Blowfish showed how to set up ASE to recognize PK++ servers lately. Here is how to configure QTracker. Unfortunately, QTracker doesn’t pull detailed information from Painkiller servers at the moment, so there is no way to distinquish between PK++ servers and Vanilla PK with current QTracker version 3.82. I talked to the programmer lately and he promised ASE-formatted queries for Painkiller (to get this information) will be included in the next release of QTracker.

Anyway. First of all, make sure QTracker starts PK++ when you connect to a server. Go to “View/Settings…” and make the following adjustments:

Writing filters is not very difficult. Open your favorite text-editor (notepad will do) and type in the following:

This is what a minimal filter looks like. Note that both “description” and “game” are required. The first one is used as display name for your filter in QTracker, the latter one denotes the game this filter is for of course.The last line checks if the version number contains the string “1.64”, thus resulting in only showing servers that run version 1.64.

Save your file anywhere on your harddisc. Just make sure it has the extension “.qtf”. Some editors automatically add “.txt” as extension, so double-check that the file is named “.qtf” and not “.qtf.txt” for example. If you did everything right, the the file will have a QTracker symbol if you look at it in Explorer. Now just double-click this file and an installer window will pop-up that guides you through the procedure of installing the filter. In QTracker, you can activate the filter in “Servers/Filters/Game…”. Check the entry “Painkiller/Painkiller 1.64” — done!

A detailed description of all commands that can be used in QTracker filters can be found here:

http://www.qtracker.com/docs-filters.shtml

I also recommend downloading and installing the mapshot pack made by DI-MeisterM:

http://www.qtracker.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=231

Have fun!

P.S.: I don’t know how to upload images to pkeuro.com, so at the moment they are hosted on http://www.imageshack.ws. Maybe someone can fix that.

Over on the CPL forums, Fireblade has posted a solution for players with nvidia graphics cards and audigy sound cards, experiencing occasionally hitching while playing PK.

You can find the thread here, with a more detailed step-by-step guide here.

The fix includes installing the latest drivers for each piece of hardware, as well as some tweaks and checks.

The results of the tweak are to improve the smoothness of rendering within PK, as well as resolving the occasional hitching experienced by some gamers with this configuration.

Tonight saw IndeWEB (www.indiweb.de) host the second day of their Painkiller Challenge Cup #1. The Cup consists of single elimination brackets, starting from a huge 128 players. The Cup makes use of the CPL rules, and latest PK++ over an astonishing 25 servers.

As partly expected, early rounds had a large number of defaults. But the later rounds provides some interesting results; most notably, Aim beating Stelam, and Worre beating Ztrider. The games were covered live by TsN (www.tsncentral.com) by TsN|Stile and TsN|Dusty.

You can view the current brackets here.

The final games take place on the Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th next week with the top three going on to recieve mouse and mousemats as prizes.

SK-gaming (http://www.sk-gaming.com/scene/7696/) has reported that SombrA, the top Spanish PK player has left his team Alliance eSports due to staff difficulties.

I am going to practice very hard to be well prepared for the WT stop in Barcelona. I want to show my skills to possible teams to join because I want to attend as many tour stops as possible. Having the stop in Spain is a very lucky situation and will hopefully make me even stronger

You can check the rest of the article, here.