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No Next Q3Test
Jacek Fedorynski writes "The Quake god recently interviewed on Slashdot, John Carmack, updated his .plan with word that there will be no next version of Q3Test - the next release will be a full demo with bot support and one more map (for beginners). The date of the release hasn't been set yet. Carmack also comments on the new Macintoshes. "
I would be very happy about this is the last Q3Test was even remotely playable. I've got a 300MHz Pentium II/128MB RAM/VooDoo2 and the damn thing was unplayable.
I'm just hoping that the code will be optimized in the next version. And I can't wait to see some of the other bodies that Carmack has cobbeled together.
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"Well, that's where you and I must agree to
disagree. I realize that Q3 won't have much of a
storyline (if any) or single-player aspect, but a
game requiring little more than cockroach-level
twitch reflexes is a pretty poor one, indeed."
1. There's more than just reflexes involved. Being
able to learn the fighting style of your opponent,
knowing where he's going (maybe before he himself
knows it), aiming and leading the opponent
(hand-eye coordination), planning a good strategy
for weapons/armor/powerup retrieval.
2. And we haven't even gotten into the CTF, TF,
Jail Break mods, or regular teamplay deathmatch.
3. You sound as if Quake and it's ilk are pretty
easy to master. Not much to them, right? Just
"cockroach reflexes." So I'm assuming you're
pretty awesome at it, then?
"And it's been done before. I'm wanting more, and
I suspect I'm not alone here. "
id Software has never claimed they are making
an original game in Quake/Quake2/Quake3 as far as
the genre (after all, they invented FP deathmatch
with Doom).
If you "want more" then go play something else.
Is someone stopping you?
"I "played" it in the sense that I ran around the level a few times."
Ahhhh... now I understand. So you tried it once
or twice and that's all.
"When I mean outdoor I mean something like
Tribes...where the map is the equivalent of 4
square kilometers in size!"
It's funny that you bring that up. Correct me if
I'm wrong, but the Quake 3 engine is tailored for
awesome indoor environments, and the Tribes engine
is tailored for awesome outdoor environments. You
act as if Tribes has awesome outdoor stuff, AND
the indoor stuff is as cool and good-looking as Q3.
I have yet to see any game that is great in both
areas, and I suspect it has something to do with
the previous limitations in 3D rendering and the
# of development hours it takes to get all the
features into a game these days. With hardware
geometry rendering finally viable for consumer
PC's, here's hoping we see one in the next two
years.
And I won't be surprised at all if id Software is
the first company to come out with an awesome
engine capable of both environments, seamlessly.
-WW
Slashdot.org | News for Nerds Stuff that Matters
Nerds play quake. You are in the minority my friend. Also, stuff about John Carmack is Linux/Unix/Tech news. He is one of the only gaming software developers that feels Linux is an OS worth supporting. If you really don't want to hear it just go into your preferences and turn off games.
p.s. Yes I know iD Software isn't the only developer of linux games, but we aren't talking about Loki, etc... that would be off topic
uhm why don't you read the readme.txt that comes with q3test1.08. Currently SMP only works in WinNT platform and should be enabled on linux upon full release.
Besides the curved surfaces, what really is going to make Quake III any different than Quake II?
:>
- It much faster. Not faster as in framerate, but faster as in action speed. A massive Q3A deathmatch with like 40 players is the most intensive game experience I've ever had...
- It is a multiplayer only game. Sure, you will be able to play it yourself against bots, but it's still a simulation of multiplay.
- Q3A is an arcade-style first-person shooter. It's not supposed to have too much tactics. Sure, games with tactics or awesome storylines are cool, but they are another type of game. Part of the power of the FPS is its simplicity.
- johnc himself said that they might later do a game that takes better advantage of the Q3A engine. The best thing you can to with the purty visuals right now is to turn them off...
Small to moderate-sized indoor levels
Did you actually play it? Q3test2 is not small, not indoors, and I bet I can rail you from the other side of it.
-
__
Comment submitted. There will be a delay before you understand what you posted.
Please, stick with Linux/Unix/Tech news Some of us aren't big enough gamers to visit blue's on a regular basis but still appreciate it when /. lets us know what is happening with Quake. Now if it was dominated by Quake news, I would see your point. But it's not, and they made the right call here. --- "Progress is the God of the Machine"
-rt-
** Evil Canadians are taking over the world. Learn about the conspiracy
Yeah. I've got an Abit BP6-based machine. The speed of things on my machine was fairly unplayable when there were >25 people on a server, but after typing the magical "r_smp 1" into the console and relaunching the program, it's been completely playable with just my TNT card (30fps or so, seems reasonable given the current state of XF86's lack of DRI).
-Rigel
I use the +set r_glDriver to switch between the glide driver and the tnt driver. The TNT driver seems to run better in a window than in full-screen. I cannot get it to run at 1024x768, my screen loses sync completely. 800x600 windowed seems best.
Video quality is as such:
Voodoo: Very fast, runs 1024x768(SLI) like butter. Very nice. Thanks, 3Dfx!
TNT: Acceptable speed, texturing is noticeably more detailed. Runs MUCH faster with vertex lighting, but doesn't look as nice. Some textures show weird "blurring" at distances, that changes as you approach the texture. Puts me in mind of Trespasser graphics (only on some limited textures). One bug I ran into got rid of ALL the textures. Kinda looked like that old Atari arcade game, "Hard Driving."
Gimme Xfree 4! Gimmie Quake3! Make mine id!
"We apologize for the inconvenience."
Also, elements of strategy and tactics do exist, though at a slightly different level. I spend alot of my game time in duels, rather than 30 person melees, and they are a refinement of tactics, especially maneuvering. Granted, it's not much of a level of tactics, but that level of gameplay isn't totally ignored.
I did try Unreal, but for some reason, the gameplay in it just left me cold, where as I began to love Q3, as soon as my stiff old mind adapted to the unaccustomed speed of the game.
Perhaps the best comparison I can think of lies in the world of automobiles. Doom was a Pinto. Q2 was an early Mustang, and Q3 is a modern one. On the surface, Q2 and Q3 are almost the same, in weight, horsepower, etc, but when you actually get behind the wheel, there's a world of handling difference, and that handling makes all the difference.
Effort can temper a man's body, but only experience can temper his soul.
Sure, it's id stuff and John Carmack's eye-pleasing work. But it's Quake, and for all you can say about the franchise you really can't say that the game itself has changed:
- Single-player viewpoint
- Small to moderate-sized indoor levels
- 8-12 mostly-balanced (yawn) weapons, 1 being some kind of minigun and at least 1 being a shotgun
- Gorgeous graphics which really don't improve gameplay
- id's promises that often-requested features not included in the baseline "could be designed by mod authors" (monkeys? ass? flying? what?)
I've been a big fan of id since the Doom I days, but when I see other titles with essentially the same features with excellent graphics (Unreal Tournament, for example) or clever games that actually bring tactics into play (instead of "just run around and shoot") such as Tribes...well, I gotta wonder how much is fanboy hype when info like this hits the Net press.Besides the curved surfaces, what really is going to make Quake III any different than Quake II?
Steel Maelstrom
Well, here's the deal with the iBooks. Apple's entire goal with the oft-used "four squares on a table napkin" theory is that there is total differentiation between the available products. If you are a student, on a limited budget and want a laptop (assuming you are Apple centric to begin with) there is no choice, it's a no brainer. You want an iBook. If you want a no-compromise machine (since an iBook is really just a Powerbook with some compromises) then you purchase a Powerbook. But, Apple wants to avoid at all costs someone having to wonder what machine is for them.
In the past this really has caused some additional painful decisions. For example, how much would it have cost to add FireWire onto say the second (266 MHz) or third (333 MHz) generation of iMacs. Very little actually, and it would have sold a lot more machines (a digital video editing solution for $1299 a year ago would've been nifty). However, it would have caused people to have that momentary pause. If I am a "not so informed" digital video producer or the joe moron guy in HR that orders my computers, I sit and wonder, which machine, a G3 or a iMac do I order? By not adding Firewire, the choice is simple. If I need digital video input, I buy a G3. No question.
I see the same thing happening with the iBook. The video chip is only a 4 MB AGP chip (one or two year old technology) but is more than suffecient for most web surfing/e-mailing/word processing needs. The water gets a little murkier considering the audience of the machines being in the market for games, but I think Apple made the right choice...
www.jackasscritics.com
Theoretically the demo will not use third party maps. Plus it would be safe to assume that there will be very few of the bot players (for single player mode) included.
However, id doesn't have the best track record with decisions in this area. Take the Q2Demo for example. If you install the demo, then install the Q2 3.20 patch you end up with a small DM only game that works with the "official" servers and such. The only problem is that one of the maps uses a different sky than the others and you end up with some real psychodelic visuals on that map. A simple copy and then you have a fully functional DM client (you can play Q2DM1-8.) Download and install the various PGL/OGL maps and you'd be ready to play just about anywhere.
Looking at the current q3test we find that it supposedly is running in "restricted demo mode" but a simple rename of the demoq3 directory to baseq3 and you have the "unrestricted" mode. This allows you to install the various hacked and reverse engineered maps that are available on the net.
Given id's record, it's hard to reconcile their official statements (ie. "no reverse engineering", etc.) with their observed actions.
-sw
Perhaps more important though, many people will purchase a full copy for these reasons. a: Gratitude. Id has allowed us to be involved in the devlopment and testing of this game, and I for one, have gotten well more than 40 or 50 bucks worth of fun out of just q3test. I'll shell out that amount just out of appreciation of the effort that the Id crew has put into the game. b: Server compatibilty. The same people who will buy the game out of gratitude tend to be the same people who run dedicated servers for other's enjoyment. If you'll remember Q2, the demo was incompatible in a multiplayer with the full version, or at least I never could get it to run. So, I went out and bought a copy of Q2, just so everyone else with the full copy could smear me across the Edge. If that same incompatbility exists here, thousands will purchase the full version of Q3A, just so they can get out to try to shave their neighbor with a rail slug.
In short, Id, by letting the demo out, in near full version, will actually increase their sales, by giving everyone that intoxicating taste of success. Then, everyone rushes out to buy it, so that they can have more fun fragging their friends, who are running that silly full version of the game out of respect for the people who made it.
Effort can temper a man's body, but only experience can temper his soul.
You scoffed when I said Apple needed to slap that ATI bitch around some.
But now an "industry authority figure" like Carmack comes up and says it: ATI's drivers on Mac OS suck suck suck (sic). Mac is a huge market for ATI, and they still get no respect. They act as if Mac users should be happy to get a driver period.
Well, until Jobs can go up and slap that ATI bitch ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H negotiate briskly with them, Macintosh will continue to be a second-rate gaming platform. And to all the Mac lovers out there; I am not trying to dis Macintosh by saying this; I'm trying to state that there is something that needs to be done, and one of Apple's "partners" is letting them down, and preventing them from executing a MAJOR task in their grand business plan.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Thoose of you who haven't can check out John Carmacks latest plan at http://w3.informatik.gu.se/~niklas/joh nc.txt