February

02/29/2000
Happy Skip Day

FreeCam Released
Beta version 0.5 FreeCam, a new Quake III Arena camera mod from Strange Company has been released, and is available for download at Machinima.com. FreeCam allows you to view demos using a free-floating camera or by affixing it to any entity within the game.

Making Q3 Player Models
Polycount has the first part of a step by step tutorial on making a 3DS MAX model into a Quake3 player model, written by Paul Steed himself.

Pure Q3A
The first beta release of the Pure mod for Quake III Arena is now available. Pure offers several modifications aimed at CTF games, though it's pointed out that it can be used for deathmatch, as well. Pure reintroduces the four techs/runes familiar from Threewave CTF, a grappling hook, the Pure scoring system, Quake 1 underwater lightning gun discharge effect, and more. All the options can be toggled on or off to the server operator's preference.

New GLSetup Released
A new version of GLSetup, the program that checks your PC and automatically installs the right OpenGL drivers for your hardware, has been released and is available for download at its official site. This new version (Beta 1.0.0.113) adds new drivers for 3dfx, Matrox, NVIDIA, ATI and S3 cards, and adds support for the latest chipsets as well.

02/28/2000
Graeme Devine on X-Files "First Person Shooter"
id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan , voicing his opinions on Sunday night's X-Files episode "First Person Shooter", which was co-written by sci-fi author William Gibson:

PlanetQuake3.net Announcements (Thanks stomped)
PlanetQuake3.net has announced that Jedi Yoda's page has been updated with a new design and that they are now hosting the Q1Q3 Pak. Version 2.5 of the Q1Q3 Pak is now available.

Q3Fortress Footage
NPGames has posted a 3min40sec real video clip of the upcoming Q3Fortress mod, which is similar to TeamFortress. Check it out if you're interested in seeing how development is doing.

Q3A Assimilation (thanks Blues)
The Assimilation 2 Home has a new version 1.03 of the Assimilation 2 mod for Quake III Arena. The new release adds a g_countTime cvar that modifies the length of the countdown and a g_respawnAfterCount cvar which can respawn everyone once the countdown is over (useful for one-on-ones). The time between rounds has been slightly reduced, as well.

Q3A Viz (thanks Blues)
The El Niño Quake Extensions has an updated version 1.5.0 of the Viz mod for Quake III Arena, which adds player classes to Q3A as well as gameplay tweaks like bleeding from wounds (including blood trails) and more. The new release "fixes a few minor annoyances/inconsistencies in some of the server-side and client-side game code."

Q1Q3 Pak (thanks Blues)
Version 2.5 of the Q1Q3 Pak is now available, providing a way to add a bit of a "Quake1 flavor" to Quake III Arena, though it's become a bit of a multi-flavor add-on, as in addition to providing some Quake sound and vision, it also makes the railgun behave more like the Quake II rail, and offers the chance to play as the Doom Marine, as well as the Quake Ranger.

02/27/2000
New Webdog and Webpuppy
Richard from, Webdog, sends word that they have a "triple whammy" for us this afternoon. First off, their website has be redesigned with a very orange look. Secondly, they have a brand spankin' new version of Webdog to download, and thirdly, they've released a new version of Webpuppy. They also have a new program in the works, currently dubbed "Chatbear," that will be their version of ICQ. Lots of cool stuff going down on the Webdog front.

New Ricebug Tutorial
This one explains how to make leaves drifting from trees or blowing in the wind. It also shows how to make a tornado. Go check it out here

John Carmack on Zoid's Departure
A comment by John Carmack to a thread titled Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch Leaving id Software on SlashDot (thanks ShugaShack) discusses the reasons behind the Zoid's recently announced departure (story), starting off saying: "I had talked with Zoid about it a few times over the years, and I think he is making a pretty good decision," and concluding: "We are parting on the best of terms (leaving right AFTER a project completes is the considerate way to go). He is going to finish up the Quake2 linux updates (better X/GLX support), even if he has to complete the work from his new job."

Classic CTF for Q3A
The "much anticipated" public beta release Classic CTF for Quake III Arena is now available, promising the "Same Game, Different Engine!" Word is "The public beta includes a grappling hook, runes, super nailgun, weapons stay, CTF Optimized Weapons Physics, as well as lots more. There's a new exclusive high-quality map in there, too!"

02/26/2000
Q3map contest
Head over to  PureDM they are holding a contest which could win you a new Viper II graphics card.


ModGamer Opens
If your into mods then you should move your behind over to modgamer.com as they have listed all the mods for all the games out there, this has got to be the best resource listing for mods on the net.

New Q3A PoW  
The Black Knight Productions page has a new beta 2.0 of the Prisoners of War mod for Quake III Arena. This release includes five new maps, several changes related to switching teams, and numerous bug fixes.

Update from  Dave Kirsch (Zoid)
In September of 1996, I made a small modification to the popular id Software
game Quake and called it ThreeWave Capture the Flag. That simple
modification grew into the last three and a half years of working with
id Software and the Quake community. The job that id Software gave me
over this period has been very rewarding. It has also been a lot of fun.
I have enjoyed watching the community grow. I was also overwhelmed at
having been able to work on a series of some of the most amazing games ever
created. But, like all good things, it must come to an end.

I feel that I have learned a lot in my time with id, but I find myself
looking for new challenges. I have decided that in order to pursue them,
I must leave my association with id Software. Having done so, I plan
on exploring new opportunities.

My contract with id terminates at the end of this month (Feb). My
zoid@idsoftware.com address will probably stop forwarding to my permanent
address shortly after that. My permanent address is
zoid@threewave.com
for people that wish to reach me.

I would like to thank id Software (and especially John Carmack) for giving
me such great opportunities, and allowing me to work with all the talented
people there. I am going to miss it.

02/25/2000
Update from John Carmack
Some people took it upon themselves to remotely wreck Slade's development
system. That is no more defensible than breaking into Id and smashing
something.

The idea isn't to punish anyone, it is to have them comply with the license
and continue to contribute. QuakeLives has quite a few happy users, and it
is in everyone's best interest to have development continue. It just has to
be by the rules.

New Article at Q3 Workshop
Lard from over at Q3 Workshop put up an article on clip brushes, and how to use them to help your map run smoothly. Go check it out

02/24/2000
Quake III Bot Designer 
The first release of the Quake III Bot Designer is now available. This program is designed to assist modelers in the addition of bot support to their models for Quake III Arena. The program allows you to give a bot weapon preferences and other skills, without having to crack open the Q3A source code. 

New Q3Post
A new version 1.23 of Q3Post is now available at its new home. Q3Post is a utility that posts a server's IP address and description to IRC when you jump into a Quake III Arena game, and the new version offers additional customization features and fixes a couple of bugs.

02/23/2000
Reviewed the GIGANTA
Just finished my review of the new GIGANTA mouse pad from Everglide check it out here.

Map Viewer Pro (Thanks Stomped)
Mapviewer Pro is a utility that allows you to check out every map in Quake3Arena, Unreal Tournament, and Quake (more game support to be added). It shows a small screenshot of the level and the name of the map. There is skin support with other features planned for the future.

02/22/2000
Beta patch 1.16j
Plan update from Robert A. Duffy:

New executables for the point release beta are on the FTP.

-Zombie/Ghost unpure clients no longer remain connected.
-Recursive File System error corrected when running mods with logfile set to 1
-The Auto-download rate is controlled by 'sv_maxRate', specify this value in bytes per second. The maximum band rate caps out around 25K per second.

New version 1.16j Quake III Arena beta release on id's FTP site.

New Q3Log
A new version 0.96a of the Q3Log log parser is now available on the site's newly relocated homepage. There's nothing new in the update, which is described as bug fixes.

02/21/2000
Q3ToolsGUI 1.6 
The latest version of the Q3Tools GUI has been released.

02/20/2000
Looking for a new Maps
Check out this site called Quake III Arena the Point

02/19/2000
Q31.16i Security patch
Update from Robert A. Duffy

Q3A 1.16i Beta is now on our ftp site. This is a small executable only patch that enhances security. . The patch was released for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. According to the .read me, this patch will put blank spaces where your CD Key numbers are after you type them in, leave the screen and then return to it.

More Textures from Graphtallica
Graphtallica just posted another 25-texture pack. This texture pack has concrete, dirty tiling floors, computer panels, and some futuristic doors.

2nd VRMagazine Q3A Texture pack
VRMagazine and check out their 2nd Q3a Texture pack. This is out of a series of three, so we should expect the 3rd pack before too long.

02/18/2000
Dam slow day for news

02/17/2000
Q3 1.16h Beta Released (Patch)
The Quake 3 1.16h beta has been released for the public to test on all Q3 platforms (Mac, Linux, Win32).  Stomped  3D Shack   id Software  3D Files

02/16/2000
Q3Radiant Manual Fix
id Software's Paul Jaquays updated his .plan again to point out that the MSWord version of the just released Q3Radiant Manual (story) contains a formatting error, and a fixed version has been released. Here is the deal:

Several astute mappers have let me know about a formatting error in the MSWord version of the editor manual. The graphic for the shader manual on page 56 overlays the text. If you've downloaded this already and you know your way around Word, it's an easy fix. Select the graphic and edit the word wrap to wrap above and below the picture. The file has been corrected and is now live on the id ftp site. It will be live on the Quake3arena site by tomorrow morning.

Webmasters: if you've mirrored these downloads on your own site, you may want to grab the revised zip or edit the word file yourself.

I've also been informed by one mapper that he's undertaking a .pdf file conversion for users of Acrobat.

The fixed manual can be downloaded from id's ftp server or the Walnut Creek mirror (417 KB).

Q3Radiant Manual
Update From  Paul Jaquays
Current projects: Q3Radiant Editor Documentation
The Q3Radiant Manual is Done!

... and it's available for download. The manual is big ... 163 formatted pages. It's being released in two distinct "flavors." One is an MSWord version (created in Word 2K on the PC, which appears to be very backward compatible with earlier versions of MsWord) and a somewhat "raw" HTML version converted directly from the Word document. The document contains a number of embedded graphic files and organizational formatting, so ripping it down into a text document didn't appear to be the way to go.

Each of the versions is zipped and run just under half a meg each. Unpacked, you'll need 2 megs of drive space.

Q3Radiant Manual (HTML version) on id ftp site
Q3Radiant Manual (MSWord version) on id ftp site

Mirrors:

Q3Radiant Manual (HTML version) on quake3arena.com
Q3Radiant Manual (MsWord version) on quake3arena.com

A couple things to note.

The document is targetted at version 192 of the Q3Radiant editor, which Robert Duffy is still working on. Some of the things documented in the manual are not in the released versions of the editor.

Second, if you want to mirror these files on your own site, go ahead. If you want to make a more functional, robust HTML version (one that does not require a full download to view), we (id) want to see it and approve it before you make it available for public viewing. This document is covered by the same EULA that covers our earlier tools releases.

Licensed developers of Quake 3 Engine product should contact id directly for this manual.

Texture Pak From VR
Compliments of VR, there is an exclusive texture pack posted for use with Q3:A, although the images are adaptable to numerous other games. This is the first in a forthcoming series for you map designers and lazy artists. Best of all, it's free. Enjoy.

New Q3A Shader Editor
There's a new version of the Q3A Shader Editor available. If you're looking to create custom shaders for Q3A, get it.

Wally Beta Version 1.49b
This is the first version with 24-bit support, so pick it up here.

Q3A Pakfile Conformity
Snagged this from PlanetQuake:

A Quake3World message board thread that id's Paul Jaquays contributed to, talks about the file naming standard that should be used by the authors new .pk3's. Rogue13 of Polycount is credited with setting the standard, so props to him. Here's a bit of what the new file names should look like.

md3-xxx.pk3 User Model with original associated skin files and sound files
bot-xxx.pk3 User bot files. May contain additional model or skin and texture files
skin-xxx.pk3 User skin with associated skin and texture files
map-xxx.pk3 User created map(s) and supporting files (arena, texture, sound, music)
tex-xxx.pk3 User texture and shader files
snd-xxx.pk3 Sounds only
mus-xxx.pk3 Music only
pfb-xxx.pk3 Map prefabs

02/14/2000
Happy Valentine's Day  

New GLQuake  
Version 1.13 of The Unofficial GLQuake Project's version of GLQuake has been released, and is available for download on their homepage. This new version adds bump mapping and slipgate mirrors to their already impressive feature set.

New Q3LA  
Version of the day for the Quake 3 Log Analyzer is build 030, featuring a long list of improvements, changes, and fixes. To get an idea of how the output currently looks like, check out this sample page.

Q3A Tools GUI v1.53
Q3A Tools GUI version 1.53 has been released. This front end for Quake 3 compilers has these changes in the new version:

       much improved capturing of the compiler's output when using internal log viewer
       you can set bots on specific teams now (thanx to dr.qube!)
       improved loading speed for the internal log viewer :-)
       added "open viewer" function on the main window
       program does not crash anymore when log file does not exist
       cleaned up the setup window
       added some graphical icons
       Fixed some bugs

02/13/2000
Zoid chat log
In case you missed last night's chat with id Software's Zoid, PlanetQuake has posted the edited chat log. After looking over it for a while, I found a few good snips about the chances of id releasing more Quake 3 maps, and open sourcing Q3Radient.

Zoid: We haven't announced any plans for more maps at this time, but we're always keeping out eyes on the demand out there in the community. We may have some more stuff in the future, of course.

...We are planning to release the source code to Q3Radiant soon. It would not be trival to convert it to another OS, but it is doable. I''d love to see someone port it to something like gtk+ or qt under Linux/X11.

Q3 Female Skin/Sounds Contest
The Q3 Female Skin/Sounds Contest site is up and the contest will get under way on the 22nd. They are shooting for a full model pak for Q3 with the Kuyozuka No Rei female model by Bolek winning the model contest last month. Prizes have increased to an estimated $2000+ total due to the addition of two new sponsors, nVidia and Primagames. There's a 64MB GeForce DDR up for one of the prizes.  Thanks Stomped

Q3Screensaver
Dick Lee's web page has his Quake III Arena screensaver that displays "the various models/characters of Quake3 Arena randomly on your screen or bounces them off the edges of your screen"... Thanks Blues

02/11/2000
Zoid on IRC 

The Planetquake Map Week continues tonight with an IRC chat with Zoid from id. Here is the info :

PlanetQuake will be hosting an IRC chat with Dave "Zoid" Kirsch of id Software, author of Threewave CTF for Quake, Quake II, and Quake III Arena. The festivities kick off at 7:00 PM PST tonight in channel #PlanetQuake of irc.gamesnet.net 6667.

New Q3ServerKit
Version 2.0 of Q3ServerKit, the Quake III Arena server monitor and administration program, has been released. This new version adds a new color scheme, a real-time chat panel, a start panel, support for the Q3Demo and more. The program is available for the Win32, Solaris and Linux platforms.

Q3Log .095b Beta
Q3Log 0.95b beta has been released. This version fixes spaces in names in the HTML and also logo display problems in HTML.

Duffy Chat 
Q3Radiant guru Robert Duffy took time out to chat with PQ about various things such as the editor and other stuff he's working on, pretty good read.

02/10/2000
Jaeger skin from  Polycount

A Quake 2 wedding?
Yes, that headline is correct. Apparently a couple is planning to get married, both in a live ceremony and also in a Quake II game. This page has more details, including a download link to a .pak file that you can use to join in the happy moment online on Monday. 

Q3 Weapons Mod v1.43 Released
The Q3 Weapons Mod version 1.43 has been released. Start health, min health, max health, start armor, min armor, and max armor options have been added.

Editing Stuff
The first release of Q3 Toolbox, a Quake III Arena compiling front-end is now available. Also, Code3Arena is now underway featuring Quake III Arena editing and coding resources, offering no less than 15 tutorials from the get-go, with more to be added soon. 

Robert Duffy Chat
PlanetQuake is hosting an IRC session with id Software's Robert Duffy, the author of QERadiant and the Q3Tools package. The fun starts at 7:00 PM PT on irc.gamesnet.net 6667, in channel #PlanetQuake.

New Matrox Drivers
Matrox has released new beta drivers for their Millennium G400, Millennium G200, Mystique G200, and MGA G200 cards. Separate drivers are available for Windows 9x, Windows 2000, and Windows NT4.

New Banshee Drivers
3dfx has released new drivers for cards featuring the Voodoo Banshee chipset (thanks Voodoo Extreme). These new drivers fix a ton of problems, including game specific issues with Unreal, System Shock 2, Quake III Arena, and others.

Graeme Devine's Search
Graeme Devine updated his .plan seeking some help in finding some video tools:

02/09/2000
Q3A Total Control (3.6megs)
I just got done reading my 225 emails and I noticed from a visitor (Der Abt) that my links to q3control and fun names were bad so I went and found the latest version and here it is. This has fun names in it.

02/08/2000
Site news
Back from vacation. I played Battlezone 2 and it was a blast nice change of pace from Quake3 and Unreal tournament. Yes I do play other games. Time to go dig up some news.

John Carmack interview
The Firing Squad has posted the first part of a two part interview with id Software founder and head programmer John Carmack. The interview, conducted in December, is far ranging as Carmack talks about a number of different topics, including his past. I wish I could say the same:

Masher's Q3 Tools GUI
Masher has released version 1.52 of his Quake 3 Tools GUI for Q3Map and BSPC. Spotted at  Rust.

Updated Q3A Shader Editor

Seen at Polycount a new version of the Q3A Shader Editor. So if you're into creating shaders, check this bad boy out.

Q3A S3TC levels and textures released 

S3 and Diamond have released a special version of Q3A that takes advantage of the features of the Diamond Viper II, Diamond Stealth III S540 and Diamond Stealth S540 Xtreme graphics cards. Why does this matter? Well, because they have also released the tools so that mappers can make maps that take advantage of these features, and have released a map pack that includes some kick-ass looking maps from the community (if you look, you'll probably recognize quite a few of the mappers). Go here to check it out, if you have one of the cards above.

id Hiring 

Sounds like fun

Level Design Position Available

Id Software is searching for a talented, experienced, and team driven individual to help us create some of the best selling games in the industry. We are looking for a team player to add to our design department.

Requirements:

1. Experience working with a 3D engine such as Quake, Unreal, Lith-Tech, etc.
2. Ability to maintain an organized schedule within a creative environment.
3. Ability to set goals and compete them in a timely manner.
4. A driven, self-starter who enjoys the commitment and rewards of creating some of the best levels in the industry.
5. Avid game player with an open mind and understanding of games and gamers in general
6. Willing to play on team id during Capture the Flag games.

If you are interested please send email to twillits@idsoftware.com.

 All inquires will be strictly confidential.

02/02/2000
Site news
I have been busy making a map for Q3 this next one is going to be a lot better than my last one. Q3radiant is one cool editor. But I will be gone for a four day trip so there will be no updates until Sunday as I am the only one updating hint could use some help.

Gensurf news 
Gensurf, a tool for creating fractal generated terrain, has moved to the Tarot Games website. Gensurf, by David Hyde, is a tool for creating fractal generated terrain for id engine games. Although the utility doesn't have full Quake3 support quite yet, it's in the works, including curved surface generation. I can't wait David's past programs rocked, I am sure he will get it working for Q3

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