[idsoftware.com] Login name: help In real life: help Directory: /raid/nardo/help Shell: /bin/csh Never logged in. Project: To help you. Plan: Scabnabab. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Here you will find updated info on DOOM, DOOM II, Heretic, and QUAKE. If there is something else you would like to see updates on please send mail to american@idsoftware.com. *IF YOU DO NOT SEE AN UPDATE ON SOMETHING, THAT MEANS THAT *THERE IS NOTHING TO UPDATE YOU ON. WHEN THERE IS NEW INFO *I WILL ADD IT IN HERE AS FAST AS I CAN. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Want id stuff? The id WWW site is: www.idsoftware.com. The id ftp site is: ftp.idsoftware.com. The id fsp site is: fsp.idsoftware.com, port 21. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Status of QUAKE---Updated: Tue, Dec 5th 11:15pm You can find screenshots of some of our Quake stuff on ftp.idsoftware.com in /idstuff/quake. All of you sorry losers who obviously can't figure out what "Don't send us mail" means finally got your way... Here is some sort of cheesy, lame-ass attempt at an update. Hope you're happy. You just wasted time we could have spent making Quake come out tomorrow. Now it will have to wait until Spring :) You all want to know why Quake is not going to be out until Spring... well, here it is: We are making it better. That is all there is to it. We refuse to release something that we are not going to have fun playing, because that means that you probably won't have fun playing it. We took a good look at where the game was going and decided to take it in some other direction. Yes, it will still be everything you ever wanted from the original Quake idea, minus some things we thought sucked, and plus some things that we think were missing from the old design. Things that work: Just about everything. Things we are working on: Speed, monsters, actual game play :), more weapons, figuring out some way to have all the people who send us mail bugging us about Quake run over by a truck. Joystick code, items, environmental hazards, etc... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Network Play: We have DeathMatch! (This is really why we are delaying the release... we have been playing DM too much.) Right now we can start up a game with n players and run around killing each other all day long. You can leave the game, and then jump back in whenever you like (as long as the server is still running.) DeathMatch right now is great, and it is going to get even better. We have found the replacement for DOOM DeathMatch... finally :) Engine: All VESA resolutions are now in. Video hardware support is in and working for some cards now. This means that you can run 640x480 at high frame rates. I mean *high* too. The engine is just about done. There is not much missing from it now. Textures and modeling are rock solid. At this point we are working on the game itself and the engine details... minor but important stuff. Map Editor: Carmack just rewrote the editor to allow us more flexibility while designing levels. This took some time, but it was worth it. We are now able to do things that were once impossible with the old editor. Ok, there it is. Just to be nice I am going to give everyone out there the chance to get some stuff added that you think might be missing. If there is something important (*important*) missing from the above text, you send me some mail and tell me. I probably will not reply unless you ask something so dumb that I have to tell you how dumb it was. I will take questions and try to answer them here until the end of the week. That's FRIDAY, Dec 8th. Then I am going to delete this message and ignore all Quake related mail for quite some time. We really don't want to piss you all off by ignoring your questions while we are working on this game, but this is a small company with limited resources to answer all of your mail about Quake. You get one week and I will try to answer all the questions I can. The ones I cannot answer I will try to put in here so that you do not all waste your time trying to get the same non-answerable (that is a word :) question answered. Send your mail to american@idsoftware.com Please, no novels about what you think Quake should be, and try to ask questions that can be answered in simple yes and no answers. Check here every day to see if someone else has already asked your question before mailing them off to me. Thanks. 1monSkey \'men-ke!\ [prob. of LG origin; akin to Moneke, name of an ape, prob. of Romance origin; akin to OSp mona monkey] (ca. 1530) 1: a primate mammal with the exception of man and usu. the lemurs and tarsiers; esp: any of the longer tailed primates like Munchkin as contrasted with the apes, which Munchkin can only go down on if he pays them. 2a: a person resembling a monkey or Munchkin. 3: Any semi-primate descended from Munchkin's mom. -----------Quake Questions Answered------------------ : will Quake still be medieval as planned? Yes. The architecture will remain the same, but we are planning on some new stuff. Not saying what yet though. : Also, Romero mentioned looking up and down was a lot : easier in Quake than it was in Heretic. Yes, it will be. There will be more automatic looking up and down which means that you will not have to worry about doing it yourself. This will not interfere with gameplay though. : I just bought a 3 button logitech mouse with the assumption : that it'd be a bit easier to handle Quake with 3 buttons. : Is this in any way true? As far as mice go, this will be the way to do it. There may be other controllers out there more suited to Quake by the time it comes out though. Right now we are all using Logitech three button mice. : Romero stated that id would be unable to use the name Quake : since some German company copywrote it first. Any word on : the new name (assumadly you'll copywrite it before releasing : it this time). We have a new name, but like you said, we cannot release it until we have it copyrighted. : Any major differences between Quake and DOOM deathmatch, besides : free coming and going from games? Well, these things could change... but right now when you kill someone who is carrying rockets he might explode and take you with him:) Also, when you kill someone they dump all the ammo they were carrying. There are more, but we are not going to get into it right now. : Do you guys expect to get a fluid : game with a bunch of 28800 ppp people Yes. : Also, will there be more dmatch "modes", such as team games : like capture the flag or team wars? Yes, and it will be very easy for the person running the server to program these games in if he/she wants to. : Also, since Quake will supposedly offer the ability to play with : many many people on one map, how will individuals be differentiated? You will be able to use different "skins" so that you could have a huge dragon on the front of your guy etc... : Any word on how servers will function? Not going into this right now. : On a minor, technological note, any realtime shadows yet? No, this will probably be in our next game though. : Movable walls in any way? Already in there. : What about monster AI, will it be slimmed down to near-doom : levels to up speed in other areas? Monster AI will be much cooler than DOOM AI. Already is. : Will tcp/ip support be built in? Already is. : I have read that it will be possible to actually edit maps : while "live action" is taking place. This will not be possible. : Along those lines, will it (can it?) be possible to : allow a person to directly control a monster (non-player : character) in the same manner one controls his/her hero? This could be possible, but we are not going to include the code to allow you to do this. It would be something you would have to add in yourself. It would not be hard to add though. : i want to be prepared, so what are the h/w requirements : for the Quake server? We are not releasing these specs yet. They will not be too hard to take though. : What about the Mac version of Quake? When will it come out : and what differences will there be? This will eventually happen, and the difference will be that it is on the Mac. : Also, any chance in hell I will be able to run smoothly over : the net on my puny little 14.4? Your modem would not be the problem here, it would be the net... but you might be able to find a server with a small amount of lag that would be playable. : You mentioned joystick code, is the joystick going to be a plausible : way to control your character in Quake (unlike doom) with (I'm assuming) : variable sensitivity and analog support? The joystick code will be cool. Better than in DOOM, and should be a cool way to control looking up and down (with a hatstick). : Is there anything planned regarding 3D rendering card support? As said above, we have this working and it is cool. : Can walls be damaged or destroyed during combat? No. : Does Quake incorporate traps and puzzles to allow : allow unarmed players to overcome armed apponents : by using their wits and stealth? No, there is no violence in that now is there? : How will close combat weapons be handled? As simply as possible. Push the key. No more than that. : How does the character's speed/control compare to DOOM? : Will we still be able to mouse-flick 180 degrees and : strafe-run etc? Hell yes. Do you really think that we would let the keyboard lamers play the same game as those who know the *right* way to play?! : Which video cards will you be enabling hardware support for? We are speaking of the hardware accelerator boards here. You will be able to use any card that someone bothers to write a driver for. We are making sure that it is possible to write external drivers for things like this. : Are we still going to be able to play peer-to-peer deathmatch games? Yes, you would just run the server on one of the machines that you are using... that machine would act as client to itself. : Will it be possible to setup a "Quake" server in conjunction with a : multi-line bbs (even if the players have to access it thru slip on the : network). Yes. : Can we expect a demo/screen shots in the next month or two? Atleast a : freakin animation!? No answer on this. : WHats the current weapon count? What will the final count be? Three right now. We are not sure of the final count. : Have any new monsters been completed? Yes. I would like to describe some of them, but that is info that we cannot release right now. : Has Into the Shadows had and effect on the release date? No. : Can players be on multiple levels in dmatch? Like You and I (yeah right) : in level 1, and Jromero in 2? If the OS that you are running the server under is something real like Linux you will be able to do this. : 1. Is Trent still doing the sounds, or is that being redone too? Yes, Trent is still doing the sounds. And doing a great job too. : 2. You mentioned rockets -- in a medieval setting ? Hmmm... things could change you know. : Is the target hardware still 486 dx/2 66 w/ 8mb and non 3d card? : If so, at what res will it be running? It does run on this, but you have to size the screen down a little bit. We are still working on getting the speed up, even though it is running very fast right now anyway. : Any price yet? Nope. : Is it easy to modify your character so that you will look : different than the others in a deathmatch? You would just give yourself a new skin texture. Should not be too hard to do. : So what comes after Quake? Spooge.... Wait and see. : How many levels will the shareware be? Same as DOOM. : Will weapons be multipurpose (like Dark forces; hit an : alternate key and throw the hammer instead)? This is possible. : Story so far? Hahaha! : Character Demo? Hehehhehehehe Not yet, but we will send something out soon. : ARE YOU KEEPING THAT STUPID HAMMER,and THERE WILL be multiple : weapons a yes,no and a yes,no Is all I need We are not saying about this right now. : Do you plan on releasing the map : editor/graphic/sound editors you used for the game? Yes, we will be doing this. : Trent's going to be doing the FX, correct? I've read interviews : with romero that've said there will be no music, and there will : be trent's music. What's going on? :) Trent is doing the SFX for sure and we are trying to figure out if we are going to be able to include a seperate sound track with the game (done by Trent). : Is id still planning on doing a Sony PlayStation version...and will : you consider supporting dial-up with that version? We would like to but we cannot make any promises this early. : If one were planning on running a server and/or doing a load of editing, : would you recomend submerging one-self's in NeXTSTEP or LINUX to prepare? Well, the only OS you would want to run a *real* server on would need to be under some multitasking OS like Linux or Next, but you can run simple (single level, multiplayer) servers on a DOS box. As far as the editors go... we will probably release the Next and a WIN95 version of QuakeEd. : Will it be possible to swim in Quake? Yes. : Will a multi-player game be possible using a single computer : playing split-screen, instead of needing a network? No. : You mentioned peer to peer will work by having one machine act as : server and client. Will this give any advantage to either machine in : terms of performance? The machine acting as client and server will suffer some, but not a lot. : Will there be flying in Quake? If so, will it be controlled like : Heretic/Hexen (fly up/down) or like descent (fly where you point)? There will be a lot of tossing and involuntary leaving the ground:) But there probably won't be any sustained flying. : Will quake support/use math co-pros. No. : Is the software required to run a server included in the game? Will it be : present in the shareware version in one form or another? Yes. Yes. : How is Quake looking in comparison to DN3D? Is Apogee making you sweat as : much now as they did releasing Blake Stone on the eve of Doom's release? Hahahah. : Are any of Trent's sound FX going to revolve around the "piggy" theme that : is so prevalent in his music? So far they have not, but we will have to wait and see. We have not put any restraints on him... the sfxs are his deal. : Will there be fog in Quake? Not in Quake. Next game. : Also, will it be possible to QUICKLY kill people (one shot in the back, : point blank)? Will there be body part-specific damage? Yes and yes. : would quake client/server run under win95? i mean, using winsock32 and : win95 based calls. Yes. : if i can have 2 machines networked locally, which one should be running : quake server? The faster machine. : would i be able to run quake server in win95? Yes. : Will "Quake" have any moving light sources? No. The engine is not set up for things like this. : Will Quake have full support for the Logitech Cyberman? Yes, we will include the "hammer driver" with Quake so that you can smash the shit out of your CyberMan and by a real controller. : Will you be able to tell what weapons / armour / artifacts a guy : is carrying (before he gets a chance to use them)? Yes. : 1st - Will there still be "voice support" through the network. i.e. : speaking through a mic and the people "closest" to you can hear : you while the people furtherst away might faintly hear you or not : hear you at all. This will be in there soon. : 2nd - How will the support be with the VFX1 virtual reality helmet? It will be great. Don't worry. : 3rd - Can damage be inflicted to certain areas of the body i.e. if I : hit someone in the left shoulder, will they be knocked back in that : area? Will they bleed from that area? Yes, they will show the damage in the area where you hit them. : 1.) Will Quake support 16bit or 24bit color modes? 16bit under DOS and you can get 24bit under other OSs. : 2.) Will Quake be a native Win95 app? There will be a version of this, yes. : What Operating System will Quake come out for first? : DOS? Win95?(Not that Win95 is an OS) Linux? DOS, Linux, WIN95, NeXT, IRIX, and maybe more. : What Operating System will the server Software run under? : Unix? Linux? Sun? All of the above. : What special fees will be involved in running a Quake Server? We have not decided on how this will work yet. : I read somewhere that all level editing/creating would be done : through text (indicating object, coordinates, texture, etc.) to : make it easier for people to create level editors. Is this true? Level editing is done in a CAD-like program that we created, called QuakeEd. When creating objects in the world that you interact with though, you program these in QuakeC. : Could you tell us a little bit more about how the : character animations are done? Kevin Cloud created monsters/characters with Alias and then animates them and generates frames. The frames are then played back in the QuakeC code whenever the character attacks/moves etc... : In "quake", will the water be maybe deeper, and to make it more : realistic, will walking/wading through water slow you down? You will be able to go underwater in Quake. : Will ammunition be a light source (e.g. fire a rocket and it lights up : the corridor as it flies)? No. : Will there be support for I-glasses and other *TRUE* : stereoscopic headsets? Yes. : Just out of curiosity...Has id thought about setting up it's own quake : network (national, or, in any case, big and public)? We are thinking about this. : How will the differentiating of other quake players in deathmatch : be incorporated? Will we have a charatcer editor for the DM? They will be different colors, or they will have a new skin. You can edit the skins with any paint program that will load .lbms. : 2) Will the DOS version run faster than the Linux version, : or vice versa? They will be about the same. : I herd a rummor that Quake would be ported to Linux like : Doom was. Is there any plans for this or possible plans? Yes. We love Linux and there will be a Quake version for it. We are hoping that people will realize that Linux is the way to go if they want to set up a proper Quake server machine. : Question 1) Will it be possible to cause environmental damage, such as : taking out entire walls in a firefight? No. : Question 2) Is it possible to dismember enemies? ie, if I don't like : someone's head (or other portion of their physionomy) can I cut it off? Yes. : Will "quake" be a doom-like slugfest or will you ( and them) be harder to : kill then just one blast? Come on. Do you want to *wait* to kill someone by pounding on them with a stick for a while... or do you want to shove a shotgun under their chin and watch their brains hit the ceiling?! Slugfest. : Will there be outdoor landscapes that are really spread out : like a huge grass area or forest or some kind of terrain, or is it mostly : within the castle sorta thing? Mostly indoors. : ah yes, i almost forgot.. will quake use wads of some sort? or will : everything be in an external file? Sounds and qc files will be external. Maps and textures will be in wads, although we are not calling them that now:) : Can you move, pile up, or stand on top of dead bodies? Heheheh : (alt.games.quake) Yes, these things are already in there and quite funny. : How long do we have to wait for the editor to be released? Until the game is released. : Can we leave markings on walls (bullet holes)? No. : You keep mentioning "next game" for new features...does this : mean Quake II or a different series? This means the next game engine after Quake. : On the experience part I just wanted to add that it would be nice to be : able to save a character and play with him throughout the gamer's : QUAKE experience. This is something that we intend to have in there. It will be very cool when playing with persistent servers. : 1) Will there be a shareware release? and when? Yes. When it is finished. : 2) What actions can be performed? eg: Running, climbing, rolling, : crouching, jumping, leaning etc. Right now there is jumping and leaning... there will be climbing (maybe). : 3) I know that heads can be cut off, what about arms, legs, torso's etc. Depends on the creature you are attacking. Basically you cannot do this all the time to all creatures (too many frames) but we are going to make sure you can do this sometimes. : 4) Are you guys still supporting the Verite Rendition card? What about : Lockheed & Martin's Cards. We are supporting the Rendition card. All others cards will be able to be added later by others. : 5) Will there be Day and Night? Weather effects? Probably not... but we will see. : 6) Still able to sacrifice to the Daemons??? Of course. : 7) How much interaction with the environment will there be?? like moving : boxes, smashing things, leaving marks on the environment (burn marks from a : spell say for instance) We are not sure yet... depends on how much we think it adds to the actual gameplay once it is in... these things sometimes look cool the first time but then get to be old after a while. : 8) Are your 3D polygon character models as detailed as the models in : Triton's Into the Shadows? (The guys hair and tunic moves!! V-cool!) They are pretty detailed. ITS and Quake are two totally different types of games though... it is not fair to either product to make these comparisons. : 9) I know you've said there will be no shadows from the characters, but : come on, if Into the Shadows can manage Multiple shadows, Why not Quake??? : What specifically is stopping you from implementing them. Without them the : characters dont look like they belong in the scene if ya know what I mean?! See above. : this is prolly a stupid question, but will I be able to play quake : over a regular modem with a friend, without a server/client deal? I will do some explaining for those of you who do understand how this is going to work. The client is the machine that you will be playing the game on. It is the machine that all the graphics get drawn by, and all your input goes into. The server is the machine that takes care of all the difficult computations needed in order to create realistic environments like the ones in Quake. When running Quake on one PC you are actually running both the client and the server on the same machine. There are a few different combinations that Quake will allow when it comes to this though... you could 1) play single player with the client on one machine and the server on another. 2) play multiplayer with the clients on different machines all over the place and the server on a separate machine or 3) play multiplayer with the server running on one of the machines that is also being used as a client. In effect, one of the guys is going to use his machine as the server for everyone else (including himself) and the client for himself. So... in your situation you could do this two ways: 1) you could set up the server for the game and your client on your machine and have your friend call you or 2) you guys could set up a separate machine with two modems in it and you both call it to play. (there are other combinations but I think you get the idea.) Whew... lot's of text and I bet that made no sense at all :) : 1.In previous DOOM DOOM2 etc. each computer had to have a copy of the : wad(pwad) file to play a homebrew level(s). Will it be possible in : Quake to Xfer levels between computers or at least from the server : to play a game? This would be a welcome feature for playing over the : net and also LANs. We are working on a way to include all the sounds/gfx in the wad file so that each wad file contains it's own gfx palette and sounds... this way you have one file that contains everything and you could potentially transfer this file to a server. This code is not in there yet, and we may not put it in there ourselves, but it would not be hard to add. : 2.Will their be some sort of a licence site (for a LAN) / package? There will be, but we are not sure about how it is going to work yet. : Are you going to create a dynamic outdoor setting, too? The game is better suited to cool indoor areas, but you could do outside areas also. We are thinking in terms of levels that everyone out there can play, and so we are trying to make sure that the levels we create have a good balance of coolness/speed. There should be some nice outdoor areas in Quake. : Okay, you may not want to release direct info on the server hardware : requierements right now, but i am wondering how many users will a Server : running on a Pentium 120 (with enough mem) will be able to support? (A : rough number at least) We honestly do not know yet. We have been running some servers on a P90 and we have hooked in around 9 clients without any slow down at all. The max number is not really known yet... but I think it will be pretty high. : Also, assuming people are playing on a server via 28.8K modems, how many : users can there be in the game before the game strts getting slugish? Again, we do not know about this. Modem code is not finished yet and we have not set up a machine with a ton of modems in it yet to test this. It will be pretty high though. : First, I assume the Quake version for win95 will incorperate directdraw, : and all those neat goodies. Will it run faster on a win95 platform as : opposed to DOS or LINUX? It will be about the same speed. : Will it be possible to kill enemies, gain experience for that, and thus : grow in power and hp's? This is something that will be possible in DeathMatch, but we are not thinking about doing in the actual game. We will see. : What controller would you recommend when this comes out? Right now we are all using Logitech three button mice, but something cooler might come along before we release. : How much longer after the DOS release will the Win95 release be? They should come out about the same time. The DOS version we have now will run fine under WIN95 though. : Will it be possible to hide in the shadows of a corner and thus jump : an enemy from behind and crush his skull in? Yes. : Is this going to be a CD-ROM game, and if so what kind of speed would : you be looking at? Nope. CD-ROM does not == action. : Will it be possible to record a game ie: doom lmp's? Yes. : Will Quake support the Microsoft Sidewinder Pro, especially the swivel : feature? For those of you asking if we are going to support x or y please understand something: We are writing Quake in such a way that when we release it the manufactures of these products will be able to quickly and easily add support for their products. Chances are that many of the cool people out on the net will be writing most of the device drivers for all the cool add ons you want. : The thing that facinates me about quake is its 3D aspect. Will you provide : true floor over floor design and will the outside environment be realistic? Floor over floor is already in there. Has been since the beginning. Outsides will be cool. : What color depth will Quake run in? Right now the only depth we are sure of is 8bit. It may ship with the ability to run 8, 16, 24... but we are not sure. It does not matter because the only thing that looks better than 8bit is 24bit, and it is not that big of a difference. (This is all under DOS) If you are running under Next you can get 24bit and Linux can get 8 or 16bit. : I would like to know just how much freedom will quakeC give me. : Will it be like a suped dehacked, where all I can do is make new : levels monsters and weapons. In QuakeC you will have control over all objects in the world such as doors, players, weapons, monsters, items etc... This means you could totally reprogram any one of these things from scratch or just make minor modifications if you wanted to. You could also turn Quake into a new game with some modifications to the QuakeC and with some changes in the actual C code. (We are going to release as much of this as we can). : you mention that QuakeEd will be released w/ : Quake but for creating objects that you interact with : you will need to program in QuakeC. Will you then : also release a QuakeC compiler? All you need to edit QuakeC is a text editor. The QuakeC will go out with the game in the same form that we are working on it here. The compiler is built into the game and compiles the code every time you run the game. : If you w/ a fast puter and somebody w/ a slow puter : are loged into the same Quake server, will you be able : to run/shoot faster than him? The guy with the fast computer will have a higher frame rate and he will get more updates to the server than the other guy... in effect he will have an advantage, but on the other hand if a dork with a slow computer joins a game where everyone is playing with extremely fast systems and connects he will not cause everyone else to slow down. : 1.) will quake be so advanced that other software companies will : not be able to claim that their game is "like-quake, only better" : or will the engine be easily cloned within a year after the : initial release? I refuse to answer these types of questions on the grounds that I want to say something like "Quake will smash the shit out of all other games... and other game companies pee on themselves." If I say things like that I get flamed by other game companies... and besides, it's not "professional" :) : 2.) will the quake engine be licensed for other games? : possibly a DOOM 3? Of course. : 3.) do you guys realize how freaking anxious all of us are for : the release? Uh, no. Really? I've only gotten 200+ pieces of mail in the last 12 hours! : How will the auto-mapping be handled? There probably will be no automap. : How will lmp recording be handled? The same as Doom or from room : cameras or something different? Same as in DOOM, although it would not be hard to get cameras in there. : Will there a weapon that is as satisfying as : the Doom shotgun/super shotgun.. :) Wait and see. : What will be the minium modem speed? Probably 9600bps. : If you have run Quake with a 3d accelerator yet, what is the : performance improvement estimate? It is great. I will get the exact specs from Michael in the morning... something like 640x480 at 30+ fps. : About how many enemies/level? This is not something we are going to release yet. : What do you plan to do to defend Quake against products like D!zone? Kill. :) Not sure yet. : When 3D characters were used in games like fade to black and alone in : the dark, player control was compromised because the character could : not stop on a dime, if he was in the middle of a step, he would : complete his step first. What is Quake's position on this? We have always hated shit like that and we will not allow something that "looks cool" to destroy the overall fun of the game. : 1. If I have a network setup between a couple of comps in my : apartment, can someone call in on my modem (with my comp as server) : and join in the mayhem? Yes. : 2. Are the levels gonna be interconnected... and if so, how would : this work in DM? Say I wanted to pound somebody but I couldn't : find them. Yes they are, but you will be able to specify whether people can go to the next level or not. It will depend a lot on the type of OS you are running. If the OS is multitasking and can run more than one server at a time then when someone leaves a level it can either, take everyone with that guy... or spawn a new server with that level on it that would then run side by side with the current level. This could obviously cause problems if everyone went to different levels, but there will be ways to control how this works. : 3. Is the Hell Spawn Matrix Death Cube '95 (tm) still in there, or : is there going to be a similar object in the game? Not sure now. : 4. Is voice going to be incorporated in games run over modem? If the modem will support it. We are not going to try to get this into the code though. : 5. Ponder this: I've got a network of 8 comps... say the server is : a P-100 with 16 megs o ram running win95.... slow or fast net game? Should be ok. : 6. On the day that Quake is released, is the Internet going to see : its biggest shutdown since RTM's worm? If so, can I stop by Id's office to : copy the shareware version? :) Heh... what do you think? Crash bitch! Crash! Yeah, we would *love* to see all our fans here at the office trying to get copies of the game the day we release... I think the building would crash :) Would not be so bad if all our fans were gorgeous super models of course... : Will I be COOL if I play Quake? No, you will be cool if you suck my... anyway. : 1) Dead bodies as armor (i.e. use your dead buddy as a shield from : bullets)? This would be pretty funny... we will see. : 2) Multiple games with different configs (i.e running three quake server : on one one computer for the novice, the moderate, and the psychopath)? This is working now. : 3) Can characters build shield/shelters from raw material objects in the : game (i.e. hold up box in front of chest to keep from getting blasted in : the chest)? No. : b)Would modifying the source slow it down at all, or is it compiled BEFORE : runtime on the server? You can modify the source while the game is running but the changes will not take effect until the progs are reloaded... but this is something that you can do on the fly. Basically you would tell the server to reload everything, the game would freeze, but everyone would stay connected... once the progs were reloaded (if there were no bugs in your code) things would continue with your changes. : c)Can the anti-christianity stuff be kept to a minimum? Who says that is Jesus anyway?! That could just be Bob or something. : d)Will cross-platform netquake be possible with big endian and little endian : machines playing together? This will not be a problem. We are already doing it. : Will it be easy(no c coding involved) to configure a large group DM : session so that players do not respawn? This would be *very* easy, but you would have to know how to use QuakeC, which is much like C. You would take this code: if (!self.button1) return; self.deadflag = DEAD_RESPAWNED; ... and make it this: if (!self.button1) return; return; self.deadflag = DEAD_RESPAWNED; ... He would then never come back. : 1) I remeber hearing that you guys were designing a new protical for : games on the internet. What's the status of this? Carmack is still working on this. : 2) Does the concept of a "god person" still apply? Can a person change : the game play environment during an actuall net game? Yes. : Will you be able to drop/hand-off weapons/items (that other players can : pick-up)? Not on purpose, but if your buddy buys it right next to you he will drop all the shit he was carrying and then you can pick it up. (or you could leave it for him so he can come back and get it... nah, fuck him.) : By customizing my character's 'skin' with a wall texture, will I be able : to hide (in a chameleon like way) by just standing still against a like : wall (and then pop out and kill the f%&ker)? Uh... yeah... I had not thought of that one. You guys suck. I can just see it now... a bunch of dorks running around the levels in "wall texture camo" going "Where is everybody?!" : Please, oh please, can you give us to ability to eat a slain opponent, : thereby gaining health & maybe his magic power? (or just for fun) Trent already did some good bone crunch/gut rip sounds that we are planing to use just for this. Who cares if it helps your health or not... it will be fun to kill someone and then take a bite out of their face for good measure. :) :Once "Quake" is ready for release, will you then announce a release date, :or will it just suddenly appear on an FTP site somewhere? Hehe. This is a good question, but we are not sure yet. Something like 1... 2... 3... release! Crash! : You mentioned "involuntary leaving the ground". Is it possible to knock : someone off a cliff with a hammer blow to the back, or (even more fun) : can you throw people? :-o You will not be able to throw people, but all weapons will impart some velocity to the "victim". If the weapon is strong enough it will make him leave the ground. (We have managed to get dead bodies to fly up into supports across the ceiling:) : Can you aim your weapon to a specific body part. Like aim for an : knights weapon arm. Or are you stuck with a top right to bottom left : swing (assuming close combat weapons)? This is DeathMatch, if you spend that much time trying to hit somewhere specific you will be dead. : If you can aim your attack is it possible to block an oppents attack by : swinging at it? (Clash sword against sword) This will not be in there. : Assuming close combat weapons, will the length of the swing affect the : damage? Short swings low damage but quick recovery. Long swings slower : but deadly. Not going to happen. : Will the user interface be as customizable as the rest of the program? Yes. : You said that characters show damage on specific body parts but will it : impair them? Would a wounded leg decrease running speed? We are thinking about this, but we are not sure if we like the idea or not yet. We will try it out and if it is cool it will stay, if not it will end up in some other companies game. : 1) Does the framerate max out, and if so, what is the maximum? Not right now. Probably will not. : 2) Is there support for external 24-bit models / sprites? Models already are. : 3) What sound formats are supported (i.e. Qsound, ProLogic, etc.) Anything that someone wants to write support for. : 4) What is the minimum requirement / recommended system? Uhg. : 5) Will there be a version of Quake optimized for the P6? For the Pentium yes, P6 probably not. : 6) What will the primary distribution format be? Not sure yet. : 7) About how much disk space will Quake require (game, drivers, swapfiles)? Should not be much more than DOOM. : 8) Will specifications be released before the game so that editors and : other levels can be released concurrently? YES. : What 3D acceleration chipsets does ID like? Which will y'all support? Right now the only thing we are playing with is the Rendition. There will be others, but we cannot comment on this right now. : You stated that you would make QuakEd available for Win95 and NexT. : What about us Linux users? You were talking about how much you loved it : and everything, so I was hoping you could be persuaded to port it to : Linux too. It would be cool to have a Linux version... but we do not have time to do it. I am sure that once we release the source those cool Linux Gods out there will have an editor ready for you in a matter of minutes. : 3. Can we add different death frames to the guys? (like a new type of : death.. e.g. die of poisoning) You will be able to add new ones easily and there will be several in there when we ship the game. : 5. I can't wait to see the swimming.. can you drown? (attach weights to : your opponents..) We are still working on this. I do not think we will have drowning, but there will be some cool things happening when you kill a person in the water. (bodies float to the surface etc...) : Also.. you've been letting all these comments about : Quake possibly having modern elements (like rockets) sorta slide.. : not gonna elaborate?? Hehe. Not going to elaborate. Nope. : Anyway, you mentioned that in Quake you WOULD be able to get : experience for killing other people. Does this mean that you could : just beat up on newbies all day and end up powerful enough to beat a : better player? No, you get points based on the skill of the guy you just killed. Newbies would give you little or no points depending on how the server was set up... and some servers can be set up not to allow newbies or American-Like-God players on in order to keep things fair. : Several versions of DOOM were public betas. Heretic had a public : beta. Hexen had a public beta. So why can't you release a Quake beta? We are working on something. (I hope someone out there is keeping all of this in some sort of FAQ so that I don't have to do this again anytime soon :) If you sent a question and it does not get answered make sure that someone else did not ask a question that was similar... if you still do not find it that means that we either are not talking about that or the question you asked would have required some serious explanation that I am not willing to get into here. ----------------------------------------------------- Read alt.games.quake for occasional new info. ******** THERE IS NO BETA VERSION OF THIS OUT *ANYWHERE*! THERE IS NOTHING FOR ANYONE TO TEST EITHER. WE ARE STILL VERY MUCH IN DEVELOPMENT. ******** ------------------------------------------------------------------- Status of DOOM---Updated: Fri, Jul 28th 3:22pm We have mastered The Ultimate DOOM! *This is out in stores now*. There is a patch for registered DOOM owners that will turn your DOOM into Ultimate DOOM for free. You can find it on ftp.idsoftware.com. DOOM/DOOM II: GET VERSION 1.9 FROM ftp.idsoftware.com The latest patch for Registered/Shareware DOOM is: 1.7 to 1.9 The latest version of Registered DOOM is: 1.9 The latest version of Shareware/Beta DOOM is: 1.9 The latest patch for DOOM II is: 1.7a to 1.9 1.9 is it. There will be NO MORE. If you have a version of DOOM II dated 8-25 it is pirated. Do NOT write us asking how to patch it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Status of games using the DOOM engine---Updated: Wed, Sep 13th, 2:27pm HEXEN: Beyond Heretic -- This game is out. This game ROCKS! We will not have 8 player network support in this game when it comes out. It *will* be added in soon after it has been released though. (I just verified this for those of you who thought you heard differently. It is true.) Strife: An action / R.P.G. where medieval and high technologies meld to form a world where warfare and oppression are a way of life. An underground rebellion, the Movement, is this world's slim hope for change. Your wish is to join them and bring the tyranny to an end. This is where you begin your journey through Strife. This is being worked on by a company named Rouge. They should be finished with it before Christmas. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Status of DOOM ports---Updated: Mon, Sep 4th, 12:00pm Sony Playstation DOOM: Done. Most awesome console version of DOOM yet. Go get this! MAC: MacDOOM II is out in stores now. The shareware version of DOOM I is available now. You can find it on any InfoMac mirror site (there's over 30 of them). Here are some you can try: ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/info-mac/_Game/_Arcade/doom-i-101.hqx ftp://ftp.delphi.com/pub/mirrors/info-mac/_Game/_Arcade/doom-i-101.hqx http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/game/arc/doom-i-101.hqx http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac/_Game/_Arcade/doom-i-101.hqx WIN95: This is either finished or almost finished. We saw an almost-final version of Win95-DOOM a couple months ago, so it should be done by now. WINDOWS: There will be NO Windows 3.1 version of DOOM. Old news ------------------------------------------------------------------ SGI Irix v5.2: ftp.uwp.edu:/pub/msdos/games/id/sgixdoom.tar.Z. It is integrated with the v1.6ish DOOM version. It supports pixel-doubling, -tripling, -quadrupling as well as 16-bit sound for clearer mixing. Now compiled with -mips1 flag. Do not send us mail about this. We will delete it. NO CHANGE. Sun Solaris 2.4: ftp.idsoftware.com:/new/sundoom.tar.gz. Same as SGI but uses direct frame buffer access for faster blitting. Do not send us mail about this port. We will delete it. NO CHANGE. LINUX: the linux version is at: ftp.cc.gatech.edu:/pub/Linux/games/doom/linuxsdoom.tar.gz (full-screen) ftp.cc.gatech.edu:/pub/Linux/games/doom/linuxxdoom.tar.gz (X windows) ftp.cc.gatech.edu:/pub/Linux/games/doom/sndserver.gz (bug fixed) ftp.cc.gatech.edu:/pub/Linux/games/doom/doom1v18.wad.gz and may be moved to whatever appropriate directory later. Do not send us mail about this. We will delete it. NO CHANGE. QNX: DOOM for the QNX OS is anonymously ftp'able from quics.qnx.com. It's compiled with Pentium optimizations and supports sound, music, the VGA console and X Windows with pixel doubling and tripling. We don't support this version, QNX Software Systems did the port. This version will run the shareware, registered, or doom2 wadfile. The files to ftp are: /usr/free/doom/qnxdoom.pax.gz - Console and X versions of QNX DOOM /usr/free/doom/doom1.wad.gz - DOOM v1.666 wad file /usr/free/doom/qnxdoom.faq - Installation instructions and other details NEXTSTEP: URL for the info page at Omni's WWW site: http://www.omnigroup.com/Software/Doom/ There is a DOOM and a DOOM II beta version. If you have any other questions about Doom (under NEXTSTEP), contact doom@omnigroup.com . OS/2: Still waiting. There is no new info. I wish there was. Do not send us mail about this. JAG: It's out now. Go buy it. Everyone likes it. Sega 32X: Released. Buy it. Ultra 64: We have licensed Williams Entertainment to develop a unique version of DOOM for Nintendo's U-64. It is to be available for the consumer release of the platform. If there is not a release date on one of the above that means it doesn't have one. Please DO NOT send mail asking for info on the ports. If I had more I would put it here. ------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS id? 1id \'id\ n [NL, fr. L, it] (1924) :the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives P compare EGO, SUPEREGO ------------------------------------------------------------------- **** DOOM / DOOM II / HERETIC TECH DOCS CAN BE FOUND BY MAILING help@idsoftware.com WITH THE Subject: INDEX "help" IS NOW COMPLETELY AUTOMATED AND MAIL SENT THERE IS *NOT* READ BY HUMAN EYES. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION THAT YOU MUST HAVE ANSWERED BY US PLEASE MAIL IT TO shawng@idsoftware.com. **** ------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: All of the stuff you read here could be a TOTAL LIE. I am not going to be held liable for misinforming millions of people. I just work here. -American