PB2, the mod version?

[Happy_Christman]

I love PB2 and the new engine is cool, but I have to confess: I'm addicted to the graphical bells and whistles of Quake 2 Evolved (which make Siegecastle look extra nice, by the way).

I have the full release and it does load in Q2E, but it always has to "download" the textures (from within the pball folder) and can't find all the sounds. It won't let me play a game, either because it keeps telling me I need "at least two teams". I understand that I won't be able to access the stand-alone app's menus, but it's tantalizing seeing the maps rendered beautifully in a Q3-quality engine... only to be unable to play (beyond running around in spectator mode).

I know I'm pressing my luck, but you've been so nice so far I thought I'd ask:

1) Is there a mod version of the game available, or will there be?

2) In case the answer to #1 is "no" or "yes, but it's gonna' be a while", how might I nest the folders so that textures are found by a Quake 2 install?

3) As far as I can tell, I have my configs in pball/configs, et cetera set to allow multiple clients, but the mod's telling me my max is set to zero. Where might the suspect file be that's causing all the hassle?

4) I'd like to set up a shortcut to run the game as a DM with, let's say, eight bots. What'd the syntax be for that, if I'm using Quake2.exe?

[jitspoe]

There has always been a mod version, but it doesn't look as good.  If you search fileplanet.com for paintball2, it should show up.

To start with quake2, you'd do something like: c:\quake2\quake2 +set game pball +map pb2dm1
With Q2E, you have to use fs_game instead of game.

Which particular bells and whistles do you prefer about Q2E?

[Fryth]

If you search fileplanet.com for paintball2, it should show up.

Uh, why isn't this on the files page?

[jitspoe]

I just keep the more recent versions on there so people don't get confused as to which to download.

[Fryth]

Isn't that like sort of leaving out the Mac port of an application from the download page because Windows users get confused?

(Stupid Windows users)

[Eiii]

(Stupid Mac users who can't find a decent game if it bit them on the face)

[Happy_Christman]

Sorry I'm late in replying, but thanks for the information, jitspoe.

I also don't really advocate OS flames, but:

1) I haven't used a Macintosh in five or so years, and I do not miss them. I'm not exactly MS' biggest fan, but Apple's customer service has bottomed out and I'd rather pay $20-$100 and upgrade a part on my PC than have to pay for an entirely new machine if I want a faster Mac.

2) Having said what I said in item 1, Mac users aren't stupid, generally. They may be misguided and taken for a ride by Apple, but they can't find decent games because few companies are willing to take the time to port titles to the island that is the Mac OS. This is not their fault.

[Stryker]

Linux kicks bouth Mac and Windows ass.... I still cant get quake 2 to run

[Fryth]

Heh, I can't believe I started an OS flame war. I was being sarcastic -- I'm a Windows fan, and use Windows almost exclusively. I would even go so far as to say that I believe Windows could be used in a mission-critical server operation effectively (Linux would probably be better though, and you couldn't run something huge like an EFnet server on windows). But it could be done. Windows is really not that bad. It's gained a lot of ground in recent years, and is infinitely more stable than previous versions.

I used to be a complete diehard Mac fan until I was around 14, when the internet was really starting to take off. I quickly discovered how few applications really ran on my machine and how much more I could do with a Windows box. I also realized the limited networking capabilities of the Mac, and the (then) ZERO existence of server software. And this was back in a time when you could pull down a menu and all the processes on the Mac would stop. That just isn't a real computer folks. And I paid over $100 to replace a floppy drive...

The Mac Toolbox was an impressive piece of firmware though. All the routines that would now be found in library files in the System folder or directory were hard-coded onto the motherboard. The routines were really fast too.

My, hasn't this gone way off topic...

[Eiii]

(which is why linux DOESN'T kick ass)

AAAAAAH! WE POSTED AT TEH SAME TIME!  

[Stryker]

this sucks i can get Tribes to run but no quake 2 i keep getting "Couldent find the program 'Quake2'"

[jitspoe]

*ahem* back to the original question.  Are there some features from Q2E you would like to see in Paintball2?

[Happy_Christman]

Well, I'd like to make it clear that I'm not out to disparage the current PB2 client (because it's very kind of you to provide a standalone client).

Since you asked, though, I'll tell you what I like about Q2E that might apply to future versions of stand-alone PB2:

1 Rendering is on par with, if not better than Quake 3's. This includes optional shadows, dynamic lighting, quality particle effects creating colored smoke, et cetera. Vanilla Quake 2, while a far superior game to Q3 in terms of play, IMO, looks pretty dated in comparison. Played in Q2E's engine, though, Quake 2 and its mods look eye-popping-ly good.

2 The graphics are extremely scaleable via the in-game menu, keeping it slower-machine friendly for those who need fewer bells and whistles.

3 The Q3-style handling of crosshairs. You can choose from a large range and customize your size.

4 The Q3-style handling of memory. I'm spoiled to being able to allocate hunkmegs, zonemegs, et cetera.

One other thing that might be cool, though it's not in Q2E (it's from Q2Max), is an option to engage cell shading. I wouldn't make it standard, but it'd rock to be able to make it all look cartoony, if/when the whim arose.  

[Happy_Christman]

PS: I'd also like to be able to substitute my own death sounds. This may already be doable, but I don't know which pak(s) to replace, if so...?

[Stryker]

there are no packs just go into pball/players/male and there are the sounds

[jitspoe]

Actually the death sounds are in pball/sound/death

Out of curiosity, why do you prefer the Q3 style memory allocation?  I always found it annoying because you'd load some level or something, and it would kick you out of the game because you didn't have enough memory allocated, so you'd have to start it back up again with more.  I don't see why this is a good thing.

There are several crosshairs available in PB2 via the crosshair cvar.  At the moment the size of everything on the screen is controlled by cl_hudscale.  I plan to add some more customization options, though.

I plan to make the graphics look better than Quake3, so any feedback you can offer during the development process would be greatly appreciated.