[Sanek]

Thank you guys for such encouragement, i see now that not releasing at all would be kinda stupid.

So yeah, release what i want so at least i'd be satisfied that i kept my vision.

It's still in testing, so at least a week or two until the (definite) release.

[William Gee]

Screenshot update.

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[ToiletDuck64]

I'd really like to post an "overview" screenshot of Mario Kart 64 TOWN but it seems that literally every renderer option (including Polymer) eats shit in one or more ways, due to some combination of all the TROR and/or how butt-fucking huge the map is; my approach to these problems is to treat them as renderer problems and not map problems (so, in other words, I ignore them).
Screenshot #1 is from near the southeast corner of the map and looking northwest. Screenshot #2 is in the northwest corner of the map (just outside the playable area) looking southeast. (The transmission tower in the northwest part of the map is visible in both screenshots (even though it's just a small, thin vertical line of pixels in screenshot #1).

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[jimbob]

working on a functioning PA system, in the end it will have a radio operator that can be killed causing the radios to only play a loop of static. so far it works great but i have yet to create the operator.

these are really the finishing touches on the WW2 mod, and we are moving into beta testing soon, so i could use a couple of testers

[Sanek]

I'm going to release my episode this weekend.

One tester - Ninety-Six - did a fantastic job. Eddy...doesn't test much of it unfortunately, after making some new code which supposed to make a game easier. I know that it was done in good faith, but i'm not really happy about it, so i'm going to release it the way i initially intended.

[jimbob]

rendering a thing

[jimbob]

[Ninety-Six]

jimbob, on 06 June 2022 - 04:20 AM, said:

Wow. It's not that I wasn't expecting quality, I was, but this still looks better than I thought it would.

(I hope this doesn't come off as backhanded; I just don't know how to phrase it better)

[zykov eddy]

jimbob, on 06 June 2022 - 04:20 AM, said:

Looks like a WW2 GI sequel we deserved but never got

[jimbob]

thanks a lot its mostly dotting the I's en crossing the T's fixing minor stuff and get those last few bugs out then we'll release the first episode.

[dandouglas]

jimbob, on 06 June 2022 - 04:20 AM, said:

This looks awesome! Really impressed with how you've tackled the expansive outdoor areas, the backgrounds and skybox blend very nicely.

[dandouglas]

Progress on my mod has slowed down a lot as I've returned to full-time work, but here's a couple of screens reflecting the current state of things.

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[Mark]

Lets take up a collection for dandouglas so he can stay at part time work til the end of the year if he promises to finish this.

[Ninety-Six]

Lots of projects to be excited for right now. I'm stoked.

[WhiteDove101]

Hi there everyone... this is my first time posting here but I've been following the Duke community for years and years. I've been working on my own little pack that for now I am calling the "Upscale Enhanced Pack for Polymer". I enjoyed the HRP but missed the old school 2D sprites. I wanted to keep it old school but with HD sprites and the modern wonders of Polymer. Luckily Phredreeke came to the rescue with his wonderful Upscale work but it still wasn't enough for me because I wanted it to properly work with Polymer. So the past month I've been optimizing Phredreeke's ai upscale textures and sprites. Adding things like normal and specular maps and where necessary glow maps. I am currently using some assets from the HRP like detail textures, fonts and menu textures and the normal maps from the 20th Anniversary World Tour. I've been cleaning up and smoothing out the edges of the sprites, making my own normal maps for textures and sprites (including monsters, characters, props, etc.). This is still a work in progress and still a lot to do. I wanted to share this because I don't know if anybody would be interested in the look of upscale sprites and textures with shaders for EDuke32 Polymer renderer. Below I have some screenshots that you can check and I will soon share a video I will upload to YouTube.

https://flic.kr/p/2nsyFdF
https://flic.kr/p/2nsyykf
https://flic.kr/p/2nsB7ef
https://flic.kr/p/2nsyAXg
https://flic.kr/p/2nsyALz
https://flic.kr/p/2nszMYi
https://flic.kr/p/2nsyAw1
https://flic.kr/p/2nsB6yN
https://flic.kr/p/2nsB6tx
https://flic.kr/p/2nstnMH
https://flic.kr/p/2nsB69Q
https://flic.kr/p/2nsywUE
https://flic.kr/p/2nszMcD
https://flic.kr/p/2nsywBW
https://flic.kr/p/2nstn4P
https://flic.kr/p/2nszLFP

I do have a question and that is that the firstperson sprites do not work with normal, specular or glow maps. Why is that?

[WhiteDove101]

Here is a link to the video of my "Upscale Enhanced Pack for Polymer" if you wanted to see the upscaled sprites and textures with normal, specular and glow maps in action. Full description of this project I am working on is in the previous post.

[Ninety-Six]

Let's hope TX's recent work on Polymer shows fruit so this can be enjoyed by more people.

[asbestos]

Hi all, this is my first post in this thread and on your message board!

For the past few months I've been working on three maps, intended as a mini-episode. Some brief background — in the late 90s (~98, 99) I was contributing maps to a TC called Final Sundown. After that project died, I aimed to repurpose the maps for my own "partial conversion" (a 6 map episode with some new art and weapons) called Departed. I eventually abandoned it, stopped mapping, and life went on for the next 20 years.

Fast forward to a few months ago and I decided it could be fun to try and finish the three most complete maps. I'm a bit rusty in my mapping practice, but I've really had a weirdly satisfying time getting back to it.

I'd like to share one of the three maps here, tentatively called "Bacon Grease". It's intended as the last of the three maps. It's pretty far along and I'd like to get some feedback on it before I commit to finishing the other two (if I even decide to, this stuff is time consuming). You can grab the map here:

https://www.dropbox....EC3-78.map?dl=0

It's a rather conventional city map, but I've tried to put emphasis on the mood and vibe — a grimy dark city at night. There's also a song (produced by my talented cousin) that compliments the mood nicely, if you want to give both a spin at the same time:

https://freezeetch.b...e-professionals

If I'm lucky he'll let me include a BGM version of the track with the final map.

If anyone is so motivated as to test this version, I'd be more than grateful. I'm curious about how it plays, if it's fun, and if it's not too dark. Thanks! You can also find me on the Duke4 Discord in the level-design channel.

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[asbestos]

Ah, and I should add that it takes me about 15 minutes to play through with ~100 enemies, in case anyone is curious about the length before trying.

[Ninety-Six]

asbestos, on 20 June 2022 - 01:03 PM, said:

If anyone is so motivated as to test this version, I'd be more than grateful. I'm curious about how it plays, if it's fun, and if it's not too dark. Thanks! You can also find me on the Duke4 Discord in the level-design channel.

I decided to bite.

Took me 37 minutes, but I was playing quite slowly and trying to look for secrets. Found all of them, by the way.


Gonna give my thoughts in spoilers, as they do indeed contain spoilers. Anyone looking to try this for themselves best avoid:

Spoiler

Overall I did enjoy this map. You went for a grimy city, and you got a grimy city. Something about the convenience store stood out to me in that regard, but unfortunately I can't quite put it to words. Rest assured it is a positive quality, whatever it is.

I did find the ammo balance a bit strange. True, I found all the secrets, but with all the explosives I was given, I expected to see more than just a single battlelord by the end. I can only imagine how much more loaded a player would be playing continuous.

Brightness definitely needed some increase. Not too much outside (though I wouldn't say no to increasing that just a smidge. The buildings could also use a few more functioning light switches), but definitely the road tunnel, sewers, and especially the subway had me starting to bump into walls and navigate by automap. If you take nothing else away from this, those three definitely need to have their visiblity increased.

Also, all but one of the fountains actually had the water tagged as water.



Even with those minor gripes though, I did enjoy this map. Funnily enough it reminded me of DC's Capitol Punishment in a few places, which is actually a good thing because that happens to be my favorite level. The flow was solid, the combat was decent, the atmosphere was pretty on-point. All in all, you have something good in the works. Keep at it.

[dandouglas]

A few more WIP shots from my mod

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[asbestos]

Ninety-Six, on 21 June 2022 - 06:27 AM, said:

I decided to bite.

Took me 37 minutes, but I was playing quite slowly and trying to look for secrets. Found all of them, by the way.


Gonna give my thoughts in spoilers, as they do indeed contain spoilers. Anyone looking to try this for themselves best avoid:

Spoiler

Overall I did enjoy this map. You went for a grimy city, and you got a grimy city. Something about the convenience store stood out to me in that regard, but unfortunately I can't quite put it to words. Rest assured it is a positive quality, whatever it is.

I did find the ammo balance a bit strange. True, I found all the secrets, but with all the explosives I was given, I expected to see more than just a single battlelord by the end. I can only imagine how much more loaded a player would be playing continuous.

Brightness definitely needed some increase. Not too much outside (though I wouldn't say no to increasing that just a smidge. The buildings could also use a few more functioning light switches), but definitely the road tunnel, sewers, and especially the subway had me starting to bump into walls and navigate by automap. If you take nothing else away from this, those three definitely need to have their visiblity increased.

Also, all but one of the fountains actually had the water tagged as water.



Even with those minor gripes though, I did enjoy this map. Funnily enough it reminded me of DC's Capitol Punishment in a few places, which is actually a good thing because that happens to be my favorite level. The flow was solid, the combat was decent, the atmosphere was pretty on-point. All in all, you have something good in the works. Keep at it.

Thanks for taking the time to try it out and share your feedback, I really appreciate it. I agree, I think I can still bump up the brightness a bit, and I had a similar feeling regarding the ammo/weapons. Interesting note regarding more light switches, I hadn't considered that. I think I tend to avoid them since they require the room to be lit evenly, which I don't find so appealing. But I'm glad to have your perspective. Also glad you found all the secrets, a few of them I put some work into and was pretty happy with, but of course it's not guaranteed someone will find them. Thanks!

[max_nukem]

asbestos, on 20 June 2022 - 01:08 PM, said:

Ah, and I should add that it takes me about 15 minutes to play through with ~100 enemies, in case anyone is curious about the length before trying.

I spedn a half of hour for play through, but it a half an hour of pure pleasure.
Map have good design and interesting gameplay.
Cant wait to play other maps.
Thanks!

[MC84]

dandouglas, on 21 June 2022 - 08:12 AM, said:

A few more WIP shots from my mod

Looking good! Although I assume you will remove the watermark from the building facades (4th shot) or is that an intentional joke?

[asbestos]

max_nukem, on 21 June 2022 - 12:04 PM, said:

I spedn a half of hour for play through, but it a half an hour of pure pleasure.
Map have good design and interesting gameplay.
Cant wait to play other maps.
Thanks!

Great to hear, thank you!

[dandouglas]

MC84, on 21 June 2022 - 12:05 PM, said:

Looking good! Although I assume you will remove the watermark from the building facades (4th shot) or is that an intentional joke?

Cheers! Yep, I've got hundreds of textures to clean up at some point, my to-do list is huge!

[quakis]

dandouglas, on 21 June 2022 - 10:24 PM, said:

Cheers! Yep, I've got hundreds of textures to clean up at some point, my to-do list is huge!

Need any help with that texture clean up? I wouldn't mind assisting.

[ck3D]

In addition to Blast Radius work I started a new speed map the other night during the 'mappening' Aleks organized on Discord, turned out to be fun and I got a lot done despite my PC overheating, idea was everyone had to pick a level from base Duke 3D to try and reinterpret or recreate from memory and I picked Freeway but of course the results look nothing like Freeway. I'm mostly enjoying playing with and around that map's gimmick. Didn't complete it in one night (no one did) but kept going on my breaks because fun and now I must have spent four or five hours on it in total, it's around 600 sectors and structurally mostly done, I just need to enclose and finalize a few areas, then add ambient sounds, cyclers and SE's wherever they're still missed, then monsters then boom, map. Would be stupid easy to turn into 'Moon Freeway' at this point too and so maybe, maybe not.

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[dandouglas]

quakis, on 23 June 2022 - 07:10 AM, said:

Need any help with that texture clean up? I wouldn't mind assisting.

Thanks so much for the offer! I'll see how I'm doing further down the line... I think it's going to be literally years before I'm at the cleanup stage

[ck3D]

Progress on the Freeway remake thing, it's in the 900 sectors now and basically structurally complete, just need to design the ending and add some detail here and there and then gameplay. Last shot was caught in the middle of flashing lights, also all those cars circulate (and will kill you but spare the enemies).

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