CURRENT NEWS
January 5th: A little note

I am still working on my email. I just spent about 6 hours going through about 200 email messages *OUPH* maybe I shouldnt of let the email go that long. I however have figured out a great deal of editing Q2 levels, and Im even approaching the release of my first Q2 level.. whoo :)

Where is 1.6 you ask? Still on Ben's hard drive. I do hope that he will finish it up soon and we can test and get it out to you people. I have to thank you all for your patience, as I have mainly got encouraging email.

As for the 1.5b Patch to allow you to edit Q2, I fixed the link a while ago, but didnt mention it. I seem of caused people grief over this.. Sorry :(

THE PATCH :)

December 30th: Update

Well it is the 30th today, and I do not have a copy of 1.6 yet. Once Ben completes work on 1.6 I would like to give it to our beta testers for them to test for a day and hopefully catch all obvious problems. Hopefully there will be no serious bugs and we can make the 1.6 release within a day of Ben finishing the new code. As for when the code will be done that is best left up to the Fates to decide :)

December 29th: Update

I will be meeting with Ben later on today to get an update on the progress of Worldcraft 1.6. I took a couple of days "off" over the last little while to spend time with the family and start learning Q2 editing. I am still far from an expert, and I do not feel confident about answering Q2 editing questions just yet. I am going to chew through my massive mailbox and answer as much as I can over the next few days. I do suggest to use some of the online resources that are available to us. I myself always have a browser open to one of the Q2 edit pages.

December 22th: Corrupt ZIP file

I am unsure why it happened but the zip file online in the link below became corrupt. I would have already changed it however the Network Admin here has not been around and he is the guy with all the FTP sites passwords. I will have the file replaced as soon as I can. Sorry about this :(

December 18th: The Official Word

Here we go :) The Official Press Release from Valve Software about Worldcraft

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VALVE ANNOUNCES WORLDCRAFT SUPPORT FOR QUAKE 2

Popular Level Editor Supports id Software's Latest Game Release

KIRKLAND, WA December 18, 1997-- Game developer Valve today announced version 1.6 of the popular level editor, Worldcraft. The new release adds functionality that allows add-on developers to create levels for id Software's recently released Quake 2, as well as Activision's Hexen 2.

"Demand for Quake 2 support has been very strong," said Gabe Newell, Managing Director of Valve. "Within a few days of Quake 2 shipping, I had personally received several hundred e-mail messages from add-on level developers who were interested in purchasing a version of Worldcraft that supported Quake 2."

Worldcraft 1.6 support for Quake 2 and Hexen 2 includes:

FGD files Worldcraft 1.6 contains FGD files for Hexen 2 and Quake 2. Worldcraft uses FGD files to expose game entities, such as monsters, paths, and objects, to level developers.

Exporters Worldcraft 1.6 has the necessary export support to create map files appropriate to each of the games.

Quake 2 specific features Worldcraft 1.6 also provides support for new features unique to Quake 2, such as its transparency modes, radiosity settings, and the ability to export textures to a separate WAL file.

The 1.6 upgrade is free to registered users. New users will be charged $35.00. The upgrade will be available at the Worldcraft website, http://www.worldcraft.com, before December 31st. A patch for version 1.5 that allows limited editing of Quake 2 levels is available immediately.

Worldcraft is specifically designed to make first-person game level editing faster and easier for experienced level designers as well as for those just getting started. The original Worldcraft, developed for Quake players who wanted to create customized levels of that best-selling action game, was released independently by creator Ben Morris in September of 1996. In May of 1997, the tool was purchased by Valve for use in its premiere game, the first-person action game Half-Life.

The next major release of Worldcraft will be the 2.0 release included with Half-Life. In addition to the functionality of release 1.6, Worldcraft 2.0 will include vertex merging and scaling, which lets users merge faces on an object or scale an object around a specific vertex; the path corners tool, which makes it easy to specify a complex path for an entity within the game; and entity reports, which help users see the relationships between groups of entities (like buttons, switches and doors). Worldcraft 2.0 will also let users take advantage of features native to the Half-Life engine, including DSP sound effects, 24-bit color palettes and libraries of prefabricated objects.

Half-Life, published by Sierra On-Line, is due to ship in the first quarter of 1998.

Founded in 1996, Valve develops games software. Based in Kirkland, Washington, the company consists of more than 25 leading artists, game designers and programmers. More information about Valve is available through the company's web site at www.valvesoftware.com.

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So there you guys go. I did the road trip thing down to Valve Software on Monday. We had a great meeting on the future of Worldcraft and I am very excited about many things. I was also given a sneak preview of Half-Life ... mMmMMm :) I think that Valve has taken the Quake First Person Shooter to a different level of play.

December 8th: Worldcraft Support for other Games

Information about Quake 2 and Hexen 2 support is now out of my hands. Valve Software, as most of you know, own Worldcraft. They asked me to direct all questions about features such as this to them. If you have any questions please email Valve Software about it. Any questions about editing Worldcraft I still would like to answer, so please do email me.

December 2th: Quake 2

Well Quake 2 has gone Gold and has left id software's hands to the folks at Activision. This is a great sign meaning there are but a few short days before Quake 2 is in the stores, my guess and hope is that it will be here on Friday.

[SNIP]

Have a great day everyone and email Activision and harass the hell out of them about Quake 2! :) Lets get this product in our hands! MUHAHAHAH :)

November 27th: Malice

I should of mentioned this a couple of days ago. Quantum Access and Epochalypse (cool name IMO :) have released the developers pack for Malice. Malice is a high quality add on for Quake with *great* models and textures. This zip file contains the Worldcraft .FGD, the Malice textures, the Malice palette, and detailed information about all of their custom entities!

If you have Malice, download this and make your own maps with their cool toys! If you dont have Malice its $20, and well worth it!

November 21th: Jedi Knight

I have noticed that the first batch of Jedi Knight editors have shown up. Force Builder has been release and this link will take you to their homepage. I am curious as to know how many people out there would like to see Worldcraft support Jedi Knight. This in no way is any indication that Worldcaft will support Jedi Knight, just me taking a poll :)

Mail Me if you have thoughts on Jedi Knight. Actually just email me if you have any thoughts about the editing world at all :)

About our Quake server. I have lost faith in the ISP that was going to provide us with the bandwidth for us to provide you guys with a server to display your work. I am interested in chatting with people who have some bandwidth to spare in order that I can set up this Quake server. I think it is a great idea, but right now I need your help. Please do hit the link above and email me if you might be able to help!

November 20th: 3D Card Problems

I have been receiving emails now and again from people who had problems with their 3d cards. They pretty much say all the same thing, I just downloaded and installed the newest drivers for my card and things have been going much smoother. I do encourage people to visit the homepage of their video card and download the newest drivers, these drivers will hopefully be designed to work with Direct X and life will be grand... I hope :)

I have been receiving much email about Hexen 2 after asking for YOUR opinion out there, and I would like to still see it come in. I would like the clarify that Activision has no desire to steal your work and release it themselves. If you were planning on making Hexen 2 maps to release to the Internet for free, continue! Both Activision and myself do encourage this. I do suggest that if you have been working on a Hexen 2 map that you check out Eric Biessman's plan he has made a call for maps made by us.

November 18th: Orders Server

We have just gone online with our new orders server. Everything has been tested and I do doubt that there will be any problems. I urge you all to go check it out and see what new stuff is placed there. ACD is growing, and trying to expand farther into the gaming market.

Hexen 2 again

Okay this is now my favorite topic, I do love the game Hexen 2, and I have been a supporter or Raven for many years now. I really have loved everything that they have done with IDs engines. With the release of Quake the ability for other people to build what they wanted was the big selling point in my mind. I thought what ID did with their engine was cool, but what mattered to me was what I could do. Now with Activision taking over Raven it seems that Activision does not have the same attitude of sharing their product. They keep on going on about how they had spent a great deal of time working on the game. What about the hundreds of hours each member of a TC has spent in the hope that despite how the odds are against him or her, that they will create a good enough product to make them a few dollars. Is this a bad thing? I do not think so. I am afraid that other companies coming to the gaming market will take a similar "Its mine! All mine!" approach to their product unlike the "sharing" attitude that the Quake Community had before. I must take this stand, as I am one of those evil, nasty people out in the world that are trying to make a few dollars in the gaming industry, by starting at the bottom and making expansion packs for high quality games like Hexen.

If you would like to share any of your own opinions with me please do. Click here as I am interested in how the users of Worldcraft feel about this all.

November 13th: Just a little note

It seems as though a few people took notice of yesterdays update. I just wanted to mention that while I said everything built with the Hexen 2 utilities become property of Activision, I would like to update that. I have spent a while surfing the web reading all the information I can about the licence agreement. Despite how nasty it could be taken it is intented to allow Activision the ability to go after groups who try to make money through the use of the Hexen 2 tools.

I do plan to email them when I finish this update and ask them to give me the low down on exactly what they will allow and want they will not. I am hoping that they will grant permission for other to release commercial packs for Hexen 2, we all know just how popular the commercial packs were for Quake. I personally beleive that as long as the packs require the user to purchase the original product, no harm is done, Acitivision does not share this opinion, to each their own :)

November 12th: Hexen 2

As of yesterday Activision has released the official Hexen 2 build utilities. They can be found here. I really do suggest that you READ THE LICENCE AGREEMENT as it has some very important information that you really should be aware of. It comes down to the fact that anything built with those utilities will become property of Activision, and you release all rights and royalties to them. BAD ACTIVISION. If you have any questions or comments about this I do suggest that you email Activision's Business and Legal Affairs.

More about the Utilities. The .MAP format has been changed for the Hexen 2 utilities. The change required for Worldcraft will be a simple one, and I chatted with Ben about it today, he does believe that he should have a new version of Worldcraft that will be Hexen 2 capable shortly. This new version will fix the problem with the .MAP file and allow the Hexen 2 .FGD to be in one part instead of 2.

November 5th: Home Again and the Hexen 2 FGD.

First the Worldcraft news! You will all want to visit the Forge and check out the news section. Autolycus, the God of the .FGDs files has just finished the Hexen 2 .FGD. It is not perfect at this moment and we do hope to have an updated version of Worldcraft that can handle the huge .FGD file of all the entities in Hexen 2.

Well I am back again in Victoria. I had a great time down in Dallas. This was the first trip for me to a major US city in the last 15 years, I was unsure of what to expect. My experience was nothing but a positive experience, everyone I encountered was friendly and very polite! I really do look foward to heading down to Texas again!

I met many people and saw a great many things. I would probably have to spend many pages here describing what I saw, and I just might :) The Frag itself has held in the massive Infomart (I am having picture developed as I type right now and do hope to have a few links tomorrow) and was a great showcase of talented Quake players from all around the World, most of my Clan Mates did very well. Evil Geniuses = World Domination! :) Good thing I did not play or I would of significantly lowered our success average :)

One of the highlights of my entire trip was getting a chance to visit id software. I have to thank Brian Hook and everyone else at id for my sneak preview of Quake 2. It all started with my getting a chance to walk by the "Hall of Fame" at id. They have huge collection of awards and articles framed and placed along the walls. I then got to have a taste Quake 2 DM. The level we played was a modified version of DM3 so I was able to find my way around. The learning curve then started... :) Most of the weapons were new and I did not know which keys where used to bring up the guns so I spent most of my time hitting the cycle weapon button trying to find the most appropriate weapon, this caused my death a few times. I did quickly get the hang of it and tore a few pieces out of John Carmack, Brian Hook and Brandon James, the highlight was easily when I took Carmack and Hook out with when well timed BFG blast. Oh BABY! :) Big, Green and NASTY, just the way I remember it.

A few other people then got into the battle, so I wandered around to check out all the rest of id. One of the coolest parts of this was when I found out all the cheat codes were still in that developers version of DM and I watched Killme and a few others take advantage of this and had a huge god moded, noclipped, BFG battle floating around the bridge area of DM3, this just looked awesome :)

The tour continued.. we then went to the artist area of id were all the model files and such were created. We were shown the two player model files one Male and one Female. I was so very impressed by these model files, they were what I would of made. The male looked like he could bench press a small car and came with a variety, and I do stress variety of skins, one for everyone out there I do believe. The female model did impress me more, I was expecting some teenage boy's wet dream of a combat babe, I saw nothing like this. This model file was of a powerful, capable warrior that just happened to be female, she would stand side by side with the hulking male figure and not look out of place. Have no fear however, she is sexy, and I would do anything she asked :)

Now the part of the tour that I dreamed about and still sends shivers down my spine. People had been chatting about the introduction and just how impressive it was, they lie, it is more than that. It is really and truly an experience that can NOT be described in words. The intro was shown to about 6 visitors, they cranked up the sound and had it on one those really nice monitors :) The beginning of the introduction was calm and cool, and started to build, after about the first minute you knew that this thing was going to be really big. At this point the music changed to Rob Zombies KICK ASS sound track and all hell broke loose on the screen. It at times almost overwhelming, but at all times it reached out and grabbed me and did not let go. Through the entire thing I could feel the excitement in the room just start to build, it was almost a religious experience :) When it was all over and done the room was just buzzing with electricity so much that even PMS-Aurora's year old baby was affected by it all and said "Oh Yeah!" when it was over. It was just a great experience and boy do I want to get Quake 2 just so I can see the finale!

I do have more to chat about, however that will wait for a later date. Thanks TEXAS! :)

October 29th: The Frag and the X-men TC

Well I leave tomorrow morning to head off to the frag down in Dallas. When I return I plan to write up a review of the X-men TC. Its very impressive in my books, I will post a complete review a day or so after I return. I do want to be as honest as I can about the project.. as I think it stands up to even my bastardly criticism :) If you are interested in downloading it, visit Blues News and look for the article from yesterday it has links to many locations of the pack. Download it! :) I will be back Monday afternoon so if you have some really important email and you NEED to have it answered email Autolycus or Loki from the Forge :)

Have a good weekend all, be safe, and Ill hopefully see some of you in Texas! :)

October 24th: A few items of note.

Quake 2:

Well the demo has been released. It looks good on my computer, I do beleive there are a few issues for them to resolved before it works 100% under NT however :) I do await the Pure3d that is in the mail right now to give it the real test GL *drooool* :)

Hexen 2:

Someone has hacked QBSP, Light and VIS to make them work with Hexen 2. I do use the term work loosely as I tested them and they did not preform all that great. I do however did have success in running one of my maps in Hexen 2. The files to do this can be found here. If you have any problems with these files causing error please email the author of the patch not me, as I will just point you in this direction anyways! :)

No official Hexen 2 entity lists, me and auto have been looking over the entities and such and do really look forward to be able to use these. We would much prefer to wait on an official release.

The Frag:

Looks like Im going down to the Frag! I will be chatting with Polish about me doing some sort of Worldcraft/Editing tutorial session, should be cool :) I do beleive that all the spots are filled for the frag so if you have your spot, I do look foward to meeting you :)

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