Just woke up and saw the news in my inbox that some details for QuakeCon 2010 have been announced. Usually by this time most years, we would have already had an announcement about QuakeCon and the date set for when online registration would start.
So far this year, we know the event will take place August 12-15 at Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. This was the location for QuakeCon 2006-2008 with the 2009 event being held at the Gaylord Texas in Grapevine Texas. Overall, the Gaylord was a much nicer venue and a lot faster to reach from the airport. The news also mentions that there will be tournaments and of course the Bring Your Own Computer network.
Having just bought an Android phone recently, I was really excited to see the news that Quake3 has ported to run on the Motorola Droid phone. Even with the Droid being one of the more powerful Android phones, Q3 is only running at 25fps. The guys over at Android And Me posted a little video showing off this cool achievement. While support for my phone the Samsung Moment isn't mentioned, there is a thread on the developer's site discussing the port working on the HTC Hero which a friend has. I'll see about testing it out tomorrow.
Normally when you compile C/C++ code using the Android NDK, the compiler targets a generic ARMv5 CPU which uses software floating-point. Without any optimizations and audio Quake3 runs at 22fps. Since Quake3 uses a lot of floating-point calculations. I tried a better C-compiler (GCC 4.4.0 from Android GIT) which supports modern CPUs and Neon SIMD instructions. Quake3 optimized for Cortex-A8 with Neon is about 15% faster without audio and 35% with audio compared to the generic ARMv5 build. Most likely the performance improvement compared to the ARMv5 build is not that big because the system libraries of the Milestone have been compiled with FPU support, so sin/cos/log/.. take advantage of the FPU.
It's hard to imagine that one year ago today was when QuakeLive's servers were massively overloaded with gamers try to test out the revamped Quake3. To celebrate the game's first anniversary of being open to the public, id Software has added 'Fallout Bunker' (qzctf5), a new CTF map to lineup. There is also a nice retrospective article written up on the internal QuakeLive which outlines the progress QuakeLive has achieved. Below is a gallery of screenshots I took.
One year ago, on February 24th, 2009, we opened the floodgates and let fans experience QUAKE LIVE. We'd like to invite you to take a look back at the first year of the game.
The number of people that registered when the QUAKE LIVE Beta opened far exceeded our wildest expectations. Over a quarter million players created accounts right after its launch and that was through word of mouth only! Since that time, players have spent over 8.9 million hours in over 60 million ranked matches, earning an impressive 8 million awards and 810 million frags.
At the ripe old age of 39, John Carmack, the man who brought us our beloved Quake3 will be recognized in March at 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards with a lifetime of achievement award. (Thanks: Tom's Hardware)
John Carmack and his team at id Software, the company he co-founded in 1991, pioneered real-time 3D graphics in game, setting the pace and the standard for other developers to follow. Carmack and his colleagues at id are credited with essentially creating the modern-day first-person shooter (FPS) genre with the PC game Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, and helping to popularize networked multiplayer gaming on PCs with the release of Doom in 1993.
id has gone on to create other major FPS and action game franchises such as Quake, and Carmack and id Software are currently in development of a number of projects, including the free-to-play, web-based title Quake Live, the upcoming new franchise RAGE, and DOOM 4.
As a largely self-taught technology purist, Carmack has devoted himself to pushing the limits of hardware and software. He's helped to set the technical and gameplay standard for modern 3D gaming - and in the process, created some of the most popular video game franchises in history, which is why he's being honored by the Game Developers Choice Awards this year.
Former Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright - who will be presenting the award to Carmack at the ceremony on March 11, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco - and other legendary game creators.
Attention all Quake Live clans and players, the GGL has ladders open (sanctioned by the AGP) for 4v4 Clan Arena, 4v4 CTF, 4v4 TDM, and Duel. Use this link: http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=Channel&method=view&channel=11697 and simpy click on "competitions" on the left side to find the mod you and your clan would like to compete in.
GGL has some new ladders up on their site for you to join!
Start: 08/29/2009 09:30 Timezone: America/New York This months QuakeWorld TWCTF extravaganza is this weekend and the theme is Star Wars! Visit http://twctf.org for the server and mod details.
Check out the video: http://www.quakeunity.com/file=2922
Julie Stepan mingles with the nerds waiting in the BYOC registration line. If you haven''t been to QuakeCon before, you''d be surprised of the amount of crazy people which turn out for the event. We have some costumed crazies and a guy who looks like John Carmack. Sit back and enjoy...
Video Download: http://www.quakeunity.com/file=2919
The John Carmack keynote address while very long, was a pretty interesting talk which ranged from topics such as the ZeniMax buyout of id Software, the expansion of id Software, Rage, QuakeLive, iPhone game development, and many technical topics which are beyond my capacity to outline. For a compete viewing of everything Carmack had to say, be sure to check back soon for a complete video of his keynote. The video is currently being worked on.
Concerning the buyout of id Software by ZeniMax, Carmack said he had to look up who ZeniMax was online when discussions on the deal started. Overall, he is very pleased with the takeover for many reasons. Carmack's main reason was the lack of support from publishers to third party developers such as id Software. "id Software used to be Activision's FPS guy", but now the company owns the extremely popular Call of Duty series which receives a much higher priority over any FPS title id would release. Being a small independent company, there were certain projects just could not take on themselves. They had to take a cautious approach to many projects because they were directly financing them. Being part of a larger company now, id will be free to take on larger risks and projects. What Carmack hopes will be there working relationship with also was discussed. Carmack said that id has much to learn from ZeniMax such as their sucess in the marketing and downloadable content arenas.
On the topic of Rage, Carmack said most of the major technical parts of the game have already been finished. Much of the working being done now involves polishing the game and designing the vast array of user interfaces the game will feature. The game has been id Software's longest development project to date, even beating out the time it took to produce DOOM3. Carmack did go off on a small tangent on how some of the text sizes in the game were too small for someone with bad vision such as himself. Overall, he seemed very pleased with the production cycle so far.
If you were wondering if there are any Rage beta testers somewhere, Carmack let us know that a small group of people are already hard at work testing the game . He added that it will be the most rigorous testing any id game has undergone before. He made it clear though that id won't be heavily influenced by design comments these testers might give. id already knows the direction they want to take on Rage. Some interesting notes . The first level of the game will be the last to be made. While this does have its disadvantages, it does allow the designers to have a much better idea when the designing the level that will set the tone for the entire game.
While Carmack isn't a sentimental guy at all, he did reminisce about the good old days when id Software was a much smaller company. The development of Rage has skyrocketed the number of employees at id Software to somewhere around ninety. Carmack himself does not even know all of the employees by appearance, let alone by name.
If you have followed the Carmack keynotes over the past few years, you are well aware that Carmack really enjoys developing cell phone games. He said that developing these games has been both a fun and profitable endeavor for id. He really enjoys that he is able to do a vast majority of the work himself, unlike Rage which has a massive amount of team members. Currently, Carmack seems solely focused on developing games for the iPhone. The limitations they encounter on regular cell phones is becoming too much of a bother. The development cycle is so short that id plans to schedule new game releases every other month. Carmack even discussed the possibility that id would stop developing games for the Java and Brew platforms to focus solely on the iPhone.
Video Download: http://www.quakeunity.com/file=2920
The id Software press conference at QuakeCon was again a non event as it was last year. First on stand was id Software President Todd Hollenshead who promoted a bunch of id Mobile titles for the iPhone such as Wolfenstein RPG and Doom Resurrection. To further entice gamers to buy the titles, Todd announced that the prices were being dropped to $0.99 and $2.99 respectively. Anyone interested in any DOOM4 was sadly disappointed. Todd said to stay tuned for QuakeCon 2010 for more information. On the topic of Rage, id unveiled a new trailer which was pretty cool. Todd also announced that Tim Willits and Matt Hooper will be showing off live Rage play tomorrow at an event.
Following Todd, Marty Stratton, the producer on QuakeLive came on the stage to announce a handful of new awards for QuakeLive players here at QuakeCon. He also announced that players in the BYOC here at QuakeCon have access to the Linux and MAC versions of QuakeLive. Everyone will be able to download the QuakeLive ports starting Tuesday.
QuakeUnity, the premiere Quake download and news website, today announced it will offer expansive coverage of QuakeCon 2009. QuakeUnity will be working with the crew of QuakeLive.TV, the popular QuakeLive tournament coverage website, to bring you player interviews and analysis of the event.
As part of our coverage, QuakeUnity will offer true high definition video of the all the press conferences including the first look at RAGE and Brink, John Carmack’s keynote and the id Software press conference. QuakeUnity and QuakeLive.TV will also be producing daily commentary videos along providing player, vendor, and attendee interviews. Video coverage will be hosted by Julie Stepan, a correspondent for shows on ESPN and OCTANE TV. Conventional coverage including news updates, pictures, and articles will also be available during the event.
On the competitive side, QuakeLive.TV will be bringing you live streaming coverage of all the action happening in the BYOC. Tournament coverage will include: QuakeLive King of the Hill 1v1, Quake Live 2v2 TDM, ETQW 4v4 BYOC, and QUAKE LIVE 1v1 for Younger Gamers.
"QuakeUnity, formally PlanetQuake3.net, has a long history of providing some of the best video coverage of QuakeCon. This year, we will again provide the best coverage in the fastest time possible,” said Roger LaMarca, Editor-in-Chief of QuakeUnity.
“We are really excited about working with the crew of QuakeLive.TV. They have done an amazing job with their online coverage of QuakeLive. I’m glad we will have the chance to pool our coverage resources together.” said Roger.
“QuakeLive.TV is looking forward to working with the QuakeUnity crew. For years, they have kept their finger on the pulse of the Quake community. Teaming up for QuakeCon coverage was a natural choice to meet our goal to provide the best convention coverage possible,” said Steve “GreasedScotsman” Huff, Lead Shoutcaster at QuakeLive.TV
