A Complete Evaluation of DarkPlaces

[Baker]

pq_smoothcam is unnecessary in darkplaces, it automatically recognizes when you are observing someone (also makes targetquake and The Ascension of Vigil play better).

...

pq_moveup is not supported because it is the client engine interfering with the gameplay that is coded on the server, it does not know for sure that this is the correct behavior, a mod may actually have special behavior when using jump underwater, rather than swimming upward, ideally the mod should be altered to swim up at full speed when using jump, then it doesn't matter what engine is used.

I'll have to keep an eye out next time I am observing someone using DarkPlaces. In JoeQuake, which doesn't have smooth cam, things can look choppy especially if your ping is bad.

pq_moveup does cause problems. Just one example, it messes up using the observer system in CAx if the player you are observing is underwater, for instance. Perhaps a mod side fix would be better.

I've noticed a couple of cvars that don't save to the config. "cl_bob 0" doesn't save to the config; I have to type it in every time. Same goes for "r_glsl 0" (this cvar heavily affects performance on my GeForce 5200 card, setting to 0 increases framerates by 80% to 100% which no noticeable on-screen appearance difference that I can tell).


/I might add, as I have played around more the Effects and Lightning Levels group settings, they are very impressive. Especially the Quake one, I recently noticed that it sets the whole range of particle settings for about every cvar to look like Quake (cl_blood_bloodhack, etc. the lightning gun, etc.)

[Lardarse]

To force a cvar to save, do seta r_glsl 0

[Baker]

And, I better mention these just because if I don't, then no one would ever know:

The pitch variables (in_max, in_min) that control how far up and down a player can look are controlled by most clients by cl_fullpitch (0|1) where 0 = Quake defaults and 1 = max up/max down.

Many clients have fullpitch support (ProQuake included) but what almost every server does is force the client to cl_fullpitch 0 so that no one can use it.

(Many servers force r_wateralpha to 1 and r_novis to 0 so you can't see thru water, DarkPlaces seems to work fine with this.)

And one other thing I did notice, when typing in messages using messagemode DarkPlaces seemed to execute the binds for the keys as I typed the message. I need to reverify this.

I do feel a little guilty/hesistant to mention all of these things I've noticed because it seems like a typing up a lot of stuff, but at the same time I feel increasingly encouraged because DarkPlaces is so much easier to use and break in; it feels like a critical mass is being reached.

[Baker]

To force a cvar to save, do seta r_glsl 0

I know that r_glsl uses OpenGL 2.0 shaders, why would that so adversely affect my framerate?

If I have it enabled (=1), my frame rate is about 50% lower. If I disable it, I can't tell a difference looking at the screen, everything looks the same (maybe real time lighting needs to be enabled?).

I can't tell what it does, but if there are a certain percentage of graphics cards that it causes low performance on, why not either have it 0 by default or at least have one of the settings groups disable it (and save it to a config).

Around August I updated drivers on my old video card and DarkPlaces framerate was much worse for some reason unknown to me at the time and I think the difference might have been that the new drivers had OpenGL 2.0 support (I'm guessing). I can remember being really frustrated.

I mention cl_bob because it is a cvar that just about everyone will turn that off for online play:

if you don't have an autoexec.cfg with atleast +mlook, cl_bob 0 in it you are a definite noob.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what r_glsl does, but if turning it off has such a impact (assuming my experience with r_glsl is somewhat common, maybe it is or is not) maybe that should be off unless someone selects "high" or "full" effects (or does it have to do with the lighting?).

[Canadian*Sniper]

And one other thing I did notice, when typing in messages using messagemode DarkPlaces seemed to execute the binds for the keys as I typed the message. I need to reverify this.

That happened to me a lot when using proquake as well. With my DualWeapons config activated and typing in a message using the letters e or q would kick/join me from the RA lineup. Or make me join a CA team accidentally. I'm used to it now.

[Baker]

That happened to me a lot when using proquake as well. With my DualWeapons config activated and typing in a message using the letters e or q would kick/join me from the RA lineup. Or make me join a CA team accidentally. I'm used to it now.

It may just be the keys I have bound in DarkPlaces make it more obvious that it happens. I think you are right.

DP has supported hud replacement art for years, just toss tga files in gfx/ with the appropriate names, just like normal. If it finds both a tga and an lmp (or a tga and a wad lump) it will use the size from the lmp or wad lump for rendering, just like QW clients usually do.

I have this working fine now. I did notice that the charset transparency color seems to appear around the edges of the characters.

An example:

The conchars.png (has a transparent light green background)



It renders like this in JoeQuake (and FuhQuake, etc.)



In DarkPlaces I get the background transparency color, light green in this case, outlining the characters in some places. I set the console width to 320 and the height to 240, the character set itself is 256 x 256.

[Canadian*Sniper]

Your conback isn't pitch black in DP like in Joequake Perhaps it looks the same with the original quake conback

[Baker]

It is the same conback.

[Canadian*Sniper]

Gah quake terminology sucks. I meant the quake console image.

[Baker]

Haha, you made me say "conback" instead of "conchars".

Actually, after further testing it appears it is a flaw in the character set. It isn't DarkPlace's fault.

I don't know why JoeQuake renders it fine, but I'll "fix" it to be a proper charset.

[Canadian*Sniper]

Haha, you made me say "conback" instead of "conchars".

And I made you think "conchars" instead of "conback"

[Lardarse]

To force a cvar to save, do seta r_glsl 0

I know that r_glsl uses OpenGL 2.0 shaders, why would that so adversely affect my framerate?

The emphasis was supposed to be on seta which will force a cvar to save.

And turning GLSL off might work for you, especially if you have an older card...

[Lardarse]

In DarkPlaces I get the background transparency color, light green in this case, outlining the characters in some places. I set the console width to 320 and the height to 240, the character set itself is 256 x 256.

That could be a function of the image file not being black in the areas where the conchars is transparent.

Also, instead of changing the 2d resolution, con_textsize can let you change the console text size, so that you can choose to not have that so big if you want a large HUD.

[Baker]

Apparently most of the charsets out there not only have an alpha channel but some sort of special treatment of the background color.

I'll edit the alpha channel to fix

[esteel]

I know that r_glsl uses OpenGL 2.0 shaders, why would that so adversely affect my framerate?

If I have it enabled (=1), my frame rate is about 50% lower. If I disable it, I can't tell a difference looking at the screen, everything looks the same (maybe real time lighting needs to be enabled?).

This will depend on the gfx card used.. r_glsl en/disables opengl 2.0 glsl pixel shaders. On some (older) cards its slower then doing the same stuff on the cpu. If you disable those pixel shaders you will miss out on some eyecandy like bumpmapping. I'm not totaly sure on what else is done in pixel shaders alone.

Oh and scr_conbrightness 0 should make the console background black in DP so it should look like the other engine pic there.