Zircon Engine

Several modifications to give the DarkPlaces engine the ability to look like traditional Quake as an option. Weapon placement, drawing the status bar backtile. The additional ability to draw the frames per second readout where most other engines draw it. These are all options in the menu.

Beta 63:

Quake lightning is the default lightning in Zircon now "cl_beams_polygons 0" default ("cl_beams_polygons 1" will set "DarkPlaces lightning"). Console: CTRL + LEFT and CTRL + RIGHT (next previous word) now treats "/" characters as a separator, allowing faster and easier editing of autocompletions for path aware commands like "folder" -- commands that autocomplete paths, models or texture names benefit greatly. Adjustment to "jack_scripts" console command (related to J.A.C.K. map editor) to make it strip q3map_bouncescale (J.A.C.K. does not know what q3map_bouncescale is).

Alpha 51:

Quake rerelease support (English only at this time). Tested mostly on the Episode 1 levels both on Windows and Linux and some light testing on Dimension of The Machine. Needs more testing. This implementation differs from the Quakespasm rerelease implementation, this implementation performs localization on the client side only and communicates qEX progs state over network (stored in demos as well). The previous Zircon Quake Remaster attempt had a wrong number typed into the network protocol code and this version loads the localization data kpf as a standard gamedir pk3.

Alpha 27:

"Record demo at any time" feature added. This is not actually possible in DarkPlaces (therefore Zircon). Nonetheless, you can now type "record mydemo" at any time in single player or in multiplayer and start recording a demo. Somewhere a Shambler and a Vore are very angry and offended at how this was accomplished.

Alpha 26:

Pictured: devel_set_alpha2.pk3. Mousewheel and pageup/down are now available in all scrolling menus (maps, effects, servers, ..). Real-time light editor new command ... r_editlights_select_index, this allows selecting a light by light number in the console ... for instance "r_editlights_select_index 7" would select light #7 of the light list. new commands "inc" and "dec" commands that function like FitzQuake, "inc fov 2" would increase fov by 2, "dec fov" would decrease 1 (default amount).

Alpha 25 :

Command host_timescale added, set to 0.5 for half-speed or 2.0 for double speed. This is largely a wrapper around an existing DarkPlaces cvar called "slowmo". This command gives a consistent name to the same function in other Quake engines and Valve. Added "tool_show_position 1" and "tool_show_angles 1" to display that information on-screen for map testing to more easily compare in world positions with the map editor in case of making map adjustments.

Alpha 14 :

Crash that used to occur sometimes with ALT-TAB or minimized window is fully resolved. A windows message was not being handled, the engine was not aware it did not have a valid drawing surface.

Alpha 13 :

ODE enabled, r_viewmodel_ring_alpha 0.4 support, improved r_minlight, simplified server browser server list, maps list now checks for info_player_start/info_player_deathmatch in maps.

Alpha 12 :

Fence texture .mdl model support, support for precaching .lmp files in QuakeC -- both relate to Arcane Dimensions. r_minlight 0.5 (default) -- a minimum amount of light all models must receive to prevent pitch black players and monsters (set to 0 for DarkPlaces normal). Menu touchups. Crosshair color defaults gray. Windows ALT-TAB/minimize could on rare occasions lose the OpenGL Window, changes made that seem to solve that.

Alpha 11 :

Linux SDL binary now included plus source compiles on Linux ("make sdl-release"). Command completion now considers semi-colons in the console typing line to determine autocomplete type. A change related to dropfloor and Quake. "copy" offers "ents" in autocompletion for "copy ents" to copy bsp entity information to clipboard.

Alpha 10 :

Full mouse driven menu, select/cut/copy/paste/undo in the console, tool_inspector 1 and 33 other enhancements (see readme).

Alpha 6 :

Maps menu, centerprint logging, optional "skyfog" (new default), optional forward/reverse full autocompletion and cycling (new default). More subtle console cursor. The classic DarkPlaces autocompletion method is still available setting "con_zircon_autocomplete 0" Includes optional "DarkPlaces Classic Set" pk3 replacement elements for menus, monsters, weapons, items. To use them, toss the pk3 files in this .zip in quake id1 folder.