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QSB

From Quake Wiki

Quake Standards Base is a project which aims to raise the bar of basic Quake modding and mapping. The goal is to push engine devs to support features which are very specific to making mods and maps for Quake (such as increased map and entity limits, external textures and new builtins), rather than user-features (such as a better server browser in the menu, nicer particle effects and an FPS counter).

The spec is still a work in progress!

Thanks[edit]

  • LadyHavoc for dpextensions.qc, most features people seem to want were listed and described here
  • Spike for the FTE Wiki
  • frag.machine for the engine limits list
  • Spirit for the Engine Limits page
  • Everyone who's shown support, contributed with ideas and discussion

Todo[edit]

  • Discuss the current suggested extensions listed below
  • Should QSB care about network protocols?
  • What about QuakeWorld and specific QuakeWorld features?

Discussion[edit]

Suggestions for features on IQC

Discuss existing features on IQC

Increased Engine Limits[edit]

QSB will require some increased limits to bring engines to a more modern level of capability. This is still an ongoing discussion, as some of the limits are incompatible with the default Quake network protocol.

Limit name Old limit New limit Note/Category
MAX_HANDLES 10 100 File handling
MINIMUM_WIN_MEMORY 0x01000000 (16Mb) 0x02000000 (32Mb) Engine
MAXIMUM_WIN_MEMORY 0x04000000 (64Mb) 0x08000000 (128Mb) Engine
CON_TEXTSIZE 16384 262144 Engine (maybe not relevant)
MAX_FARCLIP 4096 INFINITE Rendering
MAX_EDICTS 600 8192 (*) Map limit
NET_MAXMESSAGE 8192 65536 (****) Network
MAX_STATIC_ENTITIES 128 1024 Map limit
MAX_MAP_LEAFS 8192 32768 (**) Map limit
MAX_LIGHTMAPS 64 256 Map limit
NUMSTACKSURFACES 800 8192 Map limit
NUMSTACKEDGES 2400 8192 Map limit
MAX_VISEDICTS 256 MAX_EDICTS Map limit
MAX_DATAGRAM 1024 1400 Network
MAX_MSGLEN 8000 65536 (****) Network
MAX_STACK_DEPTH 32 256 Engine
MAX_EFRAGS 640 2048 Map limit
MAX_CHANNELS 128 512 Sound
MAX_DYNAMIC_CHANNELS 8 128 Sound
MAX_MAP_CLIPNODES 32767 65535 (**) Map limit
MAX_GLTEXTURES 1024 2048 (***) Rendering
MAX_TEMP_ENTITIES 64 1024 Rendering
DYNAMIC_SIZE 49152 262144 Engine
MAX_BMODEL_VERTS 500 1000 Map limit
MAX_BMODEL_EDGES 1000 3000 Map limit
MAXALIASVERTS 1024(GL) 2000(SW) 65536 Model
MAXALIASTRIS 2048 65536 Model
MAX_LBM_HEIGHT 480 1024 Model
ABSOLUTE_MIN_PARTICLES 512 1024 Engine
MAX_PARTICLES 2048 16384 Rendering
MAX_MODELS 256 4096 (*) Network
MAX_SOUNDS 256 4096 (*) Network
MARKSURFACES 32767 65535 (**) Map limit
FACES 32767 65535 (**) Map limit
NODES 32767 65535 (**) Map limit
MAX_BEAMS 24 256 Rendering
MAX_DLIGHTS 32 128 Rendering (might be best left alone)
  • (*) = requires new network protocol
  • (**) = should be implemented in a non-hacky way (replacing short values with 32-bit ints)
  • (***) = Hardware-rendering specific
  • (****) = See FitzQuake README.TXT about multiplayer games sticking to 1400 bytes due network limitations

Supported Extensions[edit]

QSB will support the checkextension system, to bring engines which don't already support it up to speed, hence all features will be listed as either existing extensions or new ones will be suggested.

Extensions are listed with descriptions within (sometimes stolen from their respective authors), and a description next to it if the extension differs from the requirement of the standard.

Extensions which make the engine incompatible with the default Quake network protocol are noted with a warning, as this is still an ongoing discussion at the time of writing.

DP_CL_LOADSKY pcx with quake palette minimum for software engines, no limit on texture size and texture sizes do not need to match within the same skybox, loads from $game\env\
DP_GFX_SKYBOX pcx with quake palette minimum for software engines, no limit on texture size and texture sizes do not need to match within the same skybox, loads from $game\env\
DP_GFX_EXTERNALTEXTURES required for engines with hardware accelerated rendering, optional for software, attempt to load tga before pcx, pcx before lmp, lmp before wad, loading _diffuse _gloss _norm _bump and _luma are optional
DP_LITSUPPORT required for engines with hardware accelerated rendering
DP_BUTTONUSE
DP_CON_SET
DP_CON_SETA
DP_EF_ADDITIVE required for engines with hardware accelerated rendering (ALTERS NETWORK PROTOCOL)
DP_EF_FULLBRIGHT this includes support for fullbrights on textures in maps and on model skins (ALTERS NETWORK PROTOCOL)
DP_EF_NODEPTHTEST
DP_EF_NODRAW
DP_ENT_ALPHA full range required for engines with hardware accelerated rendering, software engines round off to the nearest of 25%, 50% and 75% alpha, based on a lookup table. This also includes r_wateralpha support. Bmodels with a water texture and an .alpha value will override r_wateralpha, and use its own value instead, like in FitzQuake. For hardware accelerated engines this includes support for textures with alpha channels on bmodels and model skins. (ALTERS NETWORK PROTOCOL)
DP_ENT_SCALE (ALTERS NETWORK PROTOCOL)
DP_ENT_VIEWMODEL
DP_ENT_EXTERIORMODELTOCLIENT
DP_INPUTBUTTONS
DP_MONSTERWALK (this one is a maybe, because it doesn't make a lot of sense without SV_PlayerPhysics)
DP_MOVETYPEBOUNCEMISSILE
DP_MOVETYPEFOLLOW
DP_QC_CHANGEPITCH
DP_QC_CVAR_STRING
DP_QC_FINDFLAGS
DP_QC_FINDFLOAT (note, includes findentity)
DP_QC_FS_SEARCH
DP_QC_MINMAXBOUND
DP_QC_UNLIMITEDTEMPSTRINGS
DP_QC_RANDOMVEC
DP_QC_TRACEBOX
DP_QC_TRACETOSS (it seems odd to me that this one needs an existing entity to base on, why?)
DP_QC_TRACE_MOVETYPE_WORLDONLY
DP_QC_VECTOANGLES_WITH_ROLL
DP_QUAKE2_MODEL
DP_SND_DIRECTIONLESSATTNNONE
DP_SND_FAKETRACKS (is this useful without OGG Vorbis or mp3 support?)
DP_SOLIDCORPSE
DP_SV_DRAWONLYTOCLIENT
DP_SV_ENTITYCONTENTSTRANSITION
DP_SV_MOVETYPESTEP_LANDEVENT
DP_SV_POINTSOUND
DP_SV_NODRAWTOCLIENT
DP_SV_PRECACHEANYTIME
DP_SV_ROTATINGBMODEL
DP_TE_STANDARDEFFECTBUILTINS

FTE_TE_STANDARDEFFECTBUILTINS

(depending on type of engine)
DP_VIEWZOOM (ALTERS NETWORK PROTOCOL) (can be implemented as a stat to avoid altering network protocol)
FRIK_FILE the DarkPlaces type, reading inside $game and $game/configs/ is prohibited, writing is restricted to $game/data/
KRIMZON_SV_PARSECLIENTCOMMAND
FTE_QC_CHECKPVS
FTE_STRINGS (this one's a maybe, is it overkill?)
NEH_RESTOREGAME

New Suggested Extensions[edit]

Some engines already support some of these features, but as they don't exist as extensions, new ones are suggested. Even engines already supporting the features would need to list them as extensions.

Misc. features[edit]

Some required features can't be categorized under anything else, they are listed below.

  • Multicontent

Allows the user to specify multiple mod paths to read content from, with the last in line being the one loaded for play.

Example commandline: -game quoth -game mymod

This would make "mymod" be the current mod in play, but extra content is loaded from "quoth". Extra content is sounds, models, sprites, textures, maps, more?

  • Higher precision origins and angles

Use floating point for origins and shorts for angles (ALTERS NETWORK PROTOCOL)

Bugfixes[edit]

  • Render liquid textures of other sizes than 64x64 correctly
  • Allow sky textures of 4x2 and higher
  • Fix rendering of models with large bounding-boxes disappearing at edges of screen

See Also[edit]