#1 2017-08-01 19:11:05

BPSkibbenheims
Member

Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

Hello all.  First time posting here. 

I recently have been drawn back into Quake very heavily, have been streaming some (with plans to do Quake streams regularly), and am looking for some guidance.

I've been playing the game recently with Darkplaces because I liked all of the extra lighting effects it can produce and so on. However I am not so much into high res textures or new models (like is seen with Quake Epsilon). I've been working on pulling together all kinds of extra quake content setting it all up to run with the classic music in Darkplaces buuuuuuuut as I work on all of this and am getting up to speed on things, it seems Darkplaces isn't kept up to date anymore, has some issues, and most importantly wont play nice with newer content like AD (which I am really looking forward to digging my teeth into).

So I am going to move over to Quakespasm. Seems to be the right choice based on what I see people discussing using the most in threads here.  What I am looking to do is anything I can to preserve blocky pixelated textures but also have any enhanced dynamic lighting and particle effects that I can get. 

I have figured out some commands that are taking things in the right direction.  I am just looking to you gurus on any advice about other commands I am missing that would help.  So far I just have these 2:

gl_texturemode GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR
gl_flashblend 1

There may not be any other commands and I may be at my limit as to how some things can be tweaked within QS and that is totally okay.


Outside of that any recommendations on content that is a must play?

I currently have the following:
Mission Pack 1
Mission Pack 2
Mission Pack 3
Shrak
Malice
XMen ... lol
Travail
AD
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Streamed this Sunday morning and it kicked so much ass!!)
Beyond Belief

I know there are a lot of map jams and stuff like that I definitely need to add ... there are just so many I don't know where to start!!

Thanks in advance! :D


.:editsu:.
Found this in a previous thread and will investigate it aswell!

Hipnotic Rogue wrote:

If you download the version of QS from here:

http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61462

You'll find 2 versions of the executable.  If you use the SPIKE version, you'll get hi res particle effects which is maybe what you've seen.  There's also a command to switch no weather effects in Sepulcher but I can't remember it off the top of my head.  It's in the readme files that come with the above download. :)

.:editsu 2:.
So I ran the above Spike version of QS and I really like the stuff it adds to AD.  Some nice touches with the effects.  I also found a lighting mod for the original 4 episodes that spruces the lighting up some.  More glow around lights and such nothing major.

I have run into some problems however.  I have found sometimes my movement speed will glitch and suddenly the game is treating run speed as if it was the walk speed and if I hold shift I am moving at an all new speed that feels significantly faster than Doom lol.  In AD where the shotgun fires actual projectiles I was able to outrun the projectiles lol There were some other weird behaviors I noticed aswell.  Elevators seemed to stutter as they go up and down and I think I am randomly getting hung on stairs. Could this be due to the fact I uped the framecap from 72 to 144fps?  I know high fps breaks a lot of older games but I am really spoiled by 144hz/144fps lol

I have also run into some issues with some content like MP2 not loading properly, but I don't have any log to post and want to troubleshoot to ensure I am just not dealing with corrupted files / bad install or something first.

Last edited by BPSkibbenheims (2017-08-02 12:51:27)

#2 2017-08-02 13:38:18

Icantthinkofanickname
Moderator

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

Hi BPSkibbenheims, welcome (back) to the wonderful world of Quake maps!

Switching to QuakeSpasm is a wise move not just for newer maps, but for single player maps in general. Of course it has far more features and fewer limits than WinQuake/DOSQuake, but it's also very backwards compatible. I'm not a coder/programmer and only know what I've read from more knowledgeable people, but as I understand it, QuakeSpasm's code isn't that different from (or at least doesn't work that differently to) WinQuake/DOSQuake, whereas DarkPlaces does things very differently under the hood. This can lead to all sorts of issues and unexpected surprises, such as items falling out or set pieces not working as they're supposed to. With QS you can be fairly certain that maps will work as they're meant to (in the vast majority of cases).

What I am looking to do is anything I can to preserve blocky pixelated textures

Not related to textures (you've got that covered with your gl_texturemode setting), but for some more pixely goodness, try "r_particles 2". That will change particle effects from circular ("1") to blocky ("2"), which goes very nicely with "gl_texturemode gl_nearest_mipmap_linear".

If you're a real purist, you can turn model interpolation off with "r_lerpmodels 0" ('1" to turn it back on).

Ericw also recently added "r_scale" to QuakeSpasm (not sure if it's in the most recent stable release yet). The default value is 1, but higher values will give you an even more pixelated look.

I don't know of any commands that would make the lighting in QuakeSpasm more flashy; that's not really the focus of the engine (but it's also not something I've ever personally wanted, so maybe I'm not the best person to advise you here).

As for QuakeSpasm-spike, to the best of my knowledge it won't automatically change lighting/particle effects on all maps, but rather includes optional extra features that mappers can choose to use in their maps. In other words, unless a map was specifically designed with QS-Spike in mind (the only current example I'm aware of is Forgotten Sepulcher), you're not going to see any differences. I could be wrong, though.

Outside of that any recommendations on content that is a must play?

Have a look at this thread for some recommendations preceding 2014 (as of right now, anyway. Perhaps the thread will be updated later).
For newer maps, try sorting the maps on Quaddicted by date, and look for the five/four star releases.
Or cycle through the random recommendations on the front page (click on "screenshots" above the "Recent Activity" feed).

Of course it's all a matter of taste, but hopefully that helps to get you started.

#3 2017-08-04 23:38:26

BPSkibbenheims
Member

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

Well I have made a lot of progress in getting Quakespasm setup the way I like.  I did have to settled for 72 fps as going above this was definitely breaking ingame physics in weird ways.  I also have found for the most part not to run the "spike" version of the quakespams ad launcher for things outside of AD but I did discover something interesting.

If I run the quakespasm-spike-ad.exe on just id1 for example, some lighting mods I had for Darkplaces will function.  They will not run outside of the spike version of the exe.  One in particular for id1 is called mh_lits_id1.pk3 which I stole out of the Quake Epsilon repack.  It adds some nice colored lighting to areas that give the game a bit more atmosphere to me.  It seems that it is modified map and .lit files for the original maps so it obviously wont work outside of the original episode however there are similar pk3 files for the other mission packs.  Here are some screenshots ...

kEVDU9E.jpg
eKulNa7.jpg
IPxQ7T1.jpg
TZm9H7j.jpg
k5d83CS.jpg
7s7Iz6i.jpg

I am sure there are other areas that show the lighting off better that is just what I could pull quickly in the start map and e1m1 to show.  Interesting enough this breaks r_wateralpha in some areas.  Some water wont have transparency while others in the same map will and when you toggle the setting below 1 you get an error message in console.  "Warning: Map does not appear to be water-vised"

Just thought I would share.  You all probably already know about all of this.  I am a total newb here.

Also in relation to map packs to start playing I figure I am going to start with the func mapjam 9 since it is so new and work my way backwards :D

Last edited by BPSkibbenheims (2017-08-05 02:03:08)

#5 2017-08-05 17:02:15

BPSkibbenheims
Member

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

Cool thanks for the map suggestions.  This morning I ran through Carved in Flesh as it showed up as one of the higher rated episodes on one of the pages you linked.  It was pretty fun! 

Next I am going to give czg07.zip - Insomnia a shot!

I have a questions, FOV 90 and fov_adapt 1.  It seems fov_adapt was already defaulted to 1.  On the FOV is there a technical reason to run 90 or just a preference?  I really prefer 110 as I think? its closer to what I use in Doom, Quake Live, and Quake Champions (yes I play QC a lot these days ... dont hate me ;_; lol)  It just generally feels better to me.  Does leave the gun looking a bit wonky though...

Also I've been playing around with r_scale ... there is something just fun about setting it to 4 lol

QuakespasmEngine1996.jpg

Last edited by BPSkibbenheims (2017-08-05 18:36:53)

#6 2017-08-07 14:58:54

Esrael
Member

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

I had problems with the physics too, when I increased the FPS above 165 (if my memory serves me right) in the config. At 165 the physics still seem to work for me and the game gives me an fps of around 144, close to the refresh rate of my monitor (when not overclocked).

#7 2017-08-11 18:43:04

negke
Moderator

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

BPSkibbenheims: by the way, try the console command gl_flashblend 0 - it makes the muzzleflash emit real light instead of those goofy orange coronas.

#8 2017-08-13 00:53:25

BPSkibbenheims
Member

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

Esrael wrote:

I had problems with the physics too, when I increased the FPS above 165 (if my memory serves me right) in the config. At 165 the physics still seem to work for me and the game gives me an fps of around 144, close to the refresh rate of my monitor (when not overclocked).

Thats odd I get issues past 72 fps much less 144.  Ive decided for this I am fine with 72 though so I am leaving it be.

negke wrote:

BPSkibbenheims: by the way, try the console command gl_flashblend 0 - it makes the muzzleflash emit real light instead of those goofy orange coronas.

Cool I will check that out.  I will probably make a bind to cycle between the two to decide which one I like more.

#9 2017-08-20 19:38:54

Mugwump
Member

Re: Soliciting some Quake advice! :)

Don’t be fooled by the main DP page at Icculus: DP is in fact still updated but you have to go to the /files/ subpage to find the more recent builds. There's a hotlink to it somewhere on the main page. Once there, sort the files by "last uploaded" and download the latest beta (I believe one has been released just a few weeks ago). Avoid the nightly autobuilds as they may be buggier than betas, that is unless an important feature was added. DP has been supporting AD's fence textures (vines, grates etc...) since last year IIRC, however if your PC isn't top notch you may experience some framerate issues in the largest maps.

BTW, .lit files do work with standard QS too, not just QSS. The thing is, QS doesn’t support .pk3 archives so you'll have to unzip them first before they can work. An interesting feature of QSS is its support for external .ent files. Much like .lit files for colored lighting, this allows you to add weather effects like rain, snow or fog on a per map basis. Actually, .ent files allow you to add/subtract/replace any entity in a map, whether it's weather FX, sounds, lights, models, enemies, supplies...

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