From 386ead209eaffb3da48c5f67ab2ba9960c540d0d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joseph Carter Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 08:39:52 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] SotC archive updates .. --- sotc/sotc1.html | 223 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------- sotc/sotc2.html | 216 ++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------ sotc/sotc3.html | 105 ++++++++++++----------- sotc/sotc4.html | 140 +++++++++++++++++++++++------- sotc/sotc5.html | 55 ++++++++++++ sotc/sotc6.html | 35 ++++++++ 6 files changed, 527 insertions(+), 247 deletions(-) create mode 100644 sotc/sotc5.html create mode 100644 sotc/sotc6.html diff --git a/sotc/sotc1.html b/sotc/sotc1.html index 0eeee7e..678a934 100644 --- a/sotc/sotc1.html +++ b/sotc/sotc1.html @@ -1,64 +1,173 @@ - -

Palisade's away for a bit. He should be back sooner or later but - until then things are a bit muddled---sometimes life doesn't leave - us with the opportunity to prepare for a need to become scarce for - awhile. Since the show must go on regardless, the project's core - coders have been picking up some of the administrative tasks 'till - he gets back. Bear with us, it ain't exactly our department. + +

I could give a long speech full of lies, half-truths, and shameless + attempts to get you to support my agenda's various components, but + dammit Jim, I'm a coder not a politician! -

This update will probably not be as frequent as many of you might - want. I'm going to stick to development issues mostly, but I'll - cover them in detail. Usually after the fact. But it will be - updated. - -

How stable is stable?

-

Pretty damned stable from what I'm hearing, unless you run win32. - Sorry about that, I don't do windoze so it didn't get tested. I - have and will apply pretty soon a fix for that. Look for 0.1.2 to - be released. Want a release date? Tough, I know better than to - offer you one. We'll make sure it gets spammed to the usual sites - when it's ready believe me. +

So instead I'll just talk about what's going on with the tree so + people who don't hang out on irc know what the fuck is going on for a + change. Maybe Palisade or someone should see that relevant tidbits + make it to the website's news page. What's here's mostly for other + developers and non-novice users so I'm going to feel free to go into + technical details of things the average non-coder may be confused by. + Tough. => -

If you have a patch for something you want to go in to stable, - send it to me! Now's the time to do it. I have patches for the - cache mismatch bug planned. Our newest win32 coder, Tonik, has a - fix for the win32 stuff in my inbox right now. - -

How unstable is unstable?

+

QuakeForge 0.1.1

-

Well, dispite some problems with COM_Parse() that are screwing - with QW, unstable works rather nicely. taniwha is working on it, - should be fixed soon. - -

raptor has been playing with volfog again and has it replacing - the water brush for testing purposes. Give Necropolis a very nifty - effect by grabbing yourself a watervis'd map and trying it out. - raptor recommends r_wateralpha .3, r_volfog .0009, and r_waterripple - 5. Be forewarned that the volfog code currently uses the stencil - buffer which is almost guaranteed to not be hardware accellerated. - Expect a FPS drop. Using the stencil buffer is really not a good - idea and raptor will fix it if I don't first. He's got other visual - toys in mind too. +

It's not out yet. In fact, it's not even close to out yet because + I pretty much have become the stable release manager here because like + an idiot I stepped up to the plate when someone needed to in order to + get 0.1.0 out the door.. First lesson: Never volunteer yourself to + do a job that nobody else wants---you'll find out quick why they don't + want it and you won't be able to get them to take it later. ;> -

We've decided it's time to kill the UQUAKE and QUAKEWORLD defines - in common. Some of them won't go away, but many of them will. And - soon. This brings us one step closer to a single unified game. - Before that can happen though, we need to be able to build a UQuake - dedicated server. Remember unixded? Of course you don't, it's - ancient and it sucked. Well anyway, it needs to be able to be built - and used once again so we have a point of reference for putting a - server inside the QW clients. These two things are the last major - hurtles to a unified game and tree. Everyone is encouraged to help, - whether they're actually part of the project or not. +

What needs to be done for QF 0.1.1: -

Standardize this!

+ + +

When I'm satisfied that things are working okay, I'll call it 0.1.1 + and make sure archives get made. I'll also upload Debian packages + (since I do that) to potato and woody. They may not ever see potato, + but I'll try since the above would really be just a bugfix release. + Someone who cares will have to make rpms, win32 binaries (if that's + possible in the 0.1.x tree, it may be now and not have been when the + release archives were made I don't know..) + +

 
As a side note, there is talk (since so many of QF's + coders are Debian users and developers) of modifying the UQuake + console version string in 0.1.1 to read "QuakeForge Quack (B-Finn + edition) 0.1.1" or something similar in honor of one of #debian's + most memorable and amusing trolls, B-Finn who always wanted "HELP + FOR PLEASE TO INSTALL QUACK"... He made it clear that he meant Quake + and was obviously trolling (that, stupid beyond belief, or someone's + sick idea of competition to megahal...) It probably won't happen, + but then again .... + +

0.2 development

+ +

If you hadn't noticed, a lot is broken lately. Understatement of + the entire 20th Century I realize. We've begun working on the shared + object support. Linux svgalib and X11 work, sortof. X11 is being + broken again because of the seperate input/video things being LAME(!) + and broken anyway, but the results will be cool. + +

You can thank Mercury for breaking the tree with what he knew was a + badly designed module solution, but he did lay the framework needed to + do it right. He's also getting stuck fixing it which is of course + poetic coder justice or something. ;> Currently the shared + objects must be in the dir you run from--taniwha is working on a path + cvar which will be searched. + +

 
Bad news: Someone broke qw's protocol. Client or server + we don't know, but it's broken. Unintentionally, it will be + repaired. At least, as soon as someone else fixes it or I get a + working -ggi target, timestamped server console, and about an hour to + work on it in. + +

Celebrity advice

+ +

Good gods, where to begin? If you don't know it you must have + been living under a rock or something: Zoid has taken an interest in + QuakeForge(!) He's asked for cvs write access and has been hanging + around to answer questions, offer suggestions, and generally remind + us that he thinks we're all insane. (He's right, of course..) + +

Here's what he's had to say so far: + +

+ +

We're obviously thrilled Zoid's taken such an interest in our + project. We're very grateful to have him working on the project + where time permits him to and for the advice he's offered to us. diff --git a/sotc/sotc2.html b/sotc/sotc2.html index c784a4c..0343187 100644 --- a/sotc/sotc2.html +++ b/sotc/sotc2.html @@ -1,117 +1,107 @@ - -

How are things going? Your SotC update is late again.

-

Yeah yeah, I know. Okay, first the quick news: Palisade is - back. The website is still under construction but it got a lot - easier to construct since now it updates immediately after a CVS - commit. With Palisade back, it seems that everyone who planned to - vote on the logos has now done so and we should hopefully have a - result soon. + +

I'd like to say first off that based on the feedback I've gotten from + my last State of the Code update, I'll probably be doing these more + often. They'll also be showing up on the webpage soon I hope. I'm + keeping archives until that happens. This one's a bit long because a + lot has happened and I should have wrriten this about Friday night. + Sorry for the delay. + +

0.1.1 update

-

I promised I would keep the crap not related to the technical - aspects of the project short and at the top where they were easy to - skip, but a very important issue needs to be discussed whether it - fits the usual content of this page or not. Here it is: +

In general, the update for 0.1.1 is coming along nicely. A lot of the + changes I have been working on have actually been committed to thre + tree. If you grab the Release_0_1 tag out of CVS right now, your + version will still say it is 0.1.0, but it should have most of the + bugs fixed. All in all, a very good thing. Here's what I've still got + to do with it: +

+ +

That's it! Tentatively, 0.1.1 can be ready to roll as early as this + weekend. You can still grab the Release_0_1_0 tag for the current + release, but please grab the current stuff and "test" the hell out of + it. 0.1.0 was pretty good, but 0.1.1 should fix every known issue I've + been told about since then. Break it if you can, please! + +

Unstable updates

-

Will QuakeForge be able to run Mega2k?

-

How many poeple can ask that in two weeks' time? I lost count, - but there were a lot of inquiries. Unfortunately, I have bad news - for you. MegaTF says they're quite loyal to QuakeLives, despite any - legal or other problems the engine team has had or may have in the - future. Ambush says on his radio show that he hopes all of the - engines will support MegaTF though, so we didn't really expect any - problems. +

If you have been living under a rock and don't know it, unstable works + again! Mostly. Mercury has, in fear for his mortal life, undone many + of the changes made to unstable which caused so much breakage before. + The only target not working again is the SDL target because nobody + else but me seems to be building -sdl and just because I build it + doesn't mean I understand that target. (Remember, my areas are the QF + build system and some of the stuff deep in the engine core!) If you + can fix it, step up and do so. + +

Win32 support. xC and Endy have Win32 "working" again under VC++, for + some versions of working. xC is working on the problems, but could use + a hand if you can help him. Here's what's broken: +

+ +

The protocol breakage between the QW clients and server has been + fixed. We are still (unfortunately) compatible with Win32 2.3x clients + with all the problems that invites. We'll probably so remain until + we're done with the merge because we don't want to change the protocol + on win32 people until we know we can support them. Currently we just + don't have enough win32 developers with their hands in the code to + make sure it remains working. + +

I've begun working on QER/QSG colored lighting in QF. It's the first + QER feature I'm working on in the hope that we'll eventually be + working from a common codebase. That's up to them of course but we all + know the QF tree is superior to the q1source tree. Still, they may not + want to have to work around software renderer limitations, so we'll + see. + +

The merge continues at impressive speeds. The merge hall of fame has + a new face today as taniwha has proven his insanity by filling the CVS + list with commits of merged files. + +

Project relations

-

I've been trying for several weeks now to establish a regular - dialogue with Ambush, but people close to the project have told me - that most likely my emails wouldn't be seen, much less answered. So - I mentioned something about trying to connect with him durring or - after the 17 March 2000 MegaPhone show. Several other people from - the team as well as from other teams came as well to help show the - players of MegaTF that indeed we are serious about supporting the - mod fully. +

We've been talking to QuakeWorld Forever about their secure QuakeWorld + implementation. I will probably at some point be helping them + implement public key cryptography. I've explored the best way to do + this (Netrek uses a similar strategy) and have a few ideas. We'll see + how they pan out. + +

As I mentioned above, I'm implementing some QER features and Endy from + QSG has been picking away at a few of our Win32 problems. I generally + consider these two groups to be closely related, but we're going to be + working with them more to make this a truly multi-project effort and + ensure some standardization and compatibility between our projects. + +

If you haven't heard, you've lived under a rock for quite some time + now. QuakeLives is and has been almost since the project's inception, + in violation of the GNU GPL. They tell us that they did not and do not + have Copyright infringement problems with that license, the GNU GPL. + They demanded we remove any statement saying otherwise from our + website. (Mercury says he left QuakeLives because of GPL + violations---this is noted on our news page.) Since we can prove + otherwise, we've refused. + +

Speaking of QuakeLives, the MegaTF website was distributing copies of + a release marked 2.54 without source. Slade of QuakeLives told us that + MegaTF was distributing "warez" and later denied making that + statement. We've got logs if anybody cares enough to read them, + naturally. At any rate, Ambush has removed the offending binaries + until he has some idea where things really stand with QuakeLives. He + is not retargetting MegaTF in the meantime. Talk to him, not to us, + etc. -

Things remained civil until some of the QuakeLives guys came in, - and things started falling apart then. Attempts to calm the fires - weren't terribly successful until not long before the show's start. - Things remained sane throughout most of the show. Ambush asked for - another small feature to be added durring the show (the console - version string gets in the way and he'd like to get rid of it) and I - wrote and committed the feature he asked for on the spot. - -

Fires started burning again shortly after the show ended. I'm - not unsurprised, but eventually I did manage to wind up talking with - DyerMaker out of the view of the main channel so there was actually - a chance of talking. The results? I am now aware that MegaTF's - loyalty to QuakeLives extends as far as deliberately shutting out - any engine but QuakeLives from being able to run Mega2k. They've - decided that since Slade will not take part in creating an open and - secure standard for all engines, they can only support his. In - order to do that and do it well, they have to ensure that we can't - run Mega2k. Nothing personal against QuakeForge or anything, it's - just how the politics have played out. - -

So from where I'm sitting, it looks like Ambush isn't interested - in other projects and engines supporting MegaTF. Or at least, he's - only interested in seeing QuakeLives-endorsed projects support - MegaTF. Nothing personal and no offense intended toward us, but - they seem to be intending whether they say so or not to be - exclusively QuakeLives. - -

Well, nothing personal, but I have no intention of playing these - silly one-must-win-and-everyone-else-must-lose games. I'm quite - sick of them by now - but I'm surprised nobody else seems to be. - We'll do the best we can to support Mega2k whether they want it or - not. Why? For one, some of us play it. For another, and more - importantly, many of YOU play it. I lost count somewhere - not far before 150 people who have asked in recent weeks if - QuakeForge intended to support Mega2k's new features because you - don't run win32 and aren't interested in starting. Yes we - will. It may not happen until after Mega2k's release if the needed - information to do so is going to be withheld from us, but you better - believe it will happen. - -

Am I being a bit harsh here? Quite possibly. As I write this, - it is now merely 24 hours after what we can all agree was a rough - night for a lot of people. From my perspective, it looks like - MegaTF is refusing to allow Mega2k to run on anything but QL dispite - Ambush saying he wants all the engines to be able to run it and to - work together or interoperability standards. - -

It seems that's what's going on here, but that doesn't mean it is - what's happening. Chances for misunderstandings have not been - infrequent and it's not unlikely that MegaTF would be absolutely - thrilled to see a project dedicated to compatibility and open - standards like QuakeForge working to make sure not only that we - support Mega2k, but that every project out there can. And even more - importantly, that the user doesn't have to worry about whether or - not project foo's client is going to work with project bar's server. - -

If that's the case, then all of the above is essentially moot. - We'll do our best to make sure we support Mega2k right out of the - archive the moment it and that whatever it takes to make sure it - does work has already been made available for and incorporated into - every single project we can find, whether they're affiliated with us - or with QSG or MegaTF or the abominable snowman or not. Lack of - standards can only hurt the game. Since that's obviously a very bad - thing, hell yeah we'll do everything we can to keep it from - happening. - -

So what are you, the players of MegaTF who don't want to be tied - to a single engine and a single operating system, supposed to do - about any of this? Make some noise! And I don't mean go around - accusing MegaTF and QuakeLives of trying to quash all the other - engines either---that's the wrong kind noise to be making. It also - is quite likely not true. The noise you should be making is for - Mega2k to run on your preferred engine. And I do realize for a lot - of you, the engine you prefer happens to be the only one that even - runs on your platform. If that's the case, make sure you're heard! - You can write to me until the cows come home but I'm not the one who - needs to hear from you! - -

The actual technical stuff

-

If you're still here after all of that, I'm impressed. Release - of 0.1.2 hasn't happened yet, but could really anytime now. Mostly - I have just had other issues on my mind. Plus I don't want to give - too much false hope here, but I really think a release of 0.2.0 - isn't all that far off. I've been focusing my efforts in that - direction. diff --git a/sotc/sotc3.html b/sotc/sotc3.html index 1b9fcca..ef03d14 100644 --- a/sotc/sotc3.html +++ b/sotc/sotc3.html @@ -1,55 +1,64 @@ - -

The fastest SotC update ever!

-

This update is so close to the last one posted a mere six hours - ago that most of you reading it never even saw the last one. Don't - worry, anything important is being retained in this update. + +

Palisade's away for a bit. He should be back sooner or later but + until then things are a bit muddled---sometimes life doesn't leave + us with the opportunity to prepare for a need to become scarce for + awhile. Since the show must go on regardless, the project's core + coders have been picking up some of the administrative tasks 'till + he gets back. Bear with us, it ain't exactly our department. -

Palisade is among the living believe it or not and we finally - have his votes for the logo contest. He's pretty much it so the - good news is that we should very soon have a new logo! +

This update will probably not be as frequent as many of you might + want. I'm going to stick to development issues mostly, but I'll + cover them in detail. Usually after the fact. But it will be + updated. + +

How stable is stable?

+

Pretty damned stable from what I'm hearing, unless you run win32. + Sorry about that, I don't do windoze so it didn't get tested. I + have and will apply pretty soon a fix for that. Look for 0.1.2 to + be released. Want a release date? Tough, I know better than to + offer you one. We'll make sure it gets spammed to the usual sites + when it's ready believe me. -

I also had mention in the last SotC that the website updates - itself whenever any of us checks in a change now. It's very nifty - and is helping us get the new site layout done faster. Something I - didn't mention before is that we have somehow managed to convince - twisted to work with us on spicing up the page a bit while keeping - it functional and efficient. +

If you have a patch for something you want to go in to stable, + send it to me! Now's the time to do it. I have patches for the + cache mismatch bug planned. Our newest win32 coder, Tonik, has a + fix for the win32 stuff in my inbox right now. + +

How unstable is unstable?

-

QuakeForge and Mega2k, redux..

-

We all owe Yanster big for helping us get in contact with Ambush - of MegaTF tonight. He was in #QuakeForge for a few hours talking to - the guys present at the time. Among them were Mercury, Deek, Endy, - and devkev. I was there too, but I was and am half dead from sleep - deprivation so I can't say I'm totally coherent then or now. +

Well, dispite some problems with COM_Parse() that are screwing + with QW, unstable works rather nicely. taniwha is working on it, + should be fixed soon. + +

raptor has been playing with volfog again and has it replacing + the water brush for testing purposes. Give Necropolis a very nifty + effect by grabbing yourself a watervis'd map and trying it out. + raptor recommends r_wateralpha .3, r_volfog .0009, and r_waterripple + 5. Be forewarned that the volfog code currently uses the stencil + buffer which is almost guaranteed to not be hardware accellerated. + Expect a FPS drop. Using the stencil buffer is really not a good + idea and raptor will fix it if I don't first. He's got other visual + toys in mind too. -

The guys in the channel helped Ambush get MegaTF build with qccx, - which was pretty cool I think since qccx is looking like one of the - most interesting quakec compilers out there to us and will probably - become our preference once qcc is released under the GPL. +

We've decided it's time to kill the UQUAKE and QUAKEWORLD defines + in common. Some of them won't go away, but many of them will. And + soon. This brings us one step closer to a single unified game. + Before that can happen though, we need to be able to build a UQuake + dedicated server. Remember unixded? Of course you don't, it's + ancient and it sucked. Well anyway, it needs to be able to be built + and used once again so we have a point of reference for putting a + server inside the QW clients. These two things are the last major + hurtles to a unified game and tree. Everyone is encouraged to help, + whether they're actually part of the project or not. -

Mercury was talking with Ambush about support for Mega2k in - QuakeForge. I can't say where that's going yet because the - discussion hasn't reached conclusions yet. Still, the discussion I - thought was so improbable is happening. That's a good thing for the - entire community I think. I'm glad to be wrong this time. +

Standardize this!

-

What I said before about making sure that every engine can - support MegaTF, I meant every word of it. I will do everything - humanly possible to ensure that the features needed become - standardized and that all of these engines are intercompatible at - the protocol level. And securely too - what's it matter if all the - rest of this happens if any person can just cheat their way to - highest scores? +

QuakeForge has joined the QE.. uh, right. QuakeForge has joined + the QSG mailing list to hash out standards with other projects. + We've generally agreed that we've all gotten a few nifty features + implemented while we've been getting used to the new codebase (and + in QF's case, rewriting it in the process!) We're just about at the + point that we're starting to talk about where to go from this point + to establish and maintain working standards. More news on that will + become available as soon as we figure it out for ourselves. -

Right now what seems to be necessary is time. I still think - people who care should make sure they're heard so MegaTF knows that - Mega support in other engines is important to you. That goes double - if you only have one engine for your platform to choose from. - -

The actual technical stuff

-

If you're still here after all of that, I'm impressed. Release - of 0.1.2 hasn't happened yet, but could really anytime now. Mostly - I have just had other issues on my mind. Plus I don't want to give - too much false hope here, but I really think a release of 0.2.0 - isn't all that far off. I've been focusing my efforts in that - direction. diff --git a/sotc/sotc4.html b/sotc/sotc4.html index 8a64923..ec2a8b5 100644 --- a/sotc/sotc4.html +++ b/sotc/sotc4.html @@ -1,35 +1,117 @@ - -

Mega2k support in QuakeForge committed!

-

You read it here first! (unless you didn't) QuakeForge now works - 100% with Mega2k. I spent several hours trying to tune the flight - physics for the airscout so they work the way people would hope. + +

How are things going? Your SotC update is late again.

+

Yeah yeah, I know. Okay, first the quick news: Palisade is + back. The website is still under construction but it got a lot + easier to construct since now it updates immediately after a CVS + commit. With Palisade back, it seems that everyone who planned to + vote on the logos has now done so and we should hopefully have a + result soon. -

While you MAY be able to connect to a QF server running it with a - standard 2.3 or 2.4 Id Software release QuakeWorld client, I won't - recommend it. The first time an airscout goes flying you're likely - going to confuse your prediction code something terrible! As always - our implementation is open to other projects (I've sent Endy of QSG - a copy) and when he gets it working in QWF he'll be making the patch - available to all of the QSG projects which will hopefully make this - a non-issue. +

I promised I would keep the crap not related to the technical + aspects of the project short and at the top where they were easy to + skip, but a very important issue needs to be discussed whether it + fits the usual content of this page or not. Here it is: -

Look for a real playable QF server running Mega2k as soon as - Ambush is ready for beta testing. I'm running a test server now but - you're not going to get a good game going on my DSL connection so - it's mostly been there for testing airscout physics. +

Will QuakeForge be able to run Mega2k?

+

How many poeple can ask that in two weeks' time? I lost count, + but there were a lot of inquiries. Unfortunately, I have bad news + for you. MegaTF says they're quite loyal to QuakeLives, despite any + legal or other problems the engine team has had or may have in the + future. Ambush says on his radio show that he hopes all of the + engines will support MegaTF though, so we didn't really expect any + problems. -

I might have to put up a screenshot of dyerfort's ducks, they're - a quack! +

I've been trying for several weeks now to establish a regular + dialogue with Ambush, but people close to the project have told me + that most likely my emails wouldn't be seen, much less answered. So + I mentioned something about trying to connect with him durring or + after the 17 March 2000 MegaPhone show. Several other people from + the team as well as from other teams came as well to help show the + players of MegaTF that indeed we are serious about supporting the + mod fully. -

Emminent release of 0.2.0

-

You may or may not know this, but I've deliberately held off from - finishing 0.1.2 because I've been busy tracking down bugs and things - for 0.2-d.. The reason? It's time to release. Or at least, it's - time to declare it time to release and fix the remaining obnoxious - buglets. They're not overly complex but there are several of them - to fix. +

Things remained civil until some of the QuakeLives guys came in, + and things started falling apart then. Attempts to calm the fires + weren't terribly successful until not long before the show's start. + Things remained sane throughout most of the show. Ambush asked for + another small feature to be added durring the show (the console + version string gets in the way and he'd like to get rid of it) and I + wrote and committed the feature he asked for on the spot. -

I won't give a release date because if I do I promise we'll miss - it. Most of the core project people are Debian Linux users after - all. (if you don't get it, don't worry..) +

Fires started burning again shortly after the show ended. I'm + not unsurprised, but eventually I did manage to wind up talking with + DyerMaker out of the view of the main channel so there was actually + a chance of talking. The results? I am now aware that MegaTF's + loyalty to QuakeLives extends as far as deliberately shutting out + any engine but QuakeLives from being able to run Mega2k. They've + decided that since Slade will not take part in creating an open and + secure standard for all engines, they can only support his. In + order to do that and do it well, they have to ensure that we can't + run Mega2k. Nothing personal against QuakeForge or anything, it's + just how the politics have played out. +

So from where I'm sitting, it looks like Ambush isn't interested + in other projects and engines supporting MegaTF. Or at least, he's + only interested in seeing QuakeLives-endorsed projects support + MegaTF. Nothing personal and no offense intended toward us, but + they seem to be intending whether they say so or not to be + exclusively QuakeLives. + +

Well, nothing personal, but I have no intention of playing these + silly one-must-win-and-everyone-else-must-lose games. I'm quite + sick of them by now - but I'm surprised nobody else seems to be. + We'll do the best we can to support Mega2k whether they want it or + not. Why? For one, some of us play it. For another, and more + importantly, many of YOU play it. I lost count somewhere + not far before 150 people who have asked in recent weeks if + QuakeForge intended to support Mega2k's new features because you + don't run win32 and aren't interested in starting. Yes we + will. It may not happen until after Mega2k's release if the needed + information to do so is going to be withheld from us, but you better + believe it will happen. + +

Am I being a bit harsh here? Quite possibly. As I write this, + it is now merely 24 hours after what we can all agree was a rough + night for a lot of people. From my perspective, it looks like + MegaTF is refusing to allow Mega2k to run on anything but QL dispite + Ambush saying he wants all the engines to be able to run it and to + work together or interoperability standards. + +

It seems that's what's going on here, but that doesn't mean it is + what's happening. Chances for misunderstandings have not been + infrequent and it's not unlikely that MegaTF would be absolutely + thrilled to see a project dedicated to compatibility and open + standards like QuakeForge working to make sure not only that we + support Mega2k, but that every project out there can. And even more + importantly, that the user doesn't have to worry about whether or + not project foo's client is going to work with project bar's server. + +

If that's the case, then all of the above is essentially moot. + We'll do our best to make sure we support Mega2k right out of the + archive the moment it and that whatever it takes to make sure it + does work has already been made available for and incorporated into + every single project we can find, whether they're affiliated with us + or with QSG or MegaTF or the abominable snowman or not. Lack of + standards can only hurt the game. Since that's obviously a very bad + thing, hell yeah we'll do everything we can to keep it from + happening. + +

So what are you, the players of MegaTF who don't want to be tied + to a single engine and a single operating system, supposed to do + about any of this? Make some noise! And I don't mean go around + accusing MegaTF and QuakeLives of trying to quash all the other + engines either---that's the wrong kind noise to be making. It also + is quite likely not true. The noise you should be making is for + Mega2k to run on your preferred engine. And I do realize for a lot + of you, the engine you prefer happens to be the only one that even + runs on your platform. If that's the case, make sure you're heard! + You can write to me until the cows come home but I'm not the one who + needs to hear from you! + +

The actual technical stuff

+

If you're still here after all of that, I'm impressed. Release + of 0.1.2 hasn't happened yet, but could really anytime now. Mostly + I have just had other issues on my mind. Plus I don't want to give + too much false hope here, but I really think a release of 0.2.0 + isn't all that far off. I've been focusing my efforts in that + direction. diff --git a/sotc/sotc5.html b/sotc/sotc5.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab19100 --- /dev/null +++ b/sotc/sotc5.html @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ + +

The fastest SotC update ever!

+

This update is so close to the last one posted a mere six hours + ago that most of you reading it never even saw the last one. Don't + worry, anything important is being retained in this update. + +

Palisade is among the living believe it or not and we finally + have his votes for the logo contest. He's pretty much it so the + good news is that we should very soon have a new logo! + +

I also had mention in the last SotC that the website updates + itself whenever any of us checks in a change now. It's very nifty + and is helping us get the new site layout done faster. Something I + didn't mention before is that we have somehow managed to convince + twisted to work with us on spicing up the page a bit while keeping + it functional and efficient. + +

QuakeForge and Mega2k, redux..

+

We all owe Yanster big for helping us get in contact with Ambush + of MegaTF tonight. He was in #QuakeForge for a few hours talking to + the guys present at the time. Among them were Mercury, Deek, Endy, + and devkev. I was there too, but I was and am half dead from sleep + deprivation so I can't say I'm totally coherent then or now. + +

The guys in the channel helped Ambush get MegaTF build with qccx, + which was pretty cool I think since qccx is looking like one of the + most interesting quakec compilers out there to us and will probably + become our preference once qcc is released under the GPL. + +

Mercury was talking with Ambush about support for Mega2k in + QuakeForge. I can't say where that's going yet because the + discussion hasn't reached conclusions yet. Still, the discussion I + thought was so improbable is happening. That's a good thing for the + entire community I think. I'm glad to be wrong this time. + +

What I said before about making sure that every engine can + support MegaTF, I meant every word of it. I will do everything + humanly possible to ensure that the features needed become + standardized and that all of these engines are intercompatible at + the protocol level. And securely too - what's it matter if all the + rest of this happens if any person can just cheat their way to + highest scores? + +

Right now what seems to be necessary is time. I still think + people who care should make sure they're heard so MegaTF knows that + Mega support in other engines is important to you. That goes double + if you only have one engine for your platform to choose from. + +

The actual technical stuff

+

If you're still here after all of that, I'm impressed. Release + of 0.1.2 hasn't happened yet, but could really anytime now. Mostly + I have just had other issues on my mind. Plus I don't want to give + too much false hope here, but I really think a release of 0.2.0 + isn't all that far off. I've been focusing my efforts in that + direction. diff --git a/sotc/sotc6.html b/sotc/sotc6.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a64923 --- /dev/null +++ b/sotc/sotc6.html @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ + +

Mega2k support in QuakeForge committed!

+

You read it here first! (unless you didn't) QuakeForge now works + 100% with Mega2k. I spent several hours trying to tune the flight + physics for the airscout so they work the way people would hope. + +

While you MAY be able to connect to a QF server running it with a + standard 2.3 or 2.4 Id Software release QuakeWorld client, I won't + recommend it. The first time an airscout goes flying you're likely + going to confuse your prediction code something terrible! As always + our implementation is open to other projects (I've sent Endy of QSG + a copy) and when he gets it working in QWF he'll be making the patch + available to all of the QSG projects which will hopefully make this + a non-issue. + +

Look for a real playable QF server running Mega2k as soon as + Ambush is ready for beta testing. I'm running a test server now but + you're not going to get a good game going on my DSL connection so + it's mostly been there for testing airscout physics. + +

I might have to put up a screenshot of dyerfort's ducks, they're + a quack! + +

Emminent release of 0.2.0

+

You may or may not know this, but I've deliberately held off from + finishing 0.1.2 because I've been busy tracking down bugs and things + for 0.2-d.. The reason? It's time to release. Or at least, it's + time to declare it time to release and fix the remaining obnoxious + buglets. They're not overly complex but there are several of them + to fix. + +

I won't give a release date because if I do I promise we'll miss + it. Most of the core project people are Debian Linux users after + all. (if you don't get it, don't worry..) +