[Aleks]

Since I've just started a Discord "thread" on this, I guess it's a good idea to post it here as well.

This is something I have been working on for quite a bit (on and off due to very busy time in my life, unfortunately). The original idea was to keep it under the radar until the release besides some private chats, but since it was mentioned here and there anyway lately, I thought why not sharing some of it already - especially since I haven't had any time to work on it for over a month.

The idea is to provide a code that enables a lot of new effects in "vanilla" Duke 3D which can be 100% controlled from the level editing side, without any extra code input required. I do have some plans on what I will use it for in the future, but this project itself will be developed as a baseline thing to allow other mappers to use the effects (I try to keep the code fairly clean as well in case someone would like to borrow just a couple of features).

I'm fairly sure that a lot of these things have been already done in large mods like Duke Plus, AMC Squad, Alien Armageddon etc., but here the approach is completely different, as I don't add anything else into the game and it is entirely up to the mapper whether the features are used or not. I also try to allow as much flexibility with the effects so as much as possible can be achieved with various combinations of basic stuff - even beyond what I have originally envisioned.

So far there are 39 new effectors coded, along with 5 additional things that can change the behaviour of some things already in game, such as respawns or switches. I have 9 more effectors planned, some of them will be fairly simple to code and some others will require a lot more tinkering. Some of the stuff is mere QoL improvements or things that were theoretically already possible to make, but eating up a lot of resources, while some are completely new. I'm also preparing a full manual, describing how to implement and control each effect (currently at 39 pages in Word...) and a demo map showing a potential use for each effect (and sometimes a combination of these if I'm feeling fancy). Below is a short video showing a couple of the effects that are implemented and added into the demo map.

[ck3D]

PASTE_SECTOR has the potential to open so many Pandora's boxes regardless of how limited it may (not) be. How is this achieved, switching out matching wallnum connections? Normally cliché to say but can you imagine if base D3D/BUILD had had this (just PASTE_SECTOR) in 1996, also for users to apply when mapping etc... all the insane shit around Duke maps we would have gotten with it in 30 years that we never could see/make/play. I feel like the landscape wouldn't be different in mindset at all (people still would have approached an experimental editor experimentally) but the actual legacy of the scene would be some bizarro.

[Aleks]

ck3D, on 30 May 2026 - 10:01 PM, said:

PASTE_SECTOR has the potential to open so many Pandora's boxes regardless of how limited it may (not) be. How is this achieved, switching out matching wallnum connections? Normally cliché to say but can you imagine if base D3D/BUILD had had this (just PASTE_SECTOR) in 1996, also for users to apply when mapping etc... all the insane shit around Duke maps we would have gotten with it in 30 years that we never could see/make/play. I feel like the landscape wouldn't be different in mindset at all (people still would have approached an experimental editor experimentally) but the actual legacy of the scene would be some bizarro.

The walls are controlled with CHANGE_TEXTURE, but yeah PASTE_SECTOR has a lot of potential for bizarre effects. But there is also an effector that is meant to be used with multi-floor lifts that can swap wall connections (nextwall and nextsector), the purpose of that was proper control of lift similar to what I did in Simpler Times, i.e. with 3 openings on top of each other that in that case were controlled by slide door (so limited to 3 floors due to geometric restraints). Here you can just switch that on the go (I've put an artificial limit of 32 floors or something just for the sake of drawing the line somewhere, but could be extended) and besides that, could potentially be used to more bizarre stuff.

[Jan Satcitananda]

That's a great project! It seems to cover functions the standard map effects don't handle well, enabling mappers to use a shared codebase adding various novel stuff. Are you going to keep the mod compatible with "vanilla" maps while adding the new features? I'm asking because I'm currently working on a modular mutator system based on CON events, with compatibility and extensibility in mind. I already have a mutator that customizes map startup, e.g. with it you can disable the hard-coded behavior of specific sprites, randomize item placement for replayability, or make the player start the map with a specific health value. It would be cool if your toolkit could be integrated with my mutator system as well.

What I would really like in such a mod is some ability to move whole parts of the map and also updating wall pointers (nextwall/nextsector), dynamically reconnecting sectors as they move. Does your "paste sector" effect work this way?

Having convenient facilities for timing and logic is also cool. Of course one can use auto-close doors, two-way trains and shooter targets to do map logic, but sometimes this may feel awkward and counter-intuitive.

[Aleks]

Jan Satcitananda, on 16 July 2026 - 09:45 PM, said:

That's a great project! It seems to cover functions the standard map effects don't handle well, enabling mappers to use a shared codebase adding various novel stuff. Are you going to keep the mod compatible with "vanilla" maps while adding the new features? I'm asking because I'm currently working on a modular mutator system based on CON events, with compatibility and extensibility in mind. I already have a mutator that customizes map startup, e.g. with it you can disable the hard-coded behavior of specific sprites, randomize item placement for replayability, or make the player start the map with a specific health value. It would be cool if your toolkit could be integrated with my mutator system as well.

Yes, I'm intending to keep everything vanilla-compatible and don't modify any original effectors. Enemy code etc. is only modified (e.g. to activate stuff) if triggered by the presence/setup of a certain new "effector" sprite. I think it would be easy to integrate it into/with something larger.

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What I would really like in such a mod is some ability to move whole parts of the map and also updating wall pointers (nextwall/nextsector), dynamically reconnecting sectors as they move. Does your "paste sector" effect work this way?

There are effectors for moving/changing vertices. Regarding nextwall/nextsector swapping, I have enabled that for a multifloor elevator that I have implemented. The setup is basically several layers of SOS sharing same wall at different heights and elevator switching the wall and sector it is connected to depending on the floor it is meant to stop at. I suppose the same technique could be used also for other effects like horizontal movers.

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Having convenient facilities for timing and logic is also cool. Of course one can use auto-close doors, two-way trains and shooter targets to do map logic, but sometimes this may feel awkward and counter-intuitive.

Yes, the stuff that I have right now is easier to set up, more intuitive and - most importantly - a lot less resource-hungry than the shooter-target contraptions. Another benefit is the possibility to activate various effects in a single sector separately and not just by an activator/SE/ST pairing that triggers everything at once.