|
|
|
|
|
August 24, 2003
|
Quakecon ended a week ago, and once again this year was a great experience.
It still escapes me how to describe the feeling of the
event. The level
of professionalism exhibited by everyone there is quite unique. Bringing the tournament games
to everyone, at the event and at home, being rewarded by the oohs and ahhs of spectators and large
numbers on GTV, makes Quakecon the event of the year for me.
Spectating at the event was exceptional this year, with a room devoted to remote spectating, and on-stage finals. The spectator room, aside from looking
very nice, held three
plasma screens, and three Alienware boxes to
run them. After seeing them in person, not much beats Quake 3 on a plasma screen at 320fps. The tournament
finals
were held on
stage
this year. We had two huge projectors, sound hookups for both players/teams, seating for 500-700; pretty
much the ultimate spectator experience.
Online, the number of people watching the $125,000 NVIDIA Championship Tournaments at
Quakecon peaked around 3500 for the three GTV networks. Pretty good
numbers considering some of the freak events that happened during Quakecon, like 50 million people on the east
coast losing power. I was happy with the GTV coverage this year, in all GTV was up for about 90% of the games in spite of some bad luck. The
Quakecon RtCW coverage was near perfect, made so by the very impressive skills of the WolfTV camerapeople. The Speakeasy
DSL lines into the hotel, and massive server resources on the internet were great, and the Alienware boxes had no trouble running
five instances of Quake3 at once :)
For everyone that watched GTV during Quakecon, these people made it happen:
|
|
August 10, 2003
|
As announced on the Quakecon website, there are now some pretty darn nifty maps of the GTV network available :)
With four days to go before the GTV broadcasts begin
the online GTV network is completed and ready for your viewing pleasure. Today, Quakecon
is proud to bring you another first by releasing "maps" of the completed GTV network. To make our coverage
as smooth as possible for everyone, these maps allow you
to choose the closest server to you, and as FonFon, the author of GTV says "look pretty darn nifty".
Quake 3 1vs1
Quake 3 CTF
Wolfenstein
Look for more information to follow in the next couple days as we strive to bring you the
best event coverage possible!
|
|
August 9, 2003
|
New GTV and WolfTV servers
Quakecon is coming up in a few days, so of course that means GTV releases! GTV 3.0f and WolfTV 1.0d
are now up on the downloads page. The change logs are in the readme.
This version has a number of major behind the scenes changes, not so visible to users, but very
useful for server admins. First off, I rewrote the delay code to use far less memory, everything
is now buffered to disk. Now a setting of com_zonemegs 90 will allow you to broadcast 8 games at once regardless
of the amount of delay. The gtv_addAdminIP command allows an IP to connect to the
server instantly regardless of passwords or maxclients, and gives admin permissions. And lastly,
the new gtv_moderate command should be especially useful on packed servers during quakecon,
it operates similarly to +m on IRC, only admins can talk.
|
|
July 29, 2003
|
Quakecon and Donations
Its time for the longest news post of the decade! Whats the cause of this news bonanza? In two weeks its Quakecon time!
This year Quakecon has upped the stakes to $125,000, featuring Quake 3 1vs1 and CTF, RtCW, and Enemy Territory. The prize money, location,
and timing guarantee that Quakecon will feature some of the best match-ups of the year.
Cant attend Quakecon in person? No problem, through GTV you will be able to watch these matches as they happen live.
I'll be attending Quakecon again this year to run the GTV coverage, along with help from many other people. So get your chairs and
couches ready for four days of smooth, professional GTV. And lets set some new records :)
The Quakecon GTV network will be the largest one yet, with anticipated needs of 7000 spots for Quake 3 (1vs1 and CTF), and 3000 for RtCW.
To help find your way around this mammoth network a "map" of all the GTV servers will be released in a week
so you can connect directly to a server close to you. You can make watching GTV even easier by testing it out ahead of time. Try connecting
to gtv.speakeasy.net (gtv.speakeasy.net:27965 for RtCW), and see the GTV Help if you have any problems.
For those with GTV servers wishing to help out, applications are being accepted to mirror GTV for Quakecon. Speakeasy.net will be providing
over 5000 spots for GTV, but this is a community oriented event and any mirrors are welcome.
Please contact fonfon@quakecon.org for more information.
I've had a few people ask recently about making donations to GTV.
Donations are something I've held off on for a long time, GTV is an enjoyable hobby for me, and donations are not really required to keep GTV going.
So this isn't one of the typical "donate or GTV is going to die!" type posts.
However there are occasional expenses in running GTV, and I'm not going to prevent people from showing their appreciation :)
For people that have spent many enjoyable hours watching GTV and want to give something back, the option is there now.
I should add that your donation is greatly appreciated, but I can't guarantee anything in return. Specifically if you donate
please do not expect me to code GTV for game [x] in return. Donations support current development only. There are simply too
many games out there, and not enough time in the day to support them all.
To donate simply click the paypal link at the side of the page.
FonFon.
|
|
July 6, 2003
|
Web page updates and GTV (Quake 3) Server Release
Lets see, another couple months, another update. Let the GTV luvin continue.
There is a new help section oriented towards new GTV users, but also has things like a config for more experienced
GTV viewers. The server list is operational again,
and is still a great way to find out what servers are currently broadcasting. It now updates every five minutes.
I put up a new GTV (Quake 3) server, version 3.0e. No new features in this version, you'll have to wait another month or so
for those :) There are some minor bug fixes and miscellaneous changes. The CFG file is unchanged from the last version. This
version also enables use of the new Broadcast TV Manager by Eric Craeymeersch to manage GTV chains. Broadcast TV Manager
is still very new and not quite released yet, more information will follow soon.
The next couple months should be pretty exciting; expect another GTV release, Quakecon news,
and maybe even GTV ports to other games.
FonFon.
|
|
July 1, 2003
|
Canada Day
|
[ News Archive ]
|
|
|
