Quake II Remastered

[Koko Ricky]

49 minutes ago, Doomer1999 said:

I haven't seen anybody mention this yet. But what's up with the brightness in Q2 Remastered? I want to set the brightness to its original Q2 value, but I can't move the brightness slider backwards only forwards, making the game even more brighter, which is unnecessary IMHO, since the entire game is now bright enough by default.

Is there a console command to lower the brightness?

The game is now a little too bright and I miss the original Q2 atmosphere. That and I wish the updated AI could be toggled on or off.

I've noticed this weird thing where some games are bright/dull at 1080p and dark/contrasty at 4k, at least on my machine which has a GTX 1080. I see this reflected in YouTube clips, where the same game can look significantly different depending on the uploader. I would like to know what causes this indescrepancy, and I suspect it's related to how monitors process color space interfering with the game.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Koko Ricky

[mhmh]

4 hours ago, Jayextee said:

I don't share the popular hate for the new Berzerker behaviour though. Whatever happened to the credo 'git gud'?

 

I don't see the Berserker change as a "git gud" issue at all, principally because it doesn't actually make them any more difficult.  It's just a different tactic you need to learn, but once you learn it Berserkers are just as manageable as they always were. I will observe that if I'd wanted to play on a higher difficulty I'd just play on a higher difficulty, but in this case that doesn't apply either way. 

 

It comes across more as a case of change for the sake of change, but that's also OK as it makes the game feel a little fresher.

 

I'd just like to also be able to play with the classic monster behaviour as an option.

Edited August 17, 2023 by mhmh

[Doomer1999]

1 hour ago, Koko Ricky said:

I've noticed this weird thing where some games are bright/dull at 1080p and dark/contrasty at 4k, at least on my machine which has a GTX 1080. I see this reflected in YouTube clips, where the same game can look significantly different depending on the uploader. I would like to know what causes this indescrepancy, and I suspect it's related to how monitors process color space interfering with the game.

Interesting. I didn't know that some games are dark/contrasty at 4k, I have a 1080p monitor, so I cant test that with the Q2 Remastered, but I'll take your word for it. The original game has proper (default) brightness setting, in Vanilla, Yamagi or VKQuake2. Other than that it's a very good remaster.

[Edward850]

2 hours ago, Doomer1999 said:

I haven't seen anybody mention this yet. But what's up with the brightness in Q2 Remastered? I want to set the brightness to its original Q2 value, but I can't move the brightness slider backwards only forwards, making the game even more brighter, which is unnecessary IMHO, since the entire game is now bright enough by default.

Is there a console command to lower the brightness?

The game is now a little too bright and I miss the original Q2 atmosphere. That and I wish the updated AI could be toggled on or off.

We didn't increase the brightness. Gamma zero is gamma zero, the exact colours the assets used are the colours used. Quake2 did not have negative gamma, nor would that make much sense as that would crush colours.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Edward850

[tzen]

2 hours ago, Koko Ricky said:

Not to be a nagging Nancy, but can anyone point to a console commands to turn off blob shadows (the superficial round shadows, not the gorgeous dynamic lighting) on PC? This is such a perfect remaster and that's literally the only thing I want to change. 

 

You can look through the commands with "cvarlist" in the console. I think there's like r_shadows but I'm not sure it'll do what your asking?

[Lizardcommando]

The only problem I have with the Berserker's new jumping attack is the shockwave after it lands has a really big area of effect so you could be about two or three feet  away from it and behind it and you can still get hit.

[tzen]

3 hours ago, Doomer1999 said:

I haven't seen anybody mention this yet. But what's up with the brightness in Q2 Remastered? I want to set the brightness to its original Q2 value, but I can't move the brightness slider backwards only forwards, making the game even more brighter, which is unnecessary IMHO, since the entire game is now bright enough by default.

Is there a console command to lower the brightness?

The game is now a little too bright and I miss the original Q2 atmosphere. That and I wish the updated AI could be toggled on or off.

 

You can try disabling the new lighting with r_staticshadows 0

 

Should have a bit of a darker vibe, but it won't adjust the gamma

[BGreener]

22 hours ago, MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai said:

I think @hfc2x is correct @Edward850.

 

The railgun was always a high risk, high reward so it being significantly nerfed doesn't make sense as it makes it rather useless compared to other more convenient damage dealers like the ssg.

 

This is especialy apparent when playing on Nightmare where you need to quickly kill high tier enemies on later levels, but thanks to damage nerf there is nothing realy that makes it stand out in the weapon sandbox.

 

It would be like nerfing a sniper rifle from HALO series to deal 3 bodyshots and 2 headshots K.O. instead of the normal 2 bodyshots and 1 headshot.

 

It makes precise aiming less rewarding then in the original and I think many of us would welcome the change to more vanila damage values.

I’d like to think I’ve adjusted to it at this point - for better and worse. I’ve basically switched what I used to use it on.

 

I used to reserve it for the enemies with bigger health pools while using the “less powerful” ammo on the much shallower health pooled chaff and fodder; it was my go-to against green-shielded icari (icaruses??) and gladiators, and guys like gunners would get other options. Now the rail is my go-to gunner killer.

 

I do think that something about the railgun needed to change and I was surprised it wasn’t the ammo: Years ago I was packing 100 slugs by the time I picked it up and that’s still the case now!?

 

All of this makes me ache for a fuller list of gameplay balance considerations.

Edited August 17, 2023 by BGreener

[ducon]

I don’t know if it’s still true in this port but in the original game, when you shoot at an enemy that’s not awaken (ie patrolling or waiting), the damage is doubled. I use this to instakill gladiators and icaruses with the railgun.

Edited August 17, 2023 by ducon

[JBerg]

5 minutes ago, ducon said:

I don’t know if it’s still true in this port but in the original game, when you shoot at an enemy that’s not awaken (ie patrolling of waiting), the damage is doubled. I use this to instakill gladiators and icaruses with the railgun.

 

This behaviour seems to still be there.

[mrthejoshmon]

11 minutes ago, ducon said:

I don’t know if it’s still true in this port but in the original game, when you shoot at an enemy that’s not awaken (ie patrolling of waiting), the damage is doubled. I use this to instakill gladiators and icaruses with the railgun.

Damage is definitely still there, the game straight up tells you this I think (specifically in Quake 2 64)

[Doomer1999]

1 hour ago, Edward850 said:

We didn't increase the brightness. Gamma zero is gamma zero, the exact colours the assets used are the colours used. Quake2 did not have negative gamma, nor would that make much sense as that would crush colours.

I see. Thanks for the explanation.

[scalliano]

32 minutes ago, ducon said:

I don’t know if it’s still true in this port but in the original game, when you shoot at an enemy that’s not awaken (ie patrolling or waiting), the damage is doubled. I use this to instakill gladiators and icaruses with the railgun.

It's still there, but the railgun itself has been gimped.

[JBerg]

3 hours ago, scalliano said:

It's still there, but the railgun itself has been gimped.

I felt something was off with the railgun during my playthrough. I thought I was misremembering its damage in the original.

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

4 hours ago, ducon said:

I don’t know if it’s still true in this port but in the original game, when you shoot at an enemy that’s not awaken (ie patrolling or waiting), the damage is doubled. I use this to instakill gladiators and icaruses with the railgun.

I've played through the original Quake II several times, and I had no idea that was a feature. When I first saw the message about it in the remaster, I just assumed it was a new addition.

[Devalaous]

It certainly explains why the regular shotgun can one-shot-gib dudes when shot in the back

[Lila Feuer]

I wasn't aware of MP balance being distributed across the board, doesn't that mean the machine and chaingun do arbitrarily less damage, from 10 to 8 per bullet? Might be misremembering.

8 hours ago, Edward850 said:

We didn't increase the brightness. Gamma zero is gamma zero, the exact colours the assets used are the colours used. Quake2 did not have negative gamma, nor would that make much sense as that would crush colours.

I thought the lighting looked blown out on the base game at times, doesn't seem to be that different in The Reckoning. I assumed it was like the Q1 remaster where the lighting was just brighter now across the board due to rebuilding BSPs(?). What options would you recommend so that it looks closer to say Yamagi? For starters I think disabling fog outside of COTM helps return some of the original atmosphere somewhat if that helps anyone. And I guess r_staticshadows 0 which I haven't bothered with yet.

[dustarma]

Seems like the secret under the laser in the map Inner Compound of The Reckoning is inaccessible, a video guide I watched has the player fall through the gap between the lift and the ground but that doesn't seem possible, at least on Switch.

 

The secret in question

[mhmh]

The original GL Quake II doubled the intensity of textures in order to achieve a 2x overbright range for lighting.  This mean that any brighter spots in textures were just saturated to white, and the colours of the game ended up looking flat and over-saturated.

 

The lighting formula used was:

clamp (texture * 2) * lightmap

This was due to hardware limits of the really old version of OpenGL used for the original.

 

Any reasonably modern 3D API (i.e. from about the year 2000 onwards) can implement this natively in hardware without the saturation/flattening, and the new lighting formula would be:

clamp (texture * lightmap * 2)

If all you're used to is the original it can appear to be brighter.  It's not really though, it's just that the full colour range for brighter parts of the scene is restored.

[tzen]

2 hours ago, Lila Feuer said:

I wasn't aware of MP balance being distributed across the board, doesn't that mean the machine and chaingun do arbitrarily less damage, from 10 to 8 per bullet? Might be misremembering.

I thought the lighting looked blown out on the base game at times, doesn't seem to be that different in The Reckoning. I assumed it was like the Q1 remaster where the lighting was just brighter now across the board due to rebuilding BSPs(?). What options would you recommend so that it looks closer to say Yamagi? For starters I think disabling fog outside of COTM helps return some of the original atmosphere somewhat if that helps anyone. And I guess r_staticshadows 0 which I haven't bothered with yet.

 

Disabling r_staticshadows gets rid of the bespoke lighting they added here and there such as the ones in the first room of the original campaign that cause the explosive barrels to cast shadows and the opening in the ceiling to have a brighter light with a harder edge. Also the light added behind every single spinning fan in the game, the repeating circular lights in some hallways, etc. I went through the original campaign toggling it on and off and honestly it's not that significant, but disabling it definitely gives the game a more faithful look to the original and is also just more consistent because it's just the baked in lighting which follows basic rules.

 

And yes, initially I hated the fog because it seemed to mute the already rare blue and green colored lighting in the early levels. But later on there is some colored fog that is quite atmospheric.

[Lila Feuer]

2 hours ago, tzen said:

And yes, initially I hated the fog because it seemed to mute the already rare blue and green colored lighting in the early levels. But later on there is some colored fog that is quite atmospheric.

Yeah I don't mind the fog in some places, it appears to be used quite well in The Reckoning since finishing it. Onto a less painful playthrough of Ground Zero now (thanks to whoever nerfed the game stopping pacing killing turrets).

[Gez]

On mercredi 16 août 2023 at 4:52 PM, Vermil said:

Quake 2 originally had male and female player characters yes (and a cyborg as a third option).

Fun fact, that's why ZDoom had the same three options of male, female, and cyborg. It was even planned to use the voices from Quake II, if available!

[lowenz]

Anyone working on an upscale mod for Q2 64 remastered textures? Or just a port to Q2 (remastered) assets?

Edited August 18, 2023 by lowenz

[Individualised]

I know Linux in general (i.e. not the Steam Deck) isn't officially supported but thought this crash may be worth reporting anyway:

[Rudolph]

8 hours ago, Lila Feuer said:

Onto a less painful playthrough of Ground Zero now (thanks to whoever nerfed the game stopping pacing killing turrets).

That is weird, I have no recollection of ever having been bothered by them. Either way, they are nothing like the infamous Spider Turrets from Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena... That being said, I do hope the remaster made the ETF more useful this time around.

[Lila Feuer]

On 8/14/2023 at 8:51 PM, Devalaous said:

 

 

15 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

That is weird, I have no recollection of ever having been bothered by them.

 

That being said, I do hope the remaster made the ETF more useful this time around.

 

They had entirely too much health and have ridiculously good tracking, their blaster variant was ironically the most dangerous as the rocket ones were nowhere near as bad and the machine gun one is so underused my conclusion on it is...well, inconclusive.

 

The ETF rifle is still weak, it is literally the nailgun from Q1 so it lacks a lot of punch against Q2 monsters. Explosive tipped my ass.

 

I should maybe mention the "deadly acid" blood from Gekks was never harmful to the player. It also stopped self lighting in the remaster although this is a relatively minor visual detail.

 

Off topic but I didn't mean to quote Devalaous, mobile won't let me remove the box.

 

 

 

 

[Rudolph]

34 minutes ago, Lila Feuer said:

The ETF rifle is still weak, it is literally the nailgun from Q1 so it lacks a lot of punch against Q2 monsters. Explosive tipped my ass.

Yeah, that is the only disappointing thing about Ground Zero that I can remember. 

 

I mean, what is even the point of the weapon when you already have the Machine Gun, the Chaingun and the Hyperblaster?

[ducon]

3 hours ago, Individualised said:

I know Linux in general (i.e. not the Steam Deck) isn't officially supported but thought this crash may be worth reporting anyway:

Have you reported this bug against wine?

[Lila Feuer]

21 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

Yeah, that is the only disappointing thing about Ground Zero that I can remember. 

 

I mean, what is even the point of the weapon when you already have the Machine Gun, the Chaingun and the Hyperblaster?

 

Should also note it doesn't "pierce armor" either, assuming they meant it works against power shielded enemies.

[Rudolph]

49 minutes ago, Lila Feuer said:

assuming they meant it works against power shielded enemies.

Well, since you are playing Ground Zero right now, could you check if that is the case?

 

I am unfortunately away from home right now, so I have been unable to play the shit out of the remastered version yet. :(