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NEWS:
October-25-2003 - HEXQUAKE
First of all, let me say a big thank you to TheDumbAss for hosting my site at DCEmu's QuakeDev :-). My old site is locked, so I wasn't able to release anything anymore until now. Thank you for the help, TDA :-).
Here is a "new" Quake engine release.
HexQuake is a modified version of QuakeDC, a port of the classic Quake game for the Sega Dreamcast gaming console.
I decided to give it a new name because of the many differences between it and the original release of QuakeDC.
Since it was not possible to edit and compile the QuakeDC source code due to it being not available, the MIDWAY_1.EXE file was hexedited in an attempt to improve it as much as possible, and to make it look more polished. The most important changes in it is that the CD audio is on by default, and the full version isn't needed to play modified games anymore.
A 0GDTEX.PVR file was added, as well as a IP.BIN with VGA box support, and some documentation.
I will keep the old MIDWAY_1.EXE file available for download because JoyMenu isn't fully compatible with HexQuake.
September-25-2003 - SERVER PROBLEMS
I'm having a problem with the files on my site, because some of them are being corrupted after I upload them to the server. I suspect that my site's server doesn't support files bigger than 1 MB, but I'm not sure.
The UQMP zip file got corrupted shortly after I uploaded it. Two times I tried uploading it again but it kept happening. Now I compressed it with WinRAR and the filesize got down to 981 KB, so I hope that this will solve the problem. Please contact me in the DCEmulation forums if the file get corrupted again.
July-21-2003 - UQMP
UQMP is the Ultimate Quake Map Patcher, a toolkit I made to fix and improve the original Quake maps. Sorry for the silly name, but I didn't care about making up a decent one.
It enables transparent water in all the original Quake maps, disable buggy mirrors, fix texture naming problems, fix many bugs in the tables of entities of the maps, and add BSP waypoints for FrikBot X.
I got the fixes for the tables of entities from the Quake Info Pool, and I added a few more fixes by myself.
UQMP also comes with reVis, an utility made to recompile maps for transparent water. Using reVis is the easiest way ever to enable transparent water in maps: simply drop all your maps in its folder and double-click on it.
Now I'm going to work on my next hexedited QuakeDC release. Hopefully it will be released this week.
September-30-2002 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Well friends, the time has come. Time to say that JoyMenu is complete. I have spent the last months organizing its source, making it more flexible and expandable, and polishing its features.
However, I'm not meaning that this is the final version of JoyMenu. I just don't plan to release another version. So it may or may not happen, just don't expect it.
Another reason for me to not say that this is definitely the final version is that I'm also releasing another final version of JoyConsole, because I found two bugs in it. I hadn't tested it enough before the last release. Please hit me.
The only thing that can surely lead me to release another version of JoyMenu is if I or someone else finds out a way to fix the bug in the FrikBot X DC physics. I have a clue on what may be causing this, but I don't have enough time to test.
Also I had a lot of ideas I had to put aside because I don't have time to implement. Things like skin support for the bots, more support for WAV music, animation on weapon changing, segmented player model, and more.
The only things I plan now are to make some QC tutorials and to release information about what I discovered in QuakeDC so far.
Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions and commends. You were the greatest reason for me to keep working in this project. Thank you.
A few changes were made to the Intermission Save System. After removing all possible data from the saves by the standard means, the saves were reduced to 3 blocks. Then I decided to hack it by my own, and I finally reduced the size of the saves to 2 blocks. It's the smallest save size I have ever seen in a mod for QuakeDC. Also it stills compatible with big saves.
Due to these changes, this version is not compatible with intermission saves from the previous version.
I also accomplished something that everyone, including me, thought that was impossible. I found a way to detect when the game loads data from the CD, thus making it possible for JoyMenu to restart the track automatically.
Added support for maps with WAV music, custom gravity and custom water translucency. It uses the fields "music", "gravity" and "wateralpha" in the worldspawn entity. You can control the volume of the WAV music by setting the CD audio volume, but you must restart the WAV music in the JoyMenu's CD Player for the volume changes to take effect. You can also use the CD Player to stop the WAV music, thus freeing some RAM space.
Also added footstep sounds. It uses different sounds for dry and wet floors.
I added an Auto Load File option to the Load Configuration menu, so you can set the game to automatically load a config#.cfg file when you load saved games. It works for both big saves and intermission saves.
As for the deathmatch game, now all bots are shown in the intermission screen.
Some changes were made to the skill levels of FrikBot. The Normal and Hard skills should be fair enough to most people now. The Easy skill is too much easy; I only recommend it to people who never played a FPS game before. The Nightmare skill is unchanged.
I created a Dynamic Delay system for FrikBot. It reduces the amount of processing generated by the bots, based on the amount of bots and on the game speed. Also it does an extra delay on the bots if the framerate goes below 20 frames per second. Thanks to this, the game is playable with 15 bots now. Please notice that it greatly reduces the slowness in deathmatch, but it can't eliminate all lags. Also it affects the skill of the bots, so you may want to increase the skill of the game before playing with many bots.
Now you can safety select more bots than supported by the maps. The extra bots will enter the game 3 seconds after the first bots, so the first bots have enough time to escape from being telefragged.
The last major improvement to the deathmatch game is the AutoChat support. You can predefine some event messages, and the game will show them automatically, as if you have typed them.
August-24-2002 - FINAL JOYCONSOLE RELEASE
I was planning to make this release at the same time of the final JoyMenu release, but there are a few things I still want to polish in JoyMenu.
The old license for JoyConsole sucks so I decided to release this version in the public domain.
The main change in this version is that the JoyConsole's variables aren't stored in the saves anymore.
June-20-2002 - THE CLIMAX
I have no words. Really. JoyMenu just exceeded everything I expected for it. The only think I can say is that JoyMenu 2 brings to QuakeDC the same quality you could expect in a commercial port. Everything that can be done in QC to improve its quality is done. More improvements would be just a bonus.
For the ones who are waiting to burn their definitive copy of QuakeDC, you can do it now. The only things that I could try to do in JoyMenu now are to fix the 2 FrikBot X DC bugs and put the last 8 bots in the scoreboard. As the player and 7 bots on the scoreboard is enough for most maps, these little things woudn't make much difference. And the game gets laggy with more than 6 bots, so...
I'm also releasing a hexedited version of the QuakeDC engine that is somewhat better than the one we have. It doesn't overwrites any setting when it boots, and the "cd_enable" is on by default. Also the "Press Y to quit" message in the engine Quit menu was changed to "Press start".
April-14-2002 - JOYCONSOLE MOD RELEASED
Here is the JoyConsole mod. Besides it being not so easy to use as JoyMenu, it is the easiest and fastest way to implement controller support to any QuakeDC mod. I developed it as a plug-in that can be installed and used on any mod with no need to edit the code, except for very unusual mods. It also includes the first bug-free pause system ever created for Quake, that can be used on any menu systems and on everything else your imagination can reach. :)
All the pages on the site are updated now, although only a few things are new.
March-30-2002 - UNEXPECTED RELEASE
JoyMenu 1.3 is out. I wasn't expecting to release a new version so soon, but having a single player map list and being able to play with up to 15 bots makes a big difference.
Some of the other improvements are a JoyConsole-like menu that allows you to edit your name easily, and the possibility to use the jump and attack buttons (L/R on the DC d-pad) to fast scroll through the JoyConsole characters.
There's also bugfixes for FrikBot X, workarounds for the engine bugs in deathmatch, and the loading saves bug caused by FrikQCC is fixed now.
The JoyMenu-related sections of this site aren't updated yet because I'm with no time now. I'll update them as soon as possible.
March-06-2002 - IT'S AAAAALIVE!
Removed the counter from the subpages.
Added some of my old posts in the JoyMenu topic (at the DCEmu Forums) to the news page.
Well, I will not fix that "shotgun shot + super shotgun shot" combo thing in Slow Motion... Personally I think that the second bullet flying through the target's body is pretty cool.
JoyMenu 1.2 has born! Main changes are a new Body View code, a CD Player and a deathmatch mode with FrikBot X. Go get it!
There's some ENGINE bugs in deathmatch. The biggest weird of all is that when you gib someone the player model is swapped with the player's head model, but the skin doesn't changes, so the player's heads have the player's body skin in it!
Oh, and I confirmed that again... model translucency doesn't exists in QuakeDC. The rings in Akuma's SlowMo shows black, but this is due to his ring model. I've tested translucency with models and sprites, and it didn't worked on QuakeDC, but the models showed normal.
February-27-2002
New site design. Please notice that it isn't complete at the moment, but soon will be. I'm finishing the info and tutorials.
Released the JoyMenu 1.2 basic source. JoyMenu 1.2 will be released soon. It will take time for me to release the final version, so I decided to release a basic version first. The full source release still scheduled to be released with the final version.
Removed the JoyMenu installation instructions for shareware Quake, because it don't work without the registered version's PAK1.PAK file. It may work without this on other Quake ports, but not on QuakeDC.
February-07-2002
It's taking some time to update JoyMenu because I want to include, or at least try to include, all the ideas I have got since the last release.
By now I've included FrikaBot, CD player, all suggestions that people gave, some optimizations and customizable things.
To make better use of FrikaBot, I will include a simple deathmatch game, with a customizable map list. I will look for a way to include more than 3 bots in the game too. I remember a time when I played Reaperbot with 32 bots...
Other things being worked on are a reduced saves system, improvements to JoyConsole and a multiplayer mode.
For the ones waiting for the source, it will be released with the final version of JoyMenu, hopefully it will take only 2 or 3 more versions. This is because I don't want to rewrite the tutorials on every version released. This also keeps mod authors from having to rewrite a lot of things just to update to a new version.
Well, I'm not a so bad coder to take so much time to do this... I'm busy with other things in my life too. Hope that people don't get bothered because of the waiting...
January-13-2002
January-12-2002
The speed of both JoyConsole blinking text cursor and intermission time, in Slow Motion, doesn't correspond to the normal speed, even after it being compensated. This is due to something in QuakeDC, not the QC code (the Slow Motion looks faster on QuakeDC also). I will do some tests to discover the ideal compensation value for the Slow Motion speed.
The command to turn shadows off in the config1.cfg included with JoyMenu 1.1 was wrote incorrectly, so it will display a "unknown command 'shadows' " message when you load config1.cfg, but it doesn't hurt anything. Fixed to the next release.
I've taken a look at my dictionary to see what JoyConsole can mean... lol :) . Well, I usually use "joystick" as synonym of "controller", so JoyConsole's name was did to mean "joystick driven console" or "console on controller"... :)
It will take some time for me to update JoyMenu, the site and to put tools and info here, but the site shall have all I pretend to include at the time of the next update.
January-01-2002
Released JoyMenu 1.1.
Fixed backpack bug in Free Weapons Mode.
Body view stills active on the next level.
Less screen shaking in body view.
Water/mirror opacity is now displayed as percent.
Wait time in intermission will be normal if Slow-Motion is active when the player exits a level.
The blinking text cursor in JoyConsole command line is not affected by Slow-Motion anymore.
Changed characters sorting in JoyConsole's "Other Characters" set.
Done a few changes to the help screen 2.
Changed "Configuration #" options in Load Configuration menu to "config#.cfg".
Added files config1.cfg (standard QuakeDC settings) and config2.cfg (Fragger preferences).
Doubled blood amount (in comparison to JoyMenu 1.0).
December-28-2001
Well, due to an unexpected problem, it taken more time to be finished.
But I had promised to release it in december, and it's here!
Happy New Year!
Yeah, it is the first web page I've made in my life, that's why it's poor... I've never needed to build one before. And I prefer the notepad to do this. :)
JoyMenu 1.0 is finally released!
I discovered how to concatenate strings, and I used it to create the JoyConsole command line, but you can only type a maximum of 15 characters in JoyConsole. I've tried working during some WEEKS on a workaround for this, but seems to be impossible.
The menu engine is very clean and easy to mod.
The source will only be released after I tutorial it (no idea of how long it will take, I've done a lot of work), and then it will probably have FrikBot included. I'm not sure if it is easy to include the FrikBot, since it replaces the message functions.
I plan to put a lot of info about QuakeDC here in the future, all the tutorials I've made and some Quake development utilities. It will be here in the next months.
To make the slow-motion, I used only the rings function and the speed values of the Akuma's SlowMo, the rest is my code, because the rest of Akuma's code had some things I didn't want (packet overflows when the Death Knight shots, altered nailguns, weak shotguns, etc.). I have an idea to replace the rings system by another thing in the future.
The gameplay isn't altered in any way when Slow-Motion mode is off.
There is no config#.cfg files included in this release. Next releases will have.
December-14-2001
Just some news... I've rewritten 90% of my work, and now it's 95% done. The menu engine is now very clean and easy to mod. Lots of cool options, including CD music and player's color changing. All cheats except Flymode, Toggle Key 1 and Toggle Key 2 still active in the next level. Recorded demos will play properly if the menu is used when recording (like in the previous demo I released). Only a few things to do in JoyConsole. I discovered how to concatenate strings and it works perfectly.
All things still unfinished are Slow-motion and the JoyConsole. The JoyConsole will probably be finished tomorrow, but the JoyMenu will only be released when I make my website, about 1 week after finishing JoyMenu. The source will only be released after I tutorialize it (no idea of how long it will take, I've done a lot of work), and then it will probably have FrikBot included.
Only this by now, I'm sleepy...
"Somewhere in the past"-2001
I've done a demo of my add-on mod called JoyMenu. I want to release it in December, if I finish the JoyConsole at time (the JoyConsole is inside the JoyMenu).
I know, that "slow motion" just slows the speed at the moment, but I will make it full working on the release (and it will not affect gameplay when turned off, instead of the Akuma version).
I've recorded the demo on Winquake, that's why i've not demonstrated the video options functions.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Download: (removed - no longer needed)
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