Tweet
A Complete Evaluation of DarkPlaces
Here is a complete set of observations from several varied tests of DarkPlaces.
If you have DarkPlaces properly setup, it feels so much better than any other engine and you do not want to stop using it. With no offense meant to other engines, it makes other engines feel like comic books versions of a great movie.
DarkPlaces mouse movement feels better, the online play is smoother than anything else, and it is more responsive.
DarkPlaces was shaped by a different user base than other engines; communities like the engine modders, single player game modders and total conversion online games like Nexuiz.
With my old crappy GeForce2 I was able to play online pretty well for the most part, but encountered FPS performance issues sometimes. So I bought a new and better graphics card, a GeForce 5200 FX (not top of the line) hoping I would be able to ditch ProQuake forever at least for myself.
I get double or triple the old FPS with the newer graphics card, but I still occasionally get performance issues in what seems to be some part of certain maps or certain situations. Although rare, I can just stand in certain maps at certain spots and get bad FPS and performance; this is probably due to how DarkPlaces does lighting or maybe how it renders entities.
In closed maps like DM6 and Aerowalk, DarkPlaces is addictive and gets high performance. DM6 is small and there is never very much to see anywhere in the map. In more open maps, the FPS seems to dip and fighting in those areas seem choppy. This is all speculation on my part, but it seems like a strong pattern but I may be wrong as to why it happens. I'm not engine coder so I'm just describing what is happening.
Synopsis
The 4 main problems with DarkPlaces compared to, say, GLPRO go like this:
1. Default settings and setup difficulties. Not really a big deal as this type of thing is not hard to adjust or it could be bundled with a config or a nice little setup page. Seems significant to someone using the engine, but is hardly something that couldn't easily be addressed in some form. Trivial to address.
2. Little features missing that exist in other engines. A few engines have cl_fullpitch 1/0 cvars and DarkPlaces doesn't. PQ_TEAMSCORES ... once you use it, you want it forever. Qrack has a special MM2 sound. Other small stuff. None of that is a big deal, that stuff could easily be coded. Other things like different cvar names could easily be address by documentation and players learning about the engine. Trivial to address.
3. Finding the right brightness/contrast/etc. I have some pretty good settings and can see fine and seems to work perfect on a lot of maps, but then other maps it is too bright. Or it is too dark. Or it is too bright in a certain area. DM3 is a good example and so are a lot of the rocket arena maps, but maps like the E4Mx series have a lot of "too dark" spots.
I can't find quite a single settings that works well absolutely everywhere. The main problem is that as a result is a player is too dark, I can't see his color or sometimes I can't even see the player. If it is too bright, I can't easily tell what color a player is because it is bleached out.
In team games, identification is important. In FFA type of games, you often in your head categorize threats by player color and might, say, only be concerned about a certain player that happens to be red and green.
If only these lighting extremes did not occur *sigh*. Not a killer in itself, but can be somewhat frustrating at times. Probably a 6 out of 10 problem.
4. Frames per second. *cry* The most lethal weapon in Quake is the lightning gun. It is also a very FPS sensitive weapon and a lot of times in DarkPlaces I can't shaft well at all. It is like sometimes it skips frames during an FPS drop and you simply can't keep the shaft locked on someone.
Also when the FPS drops, you can't defend yourself and sometimes can't fire and you see someone and know you are going to be killed by a rocket and can't do anything to stop it.
The "FPS drop" problem appears to happen in certain circumstances and certain maps, and is an intermittent thing that is sometimes not even encountered on some entire maps.
Some maps and situations, it never happens. Some maps and situations, it happens often.
Differences/Things You Will Notice
Nothing in this list would stop me from using DarkPlaces, these are just observations and notes.
1. Your ping seems to reported by the server 20-30 ms lower than any other client. I often show as 3 or 9 ping at a server where I normally get 34-46 ping. I don't know if this is somehow real with DarkPlaces or how/why this happens.
2. Default fullpitch, which means that you can look straight up (and probably straight down too). Servers which disallow fullpitch (most) may correct your view if you look too high which feels awkward.
3. Default "straight shaft". This can be turned off by turning OFF smooth sweep lightning in "Customize Effects". Most engines have this feature including JoeQuake and Qrack, but ProQuake does not. I think straight shaft doesn't even help aim the LG, but I can understand anyone who feels this is a cheat but unless that is the "one thing" that stops you from using the engine, it is a silly complaint since Qrack and JoeQuake has it (cl_truelightning 1).
4. The side to side model bobbing is on by default. It can be turned off easily.
5. You can type more than 44 characters when typing a message, but since ProQuake servers only support 44 chars (and I got no clue what the QW limit is) you can type more of a message than others will actually receive. This is because DarkPlaces servers support, I think, 255 characters of MM.
6. The default lighting probably isn't what you would want to use. It can be turned off easily.
7. Some of the effects can't really be made to resemble vanilla Quake. This is particularly noticeable at Shmack, where deathspots (blood particle) and ice spots are very hard to see. Also the "frozen effect" in an ice trap looks different. There are some other variances and I think these can be changed via a particles effect info.txt.
8. Does not currently have the following ProQuake features: record a demo at any time, game clock visible at all times, iplog/ident capability, pq_teamscores (shows team totals instead of individual player totals in the HUD), pq_smoothcam (makes observing other players nice and smooth somehow), pq_moveup 1 (swim = moveup if in water because moveup moves faster than jump swimming), and few other little odds and ends.
9. Yellow mentoned that Qrack has a different MM2 beep than MM1 beep. I figured I'd throw this in the list for completeness.
10. ProQuake server rcon (RocketGuy mentioned that and LH said "ain't gonna happen"
).
11. On very rare occasions, I get a crash (I think it has happened twice). But I blame myself :d
If I remember anything else, I will post it in this thread.
Benefits of DarkPlaces
I listed some of the numerous advantages of DarkPlaces over GLPRO in another thread. It is pretty substantial.
You can set the video mode, resolution, brightness, FPS from within DarkPlaces (very user friendly) and it has 24 bit texture support and when used with a DarkPlaces server (which can be run using a Quake compatible protocol = all clients can connect to it) can download maps and models (like Quakeworld does, for example).
DarkPlaces has the potential to make a ton of things easier, it has server browser capability and DarkPlaces servers can be set to public, meaning they report to a master server (which NQ does not).
Summary
When DarkPlaces is getting solid FPS, it is the best experience by far.
If DarkPlaces ever had a lower setting to get a consistent and high FPS like GLPRO always does and even Qrack seems to usually do, I think it would be easy and a no-brainer for everyone to ditch GLPRO.
I've tried the equivalent of the Nexuiz "Ultra Low" ("super low?") config [except that I will not use GL_PICMIC] and I still can't get DarkPlaces to be smooth FPS-wise under all circumstances like GLPRO and Qrack.
The FPS consistency thing is problem and a real barrier. Who knows, maybe there is some way or some solution
*sigh*
Here is a complete set of observations from several varied tests of DarkPlaces.
If you have DarkPlaces properly setup, it feels so much better than any other engine and you do not want to stop using it. With no offense meant to other engines, it makes other engines feel like comic books versions of a great movie.
DarkPlaces mouse movement feels better, the online play is smoother than anything else, and it is more responsive.
DarkPlaces was shaped by a different user base than other engines; communities like the engine modders, single player game modders and total conversion online games like Nexuiz.
With my old crappy GeForce2 I was able to play online pretty well for the most part, but encountered FPS performance issues sometimes. So I bought a new and better graphics card, a GeForce 5200 FX (not top of the line) hoping I would be able to ditch ProQuake forever at least for myself.
I get double or triple the old FPS with the newer graphics card, but I still occasionally get performance issues in what seems to be some part of certain maps or certain situations. Although rare, I can just stand in certain maps at certain spots and get bad FPS and performance; this is probably due to how DarkPlaces does lighting or maybe how it renders entities.
In closed maps like DM6 and Aerowalk, DarkPlaces is addictive and gets high performance. DM6 is small and there is never very much to see anywhere in the map. In more open maps, the FPS seems to dip and fighting in those areas seem choppy. This is all speculation on my part, but it seems like a strong pattern but I may be wrong as to why it happens. I'm not engine coder so I'm just describing what is happening.
Synopsis
The 4 main problems with DarkPlaces compared to, say, GLPRO go like this:
1. Default settings and setup difficulties. Not really a big deal as this type of thing is not hard to adjust or it could be bundled with a config or a nice little setup page. Seems significant to someone using the engine, but is hardly something that couldn't easily be addressed in some form. Trivial to address.
2. Little features missing that exist in other engines. A few engines have cl_fullpitch 1/0 cvars and DarkPlaces doesn't. PQ_TEAMSCORES ... once you use it, you want it forever. Qrack has a special MM2 sound. Other small stuff. None of that is a big deal, that stuff could easily be coded. Other things like different cvar names could easily be address by documentation and players learning about the engine. Trivial to address.
3. Finding the right brightness/contrast/etc. I have some pretty good settings and can see fine and seems to work perfect on a lot of maps, but then other maps it is too bright. Or it is too dark. Or it is too bright in a certain area. DM3 is a good example and so are a lot of the rocket arena maps, but maps like the E4Mx series have a lot of "too dark" spots.
I can't find quite a single settings that works well absolutely everywhere. The main problem is that as a result is a player is too dark, I can't see his color or sometimes I can't even see the player. If it is too bright, I can't easily tell what color a player is because it is bleached out.
In team games, identification is important. In FFA type of games, you often in your head categorize threats by player color and might, say, only be concerned about a certain player that happens to be red and green.
If only these lighting extremes did not occur *sigh*. Not a killer in itself, but can be somewhat frustrating at times. Probably a 6 out of 10 problem.
4. Frames per second. *cry* The most lethal weapon in Quake is the lightning gun. It is also a very FPS sensitive weapon and a lot of times in DarkPlaces I can't shaft well at all. It is like sometimes it skips frames during an FPS drop and you simply can't keep the shaft locked on someone.
Also when the FPS drops, you can't defend yourself and sometimes can't fire and you see someone and know you are going to be killed by a rocket and can't do anything to stop it.
The "FPS drop" problem appears to happen in certain circumstances and certain maps, and is an intermittent thing that is sometimes not even encountered on some entire maps.
Some maps and situations, it never happens. Some maps and situations, it happens often.
Differences/Things You Will Notice
Nothing in this list would stop me from using DarkPlaces, these are just observations and notes.
1. Your ping seems to reported by the server 20-30 ms lower than any other client. I often show as 3 or 9 ping at a server where I normally get 34-46 ping. I don't know if this is somehow real with DarkPlaces or how/why this happens.
2. Default fullpitch, which means that you can look straight up (and probably straight down too). Servers which disallow fullpitch (most) may correct your view if you look too high which feels awkward.
3. Default "straight shaft". This can be turned off by turning OFF smooth sweep lightning in "Customize Effects". Most engines have this feature including JoeQuake and Qrack, but ProQuake does not. I think straight shaft doesn't even help aim the LG, but I can understand anyone who feels this is a cheat but unless that is the "one thing" that stops you from using the engine, it is a silly complaint since Qrack and JoeQuake has it (cl_truelightning 1).
4. The side to side model bobbing is on by default. It can be turned off easily.
5. You can type more than 44 characters when typing a message, but since ProQuake servers only support 44 chars (and I got no clue what the QW limit is) you can type more of a message than others will actually receive. This is because DarkPlaces servers support, I think, 255 characters of MM.
6. The default lighting probably isn't what you would want to use. It can be turned off easily.
7. Some of the effects can't really be made to resemble vanilla Quake. This is particularly noticeable at Shmack, where deathspots (blood particle) and ice spots are very hard to see. Also the "frozen effect" in an ice trap looks different. There are some other variances and I think these can be changed via a particles effect info.txt.
8. Does not currently have the following ProQuake features: record a demo at any time, game clock visible at all times, iplog/ident capability, pq_teamscores (shows team totals instead of individual player totals in the HUD), pq_smoothcam (makes observing other players nice and smooth somehow), pq_moveup 1 (swim = moveup if in water because moveup moves faster than jump swimming), and few other little odds and ends.
9. Yellow mentoned that Qrack has a different MM2 beep than MM1 beep. I figured I'd throw this in the list for completeness.
10. ProQuake server rcon (RocketGuy mentioned that and LH said "ain't gonna happen"
).11. On very rare occasions, I get a crash (I think it has happened twice). But I blame myself :d
If I remember anything else, I will post it in this thread.
Benefits of DarkPlaces
I listed some of the numerous advantages of DarkPlaces over GLPRO in another thread. It is pretty substantial.
You can set the video mode, resolution, brightness, FPS from within DarkPlaces (very user friendly) and it has 24 bit texture support and when used with a DarkPlaces server (which can be run using a Quake compatible protocol = all clients can connect to it) can download maps and models (like Quakeworld does, for example).
DarkPlaces has the potential to make a ton of things easier, it has server browser capability and DarkPlaces servers can be set to public, meaning they report to a master server (which NQ does not).
Summary
When DarkPlaces is getting solid FPS, it is the best experience by far.
If DarkPlaces ever had a lower setting to get a consistent and high FPS like GLPRO always does and even Qrack seems to usually do, I think it would be easy and a no-brainer for everyone to ditch GLPRO.
I've tried the equivalent of the Nexuiz "Ultra Low" ("super low?") config [except that I will not use GL_PICMIC
] and I still can't get DarkPlaces to be smooth FPS-wise under all circumstances like GLPRO and Qrack.The FPS consistency thing is problem and a real barrier. Who knows, maybe there is some way or some solution
*sigh*
.
Comment