNT Detonator [5:25 am]
If you havent checked out the new TNT drivers yet give them a shot. Word has it that Unreal framerates in D3D mode have really gone up. The Tweak3D guys as well as Riva3D are all over this stuff so just check them out.

Tech [5:25 am]

werd
Just wanted to give you guys the heads up that Shack will be participating in the big Voodoo3 promotion. I was lucky enough to be invited to the little shindig in Dallas which will be giving us a good hard look at the latest Voodoo3 cards. I'll have a full article posting everything I can possibly find out. Comparisons with TNT, V2, V2SLI, and whatever else I can get my hands on. (We get to take a V3 home, wee) Oh yeah, that hardware section overhaul I keep mentioning.. it's close! Lastly we'll be giving away prizes here too. A V3 3000, a V3 jacket, a V3 t-shirt.

Been working overtime lining up a number of special features here. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the fruits of my labor or some shit.

I was sucked into playing Quake all night again! So I'm stuck here updating at 5.30am... I guess I still love the game :)

 

Wednesday, February 10

Permedia3 [6:15 pm]
The 3DLabs folks have released financial reports for the past quarter as well as announced that the Permedia3 is being demonstrated right now with very positive feedback. Of course keep in mind even if the thing sucked it would still classify as "positive" in a press release. Saw that on Blues

"I am also pleased to report that we have recently begun demonstrating products based on our highly anticipated PERMEDIA® 3 part and the initial responses from potential customers have been positive. This nine million transistor chip, manufactured in a 0.25 micron process, was functionally right-first-time and we expect to be in full production with the part during the second quarter," Kent noted.

TFC & Brett Johnson [6:15 pm]
The Halflife.org guys have a double dose of Half-Life lovin for you this evening. A few new screenshots of the upcoming TFC port as well as an interview with level designer Brett Johnson.

Where Are They Now? [6:15 pm]
Yeah, I watch too much Inside the NFL. Former level design and sound man over at id Software American McGee answers a few questions with the PlanetQuake guys.

Shack Hardware Update [1:55 pm]
Huntsman hunted down the latest and greatest prices on 3 different levels of gaming rigs for you guys to check out. It just depends on how much money you want to spend and how far you wanna hang your ballzout.

Sweeney [1:15 pm]
Super programmer dude over at Epic, Tim Sweeney is interviewed at Beauty of Madness.

Q:It's almost a year since Unreal's release and it would be understandable if your enthusiasm for rewriting the editor wasn't as great as it used to be. Are you still determined to go ahead with it?

A:Absolutely! The new UnrealEd rewrite isn't a dead-end… it will be very relevent for Unreal 1, Unreal Tournament, and Unreal 2.

SBLive! Patches [1:15 pm]
Check out these two patches for the Creative Labs SBLive! card that VE spotted. Note you can get the EAX patch for Half-Life in the 1.0.0.8 update.

Quake 2
Quake 2, Quake 2:The Reckoning and Quake 2:Ground Zero now support Environmental Audio Extensions with these new patches.Make sure you download BOTH the IAS Quake 2 patches AND the IAS component for the Sound Blaster Live!.

Half-Life
Four Speaker support for Half-Life now available. Patch it now for an expanded Environmental Audio experience.

Wisdom [1:15 pm]
In my 20+ years of existance on this earth I have acquired an astounding amount of knowledge and wisdom. You will be able to catch me in the 2nd prequel to Star Wars in place of Yoda actually. Perhaps you would like a sample?

Duke4Ever [10:55 am]
3DGaming.net has posted a new interview with George Broussard of 3DRealms asking questions about Duke4 which will be based around the Unreal engine. Here's a snip talking about the great concern for net play:

George Broussard: I never worried one bit about Unreal's net play. They simply shipped too soon. The new Unreal version 220 is 90% as good as Quake 2 from what I've seen and getting better. I think Unreal has finally achieved the performance they should have had when they shipped, and most people agree. I'd wager that with Unreal Tournament you will see a vast increase in Unreal's market share of online play.

Unreal Tech Update [10:55 am]
Speaking of the Unreal technology, Tim Sweeney has done another technology update to their website talkin about progress on the 221 version.

Progress on Unreal 221 and Unreal Tournament continues. We are making changes and improvements at such a fast pace that it has been hard/impossible to stabilize the code for the 3-5 days required to fully test a new patch. I apologize for the earlier false start we had with 221.

Blood2 Mission Pack [10:55 am]
Billy spotted a .plan update from Jay Wilson announcing the completion of level work on a Blood add-on.

Looks like I've finally wrapped up my level work for the Blood 2 add-on. Although there's still a lot of other work to be done on the add-on, I'm pretty much completely moved on to Sanity, and I've started work on my first level. So far I'm really loving the change. :)

Corsairs [10:55 am]
Gin from Akella Entertainment sent word on a new game being development called Corsairs. It's being done by a Russian development team with pretty ambitious goals. Looks interesting.

TRIBES League [10:55 am]
If you're playing TRIBES and want to sign your team up for a tournament, you're in luck. The North American TRIBES League is getting some steam and needs you!

KingPin [10:55 am]
The Gangland.org website has just opened up with 47 screenshots of KingPin as well as v0.1 of the FAQ.

Views [10:45 am]

Tech [10:45 am]

werd
SWB is a pain in my ass. I'm really afraid of what these guys are gonna do when I get DSL next month. It's incredible how badly they can screw up a simple ISDN line..

 

Tuesday, February 9

Reborn Shots [7:05 pm]
Gamers Alliance has posted a few new screenshots of Reborn from Nerve Lab Software.

Nerve Lab is currently working on their first title, Reborn, a dark and intriguing story that takes place in the future. Reborn's environments range from dense cityscapes and claustrophobic subterranean worlds to vast outdoor landscapes. You will not only learn how to handle a set of different heavy weapons and explosives, but also drive hi- tech vehicles on land and in the air.

Heretic2 Enhancement Pack [4:15 pm]
A .plan update from Jake Simpson of Raven Software states that the Heretic2 Enhancement Pack is in final QA right now meaning we could get our grubby hands on it within a matter of weeks. Here's da quote:

The EP is now in final QA.. we don't want any problems creeping up on us from behind over this, we want to get this right first time, like we did with the retail release. Add to this an OEM deal we are trying to produce at the same time, and mix in only three people on this and you have a recipe for lots of work and yet more late nights. I know our illustrious leader Pat Lipo has been flogging his guts out over this and us other two minions have been working pretty hard too.

Turok2 Available [4:15 pm]
As promised by the boys at Acclaim. Turok2 for the PC is now available. If it's not in your local software store it should be within a few days. [R2]Jesse reminded me about this at least a half dozen times this month, and of course on the golden day I forgot until seeing it on Blues.

Wheel of Time [12:35 pm]
The Legend Entertainment guys have posted the weekly development update to their Wheel of Time web page which includes these 3 new screenshots (which load incredibly slow from their website) as well as a plead to stop emailing them about alpha testing. Thanks Demandred.

shot1 shot2 shot3

Ass-Wack Links [11:35 am]
Since I was a bit late today, we'll go crazy, I've posted the wack-ass links of the week today instead of Wednesday. Wacky huh? I bet you guys had no idea how spontaneous I was. I just cant help it, I'm insane.

More TFC Shots [10:35 am]
The TFTimes.com guys have scored 4 more screenshots from Valve Software. CF TF has some shots as well. Jeff sent in there are actually 2 more urls as well.  http://scatterblak.com/ and http://tf.ethereal.net/

Daikatana [10:35 am]
The GameDesign.net guys have posted a new interview with Bobby Pavlock,  a level designer on the Daikatana team.

Well, it is based on the Q2 engine, so it is very similar. It has alot of the same basic entities used in Q2 editing. Some of the cool new stuff we have is effects like fog, rain, snow, lightning, rotating trains, moveable glass and midtextures, parent targeting (so you can attach a button directly onto an elevator or lift and it travels with it), entities with sound flags built-in eliminating the need for 1000 target_speakers, etc.

Amen [10:35 am]
PCFan has fired up a new preview of Amen from Cavedog Entertainment which I'm looking forward to quite a bit. Saw this link on VE.

this glob-spanning escapade takes place over the course of 17 "acts", a term adopted by Cavedog because they thought "levels" did not do justice to the scope of these maps. While that may seem a bit ostentatious, rest assured that the whole "scope" thing is something the design team is taking very seriously. Acts can be huge, encompassing several times the square footage of a Quake II map, or small and intense. What's more, Amen's levels should achieve a new level of realism and variety.

SoF Forum [10:35 am]
If you have questions about Soldier of Fortune from Raven Software, Kenn Hoekstra recommends you check out the Soldier of Fortune forums at GameForum.com in his .plan file

Unreal Tournament Shots [10:35 am]
The 3DUnlimited guys have posted some new screenshots of Unreal Tournament.

Doom Movie [10:35 am]
On the latest Howard Stern show, Todd McFarlane was on the show and he personally confirmed that he is indeed involved in working on the Doom movie. Thanks Adam Pino

TFC For HL Shots [2:35 am]
PlanetFortress has posted 6 new shots of the TF Classic port to Half-Life that is underway over at Valve. The PF guys are guessing it will be released "really soon now" and from what I can gather, thats about right :)

After playtesting all weekend (what a hard job THAT must be!) Robin was kind enough to send us some of the screenshots. I am totally speechless at how good this looks! Unfortunately, no release date was given for TFC, but it is my wild guess that is will be really soon ;)

Tech [9:45 am]

The Brick" you mentioned in your voodoo extreme article is actually 4 Single planar Obsidian2 200SBi boards with a hardware 4:1 pixel averaging subsystem linking them together.

werd
"This is our concern Dude."

 

Monday, February 8

TRIBES [7:15 pm]
The PlanetStarSiege page has posted a few questions with Tim Gift of Dynamix asking about the TRIBES OpenGL patch and hopefully when can we expect it to be released so all those TNT owners can get some acceleration action. Tim says the patch is ready to go and should be included in the next release after they fix a few 1.2 issues that came up after the last patch release. Also, here is a .plan update from Tim on the same subject:

Looks like we had a few problems with the 1.2 patch. The 1.2 patch had a number of changes, some of them we considered pretty critical.  We were pushing to get the patch out, but as with anything that is rushed,  problems creep in and are not caught. We'll correct those over the next few days and get a revised 1.2 patch out, which will actually bump the number to 1.3.

GameSpy v2.08 [6:45 pm]
The new GameSpy with TRIBES support has been released. Grab it from www.gamespy.com This is for registered users only though. Those folks who havent yet registered have to wait a week or so.

Unreal Tournament [4:45 pm]
Gamesmania has posted their new super preview of Unreal Tournament from the Epic guys which features 10 new screenshots as well as a bit more new information on the game that is worth reading. Thanks to UnrealNation.

There's also Tournament mode, a pretty standard mode where you set frag or time limits. The game will broadcast warnings of when the match is about to end--counting down every minute after the five minutes to go mark is reached. Epic says its working on improving the console too, so you can control the frag limit, time limit, number of players, game speed and cooperative weapon mode. In fact, the entire interface is getting a touch up job--there will be a specific HUD for specific matches.

Anachronox [4:45 pm]
The PCGames guys have fired up a new preview of Tom Hall's Anachronox from Ion Storm. I dont see any new screenshots there but there are some quotes from Tom Hall explaining just what they are after in Anachronox and the game is looking pretty cool.

K6-3 Info [4:45 pm]
Saw word on VE via The Register that there is some more info on the AMD K6-3 coming down the pipe.

From this morning, the K6-2/300 will cost $65, the K6-2/333 $75, the K6-2/350 $90, the K6-2/366 $96, the K6-2/380 $123, the K6-2/400 $138 and the K6-2/450, now officially launched, $210.

An AMD UK representative said the name had not changed, just the way the number was written. But it is now obvious that the battle between both AMD and Intel is on with a vengeance, with the K6-III aimed squarely at the Pentium III. ®

TNT Driver Performance [4:45 pm]
Well, I installed those new "Detonator" drivers for my TNT card and guess what. No performance gain for GLQuake or Quake2. I dropped a couple of frames in Quake1 actually. System specs: P2-464, v550, 256ram, p2b-ls motherboard. I've heard from a few other people that have gained a bit of performance though. It seems D3D games do in fact haul ass. Not much improvement for GL though. Here is what another reader (Rob Witman) sent me:

Just thought you would be interested, I ran a quick Wintune 98 on my creative TNT.  I was using the original creative drivers initially, then ran again with the new Detonator Drivers.  I have included the output, but to summarize, 20% increase in D3D performance and a 12% DECREASE in OpenGL performance. DECREASE in OpenGL performance.

TNT Detonator Drivers [1:25 pm]
The drivers that I mentioned earlier this morning are now available over at www.riva3d.com for you guys to grab. There are also new Riva128ZX drivers as well. I took some benchmarks earlier and will have some comparisons for you guys later this afternoon. Gotta run some errands first. Here are the TNT links. nVidia also has a list of mirrors.

Win95/98 AGP: tntagp.zip
Win95/98 PCI: tntpci.zip
WinNT40 Both: tntnt40.zip

TRIBES Bots [9:45 am]
The guys at Planetstarsieges have word from the guys at Dynamix on plans to release a bot package for TRIBES next week.

We have put together a package that will be released sometime early next week. It will include: A new Bots mission type that can be used as a mod( started with the mod command line. Tribes -mod bots) and will include a modified mission from each mission type with drone implacements. If you have any questions at all, please write me at greg.lancaster@dynamix.com, or write Lincoln Hutton at lincoln.hutton@dynamix.com. We should be doing a plan update to reflect all this soon.

Clan Page Need A Home? [9:45 am]
Got a couple of places you can go:

QuakeCity and GameCompass are proud to announce the grand opening of ClanSite at http://clans.quakecity.net, a new FREE and insta web hosting service for clans from all gaming genres. ClanSite offers an simple one-step application, and immediate access to webspace.

As well as ClanWorld which Redwood posted about:

Clan World is now hosted by Half-Life HQ. Clan World is the new home for all Halflife Clans. They have clan info, messageboards, and online challenges and already host over 50 clans.

 

Voodoo3 Preview [9:45 am]
3DHardware has completed their preview of 3Dfx's Voodoo3.

There WOULD be boards with a built-in fan though, and as Tony slipped us that the V3 3k had been run successfully at over 200Mhz in 3Dfx's labs, I would suspect this chip to be one of the hottest things for overclockers around. Or can you say more than 400 megatexels?

Immortal & Makaveli [9:45 am]
A surprisingly good pair of interviews with Immortal and Makaveli are at FPS Spectator. The webmaster / question man is actually very familiar with Quake2 and the strategies involved which is a fresh change. What is also interesting is the topic of Thresh having played in the first Quake2 season under an alias and throwing a match. Immortal speaks pretty openly about what he knew.

Suck! [9:45 am]
As a member of society it is my right of passage to bitch and moan as much as possible about the most trivial things.  Have a look.

Tech [9:45 am]

tntagp.zip tntpci.zip tntnt40.zip

werd
Feeling like a swolen turd this morning. Gonna dig up some aspirin and try to hop back on the wagon to keep you puds entertained through the day. :)

I canned the Friday update btw. It was one of those busy + cant think of a damn thing days anyways. Hey it's the first miss in over a month, gimme a break eh?

 

Sunday, February 7

Wheel of Time [8:55 am]
The World of Dreams guys have posted a new interview with Warren Marshall of Legend Entertainment. The Legend guys are working on Wheel of Time for now, then will be moving on to Unreal2 or an Unreal Mission Pack.

Actually, now that the GT acquisition is done and Unreal2 is out of the bag … things are very much back to normal. We are cranking on WoT to get it out the door, and the UPak guys are doing their thing as well. My personal outlook is one of optimism. I see a lot of cool stuff coming down the pipe, even beyond the next few projects which are cool enough as they are. So yeah, I’m really excited about what’s happened to Legend in the last few months and I have to agree that the companies future looks very bright!

While you are there, the World of Dreams guys have scanned the latest GT ad.

TRIBES Patch Patch [8:55 am]
Apparently some people who downloaded the v1.2 patch for TRIBES on Friday have been getting some wacky errors with a GLU.DLL missing. The monkeys over at Planetstarsiege point the way to this page which should help you solve that bit of irritation. While you are there, check out the config page they put together which is pretty helpful.

Blood2 v2.0 [8:55 am]
There is a new page on the Monolith site giving out a number of details on all the planned fixes/changes to be made to Blood2 for the upcoming patch. Saw that on VE

Hired Guns Shots [8:55 am]
The GA-Source guys have gotten a hold of 15 new screenshots of Hired Guns. It's a 3D Action/Strategy game which is looking very hardware-only. :)

QTV Guide [8:55 am]
It seems there are a number of people who just cant figure out how to get that QTV action going with QW. Here's a quote from MadAsylum

This is a way many people to watch a game, without putting any extra load on a server.  It covers everything you need to know to get QTV working, including voice channel support (talk to other QTV viewers!).

Tech [10:15 am]

werd
Yawn, might wanna check out the Quake3 messageboard. Paul Steed made a post there the other day asking for input on clan play to be posted to the board. I'm gonna start cracking down a bit on the mindless Q1 vs Q2 crap soon.

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