All you Macintosh fans out there who are eagerly awaiting Q3Arena might wanna check out version 1.02 of Quake2 for the Mac, which was just released. This new version fixes several old bugs, and improves the mouse code. Thanks to Blue's.

Version 3.0 of NOP, a free real-time ranking and statistical tool for Q3Test has been released. Currently available for Mac, Windows, and Linux systems, this new version features a whole ton of new fixes. Check out the NOP website for more info.

A couple of plan files have been updated today. First is from Graeme Devine:

Ah, grappling hook hoopla V when I read about the hoopla over UT grapple CTF I knew we'd have a similar impact (BTW, believe it or not, there is room for both games in the universe!). The grapple code is still going to be in Q3A (through bot reachability and so forth), it's just not on the maps we're shipping with the product. The CTF maps we have in there are designed for non-grapple use. CTF and grapple are not tied implicitly together.

John Carmack also updated his plan file with some comments on OpenGL programming on the Mac.

id's John Carmack has updated his plan file with a new version of the worklog, as well as the reason for no "middle of the month demo release":

Ok, obviously we didn't get a release out in the middle of the month...

We are still hashing out the single player game, so it still isn't immediately immenent.

Click the link above to read his worklog as well.

We received word that TheGeekNextDoor.com is now offering a way for people to pre-order Q3Arena for a measly $25. Apparently the deal expires in 2 days (on Sept. 30th), so ya might wanna visit their site soon.

Version 1.0 of NameKeeper has been released. NameKeeper is a new program for making those funnames you see in Q3Test. They say that the program is very userfriendly and allows you to change the color very easily. The next version will have animated colored text in it, which actually DOES work in Q3Test. Neat!

As a result of the KOTS Chat Friday night, the King of the Server team has released v4.1 to the KOTS GDS Servers with several changes. Among them include more power cubes, more defense, several fixed bugs, and more. Check out their site for more info.

Want to be a part of an online beta test for a new Q3Arena config builder? Surf on over to the TweeQ3 site, and give it a shot. They're currently in the first phase of testing, and are welcoming all who would like to participate.

I just found this in my mailbox, it's a couple days old but (hopefully) still relevant... version 4.22 of AEstats has been released. New features in this log-file analyzer includes support for a few other games and mods, as well as a fixed Linux bug.

A new version of QBind, "the ultimate quake scripting/config editor", has been released. This new version has some Win98 fixes, as well as Q3Test 1.08 compatibility. Check out their site for more info.

Doh! Apparently I can't read very well, because the name that should've been posted with the "Assimilation Tourney Reminder" item is Mark "WarZone" Smeltzer, not Mike. Sorry :)

id's Graeme Devine updated his plan file today with news on the Q3Test MOTD, as well as just how many games of Q3Test have been played...

A few of you have asked about the message of the day text. It's giving you your exe startup number since last Monday. So basically, we've had over 2 million Quake 3 Arena games start worldwide since 9/20/99. That works out to around 4 games every second.

Yow, 4 games a second... that's a lotta games.

Hey! Today is the last day to qualify for next week's Assimilation Tournament! 1st place in the tournament gets $150, 2nd gets $75, and 3rd gets $50 (all US dollars), coming right out of Mike "WarZone" Smeltzer's own pockets.

The "long overdue" new version of Terror Quake2 has been released. They've released it in both update (12 meg) and full (30 meg) packages, with a whole ton of changes (too many to list here, for sure). Check out their site for the info and files!

I saw over on the Shugashack that Quakeidge has posted an interview with id Software master mapper, Paul Jaquays.

QG: This month, sometime a new test will come out with bot support. Are there any new features we can play with?

PJ: It should have working bots. I will assume that some of the improvements made to menus and general game play will be included. No new maps and most likely no new weapons.

Check out this screenshot of the Orbb character model, the newest screenie from id's Q3Arena Bus RoadTour. Pretty neat eh? Thanks Blue.

sCary over at the Shugashack has posted a quick Q&A with id Software's Graeme Devine, which focuses on Q3Test 1.09 (the next release). Here's one of the items:

Steve: What are the new teamplay enhancements planned for v1.09? (hud, location tags, etc)
Graeme: There's a bunch of new stuff for teamplay. The HUD is perhaps the most changed with teamplay locations and information. The triangle above people's bodies is now for friends, not foes, since it was felt it was too easy to locate foes with the target looming over their heads!

The King of the Server team has scheduled a chat session tomorrow (Friday) night at 9pm EST. They're looking for comments and suggestions about the latest version of KOTS (which was just released a day or two ago). To participate, visit their site and click on the "chat" link.

King of the Server version 4.0 has been released. There is a TON of new changes and revamping that they've made, so be sure to check out the changelog and news on their site!

Yay, I have my internet connection back. I even got to wade thru the backlog of email that was waiting for me, so I should be pretty much up to speed. If you didn't receive a reply to an email that you sent me, then I apologize, it was probably overlooked with all the other mail.

No, I am not dead. Unfortunately, my network connection here at school STILL is. Fortunately, the network techs have appointed 2:00pm tomorrow as the fix-it time, so hopefully I can stop hijacking other people's machines to make updates soon ;)

Thanks much to Blue's for being my news source since I haven't been able to check my email. I put a couple of news items up for today, so scroll down to read more.

KT-imPAKt has released a new map pack for Quake2, featuring 8 new maps for multiplayer mayhem. It also includes a new server-side voting-mod for quick map changes and other such cool stuff.

Version 0.73b of QuakeStarter has been released. The changelog is available here, on their Downloads site.

A new version of the Game Name Builder has been released. Version 1.44 supports all versions of Quake1/World/2/3 as well as several others. Check out their site for the files.

Still no luck with the LAN connection. Our tech support division here at school assures me it'll be taken care of "soon". Uh, yeah. Not being able to update (much) or check my email (at all) since Sunday kinda sucks :)

The Shack has word of an email from John Carmack posted, which clears up a few issues or rumors. Firstly, the next release of Q3Test will not contain the skeletal animation system that they've implemented in the Q3Arena engine its self. Also, he states that the next version won't be out for a while, so don't hold your breath :)

No Network Connection, Day 3: I've started experiencing cold sweats and periodic blackouts. The network techs tell me they'll be down to fix it "sometime Wednesday or early Thursday".

Seriously, sorry again for the lack of news. Say a prayer for my dead LAN jack's soul, hopefully it'll return soon. *crosses fingers*

I saw over on Blue's that the Assimilation team is planning an IRC release party tonight (should be running now, around 9:30pm EST) to celebrate version 3.0's release. Check out their site for info on the location and other such details.

*sigh* more news whenever I can check my email (still no working network connection).

The QuakeWorld Server Launcher has just been released. This tool allows you to launch 20 simultaneous servers at once on a single machine. The author strongly recommends it to be used for LAN parties.

Sorry for the lack of news yesterday, my connection to our LAN here at school has been dead, so I haven't been able to update (doing it from another dorm room now - thanks Rob :). I'll try to get some news up sometime tonight, thanks!

The Coven has made their Deadlode II Quake2 mod available for purchaseable download via the online store Beyond.com. It'll cost you $10.99 to download the "convenient" 51 MB file, which you can get here.

The word sent along from WhiteFang of the Qoole team is that, despite popular rumor, Qoole isn't quite "dead":

There seems to be news spreading that Qoole is "officially dead". It is NOT. The only thing I said in relation to dead was, and I quote, "Qoole is probably dead until it's time to do Q3 support." I'll admit it's on hold and has been for the past few months. However there are definitely intentions to continue the project, one way or another. I can't guarantee anything, nor give any time frames at the moment. For the mean time, the latest build of Qoole 99 is being made available publicly as freeware: http://www.qoole.com/Qoole99v097.zip

So there ya go.

Tritin Films is proud to announce the release of the movie poster for Quad God. The movie is completed, edited, finished,and waiting on the shelf for free-public release. To view the poster for Quad God's upcoming release, click here. The movie release date is currently set for whenever Quake III: Arena hits the shelves.

Welcome to one of the most dead news days of the year. Everyone must be either watching those swanky MTV music awards, or patching Windows against attack. At least patch your systems :)

The game site known as QuakeStuff has a brand new design. The reason for the design was because it was "difficult to update and cramped." The site is available via www.gedbyrne.demon.co.uk until they find a new host.

A new version of Q3Tweak has been released. Version 1050 includes several new features, like added picture previews, a color name editor, a MaxFPS option, and more. Check out their site for the full changelist, and the files.

Quake 3D Rage has been redesigned, as well as beefed up with new content. Along with the design comes 2 new articles. One on Quake 3 Arena Tips, and the other focusing on Quake Movies.

GamersX.com has released this week's Temporary Insanity guide. The guide tackles how not to play Quake3, while offering several pearls of wisdom.

John Carmack made a plan file update with info that I'm sure will interest all of you modelers out there: the revelation that they're going to be using a skeletal model system. Here's a brief clip from the update:

The new format is bone based, but it is NOT hierarchial. Each vertex just has an arbitrary weighted list of the bones that influence it. Bones are just 4x3 matricies of floats.

A hierarchial skeleton has some advantages (angles instead of matricies, ability to do IK, etc), but this is a direct and simple replacement for our existing infrastructure that doesn't require any cached state per model instance.

A single .md4 file holds multiple level of detail surface sets, which all share the same bone frames.

There's also an updated worklog posting at the bottom of his update, so you might want to check that out as well.

I saw over on Blue's that the final version of KeyGrip 2 has been released. KeyGrip 2 is a demo editing suite for doctoring up your Quake2 recorded demo files. This final release now supports non-OpenGL video cards, auto-splitting of demos with multiple maps or levels in them, and more. Check out their site for more info.

News over at Quake3.cc is that a new Q3Arena tournament is in the works. The winner of this tourney will receive one of those swanky EverGlide mousepads. The competition will consist mainly of 5-player free-for-all matches. Hit the link there to read more!

The Strange Company has released version 2.5 of their "StrangeSaver" screensaver program. StrangeSaver allows you to play 3D game demos as your Windows screensaver. It currently supports all incarnations of Quake, as well as several other popular 3D shooter games.

id Software's John Carmack has made a plan file update, with his comments on a few things, including the new nVidia graphics card, and the new Apple G4 systems. Here's a clip about the new card:

It is fast. Very, very fast. It has the highest fill rate of any card we have ever tested, has improved image quality over TNT2, and it gives timedemo scores 40% faster than the next closest score with extremely raw beta drivers.

Great, now do I go ahead and order a G400 like I was planning, or do I wait for this new beast? Decisions decisions...

Truegamers.net is a new site which is dedicated to focusing on competition coverage. I'm sure this includes tourneys, LAN events, and other things of that nature. Those of you who are the competitive type might want to pay them a visit :)

4th Dimension has updated their website with a new level pak, readme file, mappers manual, and more. Be sure to check out their new stuff, as well as some of their older projects as well!

The MapZone has setup a 10 page strategy guide for Q3Arena's tournament play. Definitely worth a look if you want to be the king (or queen) of the tourney!

Quaker's Domain is a new site that's now up and operational (at a temporary home right now). They're working on starting up an International Quake Association and other such activities, so drop by and check 'em out!

Borderfield Software has released the next version of "Q3A - Total Control", their administration console utility for Q3Arena. As they say, "It contains a FunName editor, a Key Binder, a PK3 Eplorer, a Dialup Optimizer that can reduce lag with up to 30%, a Server launcher, demo starter and a Config Editor that you can use to tweak your graphics, railgun settings, HUD and much more." Check out their site for more info!

id's John Carmack updated his plan file with some pretty technical info on saving memory, as well as his experience with learning perl. Here's the worklog portion of it:

* save 2.5 megs by reworking shader allocation
* save 1 meg by not double buffering backend if not smp
* convert all tr. arrays into pointers
* don't allocate as many snapshotentities when non dedicated
* new shader option: deformvertex move [x] [y] [z] [waveform]
* stackable deformvertex
* reduced lightning damage by 10%
* light emit from two sided surfaces
* reduced starting machinegun ammo in teamplay to 50 from 100

FYI the "deformvertex" line arguments are supposed to be in HTML-like brackets, but I'm too lazy to make them work so I put them in []'s instead :)

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