Sajt has made steps on the Quaddicted bounty for a model converter and has released an alpha for QWalk. At present it is a command line tool which can import mdl, md2 and md3 and exports back to mdl. Sajt stresses that it is far from complete, however he wanted to facilitate those who might already need model conversion purposes.
Sajt stresses that this is not a stable version, stating:
It's not even a beta. It's an alpha. I made the decision to make a release only two hours ago, and cobbled it together since then. It's possible I left an obvious bug in or forgot something stupid. I have tested it, but not painstakingly.
For a download check out the QWalk site.
For a user guide (necessary at present), read it here.
Also be sure to read the thread for further notes on how it currently works, and coming versions!
To see what our old friend no-voweled mh is up to. He has apparently been up to everything possible, a madman of coding, he is!
Some samples of everything possible include a new version of DirectQ, 1.7.666c! According to mh a full list of the changes are as follows:
Increased quality of sound scale table (less abrupt transitions between volume levels).
Increased sound paintbuffer size to help prevent sound stuttering, breakup or drop-out.
Of course that is far from all, mh has not been happy restricting his directorial(x) debut to merely DirectQ; he and Baker have been busy doing versions of numerous engines which can be found here. The engines at present are variants of FitzQuake, TomazQuake, FuhQuake, JoeQuake, zQuake, Bengt Jardrup's engine, and a QRack variant is on its way. Also a wrapper is provided, but come on guys, no DirectDarkPlaces? ;)
For more mh happenings, check out his blog, DirectQ, and party like it's 1996!
motorsep has been busy at work on a very excellent looking standalone game using DarkPlaces: SteelStorm! SteelStorm is a classic top down shooter, rife with explosions and things to explode, that makes nice use of the DarkPlaces technology with a distinct visual style.
Powered by QuakeC and born out of "by your own bootstraps" indie spirit, motorsep says it is approximately 75% complete, and is a testimony to his own devotion, and the devotion of numerous others as well.
There areafew interesting videos of it in various stages of development on YouTube, showcasing gameplay, visuals in general, and an in-game editor which features a path plotter with editing, snapping and just looks quite nice in general.
Though I've not played it, it looks distinct, and the consistent quality in the visuals combined with the attention to detail we can see in the little bit of the in-game editor shows the sort of craft that portends a good indie title. Show them some support, by commenting on their YouTube videos and blog posts! This is the sort of ingenuity, perseverance and class we should be encouraging!
Maybe It Respawned With It (Maybe It's Remake Quake)
Supa has announced the release of the Remake Quake winter multiplayer demo, or RQWMPD for those who like acronyms.
The release features new map remakes: dm1rq, dm2rq, dm4rq, dm6rq, dm7rq and a new CTF map, ctf1rq. The remakes are not mere higher detailed versions, things have change a bit, namely the level flows, weapon placement, and spaces have in general broadened a bit. Movement is rather different, with the inclusion of wall jumping, pogoing, and stair gliding, and the lower tier weapons deal a bit more "Oomph," though your mileage may vary. There is also a new weapon, the Cauteriser which is a bit Stroggy, in the form of a partially mechanized severed.... arm? It functions like a railgun to vaguely cover it. Go give it a download, links can be found in the thread!
Spirit over at Quaddicted has recently been sponsored, and thus now suggests sponsoring individual projects, or 'bounties' for tasks. The idea is that there are some grimy but worthwhile jobs to do in the Quake community, and thus they should be worth a little money to get them done. He is asking for contributions of ideas in this endeavor, and you can leave a comment in the specific news post about it.
So what ideas do you have? I for one would like to see a skilled QuakeC coder do a pass on the Quake Wiki on the game logic, and how numerous functions work. I'm sure others would love to see more CSQC documentation, or DarkPlaces documentation, and I know Dark$oul71 would kill for some Kleshik documentation. We don't kill though, just frag - or pay, so go share your bounty ideas on Quaddicted!
John Romero, is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
OneManClan has announced rock2ober 2009! This is an annual gathering of 32 players for an epic one hour 16 v 16 match on Sgt Thundercok's excellent map rock2, using Custom TF and Attacker Goes Red rules. At present there are only 6 slots left for players, but if you can't make it, there are sure to be some awesome demos coming out of it! Check out the trailer below:
If you can't make it, try and find the time to hop into the thread and thank OneManClan for his part in this!
The eponymously named Lightning Hunter has been very busy it seems crafting FBX waypoints for numerous maps, and has kindly compiled a forum post of links to the waypoints, and links to the maps as well, making it very easy for someone to get a fix of some Quake deathmatch without necessarily resorting to dm3 or dm6! What maps you ask? Well for starters he has:
baldm6
alkdm02
crcdm1
Veddm8
Llama_bw
Lunar
Lunar2
Cmania
Cmania2
Cmania3
Harpoon
Basewalk
Hookse
Auhdm2
Schloss
Nowhere
And that's just getting started, there are plenty more, making this a veritable treasure trove of waypoints, with map links to boot, so feel free to get your custom deathmatch on, courtesy of Lightning Hunter and FrikaC's FrikBots! Check out the thread here!
Spirit, known for his soulful warmth, and simultaneous appreciation for death has been busy with Cokeman to use MVD files as a source of information to overlay images. The result? Heatmaps, charting the frequency of deaths on a variety of maps.
Heatmaps can reveal a lot about a map's gameplay, such as the one of dm2 seen on the left. You can see there are very few deaths from the lava trap, but a fair few players have slipped into the lava down by the yellow armor, and the lure of the quad causes a lot of deaths. Understandably with the prevalence of large rocket packs in the map, a lot of deaths happen close to walls via splash damage. One curious thing to note, the very bright single points of death in the hallway leading to the RA/MH bridge button, yet the rest of that hallway is fairly barren.
He has a tutorial, but it involves a lot of manual linux work at present, and suggests others step in to make it a little easier and friendlier. Go check out the post on Quakeworld.nu!
motorsep has been busy at work on a very excellent looking standalone game using DarkPlaces: SteelStorm! SteelStorm is a classic top down shooter, rife with explosions and things to explode, that makes nice use of the DarkPlaces technology with a distinct visual style.
Spirit, known for his soulful warmth, and simultaneous appreciation for death has been busy with Cokeman to use MVD files as a source of information to overlay images. The result? Heatmaps, charting the frequency of deaths on a variety of maps.