-----                                                         First Release:    21/1/98
MORBO                                                         Last Update:      11/6/98
-----

Morbo is a plugin player model for deathmatch play in Quake2. It is an entirely new
model with all 20 animations, a new skin, a new weapon (and skin), a player icon,
a background story and sound effects.

Author:

    Rowan "Sumaleth" Crawford

    Email:                  sumaleth@frag.com
    Fun Web:                http://impact.frag.com
    Work Web:               http://www.animagrafx.com.au
    Cool Web Hosters:       http://www.frag.com

    Past Quake Projects:    Quake Rally, Quess, Brawn, Zumlin.

Sound Effects:

    Sound effects author:   Eric "redchurch" vonRothkirch
    Email:                  Electro-emoboy@msn.com
    Project Page:           http://planetquake.com/thecoven/

Special Note:

    The Brawn files are completely interchangable with the Morbo files, so, for example,
    if you decided you wanted to use Brawns weapon with the Morbo PPM, you can simply
    copy them over.

Installation:

    The zip file must be extracted into the location of your quake2/ directory
    (ie. NOT into the quake2/ directory - the one before it). The paths in the
    zip are quake2/baseq2/players/morbo/ so if you don't unpack into the right
    location it won't work.

    Once extracted, Morbo will automatically appear in the player selection
    field of the Multiplayer Options menu. Of course, it's only the other
    players that get to see you as Morbo so it really only works in multiplayer games.

    If someone is using Morbo and you don't have this model then you will simply see
    them as the regular Quake2 player models, and visa versa.

    Please note that there is a little problem with Quake2 and PMP's whereby
    if you have any files in the /quake2/baseq2/players/ directory which AREN'T
    real player model directories, then Q2 usually won't let you select additional
    players from the Multiplayer menu. So if Morbo doesn't show up for selection,
    just check there are no files in that directory.

    Don't send bug reports please and please don't email me saying you can't get
    it working.


Whats it all about then?

    Morbo is a little project I set myself for my Christmas holidays. It has ended
    up taking around 2 weeks which is a bit longer than I was hoping but
    it turned out to be a bit of a stiffer challenge than I originally bet on.

    Apart from a simple model I did for a competition in October last year, this
    is by FAR the most complex model I've done for Quake and while the results aren't
    really what I was aiming for, it still works fairly well. I'm new to animating
    in Lightwave (I usually use Alias) and it was definitely a STEEP learning curve
    which, even now having finished the model, I still don't fully understand.

    I actually went through every frame (198) and manually fixed errors resulting
    from my wrestling with the animation module of Lightwave, but after a while I could
    see that step alone was going to take a week, so I ended up only fixing the major
    problems. You most likely won't see any of the problems in the game, but looking
    at the model in a viewer makes them easily identifiable. But that was what this
    project was all about - learn how to use Lightwave and work out what works and
    what doesn't. If I get around to another player model, it'll be a lot better.

    The whole project was uncharted territory from start to end so I didn't do anything
    too fancy with the model/animation/skin/weapon. It weighs in at nearly 100 less
    polygons than the Quake2 player models (so it'll be faster, but not quite as detailed).

    Specs:

        Polygons:   500 (449 for Morbo and 51 for the weapon)
        Frames:     198
        Animations: 20

    Build Times:

        Modelling:  a few hours
        Skins:      4 days
        Animation:  8 days
        Fixings:    2 days

    Programs Used:

        Modelling:  Lightwave Modeler
        Animation:  Lightwave Layout
        Skins:      GraFX2
        Utils:      qdata (special Lightwave version)

    Morbo was tested using Ridah's Eraser bot (tis very cool seeing your own model
    running around the map :).

Important Stuff:

    Morbo and all associated files are copyright of Rowan Crawford. Quake2 is copyright
    of id Software.

    You are free to spread Morbo far and wide although you are not allowed to make
    money from Morbo in any way, shape or form.

    Everyone is completely free to make additional skins for Morbo, in fact I encourage
    it! You can even use my skin as a basis if you like, as most people do with the
    Quake skins. Please don't send me skins you have made for Morbo, instead send them
    to Dragon at http://qwcentral.stomped.com who maintains the Quake2 skin packs.
    Be sure to check the rules of submission on his page first.

    The skin layout is one of the things I put down to a "learning experience" because
    while it looks pretty neat, it actually turned out to be a BITCH to paint on. Especially
    the hands. Oh well, sorry about that, next time will be better :).

And In Closing...

    Yep, thats about it. I'll probably have to put out an updated version at some time
    with a few simple fixes, but I hope he manages to add some spice to those DM games
    out there. I'm keen for this idea of "plugin players" to catch on to the same extent
    as skins because it really is a COOL feature. Paul Steed (the guy who made those
    cool Q2 models) says he'll be putting out a new player model every now and again
    so deathmatching in Quake2 is going to get VERY interesting.

    Thanks to everyone who helped out.


- Rowan 'Sumaleth' Crawford