Re:Quake's lightning gun bug explained
by kipi on Thursday June 15, 2023 @03:07AM
(#36337338)
Hello, video creator here. This is indeed the actual code, and it is written in QuakeC, a language created specifically for the game logic in Quake. The part I'm not sure about is why the creators wanted to add in extra side beams at all.
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Oh, didn't know about QuakeC. Shame on me.
So both the "normalize" and the improper swap are the part of the original source?
Re:Quake's lightning gun bug explained
by tecleandor on Thursday June 15, 2023 @04:52AM
(#36337925)
Yep, right here:
https://github.com/id-Software/Quake/blob/bf4ac424ce754894ac...
:)
Re:Quake's lightning gun bug explained
by klaussilveira on Thursday June 15, 2023 @10:05AM
(#36340685)
Check this out: https://fabiensanglard.net/quakeSource/index.php
in the era of arrow keys and ball mice, lg probably felt like trash. who knew it would end up so iconically broken :-)
Re:Quake's lightning gun bug explained
by somedude895 on Thursday June 15, 2023 @03:18AM
(#36337402)
Probably just to make the gun more powerful, so you get some area of effect damage and not just hit the target right under your crosshair.
Btw, I love this type of video where you breakdown and explain code like this and I've subscribed. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
Especially with games, I think the video format lends itself well to demonstrating the effects of the code organically.
I think your guess seems plausible, although maybe it was simply an effort to widen the beam to better match the graphics? The lightning effect is rather wide and it may have been surprising for the player if the hitbox ended up too narrow.
I haven't played Quake in the better part of 20 years so I can't comment from first hand experience, but judging by your top-down view at around 41 seconds, the single beam visually seems to intersect with a bunch of enemies while not dealing any damage (probably as a combination of narrow hitboxes on both the beam and the enemies).
I wrote a breakdown of a different Quake engine quirk (rampsliding) that might be a fun topic for a video if you're looking for new topics:
https://www.ryanliptak.com/blog/rampsliding-quake-engine-qui...