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[Frank Took a well deserved day off on the 24th]
January 23rd
I've emailed Jack Porter at Epic to ask him if he could modify
the timedemo utility so it could work with Klingon Honor Guard.
He told me that the current version of KHG was similar to Unreal
2.19 and therefore it did not have the timedemo built-in like
in Unreal engine 2.20. As soon as Microprose will update the engine
to 2.20 we'll have a new mean to benchmark 3D cards and CPU. On
a positive note, Jack reassured me that there will be a Mac
Version of Unreal Tournament. Awesome!
Jim wrote me saying that
Decyber most recent map , DM-XqTown-City-1, pushes his G3/233
to its limit.:
I think that the new decyber map DM-XqTown-City-1 is ridiculously
large. It's enormous, and has all those open views that go at
like .5 fps on my G3/233. Now there's a real computer horsepower
test bed.-Jim
I tried it (I was surprised it worked since almost all new
maps are not compatible with Unreal 2.19 (current Mac version)
and well, this is by far (I mean it) much more demanding for the
machine than the Castle Fly-by in general. I was having around
5-8 fps most of the time with a Techworks Voodoo 1 on my 7600
G3/330/512k/224MB RAM. I suspect even a voodoo2 would barely be
enough to play it nicely. I've asked Michael Lohman if it would
be possible to make a fly-by the town similar to the "fly-by
the castle" and I am awaiting his answer. That would be I
think THE benchmark test that would separate the men from
the boys. More to come soon on this. If you tried this in your
Yosemite, let me know the average frame rate you got.
If you downloaded recent maps out there and found out they
were compatible with the current version of Mac Unreal (2.19),
send me your list. I will post the names and the links for
reference.
"Camo" skins follow-up
In response to yesterday's problem on how to use the camo skins
online, Russ sent me all the details you will need to sucessfully
use them : [Thanks Russ!]
Frank I got the camo skins working fine on WON NY server.(Now
all servers)
As an example I have my ini set to :
Favorites[9]=unreal://209.67.28.139?class=Unreali.MaleOne?skin=Unreali.crosshair1
sometimes after I was killed the first time it reverted back,
so I did the open 209.67.28.139?class=Unreali.MaleOne?skin=Unreali.crosshair1
and it held most of the time.I then went in the system ini stuff
and added this to the skins :
[public]
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.Carter,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.Kurgan,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.T_Blue,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.T_Green,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.T_Red,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.T_Yellow,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.Male1Gib,Class=Texture)
Object=(Name=Male1Skins.crosshair1,Class=Texture)
Now it works everytime and I have never had a problem with
it not sticking since. Did the above Object include help... not
sure. This works on every 2.1.9 server I have tried. later -
Russ
Another reader sent a similar trick to make it work
:
I think Randy (see yesterday's news) is using the menu - see
his references to "multiplayer, join" and "the
open line" - I had the same problem when I tried it. If
you use the menu, you're always sent to Player Setup where, for
netgames at least, your skin settings can be eliminated, even
if you don'ttouch anything except Start Game. My advice to him
would be: Don't use the menu. In other words, DON'T
TOUCH THE ESCAPE KEY! From any map, including the castle
flyby, just type:
[tab key] open [address]?class=unreali.[put classhere]?skin=unreali.[put
texture here]
Example:
[tab key] open 194.159.164.3?class=unreali.femaleone?skin=unreali.tinywhitefont
You can use any class and any texture on the list you posted
(At least all the ones I tried worked, and I tried most of them).
It worked every time for me, unless I mis-typed. In those cases,
I just retyped the command (correctly) while still connected
to the server, which would take me out of the game and back in
with the desired skin. Now, if anybody has been able to get custom
skins to work, I'd really like them to send step-by-step (details,
please) instructions on how they did it. I've downloaded several
in the texture (.utx) format that are supposed to work on the
Mac, but I can't get anywhere with them. I put the .ini files
that come with them in the System folder and the .utx files in
the Textures folder, it crashes the game in Player Setup when
I try to cycle through the skins. If I try to do something similar
to the procedure above, I get the default skin (Gina). Any help
would be greatly appreciated.--Jim
A reader gives more explanation on what SLI does and provide
with voodoo II cards: [Note; this feature is not yet supported
by Microconversions and if it ever becomes available, it will
require 2 VoodooII cards in your Mac ...better not have too many
PCI cards installed..] I think his explanation will please several
readers since I have been receiving a lot of emails recently from
people wandering what SLI would provide. It is imo a fairly well
explamation of SLI.
The theory goes something like this:
With one Game Wizard installed, lets represent the framerate
you get with any particular game in the following way::
1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8---9
where 1 = the 1st frame, 2 = the 2nd frame and so on.
Lets look at an SLI setup that's working at the SAME RESOLUTION
as the single card setup.In an SLI setup the same amount of data
is sent over the PCI bus (both
cards "receive" the same data), and both cards operate
at the same framerate as they would have done in the single card
setup. The difference is however, that card 1 is only displaying
only the odd frames, and card 2 is displaying only the even frames.
You can represent the output of each card in an SLI setup as follows:
Card 1: 1---3---5---7---9---
Card 2: 2---4---6---8---
Therefore, when you combine the outputs of both cards together
you get: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
If you now compare the output of the single card setup with
the output of an SLI setup you'll that the SLI setup has drawn
the first 9 frames in half the time of the single card setup.
i.e.:
Single Voodoo II card: 1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8---9
SLI VoodooII Setup: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
Therefore in theory the frame rates doubles. In the real
world though you'll never actually double the framerate due to
timing overheads associated with setting up alternate frames
in the two cards and synchronising the outputs. And of course,
if you run an SLI setup at a higher resolution then that will
slow things down a bit. But you should still be able to run an
SLI setup at far higher framerates at 1024 x 832 than you can
run a single card setup at 800 x 600.Hope this helps.- Willi
[Note: The primary reason that SLI is not closer to double the framerate that there is probably no
CPU available that can saturate a VII SLI setup - as even a single
Voodoo2 card needs a very fast CPU to keep it 'fed'. Just like a
Voodoo2 is twice as fast *potentially* (on paper/specs) as the
Voodoo1, it takes a fast CPU to show the full potential in actual use. See our
3Dfx cards page for details. Now image trying to keep *two*
cards 'fully fed' to their maximum potential. That's the
primary reason SLI is not twice as fast and is usually only
recommened for faster CPU systems. For a look at a SLI setup
on one card, see my Obsidian X24 review from last year, there
are framerate tests there as well.-Mike]
Mac3D posted an interview
they did with Logicware
at MacWorld about Quake 2 Mac,. the interview has a fair bit of
information about how things are going, what to expect and what
was "demoed" at MacWorld, etc.
On the same note, Nate Trost of Logicware mentioned they are busy now optimizing RAM usage of Mac Quake II and implementing shared libraries.
Onlinegames
has some cool fresh pictures of Quake 3. I was amazed by how skins
will look like. From what I heard it will be possible, with a
bit of knowledge,to create a skin to your image ! Amazing isn't
it ?! [remember the option for (otherwise lame) Weekend Warrior?
you could put your face on the player I think-Mike]
Bruce Lewis (the author of GLDoom, which is based on the Doom
source code id released a year ago) will be doing the ports himself
(appearantly he has some programming experience on Mac and Unix),
and has some good things to say about Apple's direction regarding
gaming. Check it all at http://www.frag.com/doom/ [Thanks to Matthew Vaughan for the info]
Logicware and the Mac:Logicware announced
the addition of Heretic 2 to it's 1999 product lineup,
as well as announcing the software conversion of QUAKE 2
for id Software, and Aliens vs Predators for Fox Interactive.
Also soon to be available is Redneck Rampage. this game has Fourteen
different levels and multiple locations provide fast action fighting,
with power-ups of pork rinds, whiskey, and beer aplenty. The rustic,
quirky charm of the deep, DEEP South comes to life in hilarious
detail in Redneck Rampage with rich 640x480 graphics and
guarandamnteed authentic redneck dialogue. A real kick-ass soundtrack
features Mojo Nixon (UFO's, Big Rigs and Bar-B-Que), and special
tunes from The Reverend Horton Heat.
Nine different weapons (some impractical, some illegal, some both),
including dynamite, a crow bar, double-barrel shotguns,a ripsaw
gun, and an alien arm gun (you gotta see it to believe it). Fourteen
levels set in and around Hickston, including the suburb of Taylor
Town, the junkyard, the local insane asylum, and a smelting plant.
And so much more! (think Pork Rinds!). I hope Half-Life turns
out to be the Sierra game they are going to
announce for the Mac! Logicware is on a roll for 1999 !
[I heard there was bidding on Half-Life a week or so ago -
that's one *awesome* game - it's openGL too, so the
Apple/OpenGL deal is paying off in spades!-Mike]
Yosemite incompatibilities with Virtual gamestation? A reader sent this info about VGS not being able to run
on his Yosemite:
"VGS worked 1st time no problem on a rev. B Imac with
system 8.5, but we've tried everything and can't get it to work
on new G3 Yosemite 300...reinstalled VGS several times...tried
at least 20 different possible extension conflicts...virtual
memory off and on...even re-installed all system software and
VGS again...it always just ejects the CD...tried several different
CD's also...I thought I read that there was a trick, like disabling
a particular ATI extension or something to do with rage 128,
but I may be wrong...any ideas???
"
He might be heading in the right direction by disabling one
ATI extension. I vaguely remember seeing something about this.
If you know the workaround, let
me know.
January 22
Update on Dave:
"Hi-
Gonna be quick, we didn't get home last night when we wanted to. Also,
fell asleep 15 minutes after arriving, so I'm actually "fresh" this AM.
1. Dave was moved out of ICU!!!
2. He's OFFICIALLY out of his coma. ON a coma scale (1-15, 1 is BAD, 15
is you & me), he's a 9.
3. He's more active than ever!
4. The PT's had him WALK!!! He walked from the bed to a chair, and sat
down, got up and back into bed!
5. HE TALKED LAST NIGHT!! His Aunt called, and they put the phone to
his ear, and he said "Hi Patty"!
So, things are not as bleak as we had been warned about. He's got a long
battle still, but each day is showing great strides.
Thanks for everything, update ya tonite!
Jamie"
Follow-up on LAN Unreal multiplayer problems with the new
patch:
Dustin Rosing reports (as mentioned by another reader) that
he is experiencing similar problems :
"Yup, trouble with the patch for sure...Tried it the last few
nights - there's a definite problems with hostingmultiplayer over
the LAN.It's exactly as described in the e-mail you received (out
of bodyexperience - can't see the host)- In addition: It's the
same whether usingTCP/IP or Appletalk and the same with a client
PC using TCP/IP using Unreal2.19.
Basically it's a problem with how hosting is served on the
LAN from the macside, irregardless of the network protocol or
the client's platform. Beinga client running b3 works without
a problem (this was with a PC running2.19 hosting...)
I've found that the b2 patch also caused host problems, but
in a differentway. The game would host fine for about 5 minutes
and then the computerwould crash out of the game with a type 2
error. Basically I've beenplaying on the b1 patch for many weeks
with others, via appletalk andtcp/ip on both Macs and PC's with
no problems at all.- Dustin"
He also mentions :
PS One other wierd thing is that it's much harder to decapitate
someone with the b3 patch than with the b1 patch. Strange...
[I think the new patch might turn off
auto-aiming by default. Make sure to turn it back on ]
More on Camouflage skins with Unreal: I forgot to mention the other day, that the fastest way to try and see how your new skin looks is to load
the level called entry.unr (hold option at startup and write "entry"
in the command line). While this works flawlessly fo me, another
reader reports not being able to use those "Camo skins"
in multiplayer games:
"Well, I tried the camouflage skins trick and it only half
worked. If I specify the skin and mesh like the user said in
the DefaultPlayer section of the .ini file, I get the correct skin (Crosshair3) on my player
when the game begins. I know this because I have renamed the
jail map to the unreal.unr since it loads so much faster. Anyway,
I can see in the mirror when it starts up that I am all black
and cool looking. However, when I enter a game (multiplayer,
join) I don't retain the skin. As I it starts connecting, then
when it does LOADING, it puts me into the jail cell for a few
seconds and I see in the mirror that the skin is back to Sonja.
This is frustrating.
In addition, when I had specified femail2 Raquel skin (the
one I normally use) I get the same problem. To prevent this,
every time I enter a net game, I hit join, choose Drengy from
my list, then it gives me name and team and skin choices, I go
up to skin, change it to something else, then back to Raquel,
and go to start. This works every time. If I do not change it
out and back again, I get the Gina skin. I cannot do this with
crosshair, since it does not appear in the list. i guess it is
time to register Unreal Finder and just use it to enter games.
I heard that people use it without a probem.
In addition to that, I did try doing an open command with
the ?class= etc. on the open line. That simply prompted me for
skin choice and name all over again and we are back to square
one. Tell me, did anyone report in that the camo skins worked
with that technique? Are they simply choosing it with
unrealfinder?--Randy"
I am clueless at this point. Maybe loading the skin after reaching
the server would work ? if you have an idea, let
me know
Kick- new first person shooter headed to the Mac! MacGaming reports
that a completely new 3D engine is under development in the UK:
"The company recently announced work on the first game
built around the engine, appropriately enough called Kick. Kick
will be a first person shooter developed to work on the PC, Mac,
and Sega's forthcoming Dreamcast game console. The Kick Engine
itself has been designed from the ground up to be cross-platform.
It will support single and multiplayer modes with duel and team
options and support for TCPIP and modem connections. The game
will offer full support for ATI Technologies' Rage 128 chipset,
which has been integrated into the new blue and white Power Macintosh
G3 line and will be available separately by the end of this quarter.
The game's developers also plan full support for Voodoo3, which
may be available for the Mac this summer. "- MacGaming
Go vote for the MAC as a gaming platform at http://www.gamespot.com
[check on the right of the frame]
Gamespot
also has an Unreal tournament preview at http://headline.gamespot.com/news/99_01/21_pc_unreal/index.html
PC.IGN.COM also tested Unreal
tournament for the first time . They've updated their preview
from earlier with a few new things. Here's a quote containing
a bit of new weapon information.:
"There are a few new weapons . The Warhead Launcher's
alternate mode gives you a Terminator-like view from the tip
of one of the deadliest weapons in the game. A careful player
can pilot these devastating missiles throughout a level looking
for the perfect time to destroy a whole pack of foes. As you
might imagine, these suckers are hard to come by. Other weapons
include the pulse gun, which fires bolt of hot plasma energy
or, in its alternate form, shoots out a steady stream of plasma
like a flame-thrower. The Impact Hammer, another extremely interesting
addition, fires out high-powered pistons in standard mode and,
in its secondary form, can be charged up to eliminate any opponent
you can get close enough to actually touch with it. Finally we
got a chance to play around with the shield belt, a Dune-like
gizmo that surrounds its recipient in a golden glow that protects
them from a certain amount of damage."
On the same site, you will find an interesting article named "John Carmack vs. Tim Sweeney. " comparing Quake and Unreal .
Accorfing to Marc Reim of Epic, a Linux Unreal version is
now being developed.
"We're definitely going to do a Linux server port and
I'm pretty sure we're going to take a shot at a client as well.
We have no idea when these will be ready but we'd like for the
Linux server to be ready in time for Unreal Tournament's arrival
in stores."-Marc Reim, Epic
This is good news since this means more Unreal servers will
be available. (roughly 100 now compare to 10 x more for Quake)
Wolfenstein 3d
is now being revamped using the Unreal engine. An alpha version
is soon to be available. Hopefully , a Mac version will come after.
Some news on serpentine b7 is availble at http://www.unrealized.com/serpentine/. The developers are asking people whether they would prefer to
get the new patch now or wait until 2.21 comes out. [compatibility
issue in single and multiplayer play]
A friend of mine showed me the new Unreal based engine Klingon Honor Guard based on the Star
Trek universe. I liked what I saw. I will try to show you some
screenshots tomorrow. Something that striked me is the "claustrophobic" appearance of the levels, a lot of caves and tunnels with low ceilings. On the positive side, the game seems to run much faster
because of that. More to come tomorrow.
January 21
The latest on Dave's Recovery:
"
Hi Frank,
Wow, another great day! Dave's coming along better than anybody could
have imagined. First, we all got great news from the Opthamoligist. He
won't need eye surgery, the optic nerve is just fine, it did not seperate
like they though it did(his eyes were so swollen that they thought it
was, but since the swelling went down, they can get a much better look).
Second, his nurse told us that last night she had him standing!!! Then,
she had him sitting in a Lay-Z-Boy recliner, and Dave's a weight lifter.
He's still not really concious of what he's doing, of course, but get
this- He put his feet on the footrest, and then LEG PRESSED the
footrest!! He's quite strong, and the Lay-Z-Boy won't close now. Also,
he's grabbing the stainless steel bars on the sides of the bed, and has
bent them. Guess that the nurses will have there hands full soon enough!
And finally, when many of us were saying goodbye to him, he'd raise his
left hand and wave a bit to us. We're getting through to him!
As for the "Get Well Dave" page, I'm totally blown away at the response
that has gotten! I'm saving copies of the page every 24 hours now, since
it's purging messages since there's so many! I just can't believe it,
there's so many! Everybody's been so great, I just don't know what to
say, other than THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Talk to you soon,
Jamie"
I thank all of you who showed support to Dave by signing the
"Get well Dave" guestbook. Those comments, I am sure
had more effect than a ton of Nali Healing fruits.
More Info on the Xlr8yourmac Unreal FPS Toolkit 1.04: Since new settings were released in the latest Unreal beta
(1.02b3), I will have to modify and update the Toolkit. I am working
on it now and will post it this weekend. Therefore it is pointless
to use the current settings found in the toolkit to benchmark
Unreal in your system. (For more information on using the Toolkit see the Info page.)
MacDescent 3DFX update:
Another day, Another update! GoTo
http://members.xoom.com/bike2live
Version 1.0.5 now fully supports the GameWizard VooDoo2 Graphics
Accelerator. The only known issue is that using the pause function
causes a crash. So don't use it. Other than that, the game runs
like a dream. The death & end-level scenes are now full screen.
I have also increased the allowable brightness levels. The
level of gamma a card will support seems to vary. So, if you
over bright the scene will turn UGLY. Just bring it down a notch
or two. Also added to this version are Accelerate and Reverse
BUTTONS.These allow more stick users to have thier favorite setups.
I have not done much testing so bang on it and let me know what
you think.- Duane
Unreal 1.02 b3 follow-up: Many readers including myself find that the new
beta provides better and brighter colors even with a Voodoo
1. I think it has better reflections, richer colors and textures.
Great job Westlake !
Feedback on the Rave version from John McNamara:
My coments on the new unreal beta on an 8MB Rage Pro (VR card):
1. as I mentioned before slightly slower performance (-.4
fps maybe).
2. haven't tried mip-mapping
3. texturecomposite works fine but doesn't look very good (as
with earlier versions)[ATI tells me the RagePro did support multitexturing but not at the speeds/quality of the Rage128 or Voodoo2 I'm sure-Mike]
4. I don't see much difference in performance when using pageflip
or disablevsync [will vary - if your framerate is low it may not matter much-Mike]
Mark Adams posted this in reply to my usenet article: 'Most
of the RAVE enhancements are for the 128, but there may be some
slight gains when the latest ATI drivers are released for Rage
Pro's also.--Mark Adams, President, Westlake Interactive'
Problems in Multiplayer Appletalk mode :
'Dear Frank, Just d/led the new Unreal update and tried to
establish an AppleTalk MultiPlayer deathmatch between two Macs.
(SuperMac C500+Ethernet card 100TX and iMac's built in Ethernet).
It seems that although I have doublechecked almost every option
to enable a MultiPlayer Game to take place normally, I can't
get it to work. Here's the situation. Whoever is the Host starts
the Game with no problems at all, everything is fine. The other
Mac is the one with the problem all the time. If the other person
joins the AppleTalk game, it's like he's actually looking at
his player from the outside, he can't see the objects (ammo and
weapons) although he can get them and generally speaking he can't
see the opponent either!!! His character is left wherever he
started from whereas the player can be looking at his character!!!
The other player on the host can see the player who joined just
like that, whereas the joining player can't see the HOST!!! Now
this is driving me crazy! Anyone has suggestions on that? I have
tried almost everything, except switching to TCP/IP. I don't
know if hat would improve on the current situation. Please post
a message on that. I would be very much interested to know if
anyone lese is facing the same situation... Regards, Jim - Rouris'
[ I had people for dinner tonight and I
had no time to check this personally yet. If you know a workaround,
let
me know-Frank]
A reader asked how to use the serpentine weapons in single
player mode:
'Dear Frank, I have recently downloaded the Serpentine mod,
and I have no ideahow to get it working. I've installed it and
everything, because I'm able to summon the serpentine weapons
in the middle of a game, but the "read me"file is very
sketchy on how to start the game directly from serpentine. Any
help? advice? i would appreciate it greatly.Please respond.Thanks
in advance.'
Here is how: simply hold the option key when starting
Unreal and type in the window:
"\Maps\vortex2.unr?class=serpentine.su_malethree".
Michael Lohmann of Decyber
Unreal has a lot of new maps for you to download. Before downloading
them, be aware that a lot of maps may not be compatible with the
current Mac version of Unreal. (2.19). If this is the case, you
will get a message saying something like "Unreal share can't
be found". Take a look, some titles make me wish we had a
PC 2.20 compatible Mac Unreal version already.
Michael is also proud to announce that decyber Unreal now has
4 new builders. He also mentions that
something VERY BIG is coming : "I have to talk to all the
other webmasters on the other sites before I can tell you about
it. Lets just say that the entire Unreal community will be needed
for this one...More later- Michael Lohmann , deCyber Unreal"
http://decyber.solgames.com/unreal/unreal.htm
[ More on this very soon, -Frank]
Rich sent me an update on his latest Dark Metropolis project
:
'Hi Frank, how's life? I've been busy on the TC recently, and
have finishedthe architecture for the first level.. now all I
need to do is script it andI'll post it on the web. I've got a
few helpers now, so things shouldproceed a little quicker, and
I'm now able to include all kinds of characterinteraction ala
Half Life. You start the game in a police station getting abriefing
off your SWAT team leader, and I'm going to try to convey the
plot through real-time communication... no Universal Translator
messages in this game! Also, the TC is Serpentine based which
means that it uses 'real world' weaponry & physics not Unreals
weedy armoury.' [Awesome! ]
Anyway, here's a few more shots (view
from 2nd story window, new
building (1 of 20), and Dark
Alley) of the first level showing the detail level's I'm
cramming into the game. Also I'm trying to use curved surfaces
to get away from the square, clunky feel of most 3d games.. [will this require curved surfaces be enabled in the unreal.ini? That caused crashes in the past
with 3dfx cards-Mike] I've
found that if you don't use any real time light sourcing you can
really push the number of polygons on screen. I'm running a PSX
next to my PC while I'm designing -with Resident Evil 2, Parasite
Eve andTime Crisis 2 on rotation just to 'inspire' me.. so any
Playstation heads might recognise a few of the new buildings &
characters in the game. I'll get in touch when the first levels
finished.- Rich' [I honestly think that Rich has a tremendous talent. I have so far never seen Unreal maps which such levels of details.-Frank]
Rich will also include a billboard in Dark Metropolis saying
"Get Well Dave" to show his support to Dave.
Westlake Interactive
released a new beta patch for Deadlock:
Deadlock 1.1b3
This is an UNSUPPORTED Beta patch for Deadlock. It
fixes a few crashing problems, particularly ones related to launching
missiles and playing on very large maps. We recommended that
you download this patch ONLY if you've experienced problems with
the original game. VERY IMPORTANT! All previous save games will
no longer work with version 1.1b3 of Deadlock. If you wish to
complete a saved game from Deadlock 1.0, make a copy of the "Deadlock
1.0" application and save it off. Restore it at a later
time when you wish to finish your saved game. Also, keep in mind
that save game files created by Deadlock 1.1b3 are not backwards
compatible with Deadlock 1.0. Note that there will be no further
updates of the Deadlock software. Deadlock was developed by Lion
Entertainment; this patch is only being provided by Westlake
"as is". Please do not send any bug reports to us or
tech support questions. Thank you.- Westlake Interactive.,
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