What are you working on?

[ceriux]

terrain deformation and colored lighting test =)

[Mad John]

Hey just wondering which engine is the best? just wanna try to create a test mod....oh yeah if i use other peoples code [i have to state their name on the credits right?]

[mh]

[Mad John]

[Spike]

[Mad John]

[leileilol]

A Pentium II with a Voodoo2 card can run the latest build of Darkplaces around 20fpsish using the latest Mesafx GL ICD under Windows 98. This is 1997 technology still working. However, for newfangled half-assed technology, Darkplaces has a work-in-progress DX9 renderer, possibly better for intel chipsets. (vid_dx9 1)

That should set your worries down a bit, but here's some performance tips in general:

- Low poly! Quake has no LOD system so don't bother shoving 2000 poly wavy mans in.
- 8-bit sounds play back faster as there is optimized x86 assembly functions for their mixing
- Alpha blending kills ATI Rage Pro (1997's second crappiest tech) so use RGBA sparingly
- don't findradius a lot

[mh]

[Irritant]

[mh]

I think it's probably not worth your while supporting any pre-DX9 class hardware any more, at least not for something like AlienArena. I've also dropped pre-DX9 support from the upcoming DirectQ but part of that is that there are now plenty of D3D8 ports available for anyone who has that requirement. Assuming that at least ps2.0 and VBOs are always going to be available is hugely liberating; you can start writing sensible code now! DX9 class hardware does date back to 2002 after all; it's old.

The Quake community is however different. There's lots of cruddy old kit out there, and people who seem to have no interest in spending the price of a few beers for at least a Gfx card upgrade. At the same time, we've agreed to drop support for GL_VERSIONs less than 1.3 from RMQ because (a) it makes the code a lot cleaner (no alternate single TMU path - yayyy!) and (b) that class of hardware is going to run the content so poorly anyway that there's no real point in supporting it.

There's another different user base and that's people with laptops, business-class PCs and el-cheapo generic "home entertainment" systems. These commonly come fitted with Intel chips and - especially in the case of laptops - there is often no upgrade option available. That's the niche I initially targetted DirectQ at, and you can't really argue with over 2000 downloads for a less-well-known engine for what should be a dying game.

After that it's down to you whether or not you want to include that latter user base in your target audience I reckon.

[leileilol]

[Irritant]

[Spike]

[Spirit]

After 4 exams in 4 days I needed a little relaxation and thus cleaned up 4 years old code and directories and am rather determined to finally finish this until easter.



Take that, you violent killing machines!

[Spirit]

in motion http://www.quaddicted.com/stuff/hdgdl3d ... 264mp3.avi

I thought 4 years later I would have more luck getting into QuakeC, but damn, is this stuff complicated and confusing.