Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#11

Post by drawkbox » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 6:51 AM UTC

Lots of hacks like this in games.

It could have been solved by limiting the two side vectors lengths to less distance (maybe even tuned by speed) and fixed it enough if the reason was for side damage. If it was to fix some other issue like maybe floats losing precision far out that would not be a good idea.

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#12

Post by mewse-hn » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 6:53 AM UTC

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

It's QuakeC - quake's proprietary scripting language that compiled down to a file called progs.dat

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#13

Post by poglet » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 6:53 AM UTC

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

He mentioned QuakeC. Maybe this part of the game was coded in that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuakeC

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#14

Post by cammikebrown » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 6:55 AM UTC

Quake was the first PC game I played and still in my top 10 favorite games of all time. The movement STILL feels fresh!

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#15

Post by idiomaticrust » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 6:56 AM UTC

Did anyone had a situation after entering the portal that it didn't teleport you, but you were in some different space with purple color and you had to move forward to be teleported? I had this once on the DM2 map. I tried to repeat this, but I never succeeded.

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#16

Post by kubb » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 6:58 AM UTC

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

[flagged]

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#17

Post by kipi » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 7:07 AM UTC

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

Hello, video creator here. This is indeed the actual code, and it is written in QuakeC, a language created specifically for the game logic in Quake. The part I'm not sure about is why the creators wanted to add in extra side beams at all.

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#18

Post by somedude895 » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 7:18 AM UTC

kipi wrote: post #17

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

Hello, video creator here. This is indeed the actual code, and it is written in QuakeC, a language created specifically for the game logic in Quake. The part I'm not sure about is why the creators wanted to add in extra side beams at all.

Probably just to make the gun more powerful, so you get some area of effect damage and not just hit the target right under your crosshair.

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#19

Post by 2c2c2c » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 7:31 AM UTC

kipi wrote: post #17

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

Hello, video creator here. This is indeed the actual code, and it is written in QuakeC, a language created specifically for the game logic in Quake. The part I'm not sure about is why the creators wanted to add in extra side beams at all.

in the era of arrow keys and ball mice, lg probably felt like trash. who knew it would end up so iconically broken :-)

Re: Quake's lightning gun bug explained [video]

#20

Post by eps » Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 7:33 AM UTC

kipi wrote: post #17

eps wrote: post #10

I don't follow. This code is not C or C++, so it's not actually from Quake. So what's with "this is how this was coded" and "here are the bugs, but it's only my guess"? The code is avaialble, why guess at all?

Hello, video creator here. This is indeed the actual code, and it is written in QuakeC, a language created specifically for the game logic in Quake. The part I'm not sure about is why the creators wanted to add in extra side beams at all.

Oh, didn't know about QuakeC. Shame on me.

So both the "normalize" and the improper swap are the part of the original source?