Railgun Changes

Don't tell me they've changed the rail!

The rail gun is a long-time Quake 2 favorite, and rates most highly on my "most satisfying frag" list. In the new version, it's undergone a couple cosmetic changes,specifically the animation and the coloring of the weapon model. the firing rate and damage haven't been changed at all.

The old rail animation

The old rail model

In Q3test 1.05, the rail animation (a wide, diffuse, and translucent beam) made the weapon difficult to use at default settings. Every time you shot the rail gun, the beam filled a large portion of your screen making it hard to see where your shot landed, and the beam ended in a distracting circular shockwave type explosion. The old crosshair added to this by making precise aiming more difficult, because it didn't have a tight center for precise marking. Most of us adjusted the r_rail* settings to make the beam more like the tight Quake II rail. Thankfully, Id has tweaked the rail, making it much easier to use.

New rail animation

New rail model

The new rail is an opaque beam that still fills up the middle of your screen each time you fire, but it does seem to have a more solid feel to it. The shockwave explosion is also still there, but it doesn't feel as intrusive with the new beam graphic. There's also a new weapon firing animation that's quite neat -- After you fire the rail, you can see the top of the weapon model change colors while "charging" up for the next shot. When the top of the gun is white, you're ready to fire again. Most players won't need to look at the gun to see if they can fire, but it's a cool effect nonetheless. The new crosshairs, along with the few minor changes, have made the new rail much easier to aim.

My own rail settings

The size of the default beam is still too large for my liking, but with the new changes and the easy-to-use customization commands (r_railcorewidth and r_railwidth), it's not a big deal. The railgun model itself has also been tweaked, and is now significantly smaller and darker, missing the bright blue highlights which made it so notable from a distance. I think its extreme darkness may actually be a temporary effect, and I believe the glowing purple/white effect will be implemented on the model by the next test release.