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61 lines
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Text
61 lines
3 KiB
Text
<!-- 14 May 2000 -->
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<H2>The new QuakeForge tree</H2>
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<P>The new QuakeForge tree is an effort based on the QuakeWorld
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cooked up by a few developers who had all come to the conclusion
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that the current tree had some inherent limits we didn't like.
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<P>First, the build system. It's not very portable and lacks a key
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feature called header dependency. Without them you often times find
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yourself needing to recompile the entire project just to test a
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little change. I should point out that a compile takes about five
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to six minutes on my PIII and most of our developers do not have
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that sort of machine for development.
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<P>Second, there are tons of bugs in the source. Not just the ones
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we're responsible for - those are easy to fix! The ones buried deep
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in Id's code, often with two or three layers of workarounds on top
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of them to keep the problems from affecting most people in common
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situations. We have been adding to the workarounds because we
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didn't know the cause of the bug either. And then it hits one of us
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what the original problem was. Sometimes trying to fix these
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problems the right way in our current tree is very difficult.
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<P>Third, the merge. One of our goals from the beginning was to
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have a single binary which could act as a client, a server, or both
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depending on what the user needed, including for single-player and
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co-op games. At the time, merging the two source trees together
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seemed like the best plan of attack. It hasn't been, and it adds to
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the problem above as well as making bugs caused by us more difficult
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to track down.
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<H2>Single player support</H2>
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<P>No, we're not abandoning it. Far too many people want it,
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including many of the project's developers. How we're likely to get
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it into QuakeWorld's model is kinda complex. I can explain it most
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simply by saying "emulation". Not like what you do to get Mario on
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your PC, but rather having the server be smart enough to recognize
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the differences between a NetQuake game and a QW game and adjusting
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a few things as needed to make it all work.
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<P>That sounds like a royal pain in the ass, which is why we didn't
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try before. It's actually nowhere near as hard as we thought it
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would be. Ender and Tonik have both made major strides in this area
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already.
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<H2>Mega2k?</H2>
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<P>As QSG Standards version 1 call for the features Mega2k needs to
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be available, they will be. In fact, I've already implemented them
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in the new tree. Later this week I hope to be able to produce
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tutorials for how these things were done for people who might
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benefit from them.
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<H2>QuakeWorld Forever</H2>
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<P>Yes, the rumors are true. QuakeWorld Forever and QuakeForge are
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merging! The new tree is pivotal in this merge as trying to combine
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QuakeWorld Forever's features with the current QuakeForge tree would
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set back their development about two months. This is unacceptable
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for them and for us. The new tree is right from the beginning
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easier for the QWF developers to work with, making this very serious
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problem seem almost nonexistant. I'll post more details as soon as
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we have them.
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