QUAKE 2 ENGINE PROGRAMMING

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Why Quake 2?

I may be interested, but have a few questions.

What is the pay on this project?
Where is the studio located, and am I required to relocate?
What kind of work are you wishing done to the Q2 engine?

2 Lysander:
I choose Quake2 because that technology is inexpensive for today.
I is cost $10''000 per license against Q3 which is cost $250''000.
And there is a lot of people who already tried to modify that engine. And before we will start comercial project we can experiment with it.

quote:

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Original post by Lysander
Why Quake 2?

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Quake 2 is complete, it works well, it is quite stable and has only one security leak that I know of. Quake 2 can also easily be upgraded. Its very easy to have it render better textures.

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Looking for a serious game project?
www.xgameproject.com

2 Maximus:

Well, all great projects like a Doom was done long time ago and money was not a primary target. People wanted to make great game and only after all they thought about money.
At that moment I can''t pay you money because I am out of funds.
When alfa-version will be done then we can go to investor and publisher to show what we can offer. Till that moment nobody will talk with us.
Regarding studio location. I am in the Texas right now. Where I will open studio - I don''t know. Maybe it will be North Carolina, may be Massachusets, may be some where else. Or may be I''ll stay in Texas. I depends on life quality in a region, taxes, etc. I wanna create comfortable environment for my team.
If you are in US I don''t think that it will be a problem to relocate to another city or state.

Next things we need to implement to Quake2 engine:
- Another model format: I believe animation is a key to success! So we need to implement skeletal animation (it can be our own
format or already existing format of storage animation data).
Also we need plugin for 3DSMAX 6 to export model, UVW
coordinates, animation and textures to the model file.
If it will be very hard for you it would be nice to implement .
MDC format from Kingpin (as you can remember you could shot out
legs arms and heads in Kingpin). But if should also have tags
ala Q3, because we will use some vehicles in game and wheels
should be attached right to the suspension and they should
spin.

- New engine should handle more polygons per model, at least 5-6
models at one time visible for player.

- Levels shold be more complex, contain more polygons.

- We should be able to make big open spaces (it can be tricky
like in Q3:TA terrains)

- New particle system. It would be nice if you could make plugin
for 3DSMAX 6 which will export particle data to the game. For
example I''ll make nice particle effect in 3DSMAX, export it
(may be coordinates of particles) in some format, and the
engine will read info from that data file and build particles
inside the game according to coordinates of data file.

- Skins, backgrounds and textures should have higher resolution
and it should be widely distributed format (like TGA or TIFF).

- We also need shaders ala Q3, so player will be able to see
metal or non-metal surfaces.

- It would be nice to make sky ala Unreal or FAKK2. For example
background mountains stand still but clouds move.

- Shadow system should be better. It should "eat" less resources,
but it should look better. Lets say than more from source light
than longer shadow. Shadows should be droped on walls.

- Lightning should have better quality. Possibly lightmaps should
have higher resolution.

- We need to implement script system, because I got a plan to
make some levels with machinery, where alot of things will
move, spin, etc.

- If HAVOK will let me use their physical system for trial, I''ll
send it to you, because I plan to implement their physical
engine to our modified Quake2 engine. I love their ragdoll
physic Actually if you fill that you can implement ragdoll
physic by yourself, cloth (it can be predefine even) and few
more effects you are welcome.

- We need support for .AVI or .MPEG formats to play cutscenes
between levels.

- Decals system.

- Fog.

- Editing tools should be oriented for 3DSMAX 6.

It is main changes and correctives that we need to make to Quake2
engine.

I didn''t realize you were talking about a commercial game. In that case, you might want to check out other options, such as the Cipher engine, which has things like real-time shadows and bump-mapping, for $100.

just some notes from me, I''m not even a programmer but I noticed soem stuff.

"- We should be able to make big open spaces (it can be tricky
like in Q3:TA terrains)"

Actually Q3:TA terrains are kinda crappy, they''re based on BSP just as its geometry, good outdoor engines use heightmaps (some may even use data files, I''m not sure), but Q2 isn''t an outdoors engine, it''s designed for indoors so I''m not sure if that would work well.

"- New particle system. It would be nice if you could make plugin
for 3DSMAX 6 which will export particle data to the game. For
example I''ll make nice particle effect in 3DSMAX, export it
(may be coordinates of particles) in some format, and the
engine will read info from that data file and build particles
inside the game according to coordinates of data file."

As far as I know it''s easier to create a particle editor where you could work in and create all your particle effects and save in a format readable to the engine; than working on a plugin that exports particles for 3dsmax (3dsmax-plugin coding can be a pain if the programmer isn''t experienced with it)

"- We need to implement script system, because I got a plan to
make some levels with machinery, where alot of things will
move, spin, etc."

As far as I can remember, Q2 levels did have func_train functions, which allowed the creation of moving/spinning meshes, done via any Q2 level editor


btw, wasn''t the Q2 engine released for free commercial use just as the Q1 was? not sure if the license is still required.

- ZeroX
Elium Game Project

2 ZeroXÆ

I am not a programmer neither

Have you seen game "Outcast" ?? That was a outdoors!!! But it was voxels and because of that game was working in software mod.
CPU and FPU was responsible for everething. I don''t thing it will work on consoles. And actually I desiced that only one or two levels of the game will be outside, in a canyon. But canyon,in general, is not open space.

The "Particle Flow" in 3DSMAX 6 is amazing! And for sure it will be difficult to make something like that from strach. It''s very complex system and I don''t want to see in game just waterflow and rocket tails I agree - for that types of particles it is better and easier to make editor from stratch. What about coding pain - if programmer doesn''t have experience, any kind of coding will be PAIN to him(her). But you in our case that person still have time to improve itself.

Script system in Q2 IMHO isn''t script system at all
It''s a very basic stuff. I need something ala Half-Life. Not exactly like that but designed specialy for exact game, for exact purpose.

Regarding to license. iD offer open source cod for everyone, but you can use it just for yourself. If you want to sell your project you need to pay money - $10''000 per license. Everything is written on www.idsoftware.com

P.S. I found one guy already, but I need another one. You''ll never know who will be better Or may be both of them will be teamplayers!