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From: adam@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk (Adam Spiers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,rec.games.computer.quake.misc
Subject: Re: Linux Quake (How good is SVGAlib support?)
Followup-To: rec.games.computer.quake.misc
Date: 15 Jul 1997 11:34:15 +0100
Organization: Not very much, unfortunately.
Lines: 114
Sender: Adam Spiers <adam.spiers@new.ox.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <5qfjn7$hk7@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk>
References: <5q71m2$1tm$1@nntp2.ba.best.com> <5qblbr$cth@wombat.cs.monash.edu.au> <5qcum1$ddt@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk> <5qd71d$kcj@wombat.cs.monash.edu.au>
Reply-To: adam.spiers@new.ox.ac.uk (Adam Spiers)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:44450 rec.games.computer.quake.misc:66948
[follow-ups trimmed; this no longer has anything to do with FreeBSD]
In article <5qd71d$kcj@wombat.cs.monash.edu.au>,
Bernd Meyer <bmeyer@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au> wrote:
> adam@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk (Adam Spiers) writes:
>
> >In article <5qblbr$cth@wombat.cs.monash.edu.au>,
> >Bernd Meyer <bmeyer@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au> wrote:
> >> Why? What's wrong with the xf86quake version?
>
> >It's a pain to set up.
>
> Huh? It's easier than squake.
Not in my experience. See below.
> Or do you talk about XF86 in general?
Don't be silly. XF86 comes with every major distribution of
Linux.
> >It's difficult or impossible to get it at a decent resolution.
>
> You just switch X into the resolution you want, and type "./xf86quake".
> That's it. Doesn't sound too hard to me. The first step can be achieved
> by CTRL-ALT-Plus
Incorrect. Just because this was the case for you it doesn't
mean it is for everyone. It only works if you have configured
your XF86Config to support multiple resolutions and
mode-switching via CTRL-ALT-Plus/Minus, /and/ if one of the
configured resolutions happens to be the mode you want to play
Quake in. Otherwise you have to frob around with your X display
setup, which is potentially a real pain --- it could even
involve writing your own modelines if you have an older
distribution.
Other reasons this sucks: it means you have a full copy of X
running concurrently to your Quake session, which is at least a
whole window manager more than you need. This is bound to be a
performance loss, and as I mention below, fps counts for a lot
to a lot of people (including me). Actually, performance is one
advantage of the SVGAlib versions that I forgot to mention, and
from what I remember it's significantly faster.
Also, if you run X at a colour depth other than 8bpp you can't
do this so you'd probably need to write a shell script which
starts up a special 8bpp X server with no trimmings and
immediately launches xf86quake. Correct me if I'm wrong here as
I would be very surprised if you're using X at 8bpp considering
that you have a Millenium.
> >It often messes around with the mouse sensitivity in bizarre and broken
> >ways.
>
> Huh?
Believe me, I've seen it happen on my machine and on a friend's.
> >It's waaaaay out of date, and so has many more bugs in, and none of
> >the nifty new stuff.
>
> Such as?
Oh please. Surely you're not suggesting that the newer versions
don't have any bug-fixes or new features? If this was the case,
why the hell would they be releasing new versions? If you
really want to find out the new features, I'm sure you're more
than capable of doing so. Try downloading a copy of each
version which is newer than yours and reading the documentation.
The changes are there.
> >It doesn't support QuakeWorld.
>
> You get that point.
Well gee thanks :-) Incidentally that is a BIG point.
QuakeWorld beats the crap out of regular Quake for Internet
play, so much so that I haven't bothered with regular Quake for
ages; neither have any of the top players I know.
> >It doesn't have CD audio support built in.
>
> Neither does the last SVGA version I have seen.
Er, I think you'll find it does...
> >It's totally unsupported (squake and qwcl are officially unsupported
> >but in reality new versions with bugfixes and enhancements /do/ come
> >out regularly). Pretty much nobody uses it or cares about it.
>
> Thanks for calling me a nobody....
You know perfectly well I wasn't calling you a nobody :-)
> Now, how would you play Quake on a Matrox Millenium, under linux? In
> something other than 320x200?
I would start the game up (either squake or qwcl), go to the
console, type vid_describemodes, notice that there were several
modes listed other than 320x200. I would then type vid_mode n
where n is the number of the mode I want. (BTW I play Quake on
a Matrox Millenium under Linux.)
In reality I never use anything except 320x200 anyway as you can
never get enough fps if you are playing properly. All the top
players I know (sorry for saying that again; I'm not boasting)
play in 320x200, even with monster machines.
--
Adze /adz/ {/n./} 1. A cutting tool, formed with an arching blade set at
right angles to the handle; 2. Quake handle for adam.spiers@new.ox.ac.uk:
member of QPD and ClanUK squad, Vindaloo servers and #quake.uk admin, LPB
doing IT Support at Oxford University to get paid for SuperJANET access ...