T H E 6 T H F L O O R

Life in 6 Land

Category Archives: Oswald Rant

Oswald Rant: One Side of Realism – By Devlin

First of all, I want to point out the reason I began to play Urban Terror, ‘cause it supports the discussion on realism. All thoughts in this article are my personal opinion. That means you’re allowed to disagree obviously, but it would be not much of an interesting world out there if we all think the same. So don’t flame me, but reply with applying seriousness to Devlin.

I was damn tired of those rocket-dances in Quake 3 Arena. After the famous Action Quake 2, we were ready for something new. First I started out helping the guys at Urban Warfare. Yes, you read it right, there was a realism mod like UT and they got out a beta first. Trouble was, there was a big lack of decent maps, and the MP5 you were holding, was as big as China, shall we say. Your Browning high power pistol was floating somewhere in front of you, so I made them a holding hand quickly.

But ok, there was a beta and it was playable. You had the same features as UT now, but in a simplified way. They made a big mistake with their second beta release by taking out the bandaging option. So it was reduced again to Quake 3 with modern weapons. My hope for an AQ2 successor sunk like a rock in the ocean. They still struggle today, when they decided to merge with another mod team, and working today under the name of ‘Modern Combat’. It think that name change has it obvious reasons.

So we bumped into Urban Terror. We were impressed by seeing weapon animations, and they were good. Realistic I would say. When I began playing the beta and further updates, my interests in working on a mod again began to come back to life. So I started mapping 3 months ago, and with the comments and idea’s of my good friend KaZ, we popped out our first public map called Kriegerhorn.

As Kaz and I came from Action Quake 2 our first level was received by the SID guys pretty harsh. First a little offended, later a little more understanding and finally fully understanding their comments, our new approach towards mapping began to take shape and found it’s result in the Japanese Gardens. The total time too fully learn what we can do today we’ve learned in those last three months. You can say we’re pretty quick at it, but remember we had some experience in modeling and buildings, since Kaz and I were both studying architecture and having a lot of knowledge with Photoshop does come in handy.

So what does it take to be a good mapper? We do not know, and we probably never find out. But our efforts will point that way. We decided to take our mapping to a higher level by keeping the focus on reality. That’s what Urban Terror was all about, right? And what happened? We bumped into some limitations and bugging editors. But what was more frustrating? As a mapper turns his efforts in making good texturing and lightning, which makes a map “realistic”, we noticed everyone played UT using vertex lighting. And when you think you’re safe hiding in the dark, some “vertex” player puts a bullet in your head. Thank you sir! Can I have another?!?!?

I think a lot of you played Half-Life. With it’s superb game play, the characters still walk a little like, with a broom up their @#%$. And cups (small objects) looked like they were stepped on. There is nothing to speak bad about in Half-Life, Opposing Force or Team Fortress Classic. But there’s something to say about Counter-Strike. I find the game play laggy and there are too many cheating players. What do you expect, on an engine of 3 years old? I think CS will become extinct when Team Fortress 2 arrives. Those Valve guys did a splendid job 3 years ago and they will do so again (the extended poly models in characters, but id tried this too). At that moment the “Half-Life fanatics” have their new realism and say bye bye to Counter-Strike. But remember, I’m lousy at predicting the future.

Back to the Quake 3 engine. By it’s flexible and surprising way of texturing (by using shaders) was a complete eye opener. In the Japanese Gardens, we watched carefully how the map would look in vertex lighting. And yes, we managed to get some “dark” areas.

But realism cannot be found in shader files, as most of it’s functions do not show up in vertex lighting. But what was still there was id’s map objects: sharp, smooth and detailed, even at gun point. (Map objects do not show up in Half-Life, and thus not in CS). So it was those map objects we use today to give our maps the realistic touch. Ever tried to make a hanging lamp with brushes? Ever tried to make a bottle with brushes? You’ll see that it won’t work. Another good fact of map objects is they don’t fully eat up your FPS, and thus keeping you map smooth playing.

But a bad fact appears. Most people don’t have 3D Studio Max or a related program. And they can’t model. Since then I’ve started to make those normal day objects. In our Chicago map. We made lamps, a faucet, bottles and cans and dug up some cars from 3rd parties. And what happened? The map started to look “real”, without using 10000’s of brushes.

Since this rant is getting pretty long, I will cease to stop bragging about realism in maps. Some is possible, some not. Lesson number one: Think before starting to map. Draw sketches, collect textures and sounds, make map objects and visit your public library for pics that may inspire you. (For J-Gardens I looked up books about, yes, Japanese Gardens). Some tips from my side to 3rd party mappers:

  • Don’t be lazy to make your own map objects, they make detail.
  • Don’t use brushes to make very small objects.
  • Use shaders in a creative way (footstep sounds on different materials)
  • Post out some beta’s, and implement the comments. Sometimes they have an idea which makes you map suddenly real.
  • Dark is not necessarily bad, terrorist strike at dark. But do not make it that dark, so players start finally using the flash light item all the time.
  • Avoid big flat surfaces. Give buildings some profile and timpani. Look at the new map, Venice to get my idea.
  • Realistic texturing, watch the latest Reykjavik level. A digi-cam does miracles. But watch light-levels between those textures.
  • Proportions. I know players sometimes get stuck, but a door the size of a garage doors isn’t “realistic”. Use \cg_thirdperson 1 to test proportions.
  • Watch vertex lighting, How does you map look in it? Or does it totally rely on lightmap lightning to look good (I know a lot of “cold” levels.)
  • I made some trees. Someone else hopefully some bushes. Sprites are out of the age of Duke Nukem, and don’t fit a realism mod like urban terror.
  • Hopefully we’ll have some smoke in beta2. Rain and snow will always keep giving difficulties. Watch for a solution.

Finally I would like to say to all the mappers out there, I will share all my map objects with the release of Beta 2. and mail me if you need a special one. I can make one for you if you don’t have the time. Because Urban Terror should approach reality and it supplies us with that specific game play not that CS or other mods can provide.

Oswald Rant: In with the Mod Crowd

For those who pick up or receive a copy of PC Gamer each month, you are quite familiar with the Opinions Section, where individual contributors give their opinions on a wide range of subjects from modifications and 3D action gaming to sports, RPGs, war games and simulators. While my attention is usually focused on the columns titled Extended Play and The Killing Box, dealing with mods and 3D action gaming, I was caught a bit by surprise at the sports opinion this week in The Point After dubbed Specification Shock.

What draws most gamers to any game or mod released? Usually it is the astounding graphics. Hell, we saw a 30 second clip of Doom3 and people think it is going to be the best game ever from id Software. It might will be. When it comes to gamers, “a sizable percentage of the PC’s in people’s homes aren’t capable of playing many of today’s games” says Rob Smolka, contributor to The Extra Point and this article. We really don’t care much about this group of gamers, since their systems are “old school” Pentiums which run Word and can access the Internet and when feeling very wild a game of Solitaire or Mine Sweeper.

The next group “shelled out $2000-$3000 for a brand-new system and think it’s preposterous that they should have to spend even more money just to keep up with the time.” This is obvious are large groups and most fall under this group when it comes to gaming. Their systems are modest machines running a 300MHz processor and a low end graphics card. Gaming is possible, but without many of the details which games like Quake III were design with. Target audience? A larger group, whom are interested in gaming, some of whom might make the jump to the next group.

Finally you have the hard core gamer, “the demographic what makes up the actual market for PC games.” Most of these gamers are up with technology, while they may not have a top end system, the can run a vast majority of the software titles without any problem. “Many people in this group aren’t afraid to spend a little money to improve their system” says Rob. This statement could not be more to the point and is driven by Moore’s Law. Nowhere is this more evident than in the graphics industry, where it is tenfold!

If this is our intended “target audience” why do we bother with such low system requirements? The system requirements for Quake III are extremely low; Pentium 233MHz, Pentium II 266MHz or AMD 350MHz K6-2, 3D hardware video card with OpenGL, 64MB RAM, 25MB hard disk space and a quad speed CD-ROM drive. Are you kidding me? Mods should look much higher then just the minimum system requirements. Can development teams afford to do that?

Rob says, “If you give us a good reason to upgrade our systems, we’ll be happy to do it [talking about sports gamers].” But I feel this applies to any computer gaming genre, including first person shooters, like Quake III and Unreal Tournament. If the developers or mod teams create a quality product, gamers would be more willing to accept and support it. Usually that means a hardware upgrade or in terms of mods, purchasing a game like Quake III to play many of the amateur developed mods such as Rocket Arena 3 and Urban Terror.

Silicon Ice Development has been working from the development point of making Urban Terror playable for anyone with Quake III. We have heard many comments like, “I bought Quake III just for Urban Terror” or “Your mod made me dust off my copy of Quake III.” This is a good thing, more people are aware mods are there and free for the taking. Once they see the level of quality, they will think about increasing their system specs. “Think of the incredible games that could be made with a minimal system requirement of a PIII 600 with 128MB RAM and a GeForce-level video card.” That is what I am talking about, like it or not that is the direction gaming is heading.

With new software on the horizon using the most advanced hardware on the market. Even now with the newly released Tribes 2 as an example we are seeing, Low End, Recommended and High End system requirements. 1GHz processor, Voodoo4/5 or GeForce 2 GTS. How’s that for “high end specs?” Get used to seeing these type of requirements when you go to buy your next game. This will mean mod development teams will have their work cut out for them. But that should increase the overall quality of the game, which in the end is the best result.

Thanks to TheSorus for bring this article in PCGamer to my attention and Rob Smolka for giving some good information. It all makes sense.

Oswald Rant: Fair Weather Gamers

Compare today’s PC gamer to those people whom only show up and support their favorite sporting team when they are winning. Once the season is lost, they seem to disappear and “jump off the bandwagon,” only to resurface the following year with the same desire and intent, only to have this cycle begin again. This analogy can be used and pointed in the direction of those fans [or those claiming to be fans] of id Software, Quake III and the upcoming release of Team Arena.

After months of development and publicity, id releases a “demo” version of Quake III: Team Arena. While it comes as no big surprise, gamers in the community began to sling mud and take shots at id comparing Quake III: Team Arena to Unreal Tournament and their successful game.

Why is it that gamers are never quite satisfied? Finally they get to check out a long awaited demo or beta version of a game or mod. Inevitably nothing but &$%@ spews from the mouth as they are deleting it off the hard disk, vowing never to purchase or play it ever again. Nowhere is this more evident than in the mod community, but recently has reared its ugly head into the mainstream, directed at id Software.

The Quake3World forum thread, TA=UT? turned ugly quickly, as “id kids,” Paul Jaquays and Robert Duffy came to defend their integrity. “id, as a company and John as an individual has been incredibly generous towards the community…providing tools, information and pretty much laying the foundation…considering these are the things that make modifications possible in id games as well as other games, I would think people would appreciate the ability to do so instead of whining about it so much,” says Robert Duffy. Unfortunately, gamers take no remorse and feel the need to retaliate, vocally belittling a company such as id Software to feed their egos.

I have no problems with the direction id Software is taking in terms of development for Team Arena. I have no reason to verbally assault them for their dedication and effort to take Quake III to the “next level.” My point of contention, the way the 1.25 Point Release was distributed publicly, in beta form, not being backwards compatible to allow gamers and mod developers alike to play or continue development using the newest source code.

But unlike the gamers, the mod developers were a bit more tolerant and willing to ride out the wait. As of this writing, we are still waiting for the SDK, but Robert Duffy and Christian Antkow have provided a Mod Forum for developers to gather and discuss development. We are also being give the chance to sign an NDA [Non-Disclosure Agreement] with id Software, to gain access the upcoming source code, so we can have a head start in upgrading our mods to be compatible with the new point release, before Team Arena hits the shelves.

Without id Software, there would be no mod community for Quake III. Without a mod community, they would be just another software developer [possibly]. id Software is a special group of highly talented developers, who like mod developers will be scrutinized whenever possible when the mainstream does not like the directions or actions that are being taken. Unfortunate as it is, that’s real life and must be dealt with. Props to id Software on their development on Team Arena and their support for the mod community.

Oswald Rant: FAQ U and your readme.txt

You know the adage that men don’t need instructions to put something together. I think Tim “The Toolman” Taylor made that popular in the television show, Home Improvement. Unfortunately, it looks as if that has carried over to gaming. Surprising? Not really. Uhhhhh???? How often to you deselect ‘Read the readme file now’ when installing a game? Sometimes? Always? Never? Yeah, you should have stopped at ALWAYS! Why? Because we think we know it all and don’t need some pointless gibberish telling us what to do.

The same can be said for a FAQ or ‘Frequently Asked Questions.’ What is the point of having a FAQ if people head straight to the forums or IRC to get an answer for a common problem or irregularity in a game or mod. Something which the developers are fully aware of, but which the player cannot figure out. A simple double click on the readme.txt or a visit to the nearest FAQ would have saved the pain and embarrassment of making an idiot out of yourself in the forums or on IRC.

I can remember my first trip to the Action Quake 2 Forums. Being new to the world of online gaming, I had never posted before. To be honest, I don’t think I even posted under an alias. That is how green I was. So, the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do” is relevant in this case. I proceed to post a simple message, asking nicely how to configure the zoom/unzoom alias for the SSG3000 sniper rifle. By the responses, you think I poured blood into a pool of sharks. These predators were circling, just waiting for the kill. Needless to say, I was hesitant to make another appearance in that forum for some time. But some good did come out of that.

One post, while not directly answering my question, told me to consult the readme.txt file for many of the basics of the game, along with reading over the FAQ, which was found on the web site. A second response told me to go through the first two pages of posts, being they were the most recent, on the off chance someone else had already asked a similar question. Two of the most relevant pieces of advice to live by today before making an ass of yourself in any forum.

Just how important is the information contained in the readme.txt and the FAQ? If the developers took time to write it, consider it somewhat valuable. It will save you from becoming frustrated and pissed off because you are unable to accomplish a simple step to get the mod or game up and running. Many development teams ask that you take a few minutes to get acquainted with the FAQ, if you are confronted with a problem before asking a question.

Just as an example, I decided to scroll through the readme.txt file which was made available for the most recent release of Urban Terror: Beta 1.2. This file gives the player a quick overview of the mod, up to this point and also discusses the changes which have occurred. This version also notes an important changes to key bindings. Something that is quite important if you bind your keys from the console as opposed to the menu. Finally, they list all the bug fixes and give a revision history of the beta versions.

As for the FAQ, being I am the moderator at the Urban Terror Forums, this is an invaluable document, which if were a book would have dog eared pages because I reference the same information, day after day. As long as people are aware and acknowledge these documents exist, then that is all the developer can ask for. Regardless of how the question is answered, these two documents provide much information which could be important to game play. So next time, take a few minutes to examine these files and then jump into the action.

Oswald Rant: Competition Killed the Reality Mod

Like Buggles sang, ‘Video killed the radio star’, competition is killing the realism mods. I continue to examine Half-Life and the sudden impact it is spawning the mod community in terms of realism mods. It is amazing to see the many different faces of realism and the number of development team tossing their hat into the ring, to challenge the other realism and stare competition square in the eye.

It is no secret that realism mods have been on the rise. With the overwhelming success of Action Quake 2 and more recently, Half-Life’s Counter-Strike, development teams are taking to the realism arena in search of success. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Quake Community, with realism mods being introduced seemingly, on a weekly basis. Is all this competition good, or will it drive people away?

While competition in the community is usually a good thing, could too much competition, not only dry up the resources but create more mediocrity within the community in terms of the overall quality of mods? Unlike Counter-Strike, there has yet to be a dominate realism mod since the days of Action Quake 2. The reason is simple, “strength in numbers” is not a key component to success when creating a mod. Counter-Strike’s only competition at the time of development was Action Quake 2, which had already started on its downhill trend and Action Half-Life, also from The A-Team, that just did not live up to the hype and flare of its predecessor. Those in the Quake Community were left yearning for a successor to Action. Since the rise of Counter-Strike many new and fresh development teams have decided to work on realism projects, all with a common goal. To rival Counter-Strike and put Quake back on top.

Just take a look at this growing list of mods based around realism: Survival: 9mm, Caliber, Streets of Crime, CRIME, Navy Seals: Covert Ops, Urban Warfare, Annihilation, True Combat, Urban Terror, Death or Glory: Gang Warfare, Elite Showdown, FMJ, Gang Defender, Good and Bad, Heavy Delta, HIRED-FORCE, Army Rangers, Project Rainbow, QForces, Quake 3 SWAT, S.E.G. PLATOON, Seal Team 6, Terrorism, and Urban Assault*. 25 mods!!!! And all being developed for Quake 3. Hell, half of these mods may never turn out a beta version, let alone get out of a planning stage. The other half, I have never even heard of. How many of these have a realistic shot at being the “best of the best?” One, maybe two? Only time will tell, if the community could actually support similar mods. I don’t think it could the weak would eventually fail and succumb to the strong.

This influx of competition was never evident during the Quake 2 days. Action Quake 2 reigned supreme until Counter-Strike came along and steam rolled the entire mod scene! Combine all the Quake 3 realism mods and their numbers would only be a fraction of the total of Counter-Strike [Half-Life]. Even now, Half-Life is pulling in more players and more servers than almost all other games/mods which are tracked courtesy of GameSpy Stats. The Counter-Strike juggernaut: Get on or get rolled. So what does this all mean?

Between mod teams breaking up, loosing interest or just quitting, there will hopefully be one which rises to the forefront of the Quake 3 mod scene. Going through and compiling the list of realism mods, it was not surprising to see many reference “Counter-Strike” and “Action Quake” in their mod description. These are the type of mods gamers and want to play. And play on the Quake 3 engine.

While many of the mods are still in development or early beta builds, it is not really evident which will succeed. Counter-Strike has set a new standard in mod development. The gaming community expects more from development teams. In the end, the success of a mod will not be based on their development, but in comparison to Counter-Strike.

* – All the realism mods were compiled from the hosted sites at PlanetQuake and Quake 3 Mods.