[.ex.inferis.]

Hello, all. I was looking into doing some Duke modding for personal use, but I have no idea how to go about it. I've done some stuff for zdoom before so I'm not a total noob when it comes to coding...I'm just looking to learn the format that Duke3D works in. But as I was reading through the wiki, some of the things in there wouldn't really get through my thick skull. I'm aware that eDuke is very versatile when it comes to modding, which is why I'm interested. For now I'd like to make a couple of weapons and perhaps a new monster or two...was wondering if someone could point me where to look into?

[XThX2]

Before everything, you should read the basic guide;

Guide

And then, here's what a Gamevar is,

Gamevars

For weapon display and such, these can guide you;

The event to launch display code of weapons

A command to draw the weapon

Some variables that could be of use to you

Have you learned how to use gamevars or get their value ? CON isn't the same thing as in DECORATE, or whatever it is in Zdoom. (This one is harder to use but you have access to lots of things compared to that one) One of the several variable commands

As for monsters, you can just read the existent enemy codes of Duke enemies and try to get how they work. Good luck, and welcome !

[.ex.inferis.]

Wow, prompt reply, awesome. haha. Thank you very much for those links, I'll sink my teeth on those when I get off work. CON is quite different from what I am used too, indeed, lol. I gathered that much from looking into the files themselves. But it looks like it'll be fun.

One thing--can I use PNGs as sprites? Or am I restricted to bmp?

[XThX2]

Yes you can use PNG's. I'm sure you are willing to use PNG's as monster sprites, right ? Well, AFAIK, it's more of a tedious work than it is in Zdoom. You have to define every frame, one by one in a .DEF file. Here's what I do for instance;

// ****IMP****

setuptile 1680 61 85 0 -2
setuptile 1681 60 83 0 -2
setuptile 1682 56 76 0 -2
setuptile 1683 50 78 0 -2
setuptile 1684 55 77 0 -2
setuptile 1685 59 85 -1 -2
setuptile 1686 58 87 0 -2
setuptile 1687 58 78 0 -2
setuptile 1688 53 75 0 -2
setuptile 1689 53 74 0 -2
setuptile 1690 59 91 0 -2
setuptile 1691 61 86 0 -2
setuptile 1692 46 79 4 -2
setuptile 1693 43 78 0 -2
setuptile 1694 55 77 0 -2
setuptile 1695 57 88 0 -2
setuptile 1696 65 79 0 -2
setuptile 1697 59 73 0 -2
setuptile 1698 50 77 0 -2
setuptile 1699 53 74 0 -2

//DEFINEMENTS

// IMP STARTS
texture 1680 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0001.png" nocompress } }
texture 1681 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0002.png" nocompress } }
texture 1682 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0003.png" nocompress } }
texture 1683 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0004.png" nocompress } }
texture 1684 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0005.png" nocompress } }
texture 1685 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0006.png" nocompress } }
texture 1686 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0007.png" nocompress } }
texture 1687 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0008.png" nocompress } }
texture 1688 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0009.png" nocompress } }
texture 1689 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0010.png" nocompress } }
texture 1690 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0011.png" nocompress } }
texture 1691 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0012.png" nocompress } }
texture 1692 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0013.png" nocompress } }
texture 1693 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0014.png" nocompress } }
texture 1694 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0015.png" nocompress } }
texture 1695 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0016.png" nocompress } }
texture 1696 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0017.png" nocompress } }
texture 1697 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0018.png" nocompress } }
texture 1698 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0019.png" nocompress } }
texture 1699 { pal 0 { file "RESIZED/IMP0020.png" nocompress } }

Setuptile is to identify the size and offsets of the sprite. The first number is the corresponding tile in the ART file. (I strongly advice you put a dummy sprite (such as first frame of imp, in this case) as all images in ART, then define them here. The other two numbers are X-size and Y-size. The last two are offsets, x and y respectively.

Texture command is to tell the game to use which image. You can check the commands and many others in detail from here;

DEF LANGUAGE

By the way, I used "nocompress" in my images because without it, some of my monsters looked weird. (Like where there needed to be orange, there was dark purple)

[TerminX]

The correct way to use sprites from external files is to use "tilefromtexture" with images in Duke's palette, not to define them as high res tile replacements. What a waste of memory! Completely wrong way to do it, dude.

[XThX2]

TX, on Nov 14 2009, 10:24 PM, said:

The correct way to use sprites from external files is to use "tilefromtexture" with images in Duke's palette, not to define them as high res tile replacements. What a waste of memory! Completely wrong way to do it, dude.

Well sure if I want the thing to look the way it does in Duke, which is not what I want, and also the reason I decided to use them as PNGs in the first place ! I just tried the command and it screws some colors. Isn't there a way to do it the same way without it converting the image to Duke palette ?

[Mblackwell]

The idea is that you'd use GIMP, PS, or PSP and convert the palette before using it in Duke. Then you stick with using 8 bit palette sprites, whereas the texture command converts every image to 24bit+alpha for processing.

[.ex.inferis.]

Mblackwell, on Nov 16 2009, 01:39 PM, said:

The idea is that you'd use GIMP, PS, or PSP and convert the palette before using it in Duke. Then you stick with using 8 bit palette sprites, whereas the texture command converts every image to 24bit+alpha for processing.

Can you dumb that down a little bit? lol