Just finished beta testing the full version of Hexen 2. Everything about it is excellent. If you enjoy fantasy games, and you've been looking for more adventure than what previous 3-D action games have offered then you'll love it.

I know this is meaningless to some of you, but I really enjoyed the hell out of Outlaws. Romero's review of it months ago was correct. It is a very fun game.

I'm finishing up the boss for American's big gun level. Right now, I'm considering different options for his combat strategy. In Quake, killing the bosses wasn't satisfying to me because it required pushing a button or some other one step removed process. I prefer heavy fire fights mixed with a little arcade style strategy. For example, I liked fighting the Cyber demon or Spider demon of DOOM over the final boss of Quake. Anyway, that is currently the way I'm thinking.

I know this is self-serving, but I've been looking for a good event horse. I haven't been jumping for a long time, so I need a real packer. Something that will gladly take me through a novice level course with the expectation of moving to prelim. I don't want to spend a ton of money. If anyone knows of something like that please email me.

http://redwood.stomped.com/tokay/
W00! A new contest. You can win cool stuff and
impress your friends. Go check it out!

8/29/97 -

I thought I'd update on what's going on with the OpenGL port of Doom. Sin is, of course, my top priority, so this is really a project I do on Sundays. I offered to do the port partly as an exercise in developing for OpenGL and partly because I really want to play the game with the nice blending features of 3D hardware. I thought the N64 version of Doom was beautiful, but playing Doom without a mouse just isn't the same.

I've got a version running in a window treating the game screen as a texture and uploading it to OpenGL each frame. This is slow as hell, but my first goal was to get it working in Windows without any changes to the renderer. There's still some problems with fullscreen mode and hardware, so that's my task for this weekend. Mark helped out considerably with the window code by finding some bug that I had with getting OpenGL to draw to a windows bitmap.

After getting the boring Windows stuff done I'll start converting the vertical span based rendering to full polygons. This is the "get down to business" part of the job, so I'll probably have to try a few different methods to get the best performance.

Once I've got the renderer taking advantage of OpenGL, I'll add some of the cool things that hardware gives you basically for free. The sprite explosions, the BFG blast, and the plasma gun's projectiles will all be done using alpha blending. I'll probably do some light sourcing with light maps around the light posts. The walls next to floor and ceiling light textures will blend from light to dark. I also want to put in true looking up and down. Even though the game doesn't take advantage of it, it would still be nice to mlook. :)

August 29, 1997
-----------------

Okay, quick tech support issue for you folks trying to run GLQuake on a system without 3Dfx, e.g. a RIVA 128, Permedia2, or V2200 system. By default GLQuake et. al. will look for an OPENGL32.DLL in the current directory first, and unless you have a 3Dfx board installed, this is NOT what you want it to use. So rename OPENGL32.DLL in your Quake directory to OPENGL32.OLD, and GLQuake should magically begin to use the installed system OpenGL implementation.

This should fix problems for you RIVA users running under NT.

8/29/97
The lack of varying weapons in the game is unfortunate but a necessity. When we come out with our own id mission pack next summer, chances are we will have a patch or modification which will allow for this. Stop getting so bummed out about it. You still play Quake don't you? We'll hook you up. Eventually.

Again, we're just as disappointed, but understand that it takes a helluva a lot of discipline to stay on schedule. Do some research and re-read some magazines and count how many games were supposed to ship by X-Mas or by whenever and actually made or will make that deadline.

Rest assured multi weapons are a big deal to us. A satisfying and rich single-player game is important to us as well. Please be patient.

ps

August 29, 1997 (early AM)
------------------

NO, I CAN'T SEND YOU THE RIVA128 OPENGL DRIVERS! Sorry, I got like a billion e-mails asking me that. Talk to NVidia or STB or Diamond or whoever about getting the drivers. If they're not released yet, then they're not released and there's not much I can do about it.

Today I spent adjusting to a fucked up sleep schedule, which caused me to show up for work at 7:45AM, nap from 6 until 9:30, then work again from 10PM until 3AM. And I wonder why I'm not healthy...

In the early morning hours I rearchitected a lot of the refresh interface so that it wasn't such a kludge. It's now a pretty clean and simple interface, and it should be pretty stable.

The big news is that fullscreen DirectDraw modes now work, as do the DIB section windowed modes that use an identity palette. A lot of weird and hard to identify bugs went away after the rearchitecture -- goes to show that when code gets a little too weird and screwy, that stepping back and figuring out exactly what you're trying to do before you keep typing is probably the smart thing to do.

I haven't done exhaustive testing of the DirectDraw or GDI stuff -- order of operations are A.) get it working on my machine, B.) get it wor

Got an Enorex 500MHz DEC Alpha system today so that I can begin porting our stuff over to DEC Alpha. These DEC Alpha WinNT systems are suh-weeet! Their big oversight is a lack of a "Boot to VGA" startup option, but they make up for it in so many different ways -- no need for a boot disk, EVER, since you can boot from CD-ROM through the BIOS ("Install Windows NT from CD-ROM" is a boot menu option!).

The system came with a 3COM Etherlink III XL that didn't seem to work, so we yanked it and put in a DEC 500 Ethernet card, and we were up and running very quickly. I then yanked out the Matrox Millenium it came with and replaced it with a Permedia 2. I then had to go off and install NT SP3 (since the system came with the Evil SP2), and then I had to install Microsoft Visual C++, RISC Edition, along with SP1 and SP2 for MSVC 5 RE. What a pain in the ass, but now it's purring like a happy kitten.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to work on the DEC Alpha port, and I imagine it will take a day or two for it to come together, barring catastrophic problems. By next week we should have a test level and EXE that we can ship to IHV partners for testing.

Our porting strategy consists of the following levels:

- port to another processor of a similar type (little endian) on the same OS, which will eliminate processor dependencies
- port to a similar or same but on a different OS, which will eliminate OS and compiler dependencies
- port to another processor of a different type (big endian) on a different OS, which will eliminate all other dependencies hopefully

Our respective platforms for the above are:

different processor, same OS - DEC Alpha Win32
similar processor, different OS - Linux (Zoid is handling this I think)
different processor, different OS - Rhapsody (John is doing this soon)
very different processor, different OS - SGI Irix (grab an SGI MTS to do it)

I'm hoping the Linux port will just run on about every CPU out there. Obviously the OpenGL stuff won't run on a Linux implementation that doesn't have a decent OpenGL available for it.

MSVC 5 SP2 is out, so go grab it if you're using MSVC 5.

We're still investigating the idea of having Rendition do a separate REF_VTE so that V1000 users aren't left out in the cold. The V2200 should work fine

Speaking of hardware accelerators, we finally got new drivers for the V2200 and we got a couple of 8MB Rage Pro boards in. We're having some issues with both of these boards, and until they're resolved we won't be running new benchmarks.

For all you Voodoo Rush folks, we're trying to get a Rush board in here for performance testing also.

...Also, the hands of the model appear to be apart of the weapon in skin and in mesh, so does this mean that you cannot view the weapon the other player is currently using in deathmatch?

It looks like we are falling back to that, because we don't have the time to explore other possibilities.

Also, are there other types of dynamic lights besides point sourced? Are there directional or spotlights? Are there any special effects lights?

They can all be colored or of negative intensity, but otherwise they are similar to Q1.

Finally, I heard reports in .plan files that the new BSP tools have increased the compiling speed of a BSP from what used to take an entire day to BSP down to 39 seconds. Now, to get it done in 39 seconds, does it just modify existing data based on changes made in the editor, so it can eliminate repeating work or did it compile a complete map in 39 seconds?

Only the vis part has been dramatically sped up. The radiosity solution is now the longest part of the problem. Also, note that most maps still take a minute or two to vis even on a 16 processor system.

This is a short email to announce Ironman's HexenWorld ServerList:

With the just-released Hexen II demo, we at HexenWorld are very proud to announce the Very First Ever Hexen II Server Database! Ironman has a reputation in the Quake community as THE Internet server source, and he brings his immense expertise to HexenWorld. The Hexen II patch for QSpy will be out in a few days, which will be using this list.

Also, I have the Hexen II Demo mirrored on Cult of Phoebus at:
ftp://ftp2.brutality.com/pub/phoebus/h2demo.exe

8/28/97
Since our wacky, musical chairs/.plan tracker software is repeating my .plan every day I thought I'd take a minute or two and give you something new to read. I haven't updated for a while since we're hitting the home stretch and I'm jamming a little bit harder than usual on the game.

Things are going great. Kevin and I have two of the four bosses done and I'll probably knock out the other two this weekend. The levels are simply amazing with their richness and complexity. You really feel like you're navigating around a place. I've redone the cinematics that I had completed because I had an annoying texture and shadow 'swimming' problem in 3DS4 that I corrected by messing with the spotlight attributes in my scene. Speaking of which, do yourself a favor and go to 3DSMAX or Lightwave. DOS is dead and the sooner I and everyone else realize this, the better for you newbies who want to break into the field (of ART of course). Speaking of which, remember that I am a COMPUTER GAME ARTIST and all my commentary unless specifically stated otherwise revolves around that premise.

Windows NT is really starting to grow on me and I wince at having to deal with win95 at times. NT is so stable and dependable that if you're doing art on a PC, aim for NT applications. I'm doing the somewhat financially unfeasible and migrating completely to the SGI. I will become an Alias force to be reckoned with! (honest, I will.) But I am also in the very fortunate position of having the resources at my disposal to afford me the luxury of expensive hardware and software (like an Octane running Maya).

When it comes right down to it though, always remember that these are just TOOLS and in no way are they MEASUREMENTS. If you're good, then you'll make the tool do what you want it to or discard it for a better tool. Skill is developed through practice and perseverance, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

On the personal side, I've almost completely recovered from my motorcycle accident I had about a month ago. The bike is rideable but the fairing, mirror, turn signal, gear cover and some other cover will need to be replaced. I still recommend the YZF600 as a sweet and easy to ride bike, though. It wasn't the bike's fault it ran out of road while pushing a hundred in a deep, debris-covered road. However, when I laid it down, Bear and Brandon were behind me and they said sparks rooster tailed about ten to fifteen feet in the air as the bike slid to a stop. Since it was almost dark, I'm sure the light show from the shower of sparks was actually pretty cool. They thought I was dead of course. Luckily, I only skipped across the ground once after I bailed. I almost landed ninja-like on my feet (instead of scooting to a stop on my ass), but since it was the lot behind Toys-are-Us BEFORE they resurfaced it I did a real good impersonation of a cheese wedge going over a grader. I was wearing shorts and no gloves, BTW.

I ended up getting about ten stitches in my left leg where the foot peg took an ice-cream scoop gouge out of my inner calf, and massive road rash on my outer right leg, knees and right palm. Luckily I was still in shock right after and was able to ride the poor bike to the hospital before I reached massive pain status (let me just say that I just love Demerol). I was an outpatient and with the help of drugs, didn't miss a day of work hammering out my portion of your favor game to be.

Speaking of the game. I have some bad news. There will not be different weapons during deathmatch. We've made a commitment to get Quake2 on the shelves for X-mas and there just isn't enough time to devote to making the multi-weapon thing work. We're just as disappointed as you are, trust me.

The FPC will have a ponytail. I tried the J. Aniston thing and it just didn't come off too well. This ponytail is cool, though and is closer to a samurai topknot/'I Dream of Jeanie(sp)' 'do' than a wimpy, Brit thing or an unoriginal and unrealistic hairstyle. Kudos to Panther over at CGW for her articles on chick characters in games. Although I didn't say our chick would 'shoot her to bits' I said 'she'd kick Lara's ASS' (I am so sick of seeing Ms. Croft everywhere). The Q2 chick will be one cool babe with a gun.

So in closing let me say that as far as the competition goes, I wish them well and wish them luck. The fight for second place should be pretty fucking bloody.

ps

August 26, 1997

I find it kind of funny (har har) that people are saying that the music they've heard concerning Quake2 isn't suitable for Quake2. I'd like to see a show of hands on the number of people who have actually played Quake2 and the number of people who have actually played Quake2 along with the music. There, now that's a survey.

bjames@idsoftware.com

August Whatever, 1997

Time flies when you are making a kick ass game.

Basically, my suggestion is that id incorporates a feature that allows more control over .dem recording. As a movie maker myself (go check out the AOL preview ), I know that one of the biggest annoyances is cutting out all the info between "cut1" and "cut2" (cut1 being the start of a scene, cut2 being the end). How about if there were console commands you could bind keys to that would stop recording when W is pressed, for example, and begin again (in the same .dem, of course) when E is pressed. This way, we'll have clean cuts AUTOMATICALLY. The only thing left do is splicing after this point. I think other movie makers will agree this shall be a HUGE time saver :).

Sorry for making this so long. Hope I was clear enough! :)

guess what, when I went to work at EB today I saw a new movie that activision released. It had footage of dark reign, hexen2, heavy gear and quake 2. yes quake too. guess what, i have now seen the quake 2 logo on tv. yep, thats all. all the video showed was a crummy quake 2 logo. damn you activision. better hurry down to EB today and see it.

Pestilance

... [periods are mine] I've been reading all these letters about the explosions not being real enough, or that making a 3d explosion would be too hard. Well I just thought I would throw my own idea in. What I would do if I was in Johns shoes, I wouldn't make a huge big complicated mdl file for explosions, I would just make a ball with a animated texture (like lava or something) scaling from the impact spot to a larger size. I thought this would be perfect for rockets or other small explosions ( I know it wouldn't work for other things ). I figured this would be fairly easy to do, because from what I've heard theres already an option for scaling things, and a sphere is not hard to make.

Instead of a simple srolling sky, we have a full 3D panorama in Q2.

>I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could release some
>screenshots of Quake II in SVGA rather than GL mode shots. I know I
>couldn't be the ONLY one wanting to see Quake II in standard mode! Some
>gamers out there still don't have 3d accellerators and wonder if they
>should spend $200 on a Monster 3D.
>
>Thanks for your time,
>Joe Treager

I've forwarded your letter to them what's make these kind of decisions. Thanks for letting us know you care.

Paul

I'll see what I can do. I'll speak for the art department when I say that we like the way our artwork looks in software. Colored lighting and the other benefits of GL are substantial, though.

ps

Quake, Quake 2, and the stylized are registered trademarks of id Software, Inc.