V12 Status Report April 24th
by Rick Overman · in Torque Game Engine · 04/24/2001 (10:18 pm) · 15 replies
It has been a rough several weeks for us here at GG. Here is a brief summary of what's been going on here as well as some recent news to save you from having to scour several dozen threads and plan updates.
(After our Monday meeting on April 30th, we will update our initial end of April estimate. Now that we have the code in our development house and have had a chance to work on it, we have a more accurate task list.)
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
--Rick
March 21-24
GG attends Game Developers Conference to speak with indies interested in using the V12 engine and to network with hardware venders about upcoming hardware to plan the V12s future.
March 17
GG gets first drop of Tribes2 engine. Work on the V12 release begins.
March 27-April 15
Rick gets Married and goes on Honeymoon.
April 5-10
Tim comes down with nasty flu for next several days.
April 9-15
Tim throws out back laid up for next week, ouch!
April 15
Rick back from honeymoon.
April 11-20
Rick and Tim work on V12 release. Spent a few days just integrating the patches Dynamix has released for the Tribes2 engine. Still expecting one more big patch in the next 2 weeks.
April 20
Mark Frohnmayer's last day at Dynamix. Will be full time at GarageGames after taking some long overdue vacation. Congratulations and Welcome Mark.
April 21-24
Rick's wife's grandmother passes away, makes trip to San Francisco to be with family for the service.
April 24 today
Whew. Back home, what a long strange trip it has been. Back on V12 first thing in the morning.
(After our Monday meeting on April 30th, we will update our initial end of April estimate. Now that we have the code in our development house and have had a chance to work on it, we have a more accurate task list.)
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
--Rick
March 21-24
GG attends Game Developers Conference to speak with indies interested in using the V12 engine and to network with hardware venders about upcoming hardware to plan the V12s future.
March 17
GG gets first drop of Tribes2 engine. Work on the V12 release begins.
March 27-April 15
Rick gets Married and goes on Honeymoon.
April 5-10
Tim comes down with nasty flu for next several days.
April 9-15
Tim throws out back laid up for next week, ouch!
April 15
Rick back from honeymoon.
April 11-20
Rick and Tim work on V12 release. Spent a few days just integrating the patches Dynamix has released for the Tribes2 engine. Still expecting one more big patch in the next 2 weeks.
April 20
Mark Frohnmayer's last day at Dynamix. Will be full time at GarageGames after taking some long overdue vacation. Congratulations and Welcome Mark.
April 21-24
Rick's wife's grandmother passes away, makes trip to San Francisco to be with family for the service.
April 24 today
Whew. Back home, what a long strange trip it has been. Back on V12 first thing in the morning.
#2
04/25/2001 (8:02 pm)
LOL! There were a couple more there on Tribes2.The sad fact of it is,that cartoon is prolly true :)
#3
04/25/2001 (8:21 pm)
Good to hear V12 is on the way :)
#4
/me wants!
I can't wait until I get to play with that sucker. I would pay for this engine even if I couldn't make any money off of anything I ever make with it.
I can't wait to get started churning out architecture for this. With the outdoor terrain that Tribes 2 supports, the stuff I make will have a totally new impact. There is such a huge difference from running around in box-with-sky-on-tops, and actually approaching a castle that perches on hte edge of a rocky cliff, being able to look over the side and watch the water lapping against the side of the rocks below, with blue mountains in the distance.
Mm-mm good!
04/27/2001 (7:08 pm)
L33t!/me wants!
I can't wait until I get to play with that sucker. I would pay for this engine even if I couldn't make any money off of anything I ever make with it.
I can't wait to get started churning out architecture for this. With the outdoor terrain that Tribes 2 supports, the stuff I make will have a totally new impact. There is such a huge difference from running around in box-with-sky-on-tops, and actually approaching a castle that perches on hte edge of a rocky cliff, being able to look over the side and watch the water lapping against the side of the rocks below, with blue mountains in the distance.
Mm-mm good!
#5
OTOH , if the engine needs better optimizations or texture management .. the guys here at GG are the most cabable to deal with it.
04/27/2001 (9:47 pm)
Well , let's hope the framerate problems and DTD's in Tribes 2 aren't some core graphics engine problem.OTOH , if the engine needs better optimizations or texture management .. the guys here at GG are the most cabable to deal with it.
#6
When I play Tribes 2 online, it's a continuous nightmare. And single-player Hunters with bots is pretty bad, too.
Like Dave G. said on the Open Bar the other night -- if you run a server with just yourself on it, the graphics can be incredible . . . but what he didn't say was that they'll be good for 2 seconds, then freeze, then be good for ten seconds, then freeze, then be good for a minute, then Tribes 2 crashes.
04/29/2001 (7:48 pm)
I'm just plain confused by the whole thing. How Tribes 2 can run as slow as it does I just do not understand. I can run Black and White at the highest detail level and not slow down much -- or at least my fps are steady.When I play Tribes 2 online, it's a continuous nightmare. And single-player Hunters with bots is pretty bad, too.
Like Dave G. said on the Open Bar the other night -- if you run a server with just yourself on it, the graphics can be incredible . . . but what he didn't say was that they'll be good for 2 seconds, then freeze, then be good for ten seconds, then freeze, then be good for a minute, then Tribes 2 crashes.
#7
04/29/2001 (11:39 pm)
Sadly this seems to be the case with most people. I just hope its a Tribes2 issue and not the engine...
#8
04/30/2001 (12:15 am)
A major factor might be that "most" Tribes 2 buyers are likely upgrading to DX8 for the first time , and are likely to have driver "issues" related to that alone , especially on older hardware and Voodoo cards.
#9
04/30/2001 (4:41 am)
I wonder if any of the voodoo problems could be microsoft not putting any effort into fixing them on the DX side... 
#11
04/30/2001 (5:18 am)
It uses OpenGL and Direct3D.
#12
04/30/2001 (7:52 am)
I haven't understood it myself. I'm using a lowly P2/400 on a GeForceDDR and NVidia's latest leaked drivers and have no performance problems. I have more problems with networking issues than I do with actual game framerate.
#13
While we're on the subject,how can I set my T2 to run in D3D?! I only see the OGL option in my settings.
04/30/2001 (8:40 am)
Before the last patch,I was having a REALLY difficult time playing Tribes2.It kept locking up on me and I never played more than 30 minutes tops.Now,I don't know what they did in the last patch,but my T2 runs as smooth as silk on a PII450 with a GeForec2 GTS at 1024x768 with no problems whatsoever!While we're on the subject,how can I set my T2 to run in D3D?! I only see the OGL option in my settings.
#14
DX8 was a major change .. much moreso than DX3 thru DX7, but I've heard of no particular problem with DX8a and Voodoo 5 , and it's up to the Voodoo community to do what they can on drivers "issues" regarding any game's implementation of Glide .. it's currently a dead API, with no new cards expected.
Microsoft's only "obligation" is to have DirectDraw and Direct3D (now combined in DX8) backward compatable to ITSELF and Windows 32bit O/S ,and provide an accurate/comprehensive SDK for other software/hardware developers.
I run Tribes(1) in Open GL with a 32MB card rather than with my 2 V2s SLI , less "issues" there too (tho I'm still at DX7a).Only keeping Glide in to run Red Baron 3D :)
04/30/2001 (9:59 am)
Gates either saw the writing on the wall .. or wrote them himself for 3dfx when he dumped them for Xbox a year ago.DX8 was a major change .. much moreso than DX3 thru DX7, but I've heard of no particular problem with DX8a and Voodoo 5 , and it's up to the Voodoo community to do what they can on drivers "issues" regarding any game's implementation of Glide .. it's currently a dead API, with no new cards expected.
Microsoft's only "obligation" is to have DirectDraw and Direct3D (now combined in DX8) backward compatable to ITSELF and Windows 32bit O/S ,and provide an accurate/comprehensive SDK for other software/hardware developers.
I run Tribes(1) in Open GL with a 32MB card rather than with my 2 V2s SLI , less "issues" there too (tho I'm still at DX7a).Only keeping Glide in to run Red Baron 3D :)
#15
Problems include: Fatal Errors, Sound problems, Strange errors when sounds are played, when DirectSound was enabled it caused games to freeze, and more....
I need more video ram... I need a new computer...
05/01/2001 (5:45 am)
I had TONS of problems with DX8 in debug mode, so I reinstalled it...Problems include: Fatal Errors, Sound problems, Strange errors when sounds are played, when DirectSound was enabled it caused games to freeze, and more....
I need more video ram... I need a new computer...
Torque Owner Erik 'Flybert' Aamot
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-04-20
Eric L. sent that to me ..