Saturday, February 5, 2000

Ripping on id? -- 1:27 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I only mention this editorial because it is one of the most profoundly idiotic things I have ever read. The author basically rips on id for not providing enough information for aspiring mod and map makers. Fair enough. I've tried to use Q3Radient and it is a bit like having a root canal. I'm with him so far. But then he says this:

I realize too, that if I really want to learn the ins and outs of C++ coding, I need to pay for the education, and get my knowledge the same way the people that lend a hand did. But I'm already doing my own thing, and dammit, I deserve quality help absolutely free of charge.

Excuse me? You don't care to really learn C/C++ yet you expect id (or anyone else for that matter) to be able to tell you how to build a mod? Huh? Granted, more than a few people have complained about the current state of the Q3A source code, but simply to say "I don't know how to program, id won't help me, so id sucks" is pure stupidity. It makes me wonder how we've gotten this far as a species.

The Master comments: What gets me on this kind of crap is a limited lack of reality for the writer. Hey, it's America idiot. Here, you PAY for your privileges. Deal with it. Go take a class. Learn how to code. Then write a mod. But don't expect id to do your work for you-they've done plenty already-and they give you the ability to write a mod for free. Feel () lucky they didn't charge you for it.

1,000th Post! -- 12:17 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Yes kids, here it is! Our 1,000th news post on The Haus. Here's to plenty more computer goodness to come! Thanks to our loyal readers for making The Haus a success.

Episode I: Obi-Wan Shot -- 12:12 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Jedi Knight.Net has posted an exclusive screenshot from LucasArts' forthcoming first-person shooter, Episode I: Obi-Wan. They promise another exclusive screeny tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be getting more information on this game soon. Thinking about taking on Destroyer Droids brings a smile to my face. Thanks Blue.

SoF Demo Patch News -- 9:48 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ravensoft's Rick Johnson updated his .plan with news of a forthcoming patch for the Soldier of Fortune demo. Here's the goods:

At some point in the near future, I'll be releasing a patch for the SoF demo to address some of the issues that have come. A few of the more popular items / fixes that will be include in the patch are:

• Raised player height
• g_movescale cvar to scale the multiplayer move speed
• A3D sound updated to 3.0, fixed some crash issues / speed
• Fix for Default Sound / A3D crash in certain multiplayer circumstances
• Fix for invisible players in DM
• Better spectator movement
• and a bunch of other things

The demo code is still very separate from the main product now, so that we are only bringing over select changes. No ETA on when I'll release this demo patch (a 'non-violent' demo is being QA'd with these changes, so I'll see if anything further comes back), but I will be updating the Raven servers later this evening.

One of these days I've got to try it out online. It's a pretty cool experience in single player. My guess is that it would be best suited for teamplay multiplayer.

Friday, February 4, 2000

CookieCop Revisited -- 11:43 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Sadly, I ended up giving up on the utility CookieCop that I reported on yesterday (story). With it running, a decent number of sites would not display properly, even though they display just fine with cookies completely disabled. So for now I am back to being 100% cookie-free until a better option comes along or DoubleClick goes bankrupt.

Linux Install . . . Continued -- 11:34 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I got my Red Hat 6.1 disc in the mail today. After installing it, I discovered I immediately had to do a reinstall since it was easier to do that than to add the things I forgot by hand. I had to do a smidge of tweaking, but I finally got my SoundBlaster Live! Value to work tonight. My Zip drive install went very smoothly, as did my modem install, once I remembered to install PPP (Doh!).

This week has been quite the learning experience for me. I'm going to be slapping up three FAQs this weekend about getting the aforementioned SB Live!, ATAPI Zip drive, and PnP modem installed under Linux. I'll be adding FAQs as I learn more. Hopefully all you out there in Readerland can learn from my mistakes. Linux is really bringing out my inner geek. Here's hoping I don't become like Jeff K.

I must apologize to you readers that I haven't been as faithful as usual with my news updates since the Linux install has taken up so much of my spare time (and even eaten into my non-spare time). Hopefully the FAQs will make up for it.

Make Something Unreal DM Winners -- 8:47 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Deathmatch Map Winners in the Make Something Unreal competition have been announced. They are:

1. Sean Bonney with DM-Faith
2. Faceless with DM-Unreality][
3. CyberA(rtist) with DM-Organic

I've only played DM-Organic, which is very unusual and very cool. I plan on snagging the other two as well. Congrats to the winners and all who entered!

Games for Boys -- 12:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

One concern that both The Master and I have had is finding suitable computer games for our boys (he has one, I have two). My 2 1/2 year old is just getting interested in the computer, and I don't think that Q3A or UT is the place to start. Aurora at AGN has put up this article on games for boys that should give parents some good ideas.

My son has the Tonka Workshop. While he is a little too young to completely understand it, he does like it. I'm sure he'll like it a lot more in the next couple of years. Thanks Stomped for the link.

Gaming on Linux -- 12:19 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

This article on ZDNet outlines two different plans, one backed by Loki Software and the open source movement and another by NVIDIA and SGI, to make Linux a more viable gaming platform. The future looks bright. Thanks Blue's News.

Past Two Days' News

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