Messages

1

Quake / Re: Quake 2 netcode and tick rate

« on: November 21, 2017, 08:04:49 AM »

So Jay, here is what I've been seeing now that we have a bunch of servers out there running at 40hz:

For the most part, servers at 40hz run really well, I had no problems even at 120 ping on a server with 10-12 people, but this was an instagib match.  I didn't experience too many issues with regular DM either, all seemed good. 

Where I ran into problems was on a Chinese server at 250 ping, at 40hz I was getting a lot of hitches, and yellow bars on the netgraph.  At 10hz, it was smooth.  I'm thinking packets were coming in out of order, which I guess at that rate is more likely to happen with a connection on the other side of the world.  Either that or the server is using hamsters to power it's net connections(it was an Azure VM I had set up).

2

Quake / Re: Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars - Steam Greenlight

« on: November 21, 2017, 07:55:50 AM »

Almost forgot to mention - it's out on Steam now  

http://store.steampowered.com/app/629540/Alien_Arena_Warriors_Of_Mars/

3

Quake / Re: QUAKE CHAMPIONS

« on: November 21, 2017, 07:54:34 AM »

But I still wouldn't lump q3, q4, and quake champions together though.

To me, graphics-wise, they seem damn near identical.  Game play physics and movement characteristics are almost identical too.  It's like id thought that quake 3 was the PERFECT quake and never got creative since.  But it is what it is.

QC is oddly just not that attractive graphically.  It looks like the recycled the animated explosion effects from Q3, and many of the effects, lighting, etc, seem dated to me. 

4

Quake / Re: Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars - Steam Greenlight

« on: September 21, 2017, 09:07:58 AM »

Beta is coming soon!  Meanwhile, a short trailer:


https://youtu.be/dQB_b49bVdU

5

Quake / Re: Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars - Steam Greenlight

« on: July 20, 2017, 09:31:17 AM »

Alien Arena was Greenlit after just 2 weeks, and since then we've been in super-ultra crunch mode.  The integration with Steamworks is completed, and the game itself has undergone several once-overs in both content and code.  The animation of both players and weapons was heavily targetted, and we wound up adding around 50 new frames of animation (297 total now) for players, including 6 new animation groups(step left, step right, sneak, swim, dangle, backpedal).  And because we use skeletal animation, players bend at the waist, not rotating the entire model, etc(though we've had this working for many years).  The visual improvement of having these animations, plus the new weapon animation sequences is really fairly stunning, and adds so much more immersion and fluidity to what you see. 

October 6th, 2017 is the target release date on Steam. 

6

Quake / Re: Quake 2 netcode and tick rate

« on: July 11, 2017, 10:37:30 AM »

Jay that is really good info.  I refactored Alien Arena some time ago to allow for servers/clients to run anywhere from 10-120 fps tickrates, and did not know that about the netcode dropping frames.

I haven't noticed those issues with animations.  Not sure about the sounds, but I'm sure it will miss some given what you've said.  Will definitely look at this code.

7

Quake / Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars - Steam Greenlight

« on: April 03, 2017, 02:23:17 PM »

Hey guys, we are finally getting the new version of Alien Arena close to release, and hopefully on Steam!  This is pretty much a complete reboot of the game, very streamlined and compact as well.

Videos, screenshots at http://red.planetarena.org/media.html

You can vote for us here https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=897799480

Thanks!

8

Quake / Re: Alien Arena: Tactical Demo Alpha released! (and new full version)

« on: September 10, 2013, 06:34:53 AM »

Thanks Jay!

After AA Tactical is finished this spring, it's on to the Alteria remake, which I've already started a little.

9

Quake / Alien Arena: Tactical Demo Alpha released! (and new full version)

« on: September 06, 2013, 01:40:44 PM »

Alien Arena: Combat Edition has been released!

Combat Edition now includes the brand new Alpha Demo of Alien Arena: Tactical, a completely new mode of play that is objective oriented, slower paced, and requires precise teamwork in order to defeat the opposing team.  Tactical pits Aliens vs Humans in a struggle to disable the enemy base by disabling their defense systems, destroying several key components and sub-components.  Each team consists of three different player classes, each with a different ability that interacts with other classes.  Working together a team can destroy their enemy much faster than if not.  The Alpha Demo contains a single map, Tac-Extermination, and serves as a proving ground for the evolution of this new game.  Some of the artwork is placeholder, as this is an Alpha, and several other game play elements regarding physics and abilities are not yet implemented.  We also have released a separate, smaller installer that includes just the Tactical Alpha Demo.  We anticipate that the full release of Alien Arena: Tactical will take place in the Spring of 2014.

A preview of Alien Arena: Tactical can be found here http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/alien-arena-tactical-predemo-release-review.2354

The CRX Gaming Engine that powers it received some major updates and bug fixes.  Primarily, the menu GUI has been completely reworked into a brand new, modern form.  A host of other optimizations and tweaks have continued to improve the already blazing performance the engine has achieved over the past couple of years.

Combat Edition screenshots:





Tactical Teaser Trailer:

Direct link - http://red.planetarena.org/files/alienarena_tactical.wmv

Full Alien Arena Trailer:

Direct link - http://red.planetarena.org/files/trailer2k12.wmv

For more information about Alien Arena, Alien Arena: Tactical and to download the games visit http://red.planetarena.org

10

Quake / Alien Arena: Mercury Edition released!

« on: February 08, 2013, 07:32:42 AM »

Seven months, some extreme, major rendering optimizations occured....

Alien Arena: Mercury Edition has been released!

After months upon months of work, the newest version of Alien Arena has been unleashed with a number of new features, graphical enhancements, and a much faster rendering game engine.

Some of the new features for this release include:

• Major improvements in map rendering speed
• HD lightmaps
• IQM mesh animation now handled in GPU for major peformance gains
• Particle rendering optimizations
• Fixed issues with ATI and shaders
• Soft shadowmapping for vegetation and players
• Cubemapping on mesh and map surfaces
• New glass and water effects
• Weapon switching has been made significantly faster
• TCA now best two out of three
• Various player models received poly increases for smoothness
• New armor models

Alien Arena is a freeware deathmatch game that has been around for some time, and steadily evolved into what we feel is a leader among a crowded fps field. With it's smooth gameplay, balanced weapons, and rich, immersive arenas, the game is an artisticly cohesive tour de force in the genre. Alien Arena is free to download, free to play, and the code is open sourced.

Mercury Edition screenshots:





Trailer:

Direct link - http://red.planetarena.org/files/trailer2k12.wmv


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlNVWIsq6dk

For more information about Alien Arena and to download the game visit http://red.planetarena.org

Changelog - http://red.planetarena.org/aachangelogs/7.65.txt

11

Quake / Re: The end of Planet Quake?

« on: September 19, 2012, 08:34:15 AM »

Has anything been resolved?  It is a shame if PQ dies.  Surely there has to be somebody in charge over there.  Would they be willing to part with the domain? 

12

Quake / Major Alien Arena updated is released.

« on: July 06, 2012, 08:41:32 AM »

Well I think I had an Alien Arena thread some time ago, but damn if I can't find it.  Oh well, we just released a new version today.  It's related to Q2 in that the engine was originally based on it, though it's obviously undergone quite a few changes.

Here is our little press release:

--------------------------------------------------------------

Alien Arena: Reloaded Edition has been released. Revitalized...and, well, reloaded! 
 
This is a major release of this game, with many new features, and a veritable truckload of new high quality content.  Every aspect of the game has been improved upon and expanded, from the engine, to the game code, weaponry, and overall gameplay. 
 
Some of the new features for this release include:

• Many new rendering features
• Twelve new/rebuilt levels
• Two new player characters, the Overlord and Warrior
• Brand new "super" weapon, the Minderaser
• Improved antilag code
• "Simple" items rendering option
• Improved and expanded movement
• Improved Bot AI, particulary with CTF
• New music, and music "shifts" in game situations
• Variety of bug fixes and code cleansing

Alien Arena is a freeware deathmatch game that has been around for some time, and steadily evolved into what we feel is a leader among a crowded fps field. With it's smooth gameplay, balanced weapons, and rich, immersive arenas, the game is an artisticly cohesive tour de force in the genre.  Alien Arena is free to download, free to play, and the code is open sourced, and that will never change.
 
Reloaded Edition screenshots:
 



 
Trailer:
 
Direct link - http://red.planetarena.org/files/trailer2k12.wmv
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlNVWIsq6dk
 
For more information about Alien Arena and to download the game visit http://red.planetarena.org
 
Changelog - http://red.planetarena.org/aachangelogs/7.60.txt

13

Quake / Version 7.53 is out!

« on: December 29, 2011, 07:45:23 PM »

Alien Arena version 7.53 is now released!

Some of the new general features for this release include:

• Extended use of VBO for big performance increases
• Signifigant improvements to bot AI
• "Dm Lights" server option
• Improvements to menu code
• Improved stats algorithms
• Entity definition files
• Optimized and improved vegetation rendering
• Variety of bug fixes and code cleansing
• Two new maps
• Optimizations to IQM and MD2 rendering
• New "Ultra" skill level
• Speed hack detection improvements

Version 7.53 features some very signifigant performance gains for people who like to run the game on higher settings, as well as some very nice improvements/bugfixes to the bot AI. We have also added two new maps, as well as the entity definition files which now allow for custom reconfiguration of a map's entities, plus a number of other updates and bugfixes. For a complete changelog see http://icculus.org/alienarena/changelogs/7.53.txt

Alien Arena 7.53 screenshots:






Alien Arena also has some new 3rd party content portals where you can grab the latest and greatest 3rd party levels as well as some of the "retired" classics!

http://code.google.com/p/aa3rdparty/
http://3rdpartyalien.3r.funpic.de/index.html

For more information about Alien Arena visit http://red.planetarena.org

 
 

14

Quake / Re: Quake 2 based Alien Arena 7.52 coming soon...

« on: October 15, 2011, 08:28:59 AM »

It's to bad nobody uses this engine to make a Q2 GPL game.  I think it's the only Q2 engine that has nobody except the original engine dev's use it.

One of the reasons for that is that it's not compatible with q2 game dlls...

15

Quake / Re: Quake 2 based Alien Arena 7.52 coming soon...

« on: October 14, 2011, 03:06:19 PM »

~ key, same as all Quake based games...

Well that's good to hear. Then it's possible to some way to tone down the graphics and up the brightness? I don't remember there being much in the menus, but I haven't tried this game in years. I'd rather have a solid frame rate than pretty graphics, overall.

You can tone the graphics all the way down to Q2 type levels as well as fully control brightness and contrast, etc.  It's very scaleable.  However, it runs fast at full settings on any modern GPU.  All of it is able to be done from the video menu settings.  A *lot* has changed in the game's renderer in the past few years.