[jimbob]

After about a year or two production mostly by myself, with a ton of help from Mark, and support from the community here i am proud to be releasing episode 1 for Operation : Mallard.

the story so far

You are Dough Nookham, private in the US army during WW2, due to your shown bravery and efficiëncy in killing massive amounts of germans you are sent on a special mission, to stop the germans from developing experimental weaponry.
in this prologue episode you get to show just how efficiënt and ruthless you are. burn them, blow off thier heads, and blast them to bits! this small campaign takes you through Africa, and France, future releases will take you to Norway, Germany and who knows where else.

you get to go through basic training, a small map to familiarise you with the movement, weapons and options presented in the game. after completing this optional tutorial you are taken back to the main menu so you can "go to war" in the prologue episode.

while this mod has a serious tone, there is the occasional funny situation ( atleast i thought it was funny at the time. ) and dialogue.

currently episode 2 is in active and advanced development with a release on the horizon somewhere. due to me being the only active mapper it takes some time. thankfully Mark helps me out with art, dialogue recordings and bits and bobs.

Installation Instructions :
The usual, make a fresh map and install duke3d 1.5, extract the files to the folder and run operation mallard initialisation.bat to get started. im pretty sure there is a better way to do it but this should work.
dont forget to set up our sprint and scope keys!

music works best at 50% volume, i recommend setting auto aim to off for all weapons! the bazooka fires at an arc so with auto aim on all shots will fall short on long distances. adding to the realism.

support : has been tested with duke3d 1.5, and reported to run fine on megaton edition. world tour is untested.

website
https://www.moddb.co...eration-mallard

have fun, for feedback, bugs and suggestions i recommend using this thread.

Attached thumbnail(s)

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[Ninety-Six]

jimbob, on 14 February 2023 - 03:07 AM, said:

support : has been tested with duke3d 1.5,

As in, Dos Duke 3D?

[Mark]

Jimbob gave a good description of the project but I would like to add two things. This is a WIP project and although this first campaign demo is fun and fully playable, there are some placeholder assets in the art and dialog. We are aware of some minor issues but as Jimbob said, please report any bugs, nitpicks or suggestions in this thread. You guys are our beta testers. Good feedback makes for a better result for the final release.

The 2nd thing is Jimbob would like to have some mapping help. So if you like what you see and have an interest in helping, let him know. I just found another person to help with the voice acting so that will get a quality/variety boost.

[jimbob]

Ninety-Six, on 14 February 2023 - 05:10 AM, said:

As in, Dos Duke 3D?

eduke32, combined with your 1.5 duke3d.grp should be enough. it wont run in 8 bit mode, so far i havent made all the apropriate .anm files ( yet ) i use some original textures from 1.5 so a 1.3 .grp file wont cut it.
i tried making it fully 8 bit compatible but skyboxes etc added so much to the game i decided to let that idea go.

[ck3D]

Congrats on release and going through with the effort of a mostly solo project, love to see it. I'm so sorry to hear classic/8bpp is out of the picture, that's all I can run on my machine for now and I had been looking forward to trying this out after seeing all the updates and screenshots, but whenever I get the chance I will be sure to give this a try, and I'll keep following the project. Was looking forward to seeing your take on France in particular! Still downloading as I reckon I can still take a look around and appreciate a lot of what you did in the editor. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

[jimbob]

technically it should run fine untill you get to a video file that has no .anm to run in 8 bit mode, you could theoretically play all the maps no problem. but most skyboxes will look horrible since they use art that was a placeholder most of the time.if i ever have enough time, and can figure out how to mount my drives in doxbox i could render the .anm files no problem. but its something i did not get around to so far. there are also a few 3d models that im not sure if they are drawn at all in 8 bit mode. this goes for classic mode aswell. its something i'll add to the "to do" list just for 'backwards compatibility' reasons.

[edit] just did a quick test, while it does run in classic mode, it will run like ass. it either skips the videos or uses the default ones from duke3d, 3d models are not rendered instead you see a black square ( probably because there is no real 2d image defined for it in the .art files, something that might be fixable.) but its atleast halfway decently playable.

[ck3D]

Oh yeah if all classic mode breaks is the skyboxes and .anm then I can totally give the gameplay a shot, that's reassuring news. I'll be posting feedback after I have.

Totally feel your pain on the unpracticality of the original .anm format in modern times, by the way. Every time I ever tried looking into working with that stuff over the past few years only resulted in throbbing headaches.

[jimbob]

its easy enough with blender, but getting the correct frames stuffed into a .anm format is a headache since the only tool i can find is pcx2anm or something, an old dos executable that needs dosbox to run, so i have to mount everything in dosbox and create it from there. i dont know why i remember it crashing, but as off now i can only say its "tested but unsupported"

[stillTodd]

Maybe we should put our heads together and donate (money or even a system) to pull @ck3D up out of the stone age

[dwtietz]

jimbob, on 14 February 2023 - 06:46 PM, said:

... if i ever have enough time, and can figure out how to mount my drives in doxbox...

From the DOSBox Readme.txt file:

===============================================================
START: How to start?
At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt.
You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory
(that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you
a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux.
To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went
fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>".


AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands?
In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands
present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section
for the mounting. Look at Section 13: The configuration (options) file
===============================================================

There are more examples in section 4 of this file, but what you see above is pretty much all you really need to know about it.

[dwtietz]

With either of the following lines being present in autoexec.cfg and settings.cfg there are graphical artifacts produced in certain areas that appear in the form of a wire frame around the edges of walls:

r_useindexedcolortextures "0"
r_texfilter "5"

Here is an example of what this looks like:



If I remove either of those two lines and leave the other then the same issue occurs, but if I remove both then it looks OK as shown in this screenshot:



Additionally, r_texfilter "5" doesn't actually work at all on my machine, only values of "0" or "1" do, but I'd suggest removing both lines entirely anyway due to the issues that they create when they are present.

[Mark]

That is with a ATI video card IIRC. The r_texfilter 5 works on my Nvidia card. Otherwise what dwtietz says is correct about getting rid of the lines. I prefer the filtering on so I'll just pretend those lines are telephone lines.

[dwtietz]

Mark, on 18 February 2023 - 05:41 AM, said:

That is with a ATI video card IIRC. The r_texfilter 5 works on my Nvidia card. Otherwise what dwtietz says is correct about getting rid of the lines. I prefer the filtering on so I'll just pretend those lines are telephone lines.

This is with an AMD Radeon HD 7660D onboard graphics adapter. You'll see in the eduke32.log file where it states that it switches to "Enabling ATI FBO color attachment workaround" while executing the contents of autoexec.cfg.

If r_texfilter is set to 5 the game does load, but I end up with displays like these for example:



And here's a copy of the game's log file:

 eduke32.log (17.66K)
Number of downloads: 138

[dwtietz]

There are some signs that appear backwards when viewed from their back side, like this example:



In this instance, even if the tile where made to be viewed the right way it still wouldn't appear correct with the way that it is attached to the post. What could be done here though is to have another tile that matches the dimensions of the signage tile that either has a metal or a wood pattern, and then place both sprites very closed to each other to form a "sandwich" where one tile (the metal or wood) makes up the back of the sign while the other shows the front of the sign. We have some similar constructs to this in the Ion Jungle project that SPYmaps and I are working on.

This banner has the same issue where the swastika is facing the right way from one side, but is backwards from the other side:



If you wanted this to appear the right way from both sides, that too could be accomplished by sandwiching two of the same tiles very close together, with each pointing in opposite directions.

[ck3D]

^ Something I tend to do in such instances when using two one-sided sprites is, I either make the back one the same as the front one and flipped depending on context (e.g.. would make sense for a woven banner, but not for a metal sign unless it looks engraved), or a completely different, 'neutral' sprite with either the same dimensions or adjusted in-editor to fit, that technique also allows you to give each side different properties mostly in terms of shading and palette, so you can have the front bright and the back a lot darker (which actually makes logical sense shading-wise in a lot of situations). I feel like that's been common Build practice forever though, off memory (don't quote me on that) I think even some The Birth levels already were onto that.

YouTube user Necro Insomniac already has a full playthrough up - reporting in case you might miss it - here's their video for the first map but the rest is on their channel too:

[Aleks]

ck3D, on 18 February 2023 - 08:41 PM, said:

^ Something I tend to do in such instances when using two one-sided sprites is, I either make the back one the same as the front one and flipped depending on context (e.g.. would make sense for a woven banner, but not for a metal sign unless it looks engraved), or a completely different, 'neutral' sprite with either the same dimensions or adjusted in-editor to fit, that technique also allows you to give each side different properties mostly in terms of shading and palette, so you can have the front bright and the back a lot darker (which actually makes logical sense shading-wise in a lot of situations). I feel like that's been common Build practice forever though, off memory (don't quote me on that) I think even some The Birth levels already were onto that.

Yeah Going Postal did that with the stop sign, I think this was also the "intended" purpose of this hexagonal grey sprite we all love to use and abuse for tables and everything.

[jimbob]

dwtietz, on 17 February 2023 - 02:43 PM, said:

From the DOSBox Readme.txt file:

===============================================================
START: How to start?
At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt.
You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory
(that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you
a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux.
To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went
fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>".


AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands?
In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands
present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section
for the mounting. Look at Section 13: The configuration (options) file
===============================================================

There are more examples in section 4 of this file, but what you see above is pretty much all you really need to know about it.

noted, i'll give it a try soon and patch it in if it all works.

[jimbob]

dwtietz, on 18 February 2023 - 07:01 AM, said:

There are some signs that appear backwards when viewed from their back side, like this example:

004.1.png 004.2.png

In this instance, even if the tile where made to be viewed the right way it still wouldn't appear correct with the way that it is attached to the post. What could be done here though is to have another tile that matches the dimensions of the signage tile that either has a metal or a wood pattern, and then place both sprites very closed to each other to form a "sandwich" where one tile (the metal or wood) makes up the back of the sign while the other shows the front of the sign. We have some similar constructs to this in the Ion Jungle project that SPYmaps and I are working on.

This banner has the same issue where the swastika is facing the right way from one side, but is backwards from the other side:

003.1.png 003.2.png

If you wanted this to appear the right way from both sides, that too could be accomplished by sandwiching two of the same tiles very close together, with each pointing in opposite directions.

the first one is something i will fix, the second one, the flags are destructable, hence they are normal sprites, not two sandwiched together, flags tend to do that in real life too so i'll leave that as is.
as far as the texture filtering black lines issue is concerned, i am aware of it, but mark remarked ( har har ) that this is a issue in the eduke renderer that was fixed at some point but snuck back in, something to do with clamping the textures. the game was designed without texture filtering in mind so if it bothers you that is the only fix i can give right now unfortunatly.

[jimbob]

its fun to see someone else comment and play the game, but i hate my own voice and the acting in the end video is terrible :')

[dwtietz]

jimbob, on 19 February 2023 - 06:50 AM, said:

...the game was designed without texture filtering in mind so if it bothers you that is the only fix i can give right now unfortunatly.

No worries, manually editing autoexec.cfg and settings.cfg is easy enough. If you'll be creating a general troubleshooting section within the readme file at some point, it might be worth while providing instructions for the end user on how to edit the values in these files, especially in the case of r_texfilter where the current value could potentially produce menus and in-game displays that are garbled and/or filled with black boxes instead of the intended sprites on some systems.

Don't feel bad about the voice recordings; nobody likes the sound of their own voice. And if a particular line or set of lines didn't turn out the best, you can always do a retake easily enough if and when you feel it's warranted.

[jimbob]

ok, ive seen a few of those videos and there's a few things i should probably mention somewhere in the game, Moving while firing significantly reduces accuracy, crouching and shooting significantly increases it!
i'll increase the accuracy of the garand a bit
there is a dedicated sprint button!
also there is a dedicated button for the sniper scope.

[dwtietz]

Yeah, I've noticed myself that I believe that the accuracy of some of the weapons could possibly be improved a bit. There were times where I'd be standing perfectly still, taking shots and I could see that several of the shots were not hitting what I had the pointer aiming at at all... flying off to the left, right, upward or downward. I presumed at the time that maybe there's a "fuck up aim" variable at play or something, which is fine if there is, but it should maybe be reigned in a bit tighter if this is the case. Like the video poster said too, some of the enemies are a bit bullet spongey atm, the dogs especially, but even the German soldiers should be brought down in health points just a notch or two.

Overall I really, really enjoyed the layout of the maps and the environments. Good work so far.

[jimbob]

standing still is meh accuracy, moving is horrible, ducking is good accuracy
i need to increase the clipping distance on the dog, he's pretty weak but his hitbox is really small so most bullets simply miss. a solid tactic is let him run to you and shoot him once with the garand, he'll run away, rinse and repeat.
thanks a lot the next set of maps are much more ambitious, and we have a few good angles on more enemies too.

with a solid hit, the standard soldiers go down in two garand shots, the stronger "more experienced" germans go down in 3 to four garand shots, the MP40 guys also 3 to 4. i'll lower it a bit as i see a massive difference between my playing, and the videos. i end the first map with almost max ammo, health but i keep forgetting to balance things out for players that are new to this mod, the first map should be much more forgiving than it seems to be in that youtube video.
also a thing to look out for, sometimes i place stuff around to get a few cheap kills, like in the last room in north africa with the 3 MP40 guys, there's a grenade on the table that, if shot, should take out both the guys near the table.

i wonder, did anyone find the "super secret" little quest yet? and the secret level?

[MC84]

Hi Jimbob I finally got a chance to play through your mod/demo and I thought you did a great job. While there were some minor quibbles here and there ultimately you managed to get the most important aspect right - fun! The combat was great, the weapons felt meaty and the level design was straightforward but engaging. I also really liked the comical scenes (ie with the old man and later with the nazis setting a bomb/trap). Keep up the good work!

[jimbob]

thanks thats good to hear, fun was the main target, i'd love to hear the quibbles too, maybe i adressed them alreay or maybe i will.
[edit]
i hope everyone is getting all the silly jokes and references i put in i had particular fun with the german propaganda announcer

[Dr.Panico]

It took a while, but Mikko finally reviewed your mod:
https://msdn.duke4.net/revmallard.php

[jimbob]

Dr.Panico, on 22 April 2023 - 02:37 AM, said:

It took a while, but Mikko finally reviewed your mod:
https://msdn.duke4.net/revmallard.php

awesome, some valid points i noticed, some of wich are already fixed or about to. i can say that the newer level will be larger, and feature more fancy stuff.