Is truelightning a cheat (with poll)?

[PapaSmurf]

Some new quake clients allow you to use straighten out the shaft making it so it never lags as you sweep it across causing it to always stay fixed on your crosshair (assuming you have a centered crosshair).

Is this a cheat, since it was not designed to be this way originally?

[foq]

it's just a graphic effect. the lightning isn't actually where you see it on the screen.

[Baker]

Tonik had some really interesting insights on this somewhere at Quakeworld.nu earlier in the year. Basically, the lightning gun does 30 damage in intervals of 1/10th of a second and Quake shows were the beam was aimed at these intervals, hence the lag.

I personally think the answer to this question is a 2 parter:

1. Strict Quake perspective.

If it wasn't a feature in the original Quake, then it is a cheat. Truelightning is a cheat by that standard.

But so are even some ProQuake features like pq_ringblend and pq_moveup by that standard.

2. The "Is it an unfair advantage" standard

I'd say no. I've tried playing with cl_truelightning 1 and find that in rocket arena, I'd rather have original shaft because straight shaft gets in my way from seeing blood particles that tell me I am doing damage.

/1 opinion

[Polarite]

I don't think its a cheat but i don't like it.

Like foq said :

the lightning isn't actually where you see it on the screen

Thats why I don't like it.

[omix2]

it's just a graphic effect. the lightning isn't actually where you see it on the screen.

yup this is why you can always tell an aimbotted shaft by the ridiculous damage it does

[PapaSmurf]

But ... even some ProQuake features [are cheats] like pq_ringblend and pq_moveup by that standard.
/1 opinion

I don't think that's quite equivalent to changing something that was never possible before. pq_ringblend was possible for in glquake with gl_polyblend 0, this just gave the user more variability rather than on/off. Also pq_moveup didn't change or add anything to the mechanics of quake, it simply allowed the user extra functionality. You could always use bind [key] +moveup, pq_moveup simply allowed you to bind the same key to +jump and +moveup.

[Canadian*Sniper]

gl_doubleeyes is a cheat

[Baker]

I don't think that's quite equivalent to changing something that was never possible before. pq_ringblend was possible for in glquake with gl_polyblend 0, this just gave the user more variability rather than on/off. Also pq_moveup didn't change or add anything to the mechanics of quake, it simply allowed the user extra functionality. You could always use bind [key] +moveup, pq_moveup simply allowed you to bind the same key to +jump and +moveup.

True.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately (the line between fair and unfair engine features).

I think the following are unfair engine features in a strictly traditional game:

1. Transparent water (r_wateralpha + r_novis)
2. gl_textureless
3. gl_picmip support beyond 0-3 range
4. cl_deadbodyfilter, especially 2 (play a small map against 15 Frikbots and the ability to focus on only slaughtering alive bots goes up dramatically).
5. cl_r2g (makes rockets use grenade model, which has fullbright colors on it)
6. cl_fullpitch 1 / pq_fullpitch 1
7. gl_nocolors 0 (for the purpose of using alternate player skins)

I don't think the following are unfair:

1. straight shaft (cl_truelightning ... usually)
2. extra team say macros

The reason why I have been thinking about this a lot lately is I want Qrack/JoeQuake/DarkPlaces/anything else that matters to be able to be used on cheat-free servers without compromising the intent of cheat-free.

[Fuzznut]

gl_doubleeyes is a cheat

Thats the second time you've brought that up. Whats that?

[Canadian*Sniper]

Thats the second time you've brought that up. Whats that?

http://www.quakeone.com/forums/showp...2&postcount=11
http://www.quakeone.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=13

[R00k]

The truelightning updates the shaft model angles clientside in realtime.

Whereas with the option turned off it updates the t_ent of the shaft by ping.
Normally, client angles are sent to server, server responds back to client, and then updates the shaft model.

Setting TrueLightning ON, the server will STILL see your aim based on the ping. So, you might see the lg on the crosshair, but the server wont do damage until it has received the angle.

It's cosmetic, and not worse a hack than cl_maxfps 100, as default Quake ran at 72fps (maximum hardcoded) -- anything over that is a CHEAT based on criteria #1 in Baker's post.

It can help because you wont over compensate your aim based on the latency though, which is why most people think its a cheat. Though, a laggy shaft really is annoying.

If you opt to use it then you really should set the value to "0.75", this way you still see a little latency...

If anything it helps HPBS more than anyone else.

[Cataklysque]

Not a cheat, anyone could just tape a straight line onto their monitor and get the same effect.

[JohnRocker]

Lol

[Bam]

If anything it helps HPBS more than anyone else.

Hmmm, when I tried it way back when, I would shaft like half as well compared to standard lightning. When I shaft, I watch were my lightning model is and adjust accordingly because my crosshair is barely ever fixated on the player I'm shooting, it's always ahead of them.

[foq]

Hmmm, when I tried it way back when, I would shaft like half as well compared to standard lightning. When I shaft, I watch were my lightning model is and adjust accordingly because my crosshair is barely ever fixated on the player I'm shooting, it's always ahead of them.

And now I know how to beat Bam...