About this bug with xmen, I caught a case where something was calling PF_lightstyle with a style between 64-67. Since there was no bounds check, this happened to overwrite the next thing in server_t, num_edicts, which blew up the engine and was a pain to trace back to PF_lightstyle.

So initially I put in an aggressive Host_Error, but that broke Xmen, so I changed it to a debug warning + ignore the lightstyle call. 

the bsp limit for MAX_LIGHTSTYLES should be 255, not 256. it doesn't make sense to go higher than that, other than to skip the validation when parsing svc_lightstyle messages, which isn't too significant.
the 256th lightstyle might be usable for rtlights, but all the various bsp formats that use a byte for lightstyles can use a max of only 255, with the 256th (index 255) being 'no more styles'.
xmen is just buggy.... 

Type "gamma fps" in the console to get higher fps. 

actually, 'gamma fps' will drop your framerate AND be unplayable in QS (gamma 0 = white screen).
In QS, you want 'gamma 1;contrast 1' to boost your fps.

To be fair, I guess that 'gamma fps' would at least stop you from caring so much about framerates... 

Wow, I hadn't realized how much that contrast nerfed my fps. In the AD level selection map I'm running 95-105 until I crank contrast up to 1.8, which drags it down to 60-75.

The colors are so much more vibrant, though... 

I'm a femministt cuckk to. 

what GPU out of curiosity?
We could improve it a bit by (avoiding an extra copy of the framebuffer) by rendering into an fbo and drawing that to the window. (currently it draws the game in the window, copies it to a texture, then draws it back to the window with gamma/contrast.) 

contrast-only could be done without the fbo or even glsl.
glBlendFunc(GL_DST_COLOR,GL_ONE);
glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
glTexEnvi(GL_MODULATE);
will do something like:
screen=screen*(white*vertexcolour) + 1*screen;

with the above, gamma 1;contrast 1.8; is about as cheap as you can get it without blackmailing microsoft into finally fixing their gamma ramps issues.

A (quake)gamma of 0.45 or so can be achieved quite cheaply with glEnable(GL_FRAMEBUFFER_SRGB); (although you're meant to use an srgb-capable pixelformat too, which is messy but not needed at least on nvidia). Side note: this approach gives MUCH less banding than you would get with glsl.
Of course, talk about srgb just drives home that quake's colours are totally screwed, and its lightmaps are non-linear too... 

Let's not confuse contrast with gamma now. :) 

Would it be possible to add vibration support for the controller?

Playing with controller works really well in single player but sometimes when I'm playing maps that have actual 'quakes' in them it feels strangely hollow not feeling any rumble... Also, the Widowmaker in AD could really do with shaking that controller too! 

Vibrations in Quake !? Geez I'm interested ! 

It's getting old; Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT running driver v341.44.

Color me interested on the vibrations as well! I've actually been using the Steam controller to strong effect. It's worlds better than an Xbox controller, but still can't quite compete with a good ol' mouse'n'keyboard. 

http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2017/7/14/beginner-friendly-vulkan-tutorials 

My QSS (admod) is set to protocol FTE+666. I thought this would make demos playable in both 666 and FTE protocols but they don't work in standard QS' protocol 666. I tried typing sv_protocol 666 in QSS' console but it doesn’t change to regular 666. Help? 

I haven't tried it, but try: "sv_protocol 666-"

To prevent the server from detecting replacement deltas (so they don't appear in demos), use "sv_protocol 666-" (omitting the - will neither enable nor disable fte extensions).
To re-enable extensions, use "sv_protocol FTE+666"

from http://triptohell.info/moodles/qss/qss-changelog.txt 

 

I didn't read the readme properly, apparently the proper setting is "cl_nopext 1"

QSS uses elements of FTE's improved network protocol by default. This is in an attempt to reduce demo filesizes, as well as allow for mod extensions. This does not hinder QSS's use as a server and is only an issue for demos. Set cl_nopext 1 before connecting/starting a map if you wish to disable the use of this.
http://triptohell.info/moodles/qss/ 

I did try sv_protocol 666- and it worked, though.

an attempt to reduce demo filesizes
Wow! Reduce indeed! I've recorded demos of the same map in both QSS protocol FTE+666 and QS protocol 666 and the difference in size is approx tenfold... I was wondering if this was normal. 

Well when you zip or otherwise compress demos, they squish together at similar rates. 

FTE+666 is an optimized protocol.

If a health box is just sitting around in your view, Quake will send information on that healthbox every single frame.

FTE+666 sends it once, gets an acknowledgment back, and then won't send information on it again unless something changes and if so, only sends what changed and sends the change just once. 

I am doing some sound work for Map Jam 9999. (new sounds with play_sound_triggered)

I know QS requires mono sounds but am I cool with making sounds 44.1k 16bit? I've tested them and they work (even 48k) but wanted to make sure I won't encounter any issues. 

16 bit 44.1k mono sounds should work fine. QS's mixer downsamples sound effects to 11.025k by default, so the extra quality of 44.1k won't be heard, but it won't hurt. 

Thanks. 11k introduces extra noise on my end (if I master them in that format.) I would prefer to start cleaner so this is good news. 

Imo you should export to 11k. You'll have more control over quality and sounds will "weight" less.
Just figure out why sounds get noisy and fix it :)
I don't know what software you are using but this small free editor always saved my ass when it comes to editing sounds for old games:
http://www.wavosaur.com/

It can set loop markers too, if you want loop sounds in Quake :) 

I'm using Adobe Audition CC 2017. I can set cues for loops no problem.

But no, if the engine uses 44.1k that's what I am using. The downsampling and filtering seems cleaner than fucking with noise reduction to save a couple of megs in file sizes - that will affect the sound quality greatly. But thanks for the suggestions anyway. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't going to cause any unforeseen problems. I will look at wavosaur for sure. Never too many sound apps!