Quake 1.09 Update Notes (April 3,1998) This update for Quake Mac contains many bug fixes and enhancements. This document explains the fixes and new features, and tries to answer some common questions about Quake Mac. 1.09 Bugs fixed & New Features € GLQuake (RAVE & 3Dfx) is now current with version .97 on the PC. This adds several new features/optimizations: - Maps with lots of sky textures are much faster. - Alternate skins for players are supported, so now add-ons like Omicron Bots look correct. - The console and status bars can now be resized with the -conwidth option. The default width is 640, you can select other sizes by putting "-conwidth xxx" in the command options dialog when starting Quake (hold down the option key). For example, "-conwidth 320" would set the console back to the large size in GL .93. - 8 bit textures are supported in 3Dfx and RAVE. This will speed up the game in some instances (levels with lots of textures) and reduce application memory requirements. You can go back to 16 bit textures by supplying the "-no8bit" option to Quake at startup. € "fov" and "zoom_in/zoom_out" commands now work in GLQuake versions (RAVE & 3Dfx). Large values for FOV (over 100 or so) may give weird effects on the edges of the screen. € Modem games in 3Dfx Quake now show the dialogs correctly and don't freeze the mouse. € An option to make sound effects play in a pre-1.08.5 fashion was added. In the config.cfg file in the id1 folder, change the "_snd_classic" option to "1" to force the old style sounds if you had problems with sound after updating to 1.08.5 or 1.09. € Monitor color depth is now correctly reset on quit. € Monitor color depth is now correctly reset if you switch in/out of Quake to the Finder. € Switching to the Finder in the RAVE version no longer continues updating the screen over your desktop. Some white spaces may appear on the Quake window, to fix them when you return to Quake just hit Esc. € Loading a save game that doesn't exist now returns with an error immediately. € Menu bar doesn't get lost on quit from Quake 3Dfx any more. € Menu bar show/hiding works better in all Quake apps. € Setting maximum net players to 16 no longer crashes the game on startup. € You can now press Cmd-Q to quit from Quake 3Dfx when at the main menu. € Pressing Option-Tab while at the main menu in Quake 3Dfx will let you switch back to the Mac screen and go to the Finder. Choose "Resume" from the File menu or press Option-Tab again to switch back to the game. € A brightness modifier has been added for Quake RAVE. The default brightness is the same as older versions, but you can make the overall game brighter by modifying the "rave_bright" value in the config.cfg file in the id1 folder. The default "100" is 100% brightness. To make the game brighter, set the value to a higher number (150 would be 150% brighter, 200 would be 200%, etc.). This only effects Quake RAVE and only when 8 bit textures are being used. 1.08.5 Bugs fixed & New Features € Chance of Quake preferences file becoming corrupted has been reduced. € Some crashes when attempting to bring up the Options dialogs have be fixed. € You can now hold down the Shift key while starting up Quake to disable the automatic monitor resolution switching, in case you somehow selected a mode that isn't valid. € When Quake automatically switches your monitor color depth to 256 or Thousands of colors, it no longer changes the monitor's refresh rate. € The Quicksave feature has been made more reliable. € The name of the save game when you choose "Save As" is now correctly set to that of the last game you saved. € You may now select new auxiliary commands for your mouse/joystick/gamepad buttons in the Input Sprocket configuration dialog. Simply select AUX28, AUX29, etc. from the popup menu for each button. You can then use the "bind" command in the Quake console to bind these functions to any command you want. For instance, if you assign your second mouse button to AUX28, and then type "bind AUX28 +jump" in the console, pressing the second button will make you jump. This feature is useful for assigning multiple and more complex commands to extra buttons. € Trying to open a map or demo file that doesn't exist now immediately reports the error, and doesn't leave the "loading" screen up forever. € Alias files are now handled better. Specifically you can put an alias to the .pak or .cfg files in the "id1" folder and they will be correctly resolved. € G3 and other systems with IDE CD-ROMs correctly play music. € AppleTalk games work correctly now, and no longer just start up with infinite "server to client keepalive" messages. € The "Find Local Games" button for AppleTalk network games now works correctly. € The "Find Local Games" button for TCP/IP network games now works correctly. € CD Audio playthrough under OS 8.1 now works correctly, it no longer sets the input source to "none" on quit. € Side stepping via joystick/gamepads now works correctly. € You may now select a desired monitor refresh rate in the Video Options control panel when you select the "Auto-Switch Monitor" option. € Quake 3Dfx now supports multiple resolutions (512x384, 640x480, 800x600). You must have a 3Dfx with a 4 MB frame buffer to support 800x600. € Quake RAVE now no longer looks specifically for ATI cards. This may allow other RAVE compliant cards to work, although the only other card it has been tested with is the 3Dfx card in RAVE mode. € Saving a game with too little disk space now gives an error and doesn't create a corrupt save game file. € Several crashes on startup on PowerBooks have been fixed. € Sound problems on PowerBooks have been fixed. € An option to enable/disable shadows in Quake RAVE has been added. Some cards do not support shadows, and turning them on will decrease performance, but at least now you can decide whether to have them or not. € Some of the problems with sound stuttering when you hit ESC to access menus have been fixed. € TCP/IP network games are now more reliable. € Running Quake RAVE on a 3D card with less than 4MB of video ram now gives a warning. Quake RAVE can not run at any reasonable speed on 3D cards with less than 4MB of video memory. € Quake RAVE turns off mip mapping on ATI cards, so you don't have to change the ATI displays settings. € Removed "brightness" slider from Quake RAVE video options panel. The slider was never hooked up correctly and didn't do anything in 1.08.4. Brightness is set as high as it can be for RAVE (which may still look a bit dark). € An option to toggle filtering in Quake RAVE has been added. Turning off filtering will result in increased speed at the sacrifice of some graphic quality. € Quake RAVE now allows you to run in any of the standard video modes, not just 640x480. € Modem/serial games have been made more reliable. When playing a modem/serial game, make sure you wait long enough for the net game to start up, as it will attempt to connect to a LAN game first, and then go on to the serial/modem game. Performance Issues with Quake RAVE & ATI cards Here's a checklist for playing Mac Quake on ATI RAGE PRO boards (courtesy of Ray Swartz at ATI). Many of these items are applicable to running on Rage II cards also. =============================================================== * Download latest drivers from ATI web site. * ATI Displays control panel set to "Standard" 3D quality. Important! * QuickDraw 3D 1.5.3 or later extensions * Video set to thousands of colors * Quake version 1.08.4 or later. * Monitor connected to ATI board (duh!) * Turn off Virtual Memory in the memory control panel. Quake's memory allocation does not need to be boosted. * Remove unnecessary extensions, especially ones that work in the background, like File Sharing, FileSaver, and DiskExpress. * Make sure your Xclaim board has a RAGE PRO chip. Upgrade if necessary. (All Nexus GA boards have it.) Quake requires 4 MB frame buffer (min). * Quake settings: For highest performance type these commands at Quake console (~ key): R_WATERALPHA 1.0 R_MIRRORALPHA 1.0 R_FULLBRIGHT 1 {With these settings, I get 31.2 fps on my 9600/233 with an Xclaim VR.} ================================= For coolest looking graphics: R_WATERALPHA 0.3 R_MIRRORALPHA 0.3 R_FULLBRIGHT 0 {With these settings, I get 21.1 fps on my 9600/233 with an Xclaim VR.} BTW, I am using v4.2.2 of the ATI 3D Accelerator driver. To get the timings, I used this command at the ~ TIMEDEMO DEMO2 ================================================= Credits & Thanks Quake 1.09 update programming by Mark Adams, Philip H. Sulak, and Ken Cobb, of Westlake Interactive, Inc. Many thanks to Mark Cookson, Chris De Salvo, and Trent Bowman.