game info
Models:
Quake III: Arena. Player models
are separated into three sections the head, the body and the legs. This
means that all the body part can be animated independently. This way it makes
the game more realistic. Quake III: Arena will ship with a large variety of
player models such as the Doom guy, Quake marine, Quake II marine, and
some models from Wolfenstein. Here what Paul Steed ID's model author had to say:
"I just want to make the
best models with the best animations that have ever been seen,' says Steed. 'In
a way I'm in my own little vacuum. I don't care what they do in the world, I
just have to make them go through the doorways and stuff. The animation system
is a lot cleaner this time. It approximates more realistic motion now that the
head is a separate object from the body and is a separate from the legs."
"I'm gonna do a crackwhore, I'm gonna do a Japanese schoolgirl. Scott and I
are gonna get together and kinda do a "chick pack". It's great, the
lower body is the only part animating right? So when she's jumping around, it's
like her skirt's gonna come up. When she's running, it's kinda swishing around.
It has to be done."
There will be between 20 and
30 created models by Paul Steed and about 90 different skins by Kenneth
Scott. During the late stages of devolvement John Carmack decided to change
to a skeletal animation system. Here is what Paul Steed had to say about it,
"The new skeletal animation system will derive all its data from
Character Studio, the 3D Studio Max plugin." "There's no extra
work for me to do other than to load the file up and re-export it using
the new option that will be created in Max." Paul Steed estimates that
Carmack's co-development work on this with Ritual boss Jim Dose will save al
least 2/3 of the memory consumed by the character data.
Servers:
The Quake 3 server admin will be able to totally
customize almost all
features
of their server using console commands. Programs like Game
Launch3d and Game
Host will even make it easier to start a server. Check
over at the console page for some of the
commands to start a server.
Bots:
Quake3 will use a advanced AI Bot
system that doesn't cheat but allows wide range of skill/personality types. Bots
get more/less skilful depending on player's ranking. Bot programmer John Cash
has said that the changes made to the engine in the early months made most
of the AI Bot work obsolete. This has cause a delay in the game but
this is a very good thing for us gamers. John Cash said, "The engine
will actually be more polished than it needs to be, as I'm able to spend
time making things better". The bots essentially will be completed by
the time Q3 1.09 is released. The AI bot system is very complex. It will use
cues from power pick-ups as real will, but the bots knowledge comes from the
random chance that they will realize were the sound came from and it will
act upon it. As you might have heard the bots were not going to be able to
rocket jump, well now they are. Id's Paul Steed has spent hours taking notes from games he has watched and using them to give the bots a human personality.
Mainly the bots will be used the train and enhance the multiplayer experience.
Medals:
Excellent
-
Awarded for making
two frags within two seconds.
Impressive
- Awarded for two
consecutive hits with the rail gun.
Awarded for two
consecutive hits with the rail gun.
Frags
- Awarded each time you make 100 frags.
Awarded each time you make 100 frags.
Accuracy
- Awarded when your percentage of hits-to-shots is greater than 50%.
Awarded when your percentage of hits-to-shots is greater than 50%.
Gauntlet
- Awarded each time you make a frag with the gauntlet.
Awarded each time you make a frag with the gauntlet.
Perfect
-
Awarded when you are victorious in an arena without being fragged even
once yourself.
Programming:
The original Quake had Quake C, a
simple custom programming language that allowed people to write modifications to
the game quickly and easily. But starting in Quake II ID discontinued Quake C in
favor of native libraries that had the power to take advantage of anything that
the PC and Quake II could do. The programming in Quake III: Arena is designed to
take advantage the power of the Quake II system plus adding new features. John
Carmack, the lead programmer originally considered the use of cross-platform
programming language such as Java but instead decided to build in a small ANSI C
compiler into the game. ANSI C is the most basic, standard version of the C
programming language and forms the basis of more complex variants. In the
future, Quake III: Arena mods will be small datafiles containing ANSI C source
code. Quake III: Arena will compile the source code as soon as the mod is
activated, abolishing cross-platform incompatibilities. Id plans to bundle some
basic tutorials on how to program/modify Quake III: Arena with the boxed game.
Features:
- All-new 24-bit textures and
16-bit true-color skins realistic gameplay.
- New power-ups. Dropped power
armor. Invisibility returns, Regeneration power-up replaces Invulnerability.
- Modes:
- Teamplay: Two teams (Red and
Blue teams) battle against each other. CTF currently planned to come with
the game.
- Tournament: 1 vs.1. Players
will wait their turn to play. Clan tournament mode may be made.
- Free For All: Player battle
against the other player on the server.
- The lifts that you remember
for Quake2 will be replaced with jump pads. Jump pads will make the gameplay
flow better.
- In-level fog which sits in
low-lying regions only.
- Improved weapons selection
system. Auto weapon switching. Faster weapons switch time.
- 3D sound technologies like
Aureal will be made available.
- Improved networking code
allowing for better ping rates, and smoother gameplay over the
Internet.
- New engine can render curved
surfaces. Resulting in more realistic level design.
- Improved HUD displays.
- ID Software made it official that they will fully
support AMD's 3DNOW! technology and take full advantage of it's capabilities.
This means better quality and faster play for AMD K6-2/3 and K-7 users.
Crosshairs:
In Quake3 when damage is done
to a player the crosshair will change colors. When putting your crosshair on someone there name will appear.
This will give you the ability to chose who to fire at.
Video Card Performance:
Voodoo 1 - Performance will be a little slow, but it should look good and run acceptably. You will have to use somewhat condensed textures to avoid texture thrashing.
Voodoo 2 -
Should run great. Getting the 12 mb board is probably a good idea if you want to use the high resolution textures. The main rendering mode won't be able to take advantage of the dual TMU the same way quake 2 does, so the extra TMU will be used for slightly higher quality rendering modes instead of greater speed: trilinear / detail texturing, or some full color effects where others get a mono channel.
Permedia
2 - Will be completely fill rate bound, so it will basically run 2/3 the speed that quake 2 does. Not very fast. It also doesn't have one of the needed blending modes, so it won't look very good, either. P2 does support 24 bit rendering, but it won't be fast enough to use it.
ATI Rage Pro - It looks like the rage pro has all the required blending modes, but the jury is still out on the performance.
Intel I740
- Should run good with all features, and because all of the textures come out of AGP memory, there will be no texture thrashing at all, even with the full resolution
textures.
Rendition 2100/2200 - The 2100 should run about the speed of a voodoo 1, and the 2200 should be faster. They support all the necessary features, and an 8 mb 2200 should be able to use the high res textures without a problem. The renditions are the only current boards that can do 24 bit rendering with all the features. It will be a bit slow in 24 bit mode, but it will look the best.
PVR PCX2 -
Probably won't run Quake 3. They don't have ANY of the necessary blending modes, so it can't look correct. Video Logic might decide to rev their minidriver to try to support it, but it is probably futile.
RIVA
128 - Riva puts us in a bad position. They are very fast, but they don't support an important feature. We can crutch it up by performing some extra drawing passes, but there is a bit of a quality loss, and it will impact their speed. They will probably be a bit faster than voodoo 1, but not to the degree that they are in Quake 2.
(Noone really knows how well this is gonna look)
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Official
Press Release
MESQUITE, Texas, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- id
Software(TM), a leading independent developer of entertainment software, announced today their next action-packed adventure _ QUAKE III
Arena(TM). The highly anticipated title, scheduled to hit retail shelves in 1999, will be distributed by Activision, Inc.
Once again, id Software continues to lead the world of 3-D action gaming with the release of QUAKE III Arena. By building on a completely new gaming technology engine, which enables the latest capabilities in 3-D graphics, the title will bring gamers the quality and excitement of id's past blockbusters along with more action, more intensity and more grandeur.
``Game enthusiasts saw an incredible jump in intensity from DOOM to DOOM II, then again with QUAKE to QUAKE II,'' said Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. ``With the release of QUAKE III Arena, they'll get another adrenaline rush like only id can deliver. QUAKE III Arena will be a one-of-a-kind, first-person, action game worthy of id Software.''
QUAKE III Arena's enhanced graphics engine displays realistic 3-D environments using advanced features such as curved surface rendering and high detail textures. QUAKE III Arena will amaze fans all over the world with visual features such as moody, atmospheric use of fog and spectacular lighting.
``id Software always strives to give our fans the action-packed games they crave,'' said Anna Kang, id's Director of Business Development. ``And, in QUAKE III Arena, gamers get the best of both worlds -- phenomenal single-player action along with unstoppable multiplayer deathmatch capabilities via the Internet. If you think you've seen cool games, you ain't seen nothing yet.''
The title offers striking improvements that will enhance the single player game for the ultimate in 3-D entertainment. Should gamers survive the single player portion of QUAKE III Arena, the multiplayer experience is bound to demolish even the toughest hardcore gamer.
QUAKE III Arena's new deathmatch style gives gamers the heart-thumping action they demand. Players will build upon their experience with every level while utilizing their own unique abilities to guide them through battles. From sophisticated computer generated foes to challenges of other players, QUAKE III Arena's significant improvements will enhance the head-to-head battle experience that spawned a cultural phenomenon.
``id's titles are renowned for their multiplayer experiences, and gamers can expect tremendous enhancements in QUAKE III Arena's
gameplay,'' said Mitch Lasky, Senior Vice President of Activision Studios. ``With QUAKE III Arena, id will bring the visceral thrill of multiplayer gaming to the single player game.''
id's most recent game QUAKE II, is one of the best-selling CD-ROM games of all time, shipping more than 950,000 units worldwide since its launch on December 9, 1997.
id _- Freud's primal part of the human psyche and one of the hottest game shops on Earth - has been rocking the gaming world from Mesquite, Texas since 1991. As a renown leader in the industry, id Software has forged frenetic titles such as Wolfenstein 3-D, DOOM, DOOM II, QUAKE and, most recently, QUAKE II. With their intense graphics and mind-blowing adventure, id's games have continually broken retail and shareware sales records. And, in keeping with tradition, id's advanced QUAKE II engine is leading the next revolution in 3-D interactive games with both single and multiplayer technology. Check out more about id Software at www.idsoftware.com
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software for personal computers and advanced console game systems such as the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Founded in 1979, Activision posted revenues of $260 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998. Activision maintains publishing and development operations in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Australia, and distribution subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Germany. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's World Wide Web site which is located at www.activision.com
The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are ``forward-looking statements.'' The company cautions readers of this press release that a number of important factors could cause Activision's actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. These important factors, and other factors that could affect Activision, are described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998, which was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers of this press release are referred to such filings.
QUAKE(R) is a registered trademark of id Software, Inc. QUAKE III
Arena(TM), QUAKE II(TM) and the id Software(TM) name are trademarks of Id Software, Inc.
Activision(R) is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.-
3D hardware accelerator with full Open GL support
System
Requirements
- Pentium 233Mhz MMX processor
with 8MB video card
or
- Pentium II 266 Mhz with 4MB video card
or
- AMD 350 Mhz K6-2 with 4MB video card
- 64MB RAM
- Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 operating system
- 25MB uncompressed hard drive space for game files; additional 45MB for Windows
swap file
- Quad Speed CD-ROM
- Direct X 3.0 (or higher) compatible sound card
- Microsoft compatible mouse and driver
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