The open source Zircon engine ("DarkPlaces Mark V Project") is a modification DarkPlaces engine with a mouse driven menu everywhere, ALT-ENTER fullscreen/windowed switching and 88 other enhancements to support user/mapper/mod coder ease-of-use and optional conveniences for those interested in a "1996 Quake" experience. "csqc_full_width_height 1" in console when running Arcane Dimensions at this time It is hoped that some/many/all of these enhancements will eventually make it into official DarkPlaces. The Zircon engine seeks to keep full compatibility with DarkPlaces so either engine can be used interchangeably.

Post tutorial Report RSS Zircon Engine Origins

Illustrations of Quake 1 BSP vs. Quake 3 BSP and allusions to the origin of this project.

Posted by on - Basic Design/Concepts

Foreword: DarkPlaces can easily render like the following the image. The screenshots here will not often be doing screenshots with settings dialed up -- at least not at first. Focusing on down to Earth fundamentals right now.

DarkPlaces Example

Embarking on a journey, a question arose: Could Quake 1 BSP handle large simple brushes reasonably well? Like a city with numerous buildings?

Turns out the answer is "no". What happens is that the brushes get split into many triangles. I knew in advance this would occur, but wanted to see if it was workable. It is not.

The second question was can Quake 3 BSP handle large simple brushes reasonably well to render many buildings?

After testing, the answer turned out to be yes.

Buildings in Quake 3 map format

And some methods of detailing are available that are quite convenient.

Compiling a Model into Q3 BSP

Mix the inline models and external models easily ...

Models Inline And External

The DarkPlaces can handle Quake 3 BSP and has done so since 2005.

DarkPlaces is a wonderful engine with many capabilities. However, during use .. ran into several small thivgs that when considered in aggregate needed addressing for the purposes here. One example, changing video mode on Windows 10 had the menu off-center due to Windows scaling.

Thus started the project to polish up these issues, this engine project right here. Perhaps some/many/all of these enhancements will get into official DarkPlaces at some point.

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