Beyond Belief -- quake.zone browser build Repacked for browser play from: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pc/games/idgames2/partial_conversions/beyond_belief/bbelief.zip Only runtime files are included in the game package; the original documentation is reproduced below. All rights remain with the original authors. Runs on LibreQuake (../../librequake/NOTICES.txt) and FTEQW (GPL-2.0, ../../licenses/gpl-2.0.txt). ===== bbelief.zip/BBELIEF.DOC ===== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEYOND BELIEF readme file by Matthias Worch, 05/14/97 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction 2. Installation and Starting Instructions 3. Play Information 4. Normal Quake, GlQuake 5. Contact Information 6. Future Projects 7. Credits and Greetings 8. Troubleshooting 9. Questions and Answers 10. Some thoughts on the r_speeds issue --> For distribution information refer to the file BBELIEF.TXT! <-- 1. Introduction --------------- Welcome to the Beyond Belief readme file. This document tells you everything important and interesting about this project. Beyond Belief is a level-pack for id Software's game Quake, bringing you 9 completly new high-quality levels. There are official add-ons authorized by id, and I don't mind anybody buying them (Scourge of Armagon kicks ass! :)). Beyond Believe, however, is free. Beyond Belief's foremost aim is to recreate the atmosphere of Quake's first Episode, "Dimension of the Doomed". This does not mean that it tries to COPY the E1M* levels or strictly follow the individual levels' themes. But it shall leave with the feeling "Yes, this could also have been the SW episode of Quake!" There are many cool DM patches out, CTF kicks ass and much time of my own Internet-sessions is spent playing Quake, but what happened to all those "great" TCs that were announced? I've somehow got the impression that most ppl are just sitting there with half of their work done and are waiting for id or another company to come and say "Hey, looks great, we're gonna buy it and hire you!" IMHO there's a lack of good coherent levels that keep you interested for a longer time. I'm also sure I'm not the only person enjoying good single-player Quake, that's why I started Beyond Belief. Besides that Beyond Belief does also fully support DM play, just as id's original levels. I'm daily deathmatching in the E*M* levels myself and know that they can also provide a great DM experience. 2. Installation and Starting Instructions ----------------------------------------- Setting up Beyond Belief is quite easy. Just follow these few steps: 1. Create a new directory called "bbelief" in your Quake directory. 2. Unzip all files of Beyond Belief into this .../quake/bbelief directory. 3. Start Quake like this: "quake -game bbelief" 4. If you see a new demo after Quake has started everything is fine. 5. Bring up the console and type "map bbstart" 6. Now the Start Map of Beyond Belief is loaded, where you can choose the skill-level and choose the episode as usual. Only the first episode "The Unholy Alliance" is available, the other exit leads to normal Quake. !!! Important !!! Don't copy the file PAK0.PAK into the ID1 directory, overwriting the old file! Create a new directory and unzip it there! 3. Play Information ------------------- Beyond Belief consists of 9 new levels: one start map, seven normal levels and one secret level. All levels have skill levels and a special item layout for DM. Coop play is also supported (and fun), there are no dead ends. The "Hard" setting may be a bit tougher than in the original Quake, "Nightmare" is a real challenge (but not impossible for skilled players), that's why it is a bit difficult to reach in the start-map :) Please do not cheat, you'll spoil your own fun. If you keep dying in the first level just choose a lower difficulty! There are no new enemies, weapons or big QuakeC modifications - although I think that good enhancements can really improve the gameplay I don't have the time to create such things. Making good levels is time-consuming enough... Here is a listing of all levels and the respective author(s): BBSTART "Welcome to Dying" Matthias Worch BBELIEF1 "Mission Control" Matthias Worch BBELIEF2 "The Cleanse" Denis Moeller & Matthias Worch BBELIEF3 "Another fine Mess..." Andreas Fink & Matthias Worch BBELIEF4 "Hell's Sewers" Matthias Worch BBELIEF5 "The Lava Grounds" " BBELIEF6 "Seal of Secrecy" " BBELIEF7 "The Unholy Alliance" " ??? "Those deepest Feelings" " 4. Normal Quake/GlQuake ----------------------- Beyond Belief does fully support the transparent water feature of GlQuake! To enable this feature bring up the console and type "r_wateralpha 0.4". Or just include it with your config. I had to make the decision to either release two versions of Beyond Belief (one for normal Quake and one for GlQuake) or just one, and I decided for the last. The speed losses in normal Quake are so small when running a map compiled with the new QBSP (approximatly 0.1 - 0.5 fps) that releasing two 7MB ZIPs would be pointless. If you don't know anything about how a level is compiled and are interested let me give you a short explanation (and to level authors: yes, it's simplified a bit): ============================================================================= Every Quake level contains VIS information, that's a table calculated when the level is compiled that tells the Quake engine what the player may see and what is hidden anyway (so that the engine doesn't have to calculate the hidden areas). In normal Quake all liquids like water, lava etc. are a sight barrier, you simply can't see beneath. With transparent water turned on in GlQuake you actually could - but if you're running a "normal" level its internal vis table tells Quake that the player can't see beneath the water, so transparent water doesn't work (unless you turn off the vis information, but then the level will run incredibly slow). The new QBSP (by Ken Alverson) I've been using has built a different VIS information that tells the engine the player can also see what's below (or above) the water surface so that the transparent water feature really works. This does also mean, however, that in normal Quake all areas below the surface are drawn though you never see them from above. This is a bit slower, of course, but not much - the slowdown is too small to think about two versions each optimized for the Quake version they're played with. ============================================================================= When running Beyond Belief under GlQuake you will get error messages saying the programm doesn't know the commands "r_maxedges" and "r_maxsurfs". They can be safely ignored. Yes, I had to increase both values for some levels - in some areas with large pools of water or lava the internal settings couldn't handle the level without gray-outs (the level's doesn't become slower, btw. Quake just needs a bit more RAM - yeah, believe me, I have done performance tests ;)). 5. Contact Information ---------------------- Any feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated, please tell me what you liked/disliked. My e-mail adress is -> langsuyar@ocrana.de or matthias.worch@uni-essen.de <-. The Beyond Belief Homepage is at --> http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/7766/quake.htm <-- There you will find latest news regarding Beyond Belief, demos for all levels, a list with all secrets, one of the .MAP-files etc. Just have a look at it :) 6. Future Projects ------------------ I can't say exactly how much I'm going to do for Quake in the future - after all I'm starting to see some money for my levels now. I'm certainly not going to begin another big project such as this, I just don't have the time. That's why the second slipgate in the start level is leading to the normal levels now - that second episode I once planned is out of question now. Sorry :( Maybe there will be "Armageddon 3", which would be DM only again. I'd also like to do a CTF level...so many plans and so little time - there are also some other things than the computer that keep me busy and that I like. To know exactly what will come next have a look at my homepage. 7. Credits and Greetings ------------------------ Most of the work on Beyond Belief was done by me, but there are some persons that supported me during the development of this project and contributed to the great result: Denis Moeller aka Panza|TiC provided the base for the second level (The Cleanse) of this episode, that I completed. Mail him at panza@tic.de or visit TiC's homepage at http://www.tic.de! Andreas Fink made the basic architecture of the third level (Another fine mess...) and let me use it to finish the map :) He also beta- tested the maps. You can reach him at andreas.fink@ob.kamp.net Dave Weiden provided the QC code for Chthon, which I modified a little bit (mainly the death sequence :)) For more information please read the file "BOSSQC.TXT" that comes with this ZIP. Udo Kempen qbsp'ed several maps for when my computer refused to do it and provided me with telnet-access to the remote computer that did most of my several-day vis'. Gyro Gearloose & Andrew Smith and Cole Savage beta tested the whole episode. The fish.qc is taken from the Hipnotic pack. More greetings go to: Crash (check out his review page at http://www.planetquake.com/spq/crash), Matt Sefton (he's also got a great site at www.planetquake.com/spq/matt), Joost Schuur, Thomas Moeller aka Vorph|TiC, Dario Casali, everybody of Clan Ocrana (visit our homepage at http://www.ocrana.de :)), Zlatko, Kandyman, Jeet, Myscha, most ppl of the channels #quake.ger, #unreal and #metal. All the ppl I have forgotten. id Software. And of course all the great authors of the tools that I used to create Beyond Belief, namely: Chris Carollo for Quest Trey Harrison for Quest, Ed3D and his help when compiling a QBSP for me David Jewsbury for Stoneless Mads Bondo Dydensborg for Mipdip Christopher Wise for Newwad 1.3 Ken Alverson for his support with a special version of the transparent water QBSP Thomas Zajic, Sean Werkana and for their versions of the QUtils 8. Troubleshooting ------------------ Here are the answers to some problems that may occur when you try playing Beyond Belief. Please read this section first and see if it solves your problem before mailing me with you question :) Q: Whenever I want to play a certain level Quake bumps out with a message like "Error: Hunk_Alloc: failed on XXX bytes". A: You're either running Quake under Win95 with no -winmem switch or do only have 8mb. If you're owning more than 8mb RAM in you computer you can get rid of that error by simply adding a -winmem 16 to your command line (example: "quake -game bbelief -winmem 16"). Quake does only lock 8mb RAM by default when run under Win95, which may be too little for some of the >2mb BSPs. If you're owning a 8mb machine: try to free as much memory as possible, if the problem still persists I'm sorry, there can't be done anything else then :( Q: I can't load any of the new levels in the console, e.g. "map bbstart" does not work! A: Are you sure you have started Quake with the "-game bbelief" parameter?! Q: Tell me how to get to Nightmare skill, ok? ;) A: Nope. It's not too difficult if you keep an eye on the structure of the start map. And if you have already found it and don't have a clue how to step through the teleporter: Believe me, NM is too hard for you. Try a lower difficulty instead, you'll be much happier, ok?! ;) Q: How do I start a deathmatch game with your levels? A: From command line. Something like quake -listen (dedicated) 8 -game bbelief All players have to add the -game bbelief switch or Quake won't find the levels. Q: I'm stuck in one of the levels! I can't find that last damn secret! Where the fuck is the secret level? A: There's a list with all secrets on my homepage, maybe a look at that will help you?! :) Q: Damn, Chthon is hard to kill! Are you sure it is possible? A: Of course, i've done it more than 20 times ;). Chthon is supposed to be a challenge, but not that hard to kill. Especially on skill 0 and skill 1 it's quite easy if you know how. And you're playing on "hard" difficulty you wanted the game to be hard, didn't you? :) 9. Questions and Answers ----------------------------------- I'm going to answer some questions regarding Beyond Belief nobody else would probably have asked - but maybe you find something interesting :) Q: Why did you call this thing Beyond Belief? Are you such an self-confident, ego-centric guy? A: No, not really...I mean, I think that Beyond Belief is good, but I chose the name because it sounded cool in the first place. Q: Ok, I really like Beyond Belief. What do you want for it? A: If you liked this pack drop me an e-mail with some feedback, I'll be happy with that. If you liked it even a bit more send me a postcard from where you live, I'd really appreciate it :) My adress is: Matthias Worch Schwarzensteinweg 9 45289 Essen Germany If you don't want to do either just enjoy playing :) Q: You must have spent a lot of time on the first episode...Don't you have any other interests? A: Hmm, not when sitting on the computer... Q: So where are those fancy rotating brushes, enemies and weapons that were in the Hipnotic pack? They were really cool, you know?! A: Yeah, I know - but many levels were already finished when Scourge of Armagon came out. And either I'm having rotating brushes in all levels or in none. Besides that can things like rotating brushes always ADD to a good level, but they are never NECESSARY. Know what I mean? :) Q: *Wah*, where is the rocket launcher?! A: In map06 (unless you find the secret level before) - well, there are people who only like a level if they can blast away every ogre with two rockets. I'm not one of those persons and I hope you can also enjoy the challenge of killing a shambler with a mere nailgun... And after all you're getting the lightning-gun quite early, don't you? Q: *WAAAAH!* Yeah, I got it, but where is the ammunition? A: Hey, I didn't say anything about little angels flying around and dropping cell-packs at every corner, did I? Q: I've seen all those level titles, and some of them remind me of some bands' songs I know...Any explanation there? A: Yeah - that does mean that you probably listen to the same good music that I like ;) 10. Some thought on the r_speeds issue -------------------------------------- There are some situations in several levels where Quake will slow down considerably - but if it does there's always some cool architecture (at least I think so ;)) that justifies the slowdown, and if I thought the level wasn't playable anymore I would have rebuilt the room, believe me (though ppl seem to have very different opinions what "playable" means). But you have to know that I'm one of the persons that prefers complexity over 1 or 2 frames, if I have the decision. After all THIS isn't a commercial product where I would HAVE to take care of those issues, and you didn't pay anything for Beyond Belief, did ya? ;) Maybe you're wondering why I'm putting this in here. The reason why I'm writing this is simply because there are always ppl out there with that "But you could have avoided that!" attitude. I usually don't care if somebody tells me that (not after THEY have spent that much time on a Quake episode), but I also don't want to miss the opportunity to present my point of view. Sure, you always could do things better. But those ppl I'm talking about don't seem to realize that you sometimes have to weight complexity against speed. And I'm one of the persons who thinks that cool architecture is sometimes worth the loss of a frame or two, especially if I am "allowed" to to do it. ===== bbelief.zip/BBELIEF.TXT ===== ============================================================================= Title : Beyond Belief Part I - The Unholy Alliance Filename : PAK0.PAK Version : 05/15/97 Description : This is a new episode for Quake. It features 8 excellent new single-player levels, a new start map, a few new textures... All levels can be played in co-op mode and do also support DM. For further information and installation instructions please read the document BBELIEF.DOC that comes with this ZIP. Author : Matthias Worch aka Langsuyar Email Address : langsuyar@ocrana.de | matthias.worch@uni-essen.de Misc. Author Info : (Co)Author of The Troopers' Playground, Memento Mori 2, Requiem...(DooM II) The Armagedon series and Map01 for Quake Langsuyar on #quakeed For more information visit my homepage at http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/7766/quake.htm Additional help : Denis Moeller (panza@tic.de) and Andreas Fink (afink@ob.kamps.net) Dave Weiden (weiden@tcnj.edu) (also see BBELIEF.DOC) Credits to : see BBELIEF.DOC ============================================================================= -=[ Play Information ]=- Game : Quake Maps : Maps 1-7 + secret level + new start level Single : Yes Cooperative : Yes Deathmatch : Yes, each level has 8 DM-starts Difficulty Settings : Yes New Sounds : No New Graphics : Yes Demos Replaced : Yes -=[ Construction ]=- Base : each map from scratch Build Time : a few months Editors used : Quest Stoneless ED3D Newwad 1.3 Mipdip 1.55 MS-DOS Edit Known Bugs : None regarding the levels, but you should take a look at the file BBELIEF.DOC. GlQuake sometimes confuses two textures which happen to have the same name (plat_top1). One is used for tech elevators, one for medieval elevators - so if you're seeing a platform whose textures seems to be utterly out of place that's not my fault, but Quake's, ok? ;). (You can find that problem other levels, too, e.g. HIP3M1.) ============================================================================= -=[ Copyright / Permissions / Distribution Information ]=- * Copyrights * Beyond Belief is Copyright (c) 1997 by Matthias Worch. Quake is Copyright (c) 1996 by id Software Inc. The Quake logo and likenesses are trademarks of id Software Inc. All textures contained in the levels whose names do not start with "LNG-" are owned by id Software. All textures beginning with "LNG-" were created/modified by Matthias Worch. Some are completly from scratch, but most have just been put together from existing Quake-recources. I'd like to state that the copyright of these textures still lies at id Software and credit should go to Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack! * If you want to put Beyond Belief on a CD * You are *NOT* allowed to commercially exploit this pack, e.g. put it on a CD that is sold for money without my explicit handwritten(!) permission! Don't even think about mailing me something like "we want to include your work on our CD, if you don't reply until a certain date we will take this as your permission"! Don't laugh, I've seen this before... Sorry if the above sounds a bit harsh, but I don't want any level-author to be screwed by CD publishers like Actura again. Most companies are fair, and if you are one of these companies don't hesitate to e-mail me for further distribution information. * If you want to use any of the recources for your own works * Authors may NOT use these levels as a base to build additional levels. I have published one map-file, if you want to take a look at it go to my homepage (see BBELIEF.DOC). Please don't ask me for the other map-files. Most maps take several days to vis, anyway ;) * Distribution * You are welcome to freely distribute Beyond Belief on a non-commercial base, provided you do not change anything and leave the ZIP intact. That includes the Internet, FIDO etc. - every media that can be accessed without paying for it. -=[ Where to get this PAK ]=- ftp.cdrom.com and mirror sites. ===== bbelief.zip/BOSSQC.TXT ===== This package, bossqc.zip, containing: { ai.qc world.qc client.qc weapons.qc combat.qc boss.qc h_boss.mdl bossqc.txt } is a modification of Quake's monster Chthon. It modifies Chthon so that it may be affected by normal weapons, can attack/be attacked by other monsters, can be gibbed, etc... As of 1/6/96, it is NOT to be made available for download anywhere other than: Ace_Dave's Quake Domain - http://www.tcnj.edu/~weiden/quake Thanks to the following for providing assistance with coding: Brian Martin - brain@phyast.pitt.edu - MedDLe 1.6 Wolf - wolfg_l@pro-net.co.uk (Ideas for getting the boss angry adapted from Bot Player) Steve Polge - polge@ix.netcom.com - Reaper Bot - centerprinted title message code To see the code in action, be sure to download Chthon10.zip, Chthon's Lair, also from Ace_Dave's Quake Domain (as well as other cool add-ons). Feel free to use the code in your own modifications for id Software's game, Quake. Please be sure to give me a credit in your text file, and notify me when you're done, simply because I'm interested in seeing what you've come up with! Enjoy, and Happy Quaking! In the words of John Romero, "Get to work!" Dave Weiden Weiden@TCNJ.EDU