Bugs in RTCW

(V1s0r) #1

Hi there,
I would like to know where I can report bugs in RTCW.
If it is here please say so. Then I will post what I have found.

thanks

(A]KillerMan[F) #2

What bugs are you talking about? Is it the pre-airstrike blast? (i have a demo of this) The not realistic airstrike artillary on forward bunker and upper bunker that kills you inside? (i guess it could be realistic, only if it would blow up the building, lol).

(V1s0r) #3

Ya that were a few bugs that I was going to mention.
And I found a bug in de spawning system.
The map called mp_rocket. In this map when you get the flag in de cave, you don’t spawn there automaticaly.
You have to use the spawntingy in de limbomode.
Ok now the map changes to let’s say mp_ice. And as Axis and you get the flag in the bunker. Next time you die you will not spawn there, but in the beginning.
You have to do the spawning manually. That’s because you changed it in the previous map. Can’t there be put a reset in de spawning system, so you always spawn in the right place.

Bug in the map called Dam, the frames drop, when running down the stairs. But I think you guys already know that :slight_smile:

If people have more bugs to add please do. To make it a better game, then it already is.

(On last thing, hope you guys stop support on the older versions, just like UT2003 did. Stop giving hartbeats to the servers running olders versions then 1.4. So that there will be running only one version and older versions).

seeya

(Captain) #4

OMG!

You have to set a spawn point to use it? via the “setting spawn point” tab…

omfg

Firstly if your spawn is set to “auto pick” and most people are spawning at the forward point then the game would put you to the starting spawn anyway, that’s why you have as standard say 3 choices… axis spawn - allied spawn - auto pick.
The continuation to the next map would probably favour anyone playing an offensive or defensive role anyway.

as for frame drop… tbh - get a grip - the maps built into wolf are 90% spot on in terms of frames - And splash are well respected in the Rtcw community for their ability to turn whopping great maps with many many players on, into a playable game with good fps all round (for those with at least a half reasonable spec machine).

(|X|Avenger) #5

I went through a period of experimentation with tweaking, though I love the game best with full detail. I found that by using these tweaks on beach:

seta r_intensity 4
seta r_gamma 2
seta r_picmip 4
seta r_picmip2 4
seta r_overbrightbits 4
seta r_mapoverbrightbits 4

I can play as an axis player and sit in the room where the ducts empty – in the room adjacent to the docs. If someone is in the ducts, I can see their shadow through the ceiling when they are at the point where the vent splits to go to either opening into the room. Is this a bug?

(pack) #6

bug yes. And if you have colorbits on 16 you can see through walls if you are sniper - bugs that should be removed indeed :slight_smile:

about your tweaks:
r_picmip2 doesn’t do a thing - is useless setting.

r_picmip you can keep that on 1 or 2. Doesn’t help you aim better really. Some people use it for increasing their fps but that’s only trye for older cards.

You can keep r_overbrightbits on 0.

Gamma only works if you have ignorehwgamma on i believe, not sure.

(|X|Avenger) #7

Actually, all the tweaks I listed affect the visual display in some way – none are an attempt to effect aim; only to increase visibility of enemy soldiers. A combination of picmip and picmip2 help to choose a texture size that allows easy discrimination of enemies. Overbrightbits and mapoverbrightbits help increase texture brightness, and gamma does help to brighten the display on my card at least; an Nvidea GeForce4 4200 ti. Like I said, I normally prefer to play in full detail, but tweak in competition to stay competitive with other comp’ers.

(pack) #8

helping aim was bad expression, indeed :p. Just increasing visibility

r_picmip2 doesn’t do a thing at least not on the pc of players i asked
http://users.pandora.be/z/suggested/picmip2/

To increase contrast I thought it was better to keep overbrightbits low and mapoverbrightbits high

(|X|Avenger) #9

Yeah, I can’t say exactly what picmip2 does, but it definitely has some effect on visibility with my GeForce 4 – though I still love the game best when it is set to highest possible detail settings :slight_smile: Tweaking makes me feel dirty and worthless.

I think the setting has something to do with textures of objects, too – it seems to do the same thing picmip does, only to a different aspect of the display. Anyone else know about this setting?

(pack) #10

Give me untweaked screenshots of same view. One with picmip2 0 one with picmip2 20 or so. It doesn’t do a thing :slight_smile:

(|X|Avenger) #11

Ok, I just want to get to the truth of the matter concerning picmip2, so don’t take my resistance to your assertion as merely stubborn ignorance. I am going to attempt to present facts sufficient to cast a certain amount of doubt on your proposition that picmip2 does nothing; putting the facts ‘on trial’ to some degree in the interest of discovering the truth behind this picmip2 once and for all. I present one side of the argument.

First of all, I tried to compare screenshots of picmip2 4 to screenshots with picmip2 0, and I could see no visual difference, so it appears at first glance that you are correct. I eat the words of my previous post; I admit I was dead wrong – I thought I had seen a difference when I started tweaking a few months ago.

However, a number of facts could lead a reasonable person to believe that the setting does something. Just what that something may be, or whether the setting affects anything in a practical sense is a mystery to me. Here are a few facts in support of the argument that picmip2 affects some unknown:

1) On Punkbuster-enabled servers, Punkbuster kicks for picmip2 values not between 0 and 4. Of course, Punkbuster is not necessarily a valid reference for determining effects of cvars, but if picmip2 does nothing, then why kick for it? Examples of Punkbuster enforcement include the variables listed in this file:

http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/rtcw/pbsvcvar.cfg

2) Picmip2 is a variable specified, albeit undefined, in the game’s source code for player models. For example: (I think that’s what this link is for):

http://therabbithole.redback.inficad.com/tricks/SourceCode/RTCWolf_Source/SP/SP_source/main/scripts/characters.shader

Again, if picmip2 does nothing, why should the RTCW code specify use it at all? Of course it could be some vestigal code that was used in Quake3 – I do not know enough to know. Ultimately, the picmip2 cvar does appear in this file. If it does nothing, why include it at all?

3) Others in the community recommend tweaking picmip2, for example:

. . . a) On Planetwolfenstein:

. . . http://www.forumplanet.com/planetwolfenstein/topic.asp?fid=2578&tid=681515&p=12#6283062

. . . b) Teamabuse, long a respected source of RTCW-related information, the ‘scholars of RTCW.’ They have a config tutorial and sample config – which recommend setting picmip2 to 4:

. . . http://www.teamabuse.com/?mode=article&article=1
. . . http://www.teamabuse.com/articles/citizen/tweaked.cfg

If Picmip2 does nothing, then why would these guys care to tweak it? Well, they may not know why they are doing it either – but they had to get the idea for tweaking picmip2 from somewhere; I find it hard to believe these guys would have just thrown it in. I find it harder to believe that someone would not have discovered and pointed out to these guys that picmip2 is useless.

4) Finally, EoK has just released a tweak-maker for newbies. They specify that picmip2 is used to define “Quality of Character Textures,” rather than just omitting it altogether:

http://www.repsej.com/config/

They seem to identify what picmip2 does, and took the trouble to include it in this config maker. They may be wrong, or have just thrown it in to be thorough. This config maker appears 14 months after RTCW’s release. People have had plenty of time to discover what picmip2 does, and yet they still recommend tweaking this cvar. EoK’s site begs the question: if picmip2 does absolutely nothing, why bother to include it at all?

That Punkbuster kicks for this setting, because many in the RTCW community recommend setting picmip2, and because these two facts have survived since the game was released in November 2001, the facts seem to suggest that this mysterious cvar has at least some use, at least somewhere to do something. Could it be that this setting only shows an effect where certain video cards are involved? Maybe . . . we don’t have the resources to reach a conclusion on that issue. For the moment, I have to admit, I could not notice any difference between picmip2 settings in MY screenshots and so it would seem your assertion wins out. But just because I didn’t notice any change does not mean that the setting does nothing for all systems. The fact that people have chosen to specifically include this setting when making configs may not present irrefutable evidence that picmip2 does, in-fact, change anything. Punkbuster may not even know why it kicks for picmip2 settings. However, the evidence I presented above seems to suggest that the variable picmip2 effects something.

I rest my case. Counterarguments?

(digibob) #12

Picmip2 is a holdover from the SP part of the game, it controlled the picmip for character skins, the only reason it exists in MP, is cuz someone forgot to remove a little reference to it from the code :slight_smile:

(|X|Avenger) #13

Well, looks like djbob’s testimony as an expert witness settles this case – his expertise and obvious renown as a member of the Splashdamage team is absolute proof to the truth of his statement, so no need to voir dire him on his qualifications, LOL. Thanks djbob for putting my mind at rest. Oh, well, it was fun trying to prove one side using evidence and argumentation :slight_smile:

I have already removed this setting from my config files, in accordance with your suggestion, packman. Thanks for your advice.

(digibob) #14

The court is adjourned, i can go get some lunch now? :moo:

(|X|Avenger) #15

LOL – sorry about the whole mock trial – I’ve been studying criminal law for 11 hours straight, without sleep, and it has an effect:)

(pack) #16

Hehe np. You should have started directory browsing on that url I gave you btw :slight_smile:

I explained something about pb cvarchecks overthere :slight_smile:

(|X|Avenger) #17

LOL – under my nose the whole time . . .

(A]KillerMan[F) #18

While on the topic of bugs and shit. I have had lots of other people complain about the same thing i am going to. I bought my game, and registered it. Only until about 3 months ago has this become a problem. When joining a game from pathfinder or the game search engine, I have to go into options and retype the last 2 digits of my cd-key. This happens quite frequently, but not everysingle time.

Say I see a server i wanna join from pf. I click and join it, but it is full when it said it wasnt. So i press esc and go to main menu, if i wanted to join another game from the game search engine, i cant until i go back into options and retype the last 2. If i dont i get client_unkown_to_auth. or invalid cd-key. Now if i just start the multiplayer game itself, without pathfinder, i have to do it anyway! WTF? And sometimes, if i leave a game and go to the main menu, before joining another game, what do i have to do? Retyp the whole fucking cd-key!! Not just the last 2 digits. This is pissing me off, it wont latch itself on there. It’s annoying as hell, sometimes i have to restart the game 2-3 times before that client_unkown bs goes away so i can join a server and play a match.

Any help?

(pack) #19

Don’t slap me for this :slight_smile: But some people say, you should open your rtcwkey file in you rtcw directory (use notepad ?), add the last two digits, and make the file read only.

Other things you can try:

https://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/activision.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=se2bqnjg&p_lva=&p_faqid=7730&p_created=1006209125&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9ncmlkc29ydD0mcF9yb3dfY250PTIzNyZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPTMmcF9wcm9kX2x2bDE9MSZwX3Byb2RfbHZsMj0yNjEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PWRmbHQmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=

(= official explanation) (you gotta love Activision for their urls)

(|X|Avenger) #20

Packman – who are you IRL? – You know waaay too much to be joe average gamer :slight_smile: