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... 

Ugh, I hate Edie! I mean he's a challenging enemy and that's a good thing for base maps, but I think he belongs more in Q2 and doesn't quite fit in Q1. Still, I'm looking forward to playing this.

My playing style is more slow-paced and methodical. I often take 2 to 3x longer than the average YT playthrough to complete a level. 

very nice mood. 

The map looks great, very moody! 

Pritchard, it's looking great indeed. Lots of variation, curious to see how environments blend together.

As of me, this thing is developing:

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/Jam7/jam7_wannabe_02.jpg 

Those looks great, eager to play them when they're finished! I must be the lowest person compared to you guys*

If someone is interested I have been extending "IceCore" a little bit (mostly just thinking). Here is work in progress images (pretty hard to take pics because I haven't finished ceilings and so on):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855TVJDMWlSSGo4VlE/view

The actual 'IceCore' I haven't started yet.. but it should be near the tower (bottom left). It is going to be basically much bigger cylinder shaped room.. etc. 

Adib, love all of the detail work in that hallway section.

NewHouse, you are bringing that cold vibe very well! 

I was testing something.. it is a bit dark but that is part of atmosphere also in the end:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855aWRBa1piYTdWS2M/view?usp=sharing