HD Levels (and models, etc.)

[BoostAddicted]

Hello! Thank you for this wonderful mod.  I play at 3440x1440 and I'm glad to see it was something that you added. Quake2 was never intended to be played at the levels we are, but I'm glad I'm able!

I was curious as to how I should specifically install the highest quality level textures and enemy models, and where I should extract the files?  I downloaded the Hi-Res level files from here www.markshan.com/knightmare/downloads/kmquake2_021_lvlshots_hi.zip but I don't know if I've unzipped correctly.  Do these 2 files go into the base game folder? Do I keep the original (non-hi res) files?

Sorry if this was spelled out somewhere and I missed it. 


Thank you again for such an awesome mod! I played this game for hours with my dad as a young kiddo, and it's great to be able to play it again on modern hardware and resolutions.

[knightmare]

Yes, the kmquake2_demo_levelshots_hi.pk3 file goes in Quake2's baseq2 folder, and you can remove the non-hi res levelshot pk3 file. The pk3 files for hi-res textures and models should also go in the baseq2 folder.

[BoostAddicted]

The link on the links page (http://www.markshan.com/thesinraven/32bits_textures_paks.htm) goes to a 404. That is the hi-res textures and models pack, right? I wanted to make sure I had the latest level and model/textures packs, but the URL seems to be out of order.

[knightmare]

Looks like I made a tiny typo in that link, or more likely, the filename of that linked page was changed sometime since I last updated the links page. The texture pack is now here:

www.markshan.com/thesinraven/32bits_textures_pak.htm

[BoostAddicted]

Great, thank you. That worked. World of a difference the textures made. Just to confirm, the hi-res level and demo files along with the 32-bit textures are the 'best' for the game? Those include the enemy models and guns? Just making sure I have all of what you recommend for extra visual flair.

Funny enough, I saw this and thought you might like it. You'll need one of the new GeForce RTX cards, but thought you'd like to give it a watch. It's not perfect, but looks nice.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXalJe_3BZg

[knightmare]

I wouldn't say that there's any retexture/remodel pack available that could be called "the best" right now. What exists is cobbled together from multiple authors, and lacks a common design consistency, like the Quake Revitalization Project does. There is also lots of Photoshop-filtered crap out there passing as rextxtures. The few weapon remodels I've seen lack idle animations, which are important for immersion. There are no finished enemy remodels that I've seen, only reskins. There were a few remodels being made for Quake2Evolved that were never finished AFAIK.

There was once something that passed for a unified effort with the Quake2 Retexture Portal, but that got shut down due to abuse over a decade ago.

There's also a remodel pack floating around somewhere using models ripped from the Generations Arena Q3 mod, but that's not exactly kosher, either.

That ray-traced render looks really nice (though they forgot to implement the particle effects), but I won't be buying an RTX card anytime soon.

[BoostAddicted]

Thanks for the follow-up. The new texture and level packs are installed and working. I appreciate the work and dedication!

Any insight into what may come in the next update?

[knightmare]

The next update is mostly just a bugfix release. Here's a list what's already done:

Added 3840x1600 and 4096x2160 video modes.
Added support for triple-monitor surround modes via custom resolutions. Monitors must be bound as a single logical display.
Keeps all menu/HUD elements on the center screen, set the cvar scr_surroundlayout to 0 to disable this.
Cvars scr_surroundleft and scr_surroundright set placement of left and right of center screen.
Default values are 0.333333333333 and 0.666666666667, respectively.
Screenshots now go up to 9999.
Added cvar r_fog_skyratio, for proportional sky fog distance. Default is 10.
Added SGIS mipmaps menu option and cvar r_sgis_generatemipmap, for toggling SGIS mipmap generation.
Default is 1, set to 0 and use vid_restart to disable.
Fixed Shift-Ins to paste text not working in menus.
Fixed crash when a map has too many submodels. Increased renderer model limit to 2 x MAX_MODELS.
Fixed crash when rapidly pressing the Esc key during a map load.
Fixed fatal error when too many alias models are loaded (such as many unique player models in a multiplayer game).
Fixed missing menu text when joining a Rocket Arena 2 server.
Fixed fog disappearing after a vid_restart.
Fixed alignment issue with colored text on help computer and centerprints.
Fixed plats with high accel/decel getting stuck near their top or bottom.
Fixed plats with PLAT_LOW_TRIGGER flag breaking when a high lip value is set.
Fixed doors getting looped sound stuck on when blocked by a monster.
Added missing key_message implementaion for trigger_key.
Removed target_animation from Lazarus DLL, as it breaks when loading/saving game
and there's no good way to implement it properly.