Among other things, I have been working on the Hexen II FGD lately. Its going very slowly...mainly because Raven has still not released the official HC code and compiling utils. This wasn't supposed to be a problem, as both Raven and Activision said they would get me the necessary info, as having Worldcraft support is a Good Thing™. Well, I haven't heard anything for quite a while about the hc or utils...ah well...

The HC code that was ripped from the hexen II progs.dat is helping a bit, but it just can't compare to the commented code that will (?) be released by Raven. The hacked together compiling utils are working enough for me to test maps, but im sure the official tools will work better.

* autolycus waits and waits and waits...still, nothing

-autolycus

Anyone interested in finding out a bit more about one of the hottest upcoming editor/game combos should check out the Game Designer's Corner. I've posted my preview of Half-Life and Worldcraft 2.0. Needless to say, I was quite impressed, and I hope this shows through in the article.

Whoa, this is cool

Thanks goes to Jonathan Daughtrey for pointing out that Worldcraft and The Forge is mentioned in this month's GamePro magazine!

Pretty cool indeed...but, doh, I can't find October's issue anywhere...only November's. Ah well...that's still pretty damn cool.

PQ go boom?

PlanetQuake experienced some slight technical difficulties (Understatement of the Week™) over the last 20 odd hours. Now that its fixed, PQ should be more stable than ever!

-autolycus

Well...what can I say, id releases something new and cool, and productivity drops. Let me recount all that has happened in the last four days besides the release of the first Quake 2 test: uh...

Well, that about sums it up. At least, that's all that i've seen...i've been busy playing around with q2test.

Oh Yeah...

Almost forgot... :) ...I updated the Game Designer's Corner with an article by Myrkul, entitled Designer's Guide to Multiplayer Quake Gameplay. It's a good read, check it out at the Game Designer's Corner.

-autolycus

The Tutorial has been updated with some new info on making doors, trains, lifts, teleporters, etc. Check it out!

- Loki

I've posted version 1.5 of what has turned into the QuakeFGD Pack. Included now are updated versions of the Standard, Hipnotic, Rogue, and Zerstorer FGD files, with a brief readme.txt explanation of how to use everything. Check it out in the Files section...as usual, send me feedback.

-autolycus

PlanetQuake is one year old today. Awww...isn't it cute?

Game Designer's Corner! Go look!

I'm happy to announce a new addition to the current PQ features, The Game Designer's Corner. This will be a collection of articles with topics somehow related to game design - programming, level editing, sound, art, and more. Submissions are open to anyone, so contact the editor (er, me!) if you'd like to write something.

This weeks batch of articles mostly deals with level design stuff, although there is an article by Nelno that explains some of the ins and outs of bot programming. So...go check it out! :) There is a link available from the PlanetQuake main navigation bar.

-autolycus

It's a holiday for all us Canucks...woo and stuff.

-autolycus

Ok, The new version of worldcraft has been posted. If you think you already downloaded yesterday...well...download it again. :) All the "Whats new" stuff still holds true, but now everything works and stuff. Good concept. :) Go get it.

-autolycus

Looks like there is a problem with Worldcraft 1.5b, in that it doesn't save entity key values correctly. So, it's probably not a good idea to use this. Bah. Expect Worldcraft 1.5c tomorrow. If you just have to check out the new icon and logo, go head and download it. They are very cool.

W O R L D C R A F T   1.5b !!!

Worldcraft 1.5b was released tonite. There is a new registered patch (version 1.3 to 1.5b) and a new 1.5b shareware version. Leach em from the Files section now! As usual, please send any bug reports to Worldcraft support. Also, check out the cool new logo!!! |2| (the graphics genius, yeah, that |2|) did an amazing job.

Here's what's new for 1.5b:

Added:

• New icons and splash screen, courtesy of Walter |2| Costinak. These are great!
• One vertex will snap to grid when you use the arrows to shift it, if it was not already on the grid.
• The Alt+P map checker now detects solid entities with no solids attached to them. This happens rarely, but it's a pain to fix.
• There's now an option to replace textures on hidden brushes.
• There's now an option in the 2D Views tab to draw objects with the color of the group they belong to in the 2D views.
• You can now combine multiple solid entities into a single entity with the toEntity command. You couldn't, before.
• Copy/Paste entity properties buttons were added in the Object Properties dialog box. Select an entity, hit COPY, and all its attributes are saved. Select another entity, hit PASTE, and those attributes are copied over. Pretty cool.
• When you move stuff in the 2D views, the original object remains in place once more.
• Added arrows for texture scaling in the Texture Application Bar.

Fixed:

• Ctrl+A stopped working to center the four views. Fixed.
• Undoing texturing with the APPLY button in Texture Application mode didn't work. Fixed.
• Undo didn't update the 3D preview properly (this bug was only in the last release.) Fixed.
• The clip plane now uses the texture on existing faces of the brush you're clipping when it adds a face to a brush. It used to add whatever texture you currently had selected, which was a pain if that texture was water or slime or whatever.
• The clip plane didn't work on grouped objects/solid entities. Fixed.
• Sometimes visgroups would be created with a very very dark color. Fixed.
• Snap to grid indicator was flipped sometimes. Fixed.
• "Goto" in the entity report no longer closes the report window.
• Moving brushes with the arrow keys wasn't recorded in Undo. Fixed.
• Adding an object to the prefab library crashed Worldcraft. Fixed.

Video error

Just got this from the Worldcraft support dude: if you're getting a RM CreativeDeviceFromSurface() D3DRMERR_BADDEVICE error, its most likely due to you not running Windows in 16-bit color mode. Setting you'te color palette to 16-bit should fix this problem in most cases.

Got transparency. Don't got gl.

I've been meaning to find this for a while, and I saw it mentioned on Blue's News today. The Waterhack thingie! It basically allows non-glQuake users to have transparent water. From the top (dry side) water is invisible, so you can see any players/items in the water. From the wet side, it appears as it would in normal glQuake (I guess...i too am gl-deficient). I've posted the Waterhack file in the Files section under Editing Utilities. While you're at it, check out the Waterhack webpage.

What the hell is an 'autolycus', anyway?

Ok, I'm always asked where I got the nick autolycus from. No, its not from Xena. I had it first. :P The first time I found autolycus was when reading Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Here is the first set of lines from him that I saw:

The Winter's Tale, IV.3.23 - 30

My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds. look to lesser
linen. My father named me Autolycus, who, being, as I
am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up
of unconsidered trifles. With die and drab I purchased
this caparison, and my revenue is the silly cheat. Gal-
lows and knock are too powerful on the highway: beat-
ing and hanging are terrors to me. For the life to come, I
sleep out the thought of it. A prize! A prize!

So...there's more than you ever needed to know about Autolycus. Note that I don't capitalize the 'a' (because I'm a difficult bastard).

-autolycus

Saw this on Redwood's. Over at Bolt Action Software there is a Quake Level Designer Wanted for a short term project. There aren't too many details, but the mapper who is picked gets paid $2000 for his or her work.

Lame email o' the day

Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 15:24:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: Wipeoot@aol.com
To: autolycus@planetquake.com
Subject: hey

Can you send me Worldcraft 2.0 Beta ?

h3y, y3Ah. sUr3 d00d. n0 pR0bl3m. 3rr...wA|T...n0. y0u suC.

(sorry...had to talk so they could understand me...bah)

Hey, A Banner!

Well...I figured it was about time the Forge had a banner, and hell, I was feeling creative. What do you think?

One thing I hate is huge graphic stuff and waiting for big animated gifs to load. If you feel the same way, you have got to check out the Gif Wizard. It shrunk my banner from 20K to 10K. How cool is that? It is the shiznit! I think i'll use it lots. :)

Whoa, interviews

There's a ton of interviews to check out. Got this list at sCary's. Most of these are from...uh...C? (I guess thats what its called), with the exception of the second interview with Harry Teasley, which is from VideoGameDesign.com.

• Eric Biessman
  
• Levelord
  
• Dave Riller
  
• American McGee
  
• Rich Carlson
  
• Mike Wardwell
  
• Sverre Kvernmo
  
• Harry Teasley (also here)
  
• John Anderson
  

FGD stuff

Haven't gotten much feedback on the Zer FGD yet. Is it working ok? Did I miss stuff? Are there mistakes? Hope its working good. The next FGD project will be the Hexen II FGD. I'm hoping to have that ready sometime this week, as long as Raven releases the utils and .hc code.

What about the files?

Oh yeah, you probably noticed already...the files are back online. (and there was much rejoicing). heh.

-autolycus

Files? Uh, no...

I am Mordac, Minister in Charge of Misplacing Things. I have come with tales of misplaced files. Er...if you're looking for files here today...uh...well...they're not here. Planetquake had some upgrades done today, and the PQ files haven't been mirrored to cdrom.com yet (as of 10:30 pm PST). They should be back online soon. Until then, go amuse yourself.

Gamespy!

Saw this in the #Gamespy topic on 3DNet IRC:

GameSpy will be released tonight at 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST

-autolycus

The Zerstörer FGD version 1.1 is now posted in the Files section. I went through the .QC code and I think I got all the entities...please correct me if I haven't. Have fun or something.

Solaris Quake problem

Got this from Ken Alverson:

So there ya go. The file is bspalign.gz and its in the Files section under Editing Utilities. Get it if ya need it.

Z is for, er...uh...F is for FGD

Almost forgot to post this :) The Zerstörer FGD is mostly done, as far as the Developers Kit is concerned. I'm going to go through the .QC souce to add any of the entities that were left out, like the cutscene stuff. For now, you can play with it and let me know if anything doesn't work. Check it out in the Files section.

A note about FGD files and Worldcraft (version 1.5+): Worldcraft will use the first FGD file it comes across in the Worldcraft directory. The way I have my FGD's set is like this: I have the files hipnotic.fgd.x, rogue.fgd.x, quake.fgd.x, and Zerstörer.fgd.x. When I want to use one of them, I just remove the .x. This makes keeping track of which FGD is which much easier, as opposed to having to rename them quake.fgd.

Half-Life, a word from The Man, and the Other Man

Just received this email from Gabe Newall:

and the word from the Other Man, over at Sierra:

Shucks...that does suck. But, I'm glad they're making the decision to delay rather than cutting out content and features. Plus, it'll give Ben more time to add cool stuff into Worldcraft 2.0! Hey, there's always a bright side to things! :) I'm looking quite forward to the release of this game...it's going to provide many new editing possibilities, and heck, the special version of Worldcraft will be worth the price of admission. (Think of it as paying for Worldcraft and getting a free top-notch game...heh...that's kinda cool...)

Z is for textures? Well, no...but...

I just threw up the Zerstörer texture WAD. Well, I mean, I didn't throw up or anything, even if that fetus texture is kinda gross, but, uh...hey, just download it or something! :) Any texture that is also in the Quake, Hipnotic, or Rogue texture WAD has been removed. Its in the Files section. Expect a Zerstörer FGD very soon.

Z is for Zerstörer

Hmm...I've been away from reality lately or something, so I just got around to checking out the Zer mission pack. Very cool stuff. Im working on a Zerstörer FGD file so all you editing fiends can make levels with the Zer entities, and I have an optimized texture wad ready as well (it only includes the unique Zer textures). Just waiting on word from one of the Zer guys on whether they want me to post the stuff or not.

Maybe i'm just bored...

I uh...was bored so I reorganized the old news stuff. If there's something you want to look up from the news archives here, its a bit easier now. I notice May was a bit sparse...moving sucked.

-autolycus

Ken Alverson sent me this bit of email:

How cool is that?

Just playing around with a Worldcraft 2.0 beta, and I have to say, it has some very cool features. The spiral staircase to the right took about 18 seconds to build.

The Green Ribbon campaign

I've been meaning to post something about this for quite a while. This is definitely a worthy cause, and heck, it costs nothing and adds alot to the community. Check out the Quake Community Green Ribbon Campaign homepage. Here is a run down on what its about:

We the people of the Quake Community, in order to form a more perfect union, hereby proclaim our right to freedom of speech and respect for others when exercising this right.

• A person's dignity is inviolable.
• Everyone shall have the right to develop and to present themselves in any way they like, as long as no one else's rights are violated.
• Everyone shall have the right to make public their opinions and beliefs in an uncensored manner. This right finds its limits in the respect for others.

-autolycus