Slashdot Mirror

If Q3 is closed source, then what is this? (or for linux)

(Note: those are direct links, don't click unless you want to download the source)

If Q3 is closed source, then what is this? (or for linux)

(Note: those are direct links, don't click unless you want to download the source)

If you can give me sources, I'll beleive it. I was under the impression (and I think read somewhere) that HL indeeed used the Quake 2 engine...

Is Id a valid source? Id's Technology Licensing Program page, check out the line that reads, "Remember this engine is the foundation for what Valve did with Half-Life, and the software and OpenGL rendering is still as fast as it ever was," in section C, "The GPL'd Quake Engine." I'd think Id would know who's done what with their engines (well, third-party licenses, anyway -- I'm sure they don't keep track of what people have done with the GPL'd code).

People usually get confused and think Half-Life was based on Quake 2 because Valve did use some technology from Quake 2, porting it back into the Quake 1 engine, and they did make major changes to the Q1 engine. Also, Half-Life and Q2 were released fairly close together (Q2 released Christmas 97, HL released spring 98, IIRC).

BitTorrent tracker

Experimental BT tracker to hold official Id files

however i think that it pretty much irrelevant nowdays since games programmers seem to be having a hard time keeping up with the vast advances in computing power available to them.

IIRC, John Carmack's always preferred OpenGL over DirectX. OpenGL is pretty cross-platform, as is, so I doubt they'd be using SDL.

If their past work is any example, I expect they'll be writing their code properly wrt modularity.

I did, and found the Bittorrent links here with the Linux and Windows version. Downloaded it in 5 minutes.

That's the Linux version....
BitTorent for win32 is Here

http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/Wolf_ET_Test.exe.to rrent for us poor windows users

Straight from the horse's mouth

There seems to be an error in the link. Try http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/et-linux-test-2.32. x86.run.torrent for a download. I'm currently getting it at about 130Kb/s

And the fixed up URL

I'm not entirely sure, but some companies, such as id with Quake III, have released SDK (Software Development Kit) in order to help players create their own maps and stuff (see e.g. this Linux Quake III SDK). But other companies, such as EA with Battlefield 1942, haven't released any SDK for their game engine. But many mods have been created for BF1942 without an SDK: Desert Combat, Black Hawk Down, Soldier9's Realism Mod, and others.

If you do a search on Google for 'battlefield 1942 mod', the first thing that appears is this petition :-)

I don't subscribe because I feel that WINE is holding back the state of native application ports. After all, if Linux has "perfect" emulation of Windows there is no practical reason for developers to port their code to be platform independent. Without a visible need to port to Linux, developers will continue to release games that only support Windows.

You have a choice: emulate Windows (forever), or seek native software ports. I've chosen native ports, because I think that is the better long-term solution. But if you just can't stand to give over your EverCrack until they provide a Linux client... that is your choice. Just be aware I won't be sympathetic to complaints about the dearth of Linux game ports.

It's time for another interview here on Curmudgeon and this time we have with us Brian Hook, president of Pyrogon Games and former developer at id Software and Verant/Sony Online Entertainment. Before working on the seminal shooters Quake 2 and Quake 3: Arena, Brian was the original architect of the Glide API used by the 3dfx Voodoo line of video cards. After departing id, Brian worked as a Senior Technology Architect at Verant, concentrating on development of technology for next-generation massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs). After founding Pyrogon in 2000, he created the puzzle game Candy Cruncher, which we reviewed earlier this year. Two additional Pyrogon games have appeared since then, NingPo MahJong and Letter Linker, both available for Windows and MacOS X. (A Linux version of NingPo MahJong will be shipping in the near future.)

This interview covers a wide range of topics: game design criticism, OpenGL/D3D, making money as a smaller game developer, and the importance of porting software to different platforms. Indeed, something for just about everyone. It's quite long, so you might want to bookmark it and consume it in more than one reading.

The interview questions were prepared with the assistance of regular CG authors ruffin and michael.

jvm: What kinds of games do you enjoy playing the most?

Hook: That's a tough question. I guess in some ways I just have very high expectations about software these days, so most games pretty much turn me off within the first 5 minutes when I spot egregious design flaws.

That said, the games I've played and enjoyed the most recently have been No One Lives Forever 2, which I felt had some of the best production value I've ever seen in a game, and Ghost Recon, which is a hoot in multiplayer.

jvm: So you play mostly on a PC, as opposed to a console?

Hook: I should really get some consoles and play console games, but it's hard to justify the time.

jvm: Could we get an example of a game with these egregious design flaws, complete with a breakdown of those flaws? The more popular the game, the better.

Hook: That's dangerous ground =)

But a typical example I have is what I call "simulations that think they're games". To me, a game should be fun and exciting, which means that I should be making interesting decisions that lead to success based on the data I have at that time. Too many games today STILL punish you by just killing you because that's "realistic".

Hitman 2 is a good example of this. Starting with the very first mission, you can pretty much expect to go through and play that mission 20 times before you complete it, because there are timed events that you don't know about a priori. Which is a shame, because the actual mechanics in Hitman 2 were extremely fun. It was probably the one game in recent memory that I really wanted to like but which ended up being so frustrating and tedious that I couldn't enjoy it. Obviously it's a popular game, so I'm in the minority on this.

I think the games that really got a lot of this down were the 1980s LucasArts adventure games like Lo

With all due respect... what has happened to you Mr. Hook?!?

Id has a team of lawers to enforce the issue.. Here read a exerpt from
here

b. Royalties. Licensee agrees to pay Id Software a royalty ("Royalty") at the
rate of twelve and one-half (12.5%) of Net Income. The term "Net Income" shall
mean all revenue received by Licensee from the commercial use of the Authorized
Copy, less only Licensee's actual and documented costs relating directly to such
use. A Royalty shall only be due for those months in which Licensee's gross
revenue from the commercial use of the Authorized Copy exceeds U.S. Five
Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) and in such months Licensee shall pay a full
Royalty on one hundred percent (100%) of the gross revenue received. For those
months where gross revenue is Five Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($5,000.00) or
less, Licensee shall not be obligated to pay a Royalty.

So in laymans terms, that basically complicates up the accounting system most
gamehouses have set up. I originally thought my per unit was based on hourly
consumption of the station. Now I have to break my units down even further and
store more accounting data. (I.e. when the process was run, for how long, ect)
Sure it's 12.5% now, but you add in the cost of having to account for it's use,
that number could jump as high as 15-16% depending on how much more data your
accountant has to chew on.

I'm planning a 12@day hour operation, some run 24, others 8. The amount of
employee's needed is totally dependant on that.

reminds me of the quake2 64 player maps

anyone want to start up a server and play some lithium/64?

"Odd, I was playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein through WineX this morning on my box..."

Well since it's ported to Linux there is really no need to run it under WineX, is there?

Check it out here: http://www.idsoftware.com/games/wolfenstein/rtcw/

You need these to files: wolf-linux-1.33.x86.runand wolf-linux-update-1.41.x86.run.

"Odd, I was playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein through WineX this morning on my box..."

Well since it's ported to Linux there is really no need to run it under WineX, is there?

Check it out here: http://www.idsoftware.com/games/wolfenstein/rtcw/

You need these to files: wolf-linux-1.33.x86.runand wolf-linux-update-1.41.x86.run.

"Odd, I was playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein through WineX this morning on my box..."

Well since it's ported to Linux there is really no need to run it under WineX, is there?

Check it out here: http://www.idsoftware.com/games/wolfenstein/rtcw/

You need these to files: wolf-linux-1.33.x86.runand wolf-linux-update-1.41.x86.run.

Heh, while working i was posting the same story and its pending, oh well another rejected story. But in the meantime i'll put my questions here. With the massive profit margins of games these days. Do the designers see any of it. Or have the days of the Multimillionaire games designers gone like those of Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and John Romero from id software. If they don't see a share of the profit should they be paid like a movie star, after all there work is bringing in the same $'s at better profit margin. CD ~10c? (with front label), Box+paperwork ~$1? Shipping ~$5 per 100? So what $1.15 for a game that sells for $50. Who gets what out of the other $48.85.

The week, Transgaming (popular for allowing Linux users to play games normally meant for Windows) has annouced a new game inclusion to it's database: the long-anticipated Master of Orion 3. We talked with one of the transgaming developers. He said "Well, it was pretty tough getting this game to run, but after a few code tweaks, and a couple of changes to our latest veriosn, we were able to release the new version /just/ as many subscribers lost their three-month subscriptions... talk about timing!" The new version can be downloaded freely-- with your $15/per 3 month subscription. check outhttp://transgaming.com/who-the-hell-cares-about -GNU-lets-screw-the-bastards-who-we-got-the-code-f rom-and-not-return-code-back-to-the-non-X11-liscen ce-team.html for the details

As soon as more companies start making linux native binaries, then i'll start paying for games again. and hey, why not advertise it runs on linux (COUGH id COUGH)

Half-Life was based on the Quake 2 engine. Which still has a surprising number of network security issues considering the constant attacks when it was released.

Nope. This is a popular misconception, based on the release dates of Half-Life and Quake 2. Half-Life was based on the Quake 1 codebase, and while they did add functionality that Quake 2 also had (hardware acceleration, though glquake did that too, colored lighting, one or two other things), they did a lot more as well, like skeletal animation. However, at its core, Half-Life was still based on Quake 1. Id Software has said as much (search that page for "Half-Life", you'll come up with "Remember this engine is the foundation for what Valve did with Half-Life, and the software and OpenGL rendering is still as fast as it ever was.").

Unreal Tournament, Railroad Tycoon 2, the various Sims, QUAKE! - these games aren't free or even shareware.

Unreal Tournament, Railroad Tycoon 2, the various Sims, QUAKE! - these games aren't free or even shareware.

If you want to applaud the efforts of a game development crew, then pick a team like id or Epic. These guys set internal release dates but tell the world that their games will be out "when they're done". They always seem to deliver a game in a timely manner, they always make good on the hype, and they both leave legacies for their products by crafting engines that other games are built upon. How those guys stay focused year after year and still manage to be on top is definitely book material. I would love to see a project management book by John Carmack and Tim Sweeney hit the shelves some day. These guys know how to get it done.

3D Realms, IMO, is living on their legacy created by Duke 3D. Granted they've spent some time helping other games get out the door (Max Payne, Duke titles for consoles, etc.), but I think someone above summed it up best : their outfit comes across more like a rich man's hobby. Were it not for the reputation of 3D Realms, I think you'd see Duke Forever getting the same treatment as Daikatana, Ion Storm and John Romero got a while back. If you think about it, there isn't much difference between the two except that Romero had a track record with a different company. Let's all hope that Duke 4 doesn't come out as flawed as Daikatana.

So now that I've said my piece, yeah, I think it's cool that 3DR can laugh about the progress made on their latest game. But I would prefer that they quit laughing and joking and actually ship something that even halfway meets the hype they've built. At least the hype has died down in the last year or two, giving them a much lower hype-target to hit!

Frankly, it should've happened a lot sooner- because there are a lot of great videogame pioneers who deserved more recognition than they got, including the geniuses at Infocom, Howard Scott Warsaw (despite the travesty that was E.T. for Atari...), ID and so on.

And no offense to /. or The Onion, but the Webby Awards (recognizing "the best of the Web both in quality and quantity") is the most ridiculous and pointless awards ceremony of the last century.

If the Internet is, as is often claimed, one of the most important mediums of the last century (and perhaps even last 1000 years), doesn't it deserve a better body for the recognition of its best-and-brightest contributors than this? An awards ceremony created by a pretty actress cum filmmaker cum Good Morning America 'internet expert'?

(inserting obligatory karma-whore reply, "I dunno man- her body looks pretty good to me!")

Actually, the FPS grandaddy would have to be Wolfenstein 3D.

Actually, you're not quite right, either. The real FPS grandaddy is actually Hovertank, with Catacomb 3D coming shortly after that. Catacomb 3D evolved from Hovertank's engine, and Wolf3D evolved from Catacomb's.

Now, I'm sure you can find some other first-person shooting game prior to 1991 if you really dig (Battlezone, perhaps?), but that's the history of the FPS and id.

Actually, the FPS grandaddy would have to be Wolfenstein 3D.

Actually, you're not quite right, either. The real FPS grandaddy is actually Hovertank, with Catacomb 3D coming shortly after that. Catacomb 3D evolved from Hovertank's engine, and Wolf3D evolved from Catacomb's.

Now, I'm sure you can find some other first-person shooting game prior to 1991 if you really dig (Battlezone, perhaps?), but that's the history of the FPS and id.

Slashdotters are interested in Science, Slashdotters don't RTFA
Scientists are interested in Science, Scientists don't RTFA
Therefore, People who read Slashdot must be Scientists!

Now if I can only convince my employer that I need a dual procesor box with a GeForce4 for research in "Hand-eye coordination and its development as influenced by realistically rendered 3D environments: A study in vitual ordinance trajectories and avoidance"

Not much info, since the cache was made before the test flight.

yeah, you're right... we need a company like id software to port quake, quake ii, quake iii and the upcoming doom 3 to linux! it would be cool if we could run unreal tournament and unreal tournament 2003, as well!

ID software supplies the binary code to Quake 3 too. I went to their website and downloaded the entire game. Try ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com. Cruise over to the Q3 section and download the Linux native binaries. All you need is a WAD file. Its the whole game for free but is unplayable unless you have the WAD which is only on the CD which you must pay for. Although the source isn't open YET clearly they understand you cant keep an engine locked up. They are fine just controlling the WAD.

BTW if you dont know what the WAD is ill explain. Its simply a file with all the media on it. It has all the maps/monsters/graphics. You can even go into the WAD file and change the pics t change the game without messing anything up.

You're right on-- and beyond all that, it improves the game's shelf life.

When the game is first released, only the enthusiasts are going to be able to run it well. But, say, a year later, your average consumer-level Dell system is going to be sporting the card that the enthusiasts were using a year ago. Id wants their games to last long enough to ensure that the company always has a presence on the shelves between games.

Making the engine work on today's mid-level graphics cards would leave you with graphics that will look dated before long. And those developers that pay $250,000 for an id engine for a game that'll be out in six months don't want to look like everybody else.

> Wow, it's amazing that halflife was so open to let their fans freely modify their code and give them all the tools to do it. This flies directly in the face of corporate logic,

Well, you sound a bit ignorant about FPS gaming history.

Have you actually heard of little ole company based in Mesquite, Texas called Id Software? They made the first FPS game (wolfenstein3d), the first popular FPS game (doom), and the first widely FPS game that was playable over the internet with lots of other people. Oh yeah, this game also had it's game code available, and it's engine code completely GPL'd several years later.

Oh yeah, Valve based halflife on this little game. It's called Quake.

> Wow, it's amazing that halflife was so open to let their fans freely modify their code and give them all the tools to do it. This flies directly in the face of corporate logic,

Well, you sound a bit ignorant about FPS gaming history.

Have you actually heard of little ole company based in Mesquite, Texas called Id Software? They made the first FPS game (wolfenstein3d), the first popular FPS game (doom), and the first widely FPS game that was playable over the internet with lots of other people. Oh yeah, this game also had it's game code available, and it's engine code completely GPL'd several years later.

Oh yeah, Valve based halflife on this little game. It's called Quake.

Try GtkRadiant. Open source and maintained since 1999 (CVS).

A couple of internal branches even have Maya-style scene graph support with nested transforms, instances, and the like.

I maintain the BSP compiler (Q3Map2), which along with the editor component, Radiant, has also been significantly enhanced from what Id software originally wrote.

The next major version of GtkRadiant, 1.3 has Half-Life and Counter-Strike support, in addition to the games currently supported: Quake 3 (and Team Arena), Star Trek Elite Force, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Soldier of Fortune 2, and Jedi Knight 2.

y

Try GtkRadiant. Open source and maintained since 1999 (CVS).

A couple of internal branches even have Maya-style scene graph support with nested transforms, instances, and the like.

I maintain the BSP compiler (Q3Map2), which along with the editor component, Radiant, has also been significantly enhanced from what Id software originally wrote.

The next major version of GtkRadiant, 1.3 has Half-Life and Counter-Strike support, in addition to the games currently supported: Quake 3 (and Team Arena), Star Trek Elite Force, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Soldier of Fortune 2, and Jedi Knight 2.

y

I don't think that is correct. I seem to recall some project or other moving away from GPL at a version change. If the author retains copyright to the work as a whole, which the FSF suggests to do, the author can change from GPL2 to GPL3 or to BSD, etc.

I really dig this, man. It's a good cause and it helps your family realise that they have choices, lots of them. Noticing that alot of people are recommending office productivity suites (which is cool, but you can only recommend Open Office/AbiWord/Gimp so many times =P) or server/high-end programs (very commendable, but...very time-consuming if anything like what I had to do to teach my parents), I wanted to include a list of games I figured might brighten their day.

First off, glTron. GPLed and very very addicting. Great to show off the fact that 3D Gaming and Linux are not mutually exclusive. (I would mention TuxRacer here, but it has been said before)

Secondly I want to go old-school with Nethack. I mean, it's Nethack. If someone in your family thinks they are cool because they can survive a Zerg-rush, let them play this and see how tough they are. ;)

Thirdly I would mention anything old by Id. They have a ton of free mods and maps for Quake or Quake II and with the new Tenebrae mod it's not your Mom's old Quake. Plus if you compile it for their PC on their PC, it might get them interested in Programming.

Which brings me to my last addition, Dev-C++. For the Casual Programmer (i.e. takes a few courses, kinda C-curious) This is the perfect IDE. Based on GCC it has a good-looking front-end, great support, and takes up ALOT less space than Visual Studio. I know at least one teacher that recommends the students run this, and rightly so. It really puts the brain-strain on the appropriate part of programming, the actual program.

On PC, the only thing you have in your favor is the shareware effort.

The shareware effort is what started id Software.

X-men movie came out, Spider-Man, and soon Hulk. And Now, Finally, a MMPORG.

The Article speaks of "wondering how big the market can get," though and I think that statement is kinda silly -- it will end up similar to everything else, Blazingly Popular for a while, then gradually reducing to the dedicated players as everybody else moves on to the next great thing. It'll have to follow the path and example of Quake/Quake 2/ etc. and similar type games in order to keep in the "market."

but then thats just my $0.02

I am still trying to buy the original quake version, but cannot seem to find it in any stores. Anyone know of any stores still selling it?

Ultimate Quake includes Q1, Q2, and Q3a. Maybe it's a waste of money if you already have Q2 or Q3a separately, but $30 isn't bad, and it's the only way I've seen lately to get Q1.

Actually, nevermind -- I just checked id's site, and you can buy Quake 1 by itself for $30 (as a download, you get no official media). At that price, you'd be better off picking up Ultimate Quake and giving away the Q2 and Q3a disks if you don't need them. For the same $30, you actually get the games on CD.

Choosing Chips Pt. 3

It's easy to see that assumptions may lead a consumer to believe that the INTEL product is a better processor. These basics may have some validity on paper but not so in the real world. Why the lesson on MHz, die size, bus speeds and cache? The lesson is not which processor is better. The lesson is to not make performance assumptions based in the belief that bigger numbers are better.

AMD has changed the fact that more MHz means better. As mentioned previously, side by side processor comparisons between INTEL and AMD chips prove this. The 64-dollar question is why?

By using a layman's analogy once again, an INTEL CPU engine may run at a higher RPM (MHz) but it doesn't have the equivalent torque to match the high RPM (MHz). An AMD processor may run at a lower megahertz but it does have better torque. This is an incredibly simplified explanation but it gives the needed broad brush strokes. AMD technology on how the processor is geared allows their processors to rival and, in some cases, surpass INTEL processors that are clocked at a much higher frequency.

So how does a consumer decide upon which processor? It's safe to say that the majority of PC buyers only care that it works and works fast enough for their needs. The average consumer either doesn't understand or could care less about Front Side Bus Speed, how many transistors there are, or how small a die is. A lot of PC buyers also do not realize that there is another choice beyond what is widely and visibly available on store shelves. AMD vs. INTEL marketing and product awareness is another topic altogether and best left alone lest we travel down another long road.

To berate a point, AMD has shown that in today's marketplace GHz is not the defining mark of a processor. The important piece to the education puzzle is how each of these processors compares in benchmark tests especially introducing the performance to cost side of the equation. There are many comparisons that pit the AMD processor against rival INTEL in the never-ending battle of who's the best. Read a couple of these reviews and they will show in the multitude of benchmark tests that these processors trade off pole positions. In one test AMD may edge out INTEL and in another INTEL may come out ahead. In most the difference between the two is a matter of seconds, frames, or a handful of points. In real world everyday performance there would be an almost unnoticeable difference in most applications when comparing similar processors.

Bar graphs may show who's ahead but it's important to look at the physical numbers before making a decision. Ask yourself who's ahead and by how much and in what particular application. A 2.8 GHz INTEL processor may achieve more frames per second than an AMD 2600+ in Quake but without insult, the difference is small and most likely unnoticed by the user actually playing the game unless their goal is boasting rights.

That being said what would be another deciding factor? The AMD processor is priced far more competitively than the INTEL processor which means there's more money left over to pocket or spend on more RAM, a better video card or another hard drive.

Processor Prices*

AMD

INTEL

Athlon XP 2600+ (2.13 GHz)

$300

Pentium 4 2.8 GHz

$537

Athlon XP 2400+ (2 GHz)

$200

Pentium 4 2.53 GHz

$240

Athlon XP 2200+ (1.8 GHz)

$146

Pentium 4 2.4 GHz

$206

Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73 GHz)

$112

Pentium 4 2.2 GHz

$202

Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67 GHz)

$59

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz

$161

Athlon XP 1900+ (1.6 GHz)

$78

Pentium 4 1.9 GHz

$154

Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53 GHz)

$64

Pentium 4 1.8 GHz

$139

Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47 GHz)

$59

Pentium 4 1.7 GHz

$125

Athlon XP 1600+ (1.43 GHz)

$52

Pentium 4 1.6 GHz

$117

Athlon XP 1500+ (1.4 GHz)

$53

Pentium 4 1.5 GHz

$102

*Prices in USDfrom www.pricewatch.com August 31, 02 Socket A/478 processors.

But you may think GHz to GHz again and wonder why you are paying $200 for an AMD 2400+ (2 GHz) when for another $6 more the 2.6 GHz Intel processor is available. A buyer may think that $6 for another point four GHz may be better. But that's just not the case. Read a review or three and there will be a performance picture that will form. Combine the performance/price analysis with your expectations and then the answer should be clearer.

The final scoff any nay-sayer of AMD product may volunteer is that of stability. Many consumers state the reason for choosing INTEL is due to the perception that INTEL systems are more stable and require less driver updates and tweaking. This may have been the case years ago but is completely false at present. Any system can be properly set up and IF LEFT ALONE will or should continue to operate as intended. AMD systems are stable. If a consumer purchases a pre-configured AMD system from a reputable source they are going to have the same stability experience as if they purchased a pre-configured INTEL system. Large pre-configured PC suppliers go to great lengths to ensure that all of the components as sold work reliably with each other right out of the box. Intel is also the dominant force with far more processors per PC than AMD. Software and hardware developers would choose to align and optimize their product with the processor product that is in more homes and businesses. It's a marketing move. If a consumer chooses to build the computer from individually purchased components then they run the same risk of hardware conflicts and problems regardless of processor choice.

Which processor is better? Which truck is better, Chevy or Ford? I don't think an overall clear-cut winner can be crowned but when trying to build a powerful system within a budget we think of ourselves as smart shoppers by getting the most with AMD.

The mother of all boards

Selecting an AMD based system has other advantages. AMD based motherboards offer a wider range of motherboard configuration options than rival INTEL based motherboards. Which AMD driven motherboard is a matter of the requirements mixed with a dash of personal experience, a pinch of recommendations from friends, a paragraph or twenty from the forums and a page or four or sixty of research.

I admit I've had a preference for ABIT product. I've grown to rely on ABIT for their stability and flexibility. They offer a wide range of choices to suit almost any need. The ABIT AT7 was supplied to us for this system which proved to be really good...and really bad.

CPU

• Supports AMD-K7 Athlon /Athlon XP Socket A 200/266MHz FSB Processors
  
• Supports AMD-K7 Duron Socket A 200 MHz FSB Processors
  
  

Chipset

• VIA KT333 / VIA VT8233A
  
• Supports Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 IDE protocol
  
• Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)
  
• Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP 2X(3.3V)and 4X(1.5V)mode (Sideband) device
  
• Supports 200/266/333 MHz (100/133/166MHz Double Data Rate) Memory Bus Setting
  
  

Ultra DMA 133/ RAID

• High Point HPT374 IDE Controller
  
• Ultra DMA 133MB/sec data transfer rate
  
• RAID 0 (striping mode for boosting performance)
  
• RAID 1 (mirroring mode for data security)
  
• RAID 0 + 1(striping and mirroring)
  
  

Memory

• Four 184-pin DIMM sockets support PC1600/PC2100/PC2700 DDR DRAM modules
  
• Supports DDR333 unbuffered DRAMs up to 2GB and registered DRAMs up to 3GB
  
• Supports 6 banks up to 3GB DRAMs for unbuffered DDR200/266 modules
  
• Supports 8 banks up to 3.5GB DRAMs for registered DDR200/266 modules
  
  

Audio

• Realtek ALC650 (AC-Link)
  
• Supports 6CH DAC for AC3 5.1 CH purpose
  
• Professional digital audio interface supporting 24-bit SPDIF OUT
  
• Card Reader (Optional)
  
• Supports Memory card (MS or SD) Interface
  
• Supports SONY Memory Stick Interface/ SD Memory Card Interface
  
• Supports Compact Flash ROM Interface
  
  

System BIOS

• SoftMenu III Technology to set CPU parameters
  
• Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
  
• Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
  
• Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
  
• Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS
  
  

LAN

• On board Realtek 8100B single chip Ethernet controller interface
  
• 10/100Mb Operation
  
• User friendly driver included
  
  

Multi I/O Functions

• 2 Channels of Bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to 4 Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 devices
  
• 4 Channels of Bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to 8 Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 (RAID 0/1/1+0) devices
  
• 4 USB 1.1 Connectors
  
• On board VIA VT6202 USB 2.0 header for four extra USB channels
  
• Three 1394a fully compliant cable ports at 100/200/400 megabits per second
  
• Audio connector (Line-in, Center/Sub, Surround Spk , Front Spk , Mic-in)
  
  

Miscellaneous

• ATX form factor
  
• 1 AGP 1.5v slot, 3 PCI slots
  
• Hardware monitoring - Including Fan speeds, Voltages, System environment temperature
  

Motherboard Pros and Cons

It boils down to a few obvious reasons why this board made the top of the list. The AT7 has the capacity to support an obscene amount of hard drive space. When working in broadcast design with uncompressed video it's going to be needed. External storage solutions of any substance are extremely expensive. The AT7 could feasibly run eight 160 Gigabyte drives off the highpoint controller. That's over a terabyte of hard drive space which is almost 1000 hours of video at DVD quality. As I said before...it's an obscene amount of hard drive space. Data integrity is of a concern but a mirrored array can be easily set up. As a rule, in a professional work environment, projects should and are backed up to external media as completed.

The AT7 has 4 USB headers which is becoming commonplace but is always of benefit. The AT7 also features USB 2.0 support and it's good to have technology that looks forward anticipating options rather than falling quickly into obsolescence.

Two built-in 1394a (FireWire) ports were of great value. Shoving large files (400-800 MB) around a network can be excruciatingly slow. A quick solution was to transfer data to an external FireWire drive and then walk the drive from system to system as it was required and that isn't too often. It's a reusable and fast conduit for large file transfer between the graphic workstations and the edit suite, MAC or PC. It's true. Not every business is perfect and the IT folks just haven't got around to connecting the graphic design workstations with the non-linear suites on their own large bandwidth network.

The AT7 came with other onboard features that presented a cost effective solution compared to purchasing 3rd party PCI cards and these include surprisingly good 6 Channel sound and NIC.

There is only one caution with the AT7 and one issue.

The AT7 does not have parallel or serial ports on the back plane. It is a legacy free motherboard. If there is a need to attach these types of peripherals then the AT7 will disappoint.

The issue with the AT7 was of questionable support of the new AMD Thoroughbred processors. The AT7 wasn't totally compatible with this new series of processors. It was extremely unstable with any amount or combination of DIMMS of Registered ECC ram. Unbuffered RAM in any amount or combination would eventually generate a HARDWARE MALFUNCTION blue screen. This occurred every 3-5 hours for no apparent reason. It is hoped that a future BIOS will fix this or future AT7 boards have been tweaked at the assembly plant.

Please note that a 1900+ Palomino processor functioned beautifully with 4 DIMMS of 256 MB PC2100 memory in either Registered ECC or unbuffered sampling. The AT7 test system chugged magnificently through render after render without a problem. I hope ABIT is focused on the concerns pointed out and will hopefully have a solution soon.

A Clear Choice

This comment comes from the art director and makes me cringe as powerful hardware costs powerful bucks. Complex 2D and 3D work has a tendency to eat video cards for breakfast. A fast gaming card usually does not have the supporting features and will quickly expose its shortcomings under a task especially in 3D design. Enter a powerful Matrox Parhelia at a significantly less than powerful cost.

A clear choice

The background on the Matrox Parhelia 512 comes from Icrontic's initial review.

The Parhelia-512 is the world's first 512-bit Graphics Processing Unit packed with 256 MB DDR on board. A 256-bit memory interface shoveling out a hefty 17.6 GB/s 275 MHz memory bandwidth.

Matrox is well known for their world class DualHead dual monitor support and now they have taken it one step further by adding a third monitor. The third monitor opens up a new era of gaming that Matrox has dubbed Surround Gaming. How are they going to do this and maintain frame rates AND take gaming environments to the next level? Matrox created a Quad Vertex Shader Array made up of four 128-bit vertex shader engines. Add the highest quality trilinear and anistropic filtering through their 64 Super Sample Texture Filtering. Matrox also boasts that their 36-Stage Shader Array is the most complex rendering engine ever built. Smooth it all out with 16x Fragment Antialiasing (FAA-16x).

SURROUND GAMING obviously wasn't a priority in a video card for broadcast design. It wouldn't be productive for the designers to be fragging away in Quake instead of doing their work. But they still did anyway. The term used was research but I didn't believe that for a minute. Below Softimage XSIoccupies two monitors and the third is available for Illustrator. This is very handy for changing any textures inside Softimage.

Another phrase floating about the Matrox offices these days is SURROUND DESIGN. In the past PC monitors got larger as graphic designers needed more elbow room to work. Then came two monitors providing space to place and there isn't a system in the author's design department that isn't dual monitor. If it's single monitor then it's for e-mail and that's because that hardware hasn't been replaced yet.

Then in came the Parhelia sporting triple monitors and the designers looked at me as if I was nuts. Sebastian MacDougal of Matrox explains:

Matrox Parhelia and Surround Design are enjoying a lot of support from design focused Independent Software Vendors (ISV's) who agree that the more you can see, the more productive you will become. The ability to either spread a project across three displays or having the ability to place various windows strategically across your desktop for better organization is something that workstation users have been asking for, for years. However, in the past it required using multiple cards which drastically reduced performance, and unless you are using Parhelia, this is still the case with competing graphics solutions today. But perhaps the most substantial benefit for the ISV's that we work so closely with is that Surround Design, in most cases, requires no direct intervention at the SW level in order to get it to work, meaning it is very easy for most ISV's to support and the advantages are enormous. To give you an idea, with the current 1.01 driver, Parhelia and Surround Design is optimized for: Softimage|XSI , 3ds max, AutoCAD and Microstation, with many other applications to follow shortly. At Siggraph 2002 in San Antonio Texas, the reception on the part of attendees to Parhelia and Surround Design was tremendous and it is completely understandable. An interesting analogy is how designing on one monitor is similar to a horse with blinders, having three displays just opens things up and allows you to be more productive.

Initially the designers didn't know what to do with the third monitor but in time they began using the extra display each in their own way. Due to the fact that the system had sufficient power and resources they could work in two or three programs simultaneously. For example After Effects is much easier to work in over two monitors and, thus, the third monitor allowed for Photoshop or Illustrator to remain open and easily accessible to adjust or create any elements for use within the After Effects project. The Parhelia has the memory size and graphics processing power to allow for smooth interaction with these programs. Combine this with the strength of the CPU and available system RAM and many a designer were kept happy.

How a user may work with three monitors is up to them but a third desktop enables a user to work within a program that is better suited for two monitors AND keep access to other tools without having to minimize or hide the main program. For example Adobe After Effects stays open in two monitors and Photoshop remains accessible on the third. Pictures above speak louder than words.

One of the Parhelia's strong selling features is, what Matrox has termed, GigaColor. This feature and its benefits were expanded upon in Icrontic's first review.

Dig around and there's a feature that most may not pay attention to but for the 2D/3D graphics professional and even the home user it will mean stunning images right to the desktop. Matrox hung the term 10-bit GigaColor on it. To you and me it is 10-bit video technology and it runs through a very speedy dual integrated 400 MHz 10-bit RAMDAC. That leaves the competition many MHz back. 10-bit technology is the same technology that allows for precise picture control in home theatre DVD players. 10-bit technology can partially be found in high-end video cards that cost thousands of dollars.

The difference is that Parhelia-512 delivers 10-bit technology through the entire card.

It must be told that 10-bit GigaColor still remains a bit of a mystery though it has been literally beaten into my ears by the kind folks over at Matrox. 10-bit GigaColor provides for an increase in the shades of any given color from the standard of 256 to 1024. The color palette leaps up from 16.7 million to 1 billion. This is a benefit when acquiring images such as through the use of a scanner where image control will be to a greater precision at time of capture. A greater range of the shades of a color is available thus greater control over what is kept or discarded is possible. This would primarily benefit print and magazine pre-press artists.

But sadly we people in television deal in comparatively grainy and low rest images and the benefits of GigaColor didn't jump out and bite us on the nose. For the record the designers did notice the desktop appeared more saturated and colorful when it was pointed out to them. You have to understand that designers work with what they have. Technology is not such a big deal. They care about what they can do with it rather than what it has under the hood. Though we would be much more satisfied if the rest of the computer system moved to 10-bit color base but that would mean new technology for ...well...everything.

There is good news on the horizon about GigaColor according to Matrox.

Upcoming OS's from Microsoft (i.e. Longhorn) will include support for greater than 8-bit per color channel precision at the desktop level, which is why you are seeing more and more companies include support for higher precision color depths. But of course, we were the first and are the first shipping product to offer that functionality, and as we make our own boards you know you'll get the right components for sustained image quality

The designers were quick to adapt to the flexibility the Parhelia offered and enjoyed working in an environment that produced clear, crisp images to the desktop. The only drawback is each of them would like a Parhelia of their own and 3 digital flat panels. That means a few more dollars added to this year's capital purchase forms. More paperwork....just what I enjoy.

Keeping Cool

The heatsink is also just another player in the heat game. As the Case Cooling Tweaks articles point out the correct choice of a PC case and additional fan modifications can help win the battle against heat and noise.

On the Case

Breaking out of the beige box...the right way.

AMK Computers came to the table with the SX1000 and set up a workstation case that delivers looks, cooling efficiency and a few other treats. The base SX1000 case comes standard with

• Space 4 drives in a removable bay
  
• Space for a zip and floppy in a removable bay.
  
• fan mounts (two front-two rear)
  
• space for 4 external 5.25 inch drives
  
• locking access panel
  
• locking front drive cover
  
  

To this AMK added:

• A side window with 2 more fans
  
• A top blowhole
  
• VBLOCK sound dampening material
  
• Cable Loom
  
• Rounded cables
  
• Digital Doc 5
  
• Enermax 465 PSU (FC)
  
• Fan filters
  
  

The neon lights were thrown in for this article just to make the case look better. I think they add a few MHz here and there due to the fact the case looks faster.

Seven fans plus the two Enermax PSU fans and heatsink fan may seem like a lot and loud. Quite the opposite as all the case fans were kept to ADDA 25 CFM/ 25 dBA specifications and regulated by the Digital Doc 5 fan controller. When the fans were not needed they were shut off. Only two fans, the top exhaust blowhole fan and one of the rear exhaust fans, were kept constantly running. (In addition to the PSU and heatsink fans). The two always on fans provided continual airflow yet emitted a minimum of noise. Again the computer in non-stress applications or when not rendering ran at below 30 dBA...less than a normal whisper.

The heatsink is warmed by the processor as the system was stressed. The fin design of the CAK4-76T allowed for the tips of the Digital Doc 5 thermistors to be inserted between the fins. This did not block airflow but this configuration allowed the Digital Doc 5 to directly read the temperature of the heatsink. Fans were turned on or off in a preset order to compensate for the increases or decreases in temperature. A full roar my cat was louder.

The last cooling tweak was to apply the WPCRSET tweak to enable the CPU halt command. This halts the processor and allows it to drop 5-10 degrees Celsius off pre-tweak levels. Besides updating the drivers the WPCRSET tweak was the only software OS hack if it could be called that.

In order to test this configuration a SOFTIMAGE project followed by an After Effects project were rendered out. The Softimage render took approximately 50 minutes (the first flat peak) and the After Effects render (the second peak) took 10 minutes. The following graph shows the temperatures never exceeded 46 degrees Celsius (23.5 C room temperature) which is only a 10-12 degree Celsius increase over base line temperature. That's a very satisfactory result especially with a system that operates through a range of 25-35 dBA.

The neon lights are available as an option and it was rather humorous watching designers and other employees wander by, stop, and back up to take a second look. Most came in and peered into the side window of the PC and said the word cool a lot. It is true that these people know of nothing other than the beige box. They asked why the window? The answer was why not?

Computers can become very dusty even in apparently clean offices. Filters are the solution to greatly cut down on the amount of dust that collects and clogs a PC after months of use. Filters do reduce airflow but they are worth it. A picture is worth a thousand words and this was the result of only 3 weeks of operation. The fans these filters covered were also not spinning at all times. This dust was the result of what was sucked into the case (or tried to be) from the airflow generated by the back plate and PSU fan. The filter on the left is clean and the one on the right...ugh.

The plethora of benchmark programs can be important when determining what does what task faster or better. These are specific assessments of individual functions. For this article it was decided to add a few more of what is our assessment of real world tests. It was also thought important to show how a change in one particular component could affect end results. It is hoped that the result of these tests will help you assess priorities in system configuration to match the priorities in system expectations.

The test system.

• AMD 2100+ Thoroughbred Core Processor
  
• AMD 1900+ Palomino Core Processor
  
• ABIT AT7 motherboard
  
• Matrox Parhelia 512 triple head video card in single head mode* 1.01.69 beta driver
  
• 2 x 512 MB Micron PC2100 RAM
  
• Sony 52x CD
  
• LG 32x10x40x CDRW
  
• 16 x DVD (not included in pricing)
  
• 40 GB Maxtor ATA133 Hard Drive
  
• 60 GB Maxtor ATA133 Hard Drive
  
• 2 x Samsung 950p 19 Monitors
  
• USB Keyboard and Logitech USB wireless Optical Mouse
  
• Globalwin CAK4-76T HSF
  
• AMK SX1000 modded PC case (window, fans, cables, loom)
  
• Enermax 465 Watt FC PSU
  
• Windows XP Professional build 2600 updated
  
• Digital Doc5
  
  

*dual and triple monitors enabled for Adobe After Effects and Softimage benchmarks only.

Programs used:

• Sisoft Sandra 2002
  
• ZD Media Business Winstone 2001
  
• ZD Media Content Creation Winstone 2001
  
• MadOnion 3DMark 2001 SE
  
• Quake III Arena
  
• Passmark Performance.
  
• Commanche 4
  
• Serious Sam: the Second Encounter
  
• GL Excess
  
• Drone Z
  
• SpecviewPerf 7.0
  
• PSBench
  
• Adobe Photoshop 7.0
  
• Adobe After Effects 5.5
  
• SoftimageXSI 2.0.1
  
• MediaCleaner Pro 5
  

The above benchmark programs are publicly available. For more about Ziff Davis and the etesting labs program go here.

I think it'd be pretty clever to simply participate in id's Technology Licensing Program (for a mere fee) and then.. profit.

carmack doesn't have 20 art guys. he has three.

Seneca Menard [3d artist]
Fred Nilsson [artist/animator]
Kenneth Scott [artist]

It isn't gamers directly -- it's John Carmack, et all, over at id Software who drive the high-end PC market; gamers have to buy the latest and greatest card just to be able to run the next id game. (Doom 3 is going to be HUGE, but it's going to require a beast of a computer to run.)

You laugh at Microsoft because they have to fix security in their software all the time.

Well, I'm laughing at Linux because your line of supported applications and games is comparable to the Mac section in any general computer store on Earth.

Interesting point, but I really doubt that this is aimed at the general consumer. It's for Joe Linux, who prides himself on doing nifty tech things with Linux.

Okay, Tux Racer may not be the most amazing thing in the world, but it's fun for a couple hours.

Freeciv...why is freeciv bad? You don't like civilization? There are some differences, but aside from the fact that civ had more artists (and, IMHO, a worse interface) and is a bit easier to use, not huge difference in fun factor.

Lets consider some others:

zangband/ToME/angband/nethack/etc: These *are* a lot of fun. Diablo has much more simplistic, boring gameplay, and it took off all over. Most variants have a pretty simple text or 2d graphics based interface without music, but some are a bit more elaborate. Be a bit of a pain to play on the controller, yes...

Chromium BSU: flashy scrolling shooter. Could use the 3d hardware in the X-box.

Dunno if you can just use ordinary ol' x86 binaries (particularly considering RAM usage), but:

Quake 3 (use the 3d hardware). Not free.

Abuse: This was a *blast* when it came out -- I played it over and over. It's looking a little dated now, but it's still a good game. Free now -- thanks crack.com.

Pingus is apparently shaping up pretty well.

There's part of the amazing Exile series available for Linux. (shareware)

Maelstrom may be too "simple" for you, as it's only an astroids clone, but it was a very well known game on the Mac for a long time, and I still like it.

While I'm not a tremendous fan of Illwinter's Conquest of Elysium II, their Dominions: Priests, Prophets, and Pretenders is a non-flashy but very deep, very good strategy game. Shareware.

There's a DOS-style shooter from Mountain King Studios, Raptor. (shareware)

Finally, there are all the emulators and whatnot...take a look at GNUboy, TuxNES, snes9x, DGen/SDL,
FreeSCI, Sarien, Exult, XU4, ScummVM, Basilisk II, YAE and others.

There are a host of Loki ports that you can't get any more except used. Lots of good stuff from LGames, though I'm not as big a fan of their stuff as some other people are.

Finally, text-based but really, really sophisticated, good, and almost all of them free, there are text-based interactive fiction (Try Tower of Babel before giving up on this...first one I ever beat without cheating, and it's *soooooo* good). The Interactive Fiction Archive has games and players.

Finally, many good games can be played through WINE -- Starcraft, Fallout, Max Payne, Half Life...

These are just some of the games that I enjoy under Linux. There are lots more (admittedly, some of lower quality) available at the SDL Games Page and the Linux Games Tome.

Linux games usually take a bit more (okay, often a lot :-) ) more effort to set up properly. But they're often very customizable, you can actually have an impact on the game design ("This game needs feature X"), and you don't have to leave the comfortable environs of Linux. And the environment is getting better, not worse.