[quake3] global ways to develop?

[Zachary J. Slater]

Quoting Empty World <proton at mrtech.ru>:

> a) bring q3 to new platforms, such as solaris, mac os 9, etc..

We're already working on that, solaris is being worked on I believe.
Check out the status part of the web page for updates on that or just
keep reading the ML.

> b) make existing q3 faster <this is what they doing now almost all the 
> time, right?>

This isn't particularly interesting, though I'm not adverse to improvments
as long as they don't break compatability.

Quake 3 runs ridiculously fast on any nearly modern system, even using laptop
chipsets like the intel 855GM in my thinkpad.

> c) bring new features in q3

Well, new features are mostly mods, you can do more comprhensive mods these days
with regard to additional features, post-source release. Though it would be
prudent for them to be stand-alone games since you can't have 1.32
compatability once you've gone beyond the standard mod SDK and into post-source
modify-the-whole-tree-for-your-mod land. 

Which isn't to say you can't have 1.32 compatability if you set your sights
within the confines of the old SDK.

Timbo could probably explain that part better :)

 
> i wanted to talk about new stuff that can be brought.. a year ago i 
> dreamed about software-render in q3 (don't laugh ;)) but now i 
> understand that it's 99,5% impossible. everybody agrees?
> there can be done lost of new features, that usual mod-making could not 
> do. there can be a new, next-generation q3, maybe q3 for pro_s. but i 
> think that is possible only if people make a community and start 
> developing their hacks on this source code away from official 
> (icculus.org), usual q3 sources..

I'd certainly welcome a software renderer patch, though I don't know how
difficult it would be.

When you say next generation, I assume you mean "enhanced graphics".

That is certainly doable though it might require art talent in addition to
coding skills.

Nobody has ponied up to doing that kind of enhanced graphics feature yet...

As far as "pro_s" I'm not sure what you're talking about, professional gamers,
the CPL, etc?

I'm not particularly interested in them, and their needs have always been
fufilled by standard mods.

With regard to people breaking away from icculus.org/quake3, I'm not sure why
you would discuss that here. The modifications made are certainly GPL and
people
are welcome to take them and develop their own. I fully expect to see Larry
C0d3h4x0r taking these changes to make his cel-shaded quake 3 or whatever.

However, this isn't the place to discuss that, larry and his friends would have
made their own project somewhere else. Though I would suggest they track the
changes made here, since there will almost inevitably be more bugfixes and
platforms supported down the road. I fully intend to see SDL support for
quake3
on windows before I die, and that might be interesting for other people as
well.
It would probably make mingw building easier, too.
-- 
-Zachary J. Slater
zakk at timedoctor.org
zacharyslater at gmail.com