The new QuakeForge tree is an effort based on the QuakeWorld + cooked up by a few developers who had all come to the conclusion + that the current tree had some inherent limits we didn't like. + +
First, the build system. It's not very portable and lacks a key + feature called header dependency. Without them you often times find + yourself needing to recompile the entire project just to test a + little change. I should point out that a compile takes about five + to six minutes on my PIII and most of our developers do not have + that sort of machine for development. + +
Second, there are tons of bugs in the source. Not just the ones + we're responsible for - those are easy to fix! The ones buried deep + in Id's code, often with two or three layers of workarounds on top + of them to keep the problems from affecting most people in common + situations. We have been adding to the workarounds because we + didn't know the cause of the bug either. And then it hits one of us + what the original problem was. Sometimes trying to fix these + problems the right way in our current tree is very difficult. + +
Third, the merge. One of our goals from the beginning was to + have a single binary which could act as a client, a server, or both + depending on what the user needed, including for single-player and + co-op games. At the time, merging the two source trees together + seemed like the best plan of attack. It hasn't been, and it adds to + the problem above as well as making bugs caused by us more difficult + to track down. + +
No, we're not abandoning it. Far too many people want it, + including many of the project's developers. How we're likely to get + it into QuakeWorld's model is kinda complex. I can explain it most + simply by saying "emulation". Not like what you do to get Mario on + your PC, but rather having the server be smart enough to recognize + the differences between a NetQuake game and a QW game and adjusting + a few things as needed to make it all work. + +
That sounds like a royal pain in the ass, which is why we didn't + try before. It's actually nowhere near as hard as we thought it + would be. Ender and Tonik have both made major strides in this area + already. + +
As QSG Standards version 1 call for the features Mega2k needs to + be available, they will be. In fact, I've already implemented them + in the new tree. Later this week I hope to be able to produce + tutorials for how these things were done for people who might + benefit from them. + +
Yes, the rumors are true. QuakeWorld Forever and QuakeForge are + merging! The new tree is pivotal in this merge as trying to combine + QuakeWorld Forever's features with the current QuakeForge tree would + set back their development about two months. This is unacceptable + for them and for us. The new tree is right from the beginning + easier for the QWF developers to work with, making this very serious + problem seem almost nonexistant. I'll post more details as soon as + we have them. +