Incline Quake II enhanced re-release by Nightdive Studios

[Morenatsu.]

No gl_modulate/intensity and friends, they were more flexible than brightness/gamma alone.

Maybe if you liked having all the texture quality obliterated by clamped brightness. Those settings were trash.

When tuned properly you could make the difference between shadows and highlights be arbitrarily large or small, and how bright were the textures overall (excessive contrast). It looked good with stock textures like ~~q2dm1~~, q2duel8 and other maps like that.

Nowadays reshade does this but not in lightmap space. It could be adapted actually.

seta vid_gamma 1
seta vid_hwgamma 1

seta intensity 1.25
seta gl_brightness .5
seta gl_modulate 1.25
seta gl_modulate_world 1.25
seta gl_modulate_entities 1.5
seta gl_saturation .6

seta gl_doublelight_entities 0
seta r_override_textures 1
seta gl_multisamples 0
seta gl_dotshading 1

seta gl_dynamic 0 // YMMV
seta gl_dlight_falloff 1

I don't know what source ports do, I never use them and don't care. As for the original,
Software, intensity 2 (default), intensity 1:

These settings change the brightness of the textures on upload, and then all rendering is done with those already brightened textures. The texture brightness gets clipped, and then reduced by the lighting, giving that kind of flat colour. Quake 2's colour palette is grey enough that there aren't many textures that suffer from it too much, and of course, it's doubled by default and is too dark without that, but it's a bad way of doing things even if it is standard behaviour. (gl_modulate does the same thing but with lightmaps, though they're so dark to begin with and lack fine detail anyway, so it's almost like they're designed to be brightened this way. But then it changes model lighting too much, I feel)

It's a meme to recommend changing settings randomly, but the result is always some garish abomination of super-brightness with no shadows. Fits in with the typical 'pro' inclination towards playing with no graphics, I guess.

 

[Twiglard]

These settings change the brightness of the textures on upload, and then all rendering is done with those already brightened textures. The result being that textures brightness gets clipped, and then reduced by the lighting.

Works properly without clipping on q2pro.


gl_modulate = 1, gl_modulate_entities = 1, intensity = 1


gl_modulate = 1, gl_modulate_entities = 0.2, intensity = 10


gl_modulate = 1, gl_modulate_entities = 1, intensity = 10

So you can see that shader-based brightness has been implemented properly for several years, still allowing full flexibility without mangling texture images like the previous GL 1.2 renderer.

Note: I'm not saying this is better than reshade liftgammagain/levels or dynamic contrast, but nevertheless is more flexible than the shitty closed source port.

 

[Morenatsu.]

People don't use q2poo, they play Sin and Daikatana with fucked up textures because some retard on the net told them to. Why the hell do you want to change the brightness that way, anyway? It should look correct to begin with, who cares about letting people 'customize' it. And, really, all that matters is the original game as made by the original developers, and how the re-release compares to it. Source ports are irrelevant.

 

[Bad Sector]

Did the Voodoo 2 and 3 lines of cards also have linear gamma? Was there a similar problem with how games from 1998 or 1999 looked on these cards? Or was it generally accepted that games at the time wouldn't really have very deep dark tones or saturated colours? I'm thinking of titles like Unreal or Thief.

Voodoo 2 was basically a faster Voodoo 1, the gamma was the same.

IIRC the gamma in Voodoo 3 was customizable - this was necessary since unlike V1/V2 it was also a regular graphics card. But by the time V3 came out, 3dfx had started losing in popularity and games were less likely to be designed with it.

Of course, such editors don't have lighting, so using it to judge brightness would have been pointless.

The editor itself didn't but the game was running in the same computer so when the level designers worked on lighting the maps they ran the game on the same professional 3D graphics cards with their proper gamma instead of on 3dfx voodoos with their linear gamma.

 

[Twiglard]

Why the hell do you want to change the brightness that way, anyway? It should look correct to begin with, who cares about letting people 'customize' it. And, really, all that matters is the original game as made by the original developers, and how the re-release compares to it. Source ports are irrelevant.

I played Quake 2 in my teens non-stop for 5+ years. First it was on the 3.21 client but then ports came out. It's like saying QW players don't want to use fuhquake (rather, they're using some even more modern port) rather than the old code. Nowadays there are many Q2 Jump players, they're using a particular other source port rather than q2pro but everything stays the same. So you're completely misinformed as to what past Q2 players want.

who cares about letting people 'customize' it

Say on ~~q2dm1~~ you want the 'sewer' with the machinegun to become more bright without turning the entire map into overly bright.

 

[Morenatsu.]

So you're completely misinformed as to what past Q2 players want.

Not misinformed, entirely uninformed, rather. Because I'm not one of those players who wants that, and that's not who I was talking about. Competitive players are a peripheral concern, really. Or rather, it's more their job to adapt to the game as it is instead of turning off everything that gives them a disadvantage. What they 'want' is something detrimental to the quality of the game. So no I don't really care.

Of course, better brightness settings are better, but it doesn't need to be anything more than correct. Settings exist so you can get a game working on any hardware, they're not there for people to customize randomly.

Say on ~~q2dm1~~ you want the 'sewer' with the machinegun to become more bright without turning the entire map into overly bright.

I don't want that. Why would I cheat?

 

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Whatever...

Q2 is dogshit anyway. Played it all the way through just earlier this year and it's pretty remarkable how id went from the perfection of Doom and Q1 to this banalshitboring sludge. Tried the enhanced version for a few minutes and it still sucks. I'll give Q2 64 a shot, though.

 

[Tweed]

Playing through it now for those times where I don't want to brain. It's still just as boring and piss easy even on nightmare, but I wanted to shoot things so whatever.

 

[ferratilis]

 

[502]

https://www.nexusmods.com/quake2/mods/15

This mod allows you to customise some of the more significant gameplay tweaks of the Nightdive Studios remaster of Quake 2.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I'll say one thing for these remasters of Quake 1 and Quake 2 - they just gave them free to existing Steam owners like me.

That's unusual, where most companies would have sold them again.

 

[Atlet]

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfo...23-tech-review-this-is-how-to-remaster-a-game

Quake 2 2023 tech review: this is how to remaster a game​

New features, new content and updated visuals at a great price.

 

[Ivan]

had a decent time with the new expansion. Quake II didn't stand as an FPS I hold in high regard, and the expansion didn't change my feelings about that. I don't care for the bestiary nor the arsenal. That said, the new levels were fun to experience as they upped the enemy count significantly. It was actually pretty jarring jumping back to the base campaigns and seeing how few enemies they threw at you at a time. There are about 7 levels, some were quite excellent and reminded me of the quality levels found in the Quake 1 Arcane Dimensions fan map pack.

 

[sser]

I'll say one thing for these remasters of Quake 1 and Quake 2 - they just gave them free to existing Steam owners like me.

That's unusual, where most companies would have sold them again.

Meanwhile, Rockstar re-releases RDR on the Switch for $50.

 

[Tweed]

Is there a mod that paints over the gay marine drop pod yet?

 

[Morenatsu.]

That new campaign bored me so I turned it off and replayed the undehanced game instead. The original just has the right pacing of locations and encounters. No I don't really care at all how retarded you think the enemies are. Compact levels that fit a believable setting while still being gamey, with relatively straight-forward progression without being too linear nor too fake-snaking and over-large, that's real shooter gaming.

Like imagine making a quake 2 campaign about not being quake 2. to be expected from the creators of not quake 1 in quake 1 i guess

 

[Tweed]

It's crazy how much better Ground Zero is than The Shrekoning.

 

[DemonKing]

It's crazy how much better Ground Zero is than The Shrekoning.

I just finished the Reckoning last night and I didn't think it was absolutely horrible (apart from the lame final boss and cutscene), so looking forward to trying Ground Zero and the new expansion next.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I was never that much into Q2 except for MP back in the day, but this release is very competent, obviously a labour of love and respect. And the new episode by Machine Games is pretty cool too.

 

[Junmarko]

Great remaster. AI improvements are nice, berserkers are absolute pricks to deal with now. Visual upgrades are impressive overall too. First time I've ever seen the use of motion blur where it's subtle enough to actually look good and not induce headaches.

New campaign is a joy to play.

 

[Sigourn]

I'm playing the Yamagi sourceport instead of the remaster, which seemed off to me.

This is the shooter from my childhood. While I know I played lots of Wolfenstein 3D and Quake (Doom, for some reason, was strangely absent), it is Quake II the one I have memories of playing a lot on my PSX.
I'm fresh off Quake, and for starters I much prefer the aesthetic of Quake II. Blasphemy, I know. But after a while, all of Quake's levels started blending in with each other. I still have to play the Dimension of the Machine expansion.

The things I like the most about Quake II:

• More organic level design, resembling (but not quite) that of the Build engine shooters.
• Injury textures on enemies make it feel like your hits pack a punch.
• The Super Shotgun.
• Even the standard shotgun is satisfying.
• Enemy variety. Which isn't huge, but still...
• While I'm not heavy on the military aesthetic, I have to say it is cohesive all the way through.

Backtracking across levels feels gimmicky since it's usually done to push a couple of buttons and proceed to the next area, as opposed to unlocking a huge section of the level. Still, it does make all of them feel connected.
Overall a nice sci-fi military shooter that manages to be distinct from Doom.

 

[Ash]

It's crazy how much better Ground Zero is than The Shrekoning.

Yup. Fixes the AI to some degree. removes the shitty OP power shield. Better level design. Some cool new gadgets. they clearly had a good head on their shoulders and understood what was wrong with the base game. Reckoning is just amateur by comparison.

 

[Junmarko]

Love it when this happens, never gets old

 

[Morenatsu.]

It's crazy how much better Ground Zero is than The Shrekoning.

Yup. Fixes the AI to some degree. removes the shitty OP power shield. Better level design. Some cool new gadgets. they clearly had a good head on their shoulders and understood what was wrong with the base game. Reckoning is just amateur by comparison.

only thing on their shoulders were a bunch of turrets

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Finished the vanilla campaign, don't really feel like getting into the expansions tbh. Overall a good remake. They did a better job with touching up the critters than they did in q1 and the changes to ai are definitely for the best. Although berserker's leap is a bit wonky (the aoe seems way too big) and there were a few instances when the ai seemed to freeze and a strogg was not reacting even when I was bumping my dick into it, which is not something I remember ever happening in the original.

The game itself is as ok as it ever was. Probably the best thing you can say about it is that it is still an honest shooter in an era when homosexuals started taking over the genre and various story driven games with strong characters and various pointless gimmicks were getting all the attention and praise. Dropping the amazing atmosphere of q1 for the basic bitch war with alieeeens inanity is super disappointing, but I run out of butthurt long time ago.