[Fox]

I wonder about the missing building, perhaps it didn't exist at the date the photo was taken?

[Radar]

OMG. Any details on the origins of that top photo?

[Fox]

It's just a random image I found on Google.

[Radar]

A quick google search reveals other similar photos. I suppose it's just a very common angle of the city. I think it's safe to say that the missing building was added just to make everything look fuller. That building doesn't exist in real life.

[Jimmy]

It could have existed in the 90's perhaps. Very good eye, Fox.

[Kathy]

Jimmy, on 30 June 2013 - 11:03 AM, said:

It could have existed in the 90's perhaps.

If it was I highly doubt it would have been demolished unnoticed.

[Fox]

At least I couldn't find any photo with a building beetween the City National Plaza twin towers.

Here is a similar view of the city in daytime:



If anyone is wondering, the Hollywood sign in the paralaxed sky is very close to the real thing, except that it is located in the opposite direction:



Some additional info about the paralaxed sky texture:

• the aspect ratio has been adjusted properly.
  
• based on the height of the Union Bank Plaza and City National Plaza, the image is on a scale of 0.63 meters per pixel (assuming the image is an orthographic view).
  
• the horizon is on a height of 148.39 m from the ground of the buildings and from a distance of 81.19 m of the observer.

[NNC]

Radar, on 29 June 2013 - 05:23 PM, said:

I always found it interesting how the music in that level is in 5/4 time. I take it Lee Jackson wrote it?

No, Bobby "Doom" Prince wrote it. Probably my favourite tune in the game. Even more than Stalker and Futurmil.

[NNC]

Fox, on 30 June 2013 - 01:18 AM, said:

I wonder about the missing building, perhaps it didn't exist at the date the photo was taken?

Amazing find.

[Minigunner]

Another thing about the LA night sky in Duke3D: the clouds seem to be a 128-wide texture pasted behind the scenery. This is what I got out of it, with some edits to make it seamless:

Maybe they have the original cloud texture (probably 128x128), but I'm not certain of that.
In the meantime, this texture could be used to extend the LA sky infinitely upwards for Polymost.

Also, I can definitely see that some of the building textures are based off of some of those skyscrapers.
In that case, I may as well post the picture I took of downtown LA (as seen from the 5) while heading to Orange County, since it shows the colors of the buildings a bit better. Have fun guessing which building is which.

[Fox]

Speaking of the clouds, the episode 3 cutscene has a blueish starry sky instead.



In the PSX version it is set during dusk instead. I guess it makes sense since it looks sort of daytime in the levels (perhaps it could be used for the HRP too). Additionally the buildings match the real life ones.



Edit:

I realized that in v1.0 and v0.99 the paralaxed sky has a 5th tile, which solves the mistery of the building I posted before.

I moved that tile down (I didn't made that up, if you look at the tile you will know), and it filled the space beetween the City National Plaza twin towers. While it is missing the top, the bottom matches the real life buildings.

The tile that used to be there I moved to the left of the Hollywood sign, and it seems it is where it was intended to be. The reason I was confused was because they reused the building in the bottom for both tiles.



This is how I believe it was meant to be.

[Mikko Pekkola]

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 01:22 PM, said:

Page 145(Beta Duke 3D)

Also a great find, but... Did you find any other scans of this magazine with more screenshots of this Beta Duke 3D? I am very interested to see them

[dnskill]

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 01:22 PM, said:

Page 53

Well... I tried recreating that shotgun pickup, but failed.. I hope somebody else can do it!



EDIT, here's a shitty way of doing it:


EDIT AGAIN, here is my final attempt, and I think this is the best one (practice makes almost perfect)
Version one
Version two

Also, a friend of mine pointed out that this beta shotgun you all saw in that one screenshot.. It looks very much like the shotgun in Alien Trilogy (PSX)..

[leilei]

I'm not sure about this one - Was the dancer actress ever known?

There's some partial rotoscoping with a few of the sprites, and i'm pretty sure it's the same person as the cheerleader, the red microbikini dancer, calendar girl, the Exotica dancer (with pixeled new head), the blinking eye, etc.

[Minigunner]

It's possible that like Duke and all the monsters, the women were also model rips.

[dnskill]

I remember in the official strategy guide book, the author talked to one of the artist and the artist was one who got to work on the girls, making it sound like they were hand drawn. I think Minigunner is right, they could've been model edits, or something. I doubt it was a real girl. And the posters and stuff (not the biker babe/sister act iii posters) were probably real posters, edited a lot to fit the game, but maybe not.

I also think the Duke Nukem was not at first a model, but in fact a GI Joe or something. Just look at the Lame Duke skin, looks like a toy, and the sun glasses looked like they were put on using MS Paint.

[leilei]

The girls aren't models. This is 1995 technology - uncanny valley would be quite obvious if they were actually model renders. While it's true that some have pixel work done to them, you can clearly see use of footage in some of the sprites (particularly cheerleader/tribal/red dancer) and the animated walls.

Lameduke however, has a few models that are extremely Poser 4-esque. Mspaint didn't exist then either.

[Jimmy]

3DR mainly used Deluxe Paint and Deluxe Animate on Rise of the Triad, Duke 3D, and Shadow Warrior, even early versions of DNF.

[dnskill]

I know MSPaint didn't exist then, lol what I was saying is how sloppy the sunglasses were put on in the Lameduke skin. It looked as if the model/action figure/whatever it started out to be originally had no sunglasses on it, and someone just did a rough job on them for the time being.

Anyways, I think I've noticed something.

In a lot of old screenshots with that early pig cop with the baton, you can see him appear to be flying in the air and an explosion around him. I think the reason the enemies fly forward from rockets has something to do with this. Maybe they had planned for just the pig cop to do this (when pigs fly!), but forgot to edit the code?

[ReaperMan]

leilei, on 07 July 2013 - 08:51 AM, said:

Mspaint didn't exist then either.

Mspaints first release was in 1985 with windows 1.0.... so yes it did exist.

[leilei]

"Mspaint" generally refers to the 1995 rewrite with palettes, random spray brush, etc. Paints before that were "Paintbrush / pbrush" and then "Paint" which operated almost completely differently to Mspaint. No matter which version of Microsoft Paint, it's not used in the production of professional products anyway.

[Jimmy]

Just whipped this up.

[Fox]

There is part of a building that shouldn't be there.

[Jimmy]

Where at exactly? I noticed you cut out part of a building that SHOULD have been there.

[Fox]

I was speaking about a corner of the Union Bank that remains in the background. About the one you mentioned, actually that seems unlikely because the City National Plaza towers are identical, and that makes their sizes very different (there is also a 1 pixel difference beetween height of the building in the two tiles).

[necroslut]

leilei, on 07 July 2013 - 08:51 AM, said:

The girls aren't models. This is 1995 technology - uncanny valley would be quite obvious if they were actually model renders. While it's true that some have pixel work done to them, you can clearly see use of footage in some of the sprites (particularly cheerleader/tribal/red dancer) and the animated walls.

Lameduke however, has a few models that are extremely Poser 4-esque. Mspaint didn't exist then either.

Joe Siegler mentioned that the two strippers were the same girl - meaning they were not 3D models or hand-drawn.

[Fox]

A few more photos of LA that matches the paralaxed sky.

Spoiler

[Mark]

Is anyone planning to chop any of Fox's pics into a skybox? Or are they not suitable.

[Fox]

Maybe they are, but the way the game is hard-coded to mix 8 pieces in the sky is quite disappointing.

[Fox]

The blood from enemy sprites was not so 3D as the models they originated from:



Concept art for Duke Nukem 64 weapons: