[NightFright]

Has anybody been aware of this?



It seems someone remade the first four levels of the first Duke3D episode in the Serious Sam engine (SS Fusion 2017 to be precise) - and it looks quite good! Apparently there are some deviations from the original level design and monster lineup, but at the end of the day it seems to be a pretty interesting and authentic recreation. We won't get more than the full shareware episode plus maybe E2L1 as a bonus once this is officially finished.

Steam Workshop link for Serious Duke 3D
(Note: Requires Serious Sam Fusion 2017 to be installed)

To me it seems as if he ripped models and textures from DNF - especially since it can be SERIOUSLY doubted he created all the Duke assets from scratch.

[Danukem]

Here it is in VR.

[Aristotle Gumball]

Trooper Dan, on 27 March 2019 - 08:52 AM, said:

Here it is in VR.

lol @ 1:35

So that's how that works.

[----]

That was the mod I hinted at when I discovered it a few months ago and didn't want to mention or link to it as it borrows from Manhattan Project, DNF, DN3D, HDR, Bombshell (The game) and uses Models from TeaMonster (who AFAIK worked on this too* but didn't mention it here either) and more.

Let's say it like this: A certain 3DR member advised me to let this fly under the radar and not mention it too obvious or too publicly (is that a word?).

I planned to mention it after all six levels were released and polished enough, so that I am fine with the copy I have (remember, most games will erase your subscribed local Workshop files if the mods are deleted from the Workshop page ... so back them up).


*) can be wrong though.

[Danukem]

Man, if I were Randy, I would reach out to this guy and make a deal with him. Just give him a license to produce the game using any Gearbox assets he wants, then 50% of sales go to Gearbox. Seems fair. EDIT: ah except I'm pretty sure he can't use the Serious engine to make a commercial game...damn

[NightFright]

Exactly what I was thinking. Give this guy what he needs to finish all four episodes (or redo everything in another engine, even if it sucks starting from scratch), polish it a bit, sell it, everybody profits. And this could be a lot better with the proper resources.

There are so many productive people out there who are willing to do stuff, but instead of being encouraged, they need to be afraid to be shut down. When is a publisher finally realizing the potential of such talents?

[Ninety-Six]

Trooper Dan, on 27 March 2019 - 11:52 AM, said:

Man, if I were Randy, I would reach out to this guy and make a deal with him. Just give him a license to produce the game using any Gearbox assets he wants, then 50% of sales go to Gearbox. Seems fair. EDIT: ah except I'm pretty sure he can't use the Serious engine to make a commercial game...damn

I'm sure it could be licensed.

[Kyanos]

I foresee a cataclysm.

[----]

There are fine engines out there that can produce a Duke game with much higher technical quality than DNF.

And there are very talented fans of the franchise that would make the game a labout of love. A producer should of course look over some stuff for quality and gameplay reasons (the beginning on the roofs in the current versions come to mind: invisibel walls on the firestairs (add some trash and stuff to block the player instead), some collision meshes are a bit off so that you can look through roofs when jumping or the player isn't guided properly with visual hints to find the right path ... you know, like Oshry helped with Dusk, for example.

[johnnythewolf]

The nerve of the modder to mock Serious Sam in such fashion, though...

[Tea Monster]

You need a LOT more than one or even two guys to make something like that nowadays properly. Syndroid used the monsters from DNF and other assets he found here and there.

If you were to approach Gearbox with the idea to make one of these, you'd need to start from fresh, which means coding your own AI for the monsters, player movement, effects, etc. Getting a team together with the right talent for no pay is very difficult. From what I can gather, this is why Reloaded never came out. The other guys never got that far.

[Radar]

Wow the accuracy of this recreation is stunning. Each area looks just like the Duke3D version. On a general note, so many types of projects that I usually don't care for have been very high quality lately. For example, I usually don't care for sprite upscales (they typically look very pasty), but the ones in AA look amazing. As in this case, I usually don't care for modern recreations of old games (I never cared about Reloaded), but this looks awesome.

[johnnythewolf]

Hum, the opening cutscene says Duke returned home after defeating Dr. Proton. I have not played the original Duke Nukem games, but were Duke Nukem II's antagonists not the Rigelatins?

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah, that's a screwup for sure.

[MrFlibble]

I watched the video of the first level and while the level design is certainly very interesting (kind of reminded me of HH Rethinked but on a larger scale) the combat feels off and doesn't seem to capture the essence of Duke3D's combat.

[----]

MrFlibble, on 28 March 2019 - 05:24 AM, said:

... the combat feels off and doesn't seem to capture the essence of Duke3D's combat.

I personally don't have a problem with that, as I see it as something different than a recreation of Duke 3D's gameplay.

Although I agree that a few areas could have toned down on Serious Sam gameplay (less long wave attacks).

[NightFright]

Considering he's using an engine that wasn't particularly made for a Duke game, it actually still gets surprisingly close. Not sure what Randy will think about all the ripped DNF assets, though - even if no profit is made with it. I also wonder actually if some HRP textures may have been used there.

But hey, this guy still had the balls to pull it off. Respect! Maybe I'll better grab it right now before it "magically" disappears all of a sudden.

[----]

NightFright, on 28 March 2019 - 07:34 AM, said:

I also wonder actually if some HRP textures may have been used there.

HRP is "credited" on the workshop pages of the individual maps (well, at least on Hollywood Holocaust, didn't check the rest).

Don't forget to subscribe to the network script resources, too. Many people forget that and then it doesn't work.

Fusion is also not very stable at the moment. So the mod might crash (which is not the mod's fault currently). I didn't have any crash on my last playthrough , though.

[NightFright]

Are the Serious Sam games running stable on Fusion at least? I was considering a playthrough of the titles again while I am at it.

[Radar]

I wouldn't be surprised if Randy is turning a blind-eye to this because he's currently going through his own legal troubles right now. One problem at a time.

[----]

NightFright, on 28 March 2019 - 11:10 AM, said:

Are the Serious Sam games running stable on Fusion at least? I was considering a playthrough of the titles again while I am at it.

Currently not, I think.

I haven't had a crash myself (as I didn't play through it recently). But I am on the Croteam Discord and it isn't stable. People begging for an update there.

[Danukem]

Radar, on 28 March 2019 - 11:20 AM, said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Randy is turning a blind-eye to this because he's currently going through his own legal troubles right now. One problem at a time.

LOL he was literally just on stage 20 minutes ago announcing Borderlands 3. I'm pretty sure we know what is actually occupying his time. His legal troubles are incredibly exaggerated.

[Radar]

Ok. I said I wouldn't be surprised. Not "I have 100% accurate evidence that this is fact". I'm probably wrong.

[johnnythewolf]

I cannot help but wonder what a Croteam Duke Nukem game would look like. Even though I have never been particularly fond of the Serious Sam series and Serious Sam himself is so very clearly derivative of Duke Nukem, I do think it has handled its protagonist and humour much better than the Duke Nukem series; I guess I must also be one of the few people who actually prefer the visual style of Serious Sam 2 over the photorealistic style of the other first-person shooter entries in the series, although Serious Sam 3 still ended up being my favourite so far in terms of gameplay.

[MusicallyInspired]

I've never had a problem running Fusion. I went through all three games back to back once (the HD remakes, BFE, and Jewel of the Nile DLC). I didn't know it was considered "unstable." I had only heard that it fixed some bugs in BFE and changed some physics or something or how fast he runs or whatever. I know something is different/improved between BFE and BFE Fusion.

[----]

MusicallyInspired, on 28 March 2019 - 06:57 PM, said:

I've never had a problem running Fusion. I went through all three games back to back once (the HD remakes, BFE, and Jewel of the Nile DLC). I didn't know it was considered "unstable." I had only heard that it fixed some bugs in BFE and changed some physics or something or how fast he runs or whatever. I know something is different/improved between BFE and BFE Fusion.

They still update Fusion on a more or less regular basis. Recent updates (which I also didn't play with, except for Serious Duke 3D some time ago which didn't crash for me) are said to make the games unstable. Croteam wants Fusion to go out of beta before Serious Sam 4 arrives. Unteil then nobody knows what they will change.

Then also a lot of mods will be updated. These modders are currently waiting to not have to start all over again after the next update and so forth. One example is a mod that replaces the SS 2nd encounter (NOT SS2 !!!) models with those of BFE (which look much better, IMHO, and would improve that game)

[Outtagum]

Pretty rough, but still fun. More enjoyable than DNF. Did a good job recreating the tone of Duke3D.

[NightFright]

It's somewhat ironic how fans are able to create a better Duke experience with a game that was initially also made to rip off/mock Duke (before growing up) than the current owners of the license.

[----]

Message from Friday:

"I just updated E1L4, hopefully it works now. Hard crashes are difficult to fix because there is no useful error message in the log file. Fusion is pretty unstable since the last update."

Just updated. Worth a try now.

[johnnythewolf]

NightFright, on 30 March 2019 - 12:57 AM, said:

a game that was initially also made to rip off/mock Duke (before growing up)

It was?