gamex.dll

[Golgo13]

is a there someone well versed here in coding that can pinpoint the reason why the gamexdll in baseq2 or some other file, shows the animation for the power screen and power shield as different in other mods? was wondering why that is

[Zeppelin]

I dunno LOL ¯\(°_o)/¯

[|iR|Focalor]

From what I remember reading something about it online once, the makers of Quake2 actually intended to use both the power screen and power shield in the game, but later in the final stages of development decided to only use the power screen, and did not use the power shield in any of the levels, but left in the HUD icon, model, and I suppose the coding for how it works in the game files. That's not the only little "leftover" buried in there, there are a few more. The only time I've ever seen the power shield on any maps, they were player created maps, and I can't specifically remember if it functioned as a power screen or power shield. But I guess the idea was supposed to be that the power SCREEN would only provide protection against attacks from the front of the user, while the power SHIELD would protect all over. I've noticed playing coop and single player that when you attack a "Brain" (http://planetquake.gamespy.com/View.php?view=GameInfo.Detail&id=3&game=5#brain), you'll see it's power screen flash when shooting it from the front, but if you jump around it and shoot it from the back, you won't see the power screen flash, and you can kill it faster.

As to WHY different mods use them different ways... I have no clue. Perhaps the designers of the CTF mod didn't want a flashing power screen because it might confuse people into thinking that the user of it was actually equipped with a power shield, or perhaps the code wouldn't allow for both devices to display green shit around player models.

[quadz]

BTW, q2dm8 has a power shield, but the tastyspleen FFA servers override it globally to power screen.

Some of the single player maps had power shield as well: jail2, jail3, jail5, city1, city2, city3, etc.

[fdrjk]

I always remembered security complex as the level that had the super special green armor.

[|iR|Focalor]

Some of the single player maps had power shield as well: jail2, jail3, jail5, city1, city2, city3, etc.

Are you sure? I'm 100% sure that I did read online somewhere that the full-body power shield was not actually used in Quake2. And when I crank up single player and type in "give all", it does not add the power shield to the inventory, only the power screen.

[quadz]

Are you sure? I'm 100% sure that I did read online somewhere that the full-body power shield was not actually used in Quake2.

It's the other way around. Power Screen didn't appear in any of the original single-player or dm maps.

I had modified the server-side code in 2004 or so to add global item overrides, so the tastyspleen FFA servers have had the following config since way back:

set tune_spawn_power_shield item_power_screen

Which forces power_shield -> power_screen on all maps. (Themed servers like sheridan don't do the remapping, so you can see city1 with the original power_shield.)

And when I crank up single player and type in "give all", it does not add the power shield to the inventory, only the power screen.

That's odd, it's the opposite for me.

[|iR|Focalor]

Maybe I have the names wrong then. All I know is that one of them wasn't used in the game but a few map makers decided to add that powerup model to their maps. The only map that comes to mind is one on mutant. I have no clue what the name of it is, but maybe if I describe it, someone will know which one I'm talking about. I has a bunch of long sidewalk type things suspended in space that you can jump off and die, and theres one or two main buildings. One is on the lower portion and has (I think) exactly 3 teleporters side-by-side in the basement room of it. Anyway, located under one of the stairs or walkways is a powerscreen, although I "think"... when you pick it up, the icon that displays for it is for the other one, the one that's actually used in the game.

[|iR|Focalor]

Can't load up single player unless I do it through the old quake2.exe. And then for some reason when I try to change the renderer to anything (it starts as supposedly "software"), it crashes. But weird thing is... it seems to start off using openGL even though it says "software". At the same time, it starts off in windowed mode with 400x300 or whatever. But if I go down to screen size and raise it to 1024x768, and then fullscreen it, the colors go totally fuckered up and psychadelic looking.

I dunno, just a bunch of weird shit. No reason for talking about it... fuck it. lol.

Anyway, I got on the coop server and tried "give power screen" and then "give power shield". I get the icons in the inventory for both, but I still only get the power shield icon displaying in the main portion of the HUD even when I activate the power screen. So I'm gonna assume that both function the same way and provide 360 degree protection rather than just from the front.

[The Happy Friar]

Can't load up single player unless I do it through the old quake2.exe. And then for some reason when I try to change the renderer to anything (it starts as supposedly "software"), it crashes. But weird thing is... it seems to start off using openGL even though it says "software". At the same time, it starts off in windowed mode with 400x300 or whatever. But if I go down to screen size and raise it to 1024x768, and then fullscreen it, the colors go totally fuckered up and psychadelic looking.

I had that issue and only r1gl would work for me.  Turned out my drivers were the issue.

[PANTONE 7717C]

The only map that comes to mind is one on mutant. I have no clue what the name of it is, but maybe if I describe it, someone will know which one I'm talking about. I has a bunch of long sidewalk type things suspended in space that you can jump off and die, and theres one or two main buildings. One is on the lower portion and has (I think) exactly 3 teleporters side-by-side in the basement room of it.

"hipdm1" comes to mind. Typing modellist will show a list of all the loaded models in a map. This map seems to have both items: models/items/armor/shield/tris.md2  and  models/items/armor/screen/tris.md2

[Golgo13]

BTW, q2dm8 has a power shield, but the tastyspleen FFA servers override it globally to power screen.

Some of the single player maps had power shield as well: jail2, jail3, jail5, city1, city2, city3, etc.

i did notice that. However i cannot duplicate the power screens picture results in any other mod, i tried to have it function as it did in the pictures above. So, i assumed different data must reside in the gamexdll

I always remembered security complex as the level that had the super special green armor.

well the super special armor does function differently. one protects only from the front (power screen) and the other protects like regular armor (power shield) However the defensive bonus is clearly in favor of the power shield. So that is why they haven't included it in the games mechanics (very rarely). In Some mods The variables can be changed so that the defense bonus is adjustable. In vanilla q2, I estimate the power screen bonus is 25%- 33% damage reduction. The power shield may be between 66% to 80%

[Jay Dolan]

No need to guess about any of this. The code is readily available:
http://jdolan.dyndns.org/trac/browser/quake2/trunk/src/game/g_combat.c#L147

You can see that the power screen only protects from infront, but does so more effectively (only 33% of original damage is taken, provided you carry enough cells) while the power shield protects from all angles and does so less effectively (66% of damage) but more efficiently (you only burn one cell for every 2 points of damage).