Try The Sword of Ares shareware!
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June 20, 1998 | |
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New model format idea from Brian Martin (programmer of DOS and Windows MedDLe Quake model utilities.)
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June 15, 1998 | |
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New wanted models: civilians, military personel, and army weapons.
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June 14, 1998 | |
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I have compiled a rough list of features that will be needed in a common model format and posted them on the model format idea page. If you have any ideas you haven't suggested yet, hurry up and send them in.
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June 12, 1998 | |
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I added a new "Format" page where I am compiling the new model format ideas.
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June 11, 1998 | |
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Work continues on the common model format. I am currently making a list of important features we need the format to support. Voice your opinions. Get people involved. E-mail me with your ideas.
This page has now been tested in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Lynx! I've gotten it to look pretty good in each one. If you use another browser and you notice something wrong with the way the pages look, let me know!
Why support a text browser like Lynx? Well, mainly because I used lynx for a long time. It is a good choice for free internet providers since loading images can take up all of their bandwidth very fast. If my internet bills don't get paid, Lynx is how I get on the 'net.
Also if the pages look good in Lynx - without frames and graphics - then there's a much better chance they'll look good at low resolution, on older computers and in less common browsers.
Also, we Lynx users always chuckle when we see a screen like this:
Or, better yet, something like "get Netscape NOW!" :)
The gag is that
(if you have a recent version of Lynx) you can browse frames sites easily.
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June 10, 1998 | |
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THE SERPENT LORD'S CALL FOR A STANDARD - Of all of the aspects of 3D game design, modeling and animation is one of the most obscure, expensive, time-consuming, and, yes, difficult tasks.
It is also difficult to write utilities for model editing because of the variety of formats. A Quake .mdl editor is easy enough but what about supporting Quake 2? What about Unreal? Unreal models have properties Quake model editors don't even begin to deal with.
To have skeletal, key-framed animation and Inverse Kinematics a model editor must store a lot of extra information. This means each program has it's own proprietary format used internally and much of that extra information is lost when it is exported to a different format.
All of the features found in expensive modeling programs or even inexpensive shareware like qME seem out of reach to amateur programmers. With so many games moving toward new perspectives and styles of animation, Animated models are more important than ever.
The modeling community needs a common model format free of royalties and legal red tape. We could use an existing format, such as vrml if it suits our needs or if it can be extended to suit our needs. The common format can be used to create many small, specialized utilities, as well as compatibility between more powerful modeling software. Small utilities can also be used as plug-ins. For example, you could design your model in one program, then use a simple utility to adjust the skin vertices, then import the model into an skeletal animation program and finally apply face properties witha plug-in utility.
To be useful this format must be widely adopted. It can be designed to be useful not only to model designers but also to game programmers and and even in other indusries. There needs to be an organization backing it. This can be a new organization or, especially in the case of using an extant format, it can be an established organization.
THE EMPORER'S NEW GRAPHICS - For the last week and a half, you loyal viewers have been telling me how nice my new design looks, apparently completely ignorant of the fact that almost akk of the graphics linkes were broken. Or maybe this is something newer...
In any case I am now updating my news by hand - with a text editor instead of a WYSWIG editor. (WYSIWIG is an acronym for "What You See Isn't Worth an Iota of Garbage") I especially love the way they KNOW when you want extra 's thrown in
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June 8, 1998 | |
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Gryphon has taken over the official QuArK homepage. He has brought a lot of great features to the site already including a forum for discussing QuArK and Quake (and Hexen II and Quake II) editing.
WANTED MODELS - A sketch or other picture of the things you want modelled would probably improve the chances of a modeler trying to make the model you request. However, for the average person who is unfamiliar with the nuances of copyright law, I will warn you not to send me any images borrowed from websites, books, etc. without permission.
Here's a screen shot of the Quake 2 female player skins I mentioned on the 5th. They are all facing the 180 degrees from the direction I wanted them to face, but that is just part of the fun of running 5 games of Quake 2 simultaneously!
I saw The Truman Show (on the big screen) and The Rainmaker (on videotape) Saturday, which is probably too much good movie watching for one day. The Rainmaker is a must-see although it's the sort of thing I usually wait to see on videotape like I did this time. It is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. As is usually the case, both movies could have used more robots and ninjas.
I just hope this year isn't remembered for the exploding popularity of ketchup flavored potato chips :)
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June 5, 1998 | |
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You can download my Quake 2 female player skins here. I don't plan to finish them, but you can use them as they are, or as a base for other skins. Don't forget to mention me if you use the skins (or derivative skins) as a clan or mod skin. They aren't based on the original female player skins so they have different styles.
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June 4, 1998 - "Simitar" | |
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If you have any old logos or references to these pages as "Simitar", please remove them or update them to say something like "The Serpent Lord's Web Pages". We haven't used that other name in a long time and Simitar Entertainment (which I have no affiliation with) is concerned that people could get confused.
Lingo tipped me off about a decent Quake 2 chase camera. It can be found at the TFEIQM download page. Here's a screenshot I took. I hope this helps you see player models you make better. (Also you can see Paul Steeds great work on the Quake 2 player models - even better than the Strogg)
The Serpent Lord's advice on buying a computer:
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June 3, 1998 - QuArK 5 beta | |
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QuArK 5 has been in beta testing for a while, with new versions being released frequently. Go on over to the Official QuArK Page and give it a test drive. Some of it's new features are truly awesome and not found anywhere else. I still recommend QuArK 4.07 over any other map editor out there.
If you bought Unreal, you've probably already figured out how to squeeze optimum performance out of the game on your machine. But if you have a 166 Mhz Pentium CPU or better and 32 MB of RAM and you still can't get playable speed, you might be missing some important tweaks. Don't forget to close down ALL other applications, including programs you normally run in the background like ICQ. PlanetUnreal has more information about optimizing Unreal on your machine.
Of course this doesn't answer the important question: How good is Unreal? I haven't played it yet, and the reports I get are conflicting and heavily biased. All the reviewers seem to care about is how Unreal compares to Quake 2. Which is something like comparing Quake 2 to Quake or even Chasm.
So instead of reviewing Unreal, today I will review Quake2 and compare it to Quake.
Quake is fast and has low system requirements. Quake 2, on the other hand, does not run quite as fast on most systems. If pure framerates are what you crave, Classic Quake with Scitech Display Doctor is about as smooth as you can get. Quake 2 on the other hand, can "interpolate" animation so it's characters will seem more smoothly animated - if your computer can handle it. Quake 2 also has some effects - colored light and transparent water - that are not generally available in regular Quake.
Quake 2 has beautiful and varied level designs. Originally it was completely missing DM levels but this has been patched :) Quake really doesn't compare, it's levels are nice for their time but pretty monotonous. Quake 2 also has some very nice models, but alas, most of them are boring humanoids that could have came out of any of the Star Trek spin-off TV shows or movies.
Put another way: It's a video game, dang it, why do most of the enemies look like actors with latex foreheads? Quake has a variety of well animated, very low polygon count, non-humanoid, very cool enemies. This is really a genre issue though, and if people can still immerse themselves in a world of not-so-alien aliens, it's really not my business :)
Quake editing is really the biggest difference between the two Quakes. Quake C editing is fast and simple, but it is also a "black art" with very few masters. Quake 2 uses native code, so it is more accessible to "regular" programmers, but it also alienates people who don't have expensive compiling and debugging tools or the time to learn how to use them.
Map editing for Quake 2 is also a bit of a pain - mainly because level compiling takes a long time. This makes it hard for ordinary folks to learn Quake 2 map making. If you want to learn how to make good maps, I recommend starting with classic Quake.
Model editing on the other hand is basically the same - and Quake 2 makes it even easier by using plug-in player models. Unfortunately, I don't really like to make player models when I can't see my own character. If you know of a good 3rd person POV mod for Quake 2, let me know.
Making TCs is a mixed bag. With Quake one guy can make a TC because level design and programming are so fast and simple. With Quake 2 some parts of TC authoring are simpler, but you really need a team of people with time and specialized skills.
The final word?
If you are a player looking for cheap thrills and intense action, both games are pretty good, but Quake will run smoother on less hardware (Think about this: You can set up a network of 3 Quake machines for about the price of 1 machine that will run Quake 2 with all of it's nice colored lighting)
If you want to get involved in 3D game design, classic Quake is a stable technology that is fairly easy to learn. Moving to other games is an easy step from there.
If you have a machine that can handle Quake 2, try the demo. Keep in mind that some early negative reviews of Quake 2 are now outdated because of some REALLY BIG patches that have been released with new deathmatch levels and even a new player model (there could be even more by the time you read this)
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June 2, 1998 - NEW LOOK | |
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In the interest of providing you, our loyal viewers, with more useful content and less flash and fluff, we have updated The Serpent Lord's Web Pages with a NEW LOOK and a SPINNING LOGO!
Seriously though - I would prefer that the logo read something like "The Serpent Lord's Web Pages" and it could have the trifective subtitle worked into the design ("The Free Models Project - The Sword of Ares, Squawk RPG") or something like that. I'm open to looking at different logos, but I always get a few submissions and I can't use every one!
More importantly I am interested in more CONTENT and even some NEWS related to modeling and what-not. I don't have as much time as I used to (I actually get PAYED for some of the models now :) so if you can e-mail me or icq me with news and ideas it would help. Don't forget - sometimes I forget messages between the time I read them and the time I update this page, so resending a message ONCE is OK.
I know I missed the whole Unreal release and all of the cool news coming out of E3, but I didn't get the one and I didn't go to the other. I will try to cover Unreal shareware when it comes out and let you know if this player thinks it's worth buying.
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1998 - JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC | |
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1997 - JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JLY AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC | |
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