August 24th, 2003BSP Mapmaking Files UpdatedFor the mappers out there, bsp_pb2_alpha.zip on the files page has been updated (the filename is still the same). It includes new .wal files which accurately reflect the .jpg textures used in Paintball 2.0 Alpha builds 3 to 6. It also includes the missing func_model entity for placing plant models in maps. New Text SystemThe next build of Paintball2 will include a completely new text system, with a new font, and text that can be colored, italicized, and underlined. There are 256 different colors that can be selected from a palette image, and the font has 3 different character sets: the one visible in the screenshot below, a stencil style font, and an LCD style font.
Here I go and remove the POTD feature because I haven't been keeping it updated, and now I continually post new screenshots. Go figure. :)
August 18th, 2003Paintball 2.0 Alpha build006 ReleasedYou can go grab it on the files page. Make sure you have the full Alpha build003 release before unzipping build006. Since I haven’t put feature lists on the page lately, I’m going to give you all a full update of what’s changed since the old Quake2 mod version:
build006 (2003-08-18): - Cvar: gl_lightmap_saturation [0.0 to 1.0] Adjusts the saturation (color) of the lighting. 0 is greyscale lighting, 1 is full color. - Cvar: r_displayrefresh [0,60,85,120,etc.] Sets the vertical refresh rate (in hz) in fullscreen mode, since WindowsXP sets it to 60hz. - Cvar: cl_drawhud [0/1] toggles display of HUD content (ammo count, etc). Useful for getting clean map shots. - Cvar: gl_highres_textures [0/1] Enables use of high resolution (4x current resolution) textures stored in the hr4/ subdirectory of textures. - Bugfix: fixed issue with console causing transparent surfaces in maps to render improperly. - Bugfix: demo playback is no longer jerky. - Bugfix: rscripts are now functional on transparent surfaces. - Feature: Mappers can add fog to their maps! "sky" "fog <r> <g> <b> <distance>" or "sky" "[skyname] fogd <r> <g> <b> <density>", ie "sky" "pbsky4 fogd .5 .5 .6 .002" - Feature: screenshots now take into account vid_gamma and accurately reflect what you see in-game if you are using hardware gamma. - Feature: The client no longer attempts to download the same missing file multiple times if the server doesn't have it. - Feature: Missing textures are attempted to be downloaded in the following order: jpg, tga, pcx or wal. - Feature: 3dfx (ancient video card) support. Reverts to glide minidriver if a 3dfx card is present and regular OpenGL does not load. Set gl_driver to 3dfxgl and vid_restart to manually set.
build005 (2003-06-20): - Cvar: gl_allow_software [0/1] allows software emulation of OpenGL if your card doesn't support opengl (REALLY SLOW). This cvar has always been there, but now it archives. - Bugfix: Removed age-old problem with phantom buttons being left over in the taskbar. - Feature: added "offset" to rscripts (so I could do that cool binary console)
build004: - Bugfix: some issues with demo playback resolved (freelook, crashing, loading wrong maps) - Bugfix: HUD graphics (ammo count and whatnot) should all display properly now - Feature: Removed the "Can't find pic" spam for missing images (this shouldn't really affect anyone. I did it just 'cuz). - Feature: added vsync (gl_swapinterval) to the video menu
build003: - Cvar: gl_anisotropy [0 to 16+] Anisotropic filtering! - Cvar: cl_hudscale [1 to 4+] adjusts the size of the hud and text - Cvar: gl_motionblur [0.0 to 0.99] adds motion blur (only supported by some video cards) - Cvar: gl_texture_saturation [0.0 to 1.0] adjust the amount of color in the textures (0 is greyscale, 1 is full color). - Cvar: cl_cmdrate [10 to 80] sets the rate at which packets are sent to the server (in packets/sec). - Cvar: cl_locknetfps [0/1] if enabled, locks the network code and framerate code together, making cl_cmdrate act like the old cl_maxfps (which is now disabled) - Cvar: cl_sleep [0/1] let's the cpu sleep between frames to cut down on cpu usage (however it only appears to work in the debug build) - Cvar: serverlist ["www.planetquake.com/digitalpaint/servers.txt"] sets the location to obtain the server list from. - Cvar: name ["newbie"] The name cvar can now hold funnames (names with extended characters). This must be set in your config BEFORE connecting to a server. - Bugfix: fixed crashing on startup for some video cards - Bugfix: fixed problem with particles causing HUD to flicker/disappear on some cards - Bugfix: default.cfg only executed if config.cfg not found (fixes problem with configs getting overwritten) - Bugfix: allowed "timedemo" to be turned on when playing ANY demo (originally this only worked for single player demos) - Feature: Mousewheel works to scroll through the console. - Feature: Insert text mode at the console (INS key toggles). - Feature: console logs to qconsolePORTNUMBER.log now (so you can log the console on multiple servers) - Feature: support for up to 5 mouse buttons (might have to disable mouseware for Logitech mice).
build002: - Bugfix: fixed crashing in multiplayer/start server menu
build001: - Cvar: splattime [0.0..10.0] time (in seconds) splats stay visible - Cvar: cl_drawfps [0/1] toggles display of framerate on HUD - Cvar: cl_timestamp [0/1] toggles display of timestamps on messages - Cvar: keyboard ["qwerty", "dvorak"] sets the keyboard layout in-game (requires restarting paintball2) - Cvar: gl_overbright [0/1] if enabled, doubles the brightness of everything (only supported by "newer" video cards in multitexturing mode) - Cvar: gl_brightness [0.0 to 1.0] Acts similar to overbright but can decrease image quality and framerate. Useful for old video cards that don't support overbright properly. - Cvar: gl_autobrightness [0.0 to 1.0] paired with gl_brightness, this cvar controls the degree to which the screen brightness is controlled by the brightness of the map. - Cvar: gl_showbox [0/1] toggle for displaying box outlines of models (debugging feature) - Cvar: gl_ext_texture_compression [0/1] Enables texture compression, but greatly reduces image quality. - Cvar: gl_screenshot_jpeg [0/1] toggles TGA/JPEG screenshots. - Cvar: gl_screenshot_jpeg_quality [1 to 100] sets the quality of the jpeg compression. - Cvar: gl_stainmaps [0/1] toggles paint stains on maps - Cvar: vid_gamma_hw [0/1] toggles the use of hardware gamma to adjust in-game brightness (may crash on older video cards) - Cvar: vid_gamma [0.5 to 1.3] adjusts the hardware gamma level (this will affect all of windows if you are running in windowed mode) - Cvar: gl_debug [0/1] suppresses/enables display of all the OpenGL information to the console upon starting the game or vid_restarting - Cvar: gl_shadows [0, 1, 2] 0 = no shadows, 1 = old (ugly) shadows, 2 = stencil-buffered shadows - Bugfix: allowed for proper 44khz sound - Bugfix: WSAECONNRESET errors don't kill the server - Bugfix: "sz_getspace overflow without allowoverflow set" crash fixed (for the most part) - Change: Base directory now "pball", not "baseq2" - Change: gl_modulate capped at 2.0 to prevent abuse - Change: Dropped support for software rendering mode (go spend $20 on an OpenGL capable card if you don't have one!) - Change: Configs are now executed from the "pball/configs" directory to reduce the clutter. - Change: Quit confirmation/credits removed - Feature: q2msg protection - Feature: r_speeds now display on the HUD rather than spamming the console. - Feature: rscript support (basically like Quake3 shaders) - Feature: JPEG and TGA image format supported for textures - Feature: Better particle effects for paint grenades - Feature: aliases are saved along with the binds in config.cfg - Feature: Sky distance increased so large maps don't get cut off in the distance. - Feature: Advanced tab completion - Feature: /quit, /vid_restart, /disconnect, and /record are the defaults when you hit q,v,d, or r, then TAB (since those are the commands I use the most).
Enjoy! :)
August 16th, 2003Heading Back to SchoolI'm packing up my computers and heading to school now. Hopefully I'll have everything up and running and ready to release Paintball 2.0 Alpha build006 by Monday. August 15th, 2003Black Fog?Alpha build006 will allow mappers to add fog to their maps, but there's more that can be done with fog than just making it look like ... fog. Black fog, for example, can be used to achieve a nighttime effect. Check out how it looks on battle2:
Lightmap Saturation AdjustmentTired of those maps with insanely colorful lighting? Have no fear. It can now be adjusted. Here are a couple shots from crates2 to demonstrate:
August 14th, 20033dfx SupportPrevious versions of Paintball2 were not compatible with some Voodoo cards, but this issue has been resolved. Alpha build006 will run on video cards as low as the original Voodoo. It won't run well, but it will run. Here are some screenshots:
Midnight II (the framerate can get as low as 6fps on this map)