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Omicron Bots

The Omicron Bot or OBots were developed by Johannes Marinus Paulus aka Jan Paul van Waveren aka J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" or "Mr E" and Miklos de Rijk aka "H2SO4".

Omicron can reasonably considered a successor in capability to the popular reaper bot. Jan Paul as a skilled programmer, and went on to develop the Gladiator bot for Quake II, arguably the best bot for the game. He was then hired by id Software to develop bots for Quake III Arena and remained in the game industry.

Jan Paul passed away in early 2017 and was well respected by John Carmack, himself perhaps one of the best programmers on the planet.

Jan Paul van Waveren passed away today. The best developer I ever worked with, my right hand, and a good friend. It was an honor.

-- John Carmack, Twitter, Feb 01 2017.

The Omicron is not another BGBot extension or updated version of the decompiled reaper bot code. It is a new bot developed from scratch that shows impressive behaviors.

The Omicron is also a case study of excellent quake mod marketing launch.

Pre-release Hype

Before the Omicron bot was released, it was made available to some prominent members of the quake community for beta testing.

This may have given some helpful feedback to Jan Paul, but more importantly, it resulted in a buzz about the bot before release.

Jan Paul and Miklos shared test versions of the bot with editors at popular Quake mod websites, like Timm Stokke aka "Mr?" at inside3d.com and Brian Bland aka "Meanstryk" from planetquake.com/ramshackle.

In turn, they teased the release of the bot.

Firstly, it resulted in an exclusive release of the bot by "Meanstryk" on the ramshackle website.

Latest News November 16th

Omicron Bot Update - I received an update by e-mail from MrElusive about the Omicron. This is what the bot prodigy said:

  Everything has fallen into place the last weeks so it's going quite well. I still have to add some ai for rocket-jumping. Just so the bot will make the right decissions when to rocket-jump. The actual rocket-jumping has been implemented into the movement code. The full rocket-jump will be predicted and the bot will only jump if it is satified with the result. There is still one bug or better said an unwanted feature in the waypoint dropping algorithm. When jumping down there's often dropped a waypoint while it isn't really necessary. H2SO4 will replace two or three of the bot characters. I will adjust the bot skills so skill 3 will be even more deadly. The fuzzy logic needs some adjustment but I don't know if I will spend so much time on it.

Just to be clear how soon the release is, the rocket jumping was never a high priority on his list of things to do. Since it looks like it is now near the top of his list, this can only mean that the release is very soon. I hoped that the release can be tommorrow--the day that the final version of the Reaperbot was officially released. But MrElusive informs me that there is a strong possibility that he might not.

MrElusive also informed me that if everything goes to plan, then look for the first release at Ramshackle. They will get first crack of the exclusive from MrElusive. [legion]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/nov16-nov17.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

It also resulted in announcements that people were playing the beta version of the bot, and highlighting how amazing it was compared to other bots at the time.

Latest News November 18th

Omicron Bots ROCK! - The last 24 hours i've been playing the Omicron non-stop [xept for school, meals, sleep.. did i say non-stop? ;] and all i can say is: w0w!. This baby is so sweet, i'm almost.. no, i AM in love! You'll see a demo here [that is, if Mr Elusive says yes] with either me or legion playing it on dm4 , skill 3, timelimit 5. We're having this kind of a contest ;) [I'm surrently in the lead with 12 (me) - 2 (bot)] [Timm]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/nov18-nov19.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

This hying for the bot was pronounced on inside3d.com.

Timm Stokke who had received an early copy of the bot nearly a month before its eventual release released weekly then daily tidbits about the bot, keeping readers excited about its impending release.

Latest News November 24th

Omicron Update - Important information:

The Omicron bot has not been publically released. It is still being beta tested.
Stop asking me for a copy of the Omicronbot. You won't get a copy. You will have to wait until it is publically released.

Ramshackle gets the exclusive in its release so they will know about it first.
Inside3D will notify you of the public release as soon as we know about it.
[legion]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/nov24-nov25.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

It was common for Quake mod authors to share the source code for their mods.

This too was common for early quake bots, but became less common, with many bots remaining closed source, like the Reaper bot and oak bot, or releasing source only after the authors were sure they were done with it, like the Eliminator and Zeus bots.

Jan Paul was asked early and often whether he expected to release the source for the bot.

Anticipating this, Jan Paul was careful obfuscate the compiled game code so that it could not be meaningfully decompiled. Also, early on, weeks before the first official release made it clear that he did not anticipate releasing the source code for the bot.

Latest News November 19th

Omicron Update - Someone asked if MrElusive is going to release the source code to the Omicron bot. (To you compilation authors out there, take note.) The answer is a yes-and-no type. No, he will not release the source code in the same manner as Nelno did with his or the Punisher did with his. Nothing is written in stone sort of speak but the current plan is that he will not. However, he might release the source code to a qualified individual when he (MrElusive) is finished with the bot or he is bored with the bot. This is what he said:

	Not at this stage of development anyway... but I doubt if I ever will (if I would there will probably be many different versions, new bugs etc.). People can't decompile the progs.dat to anything readable as far as I know, so I hope we won't get the same story as with the reaper. Maybe when I loose interest or something else comes along I will hand over the source to a specific person...

There you have it. [legion]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/nov18-nov19.shtml (June 14 1998)

A preview review of the bot was released on the Ramshackle website days before the official release of the bot.

It provided a screenshots and impressions. Sadly, it was not captured by archive.org.

Latest News December 1st

Omicron Screenshots - meanstryk has posted screenshots of the Omicronbot over at Ramshackle. [legion]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/nov30-dec01.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

Omicron v1.00

The first version of the Omicron bot was released as obots100.zip.

The release was available exclusively from the Ramshackle website, at least for the first few days.

Nevertheless, the release was announce on Blues News and Inside3d.

Thursday, December 4, 1997

Omicron Bot Released
Mr. Elusive's Omicron Bot has been released on this page on Ramshackle. This highly touted AI opponent is supposed to be the first bot not derived from Reaper source to surpass the Reaper in game skills. There is no local copy because Ramshackle has arranged to be the exclusive host of the bot's downloads for a week.

-- https://www.bluesnews.com/archives/nov97-5.html

The release, and none of the subsequent releases were uploaded to ftp.cdrom.com.

Latest News December 4th

Omicron News - [...] Anyways, I have a bunch of stuff to tell you but that will wait until tomorrow. The only news I will give you for today is the one a lot of you have been waiting for. The Omicron bot v1.00 is now available for download. Keep in mind that this is the FIRST release. [legion]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/dec04-dec05.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

A few days later, other websites were able to host their own copies of the bot.

Latest News December 6th

Omicron Downloads - Ramshackle has lifted their exclusivity rights to the Omicron. This means that it now possible to download this bot from other sites. For instance, you can now download the bot from Blues. If you posted a download link for the Omicron, please send us the complete URL. [legion]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/dec06-dec07.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

This version of the bot was donated to the Quake Bot Archive.

The release contains the compiled game code (PROGS.DAT) a readme html file with images (OBOTS.HTM) and directories for the player sounds and models for the bots.

  61848  4 Dec  1997 OBOTS.HTM
 859852  4 Dec  1997 PROGS.DAT
  78125  3 Dec  1997 OMICRON2.GIF
  70887  3 Dec  1997 OMICRON.JPG
  25939  3 Dec  1997 SELECT.JPG
  19034  3 Dec  1997 TEAM.JPG
  22137  3 Dec  1997 DEATH.JPG
  29015  3 Dec  1997 ADMINIST.JPG
    128  6 May  1997 SOUND
    224  6 May  1997 PROGS

The readme HTML file lists the release date as December 12 1997, matching the dates of announcement on inside3d and Blues News.

Title		Omicron Bots
Filename 	Obots100.ZIP
Version 	1.00
Date		1997-12-04
Authors 	Mr. Elusive (concept, shell model, Quake C coding & programming)
 			H2SO4 (concept, cloud model, bottalk, readme)

-- OBOTS.HTM

The dates of the bot player sounds and model files suggest development may have being going on for six months or more prior to the release.

The readme credits Jan Paul as the developer and Miklos for helping with ideas, bot chats and documentation the bot for release. I can't help but think he also played a role in marketing the bot.

The name for the release "OBOTS" is taken as an acronym for "Omicron's Basically Obscure Training Scheme". The bot is described as being developed, at least initially, to train members of their quake clan.

Welcome to Omicron's Basically Obscure Training Scheme (OBOTS). Your mission, should you decide to accept, is to kill any- and everybody until you have acquired enough skill to challenge real persons over a LAN for a duel in quake. And will they be surprised by the way your skill has improved. Then you will be surprised. Because they have also downloaded this bot and improved their skill. Or perhaps they were so expert at quake they're already at the top, in which case you know they are bigger nerds than you thought they were.

-- OBOTS.HTM

Their clan homepage is listed and does have an omicron webpage, although captures of the site date from much later after the last release of the bot.

The description of the bot in the readme lists many advanced features, such as:

  • Dynamic level learning
  • Optional anti-camper feature
  • Advanced routing
  • Hearing
  • Pursuit AI
  • Fuzzy logic
  • Team Support
  • Individualized characters
  • Bot-Cam
  • Deathmatch 3 and 4
  • Optional removal of power-ups
  • Randomize maps feature
  • Bot skill levels
  • Hardcoded waypoints for all deathmatch levels
  • ROCKETJUMPING!!!!

The bot supports dynamic level navigation, like the reaper, and storing of the routs and way points for reuse later. In this regard, the navigation capabilities are a lot like those of the reaper bot.

No I meant that the bots use waypoints to guide it through the level...a
waypoint is an entity..quake supports but around 500 of these....the
world is an entity, plyers are entities, powerups are entities etc...so
large levels cannot be mapped entirely for a bot.

-- H2SO4, rec.games.computer.quake.misc, 11 Dec 1997.

Unlike other bots of the time, it also had a menu system to make managing the bots simpler for those users less comfortable typing console commands.

The bot was released to glowing reviews.

Timm Stokke aka "Mr?" from inside3d who received an early beta release wrote a glowing review calling it the "Best QC bot ever!".

Final Words - F*cking awesome! .. need I say more?

-- http://www.inside3d.com/qc/omicron.html (archived June 14 1998)

Brian Bland aka "Meanstryk" from Ramshackle shared a pre-release of the bot. He write a review for v1.00 of the bot that too was glowing.

A hybrid of human and bot behavior, the omicron is designed not merely to provide you with a challenging deathmatch opponent, but also to provide one that will give you an experience similar to that of playing against a human opponent. Don't get me wrong now, the omicron is indeed still a bot, but it easily the most human-like bot ever written.

-- http://planetquake.com/ramshackle/omi100f.htm (archived December 03 1998)

Historical Locations: (addon CDs)

  • PC Gamer The Extended Play Collection (Volume 1)
    • /QUAKE/BOTS/OMICRON/OBOTS100.ZIP

Historical Links:

Omicron v1.01

The second version for the bot was released as obots101.zip.

The release was announced on inside3d and linked to on Ramshackle again, perhaps because they retained exclusive access for the first and all subsequent releases.

Latest News December 15th

Omicron v1.01 - Omicron v1.01 has now been released.

-- http://www.inside3d.com/dec13-dec15.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

The release was also announced on Blues news, linking to the file on Ramshackle.

Monday, December 15, 1997

New Omicron
Version 1.01 of the Omicron Bot (952 KB) for Quake has been released on Ramshackle.

-- https://www.bluesnews.com/archives/dec97-2.html

A copy of this release was found on the Quake Bots Page of the "Quake Dummies" website. https://usuaris.tinet.cat/dummies/download/mods_es.shtml

The zip file contained all the same files, although with updated readme html and compiled game code. It also included a text file commenting to read the html file.

 873452 15 Dec  1997 PROGS.DAT
  76463 15 Dec  1997 OBOTS.HTM
    286 14 Dec  1997 README.TXT
  78125  3 Dec  1997 OMICRON2.GIF
  70887  3 Dec  1997 OMICRON.JPG
  25939  3 Dec  1997 SELECT.JPG
  19034  3 Dec  1997 TEAM.JPG
  22137  3 Dec  1997 DEATH.JPG
  29015  3 Dec  1997 ADMINIST.JPG
    128  6 May  1997 SOUND
    224  6 May  1997 PROGS

The readme html file lists the release date as December 15 1997, 11 days after the first release. This matches the announcements on news websites and the timestamps of files n the zip.

Title		Omicron Bots
Filename 	Obots101.ZIP
Version 	1.01
Date		1997-12-15
Authors 	Mr. Elusive (concept, shell model, Quake C coding & programming)
			H2SO4 (concept, cloud model, bottalk, readme)

-- OBOTS.HTM

The changelog at the bottom of the readme HTML is quite extensive, listing many seemingly minor bug fixes and tweaks.

Version Changes

1.01

Fixed max cells able to pickup by a client.
Fixed skin errors generated in GLQuake.
Skinup/skindown were reversed...oops...should work as was intended.
Added "noshellcases" console command for better compatibility with low performance/memory systems.
Added a vote feature for voting who will be administrator.
Fixed link with Luke Pope's skin page...my appologies for this mistake Luke.
...

-- OBOTS.HTM

In the new year of 1998, Jan Paul was asked about the release of the Omicron source code, and again his reply was no, which was made public.

Latest News January 5th

Omicron Bot SRC - No, its not out, the source for the Omicron bot its not out, and it will never be out, i just had a little chat with Mr. Elusive, the creator of the bot, and he told me to please tell the people, hes not gonna release it, heres what he told me:

[Pink|i3D) so.. what you doing with the code anyways?
[Pinko|i3D) you putting it in your safe?
[MrElusive) taking with me into the grave :)
[Pinko|i3D) heh

Well, i couldnt say it better. [Mr. Pink]

-- http://www.inside3d.com/jan05-jan06.shtml (archived June 14 1998)

Historical Links:

Omicron v1.02

The next and final version of the bot was released as obots102.zip.

The release was apparently quite delayed by Jan Paul, given school.

In an interview on March 23 1998 with Timm Stokke, he mentioned the changes had been sitting on a hard drive for some time.

Timm:
are there any new releases coming up? if so, when?

Jan Paul:
Yep there will be a final release. It has been sitting on my hd for quite some time now, actaully way too long.

-- http://www.telefragged.com/metro/interview_mre.html (archived June 26 1998)

This may have precipitated the release the next day.

The release was announced on inside3d on March 24 1998.

News Update: 3/24/98, 7:37PM EST, by Drywall-

Omicron - Mr. Elusive has posted version 1.02 of the Omicron bot over at Ramshackle. Check it out.

-- http://www.inside3d.com/mar24-mar25.html (archived June 14 1998)

It as also announced the same day on Blues News

Tuesday, March 24, 1998

New Omicron

The classic Quake Bot release in as many days brings an updated playmate to the old school: version 1.02 of the Omicron Bot (986 KB) is out on Ramshackle, where there is a list of other mirrors if you have trouble with the (for the moment) flaky http download here.

-- https://www.bluesnews.com/archives/march98-3.html

Given it was the last release, copies of the bot can still be found all over the internet.

The zip file contains the same files are previous release, with updated compiled game code and readme, as well as a config file, likely added accidentally.

The release also includes a readme file (KC18DOC.TXT) for the "Kasuha's DeathMatch Camera" mod, added in this release.

 949720 24 Mar  1998 PROGS.DAT
   2370 24 Mar  1998 CONFIG.CFG
  79834 23 Mar  1998 OBOTS.HTM
    286 14 Dec  1997 README.TXT
  78125  3 Dec  1997 OMICRON2.GIF
  70887  3 Dec  1997 OMICRON.JPG
  25939  3 Dec  1997 SELECT.JPG
  19034  3 Dec  1997 TEAM.JPG
  22137  3 Dec  1997 DEATH.JPG
  29015  3 Dec  1997 ADMINIST.JPG
   9140  6 Jul  1997 KC18DOC.TXT
    192  6 May  1997 SOUND
    256  6 May  1997 PROGS

The readme HTML lists the release date as March 23 1998, one day before the announcement on inside3d, and one day before the timestamp of files in the release. March 24 is taken as the release date.

Title		Omicron Bots for Classic Quake (or Quake 1) or Quake
Filename 	Obots102.ZIP
Version 	1.02 (final)
Date		1998-03-23
Authors 	Mr. Elusive (concept, shell model, Quake C coding & programming)
 			H2SO4 (concept, cloud model, bottalk, readme)

-- OBOTS.HTM

Again, a changelog is provided at the bottom of the readme file listing many small changes and bug fixes.

1.02
fixed 'noshellcases' console command
fixed bot waypoint dropping (choose new ltg: flags instead of botflags)
new even faster bubble-routing
fixed bots getting stuck low ceilings/corners (BFL_ONGROUND)
fixed observer camera cycling
fixed bot jumping up and into wind tunnels (trigger_push)
fixed step checking
fixed barrier jumping
fixed jump down reachability!
fixed bot super damage sound
...

-- OBOTS.HTM

Historical Locations: (addon CDs)

  • PC PowerPlay The Quake Bible CD
    • /PROGRAMS/OBOTS102.ZIP

Historical Links:

Omicron on Mac

Omicron was a popular bot.

It proved popular on other platforms too, like Mac that had support for Quake.

Quake versions of each version of the bot were released, packaged for mac developers using the SIT file extension.

For example:

  • obots100.sit
  • obots101.sit
  • obots102.sit

Historical Links:

Gladiator Bot

Quake II was released at the end of 1997, on December 09, just after the first release of the Omicron bot.

The first release of his Gladiator bot for Quake II was not released until one year later, on December 09 1998.

Wednesday, December 9, 1998

Quake II Gladiator Bot  [9:35 AM EST]

The first release of the Gladiator Bot for Quake II is now available, the new release from MrElusive, author of the Omicron for Quake. There is also a MrElusive interview on the Bot Epidemic.

-- https://www.bluesnews.com/archives/dec98-1.html

In an interview at this time, shared on Bot Epidemic where Jan Paul had a personal site dedicated to the new bot, he commented that he had spent the gap in time focused on school. He comments he did not start on the new bot until northern hemisphere summer (July) 1998.

Cube: MrE, firstly I have to ask where have you been the past months, between the time of finishing the Omicron and releasing the Gladiator demo/going public on the Gladiator development?

MrE: I've been studying mainly. Even the final Omicron version was delayed because of my study. I had some nice ideas since December last year but I never really had the time to do something with them. However this summer I finally found some time to work on a new bot.

-- Interview with MrElusive, archived October 14 1999.

Quake III Bots

In the following year, Jan Paul was hired by id software to help them with the bots for their next game Quake III Arena.

This was announced in a .plan file update by Graeme Devine on September 29 1999.

Mr. Elusive (aka Jan Paul) is over here from The Netherlands helping finalize the game. He is of course the famed author of the Gladiator bot for Quake II. As some of you have been guessing he's been working with John Cash on the bots in Q3A. We're very pleased to have Jan's expertise on Q3A.

-- Graeme Devine, .plan file (#2)

In an interview with John Callaham aka "JCal" on stomped.com in August 2000, he explained how he came to work at id software.

Stomped: How did you get the call to join id to work on Quake 3?

van Waveren: I did the Omicron Bot for Quake I and the Gladiator Bot for Quake II. (Former id programmer) John Cash was working on the Quake 3 Arena bots. He was pretty much going through the same path I was going through, but I've had a lot more experience from previous years doing AI stuff for Quake I and Quake II. At some point, they were interested in getting someone on board with a little more experience with doing all that stuff. So Graeme (Devine) emailed me and asked if I would be interested in coming over for a week or two weeks just to exchange ideas and exchange experiences and get some more stuff done with the Quake 3 bots. That was ok with me. (Laughs) I was still studying (in his home country of the Netherlands). I've had more job offers before that, but as I said I was still studying, but he was just proposing coming over for a week or two to exchange ideas, so that was fine with me. It was pretty cool, of course.

So I went over there and John Cash and I talked about some ideas, and we decided to try to implement my AI inside Quake 3 and see how it would run and see how it would work, and it worked pretty well. Within a few days, we had everything running. So we had two bots running at the same time, John Cash's work and my work, and at that point id was really interested in licensing my code and getting me to work on merging stuff and integrating stuff, so together with John Cash I worked on integrating my code more and also using some of his code and merging the whole thing and creating the best out of it.

-- http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal9663531061.html (archived December 12 2000)

The work became the basis for Jan Paul's master's thesis, accepted two years later in June 2001.

... This thesis presents the Quake III Arena bot which is an intelligent artificial player emulating a human player in the game environment. This artificial player is often called a bot as an abbreviation for the word robot. With this bot everyone can enjoy the game and practice, without the need for a network connection to other people. The bot is an artificial player that only ‘lives’ inside the computer, side by side with the game. The bot receives information about the game environment directly from the game program as a set of variables. The game input from the bot is also sent directly to the game program. Although the bot only ‘lives’ inside the computer, the in-game behaviour of the bot has to be hard to distinguish from the behaviour of human players. To make the game more enjoyable and more versatile, a range of different bot characters is used that each play the game in their own style, and provide different challenges for the human player.

-- The Quake III Arena Bot, Jean Paul van Waveren, June 2001

Release Timeline

  • Omicron v1.00, obots100.zip, December 04 1997
  • Omicron v1.01, obots101.zip, December 15, 1997
  • Omicron v1.02, obots102.zip. March 24 1998

References