[Aleks]

Well, I guess at this point there isn't really much that can be added to the map in terms of new areas or details (see the resources used ), so just posting a 2D mode screen showing the plan view of the whole thing. Only the combat is left to add and adjusting it perfectly will take me some time, but the map can be completed in its current form without any bugs or showstoppers (unless my beta-testers will come up with something I didn't think of). It feels super satisfying to finally see the whole thing click together, considering how precise some sequencing is in here (e.g. triggering something on one end of the map that will have an effect on something else on the other end, over some time period and given some other conditions are also fulfilled...)!

Spoiler

BTW, thanks, Merlijn! Well, there's still some more tiny areas, as you can see on the screenshot, but most of the combat will be limited to the wider areas

[jimbob]

that looks really cool large map with a lot of diversity it seems, im finishing up my chateau map, still have plenty of resources left so i might add some areas, lighting and some neat effects
might aswell post a few build screencaps

Spoiler

[Mister Sinister]

I finally made some progress. God damn it, that map set was supposed to be one in June!

[mike_s]

TerminX, on 14 June 2009 - 04:36 PM, said:

Hey guys, forum is looking a bit dead today so I thought I'd start some sort of a dialog here... what are you guys working on right now? Maps, mods, editing art tiles, coding something in a CON file, working on a Duke related site, whatever--what are you doing? Myself, I'm making some minor changes to the Dukeworld layout, fixing some bugs in the php that spits out the directory indexes, et cetera. Might work on EDuke32 later depending on what I feel like doing. I think there are some bugs in Mapster32 that need to be taken care of sometime soon.

I'm replacing COMMIT.EXE

In other words, I'm going to make Duke Nukem 3D for DOS playable on the internet for as many operating systems as possible without modifying the game itself.

I pulled this off in the far past for Windows systems with using winsock library interrupt functions in DOS but I knew that would die quick so now I'm gonna make my own internet library for Duke Nukem.

This means people who use DOSBOX and linux to play duke nukem will benefit because I have that setup now and I can access websites in DOSBOX with little work on the linux end, and those who use Windows ME or earlier will also benefit because DOS is already included in those os'es. As for Windows 7/8/10, It may be possible if special priviledges or linux emulation is used. I don't use new windows so I'm not 100% sure.

I might even have to take it one step further and make a multi-player DOS chat client too. then I would replace yang and friends.

If I could pull this all off, then you gamers won't need so much storage for backup purposes. Just enough storage for the duke nukem game itself plus DOS packet drivers for your network card. Put that all on a bootable media with a DOS image, then you will have an ultra-fast duke nukem experience (unless of course your computer is some old 386, but even then, it might be a tad faster than some games today).

[jimbob]

sounds awesome, multiplayer lacking in eduke32 is a bummer and hopefully this sets things in motion

[edit]
no context, just gore

[mike_s]

jimbob, on 16 April 2021 - 03:08 PM, said:

sounds awesome, multiplayer lacking in eduke32 is a bummer and hopefully this sets things in motion

It can.

Excuse my technical-ness for those who are not technically inclined, but I need to explain something.

Tech rant....

Like other duke nukem setups, my code will use the UDP/IP protocol to help with speed.

I dug into source code of commit, and I estimate the normal packet size for Duke Nukem is 2 KB (2048 bytes). For some connections, this is considered a large packet and I read IP fragmentation can be a bad thing. In fact, for just about any connection, this is bad unless you are lucky to have an ethernet card that supports jumbo frames.

This means if someone by chance is (still) on a dial-up connection or uses a standard ethernet connection, then data has to be divided into smaller chunks to be passed over the network. This might be the reason why people complained about lags during gameplay in the past because maybe all the pieces aren't sent as one.

For reference, dial-up maximum data size per send is 548 bytes, and maximum size of ethernet per send is roughly 1420 bytes. For jumbo frames, its well over 8000 bytes.

Now that I said that, and since I can't expect everyone to try to upgrade their hardware to support jumbo frames, I will have to also introduce fragmentation somehow just to allow all data to be sent.

...End of Tech rant

Having said all that, I could implement a game client that would be run completely in DOS. I can enable mouse support in the client. Fortunately for DOSBOX users, the mouse driver is pre-loaded when the DOS session is started, but for those who want to use the client with a mouse from real DOS will need to load a mouse driver (which can be found on many DOS boot disks).

A text-based (yang-replacement) client with colour will be very easy to implement.
One with graphics will take much more work.

Anyway I'll keep working at the commit replacement while dealing with my other obligations. Hopefully I'll come with a testable product in May.

Also, if anyone wants to dedicate their server (preferably a linux one) for the client then that would be awesome because like other chat clients, it will need to connect somewhere to register who is in what lobby and when someone new joins, etc.

Other alternative would be gut-wrenching because it will involve a player's computer constantly scanning every IP address in the universe to see what players are active on the network at any given time.

[Gambini]

Mister Sinister, on 02 April 2021 - 02:32 AM, said:

I finally made some progress. God damn it, that map set was supposed to be one in June!

I always like how your maps still retain that 3DR-1996 look. Don´t think translucent fire looks well there though.

[Mister Sinister]

Thank you, kind sir! The fires are translucent to prevent them from obstructing vision. This is combat heavy map and I don't want players ability to see obfuscated by fire.

[Sanek]

I'm sorry dude but i disagree. I think about Doom more when looking at these.

[Mark]

Jimbob...
Those enemy sprites have the best perspective angles I've seen in a long time. Especially the death one. I had to watch again to see if it was a model.

[MC84]

Mark, on 21 April 2021 - 11:19 AM, said:

Jimbob...
Those enemy sprites have the best perspective angles I've seen in a long time. Especially the death one. I had to watch again to see if it was a model.

Yes I have to admit I was pretty impressed too, considering from screenshots it looks like they've just been ripped from a photo

[jimbob]

MC84, on 21 April 2021 - 12:59 PM, said:

Yes I have to admit I was pretty impressed too, considering from screenshots it looks like they've just been ripped from a photo

they are indeed 'ripped' from photographs, i digitised an actor to get all the frames, wich took considerable time

[MC84]

jimbob, on 21 April 2021 - 11:06 PM, said:

they are indeed 'ripped' from photographs, i digitised an actor to get all the frames, wich took considerable time

What exactly do you mean digitized an actor? Like rotoscoping from live action footage?

[jimbob]

MC84, on 22 April 2021 - 01:40 PM, said:

What exactly do you mean digitized an actor? Like rotoscoping from live action footage?

even more archaic, i simply used a tripod, dslr and had the guy strike poses for all positions and animations. a 3d setup would have made things much easier but is way out of my budget.
so i spent the better part of a full weekend going frame by frame making the backgound transparent, importing everything and calculating the prefered size for the in game sprite, they are roughly 100 * 310

did the same for the weapon sprites, fps weapons except for the flamethrower and grenades because it is unfortunatly illegal to have those here, but some photoshop magic and 3d models that where rendered thanks to Nfsfan83 made them available.

most of the work is done for episode 1, just ironing out bugs, adding some audio, one liners, mission speech and audio finetuning, making music and adding things i come up with and its done, then for episode 2 i'd like to expand the team to ease the workload for myself, and because i want to do some things that are way out of my league in terms of coding. maybe get a small budget, get more uniforms and make more variations in both allies and axis.

[Danukem]

That method is very hard to replicate, even if you got another person to pose for you it would be hard to keep the lighting and everything consistent so the characters matched.

[Merlijn]

Working on another room for SG4. But this time it's a pretty big one

[Sangman]

AMC TC EP4 work (of course)

[ck3D]

Merlijn, on 05 May 2021 - 10:38 AM, said:

Working on another room for SG4. But this time it's a pretty big one
duke0167.png

Wow, great use of space and textures! Can't wait, good luck!

[Merlijn]

ck3D, on 05 May 2021 - 12:16 PM, said:

Wow, great use of space and textures! Can't wait, good luck!

Thanks! Although at this point I don't think SG4 will be a separate release, I'll create the boss map first so I can release the whole series in episode format.

[Maarten]

Good going in here!

-------------------------------
Got lots of progress as well on AAP2 (sequel of AAP1 Woudrichem War):

-About 500 walls to go (I even deleted a lot of walls since last update - just parts of AAP1..will get back on that later!).
-Wrote & recorded a music track. It's a mix of AAP1 / E1L4 mood. At least, that's what I was aiming for
-This project is 97% finished!!

Having a very small holiday now, but after that I'll get back on finishing this & give you more information!

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[Aleks]

@ Merlijn: that room looks pretty huge indeed, I like where this new SG map seems to be going with that ominous mood and more prevalent use of alienish textures than we've seen yet in the 3 previous maps!
@ Maarten: good to see you're so far in, and yeah walls can be a bitch at this moment! Nice architecture, it seems so simple, yet at the same time it's all the closer to the reality than all the super intricate buildings out there. Also I see another (?) bell tower. And the nukebutton pizza is a nice detail, funnily enough I've also been making a Build pizza slice, but from another tile.

Anyway, I've started a new city map, so far there's nothing really to show - I've got most of the basic street layout done, but without proper texturing etc. yet. It's gonna be more spacious, classic-styled level with more straightforward progression, but I'll still throw some puzzles and weird effects there. Got it all planned on a sheet of paper so far

[Ninety-Six]

Man, it's so exciting to see two brand new Oostrum brothers levels on the horizon.

[jimbob]

ironing out some issues but i can safely say its done soon.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[ck3D]

Really happy to hear how close your completion your new map already is, Maarten! Screenshot is having me expect something very much in the vein of Woudrichem War and that's a good thing as I really liked that map. Retaining parts of the first as background in the second is sweet, too but now I wonder, when starting the new map did you begin from scratch and then later recopy-pasted those sectors in, or did you use the previous installment as a 'template' since day one, basically editing the first level to keep the visible decoration/terrain you wanted and scrap the resource-hungry rest? Just interested in the process out of curiosity because I always appreciate that aspect of the work on a level too, actually I regularly wonder the same in map sets like Downtown Journey where there is strong coherency (DJ even feels as though the author had built one big city first, only to then break it down in chunks). Best of luck on their projects to everyone, loving the recent activity!

[Mister Sinister]

Bit by bit I'm getting closer to finishing the maps.
You're gonna get your asses handed to ya.

[ck3D]

^ Looking so cool! Loving the little pillars and room structure and the overall texture work, feels very classic visually but with personality in the execution. Can't wait!

[Maarten]

@Mister Sinister: Nice! Looking forward to it!
@ck3D: I actually started AAP2 exactly where AAP1 ends: this means some of AAP1 is still visible & will get more in screen later on this map. Actually, you'll get to the other side of the bridge which you've seen in AAP1!
Soon, very soon... more information/music/screens will be released! Just finished a 7 minute soundtrack which needs to be mastered

[jimbob]

working on code, in my infinite wisdom i decided to add a few last minute weapons, and lo and behold making more than 11 weapons was harder than i imagined so now i have to go through the spanish tutorial ( and translate that thing to dutch while im at it ) to see where i went wrong. its probably something silly like wro { ng }bracketing or something...

but on the plus side, there wil be a luger. and a grease gun. and the garand now properly ejects a clip when empty

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[Maarten]

*Music
*20+ shots
*Soon!!

[NightFright]

Looks like it's going to be a good year for Duke3D mapping.