I swear, you could keep your credit card numbers in a file named "readme" and they would be perfectly safe. 

But only if you wish to be robbed by me :D 

I would love to see how you organize your Quake folder(s). I hate having all my maps/mods/engines etc. dumped in the root folder with all the demos, zip files, paks and what not. So hard to understand what is what.

Also, can't get the mod to work. The QSS engine will not launch. I overwrote the quakespasm.pak with the new one. I'm pretty sure I was using a 64-bit QS before. Is there not a 64-bit of QSS? How do I work around this? 

I just overwrote my base QS install in the root Quake directory with the QSS stuff. 

But I think the fire particle effects look a little silly, especially when paired with fire models that are just a few rotating polygons. Just doesn't look Quakey. 

The map is excellent. The presence of the exploding boils, which remind me of Dead Space, make the map 10/10 alone.

@sevin. I agree about the Quakespasm Spiked effects. They look overblown and out of place to me. It looks like Darkplaces Epsilon or something. But I guess that's why one can just use Quakespasm.

Thanks for making this SoC/Giftmacher/Eric! 

But I think the fire particle effects look a little silly, especially when paired with fire models that are just a few rotating polygons. Just doesn't look Quakey.

They feel very Q3A and out of place for sure. Same with the enhanced explosions. Most of us are playing the game with pixels on. It's a bad fit. I think the boils could be a bit more dangerous when they attack but want to finish the level before committing to that 100%. Other that these small things the map is crazy and inspiring. I don't like being lost in a level at all but I get that that's a conscious design decision so no worries. 

Superb release!
The map full of mystery, magic and secrets as it should in quake universe!
Thank you!

Here is my playthrough on normal: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_uw1d-iVNvnUUlDcnEwd0MyNzg 

Screenies look amazing. Will play soon. 

Amazing map. I loved it.
Usually I don't go back to a map after finishing it but here I reloaded from last save and explored for one more hour.
Played on normal skill which was really relaxing.
Two demos. First ends after I reach the exit. The second one is longer I think and is the exploration and secret hunting.
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad_ankh_demos.zip

I still don't have a feeling for the layout. Just running around trying to find new things.
I liked the particle effects and the mysterious atmosphere. All monsters are great too.
Will play again today evening.
Didn't have any problems with installation/launching the new engine etc. 

The message barely lasts more than one second. I have no idea what I just accomplished. 

@Haunter - pull the console down - you can read it there 

From sevin :

"But I think the fire particle effects look a little silly"

I think he's talking about the little dots from Sock, not the new special effects from Spike. I agree that these floatting pixels are feeling a bit weird, especially when combined with Spike's effects. But it's okay for me.

From dumptruck_ds :

"They feel very Q3A and out of place for sure. Same with the enhanced explosions."

Now I think he's talking about the effects from Spike, not the pixel-dots particles moving from the flames that comes from Sock. I don't agree with him here. I think these effects are great and add a lot to the pixelized game.

Maybe the QuakeSpasm-spike-admod application should contain an option in the interface to toggle IN/OFF the new effects ?

Spike (and Eric ?) : I would also like to see some waves on water, when the player moves/walk in it. 

short version:
pr_checkextension 0 should stop AD from using QSS's particle system.
The map itself will still use rain particles, but the dp effects should no longer be loaded.

long version:
QSS has a compat layer for DP particles. The fact that people here are saying that they look like DP's just goes to show that the compat layer is working, for better or worse.
Using the compat layer means more engines can have acceptable particles without having to redo the particles for every single engine out there (especially when Sock had initially created most of the effects for his earlier ITS mod, and with the extra AD effects still exclusively with DP in mind, and iiuc derived from SMC). Imho vs FTE/QSS's native particles, DP's lack things like spawn patterns resulting in a general puffiness to the effects; whereas FTE's particles do a decent enough approximation of both hexen2 or quake2's effects (or at least the ones I implemented).
The puffiness is then compounded by the use of pointparticles instead of eg .emiteffectnum, which bloats the networking and gives bursts of particles rather than a more continuous stream. Again, DP compat...

The QSS engine has absolutely no new particle effects built in. ALL new effects are being read from some mod-specific file. The only particles from me specifically are the ones inside the fte_weather.cfg file, which are basically just rain+snow effects.
The r_particledesc cvar says which effects the engine tries to automatically load (defaulting to some 'classic' placeholder).
However, AD then detects support and uses the whole namespaces thing and in doing so forces the engine to load additional effects (which take precedence over the classic effects) while also suppressing the mod's own fallbacks.
If you want to disable the particles, either tweak world.qc to prevent the mod from detecting FTE_SV_POINTPARTICLES, or hack the engine to not advertise it
Note that pr_checkextension 0 will prevent ALL qc extensions from being advertised, thankfully AD still doesn't depend on any extensions thanks to vanilla QS. However, I'm not going to add that option to any menus because it would break mods that depend upon (other) extensions. The choice of whether to use extensions or not MUST be made by the mod, not the engine, anything else is hacky/flawed. Presumably this would be best done using cvars thanks to QSS supporting the set/seta console commands (or possibly just another unreadable temp1 bit).

@Barnak: waves like http://triptohell.info/moodles/junk/fte00040.jpg ? 

This one single map, is basically an entire episode in of itself. As I'm sure you can understand, I did not record a demo because I really wanted to take my time playing this, to explore every nook and cranny and really admire the overwhelming detail put into it, really soaking in the atmosphere.

While I agree that the particle effects seemed somewhat out of place, except for the rain, it didn't hinder my experience any. I just rolled with it.

There wasn't a single moment that I wasn't in awe of the design. So many destructible walls and wooden planks, vines hanging from passageways, slabs of brick loose from their walls, skulls, books and gibs littered everywhere. This map is an incredible addition to Arcane Dimensions, as if AD wasn't already successful enough, this one map makes it even more so. Honestly if you rush through even one room of this map, you're missing on some incredible looking details. Its no wonder it required an enhanced Quakespasm engine, which I had no issue setting up.

My only one complaint, and it is so minor, is that there is too much ammunition. I found myself never running out of shells, nails or rockets, even if I missed many of my shots.

As I said I really spent a lot of time on this map, an hour and a half it said. In the end, I only found 29 of the 50 secrets, but I did find the big one which is I'm guessing, the room with the rotating planets. However the message that appears describing the presence of a lich demon, if there was a such an enemy, I couldn't find it. I could only find the bog monster, as well as the 8 kraken children. The only significant secret I couldn't find, was the door leading to the rooftop, locked by the silver key. I get the feeling I missed more though, as my monster count in the end was only 475 out of 510 or so.

But wow, my god, what a journey. There's if ands or buts, this map is an absolute must play. And if you don't like the idea that you have to use another engine, tough. Do it anyway, because its well worth it. This is a 10/10 from me, an astounding job to the AD team as always. 

About waves on water, I mean something like what can be seen in Quake3 : just a feel of "fake" riddles moving on the water (without 3D effetcs).

Also, is it possible to get some subtile reflections on the surface of water ? 

Spike, your picture is too dark. Can't see anything on it. Except that it do looks a bit like what I was talking about, yeah. 

From dumptruck_ds :

"They feel very Q3A and out of place for sure. Same with the enhanced explosions."

Now I think he's talking about the effects from Spike, not the pixel-dots particles moving from the flames that comes from Sock.

Yes I'm sorry I wasn't more clear the way I wrote it. I like the original particles from AD 1.0-1.5 The newer (higher-res?) QSS effects feel somewhat out of place to me BUT it must be gratifying for sock and company to try new things and enhance the game. The rain is cool as are some of the teleporter and pentagram effects. What I dislike are the flames and explosion effects. Some people like the new effects, some don't. Now that I have the executables running properly (thank you Giftmacher) I'll take a closer look at the new stuff in the Spiked version.

I need to re-read Spike's post #77 again as I am very interested in what's at play here regardless if I like the aesthetic or not. :) It's just a bit over my head technically.

No matter what though - we ALL win. Amazing content and tools that excite mappers and players is a good thing. 

I think he's talking about the little dots from Sock, not the new special effects from Spike. I agree that these floatting pixels are feeling a bit weird, especially when combined with Spike's effects. But it's okay for me.

I was talking about the new particles, not the pixeled ones. I don't think this game deserves "high-def" particles when the rest of the world is so low-poly and pixelated by comparison. That's primarily why I use QuakeSpasm over DarkPlaces or any other engine. I just want vanilla Quake, no "modern" graphical enhancements. Kinda ruins the Quake feel. I did like the rain though. It's subtle enough to work well. 

Kinda ruins the Quake feel.
That's a matter of opinion. 

Didn't want to use "I think" and "for me" in every sentence. 

 

Please, just get over yourselves! It's 2017 and... ad_sepulcher ISN'T a low poly vanilla Quake map in any sense of the words.

You have options to play without effects but my gosh, just quit haggling about it. Let the artistic creativity from the mappers happen without all the "this isn't Quake" bullshit. 

Q3A water isn't an engine-side effect, it's content. 

Let the artistic creativity from the mappers happen
This.