id_notes/John C/1997-10-17_1997-10-20
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Name: John Carmack
Email: johnc@idsoftware.com
Description: Programmer
Project: Quake 2
Last Updated: 10/21/1997 04:08:52 (Central Standard Time)
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Oct 20
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Many of the comments about the Quake 2 test are already being addressed.
We expected quite a few of them, but the test has served its purpose of
bringing in some good feedback that we couldn't have predicted.
The final game will definately be better as a result of the test.
However, it certainly won't please everyone. I am confidant that the
majority will think that Quake 2 is significantly better than anything we
have ever done before, but even if we please 80% of our potential
customers, that will still leave a couple hundred thousand people thinking
that we let them down.
I suppose that I have it the easiest there -- I can always defend my
technical decisions with specific discussions of my evaluations of the
tradeofs that led me to the paths I chose. In fact, in a large number of
cases when someone suggests something, I can actually say "Tried it.
Didn't work as well."
Defending level design, artwork, or sounds is a lot harder. We can't even
always agree here at id on many of these issues, so we know for sure that
we can't please all the users simultaniously. All we can do is put
talented people on the job and have confidence in their abilities.
Note: Q2TEST DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY HIGH QUALITY SOUNDS! That would have
added another 15 megs to the demo size. Selecting high quality sounds
just upsamples the existing 11khz / 8 bit sounds. There is a significant
quality increase (at a slight speed and memory cost) with the full
production sounds.
Quake 2's goal is to be the best first person shooter ever. We are trying
to evolve a genre, not move to a different one. If you don't want a game
that mostly consists of running around and killing things, you will be
dissapointed. We are trying to be cohesive, but not deep. I have high
hopes for the games that are atempting to aply our technology to other
genres, but don't look for it in Quake 2.
A quick plug:
if you have any interest in programming, you should look at Michael
Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book Special Edition. It has just
about everything he has written, from the ancient work on optimizing for
the 8086 (still interesting to read) to the articles written during
quake's development.
I personally learned a lot from Michael's early articles, and I was proud
to contribute to the later ones.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1576101746/3226-6070174-877180
Oct 19
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I hope everyone is enjoying the quake 2 test.
Its always hard to release a version of a product that you know isn't in
its final form. There are plenty of things that are getting better every
single day, but we need to chop it off at some point to let everyone test
it out.
We will do another demo after we finish the full retail product, so if you
don't like looking at preproduction stuff, wait for that one.
Still, I am pretty happy with the test. I think Quake 2 is definately the
most cohesive game we have ever done.
Don't worry -- just because the test doesn't have multiplayer in it, it
doesn't mean that we haven't been thinking about it. Many features in the
quake 2 architecture are going to enable a whole new level of net play.
It will take a few months after the full release for all the potential to
start showing through, but just you wait!
The biggest changes to Quake 2 are internal. Anyone doing modification
work on Quake is going to be ecstatic when they get to work with quake2.
The game dll source code and all the utilities (including the OpenGl map
editor) will be released shortly after the game hits store shelves.
Oct 17
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Somehow we managed to convince the mesquite city services and police
department to let us take our cars down to the municipal airport and run
them down the runway to get radar speed numbers. Is that cool, or what?
So, how fast can we go on a 6000 ft runway and still stop before running
off the end?
John Cash's M3 just barely hit the 135 mph speed governer.
Bear's turbo supro hit 144
My F40 hit 165
My TR's left turbo exploded at 160 mph :(
Adrian, Todd and Paul couldn't make it, so we didn't get viper, vette or
porsche numbers.
It took less than 2000 ft for the TR to do 160. We were fully expecting
to do 200 mph in 4000 ft if things had held together.
We have a bunch of video and sound footage that we are going to digitize
eventually. We made one run with a police mustang chasing after my F40.
Guess who won.
The F40 is a very, very durable car. I made six runs around 160 mph, and
it didn't even fade. Same thing on a racetrack. Lap after lap without
any changes. My TR makes 1100 hp for twenty seconds, then explodes...