Quake MOD - In The Shadows

[sock]

[sock]

@taniwha, I think I have got a bit further with the QF install (It does feel like I am just guessing what to do)

For some reason the engine always starts with a tiny window and I cannot grab any of the window edges to resize it. There is no menu and for some reason all the vid commands are read only (which is odd). I try 'vid_height', 'vid_width', 'vid_fullscreen' and nothing works, seem to be stuck with a tiny window.

I eventually got the engine to recognize my MOD (I had a spelling mistake on the command line) and then got more errors:

quakeforce initialized
vid_updatefullscreen: error setting fullscreen
couldn't exec autoexec.cfg
findfile: can't find menu.dat
menu load: could not load menu.dat
findfile: can't fine net.png
findfile: can't find net.tga
findfile: can't find net.pcx

It looks like the engine is missing menu.dat. I went back to the QF directory and under the subfolder QF found a zip file called 'menu.dat.gz'. Now this is where it is so wrong, you have a zip file without a .zip extension and when I looked at the directory I assumed it was some weird config file and ignored it. You seriously need installation instructions for this engine, the files are all over the place and this is just frustrating.

Unzipped file 'menu.dat.gz' and got a new file menu.dat
Moved the menu.dat to the root of my quake directory with the engine

Now I use several engines to test things, they all use the same config file in my MOD directory and generally don't do much to this file. QuakeForge has re-written the whole file into a format that no other engine understands! All the binds have changed to 'in_bind imt_mod K_TAB "+showscores". When I run another engine like Fitz it produces tons of errors and resets the config file back to Quake default because it thinks it is corrupt. Then all my keyboard config is reset, I lose mlook and anything else I have set in the config file.

This is not good, if the engine is going to re-write my config, why not just create a special config for this engine only? No other engine can read this file so it might as well be setup for QuakeForge only.

Back to running the shortcut with the menu.dat file in the root of the quake directory with the QF engine. Produces the same error, cannot find menu.dat file. So I move the menu.dat file to the MOD directory and run the shortcut again.

Fatal Error:
menu.dat: PR_Check_Opcodes: non-zero global index in invalid operand (statement 7: call2)
Stuck, can't get engine to go any further.

[taniwha]

Sock: hmm, ouch?

* taniwha falls over with various pointed sticks jutting from his body.

ok. One thing: there was no need to unzip menu.dat.gz: QF does that for you (it even knows to look for foo.bar.gz when asked for foo.bar). The problem was that the QF directory itself wasn't in your quake-root. *sigh* more docs to write.

Can't grab window edges: by design, but yes, even I consider the inability to resize the window in game to be a bug. It can be done on the command line (one way is with -width X -height Y).

The "vid_updatefullscreen: error setting fullscreen" might be a useful clue. I'll look into it.

Config file: yeah . I'm sorry I forgot to warn you. Anyway, Deek and I are discussing ways to fix it. Not a solution, but sed should be able to mostly restore your config (I jest. While true, it's my responsibility to fix the problem, not yours).

Now, that opcode check is just plain weird. I looked at the menu.dat.gz in the zip and Not only is statement 7's "invalid" operand 0, statement 7 is an "if" rather and "call2" (which, btw, isn't used in the progs: rcall2 would have been used). I suspect the file got corrupted somehow (line ending conversion? how did you move/copy/unzip it?) Try dropping the original menu.dat.gz in the right place (after deleting the problem menu.dat)

A bit of good news: Deek's come up with a solution* for the config file issue that looks really good, but we (hah, probably I) have to fix a few issues to make it work. When "exec config.cfg" is give, if qfconfig.cfg exists exec that instead (and always write qfconfig.cfg). The problem is, id1/qfconfig.cfg should not override qw/config.cfg. QF still suffers from the mixed up extra data problem, so this will be killing a few scraggs with one rocket .

* I showed him your post and we were discussing things while I was writing my reply.

[taniwha]

[revelator]

latest gcc releases had a bunch of changes indeed small warning gcc-4.7.0 is not abi compatible with previous gcc 4.7.2 fixes some of that and 4.8.0 takes it one step further but also changes a ton of things.
had the same problems sock had with the menu.dat i had to copy it to id1 before it would read the darn thing and atleast on windows it seems putting the qf dir in the quake folder does not do the trick (i guess theres something in the routine to unpack the tar.gz that screws up on windows).

[qbism]

[ceriux]

that does look pretty nice, problem i noticed in qbism though is its kinda hard to find shadows? you notice in your pic that its very bright pretty much everywhere.

[sock]

@qbism, thanks for the demo and engine link. I downloaded the engine and played the demo. The colours do look different to the Fitz engine and everything feels brighter. I turned off the fog and it did not seem to make much difference. The lighting system I used relies on the light map being overbright, do you cap the lighting levels? I increased the gamma but it just made everything dark, the lighting hot spots seem to be missing. Some of the models do not loop properly, the torches are lerping back to the first frame, I assume this is an engine change?

I watched the demo and loved the blood particles that drop to the floor from the sword fighting, very cool. I especially like how it goes up the walls as well. I can fix the AI going in the wrong direction in the library area, that is an AI volume not covering the room properly. The screen fade on the books seems to be missing, I assume 'nv_cshift' command is different in this engine?

[sock]

Been busy replacing/upgrading existing Quake models to reduce the various skin problems.

[qbism]

[sock]

[metlslime]

[qbism]

Regarding spawn orientation, I'm not sure why player isn't spawning in correct orientation, whereas monsters are.
Super8 has "vid_stretch_by_2" on by default. Most people are finding annoying or unattractive so in future I'll leave it off by default. However, this should not affect pcx files which open flawlessly in a superior graphics program (GIMP, LOL). Below are screenshot comparisons between Super8 and FQ Mark V. Both are set to 1.0 gamma. FQMV texturemode is gl_nearest. These were taken at a native res of 1600x900 and scaled down 1/2. Observations:
1. Wow, super8 really needs some aspect correction.
2. Color match are good but lightmap is washed-out. Shaded areas under arches for example.
3. super8 fog is not as dense.
4. FQMV fiend is under-lit in the shot. I noticed monsters flash from bright to dark k as they move around the map.

FQ:


S8:


FQ:


S8:

[ceriux]

think super8 looks good, but so does your mods native engine. i think they're just too different styles really. i could agree that in super8 the shadows might look a little nicer if they were more dense but (also my opinion) thats purely because its more of a stealth game and it would make the maps feel more darker and more appealing to stealth gameplay.

i could see a game with a similar theme to ITS though looking awesome (and feeling right) in an engine like super8.

also will ITS ever be open source ? possibly including the mapping textures ?

[sock]

This is what the screenshot files look like in PhotoShop CS5 :-

I have seen this before, are you creating special palette indexed PCX files? As you can see from my link above, the screenshots are not much use for me.

For some reason the Super8 screenshots lack contrast, there is no light/dark, everything feels uniform like an ambient light has been applied to the whole scene. I will have to load other maps and see what it looks like but the lighting feels wrong to me. I do realize that every engine wants to do things different and I understand that. If this is what you want from the engine, then leave it. There is no reason why every engine should be the same.

The monsters going from light to dark in Fitz engines is a problem, but it is worse in the Mark V engine with map models going pure black as well. I spoke to Baker about this but I can't remember if he had time to fix it. The version of Mark V I test with still has this problem. I have not noticed the problem with the original Fitz.

ITS will eventually be open source, I plan to release the source code, map files and texture WAD files once I have finished the MOD. This is a demo, a work in progress and I want to finish the mod first before everyone re-uses the assets.