Title: Earth File Name: Earth0.zip, Earth1.zip, and Earth2.zip (Earth2.zip soon to be released) which contains: pak0.pak (unit 1), pak1.pak (unit 2), and pak2.pak (unit 3), respectively. (placed in Earth directory under Quake2) Note: These pak files are sequential, pak0.pak will run by itself without the other 2; pak1.pak requires pak0.pak to run but not pak2.pak and the pak2.pak requires both the earlier 2. Note: as of 25 July, Earth0.zip (pak0.pak) and Earth1.zip(pak1.pak) files are released. The ending, Earth2.zip (pak3.pak) will be released soon. Author: Roger Ritenour e-mail: ritenour@rlc.net Story: You are on your way for a well deserved vacation of sun, surf, and fishing. The Strogg invasion is over. And, the world seems peaceful at last. The bus you are riding moves gently down pastoral country roads to where the mountians meet the sea. Suddenly, your cell phone comes alive, bleeping for attention. Now what! nobody has your number except... You grab it and immediatly a statically voice pleads "We need help! They're Back! Someone must go out and find the stargate..." Then all is silent. Strange... Suddenly there is an explosion and all blacks out. You come to next to the wreckage of your bus, dazed. All that comes back to haunt your memories is that pleading voice about the stargate... Description: 3 Unit Quest with multiple sublevels. It is a quest for the Stargate to Antares and a final showdown with the new Strogg Makron. These units have many custom textures, their own set of skies, and new sounds. It is broken up into 3 seperate zip files to limit the size of the downloads, 2 now released, the 3rd coming soon. Setup: Create a directory under Quake2 game directory and call it Earth. Place the pak files (pak0.pak, pak1.pak, and pak2.pak) there. (Note: these are the same file names as the main game file under baseq2 directory, a Quake2 requirement; care should be taken not to accidently overwrite the pak files under the baseq2 directory. If this should inadvertently happen, you can correct the situation by copying the original pak0.pak from the game CD. The original pak1.pak and pak2.pak files are obtained from the downloaded version 3.19 upgrade. This upgrade is q2-319-x86-full.exe which most likely is found under the Quake2 directory on most systems.). Also, an upgrade to Quake2 version 3.19 is required. This upgrade is obtainable from id Software's page on the internet at no cost for those with the game on CD. your directory structure should look like with the pak files inserted: +--Quake2 +--baseq2 (game files) +--Earth +--pak0.pak +--pak1.pak +--pak2.pak Running: With the setup above, the game is started normally. pull down the console (<~> key) and type set game earth. Set your skill setting by typing skill 0 (easy), skill 1 (normal), or skill 2 (hard) (note, if you skip this step the skill will default to 1.) Then type map marina and you are off and running. When you do game saves, you will have a whole new set of save slots. If you save a game to return to later, when restarting Quake II only the 'set game earth' command is necessary to get back to Earth; starting a saved game is then done in the usual way. Note on screen brightness: Many of the dark areas such as caves and night settings have low levels of ambient light designed in. It may be necessary to tweek the brightness for the most realistic effect. (This can be done from the Quake2 main menu without shutting down the game) Note though, there are a few areas that are intentionally completely dark that cannot be make visible this way. (the only way to see in these areas is to use muzzle flash from your weapons) Credits: id Software, Some of the textures are borrowed from DOOM. A few of the textures came with the qED editor program, most particularly, the excellent texture adopted for use on the sides of the hills. Rodney Korn for his patience with me while I e-mailed him to death for help with his qWAL tool. Jako Malan, Mountains of Earth sky. The Space Shuttle Operator's Manual, and Web site: www.ksc.nasa.gov, source of the technical information for the Space Shuttle, and its launch sequence. Web site: www.ksc.nasa.gov, material for shuttle and pad textures Helicopter sounds: sounds of UH-1 Huey Bup Parrish and his page: www.inetport.com/~bubp/huey/sounds/sound.htm (with permission) National Space Science Data Center/World Data Center A for Rockets and Satellites of NASA for the Bright Star Catalog, version 4. (public domain data) Web site: http://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/ Space imagery used in skies and some textures. Editors and tools used: qED2 level editor qWAL texture and pak tool QBSP3 QVIS3 QRAD3 CorelDraw 6 & 8 Corel Photopaint 6 & 8 PhotoWorks cyn2box (Author written application, renders panaramic images into Quake2 sky format) render (Author written application, plots stars from astronomical data into skies in Quake2 sky format) Syntrillium CoolEdit (sound editing software) Known bugs: The level "Strategic Defense Command" occasionally miscounts monster kills in the F1 screen. There are 54 monsters in the hard skill setting, but counts are sometimes reported as 54/55 or 54/56 upon completion. Reasons are not known but appears to be connected with monster_medic resuscitating dead monsters. There are a number of open areas that experience a reduced frame rate. Generally, these are wide open areas with lots of sky. If this becomes excessive on your machine, it can be reduced by switching off open gl graphics acceleration and using the "software" drivers, and/or using lower resolution in the difficult areas. This can achieve a satisfactory frame rate, even on a 133 MHz Pentium. Further note: The levels were checked out with the "software" drivers and do work, but there are a few complex areas that that don't paint completely. Also, development was done with Diamond Monster 3D 3DFX opengl, and as a result there may be circumstances where things do not work quite correctly with other opengl chip sets. Further technical note on graphics quality: This level provides open gl support. Most open gl graphics accelerators give an option of restricting to 8-bit graphics. The sky graphics are provided in both 8-bit and 24-bit color files; and they look much better with the 16- or 24-bit option turned on (8-bit graphics turned off). These settings can be controlled from the Quake2 main menu under "video" **** Play Information **** Single player: Yes Cooperative player: No Deathmatch: No Difficulty settings: Yes, full range, all settings somewhat harder than standard Quake 2. New Sounds: Yes many "world" or environmental sounds were created for many of the environmental settings of the levels. Most of the sounds with the Space Shuttle launch sequence. A few were imported from quake1 and from Doom II. New Textures: Many surface textures, plus 7 new skies. Strong emphasis placed on the atmosphere and "feel" of the places. It looks fundamentally different. All you DOOM aficionados will recognize a few of the textures. Overall, it is a mix of about 40% Quake2 textures and 60% new. Of the 60 % new textures, about 5 % are Doom imports, a few are Quake1 inports and from the set that was provided with the level editor; the remaining 45 to 50% are author created. New Skies: Marina: Mountainous coastline. Panarama built from photographic patches in Corel Photopaint. Imported into Quake2 format using cyn2box. Rendered at sealevel. Used in the Marina Level. Island: Mountainous coastline. Panarama build from photographic patches in Corel PhotoPaint. Imported into Quake2 format using cyn2box. Rendered offshore at an elevated viewpoint. Used in the transfer station levels (trans and caves), strategic defense (strat), and the helicopter flights (hcptfor and hcptbak). Mountains of Earth: Sky complements Jako Malan with permission. Software (8-bit Quake palleted) bitmaps generated with Corel Photopaint. (If you cannot use open gl, these palleted bitmaps don't do these images justice.) Used in the Plane Crash (plane), The Badlands (abrams) and the Capture (truck). Castle Hills: Panaramic bitmap taken from Stony Man Mountain in west-central Virginia with Canon EOS Rebel with Quantary 52 mm lense on Seattle Photoworks 200 ASA film. Panaramic image assembled using Corel PhotoPaint 8 and rendered into Quake2 format using cyn2box. Viewpoint is from the summit of Stony Man Mountian. Used in the Castle levels (castle1 and castle2). Florida Night: Starry Nighttime Sky. Actual stars from astronomical data (Bright Star catalog with 9111 brightest stars seen from earth) rendered at 28 degrees north latitude with the time adjusted to place the constellation Orion rising in the East. Sky plotted into Quake2 format with render. Skyline rendered as panaramic bitmap from night photographs taken from various locations at ~400 ft of elevation with Canon EOS Rebel with Quantary 52 mm lense on Seattle Photoworks 400 ASA film. Skyline assempled to approximate that from Launch Complex 39 of the Kennedy Space Center. Skyline panarama converted to Quake2 format using cyn2box and merged with the stars using Photopaint 8. Used in Kennedy Space Center levels (ksc and ksca) High Earth Orbit: Star sky from earth plotted into Quake2 format using render. Viewpoint is from 30 degrees south latitude to match image of Earth, which is a photographic patch. Earth subtends 45 degrees which corresponds to an altitude of 6,450 miles (chosen arbitrarily). Used with the space station level (mir). Antares: Star sky from Antares. Plotted with celestial north (earth's) north up from viewpoint of Antares using render. Bright Star catalog includes parallax (distance) data which made an authentic transformation to Antares possible. Antares is close enough to the Sun so this transformation is fairly accurate. Some of the dimmer stars are probably not accurate as well as the dim dwarf stars that would be visible from Antares by virtue of being much nearer to Antares but too dim from Earth to make the Bright Star Catalog. Image of Antares is an artistic composit of various images of the sun in soft x-rays and red-light public domain photography. Used in Antares level for the final showdown. (antares1 and antares2). Maps: (Compile Statistics with machine; 200 MMX w/ 128 MB SDRAM) marina: Entry map, boatyard and seacoast. Relatively easy. Build statistics: qbsp3-98s qvis3(level4)-33739s(9.4hr) qrad3(bounce4,extra)-116020s(32.2hr) trans: Island Transfer Station. Mountainous island percipitous falls. More difficult. Build statistics: qbsp3-56s qvis3(level4)-2624s qrad3(bounce4,extra)-11598s caves: Underground catacombs in Transfer Station Island. Difficulty comparable to Transfer Station, but with more combat in dark areas. Build statistics: qbsp3-63s qvis3(level4)-5072s qrad3(bounce4,extra)-2912s hcptfor: Short helicopter ride from Transfer Station to Strategic Defense Command. No risk to player. Build statistics: qbsp3-2s qvis3(level4)-68s qrad3(bounce 4, normal)-6233s hcptbak: Short return helicopter ride back to Transfer Station. No risk to player. Build statistics: qbsp3-5s qvis3(level4)-65s qrad3(bounce4,normal)-42628s(8.7hr) strat: Stratigic Defense Command. Underground command post with helipad and airfield above on surface. Moderate difficulty. Build statistics: qbsp3-74s qvis3(level4)-27595s qrad3-21652s(bounce 4,extra) plane: Plane crash. No monsters, but player must bail out to survive. Short duration. Build statistics: qbsp3-10s qvis3(level4)-403s qrad3(normal)-714s abrams: rugged mountianous backcountry near site of plane crash. Player encounters Strogg captured Abrams main battle tank that is hard to kill. (Note this is not the boss super tank monster, but rather, something entirely new.) Build statistics: qbsp3-24s qvis3(level4)-27598s(~8hr) qrad3-14792s truck: Short ride in back of truck in cage, mainly for story theme. No risk to player (that is, if he doesn't shoot). Build statistics: qbsp3-12s qvis3(level4)-1177s qrad3(bounce4,normal)-14225s castle1:Old Central European Style Castle. Strogg are using it as a fortress. Build statistics: qbsp3-56s qvis3(level4)-13251s qrad3(bounce4,extra)-5733 castle2:Continuation of castle1. Build statistics: qbsp3-36s qvis3(level4)-1091s qrad3(bounce4,extra)-476s ksc: Kennedy Space Center, Shuttle Launch Complex. Player detours Space Center through Florida mangrove swamps to "avoid" Strogg stronghold. outdoor combat at night. Build statistics: qbsp3-149s qvis3(level4)-42383 qrad3(bounce4,extra)-20283 ksca: continuation of Kenedy Space Center. Player emerges at Pad 39A and takes the Space Shuttle to Earth orbit. Some tough monsters guard the Space Shuttle on the pad that the player must take control of. Level and Unit ends with dramatic launch of the Space Shuttle. Build statistics: qbsp3-105s qvis3(level4)-22724s qrad3(bounce4,extra)-126668s(35 hours) mir: Space Station. This Earth-orbit station houses the Earthside terminal of the Star Gate the player must capture. Build statistics: Map under construction. stargate: Short level passing through the stargate Build statistics: Map in planning stage. antares1: Outlands from landing leading to Makron palace Build statistics: Map in planning stage. antares2: The Palace and the Showdown. Ends with a dramatic launch back toward Earth. Build statistics: Map in planning stage. Colored Lights: Yes. However, they are used judiciously. You will not see a kaleidoscope of color, but rather subtle spectral shifts from hard white sunlight to "warm" white lights of ordinary indoor lighting and the like. In strategic Defense Command, the aircraft's navigation lights are generated in their correct colors. The castle levels use subtle sunset colors, a yellowing sun with the blue sky lighting produces a subtle magenta cast over the outdoor areas. There is one place with a striking blue glow of Cerenkov radiation with nuclear material. The effect authentically depicts the appearance of highly radioactive materials submerged under water and is not just a pretty blue glow. Those of you who have worked around nuclear materials will recognize this awsome effect. The Antares showdown is done in a ruddy red that one might expect coming form a red supergiant star. **** Legal Stuff **** * Copyright / Permissions * Generally I have no objections if you modify or use it as a base for building additional levels, however, the source files are not included in the zip. The graphic files (.wal files, and sky) you may use, but please drop me a line and give credit as appropriate, whether me or whom I borrowed from. I would also be curious where you use them. You may distribute this level through any electronic network (internet, FIDO, local BBS etc.), provided you include this text file and leave the archive intact. You may include this file on a cdrom where the purpose of the cdrom is a means of distributing Quake levels and the price remains modest, with the primary purpose of the proceeds being for publishing the cdrom and maintaining the internet sites. Commercial exploitation where this production may become the centerpiece of considerable commercial gain must have my written permission.