Quake II Remastered

[Edward850]

6 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:

We don't program Wine so reporting this to us does nothing.

[Lizardcommando]

I just finished both The Reckoning and Ground Zero. I think I like Ground Zero more than The Reckoning. Better new weapons and aside from the turrets and the new Medic, the new enemies aren't as annoying as the ones in The Reckoning. I am now working my way through Quake 64. It's pretty amusing how you can't crouch in that game seeing as how you can crouch in Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Turok.

[Mr. Death]

Absolutely amazing port, I'm loving it so far! It's everything I wanted from a Q2 remaster!

The only minor issue/bug I've noticed so far is that the game doesn't want to save my multiplayer character changes. I initially selected a cyborg character, but then remembered that they have weird pitched down sound effects and I wanted to have a more vanilla first playthrough, so I changed it to a human model. But every time I boot up the game now it reverts to the same cyborg character. Same with the nameplate I first selected.

I'm playing on Xbox Series X if that matters.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Mr. Death
Added the platform I'm playing on

[WARDUST]

Playing the expansions i have find several items over boxes that i can't reach. It doesn't look like a secret, but like i need a simple double jump, but i've never made something like this in Q2.... Is that the case? can we climb boxes?

[Individualised]

3 hours ago, Edward850 said:

We don't program Wine so reporting this to us does nothing.

Wasn't sure if it was a case of an incorrect call being made to an API or something else like that which could be fixed on your end.

2 hours ago, Mr. Death said:

Absolutely amazing port, I'm loving it so far! It's everything I wanted from a Q2 remaster!

The only minor issue/bug I've noticed so far is that the game doesn't want to save my multiplayer character changes. I initially selected a cyborg character, but then remembered that they have weird pitched down sound effects and I wanted to have a more vanilla first playthrough, so I changed it to a human model. But every time I boot up the game now it reverts to the same cyborg character. Same with the nameplate I first selected.

I'm playing on Xbox Series X if that matters.

Are you actually restarting the game or are you using the "quick resume" feature or whatever it's called? That can mess with things

Edited August 18, 2023 by Individualised

[Caffeine Freak]

 

9 minutes ago, WARDUST said:

Playing the expansions i have find several items over boxes that i can't reach. It doesn't look like a secret, but like i need a simple double jump, but i've never made something like this in Q2.... Is that the case? can we climb boxes?

 

I'm currently playing through The Reckoning and I've ran into a few of these boxes as well. Typically you should look for smaller boxes or other ways to climb up. Best I can recommend if all else fails is a simple rocket jump. They're easy to perform in this game and quite survivable. I reached a secret area in a fan duct this way after I killed the fan power prematurely (I believe the designers intention was to use the fan to propel yourself upwards.)

 

First time I've played this expansion in ~15 years, so it's essentially a fresh experience for me. Truly awesome level design and great puzzles.

[Edward850]

7 minutes ago, Individualised said:

Are you actually restarting the game or are you using the "quick resume" feature or whatever it's called? That can mess with things

Quick Resume is only a suspend state with hibernation, it can't reproduce this kind of symptom. In fact because of Quick Resume I suspect something has been misunderstood because normally the game doesn't even close.

 

2 hours ago, Mr. Death said:

The only minor issue/bug I've noticed so far is that the game doesn't want to save my multiplayer character changes. I initially selected a cyborg character, but then remembered that they have weird pitched down sound effects and I wanted to have a more vanilla first playthrough, so I changed it to a human model. But every time I boot up the game now it reverts to the same cyborg character. Same with the nameplate I first selected.

I'm playing on Xbox Series X if that matters.

1. Are you loading into a saved game? Saved games retain your existing skin settings, and your skin will not change on the fly while in a game either (you need to respawn).

2. How are you closing the game? And what are you doing after you change the settings? Have you changed other settings as well? Can you try changing another setting after changing the skin?

[Mr. Death]

2 hours ago, Edward850 said:

Quick Resume is only a suspend state with hibernation, it can't reproduce this kind of symptom. In fact because of Quick Resume I suspect something has been misunderstood because normally the game doesn't even close.

 

1. Are you loading into a saved game? Saved games retain your existing skin settings, and your skin will not change on the fly while in a game either (you need to respawn).

2. How are you closing the game? And what are you doing after you change the settings? Have you changed other settings as well? Can you try changing another setting after changing the skin?

I don't ever use Quick Resume. When I'm done playing I pause the game and return to the main menu, then I fully close the game by pressing the "Menu" button on the app and selecting "Quit" through the dashboard.

No, the character/nameplate is reverted as soon as I start the game, before loading any saves. I've also tried changing the settings and then saving my game to see if that would work but it doesn't. Every other setting seems to save just fine upon restart (audio/video/controls).

[Lizardcommando]

I just got done with Quake 64. It didn't age quite well, in my opinion. It was neat during its initial time of release considering the Quake 64 was just a straight conversion from what I could remember. Quake 2 64 has brand new levels, although there were a few parts here and there I saw that definitely were near direct ports of the original PC counterpart (namely the prison areas).

 

I'm starting up that brand new campaign, Call of the Machine. I didn't get too far but from what I've seen so far, it looks really neat. It definitely blows the the base game, the official expansion packs and Q2:64 out of the water in terms of the level designs.

[Mr. Death]

1 hour ago, Mr. Death said:

I don't ever use Quick Resume. When I'm done playing I pause the game and return to the main menu, then I fully close the game by pressing the "Menu" button on the app and selecting "Quit" through the dashboard.

No, the character/nameplate is reverted as soon as I start the game, before loading any saves. I've also tried changing the settings and then saving my game to see if that would work but it doesn't. Every other setting seems to save just fine upon restart (audio/video/controls).

Okay, I figured it out! If you change any other settings (e.g. audio/visual/controls) AFTER changing your character and nameplate it will be saved the next time you launch the game. Apparently, it just doesn't register the multiplayer changes on their own. A little weird, but it's all good now! :D

[Lila Feuer]

57 minutes ago, Lizardcommando said:

Quake 2 64 has brand new levels, although there were a few parts here and there I saw that definitely were near direct ports of the original PC counterpart (namely the prison areas).

They lifted entire sections from The Reckoning now that my memory's refreshed and minor extras from Ground Zero. The aesthetic and varied colored lighting is really cool, better than the almost always amber look the PC version has, but other than that it's very short and the finale is underwhelming, no real replay value for me.

[Jello]

I would like to point out that this elevator in the first map of the "Wastelands" in Call of the Machine will kill you if you hold forwards after you activate the switch on it:

 

 

[ducon]

I would like such a remaster to merge the levels of a section.

[Beginner]

8 hours ago, WARDUST said:

Playing the expansions i have find several items over boxes that i can't reach. It doesn't look like a secret, but like i need a simple double jump, but i've never made something like this in Q2.... Is that the case? can we climb boxes?

Usually, you're either missing geometry you can use to get there or the barrels that you were supposed to use to get there have been blown up. If you want to get the idea of it, you can fire up base Q2 and jump while jumping on a barrel in the last room of the first level. With proper angle and timing you'll be able to get up on the exit platform with it.

[WARDUST]

3 hours ago, Beginner said:

Usually, you're either missing geometry you can use to get there or the barrels that you were supposed to use to get there have been blown up. If you want to get the idea of it, you can fire up base Q2 and jump while jumping on a barrel in the last room of the first level. With proper angle and timing you'll be able to get up on the exit platform with it.

thanks! yes i supose that, in the original campaign there are some of thouse, but in The recogning there are many items and nothing evident to jump over. Also, i see some videos in youtube with people making jumps/climbs a bit weird for me, oriented to multiplayer (and i'm an oldschool SP only guy)

A video make it more clear:

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by WARDUST

[RakshaTheCat]

41 minutes ago, WARDUST said:

A video make it more clear

There is a pipe above it, you can probably get on it from one of those balconies on the upper floor and jump down on top of the crates :)

Edited August 19, 2023 by RakshaTheCat

[Beginner]

1 hour ago, WARDUST said:

thanks! yes i supose that, in the original campaign there are some of thouse, but in The recogning there are many items and nothing evident to jump over. Also, i see some videos in youtube with people making jumps/climbs a bit weird for me, oriented to multiplayer (and i'm an oldschool SP only guy)

A video make it more clear:

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

First, take the power cube to turn off the forcefield. There a "reactor" room at lower level with lava pool in it and explosions going off every few seconds, take the elevator, then another one on the other side of the room, then jump on pipe and then jump on the box. Or "just" double jump off railing if you can.

Edit: even easier way to get there: call the elevator, jump on the railing, jump on the lower box, jump on the lamp sticking out of the wall, jump on the higher box with an item.

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Beginner
put it under spoiler for unknown reason and also added another way to get there

[scalliano]

On 8/18/2023 at 4:10 AM, dustarma said:

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

Have you tried crouching? I had this happen on PS5 and that was how I got through.

[Koko Ricky]

I've been revisiting Quake 2 64, and oof! The 4kb texture cache of the N64 reduces many 128x128 textures to 32x32. It really highlights how stupid it was to cap the cache like that. How did Doom 64 manage so many 64x64 textures two years earlier?

Edited August 19, 2023 by Koko Ricky

[Jayextee]

Quake II 64 was, as far as I was concerned back in the day, a 5/5 must-play FPS on N64. Still is. Stripped of that context and lumped in with all this other glorious Quake II content it's a 1/5 curio that I doubt I'll be playing much again.

[Azuris]

2 hours ago, Koko Ricky said:

I've been revisiting Quake 2 64, and oof! The 4kb texture cache of the N64 reduces many 128x128 textures to 32x32. It really highlights how stupid it was to cap the cache like that. How did Doom 64 manage so many 64x64 textures two years earlier?

 

Trickery, there are many Textures that are made cleverly, they are only 1/4 of what it looks like and are actually mirrowed in the other three Directions ;)

 

A good Example are Crates.

 

 

The Texture on the Left is only 1/4,

the Creature in the Middle 1/2.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Azuris

[lowenz]

 

[Koko Ricky]

11 minutes ago, Azuris said:

 

Trickery, there are many Textures that are made cleverly, they are only 1/4 of what it looks like and are actually mirrowed in the other three Directions ;)

 

A good Example are Crates.

 

 

The Texture on the Left is only 1/4,

the Creature in the Middle 1/2.

If you look at the textures in Doom 64 Builder, there are quite a few 64x64 textures; in fact all flats and neatly all wall textures are this size. I've read repeatedly online that 32x32 was typical for most N64 assets. An RGB, 24-bit pixel is 3 bytes, and there are 1024 pixels in a 32×32 image, which would take up 3072 bytes overall. I think maybe they went with 8-bit indexed colors for those textures, as they're a single byte per pixel, making 64x64 possible.

[SteelPH]

8 minutes ago, Koko Ricky said:

If you look at the textures in Doom 64 Builder, there are quite a few 64x64 textures; in fact all flats and neatly all wall textures are this size. I've read repeatedly online that 32x32 was typical for most N64 assets. An RGB, 24-bit pixel is 3 bytes, and there are 1024 pixels in a 32×32 image, which would take up 3072 bytes overall. I think maybe they went with 8-bit indexed colors for those textures, as they're a single byte per pixel, making 64x64 possible.

They are indeed indexed.

Edited August 19, 2023 by SteelPH

[Koko Ricky]

On 8/17/2023 at 1:14 PM, tzen said:

 

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?

I looked through the entire list and while r_shadows doesn't toggle anything, r_staticshadows seems to get rid of dynamic shadowmaps. If those blobs are hard-coded, that's a rather odd decision to make. They've been distracting a bit from the presentation as it clashes awkwardly with the light/shadowmaps. Am I alone here?

Edited August 19, 2023 by Koko Ricky

[Dark Pulse]

33 minutes ago, Koko Ricky said:

If you look at the textures in Doom 64 Builder, there are quite a few 64x64 textures; in fact all flats and neatly all wall textures are this size. I've read repeatedly online that 32x32 was typical for most N64 assets. An RGB, 24-bit pixel is 3 bytes, and there are 1024 pixels in a 32×32 image, which would take up 3072 bytes overall. I think maybe they went with 8-bit indexed colors for those textures, as they're a single byte per pixel, making 64x64 possible.

As was said, the actual textures are 32x32. They are just very cleverly designed so that they can be mirrored horizontally, vertically, or both at the mapper's control with linedef flags.

 

As a result, you can take a 32x32 texture and make it as big as 64x64 if you turn on both the mirror horizontal and mirror vertical flags. If the texture is already 64x64, flipping those flags would allow for it to become 128 in one or both directions, etc.

 

Obviously, not every texture will fit this rule, but it's a clever way to get a little more mileage out of textures, and at the same time, consume absolutely no more texture space than normal.

 

And yes, this is still (a very heavily modified) Doom engine, so the palette is 256-color, indexed color.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Dark Pulse

[Individualised]

10 hours ago, ducon said:

I would like such a remaster to merge the levels of a section.

Quake 2's areas between loading zones are much bigger than even Half Life's are, it doesn't really make much sense to do so.

[Koko Ricky]

5 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

As was said, the actual textures are 32x32. They are just very cleverly designed so that they can be mirrored horizontally, vertically, or both at the mapper's control with linedef flags.

 

As a result, you can take a 32x32 texture and make it as big as 64x64 if you turn on both the mirror horizontal and mirror vertical flags.

 

Obviously, not every texture will fit this rule, but it's a clever way to get a little more mileage out of textures, and at the same time, consume absolutely no more texture space than normal.

 

And yes, this is still a (very modified) Doom engine, so the palette is 256-color, indexed color.

You are mistaken. Look at Doom Builder 64. All flats are 64x64. Switches are 32x32. A few "tall textures" are 32x128. The rest are 64×64. What you're referring to are structures like doors, where horizontal/vertical flipping can turn 64×64 into 128×128. The textures you posted are base 64X64. Indexing the colors is what allowed the resolution to be doubled. 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Koko Ricky

[Dark Pulse]

12 minutes ago, Koko Ricky said:

You are mistaken. Look at Doom Builder 64. All flats are 64x64. Switches are 32x32. A few "tall textures" are 32x128. The rest are 64×64. What you're referring to are structures like doors, where horizontal/vertical flipping can turn 64×64 into 128×128. The textures you posted are base 64X64. Indexing the colors is what allowed the resolution to be doubled. 

That's... not mistaken at all.

 

The basic principle is that you can take a texture, of any size, and with linedef flags, mirror it horizontally, vertically, or both. If it's a 32x32 texture, it can be that, 32x64, 64x32, or 64x64. If the texture is 64x64 (and is not a flat), that can become 64x64, 64x128, 128x64, or 128x128. If it's an oddball size, it'd still work - a 32x128 texture could become 32x128, 32x256, 64x128, or 64x256.

 

This is how it works. It let them get the most out of a limited texture cache, increasing variety in the process without having to actually store entirely new textures in the cache.

 

The other part of the equation is that this is ROM. The nanosecond-access speed of the ROM means that virtually every texture and sprite can be paged in and out at will, meaning all the texture cache really needs to keep is whatever is in view, or about to be in view, at any given moment.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Dark Pulse

[Koko Ricky]

I'm sorry, but I do not believe you when you stated "all textures are 32x32." You can literally see the dimension sizes of them in the editor. The 64x64 textures are not idtech1 style patches of smaller textures. They become larger in the editing process. The base textures are not strictly 32x32. In fact it has already been confirmed by @SteelPH that the colors are indexed, which is why many of them are base 64x64, as it uses up exactly all 4096 bytes of cache. If they're RGB, then they are reduced to a maximum of 32×32.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Koko Ricky