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backporting q4 features to q3

10/11/2005 04:30

backporting q4 features to q3

9558 views | 20 replies

x0n
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So, I was saying to Laurent [spec] the other day that Ive started to seriously look into adding quake 4 features in to quake 3 with a mod. Ive not found anyone else doing it so far on the net, so I thought Id ask ye olde quake.ie community if anyone else would be interesting in help me out. Ive not coded a q3 mod before, but Ive downloaded the quake 3 game source and started checking it out in visual studio, and its pretty straightforward ansi C apart from them reimplementing many of the standard C libary functions -- like strrev, strlen, blah etc -- for use in the QVM (quake virtual machine) environment. My reasons for doing so are that in reality, there seems to be very few differences between v4 and v3:

- nades follow bouncepads.

- rockets are slower, q2 style, although not intentionally so if the reports are to be believed.

- projectile weps work through teleporters

- crouch sliding, although not super important unless youre a CTF capper pro

As you can see (or have realised already) its not whole lot different tbh. Im not interested in adding nailgun since its not worth the effort IMHO. So, my question is: are there any other coders out there with a bit of C under their belts who would be interested in getting stuck in? Reply with ideas, slag-offs, reasons not to, etc to be emailed to oising at gee mail dot com, or posted here.

I know Im probably being short-sighted, but I really think if we added these features to q3, we would have the new gameplay dynamics and 10 times the FPS since most of us turn down the details anyway; noone except graphics whores are interested in masturbating to bumpmaps while they play.

Thoughts?

btw, Im half pissed writing this.

UPDATE: after four hours with the source code, I have grenades following bouncepads

edited by x0n on 13/11/2005 04:30

10/11/2005 05:08

Rapier
Rapp

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redo the post and ill give you my opinion

10/11/2005 05:29

x0n
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redo the post? you mean it wasnt clear enough? youre probably right. Im 40% vodka right now, so Ive edited out some of the more rambling sentences, but the sentiment remains.

edited by x0n on 10/11/2005 05:33

10/11/2005 14:52

[spectator]
Laurent Humblet

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I wonder if you could do it through a mod?

10/11/2005 15:32

quetzal
Ownerer.

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What about firing rockets/nades through teleporters?

Not a big fan of backporting, the games should be left as they are - if you want q4 stuff, play quake4, etc etc.

Railgun in qw is fun for a few mins, but no more.

10/11/2005 16:34

Illkillya
James Galvin

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Make some huge hitboxes, fatten the rail slug, and the rocket launcher - hyperblaster is just a nerfed plasma gun. Nailgun... dunno how youll do that. Shooting projectiles through teleporter could be difficult... Crouch sliding is important, but perhaps you could improve on it to make it more useful?

10/11/2005 17:45

Vinnit
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is there anyone trying to make an updated q3 client like they did with qw/q2?

11/11/2005 00:34

x0n
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re: quetzal / spectator

Im not talking about modifying the engine, but rather implementing it with a mod instead; Im not sure if the game/cgame provides enough to implement everything -- in particular the teleporting of projectiles. I know for sure the crouchsliding can be implemented in the mod, as can rocket speeds and grenades following bouncepads; but the rest I aint so sure, yet.

- Oisin

11/11/2005 17:16

sno
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quack quack i am a penguin

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i cant code for shit so no help, grats on trying out modding, hope it goes well. Only thing i can add is that q4 engine is heavily reliant on 60Hz for everything apparently, physics etc, so im not sure how easy that will be to backport to q3.

Keep us update and release your stuff under open source licenese

12/11/2005 01:12

x0n
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aye Sno, open it will be. I just dont think its fair that the poor old students, were already forced to spent a feisty bunch of dollars better kept for soap on buying quake 4. Now, if they have to give up the next few months rent to buy hardware, where will Irelands next wave of technorati live? So, the idea is to take whats good out of q4 and put it in q3.

So, progress so far.. AFAICT:

- crouchsliding cannot be added in a mod, since all surfaces appear to have the same friction coefficients as a global engine value.

- grenades following bouncepads cannot be done in a mod since the q3 engine only fires triggers activated by living player entities (this could be due to constraints laid down in the maps themselves though, not sure yet).

- rockets, nades and plasma (anything non-hitscan basically) cannot go through teleporters either for the same reasons as above, when done in a mod. They dont fire triggers.

So, although it looks bad, it aint really. But it would have been nice to have wrapped this shit up in a handy qvm/dll based mod, but it cant be done as far as I can see. HOWEVER, changes to the q3 engine code itself to allow non-player entities to fire map triggers WILL allow these features; or it may be possible to modify the triggers in the maps themselves to allow it (any mappers out there who know this shit?) So, this boils down to engine code change which I _can_ do, ever since good old johnc released the engine source.

So, Ill let yez know on the next progress report.

- Ois

edited by x0n on 12/11/2005 01:15

12/11/2005 03:34

#10

Rapier
Rapp

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I really dont think any of this would be worthy of your time and effort. Look at the effort other modders have put it only to see their 2 year long developement be shat upon. Q4 just needs cpma or osp - if that turns out bad the game might as well be binned imo.

Backporting might be a good idea if osp/cpma fails to deliver, might win a few players back.

12/11/2005 05:15

#11

x0n
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ah, rapp, I really dont care if youre heating up a turd for me; Im doing this for fun tbh.

13/11/2005 04:25

#12

x0n
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update!

ignore what I said earlier about it not being moddable without touching the engine.

I now have grenades following bouncepads via a mod

HAHAHA! how long did they spend on quake 4 on this? I have no idea. It took me about 4 hours with the free Visual C++ Express 2005 gui, and its been 8 years since I touched C. I think most of their time was spent writing code like:

while (frame_msec < 10000) {
eatCpu();
addShinyToUselessCrap();
}

...and designing the shiny shit to go with it.

Anyhow, gimme a week and Ill have this ready in mod form with rockets/grenades following teleporters, and nades following bouncepads.

My mod is being called WhatFour since when people ask you why dont you play quake IV instead, and you say...wait for it...

WHAT FOR?

- Oisin

p.s.

All the nail gun code for TA is still in the source too! all thats missing is the weapon/nail models and sounds?!

edited by x0n on 13/11/2005 04:29

13/11/2005 21:01

#13

MIXU
matty mc cloud