SP> It occurred to me that all you would need to do to make 
 SP> a reflection is to 
 SP> make a mirror with a translucent reflection instead of a full color one.
 SP> Kinda like that 3DR game Dn3d and the mirrors it 
 SP> featured.  Interesting.  I
 SP> would think that it would have to be few and far 
 SP> between. Or perhaps it could
 SP> only be seen at real close range.
  Actually, you can't efficiently do reflections in Quake-engine games, at 
least not in a true form.  It was tried with GLQuake, and it slowed a given 
system down tremendously.  The only way you could even hope to do a 
reflection is to do an exact copy of the area to be reflected, use a solid & 
translucent texture to divide the two, and make a special effect that creates 
an exact copy of a given model on the other side.  Even that would probably 
slow things down, so as you said, it would have to be used sporadically and 
in generally low-detail areas.
 SP> I would like to see realistic wounds in a 1st person 
 SP> game.  If I shoot you in
 SP> the face, your face should react.  And sometimes bullets go right 
through 
 SP> things.  If I shoot at a metal sign... it's not going 
 SP> to put a black dot on 
 SP> it, it's going put a hole in it.  And we ALL know you 
 SP> can see through holes.
  There are patches for Quake that will do a fairly basic version of that 
body part reaction; I believe the best is called Severed.  The Pain Keep 
deathmatch add-on doesn't have that, but (like Quake II) it can give someone 
a "pain skin" or two for when they've taken damage.
  As for the holes, that would probably be hard to do for a good while, or at 
least a bit frivolous.  Probably the best you could get right now would be 
damage textures that would show abuse after enough damage, with transparent 
holes.
 SP> and when I blow something up under water...Water flies 
 SP> up! And just in case 
 SP> you didn't realize it... when something explodes under 
 SP> water... it seriously 
 SP> jacks with everything, because water doesn't compress like air does.
  I think Half-Life may do the job when it comes to the ripple effect (and 
DNF, if 3D Realms is up to it ) with weapons and such.  But it won't do 
the compression, which is probably further on.
 SP> Some of the things I'm describing are hard to program, but they sure 
would
 SP> make a difference in the game.  Physics is a bitch to encode!
  There is probably only one game that can address most of your realism 
questions: Trespasser, which SHOULD (emphasize the uncertainty there) be out 
later this year.  A lot of its actions and puzzles rely HEAVILY on real 
physics, including knocking things over, breaking things (you may see those 
bullet holes), and even the water may be addressed.
  In DNF's (and hence, 3D Realms') defense, however, Trespasser won't have 
multiplayer modes initially, and isn't really an action game in strictest 
terms.  I'm looking forward to both, personally.
--- Maximus 3.01
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