Announcing: Quake2Live.Net

[sfranzyshen]

Quake2Live is a multiplayer FPS video game designed to be launched via a Web browser plugin. It offers game players a free and easily accessible multiplayer game that uses the Quake2 engine.

Sorry, no game play yet ... but source code has started. We are looking for feedback and suggestions from developers as well as players.

The project is split into the following parts;

Quake2Live-Master: This is the database backend web server.
Quake2Live-Plugin: This is the web browser plugin
Quake2Live-Client: This is the Quake2 client
Quake2Live-Dedicated: Yup! we are planning user servers.

We plan to develop for the Linux. Windows, and Mac OSx platforms.

http://www.quake2live.net/ - Game Play Website (coming soon.)
http://www.quake2live.org/ - Developer Information
http://www.quake2live.net/aef/index.php? - Community Forums

Come and join us on the Community Forums!

[[BTF]Gator]

goto dm

[[BTF]Jehar]

Rockin. Keep us updated.

[[BTF]Defiant!]

Maybe Q2 should have a list of open projects people can add to or give advice to or serve as testers for.

Good luck.

[Whirlingdervish]

Looks like a cool idea.

You should post something over at quakedev if you haven't already. There are a few guys still workin on different flavors of q2 there, as well as here.
http://www.quakedev.com/

 

[peewee_RotA]

I think that this project would benefit by bringing up the discussion of the Quake 2 Kicker that Jehar put together:

http://tastyspleen.tv/q2k/

Basically a versions of Quake 2 using freely distributable assets with a basic, easy config, and easy installation. I don't think that a web version of quake 2 would be feasible with the requirement of having the game assets on hand.



P.S. (we all know about the similar package at q2scene.net  No more bringing it up!  )

[[BTF] Reflex]

 

I'll give it a try when its running.

Most players are probably comfortable using the regular q2 engines,
I couldn't see playing any other way.

Unless everyone I needed to frag was already there


Surprised PQ didn't give you so much as a nod

[The Happy Friar]

nobody mentioned it to pappy is why.  He can't keep his eyes everywhere.  (only has two I'm aware of.  )

[sfranzyshen]

Work continues ... slowly ... still looking for people who could lend a few hours a week to things like graphics, php web code, javascript, and web browser plugins ... please stop by and just look around.

http://www.Quake2Live.Net/

[[BTF]RottenRose]

This is amazing! So keep up the good work! I can't wait to see it up and running. 

[sfranzyshen]

We still are in need of a graphic artist who could spare a couple of hours a week. Here is the latest peek of the Game Server Browser ... http://www.Quake2Live.Net/

the Latest greatest development efforst can be found here ... http://www.Quake2Live.Net/test.html

[Chocobo Joe]

Will there be any custom maps on the servers?

[:iR:goatkilla]

sounds something like heat.net

will it have a chat lobby like heat.net as well?

[quadz]

Basically a versions of Quake 2 using freely distributable assets with a basic, easy config, and easy installation. I don't think that a web version of quake 2 would be feasible with the requirement of having the game assets on hand.

I presume the question centers on which assets are freely distributable?  Otherwise, whether any non-free assets are distributed in a zip file vs. an in-browser seamless download would seem to be irrelevant.

As far as I know, nothing has changed since Carmack's original comments accompanying the Q2 source release:

12/21/2001
Quake 2 Source Code

— johnc @ 7:07 pm

The Quake 2 source code is now available for download, licensed under the GPL.

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/quake2.zip

As with previous source code releases, the game data remains under the
original copyright and license, and cannot be freely distributed. If you
create a true total conversion, you can give (or sell) a complete package
away, as long as you abide by the GPL source code license. If your projects
use the original Quake 2 media, the media must come from a normal, purchased
copy of the game.

Game data, to me, means textures, sounds, .bsp files, player models, skins, etc!


I Am Not A Lawyer, but... as far as I know, the only legal way to acquire the basic Q2 assets without purchasing the game is to point users at the loophole afforded by running the official id Software Q2 demo installer, and then applying the 3.20 point release:

http://tastyspleen.net/quake/downloads/q2-314-demo-x86.exe
http://tastyspleen.net/quake/downloads/q2-3.20-x86-full.exe

And this, while presumably technically legal, would still seem to run contrary to the spirit of Carmack's stipulation that "If your projects use the original Quake 2 media, the media must come from a normal, purchased copy of the game."


Note... It's not my desire to throw cold water on anyone's attempt to get more folks playing Q2.  But if we're looking for a way to distrubute Q2 game data for free legally then I think we have our work cut out for us.  (I've often wondered if it would be allowed to create a meta-installer that basically bundled id's official unmodified Q2 demo installer and 3.20 point release installer, and basically ran the installers for the user in a convenient way.)


BTW, does anyone remember, that before this was changed in the r1q2 server code, that Q2 explicitly disallowed downloading maps from a pak file?  Here's the original source:

    if (!sv_client->download
        // special check for maps, if it came from a pak file, don't allow
        // download  ZOID
        || (strncmp(name, "maps/", 5) == 0 && file_from_pak))
    {
        Com_DPrintf ("Couldn't download %s to %s\n", name, sv_client->name);
        if (sv_client->download) {
            FS_FreeFile (sv_client->download);
            sv_client->download = NULL;
        }

        MSG_WriteByte (&sv_client->netchan.message, svc_download);
        MSG_WriteShort (&sv_client->netchan.message, -1);
        MSG_WriteByte (&sv_client->netchan.message, 0);
        return;
    }

Since I've become aware of this, I've been a bit uneasy when I've seen a player connect to vanilla and start downloading one of the single-player maps.  It seems fairly clear that id didn't want that to be possible.


Regards,

[Chocobo Joe]

Well, aren't they using the shareware version of the game for this project? Or does that not make a difference?