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Id Software

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Re: Id Software

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check Quaddicted[1] for some singleplayer maps. The most common engine by far is Quakespasm[2] which keeps the original style but fixes bugs, reintroduces some features from the software renderer that were lost in the original OpenGL version (fullbrights, lightmaps that go above 100%, non-power-of-two textures, etc) and removes and raises some hardcoded limits. You probably also want QuakeInjector[3], which is a "qua…

Awesome, thanks for all of this information. It's much appreciated! Of the 3 quakes, which is easiest to dive into mod development?

I think the first one (the list i gave is for that) since it seems to have the most tools and documentation available out there. After that Quake 3 seems to be the most popular, but that is multiplayer only (not that some people didn't try to make singleplayer mods though :-P).

Also i forgot to link to the Quake Wiki: https://quakewiki.org/

Re: Id Software

#162
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious that you think it was a golden age.

It was a golden age for the first person immersive simulation game. Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Thief, System Shock II, Half-Life, Deus Ex - there was a period of classics with large improvements and innovation from one game to the next, where game design space was explored just as the technology to render it became available. First person immersive sims are generally best played on the PC. When consoles that were a…

Obligatory plug for the Book about this: https://unbound.com/books/rocket-jump/

Re: Id Software

#163
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a strictly technological view of videogames is very restrictive. For a variety of reasons, in the last decade (or in the last couple), videogames matured as a narrative medium, which is a radical difference from the 90s. One could argue that, from an whole - including artistic - perspective, 2010s are the golden era. I don't think there is a golden age, though. There are still radical improvements to come in…

Video games have gone Hollywood. Largely because of improvements in graphics, game budgets have gone way up and studios are afraid to take risks. Hence you get mostly sequels, online cash cows, linear on-rails shooters/cinematic experiences that are easy to sell. Content is expensive to produce so studios are afraid of "wasting" it. Yet I was still discovering hidden things in the original Deus Ex 10 years after I fi…

Second Book plug because you're correct on all counts (I really want this to get funded :( ) https://unbound.com/books/rocket-jump/

90s FPS was my most treasured era of gaming… watching the tech evolve inspired me to get into computing and become a dev.

Re: Id Software

#164
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious that you think it was a golden age.

It was a golden age for the first person immersive simulation game. Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Thief, System Shock II, Half-Life, Deus Ex - there was a period of classics with large improvements and innovation from one game to the next, where game design space was explored just as the technology to render it became available. First person immersive sims are generally best played on the PC. When consoles that were a…

I didnt even realize mouse + keyboard was a thing until i downloaded the killcreek vs romero demo. I asked my friend “how are they looking around so fast?” Until then I had been using pg up to look up.

Re: Id Software

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Games are certainly a different way to tell a story, but I wouldn't say "terrible". > The way games are used as a narrative medium is by shoving movies inside them If that's how a game is presenting its story, then yes; they likely would be better served by simply making a movie. Games are an interactive medium, but that just means that storytelling in games will be different and use different tools than other medium…

The reason I say it is a terrible way to tell a story is not because you can't tell a good story in a video game, but because most stories don't benefit from having gameplay elements thrown into them. In fact, I think it takes away from the story because the storyteller loses control over important things like pacing and the person experiencing the story has to constantly switch between story-mode and gameplay-mode.…

> The reason I say it is a terrible way to tell a story is not because you can't tell a good story in a video game, but because most stories don't benefit from having gameplay elements thrown into them.

Interesting that I have exactly opposite view. Gameplay elements if done well create a tight feedback loop between the game and the player, an illusion that the player is part of the story, not just an observer.

There are reverse design documents for some games explaining how quests and gameplay are weaved together to achieve a desired effect on the player: http://thegamedesignforum.com/features/reverse_design_CT_1.h...

Re: Id Software

#166
post #77

Can I use this to play Doom 3 BFG edition on Linux? I'd love to just buy it on Steam but sadly it's Windows only. By the way, I love this from the readme: > If you have obtained this source code several weeks after the time of release, it is likely that you can find modified and improved versions of the engine in various open source projects across the internet.

See https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/playing-doom-3-on-lin...

I wish I hadn't looked. It doesn't look anywhere near as good as Doom 3 in my memory looked. I've had this when playing old games from my childhood before. In my memory they were perfect, beautiful. Then I looked again and my memories were shattered. I didn't expect it to happen with Doom 3.

Re: Id Software

#167
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games have gone Hollywood. Largely because of improvements in graphics, game budgets have gone way up and studios are afraid to take risks. Hence you get mostly sequels, online cash cows, linear on-rails shooters/cinematic experiences that are easy to sell. Content is expensive to produce so studios are afraid of "wasting" it. Yet I was still discovering hidden things in the original Deus Ex 10 years after I fi…

All good points. You're certainly right about the costs involved in 'triple-A' development. Indie games are out there, though. Some of them even look great, just not photorealistic (such as Limbo). > Yet I was still discovering hidden things in the original Deus Ex 10 years after I first played it Ever play the PS2 port? They had to rework the maps to cope with the PS2's memory constraints. Everything's familiar, but…

No - but I was waiting for years for the Deus Ex: Revision mod to be completed, yet have not found the time to play it yet.

Re: Id Software

#168
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games have gone Hollywood. Largely because of improvements in graphics, game budgets have gone way up and studios are afraid to take risks. Hence you get mostly sequels, online cash cows, linear on-rails shooters/cinematic experiences that are easy to sell. Content is expensive to produce so studios are afraid of "wasting" it. Yet I was still discovering hidden things in the original Deus Ex 10 years after I fi…

How many games have you played in the last, say, 5 years? I suspect that many people in this discussion reference big names because they played in the past, but don't play anymore, therefore talk about what they actually see advertised. > Largely because of improvements in graphics, game budgets have gone way up and studios are afraid to take risks [...] 1997-2004 [...] good enough that cool things could be made yet…

I agree on the indie games. I enjoyed VVVVV and Doki Doki Literature Club. Out of recent AAA titles, Prey was very encouraging, GTA5 was pretty damn good, the recent Hitman is quite good also. I just think that the time period I mention had a higher number/density of great AAA titles.

Re: Id Software

#169
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

first person immersive simulation game FPS stands for First Person Shooter . The games you're listing don't simulate much, even if some of those games have RPG elements.

I know what FPS stands for, but Thief most definitely isn't a shooter, and System Shock II is less of a shooter than a creepy exploration game. Deus Ex is half an RPG. FPS is too reductive. I'm using the phrase immersive sim in the same way as these articles: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/06/29/dark-futures-par... https://www.pcgamer.com/history-of-the-best-immersive-sims/ See also Wikipedia - https://en.wiki…

No, it doesn't really help explain how Doom, Wolfenstein, or Quake, etc., are lumped in together with games like Thief as simulations. FPS is certainly not reductive. A game can be more than one genre, but sometimes an FPS is just an FPS, and more than half the games you listed are pretty much just an FPS.

Re: Id Software

#170

Thanks to the Quake engine being open source and LordHavoc's source port we have a very efficient VR shooter running on all VR devices, like the Oculus Go. https://quakewiki.org/wiki/DarkPlaces

Love seeing LordHavoc mentioned. I collaborated a little bit with LordHavoc while helping build the open source shooter game Nexuiz (~2004-2005) and he is truly a brilliant game engine programmer!
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