Introducing Iris

[PSmonkey]

Well it's time to give you all an update & introduction to the project me, MGfox & Produkt have been cooking up recently (sorry if this anouncement is somewhat incohearent, i'm lacking on sleep atm).

So today I introduce to you Iris. Iris is a game built off the bsp rendering engine I have been working on for the past few months. The game is ment to be a simple yet fun 3rd person Deathmatch game for the psp. Old Quake mappers will have the additional fun of making their own maps & characters to use in the game. The maps are based on quake 3 bsp format & the character are based on quake 2 MD2 model format.

Insted of giving you guys some unoptimised quake 3 maps. MGFox & Produkt have steped up and created 3 wonderful maps that will be included in the release as well as the posibility of 2 more maps (if time permits).

Sadly due to time limits, our dcemu compo entry might more be an alpha then a real release (too much to do) but we plan to get a second build out asap to add what we want.

With out further delay, time to check out the screen shots !!

[AtariFreek]

Cooo0000oooo000ooo0-000ooo0000oo000lllllllllll!!!!!!!! WoW Awesome!!! Amazing!!! CANT WAIT!!!!! Just A Few Words That Come To Mind When I Look At The Screen Shots....

[kaneco]

Wow!!! it looks awesome, it almost reminds me of the first person shooter game called XIII. :p

[urherenow]

can we replace the ugly green head with our own mug shots?

[PSmonkey]

can we replace the ugly green head with our own mug shots?

I like the alien :(

Anyways yes you can use what ever quake 2 md2 model you wish. you can even modify the texture to your liking.

[JadaBloom]

Must say great work one of the best looking homebrew projects for the psp yet :D can't wait to give it a go.

Just wondering man (not criticizing) why are the framerates at 30fps now? I thought you had them at 60fps. I mean 30fps is great just wondering what made them drop.

[PSmonkey]

Actualy atm, map 1 & 3 run at a solid 60fps. Map 2 hickups at times to 30.

The pictures are from map 3. The reason the framerate is bad is a light was accidently placed outside the map so when it was compiled a Visability set was not generated. So pretty much the engine is force to draw all surfaces vs only drawing whats visable.

Map 2 dies because to keep from having serious surface clipping issues for the first build, we created the map with many little square blocks and since the room is pretty much a single room. so a majority of the map is drawn every frame (if you saw it in wireframe you would understand).

Tho not to worrie. Once I get time this month, I will implement a method to clip polygons to the screen so there wont be any problems (not the need to draw maps with many little polygons).

[Produkt]

Wich means, Larger maps, better framerates, And a spoon full of goodness.

The maps that have proper lighting look great though I must say :D

[MaxSMoke]

That is SO cool! My buddy from U4E has been looking over LUA to make this RPG we have planned, but maybe we can skip the 2D and go right to the 3D goodness!

So how mod-able is it? Is there anyway to save data? We're thinking about an overhead game, kinda like a poor man's Untold Legends, but with a Sci-Fi theme. Saving game progress would be super-important. Also, can the camera be adjusted? The overhead view should cut down on the number of polygons, allowing for some packed monster battles.

I wonder if there's tools to convert 3D Studio models directly to BSP? I could build a super-clean, low-polygon level in 3D Studio much easier then in any level or map editor. Looks like it's time for so more research!

[Yashamaru]

very very nice, cant wait to play "Iris". Thx for all your hard work guys and gl =D

[MGFox]

Every map is currently built from the ground up using thousands of 8x8 square brushes, i.e. One wall from a smaller room in the first map, is built with 12 brushes!

The map renderer will only draw what can be seen on the screen, so the maps with corridors and enclosed rooms only need to draw a small amount of the brushes at a time! The second map, however, is completely open and exposed, to give the player a feeling of vulnerability...but this also means that every single brush used to build the map (approximately 1200 in total) has to be rendered. Thats why its so small, believe me, it was bigger! :D

MaxSMoke: It's current MODablity is the ability to create and use your own Maps and Player Models, nothing more! Its currently only a multiplayer QIII or UT type game, so there is no savegame ability! You can export from 3DS Max to a .map file, which you can then compile to a BSP...One of my mates used to create QIII maps in GMax which could export to BSP, that might be worth a look!

Cheers,
Fox

[Cap'n 1time]

no quake 3 models eh? fair enough. Im looking forward to making a few maps (pulls out the ole bootleg 3dsmax :D )

[-LO-LEADER2]

cant wait!! its going to be so sick.

[Produkt]

I dont know about you guys, but I have already picked out my playermodel :D

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/reviews/quake2/ace/ace_files/ace-male.jpg

[MGFox]

Ha Ha! Its Gene frickin' Simmons :D Nice One!

I've chosen my model and already installed it, and it looks absolutely awesome

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/buckie/nny.jpg

And just in case some of you hadn't guessed...We are having Kick-Ass Fun with this game, you are all gonna LOVE IT!!!

Cheers,
Fox

[-LO-LEADER2]

Is the multiplayer adhoc or infrastructure or both?

[Produkt]

The wifi is decided to be released after the comp ends, thus allowing the game to have Eh... some substance. within a week following you should see some amazing things pop up out of it.

[PSmonkey]

Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc, Running out of time.

I would just like to let everybody know that even if my first build does not make your exspectation, I am working hard to improve things daily and hopefuly will have a second release with much more by the weekend. It's amazing how much has come together so far in such a short amount of time.

[Produkt]

Think of it this way

We took a hotrod and turned it in to a really damned good boat...

PS monkie was the mecanic, myself Well I painted it... and MG Fox managed to build the frames :P, Oh I also put the lights on it!

[MaxSMoke]

What about the future? Will it support data saving and further modding? How much hacking would it take to make something like that work?

[Produkt]

In all due time, If you remember the doom game which was to come from this engine, I belive support for saving will come.

[MGFox]

Just built this map for a laugh, I have begun texturing and lighting it! It is a replica of the level layout from PacMan :D

I was really just wondering if there would be any interest in it from you guys, would you like us to try and include it in the release package?

Cheers,
Fox

[Psyberjock]

Include all you can! The more the merrier!

Wow, this project is one of the things that truely makes it worth not upgrading. Will this work on a 1.0? I sure hope so. My 1.0 is seeing less and less action. Support for them is slowly dying out but I can't stand to upgrade it, even to 1.5.

Its not just the eboot version, I can convert between the two, I mean that some things just don't run on 1.0. It doesn't have enough files in the firmware or something. And that sucks!

[Produkt]

You must keep the 1.0 :D

I assume it would... I suppose you will have to wait and see.

[PSmonkey]

Hey everybody,

Well ealier today Iris was sent out for the compo. I hope everybody enjoys it & please go easy on me. This was my first real 3d game (Yes i am a comercial coder but I only do 2D Titles for GBA & DS). I'll try to post some screenshots of the game & maybe some video tomorrow.

Please note this is a work in progress so things will only go up from here. In the next week or so, I plan to release version 0.2 which will hopefuly address many issues and have wifi implemented (as well as improved bots).

As mention in the readme. I will post a document this week detailing how to include your own or favorite Quake 3 Maps and MD2 models. They do require a little modifying to work properly (also note quake 3 maps will be limited since I only allow for flat maps to properly work and practicaly zero quake 3 maps are flat).

Well do enjoy and lets all egarly wait for wragster to start posting up the entries.

[PSmonkey]

Include all you can! The more the merrier!

Wow, this project is one of the things that truely makes it worth not upgrading. Will this work on a 1.0? I sure hope so. My 1.0 is seeing less and less action. Support for them is slowly dying out but I can't stand to upgrade it, even to 1.5.

Its not just the eboot version, I can convert between the two, I mean that some things just don't run on 1.0. It doesn't have enough files in the firmware or something. And that sucks!

oh I forgot to mention. 1.0 is a go !!!

Actualy included in the release are a bin for 1.0 & 1.5. As well the 1.5 bin is verified to work on 2.0 units. So all 3 systems will get to enjoy the fun.

[Jman0708]

guys i really would like to be apart of this assignment u think u guys can includ me or tell me wut to do

[Produkt]

Well... I think things are cool as they are but if you feal up to the challeng make a single story map using GTKRadiant or Q3Radiant if you get a gooc map collection brewing up tell us. you can use the textures included or make your own, there should be more maps and textures included in every release :P wile we will try to keep the size low I will offer alternative texture packs to those who want them.

For those of you who wish to map for the game but don't have quake 3, I have an option for you!

you should download the quake 3 demo or! you can get Qfusion (a quake 2 engine that can pretend to be quake 3 :D Makes it easyer to run maps, But it requires Quake3 or Quake 3 Demo)

*[1] Copy your Iris textures into baseq3/textures (or baseqf/textures if you are using Qfusion) and your maps to baseq3/maps (baseqf/maps for Qfusion)

After you have these installed these files you will need either GTK or Q3 Radiant. This is needed to map your maps, If you have had no experience in Radiant you may have trouble with it due to its advanced learning curve its sugested that beginners who do not understand this refer to hammer for their map editing *[2]

All maps HAVE TO be compiled in Q3Radiant. GTK radiant is an easyer work enviroment and it is still supported by Id Software. but GTK uses Q3Map2 which renders lightmaps in a much more advanced way that Iris is un able to use.

Wile we still hold a clipping issue (doesnt effect game play and there are work arounds (difficult to do without proper knowlage) you will have to make your sections of walls in blocks think lego's

I have attached an example map to show you guys how to make a proper map (requires you add the iris textures to your Quake3 folder)

*Notes!*
1) These folders are inside of your Quake 3 folder example="c:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\" Wile you can use the Qfusion folder for your maps you could still put everything in in the "baseq3" folder because Qfusion can read in there too!

2) Radiant is a difficult program to master and learning how to use it has taken som people a quite long time, you are looking at a dedicated week, wile some can pick it up in a weekend this takes dedication and even once you have learned how to use it, it will take dedication to learn it properly, I offered the Hammer 3.4/3.5 solution to those who know how to use HL1's editor
this program has the option to export .maps (readable by Radiant, but textures must be applied in Radiant,

If you dont know how feal free to PM me and request a texturing job (Not all maps will be considered If the map wasn't made properly you will be told so and you will have to work it.)

I plan on releasing a pack later on which will be a whole lot simpler for non quake 3 owners and quake 3 owners alike (this will include a Hammer editor set up for mapping with a "developer" wad file to help you see what you are doing)

Get to making that custom content! :D

[Jman0708]

ok lol ok guys can ne 1 please answer this i got a GIGANTIC PLAN!!

Listen since iris is first person i can put in the looks of counterstrike people and guns and ammos and the bottom score

if u guys REALLY want we can make coutnerstrike threw this
if u guys gimmie da source ill get crackin

[Produkt]

source code wont be out for a wile, mainly because we want the engine to be polished I belive once that is done mods can be seen.

[behahwhoalalala]

is it out yet...

[jas0nuk]

Yes, 0.1 has been out for quite a while. Not sure where to get it from though, I think PSPUpdates has it.

[behahwhoalalala]

do you know if v0.2 is out yet...

[Zeemon]

Nope it's not...0.15 will be the next version anyway.

[LaMaOne]

Hi guys,

I've been mapping for Q3 for several years.
I'm really interested in making some maps for IRIS, but before I do so, what exactly are the limitations?
I see from the current map screenshots that everything is pretty rectangle and plane (read: boring)
I assume a lot of BSP things are still not compatible? (patches/curves, shader/opengl blend effects, no lightmaps?)
I would really like to make some traditional Q3 like maps, with stairs, platforms, blended textures and such. What exactly is the problem that requires us to make rectangle rooms? Is it related to the bsp tree, nodes, etc? If so, are there no workarounds?

I guess I should give the examples a go first, I havent looked into it yet.
I assume there is a .map file and radiant entity definition file included, or can we use some q3 entities?

Sorry for all these questions, I'm just really interested but dont have much time to look around. Could someone shed some light on this and answer some of these questions?

Thanks.

edit:
Sorry one more question...
I see PSMonkey posted some images in the original post of what seems to be a MAP/BSP file rendered in 3D MAX or some similar high-end 3D application.
Is this true? How did you import your map file? Wrote some conversion tool?

[PSmonkey]

Nice to see an old quake 3 mapper here. I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.



I see from the current map screenshots that everything is pretty rectangle and plane (read: boring)
I assume a lot of BSP things are still not compatible? (patches/curves, shader/opengl blend effects, no lightmaps?)


This was due to first release. The current build I have in development suports sloping floors & stairs. Before I had no height adjustment for colission but do now.

Patches/curves are not suported because I am having problems getting them to work in a format that psp understands (psp suports bezier/b-spline patches).

Shaders are not suported yet but in the pipeline. I want to rewrite my surface pipeline to properly suport a good amount of q3 shader effects.

Lightmaps are in but I disabled them in last build due to memory limits & framerate problems. I plan to fix this asap.



I would really like to make some traditional Q3 like maps, with stairs, platforms, blended textures and such. What exactly is the problem that requires us to make rectangle rooms? Is it related to the bsp tree, nodes, etc? If so, are there no workarounds?


No the square rooms were mostly due to collission limitations (contact me for private build). Blended textures will eventualy be suported once I can solve memory issues (i only have 2mb of vram on psp that holds framebuffers and 20mb of mainram for storing stuff. Sadly rendering a texture from main ram causes a serious bottleneck in the rendering pipeline and hits the framerate hard.



I guess I should give the examples a go first, I havent looked into it yet.
I assume there is a .map file and radiant entity definition file included, or can we use some q3 entities?

Sorry for all these questions, I'm just really interested but dont have much time to look around. Could someone shed some light on this and answer some of these questions?

Thanks.


Just hit me up via PM and we can chat over msn to get you sorted out (as well as talk to produkt who has a good understanding of making compatible q3 maps for iris).



edit:
Sorry one more question...
I see PSMonkey posted some images in the original post of what seems to be a MAP/BSP file rendered in 3D MAX or some similar high-end 3D application.
Is this true? How did you import your map file? Wrote some conversion tool?

Oh thoes were just visual renders given to me by mgfox. I think he exported the map and loaded it in max to give me a render.

[Produkt]

I'm avalible through email. I'll be opening up the Iris Knowlage base soon. which will give further info on everything.

but if you know what I'm talking about iris only supports maps compiled with Q3Map NOT! Q3Map2... if you dont know how to set up Q3Map on the later versions of radiant Just stick with Q3Radiant and you'll be fine.

Also! I'll make sure to have all of the avalible exporters on hand. but! you may be required to use Milkshape 3d... Free trial FYI... after that its your call...

because the md2 format is rather "old" and not a good format to begin with (play quake 2 and watch the vertexes Wobble...) So there may not be working exporters for later versions of Max, Lightwave, and maya... I'm almost certine there isnt one for XSI...

Milkshape 3d is the best way to go for modeling for iris. (all of the supported formats already built in exporters) there is another modeling program that I found, its similar but its onetime per export so it isnt a good choice.

Pm me if ya wanna chat about the iris engine/mapping. I have aim msn, gtalk, xfire, skype and alot of other goodies so we can surely get in touch.

[behahwhoalalala]

what is your msn address...

[stealth-patriot]

Man, at this rate i beleive that a n64 emulator is defenitly possible....YES!!!

[kodan50]

This is Quake 3 maps, right? Weird, cause when I go to load the map itself from one of my Quake 3 editors it crashes. Any tips for new Quake 3 mappers and what we need to do to get started? Im fairly good at mapping, but I havent done it yet with Quake 3, and this might be a fun project, cause I got a decent idea id like to try.

[PSmonkey]

This is Quake 3 maps, right? Weird, cause when I go to load the map itself from one of my Quake 3 editors it crashes. Any tips for new Quake 3 mappers and what we need to do to get started? Im fairly good at mapping, but I havent done it yet with Quake 3, and this might be a fun project, cause I got a decent idea id like to try.

Q3 editors only load non compiled maps. Far as I know they wont load compiled bsp maps.

[Be3f]

@PSmonkey?
Is anyone currently working on Iris 0.3? Maybe you'll release the sources?

[PSmonkey]

sadly no. Iris is pretty much dead. Only projects worked on are neopop psp (someone is still trying to do a gui) and monkey64 by someone else.

[hockey2112]

Has there been any major progress on Monkey64?