Earlier this week, id Software released the third playable test version of Quake III: Arena. With the added bonus of a tournament map and tournament play, this updated demo is an essential download (if you haven't yet got it then you can jolly well get it from us here). When you're done adoring the curved surfaces and the slick new menus we know that some of you might want to benchmark your 3D card(s) with a Timedemo (are all you former proctologists reading?). The Timedemo, which was originally unusable has now been fixed. To test your rigs with the current 1.07 version of the Quake 3 Arena Test just follow these simple steps below:

Uno: Press the tilde (~) key to bring down the console menu.
Dos: Type timedemo 1 and press return
Tres: Type demo q3testdemo1.dm3 (or q3testdemo2.dm2)

As mentioned earlier, D3D is quickly becoming the API of choice and in many senses an industry standard (at least outside of the Dallas game developer melting pot). DirectX 7 will not only push the current crop of 3D accelerators further in terms of image quality but as mentioned in the previous Private Eye, T&L and many other new image-enhancing features should push the next generation of 3D accelerators (due out by the end of this year) that bit further. Being ardent fans of the 3D first person shooter genre, we set our sights on Monolith, who are currently working on their next-generation 3D engine, known as LithTech 2.0. Monolith actually has a history with Microsoft and indeed Monolith's very first endeavor, the DirectEngine, was actually developed in conjunction with Microsoft. A few months away from completion, Microsoft backed out of the equation and the DirectEngine became known as the LithTech engine and also became the intellectual property of Monolith who subsequently released Shogo and Blood 2. So where is this all going? The reason we touched base with Monolith (special thanks to Paul Butterfield) was to pick their brains on what we're likely to see by 2000 with a home-made brew consisting of the LithTech 2.0, DirectX 7.0 and next generation 3D acceleration.