1998

Happy Holidays Transfans! 

Hope things are going well for everybody.  It's a real busy season for all of us, but I did manage to scrape together some images as a present for you guys.  The pictures below are of the latest view-weapons I've been working on.  The leftmost two are Prowl's handgun and rocket launchers, respectively.  And that leaves Sideswipe's handgun on the right.  Me hopes you like (if not, let's keep it a secret :).   And now I must return to the hectic craziness that has been the past two weeks...

On behalf of the TFQ team, I'd like to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Looks like it's my turn to update.

First off, congratulations to Rikki Knight on releasing another cool Transformer model (Hubcap...see news post below).  The car mode captures the look from the show and toy perfectly.  The animation sequence where he shows his allegiance was ingenious, as well.

I want to let folks know that I haven't had much time to answer email lately, so if you wrote, it's been hit-or-miss as to if I got to reply.  I'm sharing a phone line these days, so I try not to spend more time online than I have to. 

I've been working largely on the Prowl player model lately, but I've also been putting time into the "view weapons" for him that you'll get to use in TFQ.  This includes his handgun and rocket launcher.  Also started work on Sideswipe's hand gun.   I better get some pictures together to titillate you guys...

Oh, and I thought that image Gears mentioned the other day was "sweeeeet."   ;)

Came across this pic over the holiday.  It's one of the funniest things I've seen in while.  I found it at Joe's Transformer and G.I. Joe Collection.  Joe doesn't know who made this and neither do I, so I'll post what he did: "If you are the creator of this pic PLEASE let me know so that you can receive proper credit or have it removed if you so desire."     Thanks Joe and thanks mysterious creator....Enjoy.

Got a little update from Rikki Knight today.  His player model based on Hubcap is out and you can get it at the Q2 PMP.  And you definitely want to go there now and get it.  Check it out.   And stay tuned...

I realized the other day that I never posted any shots of the still-upcoming-I-swear-it new version of Sideswipe.  The images below show that he does, in fact, now have a roof and windshield/windows.  You can tell the skin's still a little basic, but hey, at least he doesn't have to worry about it raining in car mode anymore...

More images of other new stuff to come in the near future.

BTW, we broke 20,000 hits the other day, so, uh... hurray for us!

It's a strange topic to bring up, but this is something that we've already talked about amongst ourselves on the team that I felt I should pass on to everyone following TFQ.   In the past, I've seen a lot of conversions simply drop off the face of the Earth after awhile.  The people who followed it ending up with nothing from it.  I wanted to make sure you all know that if for some reason work on TFQ should ever cease, we WILL make everything that is done available for all to download.  We're not here to string people along.  The only exception to this would be if Hasbro themselves ordered us to shut down.  In that case, I doubt they'd take kindly to us distributing the files for TFQ.  But they haven't coming hunting for us yet, and I don't expect that they will in the future.

As for the progress?  Well, I'm working hard and having fun... :)

I'm back.  Mostly.  A lot of important things have been demanding my time lately, few of them pleasant.  Lest anyone fear, TFQ is far from dead.  I'm looking forward to adding more images and news posts in the near future.  For now, have a peek at the new "view-weapon" I am building for Prowl.  Thank you all for your patience.

BTW, I'm sure many of you watch the Beast Wars Transformers cartoon on television.   Let me say that if you haven't seen it, you're missing something great.  It ties into the same storyline created by the original Transformers cartoon, and it's clear that the creators of the new series have much respect for the characters who have come before.

First, let me say that we're not neglecting our work and our fans.   Our team is going through some changes.  Nothing severe.  Jay has just finished moving and is in the process of getting situated at his current residence.   Also, another of our team is moving and he'll be up and running again soon. Finally, I have just gotten a real job and will be starting the first week of  Nov.   That will take some getting used to, but shouldn't affect the project because I only maintain the site.  We ask you to bear with us as we make these changes and look forward to the further development of TFQ.

At this time I have no new news on the project itself, but news will be forthcoming.  Thanks and stay tuned.

Minor bad news.  My mail messenger went kablooie on Tuesday.  The program would lock up whenever I opened it.  I found that by moving my old 'inbox' and creating a new one, it now works again.  However, I can't get into the old one now, and there were some emails spanning last Friday through Tuesday that I didn't get a chance to reply to.  If you wrote and and didn't get any response, that's probably why.   Sorry.

I will be moving out of my apartment soon, so updates from me to the news will be sporadic for the next few weeks.  Whatever time I can spend on the computer will be devoted to the game itself.  Just a warning, because I know a couple of you get worried when we don't update.  :)

Speaking of the game (the what?  Oh, yeah, THAT...), I finished up a replacement for the quad damage that is very much taken from the existing Transformers universe.  I don't want to show it, because it has a bit of a "special effect" that has to be seen in the game to understand.  Hmmmm, so why am I telling you this if I can't show it?  Guess I'm just a tease...

Though not directly related to TFQ, this should've been mentioned already...Bruticus (the person) has released his Bruticus (the transformer) player model for Quake2.  Rikki Knight (the person) had a hand in its creation as well.  The model's pretty cool, and you can find it at the Q2Pmp and 3D: The Body Shop.

Two weeks.  It's a long time to go quiet in the gaming world. But rest assured, we're still here and working.  Since it has been so long, we figured we'd show some pics of what we're working on, though all the models and/or their skins are still 'under construction' (and yes, Prowl is holding Sideswipe's gun until his is ready).

Click on the thumbnails below to see larger images.

       

And I suppose it'd be a good idea to explain some of what we've done and how we are setting things up for the gameplay.

The way things work in multiplayer right now at this very second:  You choose the character you want to play as in the game.  The game starts and you have two weapons for that character (where at all applicable), typically a hand-held weapon and a shoulder-mounted weapon.  Each has it's benefits and drawbacks.  You press an "alternate weapon" button to switch between the two.  Any other weapons you use must be found in the level.  Transform to drive around.  Each player (for now) will have an associated 'power-up', like invisibility for Mirage, though use of this will have limits to keep things fair.  To use other character's power-ups, you must find them within the level. 

Many of you are curious as to when TFQ will be finished.  I am going to discuss this with the team.  We may very well release a version that won't have all the characters and weapons in it, so you guys have something to play until the final version is done.   Sort of like a demo (I wouldn't consider it a beta, because the final game will have much more).

Since we don't (yet?) have an area to list the specific features that will be found in TFQ, I thought I should put together a list and post it here.  This is primarily for the multiplayer game, though much would carry over into single player.  Note that this is not a list of everything *planned*, but a list of things actually *working* right now:

• Transforming, of course, is in there.  You can move faster in vehicle mode, and are also a smaller target.
• Getting damaged affects transforming.  You'll see.  :)
• Driving around in vehicle mode implemented.  When driving, cars' front wheels turn left and right as you steer.
• Added visible jetpack to game, as well as new animation frames for flying with jetpack (originally you couldn't see any jetpack, and the character was just shown in his 'jumping' position).
• Turning on the jetpack underwater is BAD.
• Speaking of water, you can stay under as long as you want - no breathing.
• Drive into someone fast enough and you'll hurt them.
• Third person perspective view working, as well as third person with partial transparency mode.
• Menu to select which transformer you will play as.
• Invisibility works.
• No blood when you shoot other players, instead you see blue 'sparks'.
• Alternate weapon mode (see above).
• Large health is now Energon cube and will explode if shot.
• Upon finding the power-up, you can create a hologram of yourself that attacks, but cannot damage, other players.
• Sentry guns.  Find 'em, drop 'em, and watch 'em go postal on the other players.
• New sounds galore, many being from the TV show/movie.
• The matrix is in there, and finding it is a GOOD thing.
• New models of all sorts.  Stuff like the matrix, weapons, jetpack, etc.

Couple things to talk about.  I haven't been keeping up with my emails as much as normal because I've been very busy with both the conversion and events in my private life.   I will get to all of them...somehow.

In regards to the conversion, we've got another shot of Prowl in car mode on the Progress page, this time with a skin that's under development.  I guess you could call this Part III of the Prowl creation images, as it pretty much goes with the first two posted.   And if you couldn't tell for sure by now, Prowl will be the next player model I release (after the final touches on the Sideswipe revamp are finished).

On an unexpected note, I found a little bit of Transformer influence on pop culture the other day.  I bought the soundtrack to Grosse Pointe Blank (cool movie, btw).   Track 7 is a Faith No More song called, "We care a lot".  About 2/3's of the way through the song, they shout the line, "I buy Transformers cause there's more than meets the eye."  Just warms my heart.  :)

Hey, a few guys who have been following TFQ have decided to open (reopen?) work on a Transformers conversion for Quake I (ours being for Quake II).  If you're familiar with Quake I (you better be! :P), I'm sure they'd appreciate your help and/or support.   You can visit their site here.

How sweet it is....

We finally broke 10,000 hits last night at our present Telefragged site, (which is in addition to the 6200+ hits we had gotten at our previous Geocities location).  I want to thank everyone on the TFQ team for helping to keep this thing progressing, and everybody whose been supporting us by visiting the site and/or writing emails. 

On the game:  Much happening.  A lot of our original work has been updated and cleaned up.  And Eric's code changes are getting more "solid" every day.   I've begun putting serious work into animating my next player model for Quake2/TFQ.   Rikki has finished altering his Grimlock model, and is now doing the new animations (and other skins...and map textures..).  Bomark continues to send cool new sounds our way.  And I'd like to announce that Bugman just joined in our crusade and has begun working on TFQ's first dm level.

Also, we've added a descriptive paragraph to the top of the About page to better explain what we're doing for those that may be confused and we added two more Q and A's to the bottom of the FAQ.

We got news goin' on.  First, we've broken the 10000 hits barrier.  I'd like to thank all of you TF and Q2 fans for your support and invite you to keep checking back  You never know what you'll find...

Next, we'd like to announce that we now have a channel on IRC  so that we can discuss with you, our adoring public, TFQ related thoughts, ideas, etc.  The name of the channel is #TFQ and it is hosted on the 3Dnet servers.  For those of you experienced with IRC just connect to a 3Dnet server and join #TFQ.  For those of you that don't go click here and we'll try to get you started.

NOTE:  We're still a little new at the IRC thing.  As we are just starting out with this, we won't have any specific times that we'll be on the channel.  Rikki Knight and I will try to be on as much as we can and we invite you to join us.

Finally, we have a new look at the Grimlock player model courtesy of Rikki.                  

Below is a sneak peek into the future of the Grimlock player model.  Rikki is modifying his original version to make it fully transformable for use in multiplayer TFQ (and it's lookin' sweet, IMHO).  The plan is you'll be able to transform and stomp around as a dinosaur....and more.  ;) - Jay

We've posted a FAQ here.  As the name suggests, this page will (should?) answer your Frequently Asked Questions.  May you find that which you seek.

Been an interesting few days.  First, I couldn't get onto any of the Telefragged network's sites (I suspect that went for many others).  Then, yesterday, my apartment's power went out.  Today, the network at my job was all screwy.   Not that this matters to any of you...

Now, where was I?  Oh, yeah....

Energon cubes.

Yep, they'll be in the game.  Logically, they will be a good source of energy for our Transformer friends.  But these aren't just a simple replacement for standard health kits.  As evidenced by the television show, energon cubes that get shot have a nasty tendency to _explode_, and they will in TFQ as well.  Be careful out there.

Also, one of our level designers has left to work for a game company.   We wish MoW the best of luck. -Jay

Well, we have some coolness going on.  As you may have noticed at the bottom of our home page, we've won our first award.  It was given to us by our new friends at Quake2000, providing the latest Quake Arena related news and views.  Check out their Cool Awards section to see what they think. - Gears 

Okay, did some "testing" of the latest code build recently (funny, back in school tests were never fun...).  TFQ deathmatch is going to hectic and keep everybody on their toes.  Special items based on characters are being implemented one by one.  Mirage's invisibility and Sideswipes jetpack are now working, and really change the way you approach the game.  Using the two together is fun, because no one can see your body, just the trail of fire created by the jetpack (which makes targeting easier, but still a challenge).  Stop by the Pics page to see some jetpack-in-action screenshots we took during the match. - Jay

Heh, heh.  I wrote the update below without realizing that some of you may not be familiar with the matrix, so I better explain.  The Autobot Matrix of Leadership is carried within the body of whoever is commander of the Autobots.  It is passed on to each new leader, as the previous dies or steps down.  The matrix records each's thoughts and experiences, and imparts that collected knowledge to it's current bearer, making him wiser, braver, and as seen in the movie, sometimes even stronger.   In rare cases the matrix has the power to alter it's holder's form, as well as possessing other unexplained abilities. - Jay

Update time!!  What's amazing to me is I only crank out about 1 good update a week, yet it feels like I'm constantly doing them.  Time flies when you're working like a dog, I guess.  But on with the show...

Below is the model for the AUTOBOT MATRIX, which, for the time being, is a direct replacement for the standard invulnerability.  I almost finished the skin, so it should look pretty much the same when I'm done.  Next to it is the model of Wheeljack's grenade launchers that you will find sitting on the ground rotating in deathmatch, calling you to pick them up and wreak havoc upon those around you.  That model's skin has barely been touched yet, but since it'll be mostly black it's a pretty good representation.

BTW, I'd just like to add that for those of you who are starting or will ever want to start your own conversion:  know what you're getting into.  You will write tons of email to team-mates and those with questions.  It can be pretty daunting at times.   Expect to lose much sleep.  That said, it's cool as hell, and great to work with other people on something new and fun.   If I could change one thing, it would be to no longer need sleep.  :)

Yeah, it's me.  -Jay

We just wanted to thank everyone who responded to our help requests.   At this time, we have sufficient help for all aspects of the game and the website.   Please visit the help page for more details. - Jay and Gears

Just a quick note for all you culture junkies out there.  In my local paper, there was an article on the (disturbing?) fact that the 80's are now making a comeback.  Click here to read it, it's called "Retrofit".  It's all about the good and bad things from the 80's.  Be sure to check out the Bring Em' Back section.  See, we're not the only ones... - Gears

Quick little update here with a preview image of the new car mode for Sideswipe.  BTW, you guys can stop writing in to tell me the name of the "teaser" character, I was only kidding when I said I didn't remember it.   =)    -Jay    

In an unforgivable oversight, no mention was made here of the release of Rikki Knight's Grimlock model.  (Sorry, Rikki.  Don't frag me too hard.)  This finely crafted piece of artwork can be found at the Q2PMP and at 3D The Body Shop. What are you waiting for?  Go get it.  -Gears

Hmmmm, 'bout time for an update, eh?

Okay, where to start...I've finished modifying the Sideswipe player model to make him fully transformable.  Now comes the animation redo (he'll be animated the same as before, but with the new model).  I started doing the skin for Prowl, and Rikki and has started doing the skins for Bombshell.  Pictures will come in the near future.

MoW tells me that his first level is nearing completion, and it sounds really cool.  Eric has done some more coding magic in the form of an improved chasecam, added an optional transparency chasecam (see partially through the player model), and created a cluster-bomb/mirv attack for the Sideswipe rocket launcher.  We did have code for the Sideswipe RL before, but the coder who did it disappeared before giving us the source. :(  We are starting to develop power-up ideas based on things the original characters could do, so we want to include things like holograms (Hound), invisibility (Mirage), jetpack (Sideswipe), etc.  Should give the game a definite Transformers feel. - Jay

Oh, I found this teaser picture of one of the enemy models for TFQ on my hard drive.   Can't remember who it is though...  ;-) 

Here's a follow-up to the previous news post about the Prowl Quake2 model.   The skin's been optimized to use as much area as possible.  You can see in the new picture (in the Pics/Progress area) that there are many more grid blocks showing on the skin than the original version.  This means much more detail (need this to get those Autobot symbols in there :).  You can also see that the grid is much more uniform over the surfaces, with as little distortion as I could manage.  You can see that the door has smaller grids than the rest of the car.   I did this because of the writing we'll have to squeeze onto the door.   Hopefully, we'll be able to blend the door smoothly will the rest of the body.

On a side note, for those of you that use plugin player models when playing Quake2:   Dan Bickell has released a model of the Valkyrie from the Macross series (Robotech in America).  The Valkyrie is the same design that Hasbro used for the Jetfire toy, and Dan was kind enough to make us Transformers fans a cool Jetfire skin for him.   You can find the download for the model at the 3D Bodyshop and the Q2Pmp, though I couldn't get it from the Q2Pmp, and had to shoot over to the 3D Bodyshop).  It's a really good model, I highly recommend it.  -Jay

Finally posted a complete up-to-date list of all team members currently working on TFQ.  Just thought you wanted to know. - Gears

"Whoa.  I've been trying to get an update together for the past couple days, but things with TFQ kept progressing too fast.  Long story short:   coding has been implemented to allow the player to TRANSFORM AND DRIVE AROUND.   There are stages of development and refinement left, but it DOES work and it WILL be part of TFQ.  It's just plain fun to transform, I tend to do so repeatedly just because I finally have a game that lets me. =)  It's even set up so you can damage other players/enemies if you're driving fast enough when you hit them (evil grin).   And of course the classic transforming sound effect is in there as well.   Right now the only model ready for all this is a modified version of the Sideswipe PPM, which doesn't have any windows/windshield/roof (think of it as a convertible :P).   But enough talk, go check out the images in the Progress area!" - Jay

Hey folks.  Finally put an image up in the progress area.  It shows the car mode of Prowl in md2 format.  Right now the Q2 version of Prowl consists of 2 frames, one robot and one car.  These will serve as reference for skinning purposes.  Speaking of which, here's some more info on the image for those of you that are interested in modeling and skinning:

The white lines on the car represent the borders of all the triangles that make up the Prowl model.  The skin shown is the default checkerboard skin that NST can create (also notice that the palette in the upper right of the screen hasn't been changed over to the Q2 palette yet).  This skin is very useful in editing the skin's mesh vertices, because it very clearly shows how pixels on the triangle faces are getting distorted due to the layout of the skin mesh.  Each block on the checkerboard represents a 4x4 grid of pixels.  The mesh for Prowl has not yet been fully optimized for size and stretching, you'll notice that some parts of the skin look very skewed, or pulled.   This will be taken care of in time by moving the mesh vertices of the skin.   Also, notice that the blocks are quite large in some triangles.  By scaling these triangles up on the skin mesh, more pixels will be applied to them, allowing more detail.  After Prowl has been fully optimized to make good use of his skin, maybe I'll put up a picture of the car in the same position to show the difference that editing makes.

Oh, BTW, I got some new coding magic from Eric.  I won't say what it is yet, but it'll definitely make the game cooler.  -Jay

No real news, just wanted to thank everyone who sent me images of the TFs that I asked for.  I have no need of any further images.  Thanks. -Gears

Changes, changes everywhere...  OK, not everywhere.   Just a few:  1) We added several more sites to the links page and 2) we added two new screenshots to the Pics/Progress page.  The following quote from Jay sums it up best, "This is cool. I got the first weapon modification from Eric Harrington, who just joined the TFQ effort.  It is for Wheeljack's grenade launchers, which where modeled for some time now but hadn't had any code done on them (the previous coder for them left the project).  They have 2 fire modes, and are fun as hell to use.  Check out the 2 new screenshots on the pics page to see them in action."  I can only second that emotion.  Check 'em out. - Gears

We've broken the Pics/Progress page into three sections.  The first is Screenshots, which should be pretty self-explanatory: images of models, characters, etc. that are actually from the game.  The second section is Progress, which will show images of models, levels, and other game element as works in progress.  The final section is Concept "Art", this section will feature some preliminary design drawings of characters, levels, etc.  The first two additions to the Concept Art section are sketches of Prowl and Ravage.  The page should be a nice showcase for how things start, progress, and then get added to the game.  It's also a nice showcase for bad art. :P - Jay & Gears

Gettin' a lot mail right now.  Thanks for writing!  Keep the suggestions coming, it's cool to hear what you guys are interested in.  I can't say what will or won't make its way into TFQ, but we take it all under consideration.  It may seem like I'm slow to reply to emails, but I'm getting to them as quick as I can (sometimes it's tough to tear myself away from the project ;) .  I want to thank everyone for their support, the counter's been rising faster than I expected.  I went to the site last night (Sunday), and was the 999th visitor.  Very cool.  Oh, on news updates and stuff like that: The news will be updated frequently with info on our progress.   We'll also make posts whenever something happens that we feel is important, or that might be interesting to some of you.  If it does get quiet, that means I'm working reeeeaaal hard, so it's kind of a good thing....(yeah, right :) - Jay

Welcome to our new home on the Telefragged network.  Those familiar with our original Geocities site will find this one very much the same, though the addition of the frame menu at the bottom should make navigation easier.  I'd like to thank Telefragged for not only hosting us, but helping to ease our move by answering our many questions. 

We are looking to expand the conversion right now.  Our major need is for talented level designers.  Detailed descriptions have been written up to explain how the levels of the game will progress, and await help to finally see the light of day.   There's also room on the conversion for some coding work (some meaning a lot :).   If you're interested, check out the Help page for more details.  -Jay

Gears here.  I'd also like to welcome you to our new home on Telefragged.   Feel free to explore the site and tell us what you think.  Check out the team page on how to contact us.  Finally, much appreciation to Raven and Quakegod for being patient with me and answering my many questions.  Thanks, guys.

Hey there. Thought some of you might get a kick out of this, so here's a shot of the Sideswipe PPM "transformed" into car mode. He wasn't designed to transform (no roof, windshield, etc.), but the coders needed something to work with for the driving and transforming stuff, so I put this together. Notice that the shading is a little funky since it was done for the robot standing upright. -Jay

Work, work, work....

Real life took a chunk out of my @$$ this week, so I didn't get to put a lot of time in TFQ. Very frustrating. The good news is we have 2 generous souls who offered to write code for transforming and driving around in vehicle mode. I've been hashing out some of the specs on that with them, and they are trying to tackle some of Q2's limitations regarding having a vehicle mode. I've also been trying out some sounds assembled by an as-of-yet unnamed contributor to the project. This weekend Gears and I will try to take care of a major portion of the site move. The new site will be a little easier to navigate, and may have a couple new areas, like a Screenshots/Progress page. -Jay

Where to start?...OK, first off, the hosting happenings I mentioned a way back have been finalized. We're moving to one of the big boys in the Quake2 scene, and will have no limit to the file space we use. What's even better, though: no more damn Geocities advertisement windows! w00p! We're setting things up now, and we'll let everybody know where to find us when we have our "Grand Opening." Till then we'll still be maintaining and updating our Geocities location.

Next, we added a "Help" page for joining the conversion. Those who have the drive, skill, and dedication towards making games should stop by and see if they might want to join the project. An unhealthy obsession with Transformers is helpful, but not required. ;)

Finally, a small scrap of coolness to throw out to you...I spiffed up the Bombshell model a tad to make him fully transformable. I have a couple ideas how we might use this in the game. If you feel the urge to scope out his insect form, check out his updated character page. -Jay

Hey everybody! Gears here. This isn't really news, but this is a good place for me to ask a favor. I'm seeking images of the following Transformers: Gears, Windcharger, Seaspray, and Beachcomber. Any images from the cartoon series or Marvel comics will be greatly appreciated. Please send images or URLs to me. -Gears

Well, Hiiiiii-Dee-Ho, everybody.

I finished modeling Prowl this week, and he's fully transformable. I had to fight like mad to keep his polygon count down so he won't slow the game or cause lag, but he should be fine. His character page has been added, so go check him out! . -Jay

That bad zip file of the Sideswipe player model has been replaced. I tested it here at work and it seems to unzip just fine. As always, let me know if you have problems with it.

Below is a screenshot from a weapons mod I was looking over last night. It has some pretty neat things in it (the freeze-gun is especially cool). The best I thought was the implementation of a chase-cam. It works really well technically. It can be hard to fight enemies that are close and directly in front of you, because your body gets in the way, but overall it's fun to use. If you create a "players" folder beneath the game file, you can put whatever plugin players you want to see yourself as, like in the image below. Doing this really makes you feel like the character you're playing (playing as a robot and seeing human hands kinda ruins the effect for me). BTW, the mod's name is "Weapons of Destruction" and you can find it here. -Jay

Just a quick note: I found out that the zip file for the Sideswipe player model is corrupt (I really don't know how these things happen...), so if you need to download him, go to the Q2 Body Shop or the Q2 Player Models Pack site. If you need their addresses, check our links page. -Jay

Hey, folks. Had a busy weekend. I should have some goodies for you to look at in a few days. There hasn't been much to show lately because I'm sorta stuck in a holding pattern while waiting for the latest release of NST (Npherno's Skin Tool). I use version .76 right now but need the features in the upcoming version .9 to properly edit the Transformer models for Q2, because they are very complicated. It should be released in a couple weeks (Npherno's words), so until then I'm prepping all the models I can so I can filter them through once NST is released. -Jay

Back from the dead. I think. I'm still sick, but not like last week (missed 3 1/2 days of work, you can imagine how little got done on TFQ). Not much news to report, sadly. We have some things in the works with getting hosted by a prominent Quake news site. More on that as it solidifies. Also, I plan to begin my next plugin player model for Quake2 soon, though this one may take longer than Sideswipe, as I have other things that demand my attention as well. Not sure who it'll be, but I have some pretty good ideas... -Jay

Oy, everyone on the TFQ team seems to be sick as a dog, and I'm no exception. Still, managed to get some pics up of the final model for the view-weapon of Sideswipe's rocket launcher. You can find them on his character page. -Jay

Hey, everybody. Hope you had a good Easter.

I want to welcome Luke Poppelwell to the TFQ team. He's a programmer and did great work on the new Sideswipe rocket launcher. I've seen this bad-boy in action (the launcher, not Luke :P), and it's really fun to use. It has a normal firing mode, like the original Q2 version, but also has TWO additional firing modes that liven things up a bit. I won't describe the other functions just yet because 1) I want to wait till we have them 100% the way they will stay, and 2) I'm an evil, evil man. :) Stay tuned.

BTW, I saw on Q2: Body Shop's page that guys are working on player models for Megatron and Soundwave. They're not related to TFQ, but I hope they come out good. Go here to find out more (there are some preview pics of the Megatron). -Jay

I usually don't like to get ahead of myself, but what the hell: here's a preview shot of Sideswipe's rocket launcher in Q2. Note that the model and skin aren't final, though they are pretty close. -Jay

UPDATE: The zip with the Q2 palette has been added to the downloads page. Hope it can help some of you.

Oh, my...

Just got my Monster 3D II video card the other day. That thing is *sweet*. Quake2 looks wonderful, even running on my out-of-date p133. Finally got to see Sideswipe and the Wheeljack weapon in real-time GL (i.e. not screenshots taken by someone else). I highly recommend this card.

For you editors out there: I created a Quake2 palette file (in .act format) that actually works in Photoshop 3 (don't know about version 4). All the ones I've ever downloaded turned the color palette upside down (Pshop handles it differently than most other programs, I guess), causing the colors to totally muck up when taken into another editor, like NST. I tried to upload the Q2palette.act file, but Geocities wouldn't let me - it considered the .act an invalid file extension. This is, IMHO, very stupid, but I'll just compress the file into a zip, then post it on the downloads page for those who can make use of it. Should be up later today, but I'll let you know. -Jay

The view-weapon model for Wheeljack has been built and animated. Here's a snapshot:

His character page has a larger version of this image, and another screenshot as well. Let me know if the images seem too dark. If the page loads unbearably slow, tell me...maybe I'll start up a screenshots page and move the pictures there. -Jay

Hey there.

Been quiet lately...lotta behind-the-scenes work going on. Figured out how to build 3D environments in Lightwave and implement them as sky backgrounds in Q2. Also figured out the basics of view-weapon replacement. We should have a couple screenshots early next week of the first new weapon for TFQ. Finally getting some organized work going on between team members (that team stuff is the biggest time-eater). Also, I've been going through the Transformers TV series and movie, and making sketches of future models and environments for the game. So there's lots going on, you can't see it yet. Patience, grasshopper. -Jay

A couple quick tidbits:

First, Rikki has released the Starscream plugin player model that he's been working on. A great companion piece for Sideswipe, it comes with Skywarp and Thundercracker skins, as well as a couple of cool "battle-damaged" skins, so go get him!

Q2: The Body Shop has CTF skins for Sideswipe. I tried 'em, and they work fine (the icon pics are screwy, though). Look for them in the skins area.

ALSO: the Q2 Body Shop posted the results from people's votes for the top 10 plugin player models, and Sideswipe came in at number 3! I'm glad people dig him, and hope a lot of folks are using him for their internet fragging. -Jay

Not BIG news, but the Mirage model has been tweaked and is now fully-transformable. Have a look-see at his car mode:

His character page has been updated to include the picture as well. -Jay

WELL, you may have noticed that the Downloads page is up and seems to be working fine (sorry it took so long). If you checked the team area you might have seen mention that some things were up in the air concerning TFQ's future. These issues have been resolved. Rest assured, we are moving full-steam ahead. I'd also like to make sure everyone knows this: TFQ is completely unofficial. We are independent of Hasbro and are creating this game as freeware to anyone who wants it. Thank you drive through. -Jay

OK, good news: Sideswipe has been posted on the Quake2 Player Models Pack, where he received a 5-Star review(!). He is also up on Q2: The Body Shop in the original models section, where he received some nice comments as well. Both the Q2Pmp and The Body Shop have tons of models and skins, well worth checking out. The bad news: Geocities wouldn't let me upload the model last night. There's enough room left on the 3Mb limit we have, the upload just wouldn't go through. :( -Jay

Sideswipe released!

The plugin player model was sent out last night to both the Quake2 Player Models Pack and Skin End, the site run by Rikki Knight, who did the great skins for Sideswipe. Rikki has the model posted already, and the Q2Pmp should, I hope, have it up shortly. We'll post it here as soon as we can. Enjoy!-Jay

The Sideswipe player model is awfully close to being complete. The plan is to finish animating and do testing this weekend. When he's done, I'll send him to be posted on the Quake2 Player Models Pack website (it'll probably be posted there even before it gets put up here). A slight correction: turns out Rikki Knight is also doing the Red Alert skin, and Spawn22 is doing a variation(s?) that is still a secret to me. In other news, I've been in talks with some other guys who want to do a Transformers conversion. We're trying to merge ideas and storylines to create a project we can all get into. -Jay

Got an almost-finished skin from Rikki for the Sideswipe player model. Things are looking good for a release next week. Till then, you can drool over this picture :) -Jay

The Sideswipe preview model is posted on the Quake2 Player Models Pack website in the Development Central section. Rikki Knight and Spawn22 were gracious enough to create some skinwork for him. Rikki is doing the original Sideswipe scheme, plus a variation for his clan, the Cybertron Warriors. Spawn22 is doing a 'Red Alert' variation, since Red Alert had the same body as Sideswipe. -Jay

Added Sideswipe to the Autobot character page. The player model of him is under way and an example frame of the model will be sent to the Quake2 Player Models Page this weekend so anyone interested can start making a skin for him. See his character page for details. -Jay

Got the "News Bar Thing" goin' on. Guess I'll have to start putting real news in here...

Alright, current status is this: initial web design is pretty much done, next week we try to get hosted. Hopefully by then the base frame for my player model of Sidewswipe will be on the PMP (Player Model Pack) page for people to see and skinners to work on. I'll post a link when it is. -Jay

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