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Quake First Person Shooters (Games)

Quake III Arena Demo Test for Linux 319

Posted by michael from the now-stop-submitting-it-please dept.
We're being barraged with submissions that the Quake 3 Demo Test for Linux is now available, along with Win32 and Mac versions for the OS-challenged. I just tried it and the download was maxing out my DSL line, so I guess the Sandpiper guys are on the job.
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Quake III Arena Demo Test for Linux More

Quake III Arena Demo Test for Linux

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  • only 3 chipsets that have OpenGL support in hardware (Nvidia, 3Dfx, and Matrox)

    But a 4th, ATI, will be supported next (openly, at that). With those 4 your have basically 75% of the graphics card market anyway, don't you? You're missing Intel, Number9, and Permidia, but those are all pretty small now. I guess S3 is the only thing left to worry about.
  • my tnt card doesn't work well in q3test, I don't recommend buying nvidia cards for linux
  • It looked awesome...until it froze. Does it have issues with either a TNT card? Or smp issues (i remember reading way back that carmack had something aginst smp) - hrm......
  • Thanks a lot, it worked great.

  • I run a dual celeron 550 with a v3 3000. Let me clarify about my statement that "I don't have to worry about the OS crashing": I don't necessarily mean that q3test was doing it. I crashed hard once in q3test because I enabled r_smp 1 and couldn't get out of the game. Other than that, NT would crash every single time I tried to run Nero, the cd burning software that came with my cdrw. Various other programs just as Musicmatch Jukebox would cause a BSOD everytime I double clicked on it. I have friends who will let their dvds and cdrws sit useless in their computer or put it in another computer rather than install the drivers and "screw their NT install". Anyway, I digress. The point is that I know i can play q3 in linux and not worry about crashing before, during, or after. I can't say the same of NT.

    Jeremy

  • Probably 100,000 Linux users read the story about the Linux version being pulled from the UT cd. I'm willing to bet you Brandon got less than 50 hatemails.

    We will never get away from that half a promille of the Linux users who behave like children (mostly because, well, they are children).

    -
    We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.
  • CDRom.com has it for all 3 platforms. ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff/quake3/
  • Sadly, I have to agree on the `availability' point. I have a Millennium II, and I've _heard_ it's possible to do q3test on it, but I haven't found out how. So I tried the q3test in software emulation (80x60x0.5fps), and now I want 3D-acceleration even more... Nobody have a clue on how to get a Millennium II (or Millennium I -- Q3A without texture mapping, yay!) to work? (I simply don't have enough slots on my motherboard to put in a 3D card...)

    /* Steinar */
  • Note that said itp mirrors explicitly violate iD's no redistribution policy. So go ahead and be an asshole if you must.

    So, if you are saying the truth, then this itp mirror actually mails you a CD, huh? Or is what you say is just damp flatulance.

    /checks www.quake3arena.com

    Yup. You've got a gas problem. Better grab the pepto.

    -sw
  • I haven't checked any mirrors yet, but from what I see here the demo won't be showing up on any magazine coverdiscs due to licensing restrictions.

    This really bothers me. Not everybody has Cable/DSL/T3 in their area. On a 56K modem it takes FOREVER to d/l it. I understood when the test was d/l only, I figured they didn't want people to be running a 3 month old version by the time they got their copy due to publishing delays.

    Now we are apparently in the same boat when it comes to the demo of the final game! Is there a legitimate reason? Or has id decided that all "real" gamers have moved into metropolitan areas served by high speed access? Perhaps all the bandwidth they are used to has made them lose touch with what many of us face?
  • According to Brian Hook (who was at id at the time he made the comment), id has put in the necessary software support to use 3DNow and SSE instructions within the quake3 proper. So driver support, while nice, isn't going to be the only place we get benefits from our instruction sets.

    I would hold off on a 3dfx board. Right now they aren't "the best" (whatever that means) and they are going to have new product out in March which should be a lot better than what they got now. If you can only buy 1 card and you have to have it now, the GeForce 256 based cards are fastest. If you can afford two cards, buy a TNT or TNT2 for cheap and then get one of the new 3dfx cards in the spring.

    -sw
  • 144 megs of RAM?

    Just out of morbid curiosity, how did your system get that number?

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • Re:WTF (Score:1)

    by nufan ( 26081 )
    TNT works ok. I wouldn't call it well :) I disagree with the previous poster though. And I think things are picking up steam very fast.
  • What's this 300bps? Hah, what luxury!
    BBSs were much more fun on a 110bps teletype!

  • PCs suck for gaming, period. Serious gamers are console gamers. When I play games, I want to see a projection screen with 500 watts of surround sound. If you want to sit huddled in front of a postage-stamp-sized screen with scratchy sound out of a pair of shitty speakers, be my guest. :-)

    LOL! Dude you're living in denial or something. :) Go out and buy any decent mini system from Sony/AIWA/JVC/et al. Hook it up to your $50 SbLive or Aural based card. And my 17" monitor may be smaller than my 35" TV, but it certainly has a much better picture than my TV be far. Plus when the urge arises I can hook my computer up to my TV. But the urge seldom tweaks my bottom. Have a great weekend! :)

    -sw
  • I just installed the RPM, and when I run linuxquake3 I get the following messages:
    ...loading libMesaVoodooGL.so.3.3: Initializing OpenGL display
    ...setting mode 3: 640 480
    Using XFree86-VidModeExtension Version 0.8
    XFree86-VidModeExtension: Ignored on non-fullscreen/Voodoo
    Received signal 4, exiting...

    Anyone know what the problem could be? Thanks.
  • Anyway, check out the OS of the next Internet Quake server you play on. You might be surprised.

    FreeBSD! (yeah yeah, I know, flamebait. but it's true.)

    Right now the next quake server anybody plays on will most likely be 98 or NT. Just a simple fact given the release time of the linux version.

  • Publicity (Score:3)

    by SmileyBen ( 56580 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @04:59PM (#1515801) Homepage
    Let's hope that the word actually gets out that such a thing as Quake 3 for Linux exists. Games are (sadly) one of the major blocks for people from moving to Linux, and if they realise that they can still play the best FPS they'll be one step closer!

    (Who cares about spreadsheets, when you have Quake?)
  • Yes, that's very "insightful!" I doubt anyone really considers the fact that the percentage of Linux users who flame people (developers, reporters, Mindcraft/Microsoft, etc) is very low. Of the multiple hundreds of thousands of Linux users who read all the press on the Mindcraft fiasco, I doubt there were more than a few hundred "flames" or insulting hatemails. I don't think a few per hundred thousand is that much of a percentage to be concerned about. If reporters/developers/whoever can't realize that times have changed and an email does not necessarily "mean" as much as a written letter (because it's so easy and non-time consuming to fire off a hatemail, where a written letter usually requires much more thought and preparation) then they obviously have internal "issues" to work out in this new age.
  • They said:
    ---
    Actually, one of the guys that comes to our regular lan parties is in the same boat as you. A few games of q3 or halflife and he's about to hurl. What he uses is an elastic band that fits around your wrist and has a plastic bit that presses on a presssure point that alleviates your motion sickeness. You can probably find them in a drugstore. I don't have a specific name of brand. Hope that helps.
    ---
    End They

    And i spew:

    I've always had that problem with Descent, Freespace, and other games like that... The ones with the full 3D range of movement in all directions... And for some reason to a limited extent, I think Tomb Raider on the PSX.

    But Never in Wolfie, Doom, or Quake or HalfLife.. But definitly try the plastic wrist-pressure-point band thing... I think I've seen them in Walgreens and in some of the bigger chain drugstores...

    ---
    I don't spellcheck
    ---
  • I'm getting the same problem- is it a bug in the drivers? I'm really beginning to think so. I've had some funky problems with one of my friends OpenGL stuff he's been tinkering with and getting it to run on mine. However, Q3 does work with libMesaGL.so, but incredibly slowly (I didn't even get past the option screens). I know the 128 is kind of an old card, but under windows it runs Q3 perfectly. I guess with the current alpha drivers from nvidia I shouldn't expect much (I can't wait for XFree 4.0)...

    But besides that, has anyone been able to load it with the nvidia drivers and the 128?
  • This is not the FINAL demo, this is a TEST demo. The final demo will be distributed on physical media, aka Magazine CDROMs, etc. This was covered in John Carmacks plan this week.

  • So how does Sandpiper work? Distributed proxies? It seems kinda sketchy.

    ~Chris

  • Hmmm. (Score:3)

    by Signal 11 ( 7608 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @05:02PM (#1515811)
    Let me get this straight... you've spent thousands of hours playing quake... you've avoided coding your project for two months... your drivers are out of date... your dog left you... your SO left you... you haven't slept in weeks... and your boss wants to know if you're still working there.

    After all this, you're gonna download Q3 and do it all again?! Yessir.. that's the general idea...


    --
  • Unless you are dialing into AOL or some other evil conglomerate, I recommend trying to befriend your friendly local ISP administrator. HE has the T1 in your area... and if he's a decent citizen he'll do you a small favor and let you download your 53mb onto a zip disk in his office!
  • Who here is old enough to remember this from the good old days of b4 Doom? :)
    --
    Deepak Saxena
  • I've also done this for *.au/*.nz users.

    ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/q3demotest/linux/ q3demoTEST-1.10-5-NOPAK.i386.tar.gz

    1,201,886 bytes

    -jason
  • Have you set the environment variable MESA_GLX_FX=fullscreen ?
  • Probably both :)
  • I figured out how to run it. The "couldn't get visual" problem is because there is only 4MB of memory. You have to remove the large virtual desktops from your XF86Config file, so that the desktop (note, not display) resolution is smaller. Then it can get a visual.

    However, I find that I still only get about 20fps in corners and 2fps otherwise. Clearly it isn't hardware accelerated, as it is with the same drivers and RIVA TNT2. I can't figure out why. I'm fairly sure I'm doing everything correct (16bit etc.).

    --
  • Does anyone know if there are any command line options for the dedicated server, such as start map rotation, add bots, etc? i'd like to add it to a startup script. =]

  • It works great with my RIVA TNT2 at work. However, at home (with the test and this demo test) I haven't had luck with my RIVA 128. I am using the same driver (X server and libGL.so) but I get this error:

    Couldn't get a visual

    How can I fix this to work at home? Please email.

    --
  • Hhmmm. Perhaps we can the q3/linux community a service and plot download times by ISP and date/time of day? November 21st, 11:00AM CST, TimeWarner RoadRunner in Memphis, TN, USA - 52MB in 2 minutes, 8 seconds.
  • Games are (sadly) one of the major blocks for people from moving to Linux.

    Eh, who cares? Who wants to have people whose main interest is playing games? All you would be getting is tons of people not able to install Red Hat. That wouldn't help the Linux community at all. "A nice platform to play games on" wouldn't help Linux at all. Look what that did to the Atari.

    -- Abigail

  • You're missing the point. You seem to be acting as if getting some decent games for Linux would somehow prevent it from being "useful, stable, and good". Believe me, Linux is in absolutely no danger of being seen as a "gamers platform". The gaming situation in Linux is horrible. Do you think of windows, or even Macs, as nothing but "gamers platforms". I think not, yet both of these OSes have FAR more game support than Linux. This complete lack of games for Linux is off-putting for a lot of potential Linux users. What on earth is wrong with being able to kick back and play some computer games from time to time? Why do you have to act so conceited as if having some games for Linux would somehow hurt it. If you don't want to play them then don't, but there is no reason to prevent others from doing so.
  • Yes, I've had the same problem. I'm using the kernel OSS drivers, but it locks up after afew minutes. I've had to disable sound.
  • not quite. q3 only supports opengl officially, which in turn is only officially supported by ati. for 3dfx you use mesa, which still works but isn't officially supported, for whatever that's worth.
  • I have a voodoo3 3000 and I installed all the drivers. I can get Q3 to run but it's in a small box (not fully screen) and it's runs super slow. I can get the game started so I know the glide drivers are working, it's just small screan (about 600x600) Any help on how to fix this?
  • i've now mirror'ed q3demotest for people trying to
    download from australia/new zealand (only - unfortunately).

    http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/q3demotest/

    ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/q3demotest/
    ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/glsetup/

    -jason
  • Hey guys,
    I could (1.08), get Q3 to load with a TNT2, but it went god-awful slow. Is there something you did to make it run faster? Is the problem fixed with Q3demo, etc?
    If you could, reply to sblack@bigfoot.com
    Thanks,
    Ateran
  • Actually, 14% isn't that small: that's 1 in 7. However, you're right that 14% isn't that big, either.

    I'm not flaming you, I just wanted to point out that raw percentages are rather mis-leading: even 1% isn't really terribly small. Percentages are just not a good means for convaying magnitues.

  • I beleive that's a server message (ie sent from the server).
  • A while ago I took the binaries for Q3Test 1.08 and posted them on cdrom.com for all those who had the Windows version and didn't need to re-DL a 50MB pak? Could someone do the same for the Demo please? I know it would only be like 1meg and taring a directory is easy as pie (just make sure you don't tar the pak along with it).

    Please? I mean, they should already do this over at iD, but someone just do it for them. I did. ;)
  • hey, has anybody out there gotten this thing running using tnt2 and the glx drivers? if so let me know - aparently it isn't officially tested...
  • It is wiser to have HTTP access first. On the server end, web servers handle heavy traffic better than ftp servers do. On the client end, all firewalls and security schemes are usually configured for transparent web browsing while FTP may or may not be configured and it isn't as transparent.
  • I don't think you know the slightest thing about gamers. I think its a broad generalization that they bring nothing to the linux platform, i think thats somthing that geeks should try and stay away from. Programmers, artists, and designers work on TC's all the time. How else would you have CTF? Quake players are a avid, hard working computer user group. They are twice as hardcore, and have twice the gusto as any /. poster. So don't try and tell them they can't install redhat. Not only are they incredible apologists, I bet half of them work to further the quake community in some way. And the other half is testing the software the others make, and unlike some others they make sure to let there problems known and help in any way they can to make that software better.

    They use windows because nothing runs on Linux. And I have to agree with them any Unix is hardly a viable desktop platform. They want to play there games, let them

    Rob

  • Quake players are a avid, hard working computer user group. [ .... ] I bet half of them work to further the quake community in some way.

    I bet more than 99% of the quake players have never programmed a computer, and will never either, just like 99% of the people driving a Ford have never repaired a car.

    I fail to why bringing quake players (or any other game) would make Linux better.

    They want to play there games, let them.

    Oh, I don't mind people playing their games. I just don't have any urge to lure them away from Windows (or the Mac) and onto Unix.

    As Tom would say, "The Computer *is* the Game".

    -- Abigail

  • I may be wrong, but I believe that you have to have whatever resolution the game is running at specified in your XF86Config file, otherwise it runs in a window. ie, if you have X setup to only run at 1024x768 then you can only run quake3 fullscreen at 1024x768 unless you edit your XF86Config.
  • You know what? The thing flies!
  • I'm getting the same problem with voodoo3 .. I've even tried changing my default x session to be 640x480 16bbp and is still blows chunks with a sig4..

    I'm guessing by the message that it has to do with q3 being unable to grab "fullscreen" mode ?? (yes I tried +set dga_mode 0 (or whatever it is)...

    The old q3test works fine ... shouldn't the new one work with my setup ... (yes I've got all of the uptodate drivers from 3dfx) .. umm this sucks

  • SMP? (Score:1)

    by taer ( 31134 )
    Does the Linux version support SMP yet? Just wondering if my dual pent will stand a chance this round...
  • I have q3demo on my TNT w/Nvidia X server working after some effort; I just had to enable 640x480x16bpp in X.

    FPS is really weak though, definitely 15 on my p2-350. Hopefully the drivers will shape up soon so I can buy the linux q3 box.
  • I had this same issue a while back. The trick is to pour over the development mailing list for the answers. :)

    Basically, there was a branch in the Mesa CVS tree. In order to compile the latest glx-mga driver for the G200/G400, you need to update your Mesa CVS sources like so:

    cvs update -r mesa_3_2_dev

    That will get you up to date.

    I have to say, I really love my G200. I have followed the progress of the glx driver almost from the beginning and it runs great for an incomplete driver. The new q3demo runs significantly faster than the most previous q3test.


    Nothing can possiblai go wrong. Er...possibly go wrong.
    Strange, that's the first thing that's ever gone wrong.
  • It was the Mac version, to the great surprise of everyone. Id said it was easier to test on the OS that has fewer users. :-)
  • Yeah, I guess they fixed something.
    I couldn't get a framerate that was even close to playable in 1.08, but in 1.09 it runs just fine.
    In addition to the already mentioned use-16-bit color tip, you also need to use the right libGL.so. The one from /usr/local/lib didn't work for me, but I copied the one from my glx source tree (what I should have done in the first place) and it worked fine.
  • I want to be able to set up a Q3 server on a Lan with only one computer running as a server, I was wondering what is the minimum requirements for the server?
  • that's the problem with cable, and more will see it as they all get on. It's SHARED with everyone in your local exchange. If everybody is on as much as you then you all get 56k speeks. You have to wade through local traffic and then big-pipe traffic, that's why I chose DSL, fast & steady (and (roughly) twice the upstream)
  • Yes, the above post did work for me. Your results may vary.

    Thanks da3dAlus
  • Well that sucks. I'm getting around 250-270KBps on my Prestige cable. Sure beats ISDN, which I was paying MORE for until I switched. If I were you, I'd drop the service, it can't be worth it.
  • Well, I live in the countryside so it'll be a while before people start downloading as much as I do! Besides, in another year or two I predict that the speed of cable modems will multiply by at least a factor of 10. That's why I'm leasing the cable modem for $10/month. I can't see paying $200-$250 to own one when it will be obsolete before I get my money's worth. Plus, DSL is not available in this area yet, because it's the boon-docks, and I can always "upgrade" to that later.
  • Thanks!
    I just went ahead and pulled the current source of glx off of their cvs, and replaced my older version. The new version is great! It's actually playable.

    Thanks for the impetus to upgrade my library :)

    ~Chris
  • Yes, the numbers are very low, but regardless, it does hurt the Linux community. Heck, when I was deciding whether to install Linux or not, I was quite put off by the blantent MS bashing and hatred toward them. I'm not saying you have to like MS, but when you call someone a **** **** (etc etc) for even mentioning they use Windows, you do not get them to go to Linux. Yes, they are a minority, but a very vocal minority. A few bad apples can ruin the barrel. I've written an essay on it that you can read here [1wh.com], that is written from my past experiance and fustrations with Linux zealots.
  • While I don't want to go as far as Abigail here, I find no truth in your comment that "If Linux is ever going to succeed as a desktop OS then it's going to need games."

    What do you mean by "games?" Do you mean the free games that come with every redhat CD? If you count those as games, then Linux already has games, and your point is moot.

    If, however, by "games" you mean "proprietary retail boxed games," then I do not agree with you that these games are necessary for success. Remember that Linux does not need enormous popularity to succeed. Other platforms such as Mac, OS/2, or BeOS need to be popular to succeed, since the pace of advancement on these platforms is dictated by the company that sells the software, and the resources of that company are constrained by product sales. Linux, on the other hand, can thrive as long as there are interested users. Any interested user has the freedom to improve the source code.

    Certainly there is no doubt that a lack of boxed retail games will hurt Linux's popularity. It might even hurt Linux's chances of succeeding. But it will not, as you claim, doom Linux's chances of succeeding. Even without games, the pool of interested users coupled with the open source nature of the code is enough to ensure Linux's continued progress for a long, long time.

  • Seems pretty easy to me, 128MB plus 16MB = 144MB. So the system probably has some old, slow 16MB SIMM, that is slowing the system down more than necessary.
  • For those of you out there using a TNT2 or a G400 or G200, just point the r_GlDriver thing or whatever it was to your /usr/X11/lib/libGL.so or whatever client library you're using for glx. S'what I do here. Running it on a pii 266 .. i remember when my computer was a decent box. when more than 3 people come in view, boom, man it's slow.

    on a similar related note.. I heard nVidia actually updated their resource manager so it's mostly ported to 2.2 linux kernels. ( Last one supposedly didn't even work on 2.0 which it was coded against ). Anyone try this out ?

  • I agree, that's why I wrote "Let's hope they don't get it", not "Them ******** bastards, let them rot in hell for this".

  • Niiiiiiice speed... (Score:3)

    by Chemical Serenity ( 1324 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @05:09PM (#1515909) Homepage Journal
    Maxxed out at 230k/s via my rogers@home cable connection. You GOTTA like that!

    50mb came down the pike in 5 minutes. Pshew... long way from the bad ol' days of:

    *RIIING*

    Hello?

    Hey, can you put the bbs up?

    Huh? Oh, yeah, hang on... *shuffle tap tap tap click* Ready?

    Yep...

    *BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*



    --
    rickf@transpect.SPAM-B-GONE.net (remove the SPAM-B-GONE bit)
  • I had no problem getting the mid wheel setup under the new demo. Works like a charm. Getting the demo to run as a whole was a tad bit more dificult but it runs none the less. and it sure is nice lookin ;)
    "We hope you find fun and laughter in the new millenium" - Top half of fastfood gamepiece
  • Well, somewhat true. Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 takes over the CRT, so it'll automatically be fullscreen (if you connect a diffrent monitor to your Voodoo you'll see that X is still unning as usual in the bg). With a MGA Gx00, you have the choice of running windowed or fullscreen. The only thing is, fullscreen is really only "windowed-up-in-the-left-corner-of-the-screen" while the resolution is changed to make it look like fullscreen. It works fine though. :)

    /Svenne, aka Kerberos
  • Trying to argue that consoles are better that PCs on features alone is pointless. You can .always. get a better gaming system on a PC than any console if you throw enough money at it.

    consoles are better in terms of price/performance.
    Quality of games available might be another argument.

    scratchy sound? We must be really weird to listen to all the near CD quality mp3's everyone here has on cheap speakers. You plug your PC into your stereo.

    Im personally not bothered about a few fps difference in speed between windows/linux if it means i dont have to keep booting into windows to run games. As long as the speed difference is not too big then im happy.

    looking at unreal tournament and quake3, 'cross platform games, more of your please' is all i can say.
  • in your $HOME/.q3a/demoq3/ dir you can edit the
    q3config.cfg and change seta r_smp "0" to seta r_smp "1" I would gather. I don't have an smp machine at home to test it on or I would. As far as the TNT (i have an stb velocity 4400), I can get it to run smashingly but everytime I restart it acts funny (sounds getting hung and what not). All I have to do is something silly like go into setup for graphics and slide the detail down a notch so it forces you to apply the changes, once it restarts to apply it works fine. go figure. Others have said that for the TNT make sure you lighting is set to lightmap instead of vertex but it works fine for me either way. Full screen and windowed.
    "We hope you find fun and laughter in the new millenium" - Top half of fastfood gamepiece
  • Rather dissapointing that we're at a point where every week a new graphics card comes out with a proprietary chipset yet we can only run games on one chipset introduced 5 years ago that costs twice what most chipsets cost nowadays. 3DImage 975: $30 cheap. Voodoo 3: $73 obsolete.
  • I got annoyed with having to use NVidia's 3.3.3.1 X server, and their glx.so module wouldn't work in 3.3.5, so I compiled their source against 3.3.5.

    The binaries are available here [psychosis.net].

    Doesn't seem any faster than their 3.3.3.1 server, but at least it lets you use 3.3.5.
  • I can't believe this comment was moderated up. It is extremely offensive and doesn't provide anything to back up its extraordinarily biased opinion.

    Look, I don't care whether or not you play games, but I'd like to tell that gaming is one of MY main interests. "...not able to install Red Hat"?! What on earth makes you say something like that?! I've installed Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE, and Debian all quite easily (and I much prefer Debian). I've also set up and administered an internet gateway with firewalling, a web server, a samba server, an NFS server, a mail server, and all that good stuff. I hate to break it to you, but serious gamers are generally some of the most technically enabled computer users out there. Afterall, when we're not playing games we're upgrading and tweaking our computers for maximum performance ;-)

    Gaming is a serious force in the computer industry. It is what drives the majority of hardware advances. And there are a LOT of gamers out there who would love to use Linux and would make extremely valuable additions to the Linux community, but are put off by the fact that there are very few Linux games out there. If Linux is ever going to succeed as a desktop OS then it's going to need games. You don't have to play them, but you have no right to make such offensive comments towards those who do.

  • Re:SPISPOD! (Score:4)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @05:19PM (#1515943) Homepage
    Heh... if I remember the story correctly, it was before Doom came out - rumors were flying about what Id was working on, and someone created the hoax of "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris" - a rendered 3D full-VR multiplayer environment with AI bots and ... you name it, it was gonna be it. Apparently quite a few people were taken in with this hoax.

    Then, in a strange twist of events, someone actually went out an _coded_ SPISPOPD - only it was a lame 2d sprite game. :)

    To honor the whole thing, "idspispopd" became a cheat code in Doom.

    That is, if I remember correctly.
    ----

  • HTTP/FTP Mirror (Score:3)

    by itp ( 6424 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @05:29PM (#1515970)
    HTTP here. [foof.org]

    FTP here. [foof.org]

    --
    Ian Peters
  • I've posted a tarball of the Demo without the Pak files included for all of you who requested it. It is located at http://www.glue. umd.edu/~spong/q3demoTEST-1.10-5-NOPAK.i386.tar.gz [umd.edu]. I don't know if this is violating any kind of license, so Id Software: let me know if it is and I'll take it down.

    "Software is like sex- the best is for free"
    -Linus Torvalds
  • Well, the thing is, I don't think my cheap video card can even run it. I'm going to try, but I'm already convinced that it will flop.

    But after all this great information, I am seriously cosidering a high-end video card.

    --
    Scott Miga
    suprax@linux.com
  • That's exactly how I got 144 megs of ram.

    As for the old 16MB SIMM, yes, it does slow down the system a tiny bit, but nothing noticeable.

    --
    Scott Miga
    suprax@linux.com
  • It works beautifully with my Riva TNT2.
  • Yes, I've been looking into that too. They sure are fast!

    As far as I can see, you delegate a hostname to them (say www1.yourdomain.com), and they have it resolve differently from different locations. The only bad thing I can find here is that they claim to have a patent pending on the strategy. Let's hope they don't get it.

    For more info look at their 'Tech Literature' [sandpiper.net].

  • System (Score:2)

    by suprax ( 2463 )
    I was just wondering what kind of system it was that those pictures were taken on?

    I have a AMD K6-2 400, with 144 megs ram, but a cheap video card.

    The game should look good if I get a good video card, but what does everyone suggest? And is my system fit for running smooth and looking good in q3?

    --
    Scott Miga
    suprax@linux.com
  • According to somebody who commented on the game at linuxgames.com said that by replacing the MesaVoodooGL.so.3.3 with MesaVoodooGL.so.3.1 from the old q3test 1.08 will fix the problem.

  • Re:Sandpiper? (Score:3)

    by degas ( 37037 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @05:43PM (#1515996)
    After reviewing their website, it seems they have servers located worldwide and on every major backbone. I believe requests are routed to Sandpiper's home servers which provide real time network status that locates a server that is close and has available bandwidth for the client. From then on that server and client continue the transaction.

  • Re:Only supports Voodoo (Score:4)

    by 23 ( 68042 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @05:43PM (#1515997)

    come on,

    they said/wrote that about the last version too and after actually reading the README (ghasp!) you just stick in something like
    "./linuxquake3 +set r_glDriver=/yourspecificpathtoyour/veryownMesaGL.s o"
    with your very own HW-acceleration. Viper770, I think a Riva TNT2 chip, works really smoothly.

    Admittedly I haven't dl'd the new version yet but common sense dictates them leaving that commandline option working.

    Roland
  • Those screenshots were taken on a IBM PC Jr with a Hercules video card and 512kB RAM.

    So it should work fine for you.

  • Re:Sandpiper? (Score:3)

    by Rilke ( 12096 ) on Saturday November 20, 1999 @06:00PM (#1516010)
    Basically just round-robin DNS, just like everyone else does. The difference is that their machines are geographically disparate, and apparently they do a few real-time heuristics on the requesting IP address, the current load of their machines, and presumably the current status of a few traceroute checks.

    I'm not sure what they're handling for quake, but the www.quake3arena.com address is /.'ed at the moment, so one hopes they're not handling that one.
  • twice today. thats alot of grits. why exactly would you pour grits down your pants, anyways? i mean, seriously, poor people are starving in other countries and here you are, pouring hot grits down your pantalones. you should be ashamed.
    and really, if you have nothign better to do than pour hot grits down your pants, well, um..
    (after five minutes of thought)
    shit, i can't think of anything better to do either. nevermind, carry on with your grit-pouring
  • do you have a voodoo3? The voodoo3 drivers in both linux and windows are *NOT* smp-friendly. Apparently they're locking some resource q3 needs for r_smp 1 to work, so until 3dfx fixes it, r_smp will get you nothing.

    But just so you know you're not all alone, I only use one of my two celerons with my v3 3000.
  • Actually, one of the guys that comes to our regular lan parties is in the same boat as you. A few games of q3 or halflife and he's about to hurl. What he uses is an elastic band that fits around your wrist and has a plastic bit that presses on a presssure point that alleviates your motion sickeness. You can probably find them in a drugstore. I don't have a specific name of brand. Hope that helps.
  • Actually, it was just a self-referential joke - I use Win95/98 on a daily basis and Linux very rarely, so I was joking that... oh, never mind. Didn't mean to pull your wind-up string, buddy. Sounds like you need to go frag someone - and since there are any post offices open this time of night, I hope it will be in Quake.
    --
    Michael Sims-michael at slashdot.org

  • Re:Works with TNT2 (Score:4)

    by matthewg ( 6374 ) <matthewg@zevils.com> on Saturday November 20, 1999 @06:29PM (#1516021) Homepage
    Okay, here's what I did to get it working. First, install the GLX package from nvidia at http://www.n vidia.com/Marketing/Products/Pages.nsf/pages/linux download [nvidia.com]. Make sure you put the 'Load "glx.so"' stuff in XF86Config as per NVidia's instructions. Copy the libGL.so that comes with GLX into the q3demoTEST directory. Then, start X in 16bpp mode. Once X starts, cd q3demoTEST ; ./linuxquake3 and frag away.
  • Ok, to start off, the cheap video card is going to kill you in 3d games. You HAVE to have a good video card to play games well. v2 is barely tolerable, v3 works fine--that's what i use.

    Also, while 3d games are very floating point intensive, the K6-2 is terrible at floating, due to a lack of a pipelined fpu. So you're also going to be processor limited in the game.

    If you're not up for a processor + video card upgrade anytime soon, then if any of the new hardware T&L video cards (such as the GeForce 256, the ATI Rage MAXX, or the Savage 2000) get good linux support, just buy one of those. That should improve your fps far more than a simple v3 or so would since you will be processor limited.

    Jeremy
  • Check out this site [openprojects.net] for drivers. I also have a K6-2 300 with a G200, and I get more than 1fps, but not enough to be playable. I'm using the Debian-packaged version of the drivers, now horribly outdated (from august, iirc). I'll try compiling from the latest source and see how it turns out.
  • What's this 2400 crap?

    Back in the REAL day, I used to be able to hold a carrier while resetting my acoustic coupler (damn thing would wig out periodically) by whistling at the appropriate tone.

    I became considerably happier when I got my first 300bps direct-connect modem. No command sets, no autodial or autoanswer or anything... just a big beige box with a serial port, a phone port, a switch for send/receive, and a BIG RED BUTTON.

    Goddamn I feel old.

    --
    rickf@transpect.SPAM-B-GONE.net (remove the SPAM-B-GONE bit)

  • Yeah, I knew that the generic video card would kill me, but I didn't think the processor would matter, as 400 isn't too shabby yet.

    I think I am going to spend some cash on a good well-worth it video card. Which one do you suggest out of the ones listed?

    Thanks for the help though, and hopefully soon I can be checking out what q3demo is all about. :)

    --
    Scott Miga
    suprax@linux.com

  • but my K6-2 300 with a Matrox G200 is unplayable. About one fps.

    The only time I've seen it go that slow is using software rendering.

    You need 3D hardware with drivers to run Q3 at a reasonable speed.

    Try GLX [openproject.org]. I've been playing Q3Test on my 450 MHz Celeron 300A, 64MB, G200 8MB. I've turned much of the detail down to max the framrate, as multiplayer shooters are best in go-fast-but-look-ugly mode. The limiting factor for internet play is definately my 33.6 modem.

    Modems suck. I'll have to leave it running overnight to download the Q3Demo. But it's worth it.

  • Heh. Well. Yes. :)

    q3 demo has quite a few improvements over q3test 1.08.

    -new map: q3dm1. flat, no ups or downs, for newbies, I hate it, but that's just me. (q3test1 renamed to q3dm7, q3test2 renamed to q3dm17, q3tourney renamed to q3tourney2)
    -bots. 6 of them. 5 skill levels to choose from. ranging from wondering what all the pretty lights are about to.. lamer with a zbot. (it's funny to watch them try to hit you with the gauntlet from the other side of q3dm17 (q3test2))
    -too many little things that you'll notice and go "ah" to list.

    of course, lots of bug fixes, and a menu layout change. read john carmack's .plan updates (archives at http://www.fingershack.com/ finger/index.php3?update=1121 [fingershack.com]) for info on various bug fixes.

    So. now you know.

    -Warren
  • Hmmmm, I don't know about you but I can tell he's lying. Using my Telepathy-over-IP (patent pending) I can sense that his roomate's computer is getting exactly 5.6 fps more than his running the same benchmark...


    *sarcasm off*


    How many games have you played under Linux/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris/Irix/whatever ? Have you thoroughly benchmarked all the possible hardware/driver combinations under Linux using each game? How do you know that "There is no possible way that Linux is faster." What studies of the kernel architecture for each OS have you done that I can refer to in order to find truth in your statement?


    Most of the /. community is not here to try and moderate you down and bash on you just because the majority of us use an operating system(s) currently engaged with Microsoft products in a stuggle for market share. You haven't even been moderated down yet, what makes you think we want to do that? Your opinion is as free as anyone else's, but that gives you no right to personally insult others and refute their claims without evidence to prove your points.


    You may choose to insult me as you did the previous poster, daring the moderators to "hurt" your posts in some masochistic manner, but all of this would only serve to make us think less of you and what you have to say.
    --
  • Well you didnt do your homework Quake 3 GREW UP ON THE MAC!

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