What should be news ...

[Baker]

Of the various DarkPlaces oriented textures/model works should be news'd.

This is a difficult thing to figure out because there is a good number of them, they vary in level of quality and doing a poor selection of highlighting them in a news post could set bad expectations for the future.

In the past, it was rather easy to figure this out ... stuff like Fragger's monsters skins, some of d14513r's work stood out. And it wasn't a case of just a single texture or model being made, but several.

More or less, whatever ends up being the consensus in this thread will be how this gets handled. Or maybe alternately, if someone has a particularly strong interest and impartiality to dedicate to this kind of topic, maybe one person should be anointed to make that decision once every couple of months and be given news access.

Skinning/texturing/modeling is important work and needs emphasis. And it is hard to know exactly how to draw the line.

[bta.monster]

Hmm... the main thing that pops in my mind are the few new Singleplayer releases lately. Particularly Runic Recyling by Negke. Don't think I've seen a news post about it. I know Gateway to Hell got a news post, have not gotten around to playing it though. Negke is a great designer, I honestly had a bit more fun playing Runic Recycling than I did RMQ demo2. Not going to give any spoilers here, but the stuff he does without QC mods is pretty... mind boggling.

Vondur has apparently been busy as well... Haven't gotten around to playing this one either. Elements.

Just throwing out a few suggestions, I think maps are about the only thing I can think of at the moment. Not sure if you wanna lump all this in one huge news post. Or do a separate one later... (Just realized that you asked only of the Darkplaces happenings....)

I haven't been keeping up with the new Darkplaces works going on... so I woudn't be much help there. Maybe smaller mentions for "lesser" works, and pictures and some bigger descriptions for the more notable things.

[LambentHammerBurst]

Subject of news on a gaming community that is now living off engine enhancements, custom maps and graphic related content (models, sprites, shaders ect) would be hard to choose which.
I would say Remake Quake definitely needs a mention as it was a big project that actually covered all bases.
As for your skin/texture/model part. It is vary hard as to where the line is drawn on what is news worthy. Simply because there is varied styles. One model could be 10x more popular than another users but the SAME amount of work went into it. All user preference. Packs should def get a mention and anything that is 100% custom made. Ports should be secondary. I will use my Shamber Castle pack as a example - it's liked but really I ported them and just scaled the animations with some tweaks. It shouldn't be news worthy UNLESS there is no other content released that is. Could get a mention (as simply just a link to it) but that's it. Others should get a short mention along with a small pic if possible.

[Shadowswift]

noted

[Baker]

I will use my Shamber Castle pack as a example - it's liked but really I ported them and just scaled the animations with some tweaks.

ooppee, do you have to this --- either a download or a thread link? The last few months I have only been lightly checking the forum to work on engine projects and experimentation.

The traffic of this site has never been higher, this will be the heaviest traffic month in the history of the site and I do feel this site has an obligation to promote creative works.

At the same time, a zillion skins and models buried in the forum is problematic because I personally don't have that kind of time to look at them all (plus the additional burden of trying to figure out if a model/skin is ripped from another game --- something that can be a fun amateur work but shouldn't be news'd -- versus a unique creation.)

[LambentHammerBurst]

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod...oom-3-mod.html
+ Custom Vore Headgib to match
http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod...rs-castle.html

Also been doing models that match the ones in Rygels pack (Ruohis' models) with 100% custom ones (the Mjolnir is one). Those just search in the finished works for "MP1:" and "MP2:" although most are on page one or at top of page 2. They appear to be popular.

However projects like these:
Plasma Gun fix for Official Mission Pack - won't fire in Darkplaces fix
Andrew Joll Shambler
DP Teleporter
Really anything by Seven as his addons make the game alot better looking - his water, lava and teleporter.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

I think when auto-installers and , the alike, installing anything DARKPLACES gets a much-needed "STREAMLINED" installer , thats when shit should be NEWS'd.

No offense, when any given person says "HERES THE COMPLETE FINAL-PACKAGE,ENJOY" , what that really means,when we're talking about DarkPlaces, is that you can look forward to manually doing a bunch of shit. What seems redundant for some people,is in reality, the biggest pain in the ass to install some of these new features. For example,releasing pretty water but leaving major gaps in getting it working,like say, visd maps & all the manual nonsense you must go through to "Get there" , there being "Cool,its now installed".

2cents

I dont have enough sticks to shake at how many people are making their "own" darkplaces modifications at every nook and cranny that Quake1 has, and if someone setup a uber-leet DarkPlaces install TODAY, tomorrow your DarkPlaces is yesterdays news,simply because shit's so rampant with this version,that version,and your version, and his version, on and on.


I play Quake,and decided I prefer to avoid DarkPlaces completely,because there isn't room for comfort, way over crowded.

[LambentHammerBurst]

That's the thing with modding - it is to the user preference. As a example - my modded version of Moo's Player model into the Grunt got positive feedback (from the wip and release threads). However if you check the latest reply to the release - there was a negative.
For Seven's DP Water - all he would need to do is release it with the vis map installer. Vis'd maps is old news - I'd say easily over 10yrs as when I was last heavily into Quake - I had transparent water. By default after vis'd maps drop in the pk3 and it works. To better optimize it he should make multiple cfg's for the user - water-high.cfg, water-med.cfg, water-low.cfg each would en/dis-able certain effects.

For versions - there as been some however a universal pack is impossible.
Reforged for those who want the original models in high res is one very nice pack.
Myself I have about 90% of it deleted off my HDD. Basically I use their content as placeholders until a remodel of the monster is released or I make/port one. I love their work but I personally don't like it ingame. Sounds odd but they are great graphic artist, admire the work however they strayed far too much on some of their skins from the original.
I love Ruohis' weapon models - why my multi-grenade, multi-rocket, proxlauncher, plasmagun models are all based off of his models and my 100% custom models are designed to match them.
But some others say Plague's are the best
then some just say the original models are the best.
So a universal "uber-leet DarkPlaces install" is overall impossible. Seven actually is my tester of my content (also why he has my ported Generations Enforcer) however his taste and mine are very different. He loves Ruohis' models like I, however he released many different versions and our preference on which we prefer differs completely. Like my own Super Lava Nailgun - I don't use it myself. I made it for Seven and am currently re-doing on the model I prefer to use.

I think to better sort through the content we need to have more sub-forums. The releases is fairly crowded. Perhaps a "Model/Skin" and "Texture/GFX" and "Packs"
Model/Skin is just that
Texture/GFX - textures on walls, lava, teleporters, huds
Packs - basically a Final release. These approved by admins so it's not flooded with a pack that has 2 models in it - but rather complete packs.
Like once I do the Plasmagun and then do Lava Nailgun and SuperNailgun (as I use a diff model than the one I released) - I could then release a Pack that has 2 pk3's which will replace ALL the weapons in the 2 Mission Packs.
Other things that go in there: The QRP Texture pack, Reforged monster skins, Rygel's Pack

The Pack Forum will be the closest to a uber-leet Darkplaces Install. That will make a easy to find "full package".

[Mindf!3ldzX]

It's not impossible. You built your modifications exclusively for use for DarkPlaces, so it does not seem far fetched to provide a pre-setup (client included....everything setup,COMPRESSED format!) for the major releases (like reforged !!!)

Think of it like this, I do not want your puzzle peices. I however, wouldn't mind getting copies of your puzzle that is pre-completed,so that I might admire it immediately?

It's like this, most people will see your work and say FN AWESOME!! Now how do I do this? or do that? Take your current DarkPlaces modifications + the darkplaces engine, including EVERYTHING needed, and toss it in a RAR and turn it loose on the community.

[LambentHammerBurst]

It's like this, most people will see your work and say FN AWESOME!! Now how do I do this? or do that? Take your current DarkPlaces modifications + the darkplaces engine, including EVERYTHING needed, and toss it in a RAR and turn it loose on the community.

That part is true, it is possible for me to make a pack with all the releases I've done. I am just stating that some don't like certain content. What would be really nice is if we can get a group of models (multiple versions replacing same thing) then giving a checkbox to which to install. So that way people could have the weapons from Plagues pack with gloss/normals or Ruohis/Mine weapons. Although I think we should do a "Quakeone.com Darkplaces Install" that just uses content released on this site - otherwise it would be impossible to select the content as there's TONS if you look around (well tons of weapon models)

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Thats what the majority (I am assuming,I know thats real risky! ) of us would rather download a pre-fab product than assemble 4+ sources of archive's.


Stop thinking like a L33T coder and think like a newb,and think which one you would prefer. I mean,maybe your intentions for releasing these fine works is not to attract a newer player base,and if not,by all rights, you shouldn't bother with newb-fying your works for the newcomer's to quake.You can retain the "Here's the stuff,now figure it out (so newbs can make endless post's about how to get Feature X to work)

Cause,thats what has been,and still continues to happen.

I'm not a newb (unless you ask the right people!) and even I have had my endless battles with setting up uber-darkplaces. Sure,vanilla darkplaces is nice,but face it,theres no comparison to the quality that yours,and others are releasing for Darkplace's. I think its a shame for the amount of hurdles that faces someone new to the Q1 scene must go through to enable having DP + awesome addons.

[LambentHammerBurst]

Very true on that - why I guess "Rygel's Pack" is overall considered the "HD Pack" as it's drag-drop-done.

[Seven]

God bless Rygel.

He really did everything right.
He was brave enough to stomp his foot on the ground and say:
Everything in my pack is the best you can get.

He packed it all up, nice and simple.
Then he released it to the masses in all Quake1 forums.

The reason why everybody is still using and commending his nice compilation.

That is exactly the way it must be done.



Now back to todays situation:
Today we have far better pieces for Quake. Beginning from world textures, ending in effectinfo.txt.
Also the amount of different variations for each piece is bigger.
We need someone like Rygel who stomp his foot on the ground again and set a new standard.
inkub0 did it, but his failure maybe was to split it into multiple pk3�s.
That is not what the newb wants, but still:
His pk3�s have been downloaded a LOT of times.
So this proofs: It is the correct way...

So what is to be done:
Simple. Put together a package and make advertising for it (tons of screenshots like Rygel did).
Then find a good webspace with no waiting time and high download rate.

Pick your volunteer...

Kind Regards,
Seven

[inkub0]

In my post, the PK3 are separate entities, because i think that people can like a package but dont like others, or, simply some computers are old to run certain high-end packages. (and because every package have an author that must be mentioned in the filename )

I also said that a smart way to do things is to create an installer that let you choose WHAT package to install. But i cant do it The installer allows you to choose alternative packages too (there are many variations of the same object)

So, i'm sorry if i upset you with my packages, but i thought to help people!

[Seven]

Hello inkub0,

why you think you upset someone with your packages ?
It is the other way round: You did a great job, and as I said your packages have been downloaded a LOT of times.
That proofs it.

Mindf!3ldzX meant, that it should be as easy as possible.
So a 1-pack-wonder would be Best. Like Rygel did it.
Credits can be given in that complete package too

Kind Regards,
Seven