Zircon Engine - a "DarkPlaces Mark V" project mod for Quake

Quake 3 Map Levelshots In #51 (Download: Zircon Beta #51 - Win64)

Sometimes I like looking through map geometry in Quake 3 maps for inspiration or to see interesting things they did with shaders. Lvlworld.com is where I usually go (although they do not have every map).

I have a quake/q3 folder that is Open Arena unzipped into that folder and I put any Q3 maps into that folder, type "game q3" and go to the maps menu ... however, I have no idea what map is what by name. I added levelshots/mapname.tga to display in the maps menu.

I also made the maps menu not automatically refresh. DarkPlaces digs through each map entities segment to find the map title, for a ton of maps this can be slow and it usually does not need to refresh unless you added a map while having the engine started. Press SPACE in the maps menu to refresh the list now.

The maps menu is one of the prime candidates for a user-interface overhaul ... I would like to figure out a solution for Q1 .. even if it involved the engine having to create the screenshots from the maps.

JPEG/Test_Mat2 Test (Download: Zircon Beta #50 - Win64/ Linux)

I had to try this out to see how well it converted (result = excellent!). Using the Zircon "jpegsplit" command, made a JPEG version of GremlinForester's Test Materials 2 map. It is now a 29 MB download.

I like high effects, great looking textures and environments but I am interested in avoiding download sizes like the 5.4 GB size, say, the Rivarez Edition -- for instance.

(The Zircon jpegsplit command converts to JPEG keeping the alpha channel in a separate JPEG file).

Zircon Beta Release #50

SMEJ2 issue resolved, gamedir change cvar reset is now perfect, "devinfo" command available.

Information Is Speed

Zircon will soon be getting upgrades -- optional -- I'm a hardcore conservative engine guy that wants to feel like I'm playing Quake. The current mouse-driven menu in Zircon is classy and does not take away from the "Quake" feel. At the same time, Zircon needs a mod installer built-in and I feel the options menu has too much stuff to find easily, I think an alternative might be helpful and many other possibilities exist.

Pictured: The user-interface components in Zircon were made to allow fast real-time experimentation and adjustments with a couple of clicks. (Note: The context menu to edit mode is right click)

Little time has been invested in the "color scheme". The goal so far was writing the user-interface components and bending the engine infrastructure to get to support all of these capabilities.

The first round -- the testing round -- is a developmental tool "devinfo" that will expand as time permits and will likely eventually include the ability to real-time edit in-game entities -- which can help fine tune a map or mod.

Pictured: The data displayed in "devinfo" allows column sizing, amongst other things. The user-interface components are not using a third party tool-kit, they are Zircon-native capabilities written in the last few weeks. Several DarkPlaces capabilities made this easier, like the TrueType Font support.

Mods targeting DarkPlaces capabilities tend to be far more sophisticated than Quake and when making these mods, how quickly one can get to the key information to fine-tune or fix a map or find the nature of something that is not working as expected is important.

Pictured: Rounded buttons and text entry including selecting text with a mouse.

Pictured: The user-interface capabilities in are controlled by a human readable, easily modifiable format that allows comments. It allows changing it quickly, far easier than a hard coded user-interface.

Note: The actual first step towards this was the new "load/save game menu" that stores map screenshots, pictured above. I don't recall the exact version, I think it was Zircon Beta #43.

Zircon #50 soon ..