Monday, November 1, 1999

John Carmack .plan update -- 6:37 pm CST, Update by The Master

Once again, John Carmack updated his .plan today. More polish. Tasty :-) Here's the update:

• play chat sound during votes
• draw 2D icon for ammo if cg_draw3dicons 0
• fixed losing input on menu vid_restart
• made "vote" and "callvote" completable
• remove mac about dialog
• fixed demos skipping inital time due to loading
• fixed timing on timedemo startup
• don't flash attacker when damaging self
• display capturelimit instead of fraglimit on score tabs in ctf
• recursive mirror/portal changed to a developer warning
• fixed bug with follow mode spectators
• battle suit shader
• notsingle spawn option
• separated torso and legs priority animation counters so gesture doesn't mess with legs (was coutners. Think JC is flashing back to his Apple days?)
• adjusted value to prevent missed launch sound on accelerator pads
• setviewpos x y z yaw - same parms as viewpos command
• stop sound on file access
• fixed developer prints from renderer
• defered client media loading, only load models and sounds for new players when you die or bring up the scoreboard
• fix for double colliding against same plane and getting stuck
• dropped LG damage to 160 pts / sec
• don't snap predicted player entity, smooths deaths and movers
• all sine movers are instant kill on block
• fixed items riding on bobbers

RealJukebox is Watching! -- 12:39 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The New York Times has posted this article (you need to register to read it, but registration is free) which alleges that RealNetwork's RealJukebox gathers information on the users listening habits and reports them to RealNetworks. Here's a taste:

The information that RealNetworks gathers is extensive. According to Richard M. Smith, an independent Internet security consultant from Brookline, Mass., who discovered RealJukebox's monitoring functions, each time the program is started on a computer connected to the Internet, it sends in the following information to the company: the number of songs stored on the user's hard drive; the kind of file formats -- RealAudio or MP3 -- the songs are stored in; the quality level of the recordings; the user's preferred music genre, and the type of portable music player, if any, that the user has connected to the computer.

This is more than a little bit disturbing. Even if this information is just being gathered to "customize services for individual users," it is still done without the user's knowledge or consent. It makes me glad that I use WinAmp as my computer audio player. Thanks Slashdot for the information.

Darth Maul Q2 Model -- 12:25 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Q2pmp has posted a Darth Maul model for Quake II. You know him, you love him, you want to be him. So go download him already! Thanks Jedi Knight.net.

Wolfie 2000? -- 10:27 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

sCary saw this little blurb in an article on Xatrix in the LA New Times. Here's a snip:

...the West L.A.-based Xatrix Entertainment, is already well into the creation of its newest game, a reformulation of a popular World War II POW fantasy that has enjoyed two previous incarnations by other companies. Markham and his handful of computer artists and programmers hope to have their Castle Wolfenstein 2000 in stores by Christmas next year.

SWEEEEET! I've said more than once that I would rather see a Wolfenstein 2000 than a Doom 2000 (although that would seriously kick too). Let's just hope that Xatrix doesn't fill up all the dialogue with profanity a la Kingpin. Wolfie 2K would definitely be on my must-buy list.

T&L at Beyond3D -- 10:22 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Beyond3D has an excellent article up explaining the inner workings of hardware-based transform and lighting (as used on NVIDIA's GeForce and S3's Savage 2000). The article concludes with interviews with NVIDIA's Nick Triantos and 3dfx's Scott Sellers.

This article is not light reading by any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely worth the effort.

Having read through Q&A's it seems to me that the Q&A with Sellers was a chance for 3dfx to take pot-shots at the GeForce. Two things to remember: 1) A number of Sellers' arguments are based on conjecture, not on actual tests; 2) 3dfx's next chip (Napalm) will not ship until February, the GeForce is here now. Four months is an eternity in the 3D graphics biz, and even once Napalm ships it still won't have T&L, putting 3dfx almost two full product cycles behind NVIDIA and S3 in this regard.

I know that 3dfx is and always will be on the mega-high-fill-rate bandwagon (which isn't a bad bandwagon to be on). It will be interesting to see how much fill-rate that full-screen anti-aliasing takes up, not to mention if 3dfx can actually put out a chip that can do 32bit color (and a true OpenGL ICD, for that matter).

Sunday, October 31, 1999

Edited Chat Transcript -- 11:29 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I got sick of wading through the "noise" on the Riva3D chat transcript from their chat with Chris Donahue. Thus, I edited the file down to just the questions and the appropriate answers and HTML-ized it. You can check the chat log out here as a part of our brand new Tips and Tricks section which will have a lot of cool stuff in it soon!

No News = Good News? -- 9:19 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Whelp, I end up being away from the site for about a day and I miss . . . nothing. Anyway, a couple sites are reporting seeing release dates for both Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena right before Thanksgiving (November 25 here in the U.S.). Most likely those dates are worthless, but it wouldn't surprise me for both titles to be on shelves by Christmastime. That would certainly be a kick in the rear for John Romero and the boyz (and girlz) at Ion Storm who plan to get Daikatana out then. We shall see!

Happy Halloween Reformation Day! -- 9:05 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I'd just like to wish a happy Reformation Day to all my fellow Lutherans out there!

Update on Blair Witch Games -- 8:57 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I saw this press release on VE regarding the Gathering of Developers multi-game deal to incorporate the "mythology" of the Blair Witch Project into severl games. Here's a snip:

Developer driven computer and video game publisher Gathering of Developers announced that the company has secured the exclusive, worldwide computer and video game rights to The Blair Witch Project license from Artisan Entertainment and Haxan Films. The Gathering will publish multiple games for the PC and at least one console system based on the immensely popular Blair Witch property.

This could either be really cool or really stupid. G.o.D. has said that the games will not be Students Running Aimlessly, though. The Nocturne-engine-based game that I mentioned a couple days ago will actually be an add-on pack for Nocturne.

Update: I just saw on VE that the Nocturne engine game will be a stand-alone game and not an add-on pack. I'll let you know when this gets more confusing.

NVIDIA Chat Log -- 8:15 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Riva3D has posted a log of their chat with Chris Donahue that was held on Thursday.

No Old News

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).