The Night Beckons...
Happy Halloween! I won't be in tonight, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit for the weekly update. Take care, and have fun! [Red Knight]

On the Web
Fragster sent word that Game Zone has posted a preview of SWQ based on the information available on the web site. [Red Knight]

Peace Within, Peace Without
Progress was good overall this week. CaRRaC not only sent along a new build of the J'Dan Estate, but also found the time to implement most of the necessary code for the bystanders. ApocX apparently decided to forsake Real Life for the cause, as he completed several models, some new textures, and also managed to expand further on the development for Orion's Hammer. Privateer completed some quick fixes to the mousedroid model, and also did a tutorial on skin mapping, which you can read on his personal page. Speaking of personal pages, I decided to bring mine back from the dead, and I even plan to make a real effort to keep it updated. Finally this week, Maxer didn't have a lot of time to work on his level, but he did send along a significant amount of new sounds, which should fit in very well to a couple of the in-development levels. The unfortunate thing with sounds is that they take up a lot of space. Just to give you an idea, the new sounds added in this week totaled at 10mb, and with all of the music tracks added to that, the sounds alone are going to take up a significant chunk of your hard drive space. Thankfully, though, .mp3 conversion allows to keep the download size for at least that component of the project small. [Red Knight]

Whispers from the Helm
Knocking items off of the todo list has got to be one of the most enjoyable tasks for me in regards to SWQ. There's a great feeling of triumph every time I get to turn one of the "-" marks into a "+", because it means that we've come a step closer to finishing the mod. This week I got to mark quite a few items as complete, which makes me a very happy person. To touch on some of the more interesting items, the male worker is now animated, skinned, and ready for implementation into the levels. The animation set has been ported over to the new player model with only a few areas that still need to be adjusted, and ApocX finished up the g_wristrocket model, which is an item that I've been wanting to take care of for several weeks now.

In addition to this, both Maxer and CaRRaC sent me new builds of their levels, and they're both looking great (as you can see from the screenshots below). The Ionus IV spaceport is almost finished now, and the J'Dan Estate isn't far behind. Since level development is such a complicated and slow-moving process, seeing levels move as quickly as these two have is a wonderful experience.

Finally, to comment on a couple of questions I've been hearing a bit over the past couple weeks: once we have a final animation set, we'll be releasing the player model and a skin template for those who wish to create some custom player models and skins for the project in advance. More information on this will be coming within a few weeks. The second question that I've been hearing a lot is what sort of glow effect we'll be using on the lightsaber. The answer to this at the moment is "we're not sure". There is a possibility that we may be able to include something similar to the Glowsaber mod for Jedi Knight, but at the moment that is untested. It may be that we will have to fall back on the default Quake 2 shell effects for a glow. When hearing this, some of you scream "why?!! Aren't you as good as that JK mod team?". The answer to that question lies in the fact that the Quake 2 and Jedi Knight engines are not very similar in some aspects. What is relatively simple to do in one engine might be extremely complex or impossible to do in the other, and that is the case with the glow effect. We'll continue to experiment, but right now no promises can be made either way. [Red Knight]

New Dawn, Old Sky
A bit slower this week, but that's to be expected now and then. Still, we did get a significant amount of work done, though most of it in the "little things" department. However, I do have a few items of note: Maxer is making some good progress on the Ionus Spaceport level, which continues to shape up nicely. There's a few technical issues to address and some features I'd like to see added to that particular level, but in general the outcome is very good. While on the level topic, Grey Knight has been pretty busy with Real Life of late, but did manage to do some more work on the Thalkos levels, which are looking great. GK has given Thalkos a really unique look, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you reach these levels.

The skins department has been a bit quiet lately with Brad now at the university (and with UK internet connection limits in place), but he's continuing work, and will soon be dropping a batch of new items off for us. Also, since I don't believe I've mentioned it before, now would be a good time to welcome Testoclese to the SWQ team. He will initially be focusing on creating a new HUD for us, but will also be assisting with skins and textures as necessary.

On the models front, ViolentBlue has been working on a new player model for us. It's nearly complete, and can be viewed in the promo shot he put together below. Finally this week, several people have been asking if we still plan to release the DM test. The answer to this is yes, we do. However, we will be following the same procedure for the release date of this test as we are for the complete mod, that being that you'll find out about it about two hours after it's uploaded to the FTP site. [Red Knight]

On the Web
Speedy 3D has posted an interview with Red Knight, which sports several questions that I don't believe have been asked elsewhere... [Red Knight]

Who Comes to the Call of the Horn
The top item in this week's developments was the release of a new build of the project to the testers, who have been promptly responding with bug reports. It's amazing what you don't catch just by playing "normally" during development, and we are extremely grateful to the testers for helping us locate some of these not-so-obvious bugs, and for all of their useful feedback on the general feel of the mod, and what can make it better.

Maxer is making very good progress on the Ionus IV Spaceport, it's really shaping up nicely. There are a few areas that need some fixing, and a few other features  I'd like to see added, but overall I've been very pleased with this level, it really has the Star Wars feel that we're shooting for. Other levels are coming along well, though John has run into some QOOLE problems that he needs to sort out before continuing with Calamari.

Privateer finished up the male worker bystander just today, and this fits in nicely with one of CaRRaC's current projects, which just happens to be bystander implementation. For those who don't know, bystanders will simply be going about their business in the various SWQ levels until something startles them (like you firing a weapon), at which point they'll either cower in fear, run away, or perhaps even pull out a weapon and fight back.

Finally, the current project for me is the continued refining of our saber system. Creating something that is both complex yet simple to use takes some time, but it's time I'm willing to invest, as the lightsaber is one of the most important elements in the TC, and I definitely want to make sure it's done right. If you have any feedback on something you like to see, feel free to make your thoughts known in our forums. Until next time! [Red Knight]