-= I =-

The scrap of paper describes a bug where the demo files for a map pack fail to load in the latest version of a mod. You look up and take in your surroundings. Moss-green dungeon walls enclose you, but if you look inwards a stone citadel rises, as if the building has been inverted and the exterior grew within.

Baker reported a bug where the 3 demo files which are meant to play when Warpspasm loads are replaced by the Quoth custom demo files in version 2.2. YOU must decide how to fix this backwards compatibility issue.

To investigate how the demos work in Warpspasm
TURN TO PAGE TEN

To remind yourself how the demos work in Quoth
TURN TO PAGE TWELVE

If you have already decided on a solution
TURN TO PAGE FOURTEEN 

-= II =-

You decide to descend further, looking for the foundations of the building. As you penetrate the fog deeper, you find not solid ground, but a third mightier fortification below. From your new vantage point, you realise the tower does not simply grow from the side of the larger citadel, but that both structures are anchored on the behemoth below.

Hopefully the flavour text has given you time enough to figure out how the demos are playing in Warpspasm - it took me a little while to cotton on. The truth is that the config file from ID1 Quake is kicking them off! Back when Quoth didn't specify any demos, it fell back to playing the standard ID1 demos. The Warpspasm demos are given the same filenames as the three ID1 demos, but are higher up the search path list and so get played in their place. Now that Quoth names different files for the intro demos, the Warpspasm demos are passed over.

When you have considered this long enough to settle on a solution
TURN TO PAGE FOURTEEN 

-= III =-

You turn your attention now to the central tower. The uppermost floors are clearly much less weathered than the layer below and the tower to the side, although they too are beginning to show their age. The nearest feature to the tower's aperture is a large stone buttress supporting an imposing stained glass window, apparently highlighting and illustrating the citadel's interior spaces. The window is angled strangely, necessitating the huge buttresses, apparently to accommodate some eccentricity of earlier wings of the fortress into the design.

Quoth 2.2 introduced a loop of three Quoth demos when you launch the mod without a map specified. The demos are "base.dem", "coop2.dem" and "vongug.dem". Each of these demos is in a different pak file! The first demo was recorded specifically for the new feature, but the other two were just demos that were supplied with earlier patches for players to launch manually (as noted in the manual at the time). The demos are launched by a line added to quake.rc, which names these demos as what to play. It is clear how the new version of Quoth has superseded the Warpspasm demos, but not how they played in the first place.

To remain and contemplate this further
TURN TO PAGE TWO

If you have now decided on a solution
TURN TO PAGE FOURTEEN 

-= IV =-

You circle left to take a closer look at the side tower. The outer walls seem entirely windowless at first, but you notice what looks like the edge of an opening almost obscured by the window buttresses of the main fortress. Keen to glimpse inside the tower, you climb round the loose stonework to investigate. Pressing your head between the stones you see the opening was a grand clerestory, intended to illuminate the interior of the tower. Clearly this predated the latest extension built onto the adjacent building, which paid no heed to this aperture.

Warpspasm on release played three demo files when you loaded the mod, each showing off one of the maps in the pack. The three demos are named "demo1.dem", "demo2.dem" and "demo3.dem". Inspecting the pak files shows all three files in pak0.pak, but no quake.rc or other config file is present to set them off. When running warp with the latest version of Quoth, the original demos still play if you cue them up manually with the command "playdemo demo1". It is clear how the new version of Quoth has superseded the Warpspasm demos, but not how they played in the first place.

To remain and contemplate this further
TURN TO PAGE TWO

If you have now decided on a solution
TURN TO PAGE FOURTEEN 

-= V =-

The citadel bends to your will. The runes show you that by unfolding the dimensions in the correct order, a simple rotation of the upper floors will align the tower's aperture with the citadel's window. From the outside the aperture frames the window, and from within the tower the stained glass design can be seen above.

This solution is the most lightweight solution, as it requires little disk space and bandwidth if the new demos are small, and requires only modification to the most recent Quoth pak file (so it can be issued as a patch). It keeps the filenames of the existing demos exactly as documented in previous Quoth guides. There's also an opportunity to be creative with the three new demos. However, it is not a complete return to the original behaviour in Warpspasm (the Quoth demos will still play after the Warpspasm ones) or in Quoth (three new demos play at the start). For this reason, you score 90% completion for your solution.

COMMENTS

RESTART 

-= VI =-

The runes swarm over the edges of the page, but it is as if some unseen force guards them from the centre circle. You focus on the blank space, visualising the last details of the incantation.

There are several options on how to change the demos that Quoth plays so that Warpspasm demos will also play. In all cases quake.rc will need to be updated to queue the demos with their new names.f

To rename the existing demo files in Quoth "demo1", "demo2" and "demo3"
TURN TO PAGE SEVEN

To add copies of the current Quoth demos named "demo1", "demo2" and "demo3"
TURN TO PAGE NINE

To add three new demos called "demo1", "demo2" and "demo3" to play before the three current Quoth demos
TURN TO PAGE FIVE 

-= VII =-

The citadel bends to your will. Your whirlwind of reconstruction leaves no stone unturned, from the oldest basement to the newest flagstone of the main fortress. Once you are finished, the unusual angle and bulky buttresses of the stained glass window are erased, and there is a satisfying symmetry between it and the newly rediscovered tower aperture.

This solution restores the demos to Warpspasm, and keeps the demos in Quoth. Once you've made the change, there are no redundant files left taking up space, and everything looks neat. So where does it fall down? Well, the main problem to my mind is that you need to change one file in each of the three paks that Quoth has. This means anyone who wants the fix basically has to download and reinstall Quoth from scratch. And that's a bit of an ask for fixing a small regression. In addition, minor issues like breaking Baker's favourite feature by altering old paks, or invalidating the old Quoth documentation that names these demos as something you may want to watch, count against this fix. Nevertheless, you score 70% completion for a good solution.

COMMENTS

RESTART 

-= VIII =-

You emerge from the dank, torchlit dungeon into the air. Around you is a featureless desert below a vacant sky. Turning back, the door you left by has vanished too - you have escaped one prison but placed yourself in another.

Reverting the feature in Quoth certainly fixes Warpspasm, but now you've created a new regression: In the 2.2 release of the mod, demos of Quoth played when you launched the mod, but now all you get is the tired old ID1 demo from e1m3! Your bug-fixing is over, for technically fixing the issue at hand you scored 10% completion.

COMMENTS

RESTART 

-= IX =-

The citadel bends to your will. You summon new stone, an avalanche crashing through the ceiling of the dungeon, shaped by centrifugal force into crude bricks. By sheer gravity alone the main fortress peels back to expose the tower aperture once more, and when you are done carving a symmetry is achieved between it and the new portal which frames the stained glass window.

This solution has an admirable simplicity to it. By only adding new files, you ensure that it can be deployed as a patch. It restores exactly the behaviour that Warpspasm had, and preserves the existing demo names in Quoth so that the original documentation remains accurate. On the downside, the patch will be quite large for a minor regression fix, and the duplication of the demos might be regarded as wasteful use of disk space. A good solution, you score 80% completion.

COMMENTS

RESTART 

-= X =-

The citadel rises from unseen depths into strange spirals, as if it was constructed in more dimensions than you can perceive. When your eyes can catch focus on the shape, you separate the structure into two; a primary mass rising vertically with a tower growing from its side. Judging from how the brickwork ages and colours as you look further down, you would guess the structure was built in phases, across many years, and perhaps more than one architect.

You decide to take a closer look at the tower. The outer walls seem entirely windowless at first, but you notice what looks like the edge of an opening tucked between the tower and the main fortress. Keen to glimpse inside the tower, you climb round the loose stonework to reach the join. Pressing your head between the stones you see the opening was a grand clerestory, clearly intended to illuminate the interior of the tower, now entirely obscured by the upper levels of the adjacent building.

Warpspasm on release played three demo files when you loaded the mod, each showing off one of the maps in the pack. The three demos are named "demo1.dem", "demo2.dem" and "demo3.dem". Inspecting the pak files shows all three files in pak0.pak, but no quake.rc or other config file is present to set them off. When running warp with the latest version of Quoth, the original demos still play if you cue them up manually with the command "playdemo demo1".

To remind yourself how the demos work in Quoth
TURN TO PAGE THREE

If you have now decided on a solution
TURN TO PAGE FOURTEEN 

-= XI =-

The iron shackles were forged to the dimensions of your limbs, and you slip them on readily. Your body decays more slowly than your consciousness, and after mere centuries the restraints can be removed again, leaving you to mindlessly shuffle the corridors at length.

Refusing to address the regression at all? That's dereliction of duty! It's just plain lazy, and you should be ashamed for suggesting it. You score 0% completion, and should probably cheat your way back to the previous page and try to actually come up with a fix.

COMMENTS

RESTART 

-= XII =-

The citadel rises from unseen depths into strange spirals, as if it was constructed in more dimensions than you can perceive. When your eyes can catch focus on the shape, you separate the structure into two; a primary mass rising vertically with a tower growing from its side. Judging from how the brickwork ages and colours as you look further down, you would guess the structure was built in phases, across many years, and perhaps more than one architect.

You begin your inspection with the central tower. The uppermost floors are clearly much less weathered than the layer below and the tower to the side, although they too are starting to show their age. Your attention is immediately held by the huge stained glass window, apparently highlighting and illustrating the citadels interior spaces. The window is angled strangely, and heavily reinforced by buttresses, apparently to accommodate some eccentricity of earlier wings of the fortress into the design.

Quoth 2.2 introduced a loop of three Quoth demos when you launch the mod without a map specified. The demos are "base.dem", "coop2.dem" and "vongug.dem". Each of these demos is in a different pak file! The first demo was recorded specifically for the new feature, but the other two were just demos that were supplied with earlier patches for players to launch manually. The demos are launched by a line added to quake.rc, which names these demos as what to play.

To investigate how the demos work in Warpspasm, TURN TO PAGE FOUR

If you have now decided on a solution, TURN TO PAGE FOURTEEN 

-= XIII =-

You raise your chisel and are just about to begin work on the outer wall, when a Shambler smashes you to the ground with a single blow. YOU ARE DEAD.

As you bleed out for the final time, the spirit of Preach possesses the Shambler. It observes that by demanding that an existing map change itself for a new patch, you are changing the rules after the game has already ended. Backwards compatibility fixes are about avoiding exactly this. Imagine if the next patch changes the demos again - should Warpspasm forever be changing to suit the latest trends? Blackness envelopes you before you hear if this was a rhetorical question. You score 0% completion, let us hope that the next traveller into the dungeon lives longer.

COMMENTS

RESTART 

-= XIV =-

You unchain the Tome of Construction and open it out on the ground before you. The blank pages rattle, waiting for you to summon their text. You take one final look at the intertwined citadels then bow your head and begin

If you think that this bug should be rejected as WONTFIX
TURN TO PAGE ELEVEN

If you want to change Warpspasm to fix this bug
TURN TO PAGE THIRTEEN

If you wish to change which demos are loaded in Quoth
TURN TO PAGE SIX

If you wish to remove the feature of Quoth which caused this bug
TURN TO PAGE EIGHT

If you have a different fix, inscribe it into the page of the book below

COMMENTS 

Got away with posting all of that without someone interposing a comment that screws up the numbering!

(This is a test comment to make sure that link works too) 

 

 

so should you 

 

*QA Lead self twitches* 

 

Holy shit, this is undoubtedly the most creative thing I've read on this site so far! Nice metaphors in the italicized parts. Hats off, mister preacher man sir! *applauds frantically in a standing ovation* 

 

Stooping down, you take a closer look at the book. Touching the page you see a dot form and realize that the magic within the pages allows you to write unhindered by an implement. You begin to write...

Quakespasm doesn't play demos normally, hence rendering this a moot, though invariably entertaining, discussion.

You close the book, place it on the lone dusty shelf in the dungeon, and peer through the cleft. Suddenly a Shambler crashes through the wall and a memory of another life floats to the top of your mind... 

...four and a half stars.