Yeah, I noticed the post about the release right after asking that question... Thanks anyway, Shambler. Not too fond of base theme but that doesn't mean the maps can't be great: Crucial Error is the perfect example, and the pictures look very nice indeed. 

Hi.

Here is direct link to current test version:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwxYkKdSD855TUFHRTVTRHZRd3c

Requires quoth mod, yet better to replace the ones that are in, if that is possible (I'm not familiar with this stuff yet).

Jam7:
http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61347&start=44
or Quoth:
https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/quoth.html


I tweaked balancing, ammunition (feeding player more), and fixing trigger_counter mistake I made - now easy mode works, but it would be great to hear from others too. You can record or just tell how does it feels now. I have to say, because there is only 3 main skill levels I want to satisfy even skillful players. So I'm not quite sure am I giving too much ammunition or not, so let me know and I will try my best.

Also if the map is still too dark, just let me know. As long as the darkness doesn't make the map unplayable - I intended my map to be dark that player can't see everything and enemies can hide in darkness (sometimes). 

Fixed one flickering light I placed in place, doors don't block lights, and light comes through on ground level if you know what I mean. So it that bothers here is same test version without that flickering light thing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855TWJ2cV9nYUdiRDA/view?usp=sharing 

Just played your new version. Lighting looks great! I'm seeing so more much detail in your brush work that I missed before. There are a lot of Mega Healths out in the open on Normal difficulty I'd replace those with just regular health. Loved the new ambushes. 

Screenshot - This method has near zero impact on the framerate. Still needs some tweaking.

And I've been really missing out on the newest releases. The Back To Base jam looks sweet. 

That is really cool man! Nice job! 

Mankrip's engine looks better and better every month. He teases us to no end. 

how different is this going to be from super8? and linux binaries / source? (I may have asked the latter question before) 

Super8 will still have a more diverse feature set � fisheye lenses, AVI video recording, switchable palettes, support for most maps and mods, and so on.

I'm focusing Retroquad strictly on what I consider to be "must have" improvements. For example, the water rendering is almost feature-complete now; the only major addition I'm still going to implement for it is gamma-corrected blending � but that's something that actually belongs to Retroquad's color management system. I'm not going to implement stuff like refraction, reflection, bumpmapping, caustics and underwater fog, because although they would make liquids look even better, they're not needed for visual consistency or level design flexibility, and would slow down the renderer some more.

Ports to other systems will only be made after the whole engine is feature-complete. 

are you going to support limit breaking maps? 

Some, yes. But I can't promise anything specific. 

This is what 8-bit color translucency usually looks like. As explained in some previous posts, the scene in this screenshot is a worst case scenario.

Now, the same scene with brightness-correct & color-correct lighting, color-correct & gamma-correct translucency, gamma-correct per-pixel dithered quantization on mipmaps, and soft-depth transparency on blended liquids (the "glass" in this map actually uses a flat-colored liquid texture, which is why it's also rendered with soft-depth transparency).

Gamma correction on color blending makes the resulting image more smooth and colorful, avoiding saturation losses across different hues. This is actual gamma correction, based on the gamma scaling techniques implemented on computer monitor hardware. Here's a practical explanation.

This was how it looked without gamma correction. The colors were more dull (as in the example from the link above), and less smooth (as can be seen in the wall at the right side of the image). 

Screenshot 

Does Quakespasm support translucent_gamma? Those windows looks much better with that on. 

Though I'm a bit confused because:
correction_5_translucent_gamma.png has much cleaner window frame look kind of, but in
correction_3_translucent_on.png
you can see color of water better.. is it even bit higher.

Does that map has blue fog or something, because window clearly wants to color everything blue that is behind it? 

Thanks for the heads up. I've investigated this, and found out that the pre-gamma screenshots were taken with the slime alpha set to a different value.

This screenshot was taken back then with the glass fully transparent. Now I've used it to adjust the alpha value for the slime, and found out that the value was 0.6. The slime alone is a little less greener now due to gamma correction preserving more of the background hue, which is mostly brown.

With a slime alpha of 0.6 and soft depth disabled, this is a more accurate screenshot for comparison. By the way, this made me notice that the shape of the slime texture is also preserved a lot better now.

And Retroquad doesn't support fog. I've thought a lot about fog rendering, and still can't confirm if I'll try to implement it. 

 

My second map for Quake (first was a quick, minute long map I have no intention of releasing...), thinking of uploading a beta version in the future to see if the gameplay is okay.

imgur album

I can't believe I've been working on this since ~July... 

I like it. 

Excellent texture choices. 

Thanks, glad to have such a positive response already. The texture work is a huge time sink, finding the right look and breaking up brushes to make them fit properly is a large part of why it's taken me so long to get this far. But the more I do it, the better I get at it, with better results and efficiency.

A lot of these screenshots are from more recent parts of the map, in part because I feel that the earlier sections aren't quite up to snuff. I'll probably take the time to touch them up a little after everything else is done, but they're passable, at least. 

Looks good. I love the soft blue/greenish color of that light. I can see a pyro, are you making this for AD 1.5? If you need beta testers, I'd be happy to oblige. 

These look great Pritchard! I especially enjoy the base architecture molded with the rocky walls. 

It's a Quoth map, actually. Mostly because that's what someone suggested to me first when I wondered how to expand the base-themed enemy selection a month or so ago. Now i'm married to it for this map, since I can't give up my beloved Edie! ;P

I'm not sure when i'm going to do a beta, but it probably won't be a private one; I'll most likely end up whacking a changelevel in the map somewhere that isn't really the "end" and posting that version of the map here. I'm mostly interested in player experience, as well as how long it takes people to beat what's there. I tend to blitz through the level, so I find it difficult to judge how long it actually is for regular players...