Wirehead Studios

News => News: Generations Arena => Topic started by: ConfusedUs on 2003-11-12, 02:05



Title: Generations Arena .99d (Originally posted by Phoenix)
Post by: ConfusedUs on 2003-11-12, 02:05
Ok, since everyone wants to know, here is a full list of changes and bug fixes so far for 99d. Sorry Footman, patchage is in order:

*Gen-q1dm1 map load causing Gen to fail with model register errors has been fixed.
*Weapons rendering code has been fully optimized.
*Crosshair Health now works and is correct for each armor type.
*Slipgate Eyes model positioned to not bobble around so much.
*Muzzleflash bugs fixed for Gats and Strogg Chaingun.
*Particle size on BFG10K explosion bug fixed.
*Fixed Q3 lightning gun spamming EV_FIREWEAPON fixed. (netcode improvement)
*Fixed grenade ammmo bug with Strogg.
*Added new obituary messages for slime, lava, and gibbing deaths. Some existing obits were modified.
*Added cg_dlightlevel 4 to control secondary dynamic lights on Doom plasma only. The cg_dlightlevel 3 setting now adds secondary lights to all projectiles EXCEPT the Doom plasma. This is good if you like the secondary missile lights but don't want the plasma to lag your video to a crawl with high detail settings.
*Fixed some of the Strogg dynamic light colors.
*Removed current Doom invuln shader for the 3rd person models and replaced it with new simple white shader shell.
*Changed the Strogg invulnerability shader from white to red. This matches Q2 invuln and you can tell it apart from the Doom invulnerability.
*Modified the Earth and Slipgate powerup shells to be more prominant.
*Fixed various energy shaders to work with r_overbrightbits settings.
*Fixed the first-person Doom invulnerability shader to work with r_overbrightbits without washing out the map (white blindness bug).
*Lessened dynamic light intensity when using r_overbrightbits.
*Added Doom Head model with see-through faceplate.
*Fixed the Doom plasma explosion shader drawing out of sync.
*Fixed the Earth handgrenade explosion drawing twice.

The new cg_dlightlevel settings are as follows:

0 - basic. Shows dynamic lights for muzzle flashes only.
1 - low. Adds dynamic lights for explosions and powerup glows.
2 - medium. Adds primary lights for missiles, and secondary explosion lights for BFG's.
3 - high. Adds secondary missile lights.
4 - exteme. Adds secondary missile lights to Doom plasma.

If you've thought Gen looks a little flat in the lighting department we've corrected that problem. Up until now we've had to force r_overbrightbits to 0 so the Doom invulnerability effect didn't blind the player. This had the effect of flattening the lighting in the levels, making them look a bit plain. I've corrected the shader and added some code that makes it function properly with r_overbrightbits set higher than 0. Quake 3's default is "1" so this will be defaulted in the next build. Lights, models, and generally everything looks better with overbright set to 1. This includes the invulnerability now! I'll post a screenshot sometime later to show the new effect off. This way the maps can look as the mappers intended and the colors are a lot richer overall throughout the entire game. Gen has NEVER looked better.

The Doom head model will be included in the next release, along with the Veteran skin. You can see Doom's face through the faceplate or take the helmet off completely!

Can you tell We've been busy? There's more to come that we're not giving away just yet as well. We're edging closer to finishing up 99d. Since HalfLife 2 and Doom 3 look like they may be no-shows for this Holiday season we're hoping to have a release ready sometime before Thanksgiving. We still have a few more things to add and some final testing to do, so be patient and keep checking the web site for updates!