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Quake First Person Shooters (Games)

Quake 3 Arena goes Gold 128

Posted by Hemos from the get-ready-for-the-carnage dept.
Geek Dash Boy writes "I noted on Stomped that Quake 3 Arena has gone gold. There's no official news item on the Q3A web site, but two of the folks working on the game updated their .plan files with the news. " Mmm...much fragging to be done.
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Quake 3 Arena goes Gold More

Quake 3 Arena goes Gold

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  • already? (Score:3)

    by zempf ( 4454 ) <zempf&bigfoot,com> on Monday November 22, 1999 @05:16PM (#1511607) Homepage
    Doesn't this seem like awfully soon after the demo test release? I assumed that was released in order to get comments from end users and fix the bugs encountered there before having the game go gold. I know the Linux demo test version in particular was (at least for me and my friends) not all that great visually. Lots of texture problems on the walls and whatnot. Anyway, I just hope the bugs are ironed out so I can go on fragging merrily.

    -mike kania
  • Means the game is done being coded and has been sent off to be pressed for mass distribution.

    -mike kania

  • The place to purchase q3....at the Shugashack! (Score:3)

    by Roofus ( 15591 ) on Monday November 22, 1999 @05:17PM (#1511609) Homepage
    Because sCary is a cool guy, he is helping to offer q3 for only $33.95. This is not a bad price to pay for such a high quality piece of fraggin software :)
    Here's the link [shugashack.com]
  • Its been mastered and sent off to be distributerd.

    I would assume that the saying comes from recording studios making masters of records, but gold dosent seem like a paticulary good metal to use. Its both expensive and soft.

    But then agian, some CDR's loog gold, but if one actualy goes to the effort of making a physcial master then one would cough up the money for a good CDR which are the same colour as real CD's.

  • A few posts have been made on Blue's News [bluesnews.com] in an attempt to clear up some confusion over this. Activision has stated that they will make a formal press release when Q3 officially goes gold, but Todd Hollenshead from ID says they're done with everything on their end. Check out Blue's for more details.

  • ag (Score:1)

    by jdube ( 101986 )
    too bad for some reason I can't get it to work... I have a V2 card, if that means anything... can someone tell me why I may be havin problems?


    If you think you know what the hell is really going on you're probably full of shit.
  • i'm pretty sure gold is no longer used as the 'master' disc anymore, however, the expression still sticks
  • The CD master has a gold substrate instead of the normal aluminum one.

  • Quake 3 Arena -- Not! (Score:3)

    by davidu ( 18 ) on Monday November 22, 1999 @05:25PM (#1511622) Homepage Journal
    According to BluesNews for a while, it has not gone gold...the story actually keeps changing.

    http://www.bluesnews.com [bluesnews.com]

    -Davidu

  • More info: (Score:3)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Monday November 22, 1999 @05:26PM (#1511623) Homepage
    Found this on Blues News:

    On Quake III Arena's Status [Blue-9:05 PM EST] In addition to the clarification from Activision (next story) on Quake III Arena having not been officially declared gold yet, we received the following response from id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead regarding the game's completeness:

    I think it's just a question of semantics. The "glass master" has not been made yet (one definition of "gold"), but the game is done on our end (another definition of "gold"). It does take some time to make and certify the actual master before beginning production and that's the process we're in right now. It is fair to say that it is highly unlikely that the game will be on store shelves this coming weekend due to the unique logistics of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week/weekend. As for a specific "shelf date", as indicated in my .plan, I'll let everyone know literally just as soon as I get a confirmed date.

    ----
  • Actually, records are mastered on metal, made in reverse-image in lacquer, and then pressed in vinyl.
  • Acording to BluesNews:

    On Quake III Arena's Status [Blue-9:05 PM EST]
    In addition to the clarification from Activision (next story) on Quake III Arena having not been officially declared gold yet, we received the following response from id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead regarding the game's completeness:

    I think it's just a question of semantics. The "glass master" has not been made yet (one definition of "gold"), but the game is done on our end (another definition of "gold"). It does take some time to make and certify the actual master before beginning production and that's the process we're in right now. It is fair to say that it is highly unlikely that the game will be on store shelves this coming weekend due to the unique logistics of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week/weekend. As for a specific "shelf date", as indicated in my .plan, I'll let everyone know literally just as soon as I get a confirmed date.



    -Davidu

  • NOOO!!!! (Score:4)

    by Signal 11 ( 7608 ) on Monday November 22, 1999 @05:30PM (#1511626)
    *cursing* *mumbling*

    Dammit ID, don't do this to us again... when Quake2 was released the network code was so bad it was unplayable on anything less than a T1, and there were all kinds of bugs in the rendering (artifacts being left around), and let's not get into the you-can-shoot-me-but-i-can't-die class of bugs.

    Comeon guys, take a hint from these cool guys [blizzard.com] and wait until it really is ready to be shipped. We're willing to wait for a bug free product. The question is - are you willing to live with another poor release?


    --
  • According to Blue's News, the CEO if Id says that Quake 3 is definitely NOT Gold. Duh. I mean, why would a company release a test and then issue a go ahead less than a week after? Especially when said software is offering scores of new features not seen in the alphas? And more so when said features tend to crash MY Q3 server (and since I'm the only person that really matters, I'm sure Id would take this into account). I think the Stomped crew needs to review their policy of imbibing large quantities of liquid LSD before writing articles...

  • I mean, unless Linux is the only platform that you use or something. People have been waiting for this game forever, it's pretty silly to expect them to wait to buy it while all their other buddies are already playing it.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • Hmm, the day id announced gold(yesterday), JC updated his .plan with 10 bug fixes. :)

    This pretty much is a demo, the bug fixing stage was q3test versions 1.05-1.08.

    -Warren

  • And I'll readily wager that Diablo II will have its fair share, too. Not that it'll keep me from checking it out, but we are talking about the computer game industry here.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • Yeah, it's frustrating to have to wait longer, but if you don't wait, you're screwing your chances for having more games released for Linux. (There's not a whole lot of concern that if you don't support the Windows version people will stop making Windows games...)

  • Re:NOOO!!!! (Score:3)

    by Digital_Fiend ( 41244 ) on Monday November 22, 1999 @05:42PM (#1511634) Journal
    You have a point but I disagree.

    For one thing, q3test has been played like crazy for about the last 4 months. There's easily 10,000 people playing it 5 hours a day. When you play that much, the Linux approach of the "1,000,000 eyes" method shows its strength. That's why Q3 is going to completely obliterate Unreal Tournament (besides being optimized like hell). :)

    Quake 3 is *not* buggy.

    -Warren

  • I remember the recent article about this, but what's the latest word on how long the delay's going to be? If it's an insignificant amount of time, and Id really wants people to hold off, then they should put their money where their mouths are and delay the Windows version for a concurrent release. If it's a long delay, though, they're never going to be able to make it work -- gamers are the biggest members of the Gotta-Have-It-First club.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • For use with the data files on the Windows CD -- here [epicgames.com]
  • This story says that id CEO Todd Holleshand says it's gold as far as id is concerned: here [3dshack.com]
  • Nothing like punctuating a question with "you stupid fuck" to completely kill your credibility. Anyway, I have an 8 meg Creative Voodoo 2. I had absolutely no problems with any of the previous test versions, and then the demo test shows up and suddenly I'm experiencing big slowdowns and visual problems.

    -mike kania

  • Re:ag (Score:2)

    by Haven ( 34895 )
    if you are running on win9x platform go and download glsetup here [glsetup.com].

    If you are on the linux platform I suggest download the 3dfx minigl driver from 3dfx.

    If you are on Win2k go to #win2000 on efnet. They have bots running that will point you into the right direciton.
  • Your damn right it has something to do with UT. ID came up with Q3ish gaming before megagames(whatever they are called)up with UT. UT is a DAMn good game and would steal some of ID's market its in stores "today" and they just made q3a gold. ID doesn't wanna lose a shitload of the share I'm done babbling
  • I believe John has said he wants to get back to working on Trinity, which is supposed to be a much more single-player focused game. Maybe this will happen, or maybe Trinity will, once again, turn into a test platform for new programming tricks that he just drops into the next version of Quake.
    --
    Donald Roeber
  • I saw Quake 3:Arena for sale in Wal-Mart's flyer. I had a feeling it was going gold soon...

    JOhn
  • its best to wait so that when other companies see the sales records for Quake 3: Arena for linux they are high, thus it will suggest the linux community want games like this and are willing to pay for them, also it gives them the excuse (financialy) to do this. It can be very annoying watching your friends fragging each other, but it will defintley help in the long run :)
  • set the BPP on your X server to 16. Your voodoo3 card cannot handle 32 or 24bpp when in 3dfx mode and the linux verison of the q3test takes the default bpp from the desktop.
  • It should take no more than a few weeks. They're essentially telling the distributors and manufacturers to make the Windows version of Q3A -NOW- and the manufacturers will stop everything that they're doing to make it happen, since its an easy buck. It takes a bit longer to convince them to take a chance and press some linux cds. If you wait the extra time, it'll help get linux into the gaming market by showing the distributors that this is what people want.

    Personally, if I hadn't preordered the game back in February, i'd gladly hold off, since my windows machine is in a state of disrepair right now anyway.
    --
    Donald Roeber
  • I've been waiting for this for a long time, and I want nothing more than to see this game go gold.
    BUT, it's not ready yet. The Windoze version, perhaps. The linux version, nope.
    Maybe it's the drivers for the vidcard that I've been using, but it's just not even close to the same quality of the Windoze version. Certain textures don't display correctly (The new 'features' that were added). Metalic surfaces and such don't work at all. Perhaps if they get those things worked out before they consider 'pressing' this one, I'd rant less.
  • I believe Unreal Tournament has recently also went gold.

    IMHO, Unreal is a much cooler game than any version of Quake anyday. Especially the upcoming Tournament which I've been demo playing steadily for the past few weeks.

    Unreal is the coolest.
  • I think that the game is ready... from what I've seen based the demo.

    The netcode is very good... much better then q2 when it was released... and better then any other game in existance.. perhaps even QW?

    The balance is pretty good... I have my issues with the mac gun and the shotgun and the lightning gun (along with the rail, but thats cause I'm a QW junkie and the rail is heresy ;)


    But I digress... what I meant to talk about was the fact that Q3 was announced as gold because UT was announced last week and was going to hit shelves Monday(today) or Tuesday... so ID needed to announce gold to keep people hopefull in its release.

    For me... knowing that Q3 will be in my hands within' a week is reason enuf not to buy UT yet... anyone else feel the same way? probably.

    Also I'm gonna have more game then I know what to do with when I get Ultima IX tomorrow.. mmmm ultima.


    -Ecc (the quakin' avatar ;)
  • I've played both the Q3Test/Demo/Concept Car and UT demo (build 9million), and both have run fine for extended periods of fragging - if only I had access to such a broad and enthusiastic range of testers for my own work.

    Being a recent convert to FPS gaming, I'm interested in what makes Slashdotters prefer Q3A over UT - or vice versa.

    Personally, I'm partial to some UT double-pistol action (think John Woo), and the low gravity maps. However, I am in awe of the Q3A graphics engine - despite the demo/test's overuse of brown :)
  • This was a test, but it was a test for the DEMO. With most features already implemented, it is working well for most people. My LAN has tested the new test extensively over the past couple days with at least one server running at all times. We have a full variety of processors and video cards... there is one computer that does not run it well. It runs for maybe a minute before crashing horribly each and every time. Every other computer runs it fine. I kept my Windows machine running it for two days along with mp3s. Another friend had his computer that had problems when he used Win98... he switched back to Win95 and had his server up for over three days with a full load of bots to see how many frags could be accumulated. Unfortunately, our power went out briefly and it was all lost. The last we checked, the lead bot had over 8000 frags. That was on a P2-333 with 64 megs of RAM & Velocity 440. That was definetly suprising. Well, I've rambled on and on for no apparent reason. It is ready for release in most of our opinions. I just need to figure out a way to get rid of those bots and cycle the maps.

  • Dammit (Score:1)

    by Suit ( 106935 )
    Having been playing UT Demo for the last week or so, (forgive me Id, I have blasphemed I know), I am just going to have to buy them both !

    Id have always been the best at this historically. But having played the demo of UT, I guess that I'll just have to support both companies !

  • From what I gathered, Id has nothing to do with it- it's Activision (the distributor) who's slowing the works down. They are willing to really push to get the Windows version out ASAP, but they're unwilling to spend the cash to push hard with a Linux version that might sell, err, somewhat more poorly than hotcakes. As far as Id's concerned, they'd just as soon release them all at the same time (or even on the same CD, so vendors don't have to pick how many of what platforms).

  • Hey, you're talking to a guy who goes to record stores late on Monday nights because the lazy staff puts out Tuesday's new releases out before they close. It's all right if I have to wait longer along with everyone else, but I'll be damned if it's actually released and other people are playing it before me! ;-)

    Actually, I won't get QA3 right away, if ever, 'cause I'm not really into that type of game, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people like me who are passionate about the game and aren't willing to wait.

    Since it's the game maker itself who is pushing people to do this (as opposed to the Linux community), they should just fudge their own sales figures to make it look good for Linux -- there are plenty of ways to do it. Or do it legitimately, like by putting a coupon in the shrinkwrapped box that people can send in to be sent the Linux version on CD for the cost of shipping.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • From Carmack's current .plan, I'd say that this is not the case. The game is simply finished for the most part.

    I am very happy with how Q3 turned out. Probably more than any game we have done before, it's final form was very close to its initial envisioning.
  • Well, if it's anything like Q2, by the time the linux version comes out most of the kinks will be worked out.

    It does feel rather "pushed".

    I need to get a new video card. :)
  • Have you not been paying attention?

    The linux (and mac) version(s) will not be on the win9x disk, and they wont be on shelves at the same time. The debate rages, but id has a good reason for doing it this way (separate disk, and a delay on the non win9x versions).

    Assumably in a month or so when the linux and mac versions will go gold, thell have a month or so or more work done on them.

    Incedently, you will beable to download the linux (and mac(?)) bins for the full version whenever it hits the shelves, but if you want to help id convince the gamming world to pay attention to !win9x crowd then hold off on buying the game until the linux version is out.

  • the new demo ships with libMesaVoodooGl.so.3.3 which doesn't find valid glx modes for a V2, so just grab an older lib from the 1.08 test release and overwrite the driver they ship it with. this worked for me, ymmv
  • We got a lot trying to play on a LAN but it went away when we chose UDP for the LAN protocol of the game. If it doesn't work with one proto, try the other. That's a weird bug though.
  • Right, I've heard this speech before. Came from Carmack the first time. You missed my point, and maybe his.

    EARLIER:

    Some advance warning about something that is sure to stir up some argument:
    We should be handing off the masters for all three platforms within a day or two of each other, but they aren't going to show up in stores at the same time. Publishers, distributers, and stores are willing to go out of their way to expedite the arrival of the pc version, but they just won't go to the same amount of trouble for mac and linux boxes.

    THE EXECUTABLES FOR ALL PLATFORMS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD UNTIL AFTER CHRISTMAS. This means that if you want to play on the mac or linux, don't pick up a copy of the pc version and expect to download the other executables.

    --------
    I think I read it correctly the first time. It's not ID's decision to hold back the Linux, Mac. In their opinion, they're ALL ready to be shipped. Linux / Mac are not being held back because of completion issuses, it's the retailers that are doing it.
    Anyway, this is more interesting:

    I am going to spend more time on some Free Software projects. I have been stealing a few hours here and there to work on the matrox glx project for a while now, and it has been pretty rewarding. People with an interest in the guts of a 3D driver might want to look at the project archives at http://glx.on.openprojects.net/. The web pages aren't very up to date, but the mailing list covers some good techie information.
  • Any bets on how many days before it hits the store the first 10 to 12 meg patch will come out?
    Anyone else notice that Carmak had a worklog update after Antkow's "gold" announcement?
    Whatever happened to it "being done when it's done"?
    Why is the sky plaid?

    yes, these are all probably rhetorical.
  • Some people say it's being rushed to make Christmas ship date and compete with Unreal Tournament. Kinda like Gnome 1.0 (except no Expos to release at..) ;-)

    (the above was tounge in cheek)

  • Don't talk about Gotta-Have-It-First club.

    Rule #2:
    Don't talk about Gotta-Have-It-First club.

    Pope
  • IIRC, quake2 was released without any DM maps (I think subsequent presses of the game shipped with them, but not the original pre-christmas shipment; they weren't done yet). Fact is, game houses like to make money. Release now, and reap the rewards of a pre-christmas release. Bugs? sure. Maybe not many, but who cares? You'll sell a million copies and everyone will download the patches in a couple months anyway!

    Don't get me wrong, the id guys have always proclaimed they'll ship the game "when it's done" and they pretty much stick to that. And if I'm not mistaken, their games usually have less ship-time bugs than others (chalk that up to excellent quality code). But when you weigh the importance of "sell a million christmas copies" and "ship a 100% bug free game," I dont blame them, and I think anyone would do the same thing.



    -----------------
    Your attention please everyone, if I could just say a few words... I would be a better public speaker.
  • If anything, UT is being rushed...it's OpenGL and Direct3D code still isn't all that (compared to Glide). But everyone knows how sucky the Q3A bots still are.
  • 1) Does anyone know of a list of "supported" cards; i.e. cards that with some (any) ridiculous combos of drivers, X servers, whatever, can run this thing?
    2) If no such list exists, any idea whether or not a g400 will be able to support it? As I understand it, the matroxes have better accelerated X scores than anyone else, and since I use X a hell of a lot more than I'd ever play Quake, I'm probably going to buy one of them soon. Any thoughts?
    ~tieguy
  • This worked for me as well although I just happened upon it (didn't see anything in a few Deja.com searches).

    Should I compile Mesa and use some lib optimized for my system? Will I see a performance increase doing this?
  • Well, every product's got to have a deadline, or nothing would ever get published. As the somewhat unpleasant Anonymous Coward said, Christmas shopping starts in earnest the weekend after Thanksgiving, so this is the logical time to bring it out. As for whether it's ready, the demo seems smooth to me, and if there are still bugs, I'm sure they'll get patched. id tends to do a good job with that, in my opinion. I, for one, am ready to let the good times roll!

    An Apology for the Devil: it must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books. -Samuel Butler
  • Right, well Quake 3: Arena has apparently gone gold according to this story. It seems to me that this is just a TAD early, and I am sick and tired of patching. Frankly, I've been using the test for a while now, it ran great on my Voodoo 2 and I had no problems, no errors, no bugs, no visual glitches, and everything was nice and pretty. Lightmap and all. Whee... But then, the Demo came out. (insert ominous music here)

    This demo is horrible, in my opinion. I loved the Quake 3: Arena Test because it ran pretty well on my system, with little configuration at all. Great frame rate, no slowdowns (Voodoo2 on a 333Mhz P2) and I thought the graphics were better than good. But this Demo is horrible! To not get visual artifacting and texture map errors I have to run it with vertex lighting instead of lightmap, which is not only ugly as sin but seems to slow the game down! No shitting! The server list won't save the servers between sessions, so that I have to reload the whole list when I inevitably get onto a server that stinks the first couple of times! But frankly, the worst was the fact that they have support for so few cards. I know that Linux support of 3d video cards is minimal, but this is pathetic! Having to use my Voodoo2 instead of my TNT2 Ultra is not good, in my opinion, and I think they could have done a better job on that. And I know that someone got the TNT2 to work with acceptable framerates, but it requires a lower version X (3.3.1 as opposed to 3.3.5) and I am not willing to deal with that sort of hassle for a stupid game.

    Now I'm back to playing GNU Chess all the time... though not as much asthetic fun as Quake3, at least it runs quite well. Great framerate too!




  • The demo was fairly stable on both platforms I played it. I must admit I was hoping they would work a little more on the AI (specifically: make the damn bots harder), but I don't think a bot will ever satisfy me.

    Id have given up on the idea of releasing a patchless product anyways, from what JC wrote about the Linux/Mac releases, one can gather than he believes he will have to update it sometime after Christmas. Hopefully there won't be any really nasty bugs until then (security issues are the killer, but they can often be solved with server only patches).

    Problems wih misplaced textures and stuff sounds like a bug with your graphics card. Perhaps you should look into making sure you have the lastest drivers/OpenGL for it.


    -
    We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.
  • I wonder, can you use pigs to catch trolls like this one? Oh wait, that's truffles... I suppose with trolls you just reach into the nearest pile of idiotic assertions and petty goading and pull out a nice little Anonymous Coward!

    I wonder if you can use Trolls to find things? I suppose if I wanted to locate pig dung, a troll would be the right way to go. *nods*



  • If people put more effort on helping others and less on sanctimonious preaching, the world would be a better place.
  • For one thing, UT runs slow. I pretty much demand 60 fps... and Quake 3 seems way more tweakable. I've pretty much been able to triple my framerate. Here's some settings that'll make you happy-happy (this is my autoexec.cfg):

    r_mode 2 r_colorbits 16
    r_texturemode GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST
    r_vertexlighting 1
    r_subdivisions 999
    r_lodbias 2
    cg_gibs 0
    cg_draw3dicons 0
    cg_brassTime 0
    cg_marks 0
    cg_shadows 0
    cg_simpleitems 1
    cg_drawAttacker 0
    com_maxfps 0
    com_blood 0

    Enjoy. :)

    -Warren
  • From the readme:

    The Linux version requires a supported hardware 3D acceleration card. The
    following have been tested:
    o 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics based cards
    o Maxtrox G200/G400
    Other cards of similar make and model may work, but are not supported.
  • Well, Mr. Coward, besides marking yourself as an ignorant homophobe, you have also shown your ignorance by libeling a well-known and respected gaming site that happens to be offering a deal on the *ACTUAL QUAKE 3 BOX* with Gamedealer.com. Of course, if you'd have followed the link in the post you'd responded to, you'd know all this.
  • Virtually ALL game designers have .plan files. As far as I know, it's the only place they're used still. :-)
    Check out http://finger.planetquake.com/ [planetquake.com] for PlanetQuake's game designer .plan file browser.
    --
    Chris Dunham
    http://www.tetrion.com/~chameleo/index.html
  • the libMesaVoodoo.so.3.3 that came with q3demo sucks. Daryll Straus says they grabbed the wrong branch off cvs and shipped that.

    play with the old libMesaVoodoo.so.3.1 from q3test 1.08 and things will look MUCH nicer.

    I was really impressed with how much better it looks compared to q3test

    'course it does hang on me every once in a while, and q3test never did.

    :-(

    well, UT hangs on me every other game..... Q3Demo not nearly as often.
  • I for one will probably not wait, why? Because the Linux version will not work for me. I've been unable to get my video card to run the demo at a reasonable speed, so I will use it under Windows where I can get damn good speed at 1024x768. I could buy the linux version when it finally makes it to store shelves, only to have to wait another month or so to be able to play it under windows. Now if someone finds a way to make my TNT 2 perform like it does under Windows before the I buy quake 3 I may change my mind
    treke
  • I tried that, but i still experience a bunch of visual problems. The main menu is all all messed up (Glaring white outlines) and in the game, all the new animated textures under the guns show wierd light patches running thru them as I move. Anyone else get this? This is on a voodoo 2 btw, with both the 3.3 and 3.1 libs that were distributed.

  • Oh, you mean the same cool guys that violated gamers' privacy by harvesting your email without your permission [slashdot.org]?

    Yeah, yeah...they apologized and promised never to do it again. The point is, nobody's perfect.

  • will q3a gold finally work for me??? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    When Q3Test was out I downloaded the GLSetup (im not good enough at linux yet to d/l the linux ver of q3test) and Q3Test for windows..... as i started to install GLSetup it said it couldnt detect my video card (someone here if you can answer me.... does glsetup support a wincharger 4mb... (mach65 rageIIc).... cause i thought it did but its somehow not detecting it right) so i couldn't use q3test.... so then when Q3A Demo Test came out recently i thought maybe this time it would work (seeing a new build of glsetup also came out), but this didnt work either... so is q3a like only going to us OpenGL forever so I can never use this? Or is it gonna have options like directx and stuff like Q2 has? Someone help me, tell me if it will use DX or if there is a way I can get GLSetup to work... thanks
  • I've read a lot of comments about people with Voodoo cards (mostly 3's, it seems) who say that Quake 3 Demo Test runs slowly for them and is not full screen. This is because Mesa doesn't default to doing full screen, and the Voodoo drivers don't support windowed rendering. To run it (or any OpenGL application, for that matter) fullscreen, try this:

    [spong@deadzone ~] setenv MESA_GLX_FX fullscreen

    (or in bash:)
    [spong@deadzone ~] export MESA_GLX_FX=fullscreen

    Ok, I'm pretty sure most of you know how to set environment variables (if not, you probably shouldn't be using Linux) but it seems that a lot more newbies seem to be in this discussion than usual.

    BTW this doesn't work for anything besides Voodoo drivers, AFAIK, and not on the G200/G400 or TNT/TNT2. The demo works fine with those cards though (I have a TNT2 and it's very playable, although much more playable under NT... *grumble*)

    "Software is like sex- the best is for free"
    -Linus Torvalds
  • My roommate is playing with an NVIDIA TNT video card.
    While agree that it is a bit behind 3d wise, once he dropped a few graphics options down he still got quite a good display.
    However, he just HATES the Demo version. The graphics server was changed or something he is getting less than half the frame rates (40 fps to ~18 fps).
    Plus some of the textures (railgun room in q3test1) are now displaying just ugly where before they
    were just like mine (I use a Voodoo 2). We went through and compared everything under driver info and they were all the same.
    We sent a bug report with screenshots to ID, no response yet.
    The demo he finds crashes _much_ more often than the test, as do I. (Win32 and Linux platforms respectively).
    Overall we both have found the Demo version to just be a lower quality game than the test (1.08) was.

    Just our 2 cents...
  • Having to use my Voodoo2 instead of my TNT2 Ultra is not good, in my opinion, and I think they could have done a better job on that.

    Hello??!! ID is not in the business of writing videocard drivers, they write kick-ass games. Johnc IS helping us write the Matrox G200/G400 drivers but if you need to complain about lacking or inferior TNT2 support you should go knock on NVidia's door.

    Yeah, Quake3TEST runs at a full 30fps on my G200 + PII 233, playable. It takes some work (installing agpgart module and such) but it is well worth the trouble.

    -andy

  • This comment I'm replying to should definitely be moderated down. Quake2 had when it was released and has now better networking than any other first person shooter. Obviously we don't have enough hardcore quake players around moderating if comments like this get a score of 4. I played Quake2 more on a 28.8 than most people played unreal at all, which still isn't playable on a modem.
  • If you buy the Linux version you can (after Xmas) download the Windows binaries for FREE from id.

    If you buy it in the Linux box you are supporting the Linux cause. 'nuff said.
  • Check out Carmacks .plan [frag.com], here is an exerpt:

    I am going to spend more time on some Free Software projects. I have been stealing a few hours here and there to work on the matrox glx project for a while now, and it has been pretty rewarding. People with an interest in the guts of a 3D driver might want to look at the project archives at http://glx.on.openprojects.net/. The web pages aren't very up to date, but the mailing list covers some good techie information.
  • I realize I can get the binaries after christmas, but where am I until then. I may be in the minority and have a misconfigured system, but I get 3 frames a second @ 320 x 200, 16 bit color(as reported by cg_drawfps) on a P3 450 with 256 meg RAM and a TNT 2 Using the GLX module for TNT 2s, slightly faster results were obtained when using the XFree 3.9 snapshot (5fps). This aint gonna hold me over for a month. Maybe if I thought I'd be able to get a friends copy of the Windows version to use till I could dl the binaries I'd think differently, but that is unlikely for me. I'd like to support Linux, but I also want Quake.
    treke
  • I agree.

    I have been playing it since the first test, it has solid gameplay. Far better than the first Q2 release. Q3 has gone through a much longer "test" period, than Q2 did. Therefore Q3 will be in a better state than Q2 at release time.

    All one needs to do is play the demo and see for themselves. Why would a person think the game will digress?

    A 6 month beta test can't be considered a pressured release.


    BTW, as for waiting for the Linux version. Just go get your self the win32 version, and then buy a Linux copy when it comes out. I payed $40 for Q2, and played it countless hours over the last 2 years. Thats a good investment for my entertainment dollars. I wouldn't have a problem shelling out $80 for a good cause, and to a company which has provided me with sooo much entertainment over the last 5 years.


  • uhm well , the load glx.so part I thought was only necessary for TNT cards.

    but the game running slowly like you say, and you have a voodoo 3, would leave me to believe you did not install the 3dfx device driver, available on the 3dfx page. try insmod 3dfx.so



  • Regardless of whether this is true or not (the lasest demo release had great network code and did not bug at all for me) I have to wonder a little about why you would really care so much?

    I mean, you obviously have a good Internet connection (seeing as you can post to slashdot 84 times a day), and you won't miss the news, so downloading a couple of megabytes of patch won't be that big of a deal for you.

    I know that this is not true for some people, but personally I would rather have buggy version of Q3 tomorrow, and then a bug-free patch in 2 months, than having to wait 2 months to play the game at all. I would think the same would go for you.

    Obviously I would be careful before paying for a game I knew was buggy, but with id I know that they have a 100% clean sheet on always making patches to fix all the bugs. I have no doubt they will do the same this time.

    -
    We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.

  • I agree (Score:1)

    by DrSpoo ( 650 )
    I agree completely. Signal 11 all over the place, I can't change even the most basic system setting without it crashing down to the grown. Not to mention that the voodoolib-3.3 that shipped didn't even _work_!

    Ug, I'm sticking with 1.08 as long as I can...
  • Quake 3 is *not* buggy.

    This is a true statement. I was playing it at a lan party a few days ago, and it played nice, very very nice.

    I cant wait to get my tin box.
  • make sure the libGL.so that got copied out of the Nvidia drivers gets copied into your q3demotest directory and see if that has any effect. Also try taking the .rpm off and using the tarball that NVidia ships. I don't think the files get put in the right spot with the rpm.


    mcrandello@my-deja.com
    rschaar{at}pegasus.cc.ucf.edu if it's important.
  • YEAH BABY, YEAH!! BRING IT!!! Heh heh. Sorry, but that's all I wanted to say. Gods I love Quake. . .
  • rpm -Uvh quakexxx-foo-xxx.rpm --force (I think, I'm a gui-monkey) Or just click on install anyway in Gnorpm. Admittedly that's making one hell of an assumption. If you got the tarball I really don't know.


    mcrandello@my-deja.com
    rschaar{at}pegasus.cc.ucf.edu if it's important.
  • Now that both Quake 3: Arena and Unreal Tournament are coming out, think about what's best for Linux:

    Is it better to buy the Unreal Tournament Windows version, download the Linux binaries, then tell them that you're using Linux (only)?

    Or is it better to buy the Quake 3: Arena Linux edition instead, then get the Windows binaries at a later time, if you want them as well?

    Personally, I wanted to buy both, but now I consider buying another Linux Q3A instead of a Windows UT - one more Linux customer, one less Windows customer, and more support for those who fully support Linux!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • First, I have Slackware 7.0 with XFree86 3.3.5.
    My video card is a Viper 770 Ultra.

    Anyhow, I got the RPM of Q3Demo and installed it with the -i --nodeps option (I have a script which automates this for me).
    Next, I got the non-dyn GLX drivers from nVidia's FTP site, and untarred and installed them.
    Then I ran XF86Setup (case counts, xset.tgz must be installed [on Slackware 7.0]), and picked all resoltions from 640x480 through 1152x870 (you can pick whatever you want, just make sure you have 1152x870 in there (don't ask), and I picked 16bit color as my default display color.
    Then I loaded up X and ran Q3Demo with the option to use the GL.so driver that nVidia had installed for me (hehe).
    And POW it worked just fine. I can't change between resolutions, I have to stay at 640x480,f if anyone knows why it is crashing, lemme know please. I also only get 10~15FPS (at settings where its normal to get 60+FPS in Windows) but I hear it is a common thing to be sluggish, but hey, XFree86 4.0 is coming, don't worry! :-)

    Anyhoo, that's how I did it, and it is at least playable to a certain extent. I'm sure going to be showing it off at the next LAN party! ;-)

    BTW: sound works perfectly.

    PS: It would be nice to see the 16-bit limit removed, wouldn't it? All in due time (XFree86 4.0!).

    Da-Da-Da Datz it doc!
  • 1) I have the Windows version
    2) I will BUY the Windows version when it comes out
    3) It's just so darned fun to see what Linux can do with enough effort, I coulnt't resist the urge

    Happy?

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