During my short absence, I noticed over at Blue's News that Crack Dot Com has released the source of their upcoming game. Unfortunately, this is due to lack of funds. On the brighter side, take a look at this:

Crack dot Com is now officially "Out of Business". Crack dot Com has released all data and source code for it's upcoming Win32/Linux video game title "Golgotha" to the public domain.

What does that mean to us? Check out their thier Information Page. Here, you can download, among other things, 59 megs of textures, and 7 megs of digital sound effects! Totally free. You may have to do some conversion to get the goods into JK format, but it will be well worth it. I have downloaded the sound effects, and there are some great looping wavs for ambience in levels. The textures can be browsed online, so you don't have to download the whole pack.

If you want to go directly to the download page, click here.

Anyway, be sure to take a look, and thanks goes to Trail, formerly of JK.net, for reminding me to post this news.

We have been throwing around the idea of accepting addon levels and posting them here in the news. We will have a message board where people can post feedback on these levels for the authors, as well as for people who are looking to download. The plus side of this plan would be a wider readership of Massassi (currently, there are no sites I know of that keep up with new releases on levels), as well as give you, the JK Community, a place to send your levels, download levels, get feedback, and give feedback. We will also accept cog/weapon patches, etc. I don't know about skin packs, but hey, I suppose if we get one, we will post it.

There is more on this on the Discussion Board, so be sure to go check it out. We really need feedback on this idea, as I don't like to see things fail.

John Troxell sent us a great looking 3do of a barbed wire fence. Handle with care.

Some stuff...

• The new JED has entered beta-testing. More info at Jedi Finger.
• New version of JkEdit has been released, check out the JkEdit Homepage.
• I moved, so thats why there have been no updates. I will be back in full force soon, so don't worry!
• We have new tutorials on the way, including EvanC's river tutorial, a tutorial on making some cool pipe junctions, another curving pipes tutorial, a troubleshooting guide, and more.
• I think Slug's computer is broken or something, but he should be back soon too.
• Jepmaan is no longer part of our staff.
• Templates tutorial will be completed by me soon, just need to fix a few things - I got some of the terminology a bit wrong, so I need to fix it (thanks JM).
• Apparently Alexei Novikov, creator of JED, visited the #massassi chat channel a few days ago, pretty cool. Remember, the chat is always open, but is usually busiest on evenings and weekends. Drop by if you want some editing help or if you just want to type at other JK-ers.
• Be sure to use the new Discussion Board (link on sidebar) for non-editing questions. Meaning, don't post on the main board unless its an editing question -- general stuff like site advertisements, screenshots, help wanted, etc, should go on the discussion board. We of course can't monitor all the time, so use your own judgement.
• Still need tutorial ideas! Be sure to post them on the discussion board!

Sorry for such compact news and stuff, I have been ultra-busy with my move, car broke down, bought another one, and the list goes on and on...

Saw today at JediKnight.Net a new mod called Jedi Ball by 00Mikey.. Looked interesting enough, so I grabbed it and played a quick test game.. Wow! I immediately got a few friends to d/l it and we had a great time.. I recommend it to anyone.

We got a cool new tree 3do from Andrew. Thanks for the contribution Andrew.

Dylan sent us a 3do of an open box that you can hide items in, 'tis cool, so go check it out. Thanks for the 3do Dylan.

Nightmare has sent in 2 new cogs. The first is a teleporter tweaked for multiplayer use. The second creates a stream of particles. Thanks for the contribution Nightmare.

Koensayr's editing group has also updated their site with screenshots from their upcoming medieval TC, so go check 'em out.

Holocron Editing has updated their site with screenshots of 2 new 3dos and an early look at the clothes Mara will be sporting in their project, Mara Jade: Identity Crisis.

This tutorial covers a very unique and efficient way to create rugged "ground" with JED. It impacts framerate very little, and is relatively easy to do. Credit goes to Mangore Kiramin for coming up with the techique, and me for thinking of a better way to do it (thank goodness for that snap to vertex function). I wrote it up since he's a lazy fool. As always (well, most of the time) it can be viewed and downloaded from the tutorials page as well.

Hyperview has just posted a HUGE interview with the Saberworks staff. Lots of info there, so be sure to check it out.

Yesterday when I posted news about Snootle's 3do I got the email wrong. The correct one is eggenletus@yahoo.com Sorry for the confusion.

We have just posted a very large tutorial on cleaving. It should help out newer editors as well as more experienced ones. You can check it out here. Be careful, the whole thing is about 300k, so it may take a while to load. It can be found and downloaded off the tutorials page as well.

Thanks to Mangore for downloading all the old messages for us, now the old boards are available for download on the files page (link on the sidebar).

A new message board has been implemented to cut down the number of files we have to archive. Continue using the old board for editing questions only. Please use the new Discussion Board for general discussion on projects, site help, suggestions, and basically anything else in reason. The new board will not be archived.

Along the sidebar you can now find a link to Slug's templates reference document. Great for anyone with questions on the different template entries. Also, soon our templates tutorial will be updated, watch the news.

If you have any suggestions for needed tutorials, please either send me an email or post on the General Discussion board (link above).

Saberworks has some new screenshots up. Go take a look.

Well, I haven't done much updating for a while so here I am. I've uploaded one of the tutorials I wrote recently here. It's about how to do multi-celled mats. I have some mroe tutorials to upload and I'll do them later sometime.

Hemlos has submitted a new cog which should make installing doors a bit easier on people. It removes a little code which many people find troublesome in the basic door cog.. The upside is you won't get HOM from incorrectly-installed doors, the downside is it's more resource-intensive, so it'll slow down the level a little (not much, don't worry.)

Snootle sent in 2 new 3dos. Both are statues, one of a rodian and one of a gran, very nice, so go download 'em. Thanks for the contribution Snootle.

Hemlos has submitted a very kewl new 3do of a transport that you can walk into, so go download it or else! Big thanks for the contribution Hemlos (even bigger thanks considering he included a screenshot as per request)

Milhouse has sent in a very helpful pack of files. It contains new .jll and .jlh files which organise your mots template list in JED very nicely. He's also included a mots.tpl to go with them which includes quite a few new template entries like all the 3dos that were found on the mots cd but never used in levels, and a few new things like a civilian that doesn't take away your mana when you kill it. Thanks for the files Milhouse.

Dark Knight, formerly of Weegee's Workshop, has once again been working on his program that automates the creation of new classes in Multiplayer Mysteries of the Sith. At first I thought it was done, then I saw this "travelling into the future" bit, so I'm not sure. Here are the statements he posted in his .plan file on Jedi Finger.

October 13, 1998 19:26
Wow. I finally dug out Class Creator and started working on it again. Exporting to .per is about 80% done, all I need to add is the force power stuff. After that, allow for importing of .per (maybe) and some other tweaks and it should be good to go. I'd estimate 2 weeks at the latest if nothing else more important pops up. Also, just read Bryant's .plan file. Head on over to http://www.mrslander.com/homepage.html and read his article on RotJ. Gave me a well needed bout of laughter :)

October 13, 1998 19:28
Hey look, I traveled a month into the future to write these last updates! That means that Class Creator is done! Yippee!

Either this means its done, or it means we will wait max another two weeks, either way its a great program (I had a preview version of it back in the day, and its ultra-easy to use).

Slug has added screenshots to the 3do section, now allowing you to preview before you download. This takes a lot of work, so from now on, when submitting screenshots and mats, please include a small screenshot of your work.

The Star Wars Trilogy TC has updated their page with more on status, new members, and a screenshot. This project looks promising, so be sure to take a look. Also, their page has had a pretty cool revamp.

The Spaceport has updated their Saberworks Tracker. If you are interested in taking a look at a progress update for Slug's level, be sure to take a look.

There have been quite a few editing groups that have updated their screenshots lately. Take a look at the following:

• Holocron Editing
• Origins Team

Also, Waz mentions the fact that the updated version of their first project, The First Offensive, should be released soon.

On the 10th, Alexei Novikov, programmer of Jed, updated his .plan file on Jedi Finger. Here is the whole thing in case you missed it.

Alexei Novikov, www.darkjedi.com, DarkJedi.Com

October 10, 1998 12:52
I've added the new lighting calculation (it went surprizingly easy. Am I getting good at this?). The resulting lighting is a bit different than it used to be and there are still some minor lighting artifacts, but it appears to work. I'll have to inspect it closer though. Hopefully those artifacts aren't inherent to the new method. Well, not to forget that the old method wasn't free of them either.

Anyway, it is faster. I didn't do comprehensive testing, but on two levels of middle size I get the follwoing times:

level 1:

old method: 7 sec 591 msec.

New method: 1 sec 562 msec

That on PII/266.

The same on P133

old method: 25 sec 747 msec

new method: 5 sec 948 msec

Level 2:

PII/266

old: 4 sec 566 msec

new: 871 msec

P133

old: 13 sec 760 msec

new: 3 sec 114 msec

Looks pretty good.

Nightmare, has sent the massassi staff a pack of 5 material files, found in the constructed materials. The ones classed in the "other" are all multiple mats, meaning they include more then one layer, this means, they can be used as switches and similar stuff, or simply animated mats. The others Nightmare sent us can be found in constructed materials under "walls". Well, thanks Nightmare.

Jepmaan, me, as a matter of fact, has just been accepted as a Massassian Webmaster. I will be managing the Materials section, since Red has somehow fallen off the side of the earth. If he comes back, we will work together to bring you the best Material service you can get.

Nightmare, the only guy who's email I have memorized due to the ridiculous amount of times I've mentioned him in the news, has sent in an update to a clock cog he contributed awhile ago. The updated version prints out the time on everyone's screen when the clock surface is activated or damaged. It also prints out announcements when the clock rolls back to zero, but, do you really feel like playing the game long enough to see that happen? Thanks as always for the contribution Nightmare.

Never thought the day would come eh? Well, you're not alone, but Jepmaan is now part of the massassi staff (and a hard worker too). He'll be working on the mat section, so if you see updates from him, don't call any officials, he's not doing anything he isn't supposed to be ;)

Holocron Editing has released more screenshots from their upcoming release, Identity Crisis, so go check 'em out.

Fuurgh from the Jedi RPG has sent word that the JediRPG page has been updated with some concept art of a nerf. The pictures are very kewl, so head on over there and check 'em out.

Koensayr sent in a new 3do of a sword. It's very detailed, so check it out. Thanks for the contribution Koensayr.

Hmm not much to say, news can be found on the archived news page, and the old message board is not downloadable yet. However, you can still view the messages on the old one (for a while) at: http://massassi.jedinights.com/msgboard/old. It will be downloadable soon.

Jepman has sent in a font pack for people to use making logos for project groups or pages, etc.

I also fixed the corrupted zip of the enemy tutorial.. If anyone knows of other corrupted .zips, please inform me and I'll fix them up.

Nightmare has sent in a throne 3do. It's really great to see how many 3dos, cogs, etc, that come in every week, I'd just like to thank everyone for sharing all your creations, and of course, thank you Nightmare for this most recent contribution.

Scott Brisken has sent us 2 new 3dos. One is a landspeeder similar to Luke's, and the other is a computer console. Big thanks to Scott for the contribution.