[Kerr Avon]

First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I couldn't decide if I should post this in the DN general forum, or the mapping/level editing forum.

I'm going to be working away from home for a few weeks, and when I do so I always take a couple of consoles and my laptop. And since I don't like gaming on a laptop (even with an external mouse and keyboard), I usually end up playing mostly on the consoles. And I'm in the mood to play some DN3D mods and levels, but the only way I can play DN3D mods on a console is via xDuke, a homebrew port for the original XBox (and of course NOT the PC port that's co-incidentally also called xDuke).

xDuke (the XBox DN3D port) is very good indeed, and even has a mod selector when you first load it up. But because xDuke is a port of JFDuke3D (to quote the readme.txt file:

This port is based on JFDuke3D and it was possible thanks to the SDLx libs by Lantus, Jonof and Mephisto.

[the prolific console home-brewer known as A600 first made this XBox port]) it doesn't of course support mods/levels that use extended features that JFDuke3D doesn't.

So I'm looking for recommendations for the best DN3D mods and levels that will run on xDuke (it plays The Birth, Duke it out in D.C., Life's a Beach, etc, so I assume it will play all 1.4/1.5 mods and levels?), please.


Edit: JFDuke3D's homepage appears to be at:

My link

but it doesn't include much information about how it differs from the DOS original 1.5 Build engine.

[Phredreeke]

You'll be looking for addons and maps made pre-2004 or so. The Gate comes to mind.

[Radar]

Except that The Gate totally sucks.

But yeah, anything before 2004 works. Roch series, Red 3-5, anything by Alejandro Glavic, William Gee, or the Oostrum bros are your best maps pre-2004.

[Jimmy]

Radar 100 Watts, on 18 December 2019 - 04:41 PM, said:

Except that The Gate totally sucks.

+1 for this. The Gate is trash. It wasn't good then and it isn't good now.


The OP asked what difference there is between JFDuke3D and the original EXE, and the biggest difference is that JFDuke3D raised limits on things like walls, sprites, etc, so some maps are still incompatible with the original EXE, while others aren't. Also unfortunately some maps produced for a period of time were built with a broken shitty version of Polymost that displayed things way too bright. The maps looked like shit then and they look even worse now. Fucking Polymost. Other things that might cause minor graphical bugs include maps that used hi-res texture replacements or skyboxes. They should still run in the original game as long as they stay within the map limits.

Here's some really great shit you need to play if you haven't:
Streets of Gotham City by Daniel Aashage
Bob SP 1 - 2 - 3 by Bob Averill
2121 A.D. by Bob Masters
Leaving L.A. and Fruit Loops by C3PO
Needle Time/St. Duke Hospital and _balley by Conrad Coldwood
New York Plaza by Michael and Robert Caraballo
Hostile Waters by James Duncan
Domino by John Henderson
Damned Dam by Jawon Lee (actually inspired DNF!)
City of Screams by NutWrench
Slums of L.A. by Olivier Boucher
AlexCity 1: Bank Heist by Alex Pistol
Lair by Rob West
Tropical Alien Massacre by Rob Wijkstra/Highwire
Sun Burn/Wet Dream by Rob Wijkstra/Highwire
Sewers and Strippers by Rob Wijkstra and Geoffrey van Djik
Voices of Authority by Salacius Crumb
Pain by Stranger
Ruin by Stranger
Starlite Project by Stranger
Canyon City by Vedran Jelenic
City at Night by Vedran Jelenic
Dark Alley 2.0 by Vedran Jelenic

And pretty much anything by these authors is good:
Alejandro Glavic
Fernando Márquez
Kevin Cools/KefNukem
Aymeric Nocus/MRCK/ck3D
Fakir Baba/Geoffrey van Djik
Maarten Pinxten
Taivo Maripuu

I'm probably forgetting some shit but that's already a lot.

[Radar]

All my life playing Duke, I only used software mode until this year. Polymost has improved so much lately with accurate colors, flat skies, and flat perspective (via console) that it's great to use now. The only thing it lacks is 8-bit block-style shading and it would be near identical to the classic renderer. I recently tried an old build with polymost, and all the art was smeared. I remember it looked like that back then too. Makes you really wonder how more modders at the time didn't notice.

[Kerr Avon]

Thanks for all of the answers, everyone. And special thanks to Jesus is King for such a detailed answer, and for linking to the mods/authors that you recommend, that is brilliant!

[Phredreeke]

Radar 100 Watts, on 19 December 2019 - 06:03 AM, said:

All my life playing Duke, I only used software mode until this year. Polymost has improved so much lately with accurate colors, flat skies, and flat perspective (via console) that it's great to use now. The only thing it lacks is 8-bit block-style shading and it would be near identical to the classic renderer. I recently tried an old build with polymost, and all the art was smeared.

r_shadeinterpolate 0

[Radar]

Phredreeke, on 19 December 2019 - 09:01 AM, said:

r_shadeinterpolate 0

The results are absolutely amazing.

Which renderer is which?

[Sanek]

You can also visit MSDN's Hot maps section, which mentions whether you need eduke32 or not.

https://msdn.duke4.net/hot.php

[NNC]

Traffic Jam by Olivier Boucher. Beautiful layout.

Last Reaction and Water Bases by George W Bernard... the final 5 maps of episode 1 and ofc episode 2.

Fuck you if you don't like it.

[Danukem]

It Lives by Gambini: https://www.moddb.co.../it-lives-v-105

Amazing single player map, uses vanilla assets only.

[Jimmy]

Pretty sure you need EDuke32 for that one, but yeah Gambini is one of the greatest Duke mappers of all time and you should play his maps.

[NNC]

I prefer Gambini's work on DNF 2013, those maps felt more polished.

[NightFright]

The Gate isn't that bad, but the first level really sucks since it's huge and confusing. The Predator AI and the new statusbar are also not making the whole thing exactly enjoyable. There are a few nice levels in it, still.

[necroslut]

The Watchtower, on 20 December 2019 - 02:59 AM, said:

I prefer Gambini's work on DNF 2013, those maps felt more polished.

His earlier work tends to fall more into the Build porn category, pushing limits and all that, while DNF 2013 goes for a more "classic" look. I too prefer the latter, but it shows it's more a question of intent than lack of talent.

[Ninety-Six]

NightFright, on 20 December 2019 - 03:08 AM, said:

The Gate isn't that bad, but the first level really sucks since it's huge and confusing. The Predator AI and the new statusbar are also not making the whole thing exactly enjoyable. There are a few nice levels in it, still.

I would say the best levels are in episode 2, though the others have at least one gem among them.

Spoiler

Also the music is phenomenal. The levels may be a mixed bag but that soundtrack is supreme.

[Radar]

Here's a great map from the 90s I just played, called Shade by Bliss. I recently discovered the author's signature in a map called Upside, which is easily one of the top 20 dukematch maps of all time. I had no idea that it originated as far back as 1996. After some research I could only find one other map by the author, which happened to be a very good user map from 1997. It aged very well and I think the score on MSDN should be boosted waaay over 85.

[Perro Seco]

Here are some of my favourite maps that don't need EDuke32. I like them a lot and I think they're a bit underrated.

- City and City II, by Jean-Marc Gruninger.
- Beta One and Beta Two, by Robert Travis.
- Lost Island by KaiseR.
- Confession by Tim Conneen.
- Extermination by Juha "Turpuli" Laaksonen.

[NNC]

necroslut, on 20 December 2019 - 11:31 AM, said:

His earlier work tends to fall more into the Build porn category, pushing limits and all that, while DNF 2013 goes for a more "classic" look. I too prefer the latter, but it shows it's more a question of intent than lack of talent.

I think it's much harder to build classic looking maps that still have some fresh novelty in them, than Build porn.

Build porn with those overdetailed areas and random sprites, textures and colours thrown in is like when cacophony replaces music just because the author thinks hitting as many keys on a piano as fast as he can is a technical advancement.

[ck3D]

The Watchtower, on 21 December 2019 - 07:48 AM, said:

I think it's much harder to build classic looking maps that still have some fresh novelty in them, than Build porn.

Build porn with those overdetailed areas and random sprites, textures and colours thrown in is like when cacophony replaces music just because the author thinks hitting as many keys on a piano as fast as he can is a technical advancement.

"Now, you must acquire a taste for free form jazz."