For some reason I can't compile the SiN source even before I change any of it. VC5 gets to "bspline.cpp" and doesn't get any further than that. I left it going over night, about 8 hrs, and it still hasn't completed it. I'm gonna format my windows drive and put everything back in a few days (just need to get some uni assignments out of the way first). I'll give it another go then.

You probably noticed that I've changed the font, I was kinda bored with the old one but I don't think I'll bee Keeping this one for very long. And I've just noticed I'd spelt January wrong in the last update, oops.

First update of '99 and I haven't got much to say really. There still ain't any mods out yet, and it doesn't look there's going to be many for a while. So there's much I can to Sincest yet. If you can think of any stuff to add to it (or bugs to fix) then let me know.

I was thinking about  converting the Eraser over to SiN, it's based on the same code so it would probably be mostly copy & paste the Eraser bits over to the sin source. I'm downloading the Eraser source now and I'll see if I can get it working. Actually it probably wont work cos the maps on sin are very different for Quake2, especially with maps like paradox, and with the eraser's root finding code in a pre compiled object file I can't change it. I'll have a go anyway, but don't hold your breath.

Finally a new version. Map cycle options are now in (via the map popup menu) as well as the map notes stuff for making it a little easier to do a map review site. Cheers to Dolomite for the idea. If you've got any ideas for anything you'd like to see in a future version of Sincest then let me know. When mods start to come out you can expected to see bigger changes in Sincest as I add support for some of them.

I still haven't got round to adding some of the stuff in full version (map cycle list etc., blame Half-Life) but the map note with HTML export is now working in Sincest. I was going to release it now, but I'd rather wait until I have the rest of the stuff in and working. If you are doing a map review site and want to use Sincest to make your life a little bit easier then let me know and I'll send you a copy of Sincest with the map stuff in. You can have a look at Tectonic to see if it'll be of any use to you.

Well I finally managed to get myself a copy of SiN and here's a new Sincest that will list all the maps you've got in your .sin pak files (the format is still the same). I haven't had time to add any of the other new stuff yet and I'm not sure if all the dmflags are 100% correct yet. But all the maps are listed now so you should get the new version.

On a completely unrelated note I found a cool program that lets you Alt+Tab to your desktop. It's extremely handy when you've got loads of stuff open or your playing a game and what to get back to your desktop. Have a look yourself, you can get it here. Speaking of handy little programs if you know a good program that lets you save & restore your desktop icon position the let me know (send me the URL not the file please). It was a feature of PowerDesk, but now that I'm not using my Mystique any more I ain't got all the niceties the Matrox put with there drivers and I used to use a lot more than I thought I did.

I didn't manage to grab a copy of SiN today, but hopefully I'll be able to get it tomorrow if everywhere hasn't sold out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the map names from the .sin files straight away cos I don't the format of them yet. I should have it working pretty soon though. SiN (the demo that is :() runs nice and fast on my computer, I've just upgraded my slow P133 (although it was faster than a lot of P166's, must be cos Gateway make such good computers) to a CelleronA 300, but even thought it's set to 450 it's still running at 300. So that's a bit of a shame. And I finally got rid of my muddy 16-bit voodoo1 card and replaced it with a TNT. GLQuake in 1024x768 feels a little strange.

SiN

I went over to my local EB store to find out when SiN gets released over here, they reckon it ain't gona be out till next Friday (the 13th woo) so till I get myself a copy of SiN, which will almost definitely be Friday, I can't do anything with Sincest. The next version (or maybe a release soon after) will have a nice feature that will come in handy for anyone doing a SiN map review site. I was talking to Dolomite of Dteam and he suggestion adding a way to add notes to maps in Tectonic to make it easier for the map review site he's doing. That developed to having info   for each map (name, URlL, description, sore etc.) that can be exported to an HTML file. It's not finished yet but as long as I don't smash it up it should pretty useful for anyone doing a map review site.

No News is Good News

I've only one bug report so far (well for Sincest that is, but people seem to think I work for Ritual and send me SiN bug reports) and that's fixed.   so that either means that I'm just fantastic and there's no bugs or that there's not enough people using it yet to find them all. The latter is probably true, but that should change when the full version of SiN gets released, should be pretty soon now. The reasons that I've been so quite is simply that there hasn't been anything happening with Sincest in the last month, there's almost nothing more I can do until the full version of SiN hits the shelves and mods start coming out for it. When the full version does get released I'll sort out all the dmflags, make any other changes I need to then stick a new version up here for ya. I'll probably get SiN a little latter that the rest of you, releases are normally about 1-2weeks latter in the UK. So don't expect instant results.

I've just added a contact section to this site so you can get my contact info, just email & ICQ at the mo but when EGN improves some more and I start using it again I'll stick that up there as well. There's a links bit now as well, I thought seeing as I'm probably gona be doing a few more launchers for upcoming games, and i've already got SiN, Quake & Quake2 covered, I might as well link them all together.

New Sin Demo

I'm downloading the new sin demo right now (ETA 2:04:33 on my weedy little 33.6) and after I've had a problem look I'll update Sincest if it's needed, not sure if there's any new dmflags or anything yet. The current version of Sincest will work just fine with the new demo and as it checks the pak file it will find the news maps straight away.

Speaking of slow connections. If anyone wants to give my cable company some abuse for not bring cables modems in till the end of '99 at the soonest, and not not having flat rate for local calls (my monthly bills are between £40 and £100 just for net usage)  then please do.

Other Launchers

Looks like I'm turning into an all round "launcher boy". As well as Quake, Quake2 and SIN, I'm going to be doing one for Half-Life, Diakatana & Quake3. But at the moment the launchers for Half-Life, Diakatana & Quake3 don't have a name. I'm rubbish at coming up with names for stuff so if you can think of one then let me know. And please don't suggest half-dead, I've already had that from loads of people.

"System Error" Problem Really Fixed This Time

It seems that the previous fix didn't work for everyone, thanks to a little help from Lonewolf (SiN server at 198.164.220.140) I've managed to find out that the problem was in the fm20.dll, so I've removed all the controls that needed that DLL. This means that Sincest no longer has auto-complete for the map names, but does now sort them instantly. If you where having problems then get this fixed version of Sincest, that's the only thing that's changed (apart from a few address book things - read here for a full list). So if it's fine for you then don't bother getting this, you'll just lose auto-complete.

"System Error" Problem Fixed

Anyone that was getting a system error problem when running Sincest should download and install these VB runtime files, if you where getting any other sort of problem with Sincest that caused it not to load then give this a try as well. Thanks to Key for letting me know about this.

New Map Scripts

I was having a look round my new neighbours, The Node, when I noticed that there was a "getcvar" command you can use in map scripts so I decide to update the map scripts that I uploaded a few days ago. With these updated scripts you can not set your time limit in the normal way (but you need to set it 1 min higher than you want) and the map cycle will work fine, so you can  change it from the console while the game is running without needing to edit the map script and restart the server. If you want to have map cycle on your server then (as far as I know) this is the only way to do It.

Updated no-cheats dll

Johnny [MiB] let me know about a few more cheats that I'd missed first time, so I've updated the dll accordingly and you can get it here.

Map Scripts With Map Cycle & MOTD

I've made a pair of map scripts for sincitydemo and sindm6demo that allow you to have a motd (but very cheap, it only prints to the console after a map change) and map cycle using a time limit. So you if your sick of having your server just run one map then grab this zip. Have a look at the readme to find out how to change stuff. There's probably a better way to do this but I didn't think of it/couldn't get it work.

Anti-Cheats gamex86.dll

I've edited the gamex86.dll and removed the 'cheats' from it. This dll will probably be very unstable in single play, but since this is to remove the cheats for dm there should be no problems. If this does cause any problem's with your system then don't blame me (or ritual). If you download the file you must accept full responsibility for anything that might go wrong (not that I expect it to, but I had to say that 'just in case'). So if you still want to stop cheaters on your server then nab this file.

New logo

Thanks to jednet of SkiN for this new logo. The logo that Cal made was cool, but I like the feel of this one better.

Sincest 1.01

This version is mainly for those doing stuff with map scripts, there's no major changes so if you don't do anything with map scripts there's no point in download this version. But if you do have a look at what's new and see if you want to get this version.

FAQ

I've added a Frequently Asked Question (there's only one so far) page. So if you where going to ask me " Why doesn't the 'Edit autoexec.cfg' button do anything?" have a look here first. I'll be adding more questions when I get them so if there's anything you want to know (about Sincest that is) then send me an email then I'll answer you and probably stick up on the FAQ page.

The updates to this news page will probably not be very often, until SiN is realised there's very little I can add to this program. But if there is anything that you would like me to add or if you want me to change the way a feature already in Sincest works then let me know. I've just updated the features page and added some features of Sincest that I didn't think where important enough to mention. But SinStart has them in it's features page and as Sincest can already do those things I thought that I should add them.

TecTray for for Tectonic, Sincest and Quake Launcher is now available over at the Tectonic site.