[Mia Max]

I also have started building a new map for Duke Plus.
It is going to be one level, where you can go everywhere from the beginning to collect weapons, items and upgrades.
There will be a lot of enemies.



Yes I know, yet it looks a little bit strange, but it is going to be a fun-map anyhow.

[bullerbullerseven]

great. wall texture looks a bit stretched. And you can make the ground slope match better if you make it with triangles.

[themaniacboy]

Marked, on 15 June 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

It seems I just don't know when to stop. I'm adding more underground crypts and such to my Graveyard project. But I am still way under the game limits so I guess its not too big to be split up, yet.

Brent: It would be great to have a frontend loader for Eduke similar to Proasm's SWP for shadow warrior

Reminds me of RTCW, looks very fun.

[WedgeBob]

Mia Max, on 18 June 2011 - 11:38 AM, said:

I also have started building a new map for Duke Plus.
It is going to be one level, where you can go everywhere from the beginning to collect weapons, items and upgrades.
There will be a lot of enemies.



Yes I know, yet it looks a little bit strange, but it is going to be a fun-map anyhow.

Hahaha...nice, can't wait for this.

Anyway, I'm having second thoughts about that Antarctica episode...I really don't know how that would work out.
Instead, I've been planning an episode in Miami, which might be more up Duke's alley since another "king took his talents to South Beach" LOL.
I'll be planning my levels throughout the day, and right now, I'm mostly looking at GTA: VC as an influence to all this. I shouldn't have to use too many mods for Miami, since a lot of the Atomic Edition stock textures and sprites would work for a Miami setting.

[zykov eddy]

Mia Max, on 18 June 2011 - 11:38 AM, said:

Nice design, but those stone walls look cheap. Hope you'll fix them.


P.s new HRP rocket launcher model looks really bad to me

[Loke]

Trying out the TROR feature. It's more of a test map so I'm not planning on adding any enemies or at least a couple at the highest.

[CruX]

Loke, on 19 June 2011 - 03:34 PM, said:

It's more of a test map so I'm not planning on adding any enemies or at least a couple at the highest.

I'd try to make a full map out of it if I were you. ROR could really use a release of some sort, and that looks remarkably promising.

[Gambini]

Yeah man, besides the apparent crampednes, that "test" map looks amazing.

[BrentNewland]

BrentNewland, on 15 June 2011 - 12:50 PM, said:

My mapping and modding talents are very limited, but I'm very good in other areas. I've been working on two projects

The first one is an installer for everything. Automatically download the latest eduke32 SVN, SVN versions of all the HRP, latest DukePlus, etc. (with non-nightly versions optional). Of course, the installer would require the original duke3d.grp (or the demo). Also, one-click updating. All of this is not hard to do (can all be done with simple batch files run by the installer, so just like installing any other program). Unfortunately, right now installing means going to all the different sites and downloading everything separately, then extracting and whatnot (if you want the latest files - I do know HRP comes with eduke32). Perhaps making it easier to install will bring more people to the community.


The second one is a front-end (of sorts) for eduke32. Something that communicates with a few of the different websites that host Duke maps and TC's, allows you to read and write reviews for maps (or give it a quick 1-5 star rating), shows you information about the maps, gives you pictures/video of the map, allows you to single-click download or play the map, etc. I see a lot of possibilities for this:
-Could handle updating not only eduke, the HRP's, and DukePlus, but also the maps themselves
-I'm thinking of having an interpreter for all the major file types in eDuke. Treat CON files, maps, maphacks and whatnot as flatfile databases (since we know the exact format of all of those). This could allow for updating some files without having to completely redownload them (by making the necessary changes), allow you to create mods for existing maps and share just the changes (or allow the changes to persist across updates), and make maps/conversions with custom content compatible by changing files on the fly
-Maybe someday eDuke could have an option to accept a map and DMO file as input and create a video from that demo; then, every map could have a demo video (as long as you do a quick run-through and make a DMO first) and it would reflect how the map would look with your current files (e.g. the latest engine and HRP)


So, big projects which could be very helpful/useful, and I have a decent amount of free time. Please note that the description I gave doesn't cover every aspect I've been considering for these projects, and I might not have communicated some concepts effectively.

I've posted the beginnings of my project at http://forums.duke4....dpost__p__96928

Right now it's just a tool that downloads the latest HRP from SVN and packages it up. It can also update the HRP (without downloading everything), handles backing up old or incompatible copies of the HRP, gets the SVN and other needed software.

It's written in PHP. It's my first time making an actual PHP program, I've only used PHP for websites.

I'd like to clean it up a bit (move some stuff into functions, add more error handling).


My next step is to enhance it to install eDuke32, your official GRP files (from disc or GOG download), any add-on packs you have, their HRP's, and make it auto-update. I'm still looking into GUI compilers, there's WinBinder, Wapache, and I'm looking for more (trying to find the best fit). I found a few commercial ones which look AWESOME (EXEOutput and ZZEE), but they're pricey

What I have so far was compiled with Bambalam.

[Mia Max]

The new models are great!

[Loke]

EmericaSkater, on 19 June 2011 - 07:21 PM, said:

I'd try to make a full map out of it if I were you. ROR could really use a release of some sort, and that looks remarkably promising.

At the moment it's relatively small, in size that is, so going from the beginning to the end will take at the most a minute. The design is also very linear but I'll see if I can do something interesting with it.

[quote name='Gambini]Yeah man' date=' besides the apparent crampednes, that "test" map looks amazing.[/quote']

Yeah, the start area, as you see in the picture is pretty cramped although not in that annoying sense that you have to jump over obstacles in order to keep moving (that plagued another map of mine). You also drop down into a sewer tube area that is fairly small. I don't plan to add any enemies in these areas as I know people tend to hate fighting in such parts. Later on though you gain access to a large area of the sewer that the player can freely explore.

[CruX]

Did a little bit of codework this morning to produce this relatively basic effect...



Basically it's a Stronghold-inspired healing pad.



Standing on it will rapidly boost your health by one point.



...But unlike toilet water, it has a cap that can be set for the individual actor in Mapster. In my next map release, I'll probably be using these things in lieu of health packs.

[Jblade]

Very cool, I thought 'teleporter' at first but that's also a neat use for it It's too bad that Multiplayer still isn't really functional since there's endless potential for great multiplayer mods with Duke now.

[CruX]

Another map shot. Shows how some of the added art tiles are being used.



As an aside, I fricken' HATE trying to texture the wall of a sloped surface, like you see on the side of that ramp. If you want it to look good, you're pretty much limited to textures that don't tile vertically (and in most cases horizontally too) and even then it still turns out pretty fugly.

[Loke]

Mmm, looks good. Nice architecture. Restricted Area sounds... eerie. Are you going to use the T-ROR feature to anything?

EmericaSkater, on 23 June 2011 - 09:24 AM, said:

As an aside, I fricken' HATE trying to texture the wall of a sloped surface, like you see on the side of that ramp. If you want it to look good, you're pretty much limited to textures that don't tile vertically (and in most cases horizontally too) and even then it still turns out pretty fugly.

I agree to an extent -- sometimes the limitations of the BUILD engine makes me frustrated so I have to back of a bit and take a break or do something else. Currently I'm semi-multitasking between Mapster32 and WorldCraft.

[rasmus thorup]

I had the same problem when i tried to make a cool looking stairway. It could be so good This looks good btw. And emericaskator, that healing pad, is it a few textures with an action or is it really something that spawns. You know what i mean?

[Lord Misfit]

EmericaSkater, on 23 June 2011 - 09:24 AM, said:

As an aside, I fricken' HATE trying to texture the wall of a sloped surface, like you see on the side of that ramp. If you want it to look good, you're pretty much limited to textures that don't tile vertically (and in most cases horizontally too) and even then it still turns out pretty fugly.

Hmmm, maybe there might be a way to figure out how to change it to more free angling and sizability of floor/ceiling textures as a future feature suggestion? o.o;

Just figured I'd throw this out there since I've seen things people have said to be near impossible getting done in recent years. Can't hurt to suggest this one as well. It seems to me it would be easier than getting TROR working, but that's just me using my warped version of Occam's Razor too. -.-

[CruX]

Loke, on 23 June 2011 - 09:48 AM, said:

Are you going to use the T-ROR feature to anything?

It's got some limited (mostly decorative) use in the beginning of the map. I'm hoping to make more use of it, but I haven't planned out the areas where it could really make a difference, and I haven't completely figured out all of T-ROR's odds and ends yet either.

rasmus thorup, on 23 June 2011 - 11:10 AM, said:

This looks good btw. And emericaskator, that healing pad, is it a few textures with an action or is it really something that spawns. You know what i mean?

It's a spawner. If it didn't rely on new artwork, I'd release it as a sort of independent effect for use in other maps, but it's nothing super complicated anyway. It's similiar to Mblackwell's
rainspawner, only it spawns actors in a tighter, more controlled radius, which float slowly upwards before fading out.

Lord Misfit, on 23 June 2011 - 01:32 PM, said:

Hmmm, maybe there might be a way to figure out how to change it to more free angling and sizability of floor/ceiling textures as a future feature suggestion? o.o;

It'd make life a lot easier, but that's just a cosmetic bugaboo (albeit an annoying one). I'm really hoping TROR can be optimized (if it's at all possible) to where certain other things like cansee will jive with stacked sectors. Kinda weird having an enemy stand on a bridge with a direct line of sight to the player, but still not actually see him.

[Muelsa]

What do you think?

[Spiker]

Muelsa, on 25 June 2011 - 10:52 PM, said:

What do you think?

Looks scary as hell! Really amazing job! Spielberg would be proud. The only flaw is that sometimes you can see one animation switching to another. Maybe some frames were cut off before the cycle was completed?

[Danukem]

That model and animation is so good that I worry it is too good for this engine. With a model that good, if you shoot the T-rex in the side, you will expect to see a gaping wound appear where it is shot, which won't be possible, and other effects like that. I hope you know what I mean.

[Muelsa]

Spiker, on 25 June 2011 - 11:10 PM, said:

The only flaw is that sometimes you can see one animation switching to another. Maybe some frames were cut off before the cycle was completed?

This is because i am on mapster and i press the key to change animation until the end of cycle. this will not happen in game with code to switch between animation

DeeperThought, on 25 June 2011 - 11:27 PM, said:

That model and animation is so good that I worry it is too good for this engine. With a model that good, if you shoot the T-rex in the side, you will expect to see a gaping wound appear where it is shot, which won't be possible, and other effects like that. I hope you know what I mean.

it is true, but there is a way, I thought of adding invisible sprites that follow the t-rex to simulate collisions throughout the body.

[Mblackwell]

If you were excellent at trig (I'm not) you could simulate the hits by spawning a little red model with a parallax map (to look like the wound) close to the body of the actor, which you could map internally. A model because you could also slope it. Otherwise yeah a rough grid surrounding the actor would work, and would probably be more efficient in the end.

One thing that's important to remember though: Do you really think most low caliber weapons will give you gaping wounds on that thing?

[Besli]

Yeah, that T-Rex looks really good!

[rasmus thorup]

And then a movie of my teleporter. It doesn't take me anywhere yet because i haven't made the next location. But this is what it looks like when duke starts teleporting. Gotta make one more for dukes spawning after being teleported.

View My Video

[Danukem]

Mblackwell, on 26 June 2011 - 06:23 AM, said:

One thing that's important to remember though: Do you really think most low caliber weapons will give you gaping wounds on that thing?

Who said they would be low caliber? If he's making a dino hunting TC, I'm expecting some heavy artillery!

[Mblackwell]

Well... it's jurassic park...

[Gambini]

Muelsa, on 25 June 2011 - 10:52 PM, said:

What do you think?

That´s GOLD

[Daedolon]

I made a door.

[Tea Monster]