Making textures..

After a long and rather troublesome day the start with the first few textures for The Manhattan Project was made. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a few brushed/scratched/rusty/rustic metal bases in 1024*1024. Question is though; is this really a preferred resolution to work with in regards to the Quake 3 engine? I decided to try and find out..

I converted the 1024*1024 textures to .jpg, loaded them in GTK Radiant 1.5 and created a small, square, map with them. Started the map, set maximum resolution in game and then took a screenshot.

Next I converted the same textures to 512*512 .jpg images, loaded them in GTK Radiant 1.5, replaced the ones on the same map, took a screenshot and then compared the two screenshots to each other.

I honestly have to say that I cannot see any difference in these two pictures, so I ask myself again; which would be the best resolution to make textures for a Quake III based game be?

The original game used 256*256, would double that be enough?
Time will tell…

It’s good to do your homework

Again after looking up some reference material and reading about functions, I found some proof that the ideas I have will be possible.

Not only did I find that it is possible to use additional weapons, as in this case I found it working with as much as a total of 24 weapons.

Another thing that was implemented was a particle like weather system with snow and rain falling down, creating a more natural environment. Not sure how that would suit in to this project though.

Yet another awesome feature was the ‘flashbang’ grenade effect. It simulates the character being in a state of shock and renders the screen completely white for a few moments, which slowly fades away.

Thirdly, and probably the most appreciated feature was (as simple as it might sound) ladders. That you can in fact climb ladders in the Quake 3 engine, this is certainly a must.

Still there was more surprises for me, a recoil weapon system! This is exactly what I wanted as for The Manhattan Project. When you fire your automatic weapons, the cross-hair (aim) does not stay on one spot all the time, it moves upwards as you keep the fire button pressed. This is effect varies depending on what weapon is used.
Even nicer still, the ricochet effect which I simply love! Stand close to a wall, fire your machinegun and you will find yourself dodging bullets as the bounce off the walls randomly; just as in real life. And yes, you can shoot yourself.

Lastly, what I also did find implemented was the use of an experience point system (which seemed rather complicated) but with more research; could this be what I’m looking for?

However, what makes the reading worth the time it took, was the fact that everything has been released under GNU GPLv2 (not later) by Team Mirage. To checkout the source through SVN, simply type:

svn checkout http://ns-co.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ ns-co-read-only

Quake Rally

While doing research for The Manhattan Project I came across several features in the Quake 3 engine that I did not know about previously. Uninteresting as it might seem, but just what I was looking for, a mode where you control your character (or vehicle) in third-person view, control the actions with mouse side-ways, upwards and downwards to increase/decrease viewing field and a navigational arrow guiding you through the course. This is just what I was after considering the possibility to add spaceship fight sequences on certain maps.

The idea behind that is that you don’t control your character as a standard FPS-type of game, but instead while having entered your spaceship, you can choose if you want first-person, or third-person viewmode. This while controlling your spacecraft, weaponry and adjusting to the physics change and no-jumping mode (would be rather silly to jump while steering a spaceship).

Now the mod I found it in was called Quake Rally. And luckily enough they have release their source code, so here it is. Now while Quake Rally itself might not be my personal favorite modification to Quake 3, it certainly has some rather impressive, and useful, features within it’s source code.

To add some more icing on the cake, they also have a Maya -> md3 exporter script and top of it all, here is the Maya -> md3 exporter source, might be useful in a near future.

One last thing to add, Quake Rally does indeed work under Open Arena, but sounds are missing. Still, it’s worth a try and give it a good spin; it is harder than it looks.

Ideas for gameplay

Now here are some guidelines and thoughts for the project as it takes of as a modification for the Quake III engine.
First of all we start with the gameplay, it should be fast, intense and teamplay is heavily focused upon.
This means that Team Arena mode, Capture the Flag and tournaments are the modes to care for, botplay will be rather low priority though still available.

Setting is in a futuristic environment much like Warhammer 40k, Starwars, Star Trek and Babylon 5.
Character models will be everything from humans wearing heavy space suits, to alien lifeforms with few human traits.

During stages of the game, which is mostly in First Person, the player can not only toggle to Third Person, but also he will have the cross-hair while doing so. Players can enter stationary cannon sentries, control gun-towers, enter spaceships and blast their way through enemy barricades. Walkers, mechanical machines, can also be entered during gameplay which will enhance certain features, and lower others, speed would be dramatically reduced while armor increased for instance.

First it would offer a wider range of weaponry, here are the standard:
Gauntlet,
Machinegun,
Shotgun,
Grenade Launcher,
Rocket Launcher,
Plasma Gun,
Railgun
Lightninggun,
BFG
Nailgun
Proximity launcher
Chaingun

Features to consider:
Locational Damage
Leg Shots
Weapon Dropping
Laser-aim
Alt Weapon Fire
Flame Thrower
Progressive Zooming

Several custom HUD-layouts for player to choose from,
Integrated voicechat and features for Mumble,

Subversion

Now things are starting to move, about time.
Thanks to Beast we now have a brand new updated revision of the codebase and it’s also committed to the SVN. To check out the trunk, type:

svn checkout https://themp.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/themp manhattan

If you need help with how to checkout from SVN, take a look at this guide.

The Manhattan Project goes live!

Here we are, finally somewhere to write ideas and plans..

The Manhattan Project is officially up and running, so it was well needed to get some structure in all this. If you don’t know what we are, or what we do; then here is a short explanation.

The aim of the project is to create a stand-alone first-person-shooter based on the Quake 3 source engine, and release it under the GNU GPL license making it free for anyone to use and modify, even sell. What makes this project different from other Q3 conversions is our motto: by the gamers, for the gamers.

We simply want to bring Quake 3 back to it’s roots, and while doing that adding some modern features like advanced physics, stunning visuals and extra functions that you cannot find in the original game. With that said, this project does not aim towards making an exact replica of Quake 3, but rather an extended, improved version of it. For a more true-to-the-cause conversion, visit http://openarena.ws.

Our aims and target are different of those of Open Arena thus you will not find anime characters or original Quake 3 weaponry within this project. On the other hand, you will find Quake 3 compability, optimization for e-sport gaming, support for Q3 modifications and a wide variety of functions not found in Open Arena, or even Quake 3.

By working close with our community, and listening to the players, then we know what they want, and what they can expect. This is, we believe; the future of gaming.

Why do we want to make a game which uses the GNU GPL license then? That’s a question asked many times. The answer is actually quite simple. We want the game to be used by everyone who wishes, free of charge. So since the Quake 3 source code is released under GNU GPL, it became rather a natural choice that this was the engine to use. In fact, the game engine we use is a derivate of the original Quake 3 source code called ioquake3.