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No, we are not dead (yet). 0.55 development!

kiki | 2010-07-12 20:19 | 36 comments

(I know I promised to post this stuff week+ ago but I've been on vacation/busy, sorry for delays, but better late than ever?)

It's been whopping 319 days since 0.5 release, so time to reveal a bit what we've been doing for last 10 (or so) months! This is not a complete list of 0.55 work or changelog of any kind, just a little roundup of the biggest and most visible/hearable (!) new stuff. And there's so much new stuff, I don't even know where to start...

Engine work & q3map2
Lots of random tuning and fixes have been made to the engine - some of the biggest new features/improvements:

Engine-wise the biggest new feature performance- wise is the VBO support (our engine-overlord Vic's work!). Depending on the map/configuration, enabling VBO support (gl_ext_vertex_buffer_object 1) can easily give you some 50-250 (maybe even more) better fps compared to 0.5! Also netcode-wise Jal has been improving extrapolation to the point there is simply no room for improvement (unless proved with real code patches!).

0.55 and the new q3map2 also has horde of lighting and deluxemapping quality improvements and complete floodlight support to be used as ambient from the worldspawn. All technical bubblablaablaa aside - check the lighting in the screenshots below :-)

Soundtrack!
That's right - Warsow will have, for the first time ever, in-game soundtrack (composed by jihnsius)! Listen for a little teaser here!

Jihnsius has made simply awesome job with the soundtrack and the OST will hopefully give much more 'face' and personality for Warsow as a game.

Gametype scripts
Biggest of the big(tm) features in 0.5 was undoubtly the gametype scripting support (AngelScript), and one of the first gametype scripts written & developed with the Warsow community during the 0.5 testing period was Bomb&Defuse, which has been a huge success! Starting with 0.55, Capture the flag: Tactics will be included as an official gametype too.

Weapon models
Every weapon model got some love (props for adsn for the model work!). Little teaser :-)

Maps... reviving the old classics
Especially the older Warsow crowd loves wdm1 for sure, and it undoubtly brings warm memories for many oldschool players. Rimol (also known as cervix) also felt this way, and gave some really nice facelift for this old classic:

And surprise, blast from the past! Old, popular 2on2 map, wtest18 is back! Re-textured and facelifted by Anthy - Say hello to wdm22:

wdm6, the old classic, got rid of the green theme:

Maps... improving the existing maps and unifying the art style
Almost every map has got loads of gfx improvements, tuning, and in general maps are now much more unified in terms of artistic styles. Here's quick roundup from the wdmX maps:

wdm19 moved away from the wdm5/tron theme, to radically different theme (Also courtesy of Anthy):

wdm20 got retextured by me (kiki)!:

wdm2 got more color from 36:

wdm9 got pinked by Jal!

wdm10 got some love lighting-wise from me:

... more new maps!
New duel map, a lot of ppl might be familiar with this already, but once again, here's new wdm21 aka Courtyard!

Bomb, bomb, bomb!
Bomb has definitely been single greatest new feature with 0.5. When we shipped 0.5, we had wbomb1 and wbomb2 half-ready for it. Although bomb players are familiar with test versions of all these maps, here's bunch of screenshots from (near) final versions of wbomb1, wbomb2 (reactors_2), wbomb3 (alley_cr), wbomb4 (shepas), wbomb5 (cxbomb1b) and there's likely to be a 6th bomb map once we release!

wbomb1:

wbomb2:

wbomb3:

wbomb4:

wbomb5:

What else?
A lot of random, minor stuff :-)

• Walking in ladders is slightly faster.
• Eb/Instagun wall hit effect particles look much more natural now.
• Ow yes, new awesome background video (by Froop!) and new menu music (by jihnsius!).
• Cartoon hit effects!

2010-07-12 20:28 by

milkflow

Love those cartoon hit effects. Totally useless, but totally awesome.

2010-07-12 20:28 by

HardyRah

nice <3

2010-07-12 20:29 by

m0t0

zomg

2010-07-12 20:40 by

blubb

Good job. The bomb maps look extremly nice, even though wbomb5 sucks gameplay wise :)

2010-07-12 20:48 by

reload

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBaYbOnp7hU @ title.

2010-07-12 20:53 by

MikeJS

Most of this looks fantastic

2010-07-12 20:54 by

homart

Awesome.
I love this game more and more, just a question. Why not remaking the healh buble, cause it didn't fit with the new warsow style i think.
But fabulus work,awesome,... I just love it
When does it come out? ^^

2010-07-12 20:58 by

Koochi

this is awesome :D
devs = <3

2010-07-12 20:59 by

adem

WANT IT! especially darked WDM6 and hot LG =) thanks for blogging kiki!

2010-07-12 21:07 by

clownfart

Great job on wdm19, it looks great.

2010-07-12 21:52 by

Giuda

Awesome work! Thank you, devs!

2010-07-12 21:55 by

VectorVanDoom

new ntextures look $$$
couldnt care less about weaponskind (cg_gun 0).
wdm6 wasnt green since 0.42 at least.
last but not least, where have the outlines gone too? i hope theyll be back

2010-07-12 22:05 by

hhhhhhhhhh

Wow, nice work to all the people on the dev team. The maps look really awesome specially A on wbomb2.

2010-07-12 22:49 by

jal

Outlines have always been optional, Vector. Of course they are still there.

2010-07-12 22:58 by

jihnsius

wooooo

2010-07-12 23:34 by

SolidFake

"but better late than ever?" shouldn't it be better late than never? ^^

anyway, really nice update, I see that you guys put really a lot of love in detailing the maps.
New weapons look very nice! I really like the new style warsow is going to!
buuuuuut, what's with gibs? still the old? :(
and please finally put that red texture off the steal rods at the reactor and replace them with sth better.

PS: you really like my texture it seems, I'm happy bout that ;)

2010-07-13 01:20 by

Grasli

Wow, nice work guys! ;) :D

I LOVE all the weapon skins (especially damn hot LG & GB) and all the re-textured maps, except wdm6 which I am a little bit sceptical about. Tbh I personally (by looking at that pic only), dont like the new darkened theme THAT much. The current style (wdm10-style, grey squares etc) looks much better for wdm6 imo. But thats just my opinion. We'll see how it turns out.

Keep up the good work guys! ;) :D

2010-07-13 04:44 by

learn_more

awesome work :)

maybe 0.6 would be a version number more worthy for all the gfx updates?

2010-07-13 06:10 by

SoLomonK

Hehe,
my special thanks to my dear team mates for their great work and deep input during last year.
<3

2010-07-13 07:45 by

Pierre

hmmmmmmm <3

2010-07-13 07:57 by

homart

Pierre <3<3, still playing?

2010-07-13 08:34 by

SickBoy

can't wait to play it

WARCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

2010-07-13 09:19 by

Huksi`

Yay wdm1 is retextured :))
and wdm6 looks nice too! Big thanks!

btw. Can I get unbanned in #warsow already? :/

2010-07-13 10:58 by

farmup

the texturing seems pretty awesome,gj:)

2010-07-13 12:45 by

dix

why all this 'red' textures?
dm2 now lost his 'futuristic' appeal
looking forward to play all the "new" maps anyway!
new weapon models look awesome :o

2010-07-13 15:32 by

Pierre

@homart : no, i play l4d2 now :P
but i'll try the new 0.55 version

2010-07-13 18:54 by

ahrz

nice read, thanks for the update!

2010-07-13 19:40 by

homart

Pierre,that's good, hope you will bring some movements to warcho.net ;)

2010-07-13 21:42 by

astroBRUNS

nice :) can't wait
well i can
but i'd rather not