new cube release... collect your stuff!

by Aardappel_ on 08/07/2005 22:23, 148 messages, last message: 09/18/2005 09:02, 125072 views, last view: 07/05/2024 12:01

So we haven't had a new cube release in a while, and I guess everyone understands why: sauerbraten is the engine of the future.

But Cube has its own maps, its own gameplay, and is worthy of its own spot for a while to come. So next weekend I will take a little break from sauer and my other projects, and work on a cube release. That doesn't mean that there will be a cube release next weekend, in the best case there will be, in the worst case a whole lot will get done and it will be the week after.

The bad news (if any) is the new cube will NOT receive any significant new features. Sauer is version 2.0 of Cube, and it simply does not make any sense spending large amounts of time in updating Cube. Work on Cube is to be focused on polish and bugs. The main reason for this release code wise it to fix the list of small bugs that have appeared since the last release.

So is this the last release of Cube? Maybe. I am not sure either way, there is always a possibility for more versions, but the way things are going with Sauerbraten, what I want for Cube is a very stable version that people can enjoy while we make Sauerbraten the greatest thing since, well, Cube.

So what do I want from the community? Well, 2 things will go into this release, new media, and bits of code.

For media, I simply want to collect the best released new maps and other items since the last release. I already have most of them, but if you want to be sure I don't miss any simply post links here in this thread... rememeber, just the most high quality stuff.

Then code. I know this is going to be hard for you because you all have your pet little feature that you want to see in Cube. If you read the above, you know these are not going to happen. Some things I just don't find important. Like probably the #1 requested feature is a configureable player model, but that is not going to happen for this release. These kinds of things will likely be in sauer. It is not that it is hard (rather, it trivial), it is just not a priority.

So I will list some things that I definitely intend to fix, or try to. You *MAY* use this thread to suggest certain additional fixes/features, and who knows I can be swayed if a lot of you make convincing arguments, but remember, unless it is a few line easy fix or just incredibly important to cube right now, its not likely going in.

I will report on this thread as things progress.

features already in:
* lots of smaller fixes that I didn't bother to write down. Maybe if you note them here I can say "yes that is already in"
* stereo sound effects
* put in workaround for buggy ATI drivers (glReadPixels() result, already on linux)
* tweaked kickback strength for various weapons

for sure planned to go in:
- seperate release archives for windows, linux, and macosx (less FAQs)
- fixes for amd64. if someone with such a machine can be on call in irc next weekend for testing, that be great
- fixes where illegal protocol could corrupt client state
- vdelta edit fix
- shooting rockets at HOM -> out of memory error
- jumppad velocity Z cancellation (better jumps)
- cap fps to 200 or whatever (variable) (some cube code starts behaving weird when it nears 1000).
- fixes for sound crashing on linux
- some minor tweaks to SP balance and AI
- listen server functionality will be removed
- demo play bugs like sticky scoreboard
- make serverinfo port obey -i
- maxclients

maybe will go in:
- some of the features requested by the german "pro" community (not sure which)
if they have CLEAR list of what they changed to fix what, that might help things
go in (you listening Makke?). Though I am guessing since I won't add all their stuff,
they may want to stick with pcube anyway.
- look at that immortality bug that sometimes pops up. I have a demo of it. It is however
hard to debug and I make no guarantees. Same with other "happens occasionally in
multiplayer" bugs people have.
- kick vote

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#10: ..

by NiElZ on 08/08/2005 13:54

It would be really great if there was a feature to choose a different playermodel. I know we can download new ones and replace by the old ones, but that makes everyone look like that...

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#11: ..

by >driAn<. on 08/08/2005 14:23

omg. Read first, then post.

"Like probably the #1 requested feature is a configureable player model, but that is not going to happen for this release."

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#12: ..

by makkE on 08/08/2005 15:22

Just mailed you my stuff, Aard.

It´s the most up to date and smallest possible of my material since cube 2004.

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#13: Re: mapmodels?

by tentus on 08/08/2005 15:24, refers to #6

no, they are original, but made so as to blend in with your models. I wouldn't dare rip your work, becuase i have too much respect for it. besides, that'd be harder than making original models :)

i'd really like a new entity to alter the postioning/ placement of mapmodels, something along these lines:
entalter T X Y Z
where T specifies if it alters position (0) or orientation (1). The rest follows logically.

but i suppose such an entity would fall under the sauerbraten realm, huh? oh well.

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#14: just trying :)

by makkE on 08/08/2005 17:02

I will take to opportunity to try to convince you of some of my
biggest wishes for cube :)

1. Maxclients (already fullfilled, yay) I really appreciate it!! Let´s hope server admins will make use of it, so we
can see some reasonable number of players on the pubs instead of 20ppl on aard3 :P and some 1on1 stuff..etc..

2. Which leads to: a maprotation.cfg or something. It would make having a lan more easy, and it would go hand in hand
with the maxlient feature.. No use to have the big maps on a 1on1 server..
If it would also be possible to define a default mode for each map there, it would be even better.

It would just lead to more diversity! Most servers either run ffa or insta, and basically the first map cycle is

the only one played. It´s sad, because cube has so much more great maps to offer (and some of the first cycle are just crap, from a pure playing perspective, sorry to say.)

So, well to me, a configurable maprotation is the feature that I think would enhance the cube experience by a lot.
Imagine players can (or eben have to choose, if servers can be full) between 4 player ffa, 1on1, teamplay, or tactics
or whatever servers, with knowing the fun will be guaranteed more, because you play the maps more like they are
supposed to be played. Of course the admins might still choose stupid setups, but the possibilitys were just more.
I know there aren´t too many players total, so one could say it would cluster stuff up unneccesairily. But I believe
that many people stop playing cube, because it might be fun at first, but is actually pretty chaotic to pub on.

Servers with diffrent settings will attract diffrent people, they would probably meet more often, and it´s just more fun to play on "my favourite server" with familiar faces, than just going on any server not knowing what will happen.

Another big issue to me (and probably considered the most unneccesairy by you, but I´ll try anyways):

Teamplay

I remember at first I though "cool you can play 2vs2vs2 !!" but let´s face it: Has anyone ever seen a team game really
happen on a public server? No. Not me.

This is due a variety of reasons imho:

First, most people just don´t get it. If you see a server up saying "teamplay" and you enter, and there´s nothing
forcing you to choose a team, and it looks like ffa, 99% of the ppl will just shoot anything. The faint blue overlay

isn´t just too noticeable as well (if it´s your first templay game)
Sometimes (mainly those people that have voted it) will try to get the others to form and organize in teams, but it
takes soo much effort, that they probably give up on it sooner or later. Even if after 3 minutes of shouting people

have finally organized, some "blah unnamed" players will enter and ruin it again (which isn´t really their fault)

Another reason I believe is that many players use that extra space in their "/team" to add to their name, or to have
clan tag kind of stuff in there, and either feel reluctant to change that, or others might even fear to offend anyone
else by changing to their team/clan(?)

So to me, forcing people to chose RED or BLUE, in addition to those really nice red/blue skins that exsist for the
ogro is the only solution to get teamplay a reality on cube pubs, imho.
Don´t get me wrong, the current teamplay system is great, since it is really simple and offers a lot of freedom, but
also asks an amount of responsibility you will hardly find on a pub.. you could argue that people can meet on some own passworded server to have their team-games anytime, but having it happen on pubs will imho just add a lot to cube as a whole, because it´s where you start and get intrested in the game at first.

To sum up, I know that you have a diffrent view on some of these issues, and there is of course pcube where we can and already do some of the mentioned stuff. Well but it also means splitting the comunity in a way.
Even if you don´t think it´d be really neccessairy in cube, I would be glad to see you consider features like this for cube2, because, i do believe that the Teamplay issue, the lack of configurability of servers and also the voting system (to a small extend) have somehow just keept cube from growing to it´s full potential.

I understand cube was totally your own property, but for cube2, I really hope that there will be space for just some
more overall "usability" (not talking about big shiny menus and stuff). Just making it feel a little more comfortable

These are as far as it goes the really most important bits to me. In pcube there´s a long idea list, but most of it
isn´t really top-priority. The fixes that you planned will already make a lot of the "pro"s very happy :)

Well, that´s it :) just my 2 cents.

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#15: ..

by NiElZ on 08/08/2005 19:24

For mappers: it would be really nice if we could use a light radius higher than 32, I mean, it works when editing a map but when you save the map then and re-load the map, all the lights with a radius higher than 32 will have changed into a radius 32 like automatically, this prevents from creating nice shadow effects as seen here:

www.geocities.com/illegalnameshrimp/goodlight1.jpg
or here: www.geocities.com/illegalnameshrimp/goodlight2.jpg

This screenshots were taken before re-loading the map.

But because Cube won't allow the big lights to stay, for some reason, I had to light that area with small lights resulting in a boring effect like this:

www.geocities.com/illegalnameshrimp/badlight.jpg


So if we will be able to a use high light radius in some future release that would make me really happy. I know some might say: "use Suaerbraten for that", but I'm talking about Cube here :P

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#16: ( Link fix )

by NiElZ on 08/08/2005 19:26

Good light:
http://www.geocities.com/illegalnameshrimp/goodlight1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/illegalnameshrimp/goodlight2.jpg

Bad light: http://www.geocities.com/illegalnameshrimp/badlight.jpg

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#17: ..

by makkE on 08/08/2005 19:35

The thing you´re doing there is not how cube´s lightning was meant to work.
You just can´t have those shadows really, because it means everything else will be awfully overbright...

If you want nice shadows, you have to stick with sauerbraten.

In cube it´s usually better to work with many smaller lightsources(radius 2,3,4..etc) to get some contrast in, it´s all more of ambient and diffuse...
Lightning in cube isn´t about any realism, really, more about to make it look good while providing contrast..

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#18: ..

by _Fanatic on 08/09/2005 05:44

My Revenge map for Cube would be a descent addition. Uses DCP's awesome mapmpdels.

http://fanaticalproductions.net/game_map_view.htm?mapId=22

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#19: Admin Controls

by tyguy on 08/09/2005 07:02

Maybe some admin controls,
/kick (nick)
/ban (nick)
/map (name)

just to make it easier to get rid of trouble makers. and let it go stright to a map instead of waiting for everyone to vote. Most of the time ppl dont even know how to vote.

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#20: Re: Admin Controls

by mw on 08/09/2005 07:28, refers to #20

Why?

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#21: ..

by TimHortons on 08/09/2005 13:50

Sometimes during game, i can see some little whites sparks. It's not very annoying but i think if this bug is fixed, Cube will be better than last version.
Sauerbraten is really cool with realistics shadows but it don't use Net TCP stream for MultiPlayer game. Beta work, i hope next time see this advance
++

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#22: ..

by TimHortons on 08/09/2005 16:08

FireBallZ send ma a mail to reply with a screenshot. Like a noob, i try your nospam address.

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#23: ..

by TimHortons on 08/09/2005 18:28

Oki i understand
sorry :)

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#24: ..

by TimHortons on 08/09/2005 18:30

[URL=http://img200.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sparks1ga.jpg][IMG]http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/416/sparks1ga.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

This is a screenshot about sparks. It's a little "hole" where we can see sky box.
Strange isn't it! I think it can fixed by a little blur effect. What do you
think about?
++

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#25: ..

by TimHortons on 08/09/2005 19:08

I will try an another video card. Perhaps you are right. Next time i give you response ++

For pistol, i got this in my Cube code (i use pistol by Sauerbraten package). It's note very hard to include this weapon. I will try to tell way :

weapon.cpp

// New weapon -
else if(s!=GUN_PISTOL && player1->ammo[GUN_PISTOL]) s = GUN_PISTOL;

case GUN_PISTOL:
particle_splash(0, 100, 250, to);
break;

cube.h
enum { GUN_FIST = 0, GUN_SG, GUN_CG, GUN_RL, GUN_RIFLE, GUN_FIREBALL, GUN_ICEBALL, GUN_SLIMEBALL, GUN_BITE, GUN_PISTOL, NUMGUNS };

clientgame.cpp
void spawnstate(dynent *d)
d->gunselect = GUN_PISTOL;
(...)
else
{
d->ammo[GUN_PISTOL] = m_sp ? 50 : 20;
};

Don't forget to load md2 and place in right order sounds.

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#26: Re: ..

by tentus on 08/09/2005 22:21, refers to #24

those are normal, and not all that bad of a case. in fact very mild. also, aard has said time and time again that he's fine with the current weapon scheme- i seriously doubt he's going to make a change such as adding the pistol. consider the complete lack of mention of such a thing in aard's opening subject.

now that that's over with, could you two quit filling up this thread?


Aard, another stupid request- could a menu be added to the multiplayer menu giving a short FAQ (such as how to change name)? I've done that in CL and I think it'd help some of the single-answer threads we get around here.

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#27: Map errors

by spentron on 08/10/2005 11:26

The version of Rampage, which I did the modifications on, in the current release can usually not be completed. Actually I think 4 maps could leave players scratching their heads trying to complete them. ksp2 somehow got a bad version in there; I can only complete it by using rockets to kill monsters through walls. egysp1 I can't complete but it may be just too hard for me to figure out and not a bug. kksp1 I've also had trouble completing but I think that's because there's a group of monsters in the caves I have a lot of trouble finding because they're in complete dark and by the time they're exposed you have an entire map open to find them in.

My revised version of Rampage is here: http://www.intergate.com/~spentron/cube/rampage-spenmod.zip ... I tested it a half dozen times without problems but I was playing fast and monsters get lost in the catacombs always or almost always when playing at a more normal rate, or something.

If you're sticking with the same soundtrack, I also prefer mm5remix with this config file to play the tunes: http://www.intergate.com/~spentron/cube/mm5remix.cfg

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#28: Re: Map errors

by -Rick- on 08/10/2005 13:41, refers to #27

"kksp1 I've also had trouble completing"
No errors there...pretty straightforward IMO, my bots can even finish this map :)

I couldn't finish the other maps either though...but maybe I'm missing something.

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#29: Re:

by Sherwood on 08/10/2005 18:31, refers to #27

First off. I love Cube. I just found it a few days ago, and I havent played any other games since. And ive got some of the cream first person shooters. The "fun factor" of cube is way up there.
thanks for the good work and letting us all play for free!

Ive been playing around with changing the sounds and smoke trails for a couple days.
And one thing id like to see is a seperate smoke trail image for the rocket launcher and rifle. Im not a coder, but that should be pretty easy right...?

Now, one that involes much more code im sure, would be a spectator mode. A follow mode would be nice, but id settle for just being able to float around the map while others play. Sorry if this is already in there and im just not smart enough to have found it.

Thanks again.

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