Wednesday, April 19, 2000

PySol Update! -- 10:09 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Take a break from your first-person shooter and play some cards! A while back I wrote about PySol, a free collection of Solitaire games. It's written in Python, so it'll run on any platform which supports that language. While I wasn't looking, Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer has released a few new versions; now PySol is up to version 4.10 and gives you a whopping 273 different games, including Poker-type solitaire and Mahjongg games. You have to see it to believe it! And it's all free! Only a 3.4 meg download for Windows, less for Unix (assuming you have Python installed). Go to The PySol Home Page and check it out!

RA:UT Update -- 5:17 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart made an update to the Rocket Arena for Unreal Tournament webpage with an update on the suspended mod's status. Here's a taste:

The first interface enhancement is to pop up a list of all arenas when you connect to a server. The list would display each arena's name and the number of players in it. When you click an arena name, it will take you to that arena and then move to the current navigation menu. I would then replace "Next Arena" with "Change Arena." Change Arena would pop up the arena browse window. The second enhancement is to roll the "Create Team" and "Join Team" behavior into one menu option.

Once we get a version we are happy with, we'll put it up for download. Given the massive amount of feedback I've been receiving, I think that RAUT will really kick some ass. The mod is very fun, there are just issues with the high learning curve. Anyway, the team really appriciates the feedback. RAUT is certainly not going away!! When I suspended the mod, I didn't mean we weren't going to work on it anymore. I just realized that the release was too early and the mod needed more time.

No word on when the new version will be released. GreenMarine simply said, "I don't think it will be long, though." Thanks Blue.

New UT Map Pack Coming Soon -- 5:13 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

sCary got word from Epic's CliffyB that they are going to release a new, free, six-level map pack done by Epic's very own Cedric "Inoxx" Fiorentino. They even have some screenshots of the new maps. Free maps are Good Things (tMS).

3dfx V5500 Preview -- 11:41 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

HardOCP is one of the first out of the gates with a preview of 3dfx' V5500 video card. They run some benchmarks in Q3A which show one thing very clearly: 4x FSAA kills framerates. 2x FSAA may be an option playing in Q3A because the framerate hit is not as severe (although it is still > 40%). These tests were done on alpha hardware and alpha drivers so it's hard to say how they will compare when the product actually ships. Since the NV15 is right around the corner, you have to wonder what the lifespan of the V5500 will be since it doesn't have hardware T&L. The big question for me is whether or not 3dfx has learned how to write a decent OpenGL driver . . . Thanks Evil Avatar

BTW, I check a couple of sites and you can pre-order V5500 with 64M RAM for $299. Personally, I'd wait until the NV15-based boards start shipping to make a decision on which one to get. Thankfully, I don't have enough money to buy the latest and greatest video cards all the time.

Change to the UT Server -- 10:34 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well, kids, I made another slight change to our Unreal Tournament server. In an email conversation with someone who used to play on our server all the time when we were running 402B, I discovered that the 413 patch changes the way that the server handles some things.

With 402B, you could connect even if you didn't have the skins or mutators that were on the server if those skins or mutators were not in use. It seems now with 413, clients need those files to be able to connect regardless of whether the server is using them or not. Thus, I enabled auto-downloading today with a maximum download size of 100K. That means that people will be able to download the skins and mutators, but not the maps. For more information on setting up your UT client to play on our server, check out our Unreal Tournament Setup page.

I was wondering why J and I were the only ones to play on the server since I patched it . . .

UPDATE! I just received email saying that the server is working fine again. Whew! Thanks to Vigilante for helping me track this problem down. Time to start that UT Server Admin doc I've been talking about.

In a related story, Blue is reporting that the UZ Compression Admin page has hundreds of maps, etc. for Unreal Tournament so server admins can set download redirection to their site instead of eating up their own bandwidth. It looks like a pretty cool service. I'm going to look into it.

Mozilla M15 Available -- 9:54 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Just like the headline says: Mozilla M15 is available on their ftp site. Hopefully it'll be snappier on Linux than M14. You can also get it for Mac and Win32, along with OpenVMS/Alpha. Now if they'd just release a VAX version. . .

A.T. Hun comments: Downloading now for Win32. Expect a report later on.

UPDATE! I'm going to play with it for a little while longer, but my initial impression is that the layout engine is actually working worse than it was in M14.

Arrest Made on DOS Case -- 8:41 am CST, Update by The Master

According to Yahoo! News, Canadian Arrest Made in February Web Attacks. There is to be a news conference at 10:30 EST today on the arrest.

History today :-) -- 8:38 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord begin the U.S. Revolutionary War.
• 1933: The United States abandons the Gold Standard for monetary valuation.
• 1943: The Jewish community in the Warsaw Ghettos begin their battles against Nazi occupation forces.
• 1989: 47 sailors are killed when the center gun, #2 Turret misfires on the USS Iowa.
• 1993: Branch Davidian compound burns to the ground after FBI attempts break-in. Many people die in the fires.
• 1995:Timothy McVeigh destroys the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City with a truck bomb, killing 168.

Ya know, I read the Pessimist's Guide to History, and I swear most written history IS written by pessimists!

Tuesday, April 18, 2000

New GLSetup -- 5:17 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Wow! Actual news! There is a new version of GLSetup available (1.0.0.114, if you care). GLSetup is the handy utility that makes sure that your video card has the latest OpenGL drivers available. There is a note on their website that their bandwidth is really getting eaten up so it may be difficult to download the new version right now. Thanks Blue.

Q3A Models -- 12:05 pm CST, Update by The Master

Okay, for our 3 or 4 readers out there, I have a request:

If you see any tastefully done Quake3: Arena models of "The Crow", "The Master" (of Doctor Who fame), or a GOOD female model out there (my wife is looking for a model/skin to use when playing once I get her machine upgraded) I'd mucho appreciate an email. Thanks to anyone who replies!

A.T. Hun comments: Or the famous QwadHor model . . . :)

Celeron Vs. P3 -- 11:53 am CST, Update by The Master

Thresh's FiringSquad has an article entitled "Pentium 3 vs. Celeron 2" comparing a P3 and Celeron 2 at the same clockspeeds. Interesting read.

History today :-) -- 11:15 am CST, Update by The Master

History update for today:

• 1775: Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington warning the American colonists that the "British are coming".
• 1906: San Francisco Earthquake and fire. Approximately 700 people died in the catastrophe.
• 1942: Jimmy Doolittle and his squadron of B-26 Michelles launches from the USS Hornet to raid Tokyo.
• 1955: Albert Einstein dies.
• 1983: Terrorists bomb the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. 62 people are killed.
• 1990: Soviet Union cuts off oil supply to Lithuania.

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