engine recommendations for Quake 1 in 2012?

[Mike_Tyson]

I started playing Quake 1 again after a hiatus of about 7 years. Travail is wicked and it looks like 2012 will be the summer of Quake for me... It's good to see that Q1 is still alive, well and played by many. In 2005 I mostly played with Telejano engine and liked it very much. Great to see that QuakeOne.com is also alive and still around, I remember it from days past. Looking forward to ask you lots of stuff and discuss about Q1!

I was wondering, which is the best engine nowadays? Is there anything better than Telejano?

I tried quakespasm, which I did not like (looks a bit basic compared to Telejano).

I also tried Dark Places, which is better than quakespasm, but DP also uses the basic polygon fire from Q1, it doesn't have the fancy fire, smoke and light effects like Telejano.

I would also try out Tenebrae, but for the life of me can't find a place where to download it. It doesn't seem to be possible from the official Tenebrae page. Does anyone know where to get it?

Also, I could swear that ~7 years ago I tried out an engine which had per-pixel lightning... which engines have this? (or was that Tenebrae?)

I also have some questions regarding modding / level design, but for this I better start a separate thread.

==
My specs: I play on a Vaio laptop with GeForce 9300 M GS, Core2 Duo @ 2.4 GHz

[MH]

It sounds as though DarkPlaces is still the best option for you, despite you having tried and dismissed it already. Most engines in active development have their own very specific goals, and many of them are not going to meet what I think you want from a Quake engine. The basic DarkPlaces package doesn't have all the extra effects you're looking for, but you can download add-ons for it (mostly advertised and available via this very site) and go completely nuts, eventually spending more time tweaking your setup than you spend actually playing Quake!

[Mike_Tyson]

It sounds as though DarkPlaces is still the best option for you, despite you having tried and dismissed it already

I didn't want to dismiss Dark Places entirely, I just meant it didn't look too great to me. I am aware this might be my fault and maybe I haven't configured it right. But compared to Telejano, Dark Places looked quite basic. As I said, especially regarding fire, smoke, light effects. Is there a reason why you recommend DP over Telejano? Or is it because Telejano is not in development anymore?

And what do you think of Tenebrae?

what I think you want from a Quake engine

What I want (ideally - I don't know how realistic my wishlist is) from an engine (in descending order of importance):

• should not require too much work setting it up. I am aware that installation, configuration are necessary, and have installed several engines already as I wrote. I don't mind doing that. But spending more time tweaking the engine than playing, as you mention - and I know that it can really come to that - is not what I want atm. I mainly want to play the original quake and mods, but with updated looks. It should look awesome for the hardware that I have, but at the same time I don't aim to squeeze out the latest and greatest of graphics effects out of my humble GeForce chip. It just should look cool. Also I want to get into level design again so it would be great if I can load my own levels easily.
• being able to play mods like Travail and many others
• load hi-res textures
• good, atmospheric lightning and shadows for the levels: per-pixel lightning, ideally bump-mapping
• have "realistic" (i.e. good looking) effects for fire, smoke, fog, particles, light: f.e. "bars" of light falling through stained glass windows, or the little motes that are sucked into portals (I love these) in Telejano, this kind of thing.
• transparent water

[MH]

You've hit the nail on the head for why I recommend DP. The others aren't being actively developed anymore, and won't have essential modern features such as large map support.

Aside from (possibly) your first item, DP meets all of the others and then goes quite a way beyond. The basic download-and-install package doesn't come with everything enabled, however, but it can be all switched on and configured until your gfx card begs for mercy.

I don't use it myself so I can't adsvise further. There are, however, others who cruise these boards, who are actively making such add-ons for it, and who are very experienced in setting everything up for it, and I don't doubt that one of them will pop along and say more sooner rather than later.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

If you want snazzy looking quake with almost no setup requirements, Qrack 400mb flavor. It's right up the alley of "Get it & Go" type of situation you seek...

http://quakeone.com/qrack/dist/qrack2011full.zip


edit:noticed your using a laptop, I am also pretty sure you might run into a issue getting DarkPlaces to reach the level of epicness without choking out your gpu (darkplaces has some awesome lighting effects,but they are mega taxing on systems)

[MadGypsy]

But spending more time tweaking the engine than playing, as you mention - and I know that it can really come to that - is not what I want atm. I mainly want to play the original quake and mods, but with updated looks.

I am not familiar with what mindz posted but in general you will spend quite a bit of time making "any" engine look modern because you have to download all the updated content AND there are multiple versions of this updated content. Want a high def ogre skin? well there are like "20" of them and the only way to know which one you like is to get and try them all. Now multiply that times every monster, every weapon, every item, etc...

However there is a possible "quick fix" for you. Splitterface has her entire DP setup zipped up in a torrent. If you ask her nicely maybe she will seed it for you and PM you a link. It is a huge download..like 2.5 gig if I remember right.

Gypsy

[Bloodshot]

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod...mpilation.html

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod...sters-smc.html

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod...-overload.html

Some of the stuff you are looking for. Darkplaces also supports some of the best dynamic soft shadows I've ever seen in a game if you can run it (which I can )

[=peg=]

There is also some pretty good info and content on Quake Reforged...

[Kaiser]

This is the one i have:

Quake "Epsilon" Builds for Windows/Mac/Linux

It's a compilation of all the greatest and best mods of Quake. It's really fast and easy to. The graphics are just gorgeous. Just check the pics

[Xombium]

This is the one i have:

It's a compilation of all the greatest and best mods of Quake. It's really fast and easy to. The graphics are just gorgeous. Just check the pics

I checked out some pics and videos. They look amazing. So it's just a bunch of mods that are compatible with the darkplaces engine, as well as said engine all thrown together into one download?

I have a gtx670 on a 1440p monitor with a core i7. I should be fine to get this on ultra yeah?

[gdiddy62]

I've downloaded and tweaked to my liking Smith's Quake HD for New Spawns from this forum which uses DP and is an excellent option IMO. It uses QRP textures which some prefer to the Rygel textures in the epsilon mentioned above. It all boils down to personal taste.

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-tal...ew-spawns.html

[morrowind]

"essential modern features such as large map support"

I've just hit a point with WorldCraft where the map boundary is going to be too small for what I planned to do.. how does using DP help this?

Thanks!

[Xombium]

So I just downloaded Epsilon, and I don't see Reflecting surfaces or "bump-mapping"? I think it's actually called Parallax occlusion mapping.

Anyway before I got that I just had darkplaces with a few mods, and I have POM then. I forget how to get it back. Anyone know how I can get that and the reflective surfaces?

Also, I just installed it into my quake directory and it erased all my saved games. :/ Whoopsie.

[Xombium]

Okay so I found the fix for the parallax mapping.

you have to write in quake's console two commands:

r_glsl_offsetmapping 1"
r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping 1" (this one gives higher quality parallax mapping)

I now have better parallax mapping then before.

[morrowind]

Nice thanks for posting that.