Quake Windows, Mac, Linux, DOS, XSX, XONE, PS5, PS4, Switch, N64 game

Nov 29: The Tower of Babel Is Under Attack

But that is going to take a back seat for 5 days or so, Kleskby and I did some multiplayer 0 ping experiments a week ago, and I want to get him a full engine side prototype so we can test the performance.

I wanted to do that sooner, but I found some things in the engine that I wanted to resolve (DarkPlaces Beta uses a csqc 3D polygon drawing system with wildly different results than DarkPlaces Classic, although it is probably more flexible and supports shaders -- I turned that into an option) -- and some miscellaneous engine behaviors I did not like and some refinements I felt were necessary.

With those out of the way, want to see if I can get 100% engine side 0 ping multiplayer (regardless of true ping) to be a thing. (This isn't the only way to do to it, this can also be achieved in client-side QuakeC, but I think an engine side solution -- if it can get similar results -- would be beneficial).

New: Even more speed (10-18% increase) : Zircon Beta #8

Also new: WinQuake style -dedicated console (i.e. "zircon_beta.exe -dedicated 8 +map start").

Making .obj Maps In Blender: (For use in Zircon and DarkPlaces)

KleskBY has a tutorial in PDF form on how to use Blender to make .obj maps. The documentation details how to make and light these maps and populate them with entities.

KleskBY's PDF covers advantages and disadvantages of .obj. One obvious advantage appears to be the ease of creating extreme detail. One obvious disadvantage is there is no visibility, the entire OBJ renders every frame.

However, the number of triangles might actually be lower than some Quake 1 maps -- the Quake 1 map format slices geometry into tons of triangles for WinQuake, the software renderer -- and no one is using a software renderer Quake engine.

The Quake 1 map format is very wasteful with triangles. And on the other hand, obj is not wasteful with triangles (nor is Q3 map format).

Continued ...

The enormous amount of detail in Kleskby's maps show what is possible in Blender.

The final output is as such:

1. quake/id1/maps/your_map.obj // This is the map
2. quake/id1/maps/your_map.ent // Entities file
3. quake/id1/maps/your_map.rtlights // Real-time lighting file

Kleskby and I keep discussing ideas for improving the experience and how to "limit" visibility.

The Quake 3 compile tools support .obj models as map geometry and as entities, I intend to do some experiments seeing what kind of optimizations or merit might exist in hybrid methods. Xonotic uses distance based level of detail for entities.

Why Zircon Does Not Use "New" DarkPlaces Beta Physics

DarkPlaces Beta has physics that address some of the problems DarkPlaces Classic had with Quake.

The efforts to make DarkPlaces physics in DarkPlaces Beta more Quake compatible is a worthy cause.

However, I had a number of troubles and in the end Zircon, it was enough that Zircon uses DarkPlaces Classic physics instead.

New DarkPlaces Physics Issue #1: Q3 BSP Lift - Fall Through Elevator

The map is Quake3_Quake1 map "Geo" -- a single player-ized version of the Xonotic map Geoplanetary. I fall through the floor of the lift.

New DarkPlaces Physics Issue #2: Quake Combat+ E1M1 Soldier Falls Thru Floor

A soldier falls through the floor, r_fullbright 1 is so it is more clear to see.

Quake Combat+ is an incredible DarkPlaces mod and maybe the best DarkPlaces Quake mod ever made (sorry about the r_fullbright, this mod is incredible).

I get that Quake Combat+ targets DarkPlaces Classic.

New DarkPlaces Physics Issue #3: Not Compatible With Quakespasm

Here is the map alk_caustic. And above is a droptofloor warning where an item falls through the floor.

These Alkaline maps are polished as hell. There is no way that there are droptofloor issues if that map is started in Quakespasm.

Also I didn't load a large body of custom maps. I think this was the 3rd custom map I loaded.

Concise Version

The efforts they made with the New DarkPlaces Physics is a worthwhile effort, it does fix some problems -- the map E4M7 (Azure Agony) plays better. And they solved fiends and dogs getting stuck in the air. And I saw some comments in the source code about Rogue Mission Pack.

But it is hard to use New DarkPlaces Physics when works targeting DarkPlaces don't work right and also Quake custom maps that target Quakespasm also don't work right.

I'm documenting the issues here to communicate the issues because at some point someone is going to ask why Zircon does not use DarkPlaces New Physics.

---

This article will evolve as time permits.