[Jan Satcitananda]

Recently I redrawn the main menu logo in pixel-by-pixel fashion making "3d" into "qwn3d". This is how my menu looks now.

[Jan Satcitananda]

This may be interesting:
http://lzg.duke4.net/lnga.htm

Btw, a strange thing: I can make over 128 pals (up to 252) in LOOKUP.DAT and Mapster32 handles them correctly, but EDuke32 pops SIGSEGV when launched with more than 128 pals. If I could actually use 252 pals, there probably would be a support of normal mapping.

[Danukem]

What you are doing is truly amazing. I hope you will release something soon, even if only some of the features are finished.

[Jan Satcitananda]

I'm working on the main HUD block. Its ammo box has been temporarily adapted to standard weapons.

[Gambini]

nice and original. The liztroop shadow could be motive of discussion though.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Hmm, maybe corpses shouldn't cast any shadows, or they must be larger and fainter a bit?
There's also a code for displaying facing sprites in a proper perspective (like wall-aligned sprites); you see the trooper's corpse skewed because it's off the center of view.

[Ryan Cordell]

Looking awesome there. Love the ol' reflection thing going on with the metal bar. :3

[Sebastian]

Nice hud! I'd rather move the inventory window somewhere else though since it blocks the view from the hud weapons. Everything just looks absolutely terrific besides that!

Any idea when we can get our hands on this? How "open" are you going to be with the code you created?

[Jan Satcitananda]

Rusty Nails, on Apr 27 2010, 12:50 AM, said:

Nice hud! I'd rather move the inventory window somewhere else though since it blocks the view from the hud weapons. Everything just looks absolutely terrific besides that!

Yep, the standard weapons get partially occluded because they were designed for another HUD layout. Eventually they'll be replaced with native LNGA weaponry (though, I'll have to model and render each of them at first ). I'm gonna rearrange the "state" box a bit as well; probably I'll add a "run mode" icon.

Quote

Any idea when we can get our hands on this? How "open" are you going to be with the code you created?

DeeperThought, on Feb 12 2010, 01:56 AM, said:

What you are doing is truly amazing. I hope you will release something soon, even if only some of the features are finished.

I guess an 'alpha' release may come out till the end of the year. Then, the gameplay likely will be fucked up due to Duke's guns and physics being redone. Ongoing tasks of mod's development are revising the multi-pass render code, making a lighting system and accomplishing the GUI widgets.

I'll be ready to share my code when it's published. Of course, I have the code split into a bunch of cons; there's one for some vector math and miscellaneous formulae, another handles the rendering process etc. So far most of them are just stubs and it will take some months to make them actually working.

[Daedolon]

16°C? I'm really loving what you've done so far. I normally don't like sprites facing the player instead of the viewport, but it's a bit refreshing to see that in Duke, although I would hope the liztroop's shadow would be as wide as the body is.

Keep the updates coming!

[Jan Satcitananda]

Is the lower case menu ok? =) I used a rain texture for the background, but it is only a test before I make a new background. Blue stripes seen in previous shots will be used for the 'escape key' menu.

[Geoffrey]

looks good to me!

[Sebastian]

Yeah, looks good!

[Simon_Croes]

Look great man

[Jan Satcitananda]

Thx for feedback, I'll keep it this way...

Experimenting with more visual effects for the logo. I found a way to apply a wave effect to a sprite drawn via rotatesprite16. A slight wave will pass through that "LNGA" sprite when it appears. However, this tile is about to be redrawn due to its off-key stylistics...
The figure in the middle is a rotating tetrix (fractal tetrahedron) made of 1024 dots. It looks nice when animated but seems a bit out of place here (in the logo screen), so I'll employ it somewhere else.

[Daedolon]

I can't even begin to fathom how did you manage to write those things. You seem to continue to surprise us.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Making a custom loading screen... This one accentuates mod's realism by saying that the "spacetime continuum" is being reconstructed. Also, some pictures (unique for each level) will be drawn atop to indicate which map is loading.



PS: I can't use gametext command for main menu font due to its irregular charset, so my display code is like this. However, it might be a good idea to make one more font of that size with a complete charset (it's already drawn, so I just need to make tiles from my bitmap).

setaspect CAMERAZOOM 65536

setvar x 69 setvar y 120 setvar pal IDX8L_GREEN
myospal x y 2955 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // p
myospal x y 2951 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // l
myospal x y 2965 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // z
addvar x 5
myospal x y 2962 0 16 pal addvar x 10 // w
myospal x y 2938 0 16 pal addvar x 10 // 8
myospal x y 3003 0 16 pal addvar x 4  // ,
addvar x 5
myospal x y 2957 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // r
myospal x y 2944 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // e
myospal x y 2942 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // c
myospal x y 2954 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // o
myospal x y 2953 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // n
myospal x y 2958 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // s
myospal x y 2959 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // t
myospal x y 2957 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // r
myospal x y 2960 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // u
myospal x y 2942 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // c
myospal x y 2959 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // t
myospal x y 2948 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // i
myospal x y 2953 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // n
myospal x y 2946 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // g
addvar y 20 setvar x 72
myospal x y 2958 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // s
myospal x y 2955 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // p
myospal x y 2940 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // a
myospal x y 2942 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // c
myospal x y 2944 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // e
myospal x y 2959 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // t
myospal x y 2948 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // i
myospal x y 2952 0 16 pal addvar x 10 // m
myospal x y 2944 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // e
addvar x 5
myospal x y 2942 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // c
myospal x y 2954 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // o
myospal x y 2953 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // n
myospal x y 2959 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // t
myospal x y 2948 0 16 pal addvar x 8  // i
myospal x y 2953 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // n
myospal x y 2960 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // u
myospal x y 2960 0 16 pal addvar x 9  // u
myospal x y 2952 0 16 pal addvar x 10 // m
myospal x y 3002 0 16 pal addvar x 4  // .
myospal x y 3002 0 16 pal addvar x 4  // .
myospal x y 3002 0 16 pal addvar x 4  // .

setaspect CAMERAZOOM 78643

[Jan Satcitananda]

Ok, my big font is now redone and I've cleaned up this char-by-char crap.. =)



One more exotic feature of the mod is fast-forwarding, shown on the screenshot. The gameplay in my mod tends to be extremely slow compared to regular action games, since all processes will be strictly real-time (remade to their actual durations). For example, Duke won't urinate in a couple of seconds anymore; furthermore, sleeping may last many hours, requiring some innovative methods for cutting out unnecessary time.

As an alternative to apparent shortening of various actions, the time itself will speed up during processes not requiring player's attention. It's supposed that little or no graphics/sound is processed during the fast-forwarding (still the current realization makes sounds and produces graphics, but at a lower framerate). So far the maximum attainable speed is restricted by the processor power and usually doesn't go above 100x. But since even higher speeds are needed (perhaps, thousands the normal speed), also possible on very complex maps with lots of various actors, some additional optimizations to actor coding are necessary.

[Danukem]

That's cool, and it is indeed exotic. Actually, the fast-forwarding feature isn't so strange (I'm guessing you mainly use the inittimer command for that), what's strange is that you want all processes happening for realistic durations, including things such as sleeping. It's an appealing idea if you want to maximize immersion and realism, but it could potentially limit the appeal of your mod, even with the fast-forwarding feature.

[Gambini]

Yeah we already have real life for 100% realism. Games should not be so strict about that.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Well, I think that realistic durations can largely contribute to immersion. Maybe it's because I have no life, but I really wanna make something like this; I've never played a game realistic enough in terms of gameplay, so this is why I'm checking what can be done in an EDuke32 mod. What if we make Duke a bit more realistic? It doesn't mean that the game will become boring. I'm just trying completely another approach for achieving well balanced gameplay.

[Danukem]

A few years ago I started making a hyper-realism mod. I didn't have any of the amazing effects you have coded, but I was trying to make the action very realistic. What I found is that the mod didn't work well with the 3DR maps. If you got shot even one time you could be in serious trouble, bleeding to death. Realistically, med kits can't magically heal you; they can maybe stabilize you and stop blood loss. And if you want to be very realistic, then you can't use medical supplies while you are walking around, shooting etc. To accommodate realism, the level design has to be very different; more stealth based, possibly squad based. But then it becomes like a modern military simulator and it's not Duke Nukem anymore, imo.

[Jan Satcitananda]

The point is that I ain't trying to make another "war simulator", like some modern FPS; this is a versatile sci-fi mod with simulation/strategy/adventure elements. So it hasn't to be a squad/stealth action game.

Realistic action also means that without special shield you can die from a single bullet. Luckily, Duke's personal shield generator will protect him from most attacks, giving him more chance to survive.

Adapting the 3DR levels to an absolutely foreign style of gameplay can be a challenge. Of course, you can kill everybody like in regular Duke, protected by your powerful shield system. As alternatives, you can use the virtual telecommunication and try to collaborate with some races in any way, or buy them over, or even establish friendly relations for a brief period on false pretences. This can't last for long though, since in order to make progress you'll have to steal their items (like weapons or keycards) and hit nukebuttons they guard. But... all these planned AI improvements will take a lot of time to code and polish.

[Geoffrey]

The new stuff sounds great to me It might scare some people away but I hope you just throw every stupid idea you have into it. If it's going to be a totally surreal gaming experience then all for the better

[Jan Satcitananda]

You bet. I consider adding a "realistic sexy woman portrait"... or a "nice stair wall"...xD of course, if it will fit in the game. Seriously, the realism is not an end in itself, since the mod is to be playable, after all..

[The Commander]

CraigFatman, on Jun 16 2010, 08:06 AM, said:

You bet. I consider adding a "realistic sexy woman portrait"... or a "nice stair wall"...xD of course, if it will fit in the game. Seriously, the realism is not an end in itself, since the mod is to be playable, after all..

Don't forget that music can't be midi but OGG!!!!
Something that no one has ever done before!

[CruX]

The Commander, on Jun 15 2010, 09:38 PM, said:

Don't forget that music can't be midi but OGG!!!!
Something that no one has ever done before!

To be perfectly honest, I actually feel kinda bad for the guy. I mean, yeah, he pretty much brings it on himself, but the language barrier is often what winds up getting him ridiculed. That point to past, the levels he's working on for that new mod actually look pretty badass, you can tell at least that he's putting a lot effort into it.

Anywho, this is mod is so cool looking, it's stupefying. If I start to think about how you pulled some of these effects off, I can feel my brain start to die.

[Jan Satcitananda]

The Commander, on Jun 16 2010, 08:38 AM, said:

Don't forget that music can't be midi but OGG!!!!
Something that no one has ever done before!

Rofl=) nonetheless, digital music doesn't seem like something that nobody done before. I think, some kind of tracker music is possible in EDuke32 via con scripts. It might be very limited with no sliding or vibrato effects, and of crappy quality due to no interpolations at resampling, but the sound_pitch trick makes the idea quite appealing. I could use any sounds as samples and generate notes on the fly, based on predefined patterns. This also solves the problem of track restarting after calling the escape menu or game loading.

[ZedDB]

CraigFatman, on Jun 18 2010, 02:30 PM, said:

Rofl=) nonetheless, digital music doesn't seem like something that nobody done before. I think, some kind of tracker music is possible in EDuke32 via con scripts. It might be very limited with no sliding or vibrato effects, and of crappy quality due to no interpolations at resampling, but the sound_pitch trick makes the idea quite appealing. I could use any sounds as samples and generate notes on the fly, based on predefined patterns. This also solves the problem of track restarting after calling the escape menu or game loading.

Tracker music would be really cool IMO!
Then you can have "dynamic" music like they did it in deus ex! Where you have one tracker file for a level and different loops that you can switch to when needed. That way you also only need to load one music file per level. I'm sad to hear the implementation will be quite limited.
However there are quite a few projects like http://milkytracker.org/ where you can use libs add tracker playback to other programs.
But then you'll have to modify the eduke source...

[Jan Satcitananda]

Since I ain't going to alter EDuke32 itself, music in my mod is to be handled by conventional sounds. However I need a suitable method for creating and interpreting music patterns inside the engine.

To store tracker music in EDuke32, I'll probably use a special room placed outside the playable area that contains patterns made of sprites acting as individual notes.

So, their tilenum and palette define the sample ID, vertical size or shade correlates with the volume, horizontal size means note's duration. X position determines time the note starts, Y coordinate represents its frequency (at a scale of 64 units per semitone), the altitude or the angle can be used to describe stereo panning. Sprite flipping and translucency may affect some additional effects (e.g. note fade-in and fade-out). Such way enables to use the level editor to edit patterns easily. Each pattern should be initiated by a clef sprite placed right in the beginning.