Dreaming about the future state of Quake Graphics again..

[gnounc]

I was doing that thing I do every so often (like constantly) where I review the ambiance of quake and what could give it that extra push.
here's what I came up with this time ( I know some of these have been done)
or could be easily implemented.

and yeah, I know many of these have come up over and over again

add entrails gibs (one or two looooong ropey physics driven bloodsacs!)
better fire effects for torches

abyss like portal (animated bump map, normal map and texture map with alpha blends and true animation, not just a warping effect)

bullets and grenades etc. etc. etc. go through portals

nails stick in walls

add footstep sounds for all creatures including player

add distanced sounds (EAX)**

make more varied stain maps (with normal and bump maps)

make corpses gibs ammo and weapons (health quad etc) all
objects be interactive in some way

maybe add marco polo sounds for certain items, like quad could call out to you
and get louder as you approach, doing that whispered insane voice effect

smarter AI is a definate must, replace each ai with simplified botcode
so you really feel HUNTED.

electricity particle effect when you shoot it at water

splash particle effect for bullets rockets (all objects) and explosions

slight wall jumping

rope physics, add ropes to scenery as props (overhead canopys etc)

explodable weapons ammo etc, object gibs (only on direct hit, stain maps on
peripheral hit)

transluscency, translucent spots on enemies, translucent spots in walls
some of that ET-HEARTSAC sort of translucency with colored light sources behind them would add some real warmth and depth to the game
(like shub niggurath,and in the armpits of wizards)

per weapon gibtype
damagable monster models, you shotgun blast a soldier and his ribcage blasts open and stuff starts hanging out, you blast him again his arm falls off,

monster angry animation during interrupt
instead of just a quick weird repulsion like "uuuuuuugh bullets" more
like an ARRRRRGH BULLETS ILL KILLLLLLL YOU!!!! animation.

dust and dirt on the floor that you can stir up or have footprints on
water spots on the floor leaky pipes maybe
grime
blood pools

megatextures?

and as always the levels could use a going over to reduce sharp edges where textures meet and texture usage becomes a hole in the 4th wall, just curve em up and add some trimming.

[nitro/adminofdeath]

electricity particle effect when you shoot it at water

Hmmm like that idea

also you could shoot the water to kill everything in it

[Hazza]

So Awesome it deserves to be addressed post-by-post- but I'll still try to keep it short!

Gibbed soldiers/ogres SHOULD drop their ammo packs- I've always kicked myself for gibbing ogres 'NO! I needed his grenades'. On a side note, monsters shouldn't gib if shot by a shotgun- It just looks silly when a 7-foot tall bodybuilder wearing space armour gets totally splattered by buckshot- similar deal with knights.

Turok-style entertaining gory deaths are tempting- but maybe not- it might look a bit cartoonish- although if they managed to get a few Doom2-style deaths in, I wouldn't complain (maybe for scrags, Vores?- and spawn should splat.)

I disagree about BOT-AI (mainly strafing)- it doesn't really turn out much fun in a single-player game as in a deathmatch game. Trying to chase down Nehahra's bots annoyed the hell out of me. Although monsters SHOULD be smart enough to dodge a rocket at REALLY long ranges, and some (enforcers) should be smart enough to clear away from a ticking grenade. There could be a few enemies that ARE really agile and avoid your fire- but they should be lightly armoured high-level enemies (HL Assassins are a good example).
Although most monsters in most cases simply didn't see it coming. Monsters should also try to head for vantage points, sneak up on you and be able to follow you around the level.

slight wall jumping- maybe not for the player (if there is a ledge sticking out then ordinary jumps could apply). But for jumping enemies- absolutely. Especially fiends- he leaps, you dodge- he slams in a wall and springs off!

Disagree- if ammo crates get caught in an explosion, they should be sent flying like in HL2. I'm anal about preserving ammo- if that happened, I would run into a room of badguys and nails and say "Shit! I can't shoot! The bastards are keeping their ammo hostage!"

Otherwise, agree 100% with everything you said.
Especially rope effects (chains), translucent skin and corner-vertice smoothing. Everything else you said should be compulsory standard for Quake!

On a side note, I reckon an awesome idea would be to either port Source engine code into Darkplaces- or even make a Single-Player Quake mod for Half-Life 2 (as most of the physics, AI and stuff are there, you'd only need to make similar Darkplace-style conversions to the Source engine, and port over Rygel's textures- leaving only weapons and monsters (luckily the code for leaping monsters, running monsters and weapon attacks are already there, for the most part- just rewrite a few AI and jump force/angle parameters).