News – Windsurf – Quake –
About Me - Contact
February 18th,
2012
One year and a half without writing anything here, wow, I didn’t
realized it’s have been a so long time... a very long time. I’ve been woken up
by a friend of mine that was asking me “Hey, are you still alive ? I’ve not
seen any update on your website since a long time.. what the Hell are you doing
?”. Why ? Because I have been “eaten alive” by my job: no time to play new maps
(or too few), no time to map (so latest project stucked onto the same point as
one year ago), and I am not even talking about windsurf (almost four months of
diet due to a very long and cold winter... and lack of wind too to be honnest)..
Anyway... At least I have a job, the company is doing profit, we are growing,
and I do participate to an amazing story... All our efforts have been rewarded,
and that is the most important. I said “our efforts” because it is definitely a
team achievement, really... anyway...
On Quake side, I really have to find a way to resume mapping, as well as
windsurf (even more addictive)... For Quake mapping I have to update my computer,
or move all my mapping stuff on my company laptop... though... my boss would disagree
I guess... and for windsurf.. I need holidays...
OK, let’s go: no wind today, but an afternoon of mapping... yeah !!
November 20th,
2010
So, it is done.... After 24 months of hard work, I finally finished my
latest project. This a “Castle of the Dark Age” sequel titled “The Gateway to
Hell”. Thanks a lot to necros, Spirit and Vigil for their support, as well as
all the guys from func_ and “#tf that kicked my ass so many times in order to
push me to finish this map. I hope they will not be deceived... Anyway, there
is a cool long week-end that starts now, with a windy day forecasted: so for
sure a windsurf session, and maybe some shots... though...
July 20th,
2010
After 6 months, I finally find some time to update the wesite. So what happened
during this past 6 months: first very good news is our company (RivieraWaves) is flying well. After all
the efforts we all have put in, it is really satisfying... I also met Vigil
last Sunday, a really nice guy from our small Quake community: I hope to meet
more like him in the future... BTW, I updated my personal informations,
including a black-and-white shot Vigil took last Sunday: thanks !!
On Quake mapping side, I’m almost done with my latest project.. I just
need to refine easy/medium/hard moster placement/balance, and then I guess it
will be ready for beta testing session
Here we go !!!
January 24th,
2010
Finally, we have been able with colleagues to start our own company !
After 3 months of hard fight with the administration, it is done ! I am not
jobless anymore... Good news...
On Quake side I have progressed a little bit on my CDA sequel map, it is
still missing several areas, and I still don’t know by when it will be
released.... Wait and see, as usual...
November 13th,
2009
Freedom !!! I’ve been fired since 23rd of October, and I
never felt so free than at this moment. We are working actively to start our
spin-off, and I’ve never worked as hard as this, as it is for our own company...
It changes my employee point of view to a share-holder point of view... and it
makes a real differnce...
I also had some very good windsurf session lately, hence the update of
the windsurf section with some brand new shots...
On Quake mapping scene, I’ve progressed a little bit on my CDA sequel
project, but not as much as I would have liked... Anyway, I will finish this
map before the end of the year... at list I hope this...if I have time for...
October 11th,
2009
So it is done, end of story. After 4 months of rude negotiations in
between Wipro top management and the employees representatives, an agreement
has been found. It does not please everybody (who’s happy to be fired ?), while
the firing plan has been seriously improved compared to what was proposed in
late June... So in parallel of the “package” (and I don’t know whether it can
be called a package), there are several spin-off / start-up companies that
could fly very soon... With a bit of luck, I will not stay jobless more than 3
months, let’s cross fingers... Anyway, this is life...
On Quake mapping side, I’m completely stucked: no inspiration at all, no
motivation neither... I think I will seriously have to self-kick my ass to
continue my current project... well, wait and see, as usual...
August 8th,
2009
Following bad news
mentionned by July 29th, some of my collegues have built a website
providing all the informations about Wipro NewLogic– Sophia Antipolis R&D
center: what is our history, what is happening today, what are the company
members, etc... Please have a look here.
The idea is to be known, to alert the press, and to explain the obvious
contradiction in between the offical company speech, and what are the given
reasons for the site shutdown...
As well, I refined
my CV / resume, just in case...
Oh, and I restarted
mapping this afternoon !! Maybe a new release will happen soon... though...
July 29th,
2009
Bad news.. It was
pending since some time, but it has been confirmed some weeks ago: my company
has decided to shutdown our R&D center in France... Well, my collegues and
myself think that the company is taking profit from the economic crisis to
reduce costs and headcount... Anyway, I’m not going to spit on my company... We
are (61 families) in a very bad situation as there are absolutely no jobs in my
area... Very bad news...
So; I updated my CV
/ resume page: who knows, maybe a recruiter may have a look there. If anybody has
a good contact to provide in a micro-electronic company, particularly a company
focusing on Bluetooth technologies, I would really appreciate it...
On quake mapping
side: no news. My latest project is stucked... completly stucked... not enough
motivation, not enough inspiration... Maybe it will come later... Wait and
see...
Marchy 6th,
2009
Done... With a lot of pain, it is done... but I’m a deceived a lot...My
latest Quake project is finished, yes... I spent 17 days of fullvis, for
nothing... It has generated HOMs that were not present with a fastvised only
map... So I finally decided to release a fastvised map... I’m sorry for this,
but I cannot spent 17 days of fullvis just to ensure HOMs will disappear, with
too much uncertainty... Anyway, I worked on this project for one year, now it
is time to jump on something else: I’m pissed of this map... I’m pissed of this
monstrosity: 7935 brushes, 6 standard engine limits exceeded, and a lot of time
wasted... I’m damned: this time I’m sure I’m damned...
Anyway, I hope you will enjoy the map, nonetheless.. A shame fullvis
crap it up....
February 2nd,
2009
Just some fresh news about two small things.
First, I updated the Windsurf section adding a link to a new windsurf
community website, with plenty of photos, videos, and windsurfer personnal
infos...
Second, it is related to Quake and my latest project: it is in its final
build phase. Fullvis process is almost done after around 350 hours runtime
(ouch). I am in the remaining 1.5%, but it will take 24 hours (at least) to
finish... So I will release this week for sure...
Stay tuned !
January 1st,
2009
Happy New Year !! I wish you all the best for the coming year, and
regarding the international situation (particularly onto economy side), I think
we will need also some luck...
Anyway, my knee is going fine, and I hope to restart sport practice in
february / march... or even earlier... My physio doctor told me I can practive
running... smoothly from now... Well, it sounds good...
On Quake mapping side, my current project (i.e Fort Driant) started last
year has slown down a little bit these last two months... I need to motivate
myself in order to finish it... Actually I have to improve gameplay, monsters
placement, etc... Some early feedback shown me the map was definitely too
hard... Hence some rework needed. I hope to finish it soon... Wait and see...
October 30th,
2008
Last month I visited the hospital for a left knee broken front crossed
ligament. Actually it was broken since around 10 years, but due to my “active”
sport activities (football and windsurf), I had other problems with my left
knee internal meniscus (partially broken too)... “I’m too old now for such
sports practice” my wife said... Come on... Anyway, according to the surgeon,
it was mandatory for me to do both: partial meniscus removal (the broken part)
and ligament repair,. the ultimate goal being to recover 100% of my humble
sport skill, and being able to play football again... It was painfull the first
two days after the surgery (morphin helped me a lot to support pain and allowed
me to sleep at least), but then it was OK...Bad news is that I’m on “sport”
diet till december.. maybe march in the worst case...
So, I’m at home since 1 month, and still for the next 2 weeks, and the
good thing is that my latest map is progressing very well... It is really huge
(around 7300 brushes), and I’m currently working gameplay and monster
placement.... I hope this huge map, that needs aguirRe’s GLQuake to run, will
be ready by the end of next month. Also, I hope some other good news: another
well known engine update will come soon I hope, and then my prefered engine
will be able to run the map as well...
Wait and see...
June 21st,
2008
It’s been a while I didn’t update the windsurf section with some shots.
I practiced windsurf two days (for the moment) in june, one in Cannes and the
other in La Coudouličre. Ange (a friend of mine) took his photo shooter, hence
the windsurf section update. We had a good freeride / wave session in Cannes,
and a good wave session in La Coudouličre, both with very good conditions:
sunshine, warm weather, warm water (well it’s not yet possible to have a naked
jump in the water, but soon..), and the most important: wind !... it smelt like
summer !!... It’s cool... Errrr, actually it is summer today, doh !
Anyway, on Quake mapping side, I restarted my current project, and this
time it exceeds the limits of standard engines... So now only aguirRe’s engine
is able to run the map... maybe DarkPlace as well, but I didn’t test
yet...Anyway, it’s on the rail again !
April 26th,
2008
Hurray ! After a good week of fight with my computer, I’ve been able to
restart it correctly... I had the bad idea to install Windows Service Pack 2
for some reasons I cannot remember, and the computer was not rebooting
correctly: it ends onto a nice black screen without any possiblity to login
exept in safe mode. After some research on the internet, reading some forums, I
finally tried many uninstall/install processes (fire walls, anti virus, anti
spyware, and some drivers), then I was able to restart it, and finish the
update of the computer, by updating Windows... and finally it works... Wow, sad
week I had, I thought a moment I will not be able to find a solution, and that
I would have to reinstall Windows XP... and all the stuff I have on my
computer.... wow...
Anyway, it delayed my current Quoth2 map project... Well, it is still
progressing, but I’m suffering lack of inspiration this last month, and I am
not really motivated to finish it right now... also because I beta tested
latest distrans’ map, and it was so good I felt meany compared to his skill
mapping... *sights*....
Well, let’s see how next month will turn...
March 10th,
2008
Well, Kell’s Quoth2 mod has been finally released !! So I’m releasing the very first version of
Slime Refinery Complex initially built with preliminary release of Quoth2. The
layout is almost the same, but the monster usage is completely different, as it
uses the brand new monsters of Quoth2. Thanks a lot Kell for your work.
January 16th,
2008
Just a single word to say I updated Quake section adding some cool links
to people I respect, or cool website I visit a lot.
Enjoy !
January 6th,
2008
Happy New Year !!
This new year is starting well: Santa Claus brougth me a new windsurf board
(RRD Wave Cult 80 liters), and I had a fantastic wave session by the 2nd
of january (North-East wind, 2 meters waves): what can I ask more ?? Nothing I
guess.. thought... Seriously, I’m currently working on a new base map based on
Half Life and Doom3 Texture sets. This project will use Quoth2, as it should be
released by this year (and soon AFAIK... wait and see..)... I hope this year to
be fruitfull for everybody who read these lines. Again, Happy New Year !!
September 16th,
2007
THF DM map has been
updated: Trinca gently provided way points in order to support FrogBot.... Now
I have to find a new theme for a new map. I still have not a clear idea, but
I’d like to use metlslime’s newskip tool, that allow to have glasses in game,
plus Quoth mod (sound support, cool monsters, etc...), so I guess a base based
map would fit well... while I’d like to make a medieval... Cornelian choice ...
In anyway, If Quoth2 is released before I start monster placement, I guess I
will use it. While I flamed a lot the contributors due to the delay
(particularly on base Pack) that forced me to release SRC on my own, I think
this is the best mod ever developed by Quake lovers in these 11 past years...
Well, we’ll see that in time...
Now it’s time for
FFA with THF... let’s go !!
August 31th,
2007
Latest update of
THF DM map... It was maybe a little bit early to deliver 3 weeks ago.. Nevertheless
it was a good experience that shown me how much I have to progress in FFA...
August 4th,
2007
I’m back from 3
weeks of holidays, and I found time between family and friends to map. I made a
DM map titles “The Holiday Frags”, so check it out, and have fun... and now I’m
waiting for wind...
July 30th,
2007
So, after 8 months
of development, done in parallel of “Slime Refinery Complex” map, “Five Rivers
Land” is ready to download ! This project is composed of 3 small maps. It is
inspired from Doom3 Hell level, and uses my Doom3 texture set. I was about to
delay its release after July (due to my holidays), but as it is ready, why not
“delivering” the stuff ? There were no reasons not to deliver... Be ready to
defeat the Hell’s hordes...
July 1st,
2007
In latest news, I
completely forgot to mention the fact that the “Five Rivers Land” project has
started the beta sessions. It is complete, and I hope beta testers to not find
big things to modify... BTW, I still didn’t test a full vis process on these
maps. I suspect it could be long in time, as I had to split the inital project
in two maps as: I exceeded the limits... I hope to release it before the end of
July...
June 23rd,
2007
Well, for some
reasons, I decided to self-outcast from Base Pack... I don’t want to (re)start
the drama here, and all the story is well known by many people on func_... So,
I finally finished to refine “Slime Refinery Complex” map, as it was previously
done for base Pack, I had to rework it to support Quoth pack (only...)...
Anyway, please feel free to give feedback... also, the map uses Doom3 converted
textures I did last year... Enjoy !
May 7th,
2007
Some news about
Quake mapping front: Base Pack is still not released. We (i.e all the mappers involved
in the project) are still waiting for Quoth pack update in order to release,
and not having to rework our stuff... My map is ready since december, and
globally we are late by 4 months... Anyway, we still have to wait for Kell and
necros to update Quoth pack, hoping it will happened within the coming
weeks....
On my current
project side, I had several issues on my “Five Rivers Land” project. Briefly,
the map became too big to be supported by standard engines: marksurfaces and
clipnodes numbers overrided the max allowed values. As a result, it caused
engines crashs, even FitzQuake. Only aguirRe’s engine seems to be able to
manage the map, but with a lot of chopiness in certain area. So to solve it I
had to split the map in 2 pieces... It is a little bit disappointing, but at
least it will be playable....
On windsurf side, I
had some good sessions the last 3 months, but I didn’t shoot photos... Sorry
for this...
January 6th,
2007
First, I wish an
Happy New Year to all of you, with all the best for this coming year.
I didn’t give news
since 6 months, but I was very busy with the Base Pack project. My map is ready
since one month, but some other mappers didn’t finished their stuff, so we have
(I say “we” because there are around 10 mappers involved in this pack) to wait
for them. The pack was supposed to be released for Xmas, but as we were all
late, we decided to postpon the delivery. The Base pack is based on Kell’s
Quoth pack, including new monster and features, and all the maps are supposed
to use only Base textures... Personally it is the first time I used my Doom3
converted texture set, but shhhhht,it is a secret... Well, I guess everybody
will be ready in the next coming weeks.. Wait and see...
I also started a
new project, that is already titled “The Five Rivers Land”... This is a Doom3
remake, using Doom3 texture set, and basically based on Doom3 Hell level...
Well, the first place is not yet fully ready, but it is already visually quite
good..; but it is my personal taste... As well, you have to wait for the final
delivery...
Enjoy!
June 29th,
2006
Yeeessss !!! It is
finally done !! I’ve finished Doom3 textures conversion “down to” Quake wad
format !! The zipped file is quite big (7.2 MB), and is splited into several
wad files, that correspond to the extracted folder names. The process was quite
simple, but needed a lot of manual tasks. Unfortunately, a part of the textures
names were not so consistent, and I had to open systematically all the files to
see what I had to do... Well, I hope the result will be appreciated.
I also added some
other textures I made for Quake Travail Project that has been scheduled for
mid-july... Wait and see..
Enjoy !
June 4th,
2006
Since “Event
Horizon” map, I didn’t find time to map a lot. Real life is very time-consuming,
and I have to admit I’m also very busy on texture conversion (from Doom 3 to
Quake). It is not very easy, because there are many manual operations, and
using a automatic script is almost impossible, as I have to estimate brightness
/ color / size for each different texture. As of today I converted around 90%,
and I hope to finish the texture set in a couple of weeks. My plan was
initially to make a “Doom3 tribute” map for July, precisely for 10 years Quake
anniversary, but I guess I will be late, even with a small map...
On the other hand,
Howard Roy, who is the author of Killer Quake Pack, just “rebirth” his web
site. As I have a download link to a personal version of KQPv0.90 in Quake
section, I’ve added a link to Howard Roy’s web page, and his last KQP release.
Enjoy !
March 31st,
2006
“Event Horizon”
Quake SP map is now ready to download.. 5 months of work, and here is a brand
new map! So why “Event Horizon” title?... I simply use the 1997 movie title.
Remember: a rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black
hole and has now returned...with someone or something new on-board... To give a
quick explanation (it is briefly done in the movie BTW) the event horizon is
the point where light particles have its stable point between falling in a
black hole, and escaping from a black hole... This also the last point where
light is visible. In the movie, Hell forces accessed our dimension using the
black hole, and the spaceship... So “Event Horizon” came obviously as my map title...
Anyway, let’s have fun saving humanity...
January 15th,
2006
Happy new year
everybody ! I updated windsurf part with some new shots from an east wave
session in Cannes. Enjoy ! Concerning Quake, I’m still working on a new map
that would be ready in some months. I don’t have yet a clear idea about the
delay, cause I’m involved in other projects, but I will try to do my best to
finish it very soon...
October 29th,
2005
As some people asked me during “Castle of the Dark Ages” map
compilation, I added a dowload link on some textures I made for “Cheyenne
Moutain Complex” project. The texture set is not very big (3 textures only...).
It was also my first try in texture creation.
October 22nd,
2005
Well, after around 1218 hours and 38 minutes of fullvis runtime process
(yes, you read it correctly: one thousand two hundred and eighteen hours...
it’s equivalent to 50 days, 18 hours, and 38 minutes... *sights*...), my latest
map titled “Castle of the Dark Ages” is finally released... It has been started
for the Func_ “1000-brushes winter Contest” 11 months ago, based on Daďkatana
episode 3 textures set, but due to the birth of my second daughter, I was late,
and so I missed the delivery date. Then I decided to turn the map into a bigger
project, and it tooks me “some” time to finalize it...
Furthermore, I had at the beginning of October a good winsurfing session
in La Coudouličre. I took good photos, and so I updated the windsurf part as
well.. Note there was 2 professional windsurfers on the spot this day... so we
saw some incredible moves there...
I also made some changes concerning the site design, as you maybe
already noticed... I hope it will enjoy all of you...
May 24th,
2005
Windsurf section update, with some shots !! Enjoy !. Photos have been
shot in south of France, in Cannes Palm Beach to locate exactly the spot,
during a good wind day (West / 25 knots)
February 23rd,
2005
After some requests, I’ve added download links for Quake Patman utility,
Quake Killer Pack mod, and Quake Reaper Bot in map section.
November 20th,
2004
So, it is done !!! After 7 months of work, I finally did it: “Cheyenne
Mountain Complex” Q1SP map is released... Well, it’s a huge base-based map, for
which I had many compilation issues. I made many tries to reduce is runtime
process from 10 hours downto 2, which is more acceptable. So now guys, try the
map, and enjoy !!
BTW, I update my CV cause I changed of job last month...
June 24th, 2004
I’ve just updated my CV, because I started a new project last month. On
the other hand, about Quake mapping, I’m currently working on a huge base-based
map... It remains a lot of things to build, and I need at least 2 or 3 month of
work, so be patient...
May 23rd, 2004
Bunker Quake Deathmatch map released...Well, not very good for a DM map,
but fun to play against bots... lot of bots...
May 13th, 2004
“Hatchepsout: the
Temple of Hell” Quake single player map now ready and on-line !!!..This is an
egyptian theme based map... and it is also my first map, hoping it will not be
too much deceiving...
March 9th, 2004
Here it is, I have finally found time to build my web site, so have fun
visiting it, and don’t forget to mail me your suggestions...