News | Forum | People | FAQ | Links | Search | Register | Log in
Quake Speedruns On SDA
I get the idea that quite a few Quake mappers love to watch speedruns on their own maps, and us speedrunners have always liked new (and old) maps to speedrun, and we've all been fairly good at supporting both communities, but I also get the idea that most mappers aren't really checking for news at SDA, at least not very often. Maybe I'm just completely wrong here, but I was thinking it was a good initiative to put a post here whenever we did an update. Just listing the map name, the mapper, and the demos without all the text that usually goes into an update on SDA. If one wants to read the entire update, one can go to the news page on SDA:

http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/

Also, a quick explanation regarding the use of "demo tags" (for those that aren't into the SDA-termology) like ER, NH, EH2, etc etc.

- ER is short for "Easy Run", meaning a pure run through any given map on skill 0 (easy) without having to kill any monsters or find any secrets.

- NH is short for "Nightmare 100%", meaning a run through any given map on skill 3 (nightmare) getting ALL kills and finding ALL secrets.

- EH2 is short for "Easy 100% 2 player", meaning a cooperative run with 2 players through any given map on skill 0 getting ALL kills and finding ALL secrets.

I think you get the picture...

Let's do a quick roundup of the latest update on SDA (April 2nd, 2009):

e4m6 - The Pain Maze by Sandy Petersen
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:e4m6
NH: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/NH/e4m6_153.dz

hip1m3 - The Lost Mine by Hipnotic Interactive
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:hip1m3
ER: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/ER/h1m3_045.dz

hotel - Welcome to Hotel Kique-Asse by Andrew Turner
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:hotel
EH: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/EH/hot_036.dz

wrld11 - World 1-1 for Quake by Mattias Berggren
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:wrld11
EH: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/EH/wr11_038.dz
NH: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/NH/wr11_038.dz

msacro - Manslay's Acrobatics by Dmitry 'Manslay' Dementjev
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:msacro
EH: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/EH/mscr_117.dz

tchak - The Tomb of Chak Toh Ich'ak by Rui 'Trinca' Neto
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:tchak
NR: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/NR/tcha_115.dz
NR2: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/NR2/tcha_012.dz

e3m2 - Vaults of Zin by American McGee
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:e3m2
NR2: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/NR2/e3m2_015.dz

dragon - Lair of the Dragon Ogre by David 'Death Method' Duncan
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:dragon
EH2: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/EH2/drag_047.dz

e4m7u - ynogA eruzA by Jaakko 'NahkahiiR' Alakopsa
Map: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/mkt.pl?level:e4m7u
EH2: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/EH2/7m4e_115.dz
NH2: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/EH2/7m4e_137.dz

ALL DEMOS DOWNLOAD:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/sda_02_apr_2009.dz
First | Previous | Next | Last
Denial 
Is the first defense of why things are fine when things aren't workin'.

"Things are great as how they are?" - Spirit
"You are an idiot" says Shambler
"It's so easy [that no one does it]" says Ricky

Meanwhile, in the last 7-8 years I've heard of maybe 4-5 non-hardcore people that have even watched an SDA demo.

I probably watched 80 of them back 4 years ago when I built a file association demo play tool [that even supported .dz for non-dz engines].

The first rule of life is honesty.

Don't kid yourself, very few non-Quake leet (The hardcores) are going to do all the steps required to watch even one SDA demo.

Yet the few speed runs on YouTube get an assloadius maximus of views.

(And Shambler, I'm not convinced you actually know how to play a .dz demo. Add that to the list of things you don't know, like how to compile a map or use FitzQuake ;) ) 
 
Did those people have Quake? Would they even be remotely interested in "random run on a custom map you never heard of"?


I'm not saying that things are great as they are. Things could be easier in most engines. I launch demos via doubleclick and the engine I use has a demo browser. It also has dzip and zip support. Any halfway intelligent person could watch a speedrun this way without needing a feeding cup.

For the doubleclicking here you go: http://www.quaddicted.com/tips-and-tricks/launching-maps-and-demos-with-a-doubleclick/
metl posted the way for Windows in the comments.

You could always do it yourself, you know? Post speedruns to youtube! 
As In 
there is only one way to find out if this is the right thing to do: Doing it yourself and check the results. 
Baker. 
WotEVER. I'm not the person who's ever had any problems playing demos. 
 
"Did those people have Quake? Would they even be remotely interested in "random run on a custom map you never heard of"? "

What if you're at work and want to watch some demos on your lunch break? Hey, you don't have Quake installed there, too bad I guess.

Look, the fact is that producing a video file of a game is super easy these days. It's time to stop living in denial and move forward with technology.

Provide the DZ nonsense for those who love it but provide those of us on other operating systems or who simply want convenience some other way of checking them out. I LOVE speed runs but whenever I'm forced to download a map and then a demo and use Quake to view it - I rapidly lose interest.

That's all. 
 
Hell, the speed run archives site ALREADY HAS AVI files of several speed runs and I've watched them all multiple times. It's the better choice for a lot of people. 
Thats A Fair Comment 
 
Hmm 
Did those people have Quake? Would they even be remotely interested in "random run on a custom map you never heard of"?

I watched that bike video Shambler posted. I don't actually own a bike. Or a skate board. Or squirrel suit (oh god do I want one tho). Yet I still watch videos for them.


Look, the fact is that producing a video file of a game is super easy these days. It's time to stop living in denial and move forward with technology.

Indeed. And frankly, I don't think it'd be that hard to create an automated process on someone's machine to produce avi files from new demos and auto-upload them to youtube. Fsck, they even do HD nao... 
0.02 
i never watch speed runs in quake. i might start if they were on youtube or something. 
Speedruns... 
i have watched the high profile runs such as QDQ and its variants. I have also watched the speedruns of Antediluvian since it's my own level. Since I'm not deep in the speedrunning scene, I generally don't watch all of the ~20 new speedruns that come out every couple of weeks, mainly because I don't have a sense of which ones are most worth watching. I think that's the obstacle more than installation needs. I can install a map and a demo, no problem, but I have no idea which demo of hundreds I should be watching. 
Maybe A Community Effort 
Could be the answer - if people think a demo is particularily worth watching then they should be able to make a Video file and submit it into an archive, a bit like Youtube. Each user gets an account and the capability to upload a video!

Over time I recon a large amount of quality videos would be uploaded, with a short description or whatever.

And there would be more throughput.

And the demo files would still be availiable for anyone to download.

Just an idea/suggestion. 
I Think The Dzip/avi Question Is A Bit Too Low-level... 
What you want it to click the link and be watching the demo a few seconds later. I think I know how to write the necessary glue to do this for dz files on OS X and Linux, maybe I should try it this weekend... Windows is right out, of course (for me). 
 
That would be -awesome-! The less work I have to do, the more likely I am to watch the demo. 
I Didn't Even Know 
Some engines support opening dzip... I just tended to look over files that weren't zip/rar/7z. I'm fine with extracting a .dem, I'm fine with hitting up quaddicted for the map, but I get nitpicky about installing another program just to extract the .dem.

I don't feel particularly strongly about this, but I prefer to experience my Quake via DarkPlaces, FitzQuake or winquake, and thus would need .dem files. *shrug* 
Automation Re: Mwh 
I can do something for Windows. We really want our speedruns to go out to a larger audience, and if it takes a little effort on our part we should do it, right?

I'll talk it out with mwh and see if we can do something clever. 
 
For Linux one could (simply) use a shell script that a) downloads, b) extracts and c) launches. You'll just have a problem once the demo inside is not the same name as the archive. But from what I know you guys have great standards there. 
Spirit 
right, it is basically a shell script: extract, find the dem, (for bonus points poke at the dem to see if the needed bsp is installed and download that if it isn't), launch quake +playdemo <the demo>.

The platform dependent part is just hooking this up so that it happens when you double click a dz/download it from the web, I guess. 
Encouraging 
At the time of my last post, I was kind of sick of arguing against dimwit flatheadery (you cavepeople know who you are *cough*Shambler*/cough*) so it was a final comment and leave sort of thang.

Today, I decided to check the thread again and see some honesty (a good start) and some progressive ideas.

Youtube hosts videos for $0.00 even in excess of 100 MB.

I still don't think any sort of .dz conflagation even a player or auto-extractor would be mainstream, but I can understand the desire since .dz demos are so tiny.

To Shambler the ignornamus maximus: I helped Jozsef promote and spread JoeQuake quite a bit back in 2003, I can assure you I've known how to play .dz demos before you even knew what they were. 
 
Wow, 2003. That's ... barely legal school? 
We Need A Website (or A Chapter In Willems Site Or Something) 
"Demo Tube", providing a URL as does the glorious QuakeTastic!!!

And then upload the .dz files to /demos etc. 
Someone Make A .dz Bot. A Sealed Connection Which Just Finds .dz 
files, analyses them, extracts them, records demos with them and then posts the links somewhere... 
Baker. 
WOTever girlfriend. I'm still the one who finds playing Quake demos a piece of piss.

I quite like you doing the final comment and leave thing. Ideally if you could do that before you start posting... 
@Shambler 
I quite like you doing the final comment and leave thing. Ideally if you could do that before you start posting...

Shambler +1 [+2 bonus for humor content] = +3 
But 
Who gets the +5 'High Moral Ground' bonus? 
Quake Done Quick Videos 
Hi again, sorry I've been dorment for a while and haven't been updating this thread.

Anyways, there's good news! We're - finally some would say - adding .zip support to the demos on SDA, hooray for that! Should happen from the next update and onwards. Also, I've been busy setting up a YouTube page and FaceBook group for speedrunning. So far I've "only" managed to upload all the Quake done Quick videos that are available (more will come eventually once we get the runs encoded to video), but I'm planning to update the pages (YouTube at least) with all the latest SDA updates as well.

YouTube:
http://youtube.com/user/QuakeSpeedrunning
FaceBook:
http://facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=91979943701&ref=ts

We will also be adding a "get started guide" to SDA as well as several new additions, like "easy to install" versions of Quake. That way everyone will benefit and it will surely make things easier for those who might want to have a knack at speedrunning through the game...

As always, the link to QuakeSDA can be found here: http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake

A demo update will follow soon-ish... Tooodle-loo 'till then. 
First | Previous | Next | Last
You must be logged in to post in this thread.
Website copyright © 2002-2024 John Fitzgibbons. All posts are copyright their respective authors.