Questions about features

[*nnnslogan]

Since this appears to be essentially an online version of Quake 3 Arena, I'm wondering what upgrades to the original Q3A have been implemented in this version.

Are the models higher poly?

Do they now utilize normal maps to add dimensional detail?

If there are higher poly character models in this version, is it possible to extract them for use in the original Q3A?

[TheMuffinMan86]

1. As far as I know, all the models are absolutely identical to that of Q3A/Q3TA.
2. Nope, no normal mapping. The game uses per-vertex lighting (lightmap) so it'd be impossible in the game's current state to implement normal/height/parallax mapping anyway.
3. Refer to number one.

[Adderall]

Before you ask, you can't timenudge

[Marklar]

We have cool bloom effects and impact sparks here.

[Icey_Pain]

Before you ask, you can't timenudge

They do have some plans to get this working, but only within limits to prevent cheating.

[Raz0rblade]

Can some one explain me what this "timenudge" is and how it worked in q3?

[Adderall]

This affects how your client processes the snapshots it receives. Normally the client compares one snapshot with the next and interpolates between the two. If you set this to a negative value, you can adjust the interpolation of snapshots to compensate for lag by making your client start interpolating BEFORE it recieves the next snapshot. In other words, it will be predicting what the next snapshot will look like and using that prediction as a basis for the interpolation. At some point during this nudged interpolation, the actual next snapshot will arrive from the server. At this point, the client will replace the predicted snapshot by the actual snapshot and recalculate the interpolation. This difference between the two is the prediction error. However at this point, you will not see a huge jerk due to the change from predicted to actual data as the prediction error is decayed away to ensure the gameplay remains as smooth as possible, even if it is slightly inaccurate.

The more negative timenudge you use, the more predictions will happen and therefore the more inaccurate the predicted data will be. Therefore, even though these errors are decayed, the jerks will be more noticable and as a result other players will seem to move less smoothly.

Effectively, the greatest negative value is equal to 1000/sv_fps (of the server) however -12 is a recommended maximum to keep the gameplay smooth and accurate, even if there is a little less lag compensation.

There is also another side to the timenudge story. You can use positive values of timenudge to affect snapshot interpolation with an opposite effect. Using positive values means that your client will wait for extra time before interpolating the 2 snapshots. This can be useful if you have a higher ping or a packetlossy connection. In these cases snapshots are likely to be lost and the time between each snapshot arriving can fluctuate greately as some packets are delayed or whatever. In this case, even if you are not using any timenudge, the client may have to start interpolating before the next snapshot has arrived, simply because it is late. By using a positive timenudge, you can ensure that the client waits those crucial few milliseconds more to allow the next snapshot to arrive successfully, thus keeping gameplay smooth and accurate - even if the incoming data is deliberately lagged.

Btw using timenudge will not affect your ping on the screen, simply because your ping has not changed. Timenudge has nothing to do with your actual ping, but it has everything to do with your lag. I would like to add that timenudge only directly affects the lag of the incoming data and does not directly affect the data that you send to the server. Whether timenudge indirectly affects your outgoing data is unlikely but that issue is best being left for a timenudge-specific topic.