[back]Archive 2005 SEPTEMBER

TUTORIAL : outdoor lighting [29th Sept 05] ^

A new tutorial has gone up about Doom 3 lighting; this time it's about outdoor lighting and the principles you need to know and use to get reasonable results. If you've not done so already have a look at the previous tutorial on prepping lights for Doom 3 to get you in the right frame of mind.

• TUTORIAL : outdoor lighting principles >>

Bet on Soldier SP demo review [26th Sept 05] ^

As visitors to Quake3Bits know, we've been following Bet on Soldier for a while, simply because it's a game that can be edited. We're all in favour of that.

In view of this you might find the following 'mini' review of the Single Player demo interesting, or at least it'll give you the heads up and an unbiased opinion of the game, the game play and it's performance.

We ain't playin' games man.

I had been wondering how this 'betting' system would work and it actually proves to be quite interesting. It's set up in the usual way you'd expect when meeting up with the 'big boss' at the end of each level; but, there's a twist; you can make something from the encounter; Money. Money is everything, like the tag line suggests, you need it and can't really survive without out. Corporate and private armies taken to it's extreme.

BoS uses money not as an end in itself, but more as a means to an end; you need to buy equipment because there are (or at least weren't in the demo) no item 'pickups'. So before every mission you have to choose what hardware you need to carry and now much ammo, there are 'field stations' by the way where you can buy more during an operation but you don't appear to be able to upgrade your weapons, only repair and replenish. This could be a double edged sword.

Having to do this does bring an element of resource management into the game play, you can't (or rather shouldn't) squeeze off rounds mindlessly for fear of running out in the thick of the action, not good.

The story was pretty much what you'd expect, 'mission' based game play with objectives and 'must have done' check lists before you can proceed with the game. Any team mate (left standing) report incomplete tasks if any are left undone.

The AI seem pretty good, doing the usual hide and cover and they are really tricky to get at once there, almost as if they know it's good cover and won't move from the spot. Close quarters seems to be where they come a live a bit more as they will dodge and weave between objects lying around, this is especially so during one of the BoS blood matches.

Graphically speaking

It's good, although, as it's effectively a 'nextGen' title, you'll need a good PC to get it running and look good at the same time. On my rig using low settings (640x480 with everything on low) it ran better than Doom 3, which isn't to be sniffed at as idsoftware are optimisation junkies!

If you have the Horse Power under the hood to get the game running and look good at the same time, it's worth the effort; it doesn't look too shabby, even on the smaller screen settings. You do need a 'nextGen' graphics card for all the goodies though, so we're talking ATI 9600 or GF 5xxx or above; basically anything that supports Pixel Shader level 2 (PS2.0), the game will run on 'lower' gfxcards but it just won't have the fancy effects. My only personal crit' about the 'nextGen' aspect of the game was that everything was far too shiny, they really went OTT with the specular (shiny) highlights it seems, on the characters especially.

Sound as a pound

Oh and the voices. Heh, it's quite funny really but one shouldn't laugh as I'm not sure it's a problems with the original content or the 'localisation' that may have been done by and outside company, but the voices are a bit laboured; imagine Captain James T after a hard night and a 'got out of bed on the wrong side' morning and you're getting close to the mark. Not all of them are like that mind you.

Another gripe, although possible more a personal one than a technical one, you can't 'Esc' out of cut scenes so you're 'forced' (I use that word liberally) to watch them (over and over if you have problems on starting the game), some people are happy to do that, but for this demo I wasn't.

Performance

This is a tricky one because once you manage to get the game to run it's pretty good for nextGen; the FPS remains reasonably high throughout, even in the odd area where you encounter lots of trouble.

Now note that I said "once you manage to get the game running" because, and I don't say this lightly, it's a pig to actually get running, but, as has been mentioned below in pervious news items, there are 'known' reasons for this that can (or should) be worked around; namely the way Kylotonn have chosen to implement a 'Post Processing' system to handle the special effects like fire, explosions and water which seems to greatly effect certain machines carrying ATI graphics cards - usually on the mid to low end of things. Just turn that off at the first sign of trouble (for the demo that's when the leave on your first mission and the fortress gets breached).

Combine that with sound card issues; which you might need to turn down using your systems Audio Hardware settings (reduce hardware excelaration), and you've got a very frustrating recipe. This is the only thing that lets the experience down because the game play and visual's ingame are great, it's actually is 'fun' game to play... but... you have to put up with a few frustrating attempts at getting the SP demo to run. If you have the patience to do that, it's worth it.

Oh, you'll need a fair bit of disk space for the game as well, and as it tends to create a large 'swap file' when active (a temporary file Windows uses to store data in use) like nearly all of these nextGen games; if you can, make sure you don't install to the same disk as your operating system either.

File size, as mentioned previously is around 550MB

score 60% (simply because of the problems getting the game to run)

• Click here to download the demo and check it out for yourself >>
  
• Bet on Soldier SP demo download locations >>
  
• Bet On Soldier official web site >>

Bob has some new toys [22nd Sept 05] ^

Bob has some new toys to play with. I've just uploaded a couple of new short movies to PCGameMods showing one of each of the following:

• Hammer of Bashing : download the file - see the screenshot
• Staff of Bonking : download the file - see the screenshot
• Shield of Surrounding : download the file - see the screenshot

Some people have reported having problems getting the files from PCGameMods so see the links below for locally hosted versions of the movies. WMV's are inside ZIP files, extract to watch.

• http://www.quake3bits.com/movies/bob_hammer.zip
• http://www.quake3bits.com/movies/bob_staff.zip
• http://www.quake3bits.com/movies/bob_shield.zip

After having quite a bit of trouble getting them to work, and finding it was due to a typo (now there's a supprise! Thanks kropcke), the basic animation's and models are set up and working fine now. The shield animation may look a little odd on it's own but imagine there being one of the other weapons in Bob's other hand.

• Development thread on Quake3Bits forums>>
• pcgamemods >>

Bet on Soldier MP demo [16th Sept 05] ^

Digital Jesters and Kylotonn have just released a multiplayer demo of their unusual FPS shooter Bet on Soldier. Available for a number of download locations and weighing in at c. 350MB and certainly worth a look if anything to see how the 'betting' system works in 'real life' (against other people).

• Bet On Soldier multiplayer demo >>

PCGameMods update [11th Sept 05] ^

PCGameMods has recently had a major overhaul so if you find some dead links on Quake3Bits drop me a line to let me know or just pop over to PCGM and browse for the file you're after. The new update makes it pretty easy to find files now so you shouldn't spent to long looking.

• PCGameMods >>

PCZone Quake 4 preview [3rd Sept 05] ^

There's a nice article previewing Quake 4 over at PCZone magazines website. Reading through it, it certainly sounds like Quake 4 Multi Player is just as solid as Quake 3; which is what everyone has really been hoping to hear.

• Quake 4 preview @ PCZone >>

Win $$$ with BoS level design comp [3rd Sept 05] ^

Other news relating to Bet on Soldier; a level design competition.

Yep that's right, AMD is sponsoring prizes for a competition open to anyone (see rules) to design a level for BOS multi player. There are a few 'restrictions'; the map has to be saved to 3DS Max v5.1's *.max format (although this hasn't been explicitly stated) which should also include a description of item placement (spawn point item pickup etc..). The level also need to be fully UVWmapped and textured containing no more than 150,000 polygons in total with a PoV (Point Of View) count of 30,000 max. File size is limited to 50MB (not sure if that's just for the *.max file itself or with media included). Various prizes including cash and AMD hardware.

For more info see the links below. If you have access to 3DS it might be worth downloading the demo to see what sort of gameplay is required and then designing an MP map.

Digital Jesters is teaming up with AMD to let fans of Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport create the ultimate multi-player map, to be called the AMD ARENA, that will push the AMD 64-bit processor and Bet on Soldier to its absolute limits.

Digital Jesters are looking for talented level designers to create the ultimate multi-player map for Bet on Soldier. Using 3D Max designing software, designers need to create a multi-player map, complete with environment textures, models and a description of the different gameplay mechanics. (i.e. spawn points, ticket points, physical moving objects, etc.) A good appreciation of what makes a superb multi-player FPS map is essential.

The maps will be judged by the Bet on Soldier developers, Kylotonn, and AMD, and the winning map will be made into a full multi-player level to appear on the official site after the launch of the game. The winner will receive a $3,000 top of the range FX-57 system, as well as a $3,000 cash prize. Second and Third prizes include a mixture of top of the range processors and cash. Fourth prize will be an AMD processor.

• Bet On Soldier design a level competition page >>

Bet on Soldier SP demo [3rd Sept 05] ^

As you know we've been following this one for a while so it's with some interest that Digital Jestors and Kylotonn have sent word of the 'just the other day' (yesterday in fant.!) release a Single Player demo for their soon to hit the shelves FPS game, Bet on Soldier.

The demo contains 2 levels from the single player campaign; as of yet there's no word on whether it contains any multi player levels. File is around 550MB. Current minimum system specs are as follows..

Operating System:
Windows 2000 / XP

Processor:
Minimum: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent
Recommended: Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz or equivalent

Video Card:
Minimum: NVIDIA GeForce 4Ti or equivalent (pixel and vertex shader required)
Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce 6 or equivalent

Sound Card:
DirectX Compatible

RAM:
Minimum: 512Mb
Recommended: 1GB

CD-ROM Drive 48X or DVD-ROM Drive 8X

4.0 GB of free disk space

There are currently several download locations for the demo file so visit the site and find a link - Bit Torrent is also available. According to the BOS web site, the game is scheduled for a UK release on Sept 9th.

• Download locations >>
• Bet On Soldier official web site >>