JA-Support and MP Specifications

(Tigris) #1

Ok, I know you aren’t supposed to do this, but Y (or anyone who knows)- could you explain what you know about JA-MP?
I know you already added support for it to your Q3Map2, but what does it support? Everything you did for JK2 already or is it “just” basic performance tweaking?

EDIT: I am thinking about things like targeting misc_models at func_bobbing etc.

And btw- does anyone know exactly WHAT is possible in JA:MP (speaking about scripting etc). Did Raven get everything to work in MP that worked in SP? (I know the limit is half as high as in SP, I’m intressted in mere features…) Did they get IcarusII to completly or does it miss any commands?

(ydnar) #2

Everything that Q3Map2 supports aside from game-specific features like ET foliage is supported for all games. The JA scripting enhancements and other gameplay relevant features are irrelevant to Q3Map2.

The only compiler-relevant differences between JA and JK2 are some surface flags. That, and Raven used it for baking in ASE models, etc.

y

(Tigris) #3

Thanks :slight_smile: The second part was more of a general question if anyone knows, I was just wondering what is possible in JA-MP.

(WadeV1589) #4

Raven never completely enable all the SP stuff in MP, if they did they’d stop using 2 separate EXE’s (Elite Force 2 which wasn’t done by Raven used a single EXE). Anyhow there has been no official statements yet, but it looks like you can add scripting events to entities, set up missions in MP - kinda scripting but siege isn’t as simple and of course it has all the neat JO features like .efx files.

Oh btw the editor is GTKRadiant and will be using a modified Q3Map2 compiler from what I’ve heard, dunno if YDNAR is aware of this, I’d presume so though. Latest info, of course, is always at http://www.qeradiant.com/

(Tigris) #5

BTW: is it just me or does JA run more smoothly? I think someone put q3map2 to good use :smiley:

(rgoer) #6

It must be just you :^\

I didn’t see a real “quantum leap” of improvement–either graphically or architecturally–over what Raven accomplished with JK2, and yet I got much, much, much, much worse FPS… I was usually able to get ~150-200 fps at 1600x1200 resolution with the graphics options maxed on the default MP maps in JK2. In the default MP maps for JA, I was lucky to get 100 fps at 800x600 resolution with less-than-maxed graphics options. So vexed was I that I’ve traded it in at EB and uninstalled it already… and I make this face again :^\

(Gonk) #7

People have been getting DRASTIC performance reduction with the “dynamic glow” option turned on. Granted, it looks REALLY pretty if you ask me… but hell… on my card (9800 Pro) the glow doesn’t even SHOW UP when the option is turned on, and yet I get the performance hit… weirdness.

(Tigris) #8

Hm, strange- I ran JK2 on a 2.4 P4 and had several situations that were really bad FPS-wise, but now I played JA on a 1.8 P4 and it went smoothly- 1024x768, everything maxed. Haven’t tried much of the MP but in SP I really thought the FPS-count were higher.

(WadeV1589) #9

The graphics code is extremely buggy in JA, I think they went for some cool new features but didn’t fully debug them, at the Lucas Forums tho there has been lots of posts about graphics issues so no doubt they’ll work on a patch soon to fix them. There’s also been complaints about other “bugs” that really aren’t bugs…nitpickers :stuck_out_tongue:

Looks like they didn’t fully understand VIS either this time round, just look at that first SP level, FPS drops severely in some places.

If you get bad FPS when using the push/pull forces, type in cg_renderToTextureFX 0 to use the JO style of push/pull, can help a lot with FPS.

(Emon) #10

Dynamic glow has trouble on ATI cards, because ATI likes to get and fuck up their drivers every other release, Raven’s probably going to patch it.

(Davros) #11

take a run around the snowy mp maps, sparkly heaven, who did the QA this time around, some very messy stuff…

(rgoer) #12

yeah, no shit… JA felt very half-assed to me. What a disappointment.

(Emon) #13

Yeah, some of it was, but there also were some very nice touches. Something makes me glare at LEC, their QA team, and their policy since 1999 to rush games out the door. :glare: