@JL, Not sure what is going wrong there, I will have to test it more. The Wizard and HKnight certainly don't want to attack each other, but poison infighting does work, I did a run through of S1M1.

I have other bugs with DP, original Quake skies don't work, noclip will not fly up or down, have to use swim up/down. 

I have other bugs with DP, original Quake skies don't work, noclip will not fly up or down, have to use swim up/down.

given how advanced DP is in almost all other departments i'm amazed LH hasn't fixed this yet 

I was really looking forward to the main maps.
Regardless - what's been done so far is awesome in every way and certainly one of the highlights of custom Quake. Just most unfortunate that you became a victim of false expectations - indeed, there simply isn't such a big player base for Quake stuff, but this shouldn't have come as a surprise. I do think there are more people than one would imagine (judging from the download numbers at Quaddicted), but for the most part they are a silent majority who never comment. Even here and in the other established "community" forums, often half of everybody can't be bothered to give feedback including regulars even if they've played the maps.
Not sure about this whole accessiblity thing and if it would really make that much of a difference. Something to make it easier like the Quake Injector is neat, except I doubt it can have any revolutionary or rejuvenating effects in the long run. Not to mention the people running the show are slowly but steadily losing interest unfortunately.

Admittedly, the kickstarter idea was pretty naive given this context, but even without knowing the current state of things, I think there's no way such a project would have succeeded anyway. After all, it's "just a mod" for a "17 year-old game", not something big and prestigeous like Black Mesa Source or the like.

Personally, I feel I maybe could have done more to support your course. I did mention ITS in a Quaddicted news post and also in the Q1SP thread in the Steam forums, but not as exclusive (individual threads) as it would have been possible. I even tried to contact Badboy to tell him to post about on quake.de, but on IRC and not email. The release did reach the usual places, just not farther beyond.

At any rate, it's a great work despite everything and it was fun testing it. I hope there's still a chance that some day you'll feel an itch to do some Quake work again, and reconsider doing one or both of the main maps as a hobby sideproject.

As for the bugs in DP, I assume by "skies don't work" you mean that it doesn't remove the shots? That's something I kind of made LH aware of not long ago and it may be fixed already - try the latest autobuild. The noclip behavior is the same as standard Quake - only Fitzquake and forks feature 'free' noclip movement. I prefer the latter myself, it's more user-(well, developer-)friendly, but it's not something in need of fixing per se. 

I looked at the beginning of S1M1 a few times in DP, and the sky was either a solid gray or a solid purple.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11690738/temp/shadows20130221155413-00.jpg

I was assuming that's what sock was talking about. 

@JL, yeah that is the skybox bug with DP. I suspect I need to download the latest (experimental) build. I don't enjoy developing with the DP engine and I plan to keep using Fitz/MarkV instead. The Steam guide is offline until I update it for a different engine.
@negke, sorry for the disappointment. 

Perhaps the sky is hidden by the fog? You can use the fog end distance to add a cutoff, otherwise it will increase to infinity, and thus solid color sky.

Try the fog command and set more parameters, then put that same set of parameters in the "fog" key in worldspawn and it will take effect, you can also do this in a .ent file (sv_saveentfile and then edit it to taste). 

Yep removing the fog ("fog 0 0 0 0") revealed the sky. 

to go standalone game. But then you would need a team to make all-new content and much more time. 

How did you go about your particle field controls in ITS?

I've got an emission system implemented that can throw sprites, bsps and models, but was wondering about better particle controls.

The main thing I'm wondering about is movement - I can just attach particles to an otherwise invisible emission, but was wondering what method you used, and if it'd be cheaper / better / faster.

I have a function which spawns a particle emitter (from QC or map entities) which is controlled via field values. Once the particle style is something I like I convert it to a prefab so it can be re-used easily.

Particles in my mod are essentially start position, movement direction and time. Here is a list of parameters I use:

STYLE : Prefab Particle style number
NOISE1,2,3 : Particle sprite file location/name
HEIGHT : Particle frames to use
VIEW_OFS : Spawning particle offset (vector)
COUNT : Maximum particle count
HEALTH : Lifespan (seconds)
ANGLES : Velocity Direction (X/Y/Z)
MANGLE : Volume - Random range from center to spawn (positive value)
YAW_SPEED : Velocity rotation (Y Axis only)
TARGET : Entity to spawn particles around (STARTING POINT)
NOISE4 : Entity to spawn particles toward (END POINT)
FIXANGLE : 1 = random 2 = circular movement 3 = rotation
V_ANGLE : extra velocity range (need FIXANGLE to work)
SPEED : Particle movement type (8=NOCLIP, 6=GRAVITY, 10=BOUNCE)
IDEALPITCH : Working distance (checks players)
DELAY : Particle Spawn time
WAIT : Particle spawn time (randomness)
PAUSETIME : When not in range of player, use this think timer

All the particles going through one function which deals with where the particles start from (can be different than the emitter), how it moves (XYZ direction) and how long it lives.

The problem with my current implementation is the constant turn over of new particles being spawned. My next version will work from a limited bank of particles (using chain field) that are setup initially and are constantly re-used. This will allow for the mod to limit the maximum amount of particles used for slower systems.

I highly recommend any particle emitter checks for the player location and adjust particle spawn rate. There is no point having active particle emitters if the player is not around to see them. 

That's interesting stuff. Essentially I need to extend my current 'effects' field to use a selection of particle types.

Most likely I'll make it two fields, one for colour and the other for size, with the additional controls of speed and so on being managed by the emission controls that already exist.

Currently I have point and volume emitter types, with additional volume 'effectors' which allow me to change the relative values of a given emission (gravity, velocity etc) or just remove them.

I can see the value of a target entity though. It's easy to see how that could be used to produce some cool looking effects, like particles being sucked into a teleport volume.

I'm using the extras mod particles as a base.

Pausetime looks useful as well - there are instances where the particle field is visible but far away.

In terms of a control to allow such expensive effects to run on low end machines or laptops without crippling the FPS I was considering a 'budget' system.

Having a single pool of total particles as you mention sounds tricky, for me at least. I'm not a particularly good coder so have to use more simplistic approaches.

The one I've been thinking of is to detect the FPS, and if it drops below 30 (or whatever is the desired value) then all particle systems would halve their output. For lower FPS's they'd lower the output further, checking once per second or so to not slow things down further.

It'll be a pretty rough and ready way of doing things, an improvement could be setting a priority for different particle effects, with purely decorative or far from any client effects being more aggressively optimised as FPS is affected. So eliminating unseen but used particles as you suggest.

Right now I'm thinking of some custom weapon and monster attack effects, presets for certain effect types like teleporters, torch smoke, force fields and a few others.

I liked the methods you used in ITS a lot for leading the player eye and highlighting important items. I see these as custom map elements as opposed to global presets, so will have a think on how best to implement them.

Probably the emission system I've already got with the improved particle controls will do the trick. 

I recommend you limit the particles from demo files by marking them in some way that your engine ignores them. Particle movement/creation bloats demo files really bad, which is a shame because they are handy for highlighting events and making the world feel more alive.

I tried to use particles to lead the player especially if there is an items that I want the player to notice. (example s1m2 - YA) It is really tempting to add loads of particles to everything but sometimes less is more visually like for example torches.

Initially I experimented with particles changing vector/direction during their life time but you can get better effects with particles in linear lines with variable time instead.

I recommend you create a good base of particle sprites (colour/shape/size) because they can be mixed together to create interesting effects.

Here is an example of torch effect I used:
else if (self.style == PARTICLE_STYLE_TORCH) {
self.noise = PART_TORCH1; // Embers - Red/Yellow
self.noise1 = PART_DOTSML_GOLD;
self.noise2 = PART_DOTSML_GREY;
self.cnt = 3; // Total particle types
self.height = 1; // All
self.view_ofs = '0 0 0'; // Bottom of flame
self.count = 8; // Should be active when close
self.health = 2; // Short Life
self.angles = '0 0 10'; // Fly up
self.mangle = '1 1 0'; // Volume (X/Y/Z)
self.v_angle = '4 4 0'; // Slight wobble
self.idealpitch = 384; // Close range distance
self.speed = MOVETYPE_NOCLIP; // No world interaction
self.delay = 0.25; // Frequent (runs all the time)
self.wait = 0.25; // Spawn rate randomness
self.pausetime = 8; // High timer
}

Probably the most important part is the pausetime and idealpitch fields because this makes sure that the particle emitter is not producing particles unless close to the player. In a medium sized map that can make a big difference and only checking the emitter every 8s + random offset, will not strain combat. Plus if a player is in an area longer than 8s then they are looking for something and they are more likely to notice the particles. 

fitz 085 is the recommended engine? 

actually it's better with baker's mk5, otherwise centerprint messages get cut off. 

thanks necros 

The centerprints are cut off in Quakespasm. 

Fitz 0.85 - fully works, no problems (baseline engine test)
Mark V - latest version works, previous had light issues
FTE - Supports all features (good unix client)
Qrack - Need latest client, supports all features
Super8 - latest version has better lighting range

** Quake Engines NOT recommended **
Quakespasm - truncates all book text, not tested
DP - Has QC and fog issues, will be fixed later
RMQ - not tested

@nitin, if you have a chance please record a demo, I would love to see your first playthrough only. 

will try, never done it before though. 

My first play demo from start map. Nothing special in this demo.
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/shadows_a01.zip 

Thanks for the demo, you showed me a couple more bugs (demon at the beginning, tutorial section). Was there anything you felt was too confusing? Also why did you walk across the room to open the silver key door? Why pick the right and not the left?

If you don't like the stealth system the later maps (s1m1,s1m2) can be played without the amulet. Any feedback on their monster/item layout would be awesome.

I really need to make the amulet mechanic easier (visually) to understand when it is active and not. Hopefully my new start map will make the training area easier and iron out some of the bugs of the previous version. 

s1m1 demo, skill: 2, first play, with some comments

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/s1m1_a01.zip

Cool map, very good looking. I liked that it wasn't that big. I would welcome some more variety in the monster mix. Too many knights.
The HK sword looks cool.

About the start map demo/questions:
Confusing things:
- I have tried to turn pages in the book which was part 1 of 12
- wasn't sure when the amulet was working

I chose the other door because I just wanted to check if it looks any different from the first one. It wasn't so I went that way.

The training with the first ogre was interfered with other monsters that somehow got into the level. I would want some peace there :) 

Thanks for the demo of S1M1, everything went as planned, plus you seem to have some fun with the fiends chasing you around.

I need to fix the amulet in the next release so it is easier to understand, at the moment there is no real visual/sound clues. Probably be best if I create a new weapon model with different skins to show the timer (5s).

The stealth training area has been moved to a new map so it will be easier to play and understand. The Temple of Swords map is going to be different, need to expand the areas and fill in the gaps.

The silver key doors at the beginning of the start map do change the map layout/items/ai depending on which one you choose but it is not obvious at first.

Did you have a chance to play S1M2? 

Two more demos

s1m2, skill 2, first play:
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/s1m2_a01.zip

s1m1, failed attempt to use the amulet:
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/s1m1_s1.zip 

Thanks for the demo's they were awesome to watch and I especially enjoyed watching your stealth run. I got the impression you were not sure what to do and did not realize you had the crossbow. Would it have been easier if the crossbow was the default weapon to start with?

I assumed you enjoyed your stroll through S1M2? It was an interesting route you took and most of the AI seem to know how to path to you, which is always a bonus! :D 

Sneak Peek 

... can't wait to play the next release. I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to stay away from it too long! (regarding the kickstarter, it wouldn't be unheard of if you made one anyway and see if it generated interest... that's how I thought they were supposed to work anyway, I reckon people would pay for a whole new mission pack or something like that).