Thanks for downloading R1Q2! This file is a very quick introduction to some of the major changes in the R1Q2 client.
It's strongly recommended, although not required, that you use R1GL, my enhanced renderer for Quake II. It supports things like PNG/JPG images, alpha pics, full-scene anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, security fixes and much more. You can get it from http://www.r1ch.net/stuff/r1gl/ - extract to your Q2 dir.
The R1Q2 Updater available on the website is also strongly recommended. Run it periodically every few weeks to automatically keep all your R1Q2 related files up to date. In fact, you should probably run it right now to be sure you really have the latest versions of everything.
Here's some config settings you can use then.
set cl_cmdcomplete 0 //restore default command completion behaviour set vid_ref "r1gl" //if using R1GL; R1Q2 is also able to load NCGL and plain GL set m_fixaccel 1 //replaces m_xp of NoCheat, also see m_directinput set cl_async 0 //disable asynchronous fps
Please be aware that R1Q2 will load ALL .pak files from your baseq2 and mod directories. Rename or move away any paks you don't want loaded.
The R1Q2 client uses asynchronous FPS by default. This means that the speed at which graphics are updated (renderer FPS) is separate from the rate at which packets are sent to the server (network or packet FPS). Most modern hardware is capable of running Q2 at crazy rendering FPS which on traditional clients will cause many packets to be sent to the server resulting in increased upstream bandwidth usage on the client, increased downstream and higher CPU usage on the server and additional workload for any routers and other devices that have to shift your packets around.
The way in which R1Q2 separates the net/renderer FPS causes multiple frames worth of input to be sent in a single packet. Due to how the Q2 physics engine works, this will result in small differences in the way movement is processed. The most notable effect is the height that you are able to attain when jumping off ramps or other types of jump. To most users, this won't be noticable. Another issue that occurs is that strafe jumping may "feel" different - some players report a "sticky" effect as if they are stuck to the floor for a brief moment after jumping. If you don't notice either of these issues then great - you can use the asynchronous FPS and save both yours and the servers resources. If however you experience "weird" movement, you can disable this asynchronous FPS using the "cl_async" cvar. Simply add in your config set cl_async 0 to turn it off. When using the asynchronous FPS, cl_maxfps will control the NETWORK packet rate whilst r_maxfps will control your rendering rate.
That's pretty much one of the major changes to the client. Another feature most people immediately want to get working is location reporting. R1Q2 uses NoCheat-style $$loc_here and $$loc_there cvars (note the two $ signs is intentional, R1Q2 "meta-vars" all start with $$). If used with other characters next to them, expand by adding braces, eg ${$loc_here}. Location info is read from the following locations: moddir/locs/mapname.loc, moddir/maps/mapname.loc, baseq2/locs/mapname.loc, baseq2/maps/mapname.loc and are in a format compatible with most other clients.
OpenAL audio was recently introduced to the R1Q2 client. OpenAL is an audio library similiar to how OpenGL works for graphics. It allows fully positional 3D audio, providing a more realistic sound experience. There are a few quirks with it at present, notably looping sounds don't synchronize with each other and the falloff from entity sounds is not quite the same as standard audio. To use the OpenAL audio, you must first install the OpenAL drivers, available from http://developer.creative.com/articles/article.asp?cat=1&sbcat=31&top=38&aid=46. Then add to your autoexec.cfg 'set s_initsound 2' to have R1Q2 use OpenAL upon startup. You can also set the s_openal_device cvar to DirectSound or MMSYSTEM if your sound card drivers have issues with DS3D (the default).
R1Q2 will load all .pak files by default. If you have any pak files you don't want to be loaded, move them away or rename them to something other than .pak. R1Q2 will load the standard pakXX.pak followed by the remaining pak files in alphabetical order. Remember that files in paks that are loaded last are used first, ie pak3.pak overrides pak0.pak, sounds.pak overrides pak9.pak, etc.
If you experience any problems with R1Q2 such as crashes or odd behaviour, please search the forums first for a possible solution, if nothing similar turns up, post a bug report. You don't to register to post on the R1Q2 forums.
The make process looks for .depends directories in the binaries tree.
You must create them in order to successfully build from the repository.
Do mkdir -p {r1q2ded,client,game,ref_gl}/.depends
from within the binaries folder.
VS2019 project files have been updated. The build now depends on vcpkg libraries. Use vcpkg to install appropriate triplets for openGL, libpng and libjpeg for your target builds.