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Quake First Person Shooters (Games)

Q3Test in "a few weeks" 56

Posted by CmdrTaco from the brace-yourself-for-carnage dept.
Jacek Fedorynski writes "Graeme 'Zaphod' Devine of id Software updated his .plan, in which he wrote that the test of Q3A that everybody expected to be out in March will be out in a few weeks. I can't wait much longer. "
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Q3Test in "a few weeks" More

Q3Test in "a few weeks"

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  • Box games (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Games are mainly level data, the executable tends to be rather small. So why have separate boxes for the different versions - other than market research. A lot of edutainment titles used to have PC and Mac executables, and some Amiga 500 and ST budget games used to share the same disk.

  • Question (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Pardon my ignorance. I thought that 3DFx Voodoo1/2
    were only good for running games full screen in console.
    Someone mentioned that it is possible to use 3DFx
    Voodoo1/2 to run 3D programs in a window. But there
    is a performace hit. What options will Q3 Linux users
    have?

  • Box games (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think that this is an excellent move on Id's part. This will allow them to test Linux as a gaming OS by comparing sales of the Linux box versus the Windows and Mac counterparts. This could make or break Linux as a gaming OS, and I can only hope that they give Linux deserved shelf space, as not doing so will give incorrect results.
    Of course, the executable will have nothing to do with the box, the box IS more important as it is a quick and easy way to figure out how many people are buying Quake for Mac, Linux or Windows. The irrelevant binaries will be freely availble on the internet for the OS of your choice.
    PLEASE, buy a copy of Q3:Arena for Linux, and thus prove us as a viable gaming platform for hundreds of others of companies.
  • If I really pay money for a Linux game, I want to get a box that has the word "Linux" in big fat letters on it. That gives me the feeling that I finally got my money's worth.

    Another point is market influence. Imagine the puzzled look of a Windoze user who discovers a Linux game on the store shelf! I doubt that there will be many Linux boxes on the shelves, but the press coverage alone will be very helpful. It's all about marketing.

  • :( (Score:1)

    by bmetz ( 523 )
    On behalf of all that have too much free time..:(


  • All the executables will be avialable online, so any version can be converted to any other.


    -- John Carmack
  • ??????

    I pray to Eris that you mean 'Software OpenGL rendering', because if not, your life is probably going to be wrecked from all the crack you're smoking.

    BTW, software OpenGL rendering would be glacial compared to a traditional Quakeish software renderer.

  • The only place I could find that claims they will stock the Linux version of Civ:CTP is Future Shop. I would imagine that they would be stocking Quake 3 as well.



  • As much as I love Linux, I guess I'll have to play this game under Win95, unless NVidia ever releases an accelerated OpenGL for Linux.

    Still, I plan on buying the Linux boxed version and simply downloading the Win32 EXEs from the net. Anyone else planning to do the same?
  • If they're only "a few weeks" late they're ahead of almost every software company/group/project that's ever existed. As long as they release it for the promised platforms, I'm happy.

    I wonder if a LinuxPPC port is in the cards...
  • damn, these guys are fast...i can still remember the weeks i played the original quake demo (quake classic?) along with 20 others in a the pokey levels (the start of quake) ...i tell ya try doing this with 20 yelping and screaming programmers on a lan is something to behold :) ....

    it doesn't matter when the arena-test (then demo) comes out, the wait is well worth it. now to go out and get some hardware to run the sucker..forget more's law ...who's ever hear of software kicking along the hardware purchase cycle.

  • Wait for Voodoo3 to come out, then buy yourself a Voodoo2. They're already down to a bit more than $100. And they'll get cheaper.
  • Future shop went out of business. They're currently ditching their stock, I doubt they'll be getting anything new in.
  • We all know that id has said they'd be releasing the game for multiple platforms at the same time, but does anyone know if they're going to be releasing Q3test for Linux, too? I'm just curious cause I'm dying to have a look at this thing and don't want to wait till the game actually comes out :)


    -mike kania
  • I still remember reading alt.games.quake back then, waiting (drooling) for the beta to come out. That was a fun newsgroup back then, what with all the warez posts and quake beta jokes going on. Does anyone remember that?
  • Q3 will run under opengl - technically it will run on software but, well, umm, opengl without hardware support? the words slow and very come to mind.
  • I read somewhere that Quake3 will not support software rendering. I understand that it doesnt look as good, but as per the last alpha my Ati Rage Pro board was not supported, I dont really feel like going out any paying $200 to play the game when it could be better invested in a new drive or something more useful. Bah humbug. :-)
    Stan "Myconid" Brinkerhoff
  • Thanks Zoid,

    I was wondering if Q3a would be compiled against Mesa3.x. Since I've been sucessful in running Mesa based application fulls screen on my permedia2 based opengl card under linux. This was using Mesa3.x and mlx (ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/3d/devel/).

    I have tried (but failed) at trying to run q2 with my own libs. Is q2 hardcoded to just Mesa2.6?

    For mlx and glx cvs please visit..

    http://lists.openprojects.net/mailman/listinfo/g 200-dev

    Have fun.

    PS: I just tested out KingPin And oh boy! This is one "fscking" soild game. It's more gripping than Half-Life and has an extreemly soild game story. Not to mention the models seem to be almost real (And chicks rock!). The 100 mb demo is worth the download. Everyone get it!!
    --
  • Internet Explorer is dynamically linked. (thus .dll). But that should not be an issue if you use a free OS right?

    It might be good to note that most linux netscapes in most current distrubtions are statically linked. This is to help with compatiblity problems (Motif) and speed (yes it could be faster).


    --
  • I don't have plans for a LinuxPPC port since I don't really know what OpenGL hardware is supported on that platform at this time.

    I can do a dedicated server port no problem. But a client requires hardware accelerated OpenGL.
  • Linux Q3A will not support software rendering.

    Sure, you can run it, but it is not playable (can you say one frame a second?)

    3DFX support is in the can (since Q2 already did that). RIVA128 and TNT support is coming--but there isn't a time frame for availability of those drivers yet.

  • Q3test for Linux? (Score:3)

    by Zoid ( 8837 ) <zoidctf@gmail.com> on Sunday March 28, 1999 @05:53PM (#1959150) Homepage
    You betcha Q3A for Linux will be ready the day the Win32 version is going to be released. I've got it running very well on Mesa 3-D on 3DFX hardware under X11 and I'm testing some other hardware drivers this week.

  • Basically there's going to be boxed versions for every OS. It will be the same base level data. From what I've read you will be able to freely download any OS executable. The only differences in the boxes you buy will be which OS happens to be on that cd by default. Or maybe they'll just get a brain and put them all on the cd.
  • I don't know if the guys from Id read Slashdot, but if you do, do me a favor. Next time you decide to delay a product like this, please give us more notice. I, and about 90% of the rest of the gaming community, expected it to be released last night. Because of this I sat up all night waiting for the release so that I could mirror it on my triple T1 FTP server. I gave up after the sun came up (first sunrise I've seen in years).
  • I guess it just depends on where one lives then. I gladly bear the pain of downloading all my Linux software, including distros, because here in Saskatchewan it would cost me a whole lot of $$ in gas (at least an hour drive from the farm) just to try to find some place that would stock even RedHat CDs.
  • Man, chill out. First off, id never gave a date, they just said they wanted to get it out before the end of the month. Second, unless you hear something firm from the id guys (via their plans, don't believe anything you read elsewhere), don't assume a release date. Everyone remember the Quake rumors? We didn't even know the Quake test was out until Romero popped up on irc and announced it to the world.
  • Last I heard they *will* support deficient boards like the RagePro but of course with lower quality graphics.
  • I'm definately buying the Linux box set just so my vote counted in marketing demographics of the world. However, do you really believe they will allow the Win32 exe's to be available for download??
  • I'm looking forward to Q3A just as much as the
    next guy (unless you're the next guy), but I do
    not believe they ever PROMISED it by the end of
    March, and even if they had, what makes you think
    yesterday was the last day of March? My calendar
    says the 31st is the last day.

    Be patient... just think, Star Wars Ep. I is only
    FIFTY-TWO days away!!!
  • I mean, I know they said they'd TRY for the end
    of March, but how many times has id delivered the
    product exactly when they first predicted? Plus,
    usually Blue's News hypes it a little bit before
    it's going to come out (like, "prepare for an all-nighter everyone").

  • I had always just assumed that you'd buy Quake3Arena and it would contain the windows, mac, and linux versions. I never thought there'd be a seperate Q3A for Linux box.

    I don't know. Does anyone know this for sure? And you'll be able to download the executables from the net, it's the data files that you have to get from the CD.
  • Oh, c'mon. Yeah, I'd get most of the software online, but my local Barnes & Noble stocks Linux in 2 distros, RedHat and Slackware... with manuals, no less. Plus various CGI stuff on the next shelf.

    Not that I'm actually bragging (can't get computer shops to sell Linux, but the bookstores have it all over the place?)
  • If they do release the game in seperate shrink wrapped boxes rather than one fat binary then good luck finding a store that will stock them. At least up here in Canada I have to spend a week finding a store that stocks any Linux distro(try finding a non-RH one, just try.) so I don't think they'll be falling over themselves trying to stock Q3 for Linux.

    Which really sucks, because this is one time when voting with yr dollar will actually mean something. If other companies see a real Linux market then they too might consider porting software/releasing drivers.
  • I knew it was going to correspond with when midterms start for me :)
  • Yup there is a way (and it's simple enough and automatic (well it was for me and I didn't have to modify anything)).

    MesaGL takes the Voodoo accelerated stuff and reroutes it itself to X. This does cause a considerable slow down (but it's still considerably faster than nothing).

    However, I think that no-one plays games like these in a window anyway, so the full screen is just as quick as the console (I get ~30fps using MesaGl3.0 and a Voodoo I on my P200mmx having launched Quake II from X).

    What I want to know is how big is the d/l going to be? All I have is a 33.6............
  • Yes, Carmack said they would. They do it for Quake 2 right now, why wouldn't they for Q3A?

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