Duke3D:
Still need to get Bargle's console and such into the icculus.org CVS, but
everyone is stretched too thin to do so at the moment. We'll get it there
soon. Not counting the Mac port, we're really just about done with everything
we wanted to do with Duke3D.
Devastation:
Server is out. Details here.
Beta 1 of the Linux client is avaiable. Get it.
Serious Sam:
The First Encounter: Beta three is out.
The Second Encounter is now available, too!
Details are here.
Time to work on ssam is non-existant, and there will probably not be another
build for Linux for the foreseeable future, if ever.
Unreal Tournament 2003:
Just added Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) support to the OpenGL renderer
for the Mac players to use. Looks sweet, didn't really hurt the framerate
on a GeForce4 for the brief testing I gave it, either.
It won't be available via the UI, but you can enable it in the .ini files and
tweak it from the console. This is deliberate; not only can the UI not change
at this point without breaking network compatibility with Linux and Windows
(it's defined in the data files), but I really don't want people screwing
with it unless they know what they're doing. The details, for those that want
them:
In your .ini file, in the "[OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice]" section:
; Number of buffers for multisampling. 0 to disable FSAA. OSX (and the
; GL_ARB_multisample extension) only support 1 buffer, currently.
MultisampleBuffers=1
; Number of samples per pixel fragment. 0 to disable FSAA. "2" or "4" are
; probably good choices.
MultisampleSamples=4
; This only applies to GeForce 3 and GeForce 4 cards, apparently. Changes
; the anti-aliasing algorithm that is used. 1 is "fastest smoothing",
; 2 is "nicest smoothing", 0 is "don't care" (which is the same as "2"
; by default, but if there was a control panel or environment variable,
; it might be able to override the "don't care" setting).
MultisampleHint=1
And that's it. If you set up MultisampleBuffers and MultisampleSamples,
you can tweak in-game from the console:
Turn FSAA completely off:
"fsaa disable"
Turn FSAA back on (it must have been enabled at startup via the .ini!):
"fsaa enable"
Tweak multisampling hint:
"fsaahint fastest"
"fsaahint nicest"
"fsaahint dont_care"
FSAA is done with the OpenGL extension "GL_ARB_multisample" and the
MultisampleHint thing uses "GL_NV_multisample_filter_hint". The Hint only
works on GF3 or better cards (no ATI support, sorry), but basic FSAA works
on damned near anything (the list from Apple is: "Radeon, Radeon Mobility,
Radeon 7500 Mobility, Radeon 8500, Radeon 9000 Pro, GeForce 3, GeForce 4Ti").
You really don't need MultisampleHint unless you're a real tweaker...FSAA
still looks more or less like you'd expect it to on any video card...hinting
allows for more smoothing, but honestly, I think it makes it too blurry with
the "nicest" hint, and kinda dig the "fastest" mode. I didn't see a big
different in framerate on a GF4 between no FSAA at all and "nicest" mode, but
Your Mileage May Vary...it's very likely that older cards might be doing this
in software, and thus will have a serious framerate hit.
Adding FSAA took patches to SDL, so I'll be submitting them back for
inclusion in the SDL CVS repository. Presumably this will work on Linux and
Windows, too, but those poor bastards will have to wait for ut2004. Don't say
I never do anything for you guys. :)
Wacom sent me a Graphire 2 tablet so I could look at the ut2003 bug, and I
have a good idea of what is wrong.
Gregory S. Read has been working on a multi-disc installer for the retail
version based on a Mac-ified version of Loki Setup.
Saw his first attempt at this tonight, it's starting to look good. Plus it's
GPL'd, so the source is available for people that don't want to pay a
bazillion dollars for a commercial installer. I am pleased.
Generally, bugfixing continues as we speed towards a gold master.
Some other stuff I've been asked recently:
- UMOD installation: UT2003/osx _will_ have a umod unpacker, but it's
a command line hack that I wrote for the Linux users. I expect some sort
of GUI frontend that spawns the command line version and parses its
output will show up sooner or later (if you are interested and can code
something that doesn't suck very quickly, email me and maybe we can even
get it on the retail disc with your name in the manual and stuff).
- (This is true on Linux, probably on the Mac, too) Some resolutions run at
a much higher framerate because the drivers will use page flipping to get
the frame to the screen, whereas other resolutions force the drivers to
do a memcpy()...in which case, a 1920x1200 resolution in 32-bit color will
have to move 9216000 bytes (about 8.78 megabytes) EVERY FRAME, which is
crazy expensive. Again, this might not be the case on the Mac, just a
guess.
- Sound hurts framerate. The version of OpenAL we're using outputs sound
through the SoundManager API, which apparently is mad slow on OSX. We're
looking at what it would take to coerce OpenAL to use CoreAudio instead.
This will probably be addressed in a later patch. If you can get by with
no sound at all (yeah, yeah), you can turn it off in the .ini file for a
bigger framerate boost than even a CoreAudio version would give you.
- Bots probably kill about 2fps per bot, so playing with 10 of them on a
map is gonna put a dent in your game. AI is very VERY expensive. This is
true on the PC versions, too.
- The PC bonus packs also work on the Mac (as should all other unofficial
maps and mutators), but rather than have you hunt the 'net for them and
install them manually, we're shipping both the Epic and Digital Extremes
bonus packs on the retail discs, so all you'll have to do is make sure
they are selected in the installer. That's a good 200 megs worth of
downloading that PC players have to do and you get to skip. See? I can
easily justify all those months of waiting!
MOHAA:
There will be another Linux dedicated server patch (that's compatible with
Spearhead 2.15), but...I'm fucking swamped. I'll let you know when it's here.
America's Army:
We showed ArmyOps on the Mac...to demonstrate that it was network
compatible with the Windows and Linux players, we showed off 1.7.0 (the
latest public version). I'll be updating it to match all the cool nextgen
stuff that the rest of the systems were showing, and then we'll stay in
sync for each public patch.
Gentoo's got a LiveCD version of the game (like they did with the Linux
version of UT2003), and this is currently the only way to play it on
Linux...we'll be releasing a public Linux cient shortly, but I'm
considering this a "Gentoo Games exclusive" for a few days, so if you
want it, go get a BitTorrent for it.
Other stuff:
If you think you've got any control over your own destiny, trying to catch
a flight out of LAX will change your mind. The damned security line was like
three million miles long, so I managed to miss my flight, even after showing
up way ahead of time. So US Airways puts me on standby on a United flight. I
haul ass across the terminal and, with not much time left, get to the ticket
counter where one person is in front of me. This person has several kids, an
elderly man in a wheelchair, lots of oversized baggage, a dog, and five
plane tickets with the wrong name on them...and it took United a good thirty
minutes to figure out what to do with this group. Not sure if they made the
flight, but I sure as hell didn't.
Back to USAir. Tell the dude at the counter that I was afraid he'd miss me,
so I came back to say hi. He puts me on standby for a 10:00p.m. flight (it's
a little after 1p.m. now), so I get a cab back to E3 for the last day of the
show, and then hang out with the Epic crew at their hotel's bar, telling
jokes about Vogel's mom and such.
Cab back to the airport. No security lines when I show up. The small Chinese
man behind the counter tells me the plane is full, and WAY overbooked to
boot. I am apparently not the only guy that had problems earlier today. As
the plane takes off, none of us standby losers got a seat, so the small
Chinese man tells us to go to a different gate, where a flight to Pittsburg
leaves in 30 minutes or so.
About 30 minutes later, the same small Chinese man is telling us this flight
is full, too, try a different gate where a flight is leaving for Charlotte.
This happens several more times. At midnight, he declares that they're done
flying for the night, and he'll see us in the morning. By the way, you're
welcome to stay until security kicks you out. Thanks, Golly Gee.
After sleeping on the floor of the airport for the night, I eventually
managed to score a flight to Charlotte, and while that was a good 600 miles
south of where I was supposed to be about a day ago, I felt like I won the
lottery and got on the plane. Caught a flight to Philly from there around
4:00 that evening, and found the trains don't run from the airport on
weekends anymore. Took a bus to Market Street East, and caught a train home
from there.
Total trip time was about 30 hours. I have driven across the country in
almost that amount of time before (39 hours being my current record).
The moral is that you don't control your fate. A small Chinese man that
follows you from counter to counter at LAX does, so you better hope you
didn't kill any of his ancestors in a past life.
--ryan.