[ck3D]

It's coming together quite fast and is addicting to work on. I won't be posting many updates since the progress is so quick but I guess it will materialize into something eventually.

[Merlijn]

I've been working on a map for quite some time now, it's finally nearing completion (release somewhere in early 2026).
Just a couple of sneak peeks (not giving away too much yet):

[ck3D]

Super Shaky Groundesque second shot! Love the perspective and choices in the first one too, I can totally see what you mean now about rotated textures, it's as though we're developing similar habits working out how to best use them.

I know I said I wouldn't post updates but whilst I'm at it posting in this thread, I just hit 12222 walls on my map from above.

[Merlijn]

Thanks! I just love to use the red pal, it works so well to create dramatic lightning/shadows. The map has several other pals as well, including fog pals. But you'll see, I don't want to show too much yet.
And yeah it's fun to see the similarities in our usage of rotated textures

[ck3D]

Throwing my promise of no updates out of the window, progress is too fluid. This one should only take a few more days to be done but I might not release it as soon as it's ready, I'm curious to try something. I'm already having to watch walls. My last time posting an isometric view of this one though, but I guess some people might have enjoyed seeing the progressive growth over the week. (It's also super helpful for inspiration to have an image of the current layout at hand outside of the editor to just look at and read possibilities in during off time, which is something I'd recommend more people should do, although we don't have to share it.)

[Maarten]

20-12-2025

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[ck3D]

Maarten, on 16 December 2025 - 12:39 PM, said:

20-12-2025

Map of the year on the come up!

[ck3D]

Last isometric view my ass.

[eniojr]

Interesting map design. I particularly liked the screenshot of the nightclub with the woman dancing. Lots of detail. I liked the light sprites, like an improvised light show. I've explored something similar on streetlights in an experimental map. I think the trend now is for more and more maps to emerge that use TROR and lots of sprites as decoration. This really breathes new life into the game, seriously.

[ck3D]

Thanks. The point you make is correct minus two corrections/addendums I would make. TROR isn't as important in and of itself as verticality in general is, and you can (and people have) achieved amazing vertical maps before relying on nothing but classic SOS and spritework. But of course, TROR is a great option to have for not just visuals but also practicality, it's a huge improvement over the wonky collision of the base game and having to rely on silent teleporters and whatnot. So I think one should learn and eventually combine all three techniques. TROR itself isn't the true game changer, but a convenient tool to work towards it. About sprites, it isn't 'lots of sprites' that tends to work, but the correct sprites in the correct spots. Especially in the case of Duke 3D levels this matters because Duke is so fast, and the original game language is explicit. So you don't want a lot of sprite clutter that just gets in the way or loses too much of the information the level is supposed to be vehicling. Past mapping trends of the 2000's (which had very busy maps) have served to pick up on exactly that as a lesson learned.

About the SPOTLITE sprite I am pretty sure it was designed to fit the sprite of the triple street lamp top (the ratios exactly match; also with the breakable ceiling lamp), and always assumed it just wasn't used like that in the base game because of the minor clipping in the classic renderer (and/or to save on framerate); just like the sprite of the post for the lamp itself is designed to match it. But in user maps, its use and the one of light coronas (...anything that resembles one really) has been common practice for a very long time. You may see great instances of that in Suppressor's Betacity or ILoveFoxes' SkyCity 1.

[Maarten]

ck3D, on 17 December 2025 - 03:39 AM, said:

Map of the year on the come up!

Thanks man! That means alot for me to read that

BTW Awesome work here, it's good to see making levels is alive and kicking. Keep it up!!

AAP3 IS OUT: https://forums.duke4...043#entry386043