A new Quake port

[PeterM]

Hello,

This is actually one of the changes I was planning on working on in the next few days. The audio buffer that the PSP SDK gives me is 44 KHz and there doesn't seem to be a way to change it. For simplicity I just tell Quake to use 44 KHz too.

However, I could tell Quake to mix sound in 11 or 22 KHz and I could just write each sample 4 times or twice to the buffer. Or do interpolation, but I suspect that would be slower than mixing at 44 HKz.

As far as an upcoming release goes, I've been working on hardware rendering, but it's nowhere near finished. I don't know when it will be, but it's definitely not soon.

I started off by replacing Quake's 2D drawing (blitting and polygons) functions with hardware accelerated sprites and triangles. This worked OK apart from textures being messed up (Quake doesn't use textures which are powers of 2 in size).

Unfortunately Quake draws maps (BSPs) in a very different way. It draws them in horizontal spans, which I can't accelerate. And the rendering of them is fairly dug-in to Quake's rendering module, so I'll need to write a lot more code to get them to render.

Combining that with the trouble that McZonk is having with clipping, scares me off a bit. If he's having trouble doing it, then I'm definitely going to have trouble doing it.

So, I split my code into hardware and software rendering versions so I can work on both at the same time without breaking the other one. That way, I can release a software rendering version which contains bugfixes and general improvements, and I can work on the hardware version in the background.

Pete

[KreLL]

Sounds awesome Peter, this port is great as it is- it would be absolutely awesome if the framerate was just a bit faster. Your idea of working on both versions is a great one I think, and again I thank you for the delight that you have brought us so far. Keep up the great work bro, it's programmers like you that make this system truly worth owning- and multi-gig mem cards worth buying.

[PeterM]

I did some playing around with the audio rate after my previous post. Reducing the sampling rate to 11025 (and copying the samples to the output buffer 4 times) doesn't noticably degrade the audio quality, but it only improves the frame by a very small amount.

For benchmarking I bind "timedemo demo1.dem" to a button and run it with a big enough screen size to fill the screen but still show all of the status bar. With 44100 Hz I get 8.7 FPS. With 11025 Hz I get 9.0 FPS.

[omninox]

Feature requests for the next release of the software rendering version:

1) My analog nub keeps drifting off-center. Increase the size of the center dead zone.

2) MP3 background music support.

3) A default key binding for 'Y'.

4) Improved framerate.

Thanks!

[PeterM]

Hello,

The analog nub will be fixed in the next release. It's fixed in my version.

I'm working on MP3 support using libmad. The library doesn't seem very well documented so progress is slow.

You don't really need the "Y" key - you can press Home to quit. Or is there another place people need to press it?

Improve the framerate? That's a good idea! Why didn't I think of that?!
/me waves a magic wand...

Pete

[Madonion]

Improve the framerate? That's a good idea! Why didn't I think of that?!
/me waves a magic wand...

Pete

Hahaha that is funny!

[ultros]

is it possible to get .pak files running, which contain also new maps?
i'm relatively new to quake (played it years ago on the pc) and don't know the differences in the .pak files.
there seem to be some .pak files, which just slightly change quake, like new weapons and so on and other, which turn it into a whole new game.

i read a few pages about quake mods and there are really impressive ones, even commercial ad-ons.

my question is, is it possible to get these new level/modifications running?
it should be possible, isn't it? i mean, it is the same engine. the engine just has to intepret the .pak files, or is it somehow different?

[Sharkey]

Yes I have already played through both mission packs and have used the killer quake patch with the original game.
All you have to do is rename the pak files to pak2.pak and add them to the id1 folder.
If you have time you should read through my quake mods thread in the quake forums.
Pretty much the same rules apply for this version and it runs just as many mods.

@Peter, I still play this almost daily, I played the other one alot also, but was bummed with the graphics and the absence of sound.

I don't have any suggestions or complaints othe than what others have mentioned but thanks for all your hard work, some of us are really loving this.

[ultros]

@sharkey:
i tried very many mods (renamed to pak2.pak), but only the killer quake patch and some other mods, which give you different weapons, worked.
i haven't found a mod yet that give you any new levels/designs.

maybe i tried the wrong mods, but i guess, i found some popular ones.
most of the mods from the thread "who wants all quake mods?" just give you some new items or so.

also, many mods have several pak files. what to do with them? just rename them starting with pak2.pak then pak3.pak and so on?

and if you got any mods to work which give you new levels, then please name a few of them. i really like to try them.

[Sharkey]

The only other ones Ive tried other than the KQP and both the expansion pack is "Rapture" and "Coven of Ebony", both have extra levels and are worth playing through.

Some mods won't work so its mostly trial and error.
I would like to try more but I'm hooked on the expansion packs atm.

I'm not sure about the multiple pak mods though.