When I came into work this morning I was greeted with a Fed-Ex package from LA. Contained inside was a DAT on which was recorded something beyond cool. Everyone gathered around as I slid the DAT into the player and pressed play. Silence... and then... ass-kicking, head-pounding, hairs standing on end music spewed forth. Ahhh... the sounds of Rob Zombie doing his music thing as only he can do! We all smiled at each other. We were all thinking the same thing: "This is the bad ass theme song that goes with the bad ass art that fills the bad ass levels that contain the bad ass monsters which is all coming together into Quake II"

I hope everyone is prepared for this.

As Steed mentioned, we now have left handed weapons working visually, however there is still some work to be done on the part of John Cash to get it "really" working, i.e. shots coming from the left hand side of the player instead of always coming from the righthand side.

And yes, it works in software too.

For those of you curious how this was done, we simply did an inverse scale on the X axis. In OpenGL the code looks kind of like this:

if ( drawing weapon ) {
glMatrixMode( GL_PROJECTION );
glPushMatrix();
glLoadIdentity();
glScalef( -1, 1, 1 );
gluPerspective( ... );
glMatrixMode( GL_MODELVIEW );

glCullFace( GL_BACK ); // normally we cull GL_FRONT
}

In the software rendering engine it was almost as simple. I simply negate the X scale factor used during vertex projection when drawing a weapon model, and then I make sure that I reverse the vertex order for each triangle when drawing the weapon model so that it isn't incorrectly backfaced.

Greetings clspence@one.net,

The first version of any game often presents a huge learning experience for the development team. Many of its members are doing certain tasks for the first time: tweaking their new game engine, trying to find play balance, chasing out all those darn bugs... and doing them together. With this in mind, let's talk Quake II.

It's been said that even with the departure of certain key team members, id Software may be preparing to release what Quake should have been in the first place, at least for the single player. Moreover, with the strong performance of 3D video cards, many say hardware acceleration is already upstaging John Carmack's software magic show. Or is it?

GameSpot took a trip down to Texas to see Carmack and Co. and brought back more information on Quake II than you can shake a rocket launcher at. So take a few moments to check out GameSpot's Feature Preview of Quake II:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/quake2/index.html

Then, let us know how you think it will compare to the original Quake. Will it be:

1. Better
2. About the same
3. Worse

Enter one of the three answers above in the "Subject" of an email, and send it to me at tasos@gamespot.com. I'll let you know the results in about a week in GameSpot News. In the meantime, check out what GameSpot has to offer; our index this week was compiled by previews editor Trent Ward.

Tasos Kaiafas
Features Editor
GameSpot

We still need a name, A good name still in the works soon..trying to be original but time is running short.

We have decided on a place (I hope) its got plenty of room and power for all the quakers and there monster computers.

We have the exspense of the hall taken care of so as soon as all the paperwork is done the date will be final and we can put up a page.

the loacation is really good. Hotels,food,a mall. Hell theres even a college with hot lookin women near by..so we are set..:)

Well, so far Hide and Go Seek (tentativley called BloodTrail) has the basic concepts of Hide and Go Seek, but with the violent twist of Quake. One player is deemed "It" and while he is frozen for 30 seconds, all other players must run and hide. The double-damage-dealing, Red Armor wearing, MegaHealthed (or Q2 equivilent), full weapon carrying It has to kill EVERYONE. He stays it and racks up points until someone frags him; at which point his killer becomes it. Well, that's the BASIC concept. Hope you like it. Anyways, drop a line if you're interested.

9-22-97

New Deal of the Week: October issue of PC Gamer. It should be easy to spot on the shelves with the big QII right on the cover. Its a really thick issue with tons of Quake II screenshots, interviews, scoop, etc. If you don't have a copy yet, you should go pick one up.

Another magazine you might want to check out is the November issue of Computer Gaming World. The new Quake II cover ad is in it, replete with concept art by Adrian Carmack. We've had some cool ads before, but this one takes the cake. I'd buy the magazine so I could get a copy of the ad. We're getting some prints done of the ad, one of which I intend to hang on one of the bare walls in my office.

Sure, that's not the final name, but my team and I have been developing the concept of a "Hide and Go Seek" themed DeathMatch Mod for Quake 2. We plan to make this a big enough success to rival that of Team Fortress and Capture The Flag. We currently have a few members who have specialized talents, but if there are any others who would like to lend their skills to our team it would be greatly appreciated. Interested parties may contact me (The PA Guy) at BlackRazor_DoA_@hotmail.com. We shall have a homepage up soon
<snipped>

>In Quake 2 will the character's legs be able to move while he's firing and
>moving or will he be skating like in Doom and Quake?

Slip-slidin' away. Slip-slidin' away-ay-ay! Not much we can do about stafe anims.

ps

I am going to have a logo contest. The winner will recieve a free copy of a "PC Gamer" magazine with the Quake 2 Demo on it. The contest will expire on October 11, 1997. The rules are as follows:

- The logo cannot be too big. (nothing bigger than 5 X 2.5 inches.)
- The logo must say "Quake 2 Press"
- The logo must match with the site.
- All submitions are to be sent via e-mail

Thanks guys,
lag

http://q2press.3dx.org

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