Monday, August 14, 2000

Paul Jaquays Interview -- 3:44 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

My partially functioning brain and I forgot to post this earlier. Stomped posted a quick interview with id's Paul Jaquays which reveals, among other things, that the fabled Q3CTF5 which didn't make it into Quake III Arena will be included in Quake III: Team Arena.

J.t.Qbe comments: Geek quiz for ya, A.T. What did Paul Jaquays do before he worked in computer games?

A.T. Hun comments: I know he did art for some AD&D modules. I don't remember if he designed any of the actual levels or not. What do I win?

J.t.Qbe comments: You win the official title of "Way Too Old Dude." Congratulations!

NVIDIA Releases the Detonator 3 -- 9:21 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

No more leaked drivers needed. NVIDIA has posted the Detonator 3 drivers right on their website. The revision number is 6.18. If the benchmarks are right, you want these drivers if you have a GeForce 2 GTS. I don't think I'll bother with them since I think I've gotten about as much out of my TNT as I can. :) Thanks Blue.

GeForce2 GTS Ultra Announced -- 8:39 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Prepare for ludicrous speed! It seems that the NV20 would not be ready for a Fall release, so NVIDIA has cranked up the GeForce2 GTS. The Ultra basically the GTS with a higher clock speed and faster memory. The Firing Squad got 53.1 fps at 1600x1200x32 in Quake III. Erp. Extra memory bandwidth is a Good Thing. You can check out the Firing Squad's preview and the zillion more that are appearing on the 'Net. Be prepared for a bit of sticker shock--this bad-boy will set you back $499. Thanks Shugashack.

Firing Squad also reviewed the new 6.16 drivers, aka Detonator 3, from NVIDIA. They supposedly help the memory bandwidth problems. It seems to work since the GTS scores at 1600x1200x32 in Quake III are 50% (yes, I typed that correctly) faster! They help a little bit with the GeForce DDR, but the GTS and the GTS Ultra really seem to benefit the most.

RA3 Server 1.3 -- 8:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Rocket Arena 3 for Quake III Arena team has released a new version of the server, version 1.3 to be exact. Only server operators have to download it. Thanks Blue.

Sunday, August 13, 2000

UT 428 Patch Released -- 8:06 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In the "well, that was quick" department, Epic has released the 428 patch (6.0M) for Unreal Tournament. This version hopefully fixes the D3D problems introduced with the 425 patch. You can find a list of mirrors here and read the readme here. Thanks Blue.

Return to Sender -- 8:04 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Whelp, after three weeks or so of burning through a set of batteries per week (despite only about 1.5 hours of "on time") since I patched my Visor, I called Handspring today and asked for a replacement. Theoretically it should be here in 3-5 days. We'll see how this one goes . . .

OMM N'Lightning Interview -- 11:29 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Normally the the concept of "Old Man Murray" and "Interview with a religious gaming company" immediately makes me itchy and my heresy detector goes nuts. However, this interview with a company called N'Lightning, while irreverent, is well written and actually sympathetic in places. I'm not sure if the game is worth anything, but I give the guy credit for being willing to be interviewed by the OMM staff. Thanks Ars Technica.

Obi-Wan Team Q&A -- 10:56 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I can't remember where I saw this, but LucasArts has updated their "Ask the Team" section with this little Q&A with the team working on Episode I: Obi-Wan:

Will Obi-Wan support dedicated servers for multi-player gaming over the Internet?

Yes. We have constructed a completely new game engine for Obi-Wan, and multi-player gaming has been an important design objective. Players will be able to host multi-player games on dedicated servers, and the game should be able to support more participants in a single multi-player game than past LucasArts games (the limit in the past has been 4 players per game over the Internet.) More details to follow.

That's great news since Jedi Knight's peer-to-peer system often left something to be desired, especially the aforementioned four-player limit.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 10:51 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Someone let about ten more Nullsoft employees get .plan files today. Somebody shoot me.

While I'm ranting, is there any gaming network with more annoying banner ads than UGO? Most of the ads are just plain stupid and/or sexist. On top of it all I hate having to wait for eight days for an ad banner so that a page will load. I hope they pay their sites well if they are going to force them to display that drivel.

If you get the Sunday paper, check out today's Dilbert. Levelord pays a visit.

MDK2 Patches -- 10:50 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

BioWare has released patches for their popular new third-person game: MDK2. Here's a list of the fixes:

• workaround for bug in Windows Millenium Edition (WinME) that prevented MDK2 from running
• updated rendering code including OpenGL Display Lists
• fixed a bug in level 4, the theatre, if Kurt used a grenade, there would be text errors on the screen
• prevented the Doctor from quick-saving during combining or using an item
• added logging of "Test Settings" data to a file
• added setting of refresh rate in the Launcher
• fixed a bug in the updater with regards to beta patches

The patch is a measly 769K and is available for the full version, the OEM version, and the demo. Hmm. MDK2. I really should buy that one. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

UT 428 Patch Info -- 10:42 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

UnrealTournament.org posted the readme for the upcoming Unreal Tourney 428 patch. The patch should be out "in a couple of days" and hopefully fix all of 425's D3D problems *cough* *gag*. Thanks Blue's News.

Carmack on Page Flipping -- 10:35 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's John Carmack made a post on Slashdot regarding the Tom's Hardware article on the NVIDIA Linux drivers. Tom commented that page flipping instead of blitting would improve the performance of the drivers. Carmack argues that page flipping is going the way of the Atari 2600. It's a good read, but techy as usual. Thanks Blue.

Past Two Days' 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).