Robert Duffy - QERadiant author

During the release party for version 071 we pulled Robert to a quiet corner and threw a few questions his way (big thanks to Wolfen for filling my shoe's whilst i was away)

What are the significant changes in the new build released tonight?

The biggest change is probably full texture lock. It can still sweep a bit when doing multi-axis rotations but overall it is very solid In addition, there are dozens of other changes and probably 30-40 bug fixes

Anything else we should know about?

The readme goes over the major changes, I don't think I remembered to change the default cubic clipping distance so if you can't see anything in the camera view, use ctrl + [ and ctrl + ] to change the distance the camera can see

Is there anything that you would have liked to put in this build which didn't make it?

Wireframe model preview and floating point plane coordinates did not make it
the floating point plane coords is finished but i still need to debug a bit before it hits the streets

How hard was it to get the Rotating texture lock to finally work properly

Timothee Besset (MGS author) did all of the math for the rotation support. This was a huge help. Even with that, it was a pain in the ass... As it sits right now, it will lock perfectly for about 90%+ of what people do.. Which is good as I probably won't work in this area again.. at least in the near future

How are you approaching the integer/floating point discrepancies involved with rotating complex objects?

At this time, plane coordinates are only clamped when a map is saved. Everything done in the editor is carried as floats. This means that you will lose a little precision once you save a map if you've done a lot of rotation or scaling
The floating point version is finished as I said...
which saves out floats, preserving everything but I was still getting some build errors out of the new QBSP3 that I need to address

Are you pleased with the way it has turned out so far?

Yes. I always have a huge todo list but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I wish I had wrapped up a manual by now but beyond that I don't have any complaints.


What are the next big things planned for QERadiant?

Model preview / Floating point plane support / BrushScripting update / Primitives
Those are the big ticket items


Is there any news on the 3dfx support a lot of us are looking for?

I'm waiting on the public release of their beta OpenGL support. While it's not THAT much work to drop down to glide, the payoffs are not that great
Once their OpenGL is generally available the editor will support a 3Dfx preview...

Hows the work on the Quake3 side going?

All of the initial Quake3 support is in.. (and has been for about 3 weeks)

How does the Q3 stuff work? Do the id guys mail you what they need or you need or do you visit the office?

Mainly via e-mail... i drop by every now and then but the bulk of information exchange is e-mail

If you can comment on this, what new features for Q3 have been added, you can tell us even if you have to kill us. =)

Primarily curve support.. beyond that i can't say

Aside from the "infamous" RT work (your real job) how much time do you think you have put into QERadiant?

way too much :-)

What would you say you are most pleased about in QERadiant that you have done.

provided a free editor that most people can use that was the original intent

Do you have any other "eye candy" pland for QERadiant, i.e. Lighting previews and such?

embedded support for motion preview (doors, rotations, trains, monster paths, etc)..
i've given a lot of thought for lighting preview.. still thinking

What other games are planned for support with QERadiant?

Well, Daikatana and Anachronox will be supported when they are released as ION is using a custom cut of the editor. Beyond that, Quake2 and Quake3. Other support may get in once the source is availabe for other people to munge on.

Is there anything you would like to say to the people in the channel or who will be reading this intervew?

Thanks for the support and don't forget to submit questions, comments, bugs, and ideas as that is the only way I can answer, ponder, fix, or implement them.