KatsBits
Creating 3D models, meshes &
game content
3D modelling & meshing, level editing and textures makingHints, tips and tutorials for 3D modelling & content creation
Hints, tips and tutorials for 3D modelling & content creation
[back]Archive 2004
HALF LIFE 2 demo! [22nd Dec 04] ^
A demo has just been made available for HalfLife 2 from ATIs website, weighing in at just over 750MB, quite a large file then. No details on what the demo contains but the demo page does list the system specs as follows.
Minumum System Configuration
1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 capable graphics card
Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
Mouse
Keyboard
Internet Connection (broadband connection recommended).
It's worth noting here that you need a Steam account to 'activate' the game just as you do with the full retail. Lets just hope the debacle that happened on the games retail release has been taken care of.
For more info and a download link visit the ATI HalfLife 2 demo download page (there are a couple of other downloads available for other games as well). If that file is a bit on the large size (*cough*) it'd be best to wait for the demo to appear on the covermount CD of your favourite games magazine.
new tutorial preparing models for Doom 3 [19th Dec 04] ^
If you're wanting information on what you need to do to prepare custom model content for use in Doom 3 then this is the tutorial for you. Although primarily aimed at Blender 3D users it covers enough of the basics for use with other 3D apps (Max, Maya, Lightwave, etc.). Doom 3 models do need a bit of optimizing before being used, so have a read through and pick up a few tips along the way.
Finally it's here - Medal of Honor review! [28th Nov 04] ^
EXCLUSIVE..!!
Finally up for a read it the exclusive review of Medal of Honor : Pacific
Assault. I was sent a copy of the retail version of the game to review
for the site and well, I was impressed.
"three week wonders, that's what they called them...
Well here we are, finally made it. A review of the latest Medal of Honor
game; Pacific Assault."
New tutorial creating PK3 files [28th Nov 04] ^
Just added a new tutorial on how to create PK3 files, the compressed archive files that are used by Quake 3, Return to Castle Wolrfenstein and other Quake 3 powered games. Also applies to the new PK4 format the Doom 3 uses.
Quake3Bits forum [19th Nov 04] ^
I've had some trouble with the forum not working on the old host so I've had to move it back to the quake3bits.com server. If you've bookmarked the old version for some wierd reason (think of it as that quiet cafe on the corner where you can go for a quick bite to eat and a hot coffee) you'll need to update that BM to the new addy - you may need to re-log in.
Medal of Honor review, ermm [19th Nov 04] ^
I'm still waiting on the review copy of Medal of Honor : Pacific Assault to arrive.. so stay tuned as they say.. again...! The did seem quite keen on Quake3Bits posting a game review especially as it's subject matter is kinda right up our alley so I'm not sure what the delay is, possibly got stuck behind enemy lines perhaps..?!
HALF LIFE 2 in stores NOW! [18th Nov 04] ^
Well HalfLife 2 is live and in stores now..!
... and although the game itself seems to be pretty decent from the comments floating around the web the installation and activation process isn't; a lot of people are reporting all sorts of errors or just being plain dumbfounded as to how to get it all to work correctly whilst trying to get Steam to authenticate the CD / DVD / downloads. It also seems to be taking a long time to do whatever it's doing under the bonnet which isn't making gamers happy at all. We're all for anti-piracy but at what cost?
Hopefully this is all simply related to the authentication server (or servers? one would hope they'd have more than one server for this considering the number of people that are expected to buy the game) being overloaded by the demand in these inital days of release and not some Big Brother Machiavellian plot to purchase a grip on your soul..!
Regarding the comments previously about being required to go online to authenticate, well, they appear to be correct. It's still not clear just how this effects gamers without net connections (when lets face it, a large proportion of surfing happens during work hours on work machines connected to fat pipes plugged into the net) but if you can't connect initially the game will allow you to play on (I feel the need to say 'apparently' and 'allegedly' here as my legal 'get out of jail free' card..!), it will then try to authenticate at some other point in time.
Medal of Honor next week [9th Nov 04] ^
Don't forget Medal of Honor : Pacific Assault is officially released next week - Tues 9th - and... it looks like we're on target to be giving you an exclusive review of the game as soon as we recieve the CDs fresh off the press. It should be interesting to see what has been done with this latest episode in the MoH line, hopefully we can include some screenshots of the action. Watch this space, as they say.
Doom 3 Ressurection of Evil dated, sort of [3rd Nov 04] ^
Mages Skulls reviewed at MapCenter [26th Oct 04] ^
MagesSkull single player map for Return to Castle Wolfenstein has just been reviewed over at MapCenter. A long time coming I guess but it's certainly good to see maps other than for Quake 3 being looked at. The map got 80/100.
Entrance to Mages Skulls
Doom 3 official expansion [26th Oct 04] ^
The cat is out of the bag... (not me)..! News has surfaced over the last couple of days that NerveSoftware, working along side id, have got an 'official' expansion pack in the works by the name of, wait for it... Doom 3: Ressurection of Evil. The news relates that it's currently being rated (given it's certification) which means it's not too far from release. The story is penned to pick up where we left off in the previous incarnation, this time the demons want you. You can read a quote from the press release here.
Although you'll need the full retail version of Doom 3, no other details have been released about whether it's a retail pack (you buy like Team Arena was for Quake3) or to be given away as a freebie (the former is more likely). No release date has been confirmed yet either. Needless to say, "watch this space..."
HALF LIFE 2 GOLD!? [22nd Oct 04] ^
Yup, if you're a hardcore HalfLife fan then you've probably read this somewhere else, if not.. you heard it here 1st..! Looks like gamers have been given a date when to expect HalfLife 2 on the shelves, or at least shipped to stores. As per usual North American (USA & Canada) looks set to get the retail game 1st with Global role out after that. November 16th is the current date set by Valve and Vivendi Universal. More info soon.
Terrain blending tutorials & files by sock [22nd Oct 04] ^
Sock has made some tutorials and source files available covering the important and sometimes difficult to grasp concept of using alphaMod texture blending. If you've ever wanted to have more control over or get better result when blending more than two textures together on a terrain then these files are worth a look (or at least read the html pages). Sock put together a comprehensive walk through on the fundamental things you need to know about this often sticky subject and the provided sample maps shows the technique off to a tea.
Related to this is the release of POM which is basically a fully fledged no holds barred eyecandy sample map that really shows off what you can do with alphaMod shaders. Although the complete package of the source files is some 50+MB I'd recommend you grab the sample map - which at around 20MB and is worth the time even on 56k. Have a good read through the accompanying article for POM as well as it gives a good insight into the elements mappers need to think about when building their creations.
Now something interesting about this new info; although the files provided are basically for Quake 3 powered games that support ydnars q3map2 modifications (Enemy Territory, Jedi Knight, Return to Castle Wolfenstein etc..) the basic principle is important to know for working with the Doom 3 engine. Granted Doom 3 is different but the fundamentals that sock goes on to explain about 'blending' itself are used to create texture blends in Doom 3.
Doom 3 SDK released! [16th Oct 04] ^
HOT NEWS...!!
Well it finally looks like the Software Development Kit (SDK) has been released for Doom 3. Not sure how big it is as I type this but you can get it from the following link (it might be slow atm), expect it to filter through to other FTP sites and file download locations over the next few days. [EDIT - a few minutes later] oh that's cool, it's just under 10MB..! A web has also gone up to accompany the SDK which can be found at, it has quite a bit of info on setting up and using the Doom 3 engine to make custom modifications (mods)
Doom 3 tutorial [13th Oct 04] ^
If you've been wondering how to get (custom) models into Doom 3 then hold on, I'm working on a tutorial that will run through what you need to do and how the models need to be set up & prep'ed for them to work correctly and look good. Although this will mainly be about adding custom models, part of it will outline the process of getting a model into Doom 3, which will be useful if you're just using the default models that came with the game. More on this soon so stay tuned.
Medal of Honor news [9th Oct 04] ^
Amazon have started pre-orders of Medal of Honor : Pacific Assault (PC) so if you're interested in grabbing the game from them before the Christmas seasons rush (I can't beleave I just mentioned the 'C' word this early..!) click the link, pop over and spend that hard earn't moolah.
You can also pre-order from the official site as well but that's probably just for our North American friends (Canada/USA). For more info on the game itself; screenshots, forums etc.. drop by the official Pacific Assault site, the reviews so far look promising. Oooo almost forgot to add, there's a special code you can use top left of the page that will get you FREE shipping from EAstore orders.. not bad..!
Doom 3 custom character [3rd Oct 04] ^
This may be interesting to those of you who looked at the 'Doom3' cubemap demo posted below (bottom of page) which used a really low poly version of 'Bob' (Blender Bob).
'Bob' the new man
The shot above shows the new c.3000 tris mesh in der_tons MD5 model viewer @ nearly 3x the polycount of the original model. It does highlight that the Doom 3 engine isn't necessarily just for 'tech' themed content..! You can see a couple more shots on the forums here.
Doom 3 demo [27th Sept 04] ^
In case you haven't seen this yet, the Doom 3 demo is now avaliable so keep an eye out to see if it gets included on the covermount CD of your favourate Games magazine, or, if you can't wait that long and you have broadband you can grab the file from fileplanet. It's 500MB download btw.
A lot of comments have been said about Doom 3s gameplay so if you've been unsure about buying before trying now's your chance to sample the goods and see what all the fuss is about, both good and bad.
Medal of Honor news [23th Sept 04] ^
I've just received word there's a demo out (weighing in at 500+MB - must have a tonne of stuff..!) for the next installment in the Medal of Honor franchise : Pacific Assault. I missed out on the whole MoH thing the 1st time round but plan on catching the train this time (maybe even a mini review..! [TBC]). For download links and further info on what looks like and interesting game see link below or click the banner above.
Relic Hunt RtCW Single Player map released [6th Sept 04] ^
Yup yup. Relic Hunt (spkat4) is now released as both a self extracting exe file or a zip archive. It weighs in at just over 8MB and includes all the files needed to run 'out of the box'. You need to 'hunt around' for things in this map so it's not quite a free for all monstermash of a map. For installation instructions and more info visit the website.
Relic Hunt RtCW single Player map
Network settings articles updated [28th Aug 04] ^
It seems that quite a few fraggers are getting back into Quake 3 as I've received a few emails about network problems. As a result the 'network settings' article has been updated to include some info about firewalls.
Article - Doom 3 on low end PCs [15th Aug 04] ^
As promised earlier in the week a little article has been written on Doom 3 and it's expected performance on the low end spectrum of supported system specs for PCs.
Whilst certain things have to be compromised on to eek the best frames rates at this level, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how good Doom 3 looks even on the proverbial 'low' settings - I know I was..!. This is good news for those of you that have been holding back on buying the game, wanting to find out more subjective info on this matter.
Doom 3 arrived [13th Aug 04] ^
If you've been holding back on buying Doom 3 becasue you want to know what it's like on a low end rig, hang tight. The game arrived this morning and I'm just going through the initial levels. I'll post some screen shots (nonspoilers) and talk a little about Doom 3's min spec performance.
Relic Hunt RtCW Single Player website live [12th Aug 04] ^
Just uploaded the new website for the upcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein single player map I've been working on called Relic Hunt (spkat4). There's some info and screen shots of what you can expect to see in this episode, so if you need some more RtCW SP map goodness go check it out..!
Oh the map isn't available yet, it's undergoing final beta testing to make sure everything is there before final release.
Ms. Quakecon 2004 [10th Aug 04] ^
CaliGirl just sent word of an update to the Ms QuakeCon comp..
"MsQuakecon Pre-Coverage
This year's Ms. Quakecon coverage has begun! LadyGamers.com has started off by getting into the minds of the ladies who will compete in RA3 tournament. First off, we'd like to introduce:
- baliztik
- -beta
- Bunneh
- Cheeky-monkey
- Kr1ssy
- Ms.X
- Ryly
- Saura
- SB
- ZainGray"
More info can be found at the following web sites
Ms. Quakecon 2004 [31st July 04] ^
I just got word of this... and guys it's not what you think..! This one is specifically for the ladies (yes 'girls' do play games..!).
"Pack your bags and head to the Lone Star State ladies! Ms. Quakecon will be holding a tournament at this year's Quakecon, which will be held at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. From August 12th - 14th, Ms. Quakecon will be rocking the house with a combo tournament! First, a regular Q3 FFA tournament to narrow down the contestants, then to finish things off we'll turn up the heat with 1vs1 Rocket Arena. Space is limited so head on over to MsQuakecon.org to read the official rules and register today".
Pop over to http://www.msquakecon.org and check out what's going on, there's not much time left so you've got to be quick. There are some neat prizes on offer btw.
DeGeneration news [31st July 04] ^
RtCW2 yes that's right the next chapter [22nd July 04] ^
Ooo almost forgot. As the title suggests yup, yup, the next chapter in the (Castle) Wolfenstein franchise is in the works. In a tipbit from an interview by id softwares Todd Hollenshead on g4techtv, he 'let slip' that there's another chapter in the Return to Castle Wolfenstein franchise being developed by an as yet un-named studio (unoffically being title as RtCW2 or RtCW II). There's been a lot of speculation this studio could be our old mukkas at Splash Damage as they are known to be working on a Doom3 powered game. No 'official' word on that yet though. We wait.
In the meantime as much known info about this as possible has been gathered on the Quake3Bits forums so if you want to read up on the latest gossip pop over and have a look.
Doom3 *minimum* system specs [22nd July 04] ^
For those of you that haven't yet pre-ordered Doom3 because you've been worried about whether the game will actually play on your old PC (I know I certainly was..!), some news has been floating around recently that should put your mind a little at ease. Along side the recommended specs posted below, info has come through (from our pals at D3W.org again, although originating on BluesNews) that the minimum system requirements to get a 'reasonable experience' playing Doom3 are as follows :
- 1.5Ghz P4 or AMD Athlon 1.5
- 386MB RAM
- 2GB of harddisk space
- nVidia GF3 or better or an ATI 8500 or better
My own system (XP2000+ @1.67Ghz | ATI9000Pro 128MB) is only just above that, but I've pre-ordered Doom3 anyway.
Doom3 system specs [19th July 04] ^
Courtesy of our pals over at Doom3World.org they posted some info based on the PC Gamer review of Doom 3; recommended system specs for Doom3 are as follows :
- as recommended by PC Gamer
2 Ghz - CPU
512MB RAM
Radeon 9800
5 channel audio
Lowest supported graphics cards (GPU) - low -> high
nVidia based GPUs
GF 4 MX
GF 3
GF 4
GF FX and higher
ATI based GPUs
8500
9000
I'm assuming from this that if you've got an AMD CPU you'll need to look at the actual clock cycle rate to get the Ghz speed, an XP2000+ for example, runs at c.1.67Ghz.
Pre-order Doom3 [16th July 04] ^
Well I don't often do this but I pre-ordered a game - Doom 3 to be exact - from Amazon.co.uk because I was browsing around and noticed the [queue deep voice-over"buy now" guy] "nice pre-order discount"..! I'm not one for buying pre-orders normally but as I missed out on Doom the 1st time round I though I'd grab it while the price was [queue guy again] "hot hot hot"..!
If you haven't grabbed your copy yet (£25 in the UK c.$40US; no doubt that'll go up once Doom 3 hits the shelves of your local game shop) click the links or picture opposite or bottom left of each page. I'm actually looking forward to this.
Doom3 has gone GOLD [15th July 04] ^
Just in case you've been hiding under a rock (don't laugh, it's quite nice under there for goblins) id software and Activision officially announced that Doom3 has gone 'gold'. What this means for those that don't know, is that the CDs are being pressed and readied for distribution as we speak. As per the normal way things go, the USA look to be getting their hands on Doom3 before anyone else - August 3rd. But take heart, the rest of the world shouldn't have to long to wait after that, mainland EU scheduled for the following week, and then the rest of the world after that ('localisation' being the cause of the delay).
- id softwares official doom3 website - ua-corp.com
- activisions official doom3 site - doom3.com
- gamespy networks doom3 site - planetdoom.com
- 'the' doom3 level editing resource - doom3world.org
Interesting cubemap demo -
'a-la' Unreal 3 using Doom3 'specs' [5th July 04] ^
Slightly OT (Off Topic) but interesting nonetheless. A forum conversation over at Doom3World.org got talking recently about the high res' videos of Unreal 3 - the next generation in the line of unreal engines. In this was a shot of a technique called 'cubemapping' and well, to cut a long story short, one of the guys set up a 'tech demo' based around his MD5 model viewer to display the effect 'a-la' Unreal 3 but based on Doom3 'specs' (MD5 is the model format of Doom3's character/animated models).
cubemap demo
It's worth noting that this doesn't use any content from leaked alpha of Doom3 but some custom assets and coding put together buy a couple of guys over at that forum (MD5modelviewer and cubemapdemo code by der_ton, the tricky to do cubemap by rich_is_bored, & yours truely for the texture, animation and model work).
The demo is 3.1MB *.rar archive so you'll need WinRar or similar to install the files, just extract to your HDD and double click the exe.
moai - easter island heads [27th June 04] ^
"10 green bottle standing on a wall.."
Not had a proper model update for a while so I thought I'd release these puppies. They've been sat on my HDD for a while and they need to see another sunrise. They're based on the heads rather than being exact copies so they're there in 'spirit' if not in 'body'. Oh and thanks to sock for doing a test map for these to sit on...!
DeGeneration news [27th June 04] ^
Quake3Bits recieved some cool news about the upcoming release of DeGeneration, a MultiPlayer MOD(ification) for RtCW. The guys are getting very close to a full 1.0 public release and so they've produced a promotional video so you can see some of what's in store from the MOD. For more info visit the DeGenerations site
Standing stone models added [12th May 04] ^
It's been a while since I've done a model update so here's the latest - a set of four standing stones (a-la stone circles); three larger 'ring' stones and one 'inner' (or 'focus') stone. They're quite large by default but you can use modelscale_vec in GTK to resize models to whatever is required.
msvcr70.dll [25th Mar 04] ^
A few people are having problems with q3map2 not compiling when they install the latest version, the program hangs or the DOS prompt flashes onto screen then dissapears. This is usually due to a DLL file being missing from the q3map2 installation folder. Not everyone gets this error, but if you do it can be hard to track down where to get the file as it's not always on your system. As a result I've uploaded a local copy of msvrc70.dll for you to download and extract to your q3map2 folder. Once in place q3map2 should run fine, if not then something else in playing up.
Final release Castlekeep RtCW Single Player map [18th Mar 04] ^
Castlekeep is finally available for download. Visit the site for download info
http://www.castlekeep.ndo.co.uk.
Castle Keep
A note about the map : it was originally started to test some ASE rocks models (see the model download section to grab the files without downloading the map) and kinda went on from there to include the 4 main ways available to mappers for creating 'rocks'; quadsouping (as outlined by sock - see tutorial link on right), trisouping (see Megamans tutorial link on the right), 3 point clipping & models.
The *.map file is included for anyone wanting to have a look at how this stuff has been setup and although the RtCW single player specific entities may be missing, depending on what gameversion of GTKRadiant you've got, so long as you drop the pk3 into the relevant 'main' folder the assets should appear ok.
Mixed bag of nuts [16th Mar 04] ^
Just added a mixed bag of NEW assets to the site, included are some new rock textures (which also includes a couple of snow ground textures) and some models - rock, wooden platforms and a torch. For more details see menu on the left
Update Castlekeep RtCW Single Player map [4th Mar 04] ^
Just updated the Castlekeep website with some new screenshots and a bit of info from what hopefully is the final beta before release. Go take a look if you've got a wolf in your pocket..!
new RtCW Single Player map [18th Feb 04] ^
I needed to put something together to test some ASE rock models 'in-situ' so I've taken a little break from another RtCW Single Player map, Generator, to put this 'qwky' (quicky) together.
Castle Keep
It's set in thick fog at night (only way to control the amount of stuff being drawn on screen..!). The are *no* AI in this atm moment so it's just you walking and jumping about and things happening. The map itself is pretty high on the tris count but just about acceptable for Single Player (given that it's one massive assed box with some stuff in it anyways..!). Screenies in the forum and on the website. Download link soon.
Quake3Bits link button [19th Jan 04] ^
OK. So this was a long time coming and I finally got of me butt after being pestered to do one... (thnx recently to schwim, sock, and roughrider for the requests..!). You can now have a little button graphic to link to Quake3Bits from your own webbly sites (see below). It's probably best to copy / paste / save the image to your host / ISP / server so you have complete control over where it is.
Also done a bit of house cleaning and moved some of the older index page news items to thier repective years archive (2002 & 2003 currently), this should mahke the index page load a little faster..!. See links at the bottom of the page.
Shockwave Chat client [16th Jan 04] ^
I was looking through some old Iomega ZIPdisks when I found an old version of Quake3Bits (it was called q3dreams back then..!) and included in the files was a chat client built using shockwave. It's pretty limited in what it can do (you can't 'log' chats currently for example) but I've uploaded it so you can use it if you want to - I've not mucked about with the design so it'll possibly show the old details.. will get round to correcting those asap. It's running on the back of Macromedias public test server btw...
Shoutbox info [5th Jan 04] ^
The shoutbox I included on the site(bottom right) has been temporarily removed due to some server error at shoutbox. The bad thing about this is it causes the whole the page to bork up and not show rather than just the <iframe> the shoutbox is sitting in; I don't kno w about you but I'd rather have a fully functioning site..! The forum's still available if you feel the need to comment on something in the meantime... [ - hey we're into a new year..!!]
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