Custom content
As withQuake, the game was designed to allow players to easily create custom content. A large number of mods, maps, player models, skins and sound effects were created and distributed to others free of charge via the Internet.
Popular sites such as PlanetQuake or Telefragged allowed players to gain access to this custom content.
Another improvement overQuakeis that it is now much easier to select custom player models, skins and sound effects because they can be selected from the in-game menu.
Technical Technical
Unlike its predecessor,Quake II 's engine allows for sky-boxes and colored lighting effects.
UnlikeQuake, where hardware accelerated graphics controllers were supported only with later patches, Quake II came with OpenGL support out of the box. Later downloads from id Software added support for AMD's 3DNow! instruction set for improved performance on their K6-2 processors, and Rendition released a native renderer for their V1000 graphics chip.
The latest version is 3.21. This update includes numerous bug fixes and new maps designed for multiple players deathmatch. Version 3.21, available as source code on id Software's FTP server, has no improved functionality over version 3.20 and is simply a slight modification to make compiling for Linux easier.
Quake II uses an improved client – server network model introduced inQuake. The game code of Quake II , which defines all the functionality for weapons, entities and game mechanics, can be changed in any way because id Software published the source code of their own implementation that shipped with the game.Quake II uses the shared library functionality of the operating system to load the game library at run-time —this is how mod authors are able to alter the game and provide different gameplay mechanics, new weapons and much more.
The full source code toQuake II version 3.19 was released under the terms of the GPL on December 21, 2001.
Version 3.21 followed later.
Since the release of theQuake II source code, several third-party update projects to the game engine have been created; the most prominent of these are projects focused on graphical enhancements to the game such as Quake2maX , EGLandQuake II Evolved . The source release also revealed numerous critical security flaws[5]which can result in remote compromise of both theQuake II client and server. As id Software no longer maintainsQuake II , most 3rd party engines include fixes for these bugs. The most popular server-side engine modification, R1Q2, is generally recommended as a replacement for the 3.20 release for both clients and servers. The most widely used engine modifications as of 2006 appear to be R1Q2, AprQ2and EGL, with a large majority of users still using the srcinal 3.20 release.
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In July 2003, Vertigo Software released a port of Quake II for the Microsoft .NET platform, using Managed C++.[6]
It became a poster application for the language, showcasing the powerful interoperability between .NET and standard C++ code. It remains one of the top downloads on the Visual C++ website.
In May 2004, Bytonic Software released a port of Quake II (called Jake2) written in Java using JOGL. In 2010 Google ported Jake2to HTML5, running in Safari and Chrome.[7]
Quake II Quake II engineengine
Quake II's game engine was a popular licence, and formed the basis for:
• CodeRED: Alien Arena
• War§ow
• SiN
• Anachronox
• Heretic II
• Daikatana
• Soldier of Fortune
• Kingpin: Life of Crime
• UFO: Alien Invasion
Valve Software's 1998 Half-Life, which went on to sell over eight million copies, was srcinally going to use the Quake II engine during early development stages. However, the final version runs on a heavily modified version of the Quake engine,GoldSrc, with a small amount of the Quake II code.
Releases Releases
Despite the title,Quake II is a sequel to the srcinal Quakein name only. The scenario, enemies and theme are entirely separate and do not fall into the same continuity as Quake. id initially wanted to set it separately from Quake, but due to legal reasons (most of their suggested names were already taken), they decided to use the working title.Quake II was also adopted as a name to leverage the popularity of Quake.[8]
Quake II has been released on Steam, but this version does not include the soundtrack. It was also released on the bonus disc included withQuake 4Special Edition for the PC, with both expansion packs. This version also lacks the soundtrack.
Ports Ports
Ports of Quake II were released in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 (ported by Raster Productions) and PlayStation (ported by HammerHead) video game consoles. In both cases, the core gameplay was largely identical; however, changes were made to the game sequence and split-screen multiplayer replaced network or internet play.
A Macintosh port was developed by Logicware and released in 1999. The same year, the game was also ported to SGI workstations by Philip Nemec.
Quake II: Colossus(Quake II with both official addons) was ported to Linux by id Software and published by Macmillan Digital Publishing in 1999. Be Inc. officially portedQuake II: Colossusto the BeOS to test their OpenGL acceleration in 1999, and provided the game files for free download at a later date —a Windows, Macintosh or Linux install CD was required to install the game, with the official addons being optional.
An unofficial binary port was made for OS/2 in 1998 using the win32os2 project. The translator program converts both the executable format and system calls from win32 to OS/2-native format without access to srcinal source code. The translated binaries run as native code. The resulting port could run in a window with a slight performance hit, or full-screen with either software or OpenGL rendering (for those with 3DFX Voodoo cards) at the same speed as on NT, with full sound and networking support. The Quake II conversion was one of the first major applications
''Quake II'' 65
that could be fully translated as it used fewer win32 system calls than most desktop applications.
In 2002, Hyperion Entertainment used the GPL sources to port the game to the Amiga 68k and PowerPC platforms.
There was also an unofficial port for the Dreamcast, another port to Xbox, namedQuake2X , and an unfinished port to PlayStation 2 via homebrew coders.
PlayStation PlayStation
Quake II on the PlayStation For the PlayStation version, several of the srcinal levels, including
several complete sections and units were removed. Some enemy types were removed, as well as some scenery objects. A new enemy type, a human-spider cyborg with twin railgun arms, was added, and many short airlock-like corridors were added to maps to provide loading pauses inside what were contiguous areas in the PC version. Saving the game is only possible between units and at mid-level checkpoints, the majority of which lie in the aforementioned airlock-like corridors, while in the PC version the game could be saved and loaded anywhere.
The game supports the PlayStation Mouse, to provide a greater parity with the PC version's gameplay.
The music of this port is a combination of theQuake II srcinal music score and some tracks from the PC version's mission packs.
The PlayStation version is limited to a far lower resolution than the PC srcinal, giving it a grainier look. Colored lights for levels and enemies, and yellow highlights for gunfire and explosions, are carried across from the PC version, with the addition of lens flare effects located around the light sources on the srcinal lightmaps. There is no skybox; instead a flat Gouraud-textured purple sky is drawn around the top of the level. The PC version's software renderer srcinally used particles to render blood, debris and rail gun beams as trails of large, opaque coloured pixels. In the PlayStation version, the particles are circular and translucent, similar to the OpenGL driver given with the PC version.
There is also a split-screen multiplayer mode for 2-4 players. The only available player avatar is a modified version of the male player avatar from the PC version, the most noticeable difference being the addition of a helmet. Players can only customise the colour of their avatar's armour, and change their name. The multiplayer levels are unique to the PlayStation version, and none of the PC multiplayer maps are carried over.
Nintendo 64 Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 version, unlike the PlayStation version, had completely different levels, music and multiplayer maps. Like the PlayStation version it too featured multiplayer of up to 4 players. This version also had new lighting effects, mostly seen in gunfire, and also used the Expansion Pak for extra graphical detail.
Xbox Xbox
A port of Quake II was released for the srcinal Xbox console; however, it was built using an unlicensed version of Microsoft's Xbox Development Kit, and as such there is no legal way to download and play it. In addition, it requires a modded Xbox to run.
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Xbox 360 Xbox 360
A ported version of Quake II was included in the box of Quake 4for the Xbox 360, on a bonus disc. This is a direct port of the srcinal game, and does not feature any graphical improvements. However it allows for System Link play for up to sixteen players, split-screen for four, and cooperative play in single-player for up to sixteen players or four with split-screen alone.
Zeebo Zeebo
In 2009, Tectoy Digital ported Quake II to the Brazilian gaming console Zeebo. The game is available for free, but does not feature CG movies nor multiplayer support of any kind.
Jake2 Jake2
Jake2 was shown by the JOGL team for JavaOne 2004, to present an example of Java-OpenGL interoperability [2][3][4]. Jake2 has since been used by Sun as an example of Java Web Start capabilities for games distribution over the internet[5].