Quake Delirium Max/Msp Patch Demo Video

[genfu]

Here's a demo video of the Max/Msp patch i've been working on. The basic idea is that it manipulates Quake to make a more trippy and delirious version of the game.

It reads the qconsole.log file from Quake, and sends direct input keystrokes to Fitzquake 0.85 which manipulates graphical parameters of the game using special .cfg files, such as FOV, game speed, FOG density, FOG colour, gamma and one or two others. The values for these are controlled via sliders in the patch which can be controlled with a MIDI controllers, so you can record a script which alters these parameters in realtime, and then that script is played back when you play the game. I've got a basic system setup where the automation starts when a level loads, and you can select whether or not the automation goes back to the start when you pick up health boxes (thus you can stave off delirium if you keep moving and grab the health, otherwise things will get weird!). The soundtrack follows the automation of the visual controls, since they are also assigned to midi cc# values which manipulate audio parameters such as reverb when the patch is ReWired to Renoise. At the moment the compiled collective build doesn't work, so you can only run the patch if you have Max/Msp5. When I can get the collective build to work it'll be possible for anyone to play around with the patch provided they install Max5 Runtime (which is free) and have Fitzquake 0.85.

Video:

http://www.loadsavedelete.com/g/quak...k_camaudio.avi

Screenshot of the patch:

http://www.loadsavedelete.com/g/quak...rum_screen.JPG

[Phenom]

Thats some intense effects! Great job!

Can I have your monitor?

[genfu]

I'm thinking about how to make this patch into a single icon which you drop into the Quake folder (along with the .cfg files in ID1) which you can then run in order to set the whole thing up with delirium mode without doing it manually. What would need to happen is basically this:

run patchfile
run fitzquake085.exe -condebug
exec q_delirium.cfg

the question is how do I do this? i mean presumably a basic .cmd file or similar will run the patch and quake, but how do i run quake with the q_delirium.cfg file automatically so you don't have to type it in manually once quake is running in the console...?

Any tips appreciated!

[Spirit]

yourengine +exec q_delirium.cfg
You can pass most (all?) commands and cvars by using + .

This is some wicked psychedelic stuff. Fascinating!

[gnounc]

Thats AWESOME

oh man, that brings the shit yer pants factor up to "palpable"

thats nuts!

i think it would be cool if you set it to your health, and set your health on a slow drain
so that the more delerious you become the less damage you take
in order to allow you to experience the effects longer instead of just dying out due to inability to aim or even walk straight, and during that, feel a bit helpless and lost like in a real nightmare.

Where if you are at full health everything hurts at a normal setting, and you can die as per usual, but if you've been draining, or have been hurt and not killed quickly, you would just be trapped in your delerium until you found some health, or got like a killing streak or something.

all in all, awesome job, that avi was awesome

[genfu]

There's a basic application of the patch here now with the associated Quake files, if anyone wants to play around. There are quite a few problems still but it is possible to get it to work (hopefully).

You need Quake and Fitzquake 085 already to use it, then you copy the contents of the Quake Delirium folder into the Quake directory (so that the maxmsp patch is in \Quake and the config files are in \Quake\ID1).

Run the patch first then run the QuakeDelirium.cmd to start the game.

http://www.loadsavedelete.com/g/Quake_Delirium_1.3.rar

Key problems:
-Automation of the visual effects doesn't always start automatically, so you may have to hit 'start' on automation playback in the patch, then skip back into the game to get it to work.

-The qconsole.log file is expected to be in C:\Quake\Id1\qconsole.log if that isn't the path you need to locate it yourself by hitting the locate button. The log reading can be abit hit and miss, if it isn't reading the patch won't trigger automatically and picking up health won't reset the delirium cycle. You can tell by whether the Quake Log Reader counters go up or not in the patch.

-DSP status window seems to be broken when I use it, so no audio.

[genfu]

i think it would be cool if you set it to your health, and set your health on a slow drain
so that the more delerious you become the less damage you take
in order to allow you to experience the effects longer instead of just dying out due to inability to aim or even walk straight, and during that, feel a bit helpless and lost like in a real nightmare.

Where if you are at full health everything hurts at a normal setting, and you can die as per usual, but if you've been draining, or have been hurt and not killed quickly, you would just be trapped in your delerium until you found some health, or got like a killing streak or something.

These are good ideas. At the moment the gameplay aspect isn't something i've spent too much time on, though with health reseting the cycle it does add a compelling element rather than just obscuring the game. The slowdown works for that too, because it makes it easier at points even if the vision is warped; if you time it with a tricky section and maybe a quad damage its pretty fun because you get to place every short perfectly. Then you get a speed increase afterwards which gives you a nice rush, and its never so fast its stupid so it works well.

I played through the first couple of episodes on hard skill but toward the end of episode two it gets really tricky, there's not enough health around and the effects are such that at full intensity you just have to hide and wait for it to wear off. Episode 1 is fun and its easy to keep the effects becoming too warped if you're quick, I think I did the whole thing pretty much without dying. Episode 2 is much harder, I died a bunch of times on the Ebon Fortress and gave up on The Wizards Manse. The health mode at the moment works okay because it means if you pick up a megahealth or something, you're guarunteed to get the deliriums stronger effects until it wears off; in my books if you've got +100 health its fair game to make things harder.

The automation which I recorded in the current version reveals two things which should probably be toned down to make it more playable 1. it gets too dark at points and you've little hope of shooting anything 2. the drunkmode makes it impossible to do anything when its too strong (it also makes you feel like your on a boat when you stop playing...). So if I develop it to make it more playable i'd either reduce those or give you more control over preventing them, or make them more sustainable by limiting the damage you take as you suggest.

The other thing i'd do is have a range of different automation sequences, which could either be selected randomly or sequentially through levels, or you could have it so picking up items changes the automation effects (which could be good or bad). You could also have a special automation for special items like the quad damage which could be fun.

Probably the best way to implement it if I had the time would be to add some new items to the levels which you need to collect to affect the thing, so for example you pick up antidote pills which lessen the effects, or make them more weird, something like that... but at that point you'd probably want the effect changes built into the game properly and not via the keystrokes method, as it tends to be a little unstable, and you can only get feedback via picking up specific items (anything that appears in the console log) so you can't change things based on when you get shot, what part of the level you're in or anything like that.

[gnounc]

Berzerrrrkerrrr

yeaaaah man, I am really for you doing SOMETHING with the visual effects, whatever you come up with, keep posting and I'll give feedback!

but ummmmmmmm, berserker

haha for quad damage, I would love to see a red filter maybe with speckles of green on the edges, and the vision splits slowly and comes back together...

well, the main image stays the same, so theres the main screen, then an overlay
of left and right seperating and coming back together (like when you cross your eyes and uncross them)

and a slight blur effect to simulate a total rush!

that would be awesome.

anyways, keep it up and keep us posted!
oh, and you could add in heavy metal for the quad damage berserker mode haha

[gnounc]

or just like tribal drums/slamming heartbeat sounds

baTHUM thakka thakka THUM thakka thaKOOM

[gnounc]

one more thing

you could even use the effects as a sort of sixth sense, like a spider sense for danger

or a subtle form of radar, like if there are enemies nearby, the screen blurs out unnoticably (so you pick it up subconsciously, dont realize it, and are all like DUDE HOW DID I KNOW THERE WERE ENEMIES THERE?) of course there really arent ever NOT enemies there, but thats not the point.

[genfu]

thats for the suggestions gnounc. if i get round to doing much more on the patch i'll definitely try and do something specifically for the quad... unfortunately at the moment i'm slightly limited by what effects are available as cvars in the game; i'd love to do overlays to get the effects of stuff like green around the edge as you suggest, but at the moment i'm not aware of any easy way to do that... the other thing which would be really cool is if i could reverse the colours to get negative image (remember that in doom??).. unfortunately not possible at the moment with any of the engines out there (darkplaces is almost there but you cant properly reverse the rgb values).

anyway quick update which fixes the sound on the patch:

http://www.loadsavedelete.com/g/Quake_Delirium_13.rar

[gnounc]

hey no problem, the work you've done so far is awesome, it definately sparked my interest.

[Lardarse]

i think it would be cool if you set it to your health, and set your health on a slow drain

Making health slowly drain is doable via QuakeC. Should be a fairly easy tutorial...

[genfu]

finally got round to making a slightly better more accessible demo video of my patch and putting it on youtube:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ueXduUEMQM]YouTube - Quake Delirium[/ame]

[metchsteekle]

now you just need to put it to this song and it will be complete!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQfKFwa-jEY]YouTube - JOEY BELTRAM energy flash[/ame]