We're looking to release Q3Test for Win32 on May 19th.

Just kidding.

We're approaching what we consider a good build on Q3Test for Win32, and our current
estimate, barring any problems, is that we will release it on Sunday evening.  We will
release Q3Test updates for Mac and Linux a few hours before Win32 to check for any
bonehead issues.

There will be completely new data for this version of the test, old versions will not
be compatible with the new version, and old and new servers do not mix.

If things change I'll let you all know.  But this is the current plan.

Ugh, the e-mails have begun..."how will accelerator XYZ work with 
Q3TEST?"

Here's a quick run down of accelerators we have tested and that we
find acceptable or better for Quake3, assuming the most up to date
drivers are installed (note: up to date drivers for nearly all of
the following accelerators will be available when Q3TEST is released).

3Dfx Voodoo Graphics
3Dfx Voodoo2
3Dfx Voodoo2 SLI
3Dfx Voodoo3*
3Dfx Voodoo Rush (tested out of house, but supposedly stable)
3Dfx Voodoo Banshee
3DLabs Permedia 2 (ugly, some serious visual artifacts)
ATI Rage Pro (4MB and 8MB)
ATI Rage128*!&
Intel i740
Matrox G200 &
NVidia Riva128
NVidia RivaTNT*!&
NVidia RivaTNT2*!&
Rendition V2x00 (not very fast, but it works)
S3 Savage3 &

* high performance
! supports stencil volume shadows
& 32-bit rendering

We have not done significant testing on the following boards simply because
they were not undergoing full shipment at the time we were wrapping up
Q3TEST:

3DLabs Permedia3
Matrox G400
S3 Savage4

However we do not anticipate any problems with any of the above, since they
are newer, faster, and should be real nice.

Note that ALL of the above boards are supported through a complete OpenGL
implementation, NOT through minidrivers of any kind.  And with the 
exception of Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo 2, and Voodoo Rush, all of the above
accelerators are supported using the standard Win32 OpenGL ICD driver
interface (because of limitations in Microsoft's WGL OpenGL specification,
3D-only cards must be supported by direct loading of their DLL instead of
using the standard GDI interface).

CPUs that we have tested on and support include:

AMD K6-2
AMD K6-3
AMD K7
Intel Pentium and above

So here's the scoop: if you have a pimped out PIII/500 w/ a RivaTNT2, you're
gonna be stoked with a sweet looking game running at a very fast clip.  If
you have an $800 AMD K6-2 w/ a 4MB ATI Rage Pro, we got you hooked up too,
but it'll run slower and not look quite as good.  But you'll still be able
to play, and I'm not talking "it'll load up, be happy" -- you'll seriously
be able to PLAY the game on a $1000 machine.  Q3TEST runs fine on a first 
generation Voodoo Graphics w/ 4MB (remember those?), and it doesn't look
half bad either.

Dig this: Intel i740 boards are available at Fry's Electronics for $49.95,
which is about what a new game costs.  The Intel i740 plays the game
VERY well, albeit with 16-bit rendering and some other minor visual
artifacts.  For $59.95 there were some some white box Riva128 boards,
and those play the game at VERY high performance, but look quite a bit
worse than the i740.  For $99.95 there was the Creative Graphics Blaster
w/ RivaTNT, which has to be the best bang/buck ratio in graphics accelerators
right now.

So that's three boards under $100 that run the game extremely well, for those
of you looking to upgrade on a budget.

If you've bought your desktop machine in the past year, odds are that you
will be able to play Q3TEST once you have up to date drivers installed.

Compatibility Issues:

We have seen a lot of problems with some AMD chipsets (specifically,
ALI) and also the Intel LX chipset used with a lot of PII/333 machines.

These problems are not specific to Quake3, but are usually problems with 
the chipset drivers or design. They manifest themselves as just strange
system hangs, and it can happen regardless of the brand accelerator 
installed.
 

There was an internal miscommunication here that resulted in the
unintentional propagation of incorrect information (gee, how is THAT
for convoluted?!).  So I'm here to clarify.

In a nutshell, Q3TEST/Win32 WILL support 3Dfx!  There was some internal
confusion about the matter as we've been wrestling with driver stability
and distribution issues (across all chipsets, not just 3Dfx).  3Dfx,
especially Marty Franz and Rob Wheeler, have been highly responsive
to our needs when it comes to driver robustness, performance, and
availability.

So to reiterate: there will be support for 3Dfx, and I believe 3Dfx will
be posting Q3TEST compliant drivers on their Web site over the weekend
in anticipation of Q3TEST's release.

As an aside, during testing we've found that most of the OpenGL drivers
have performed quite well and have shown a remarkable amount of stability.
We are getting excellent performance on low end boards such as the Intel
i740, NVidia Riva128, Voodoo Graphics, and the ATI Rage Pro.  We're
extremely encouraged by the solidity of the OpenGL drivers we've seen,
and we're also proud that Q3TEST scales so well from low end hardware
all the way up to the biggest and baddest new accelerators such as 
TNT2 and Voodoo3.

Oh, as a second aside, I installed Red Hat 6.0 on my old test machine,
and I'm pretty impressed with it.  Some talented engineer out there should
take up 3Dfx on their job offer to work on Linux OpenGL drivers, since
Linux + OpenGL = cost effective OpenGL development workstation.

And The Croydon Aluminum Ball, a page about an aluminum ball made of KitKat wrappers.
It was shortly after that period that the foil KitKat wrappers began to arrive. Hardly a day would pass without a pile of the things having to be compacted in an attempt to reclaim valuable office space. And so, the Ball was born...

Happy Birthday Wolfie!  Seven long years ago, the shareware version of Wolfenstein 3-D was uploaded to Software Creations BBS.  It was very late at night (in fact, i think it was 5am) and all our exhaustive testing was done, so we uploaded the final ZIP file and crashed.  Scott Miller and Bobby Prince were there for the shareware upload since they were just as excited about Wolfie as everyone else. 

 We were running id out of a 1-bedroom loft apartment in Mesquite (La Prada Club) and the company had a grand total of 6 employees: Tom Hall, John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, Jay Wilbur, Kevin Cloud and myself.   The next couple months were spent finishing the last 3 episodes (6 in total) and Tom, Kevin and I wrote the Wolfenstein 3-D Hint Book using NeXT hardware for layout.  That was the first and only hint book id would ever write.  Things got *very* busy after that point...

a) Free Lorena Bobbitt.
b) Free Mike Tyson.
c) Free Willy.
d) Free condom with this survey.

Your local Mayor is involved in a lurid sex scandal.
You are:

a) Outraged.
b) Implicated.
c) Jealous.
d) Never going to vote anyway.

Which of the following are you most likely to find
yourself saying at the end of a relationship?

a) "I hope we can still be friends."
b) "Welcome to Dumpsville.  Population: you."
c) "I'm not in right now.  Please leave a message
    after the tone...."
d) "Keep the change."

A woman who is uncomfortable watching you masturbate:

a) Is uptight and a waste of time.
b) Probably needs a little more time before she
    can cope with that sort of intimacy.
c) May need glasses.
d) Shouldn't have sat next to you on the bus in
    the first place.