An extended look at Duke Nukem Half-Life (WARNING : IMAGE HEAVY)
#1 Posted 23 January 2014 - 11:08 PM
For those who have asked for it, there it is. Four minute pre-showing where i'm talking about some stuff.
Updated title with a warning.
This post has been edited by Commando Nukem: 26 January 2014 - 01:46 PM
#2 Posted 24 January 2014 - 10:15 AM
Shame you god C&D-ed, but that was foreseeable. Wonder how would it play if you would implement everything you thought about, and how finished & lit maps would look like.
#3 Posted 24 January 2014 - 11:03 AM
hell, somebody made a sp map pack that was heavily inspired by duke 3d, probably could work well with that, though I can't remember what the name was (wasn't it by someone on here?)
This post has been edited by Bloodshot: 24 January 2014 - 11:07 AM
#4 Posted 24 January 2014 - 11:48 AM
I saw that project many times in the past, but didn´t know you were working on it.
#5 Posted 24 January 2014 - 11:54 AM
Gambini, on 24 January 2014 - 11:48 AM, said:
I saw that project many times in the past, but didn´t know you were working on it.
Well, as I stated in the video the levels were built by the guy I was working with at the time, and most of the maps he built suffered from leaks. Mostly because they were compiled in unfinished states (There are actually lights in place in some of them, but because of the leaks all of that data is lost.)
#7 Posted 24 January 2014 - 03:40 PM
ReaperMan, on 24 January 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:
I honestly wouldn't mind trying to restart it again, but without the assistance of a coder i'd honestly have to handle everything myself, and I know that's just too much for one person.
#8 Posted 24 January 2014 - 06:21 PM
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 24 January 2014 - 06:38 PM
#9 Posted 25 January 2014 - 01:57 PM
Thanks for showing us that. I've been intrigued for years about this project. I'm really sorry you got shut down.
#10 Posted 25 January 2014 - 03:11 PM
A very early Pig Tank that we never finished. And piggy in his Recon car. Textures based on Duke 3D sprites and Duke Nukem Manhattan Project.
EDF Soldier (Based on a Counter-Strike model, with Gunman skeleton.) "Octa-Queen" Boss.
A couple of the weapon models not shown in the video.
The dismemberment code I was talking about in there was also at one stage applied to the player. Though it didn't actually work 100% right (sometimes on respawning in death match the player would come out with a leg missing from the start.). Every humanoid monster was to have six points of damage. (legs, arms, head, and chest.). The biggest problem we had was blowing limbs off enemies and having them not be dead. It was going to require all kinds of animation tricks and things we hadn't really thought about during the initial implementation. If you blow a pigs leg off, of course he should fall to the ground, or hop, or something, right? Well what initially happened is they were lose a limb and just act normally, minus a limb. (Hilarious, but wrong.) We eventually just decided to have the limbs only come off at the point they lost enough health.
Rewatching the video did make me kinda sad, because I really did love that multiplayer session I had with my friend. It was on this primitive city map inspired by Hollywood Holocaust with just a couple streets and one interior area. Just enough room to play around with some of the gear. It was a lot of fun to blow each other out of the sky.
A newer Duke model I had been working on when I initially got into contact with the coder about getting the mod assets back in hand. My initial intention was to make use of the monster models to make a Duke Nukem machinima via Gold SRC.
This is a shot from a newer map I was fiddling around with at the time. Inspired to a small extent by Time to Kill. "Atomic After Dark. Hot Babes. Cold Beers." The skybox was an attempt at using the 3D skybox code.
#11 Posted 25 January 2014 - 09:36 PM
I can also texture and model, though I wouldn't know how to get it in game but I would totally learn for this.
This post has been edited by Bloodshot: 25 January 2014 - 09:39 PM
#12 Posted 25 January 2014 - 10:22 PM
Bloodshot, on 25 January 2014 - 09:36 PM, said:
I can also texture and model, though I wouldn't know how to get it in game but I would totally learn for this.
Bloodshot, if you're really serious about that, dude.... and keep in mind nothing is in stone just yet, but if you really mean that, I suggest you get a copy of Valve Hammer Editor 3.4 or 3.4.5 http://www.cstrike-p...ammer-Editor-35 and start getting familiar. I could definitely use all the help I can get.
I was thinking about using the XASH3D/XASHXT conversion of Half-Life to release this, so that I could get it stand alone and make use of some of the extended features available in XASHXT, but I've been told time and again that it is "legally dubious" and, because it was essentially a ground up recreation of what was done in Half-Life, the multiplayer side of it is completely broken. So that breaks the deal for me. ...Of course this whole project is technically considered "legally dubious" at this point. I won't be talking about this project outside of Duke4net if I take it to the next step and actually reactivate it. Simply put, I won't get C&D'd again. I honestly doubt anyone will care since we're talking about the GOLD SRC engine, of all things, but come on. Safety first.
The first order of business will be to get the code base rebuilt. Starting from scratch there, as I don't actually have the source code for the mod anymore, and I don't think my coding friend does either. Anyone who has any coding experience in C or C+/++(Whatever) would be greatly appreciated aswell.
Lastly I do think I have one other person who could help with this, musically anyway. My friend Chris Bulman, who's posted a few Duke remixes here and on 3D Realms over the years, offered his help. So there would be some custom music to look forward to.
Shit.... I'm all out of gum anyway. Let's rock.
#13 Posted 26 January 2014 - 12:30 AM
The fact that now it may indeed see the light of day after all is some of the best Duke-related news in a while.
I sincerely hope you are able to implement some(or all) of those ambitious ideas from the previous iterations...as well as tons of new cool and creative stuff.
Best of luck, guys!!!
#14 Posted 26 January 2014 - 12:34 AM
Also that dismemberment sounds like it would be perfect for some sort of executions, like removing a player's/monsters arms while they are alive and then removing all their weapons so you could "finish" them
This post has been edited by Bloodshot: 26 January 2014 - 12:39 AM
#15 Posted 26 January 2014 - 01:46 AM
Mapping for Half-Life is pretty much the same as it is for Quake in terms of the general rules and guidelines. Though we should obviously keep in mind that this isn't Half-Life. It's Duke, and that attitude needs to prevail in everything from animation, modeling, texturing to mapping. So in designing a map, the flow should be good, the environment interesting. Bring it all together in that sense.
I dug up the old notes that I had on the project. I was obviously quite inspired by DNF 2001 and 1998. Our plot was fairly straight forward, and without giving too much away, essentially a small contingent of the alien menace from Duke 3D survived under the command of a leadership we didn't see originally, The Octa-Queen. With the help of a rogue EDF Colonel and his (now posessed by her babies) EDF troops, Duke is forced back into action just after sitting down for a beer. The adventure traverses the already war-weary Los Angeles, The Deserts, Military Base, and finally to the central nest for the Octrabrains, on their own planet.
New sound assets, textures, models, music and so forth.
Each "Chapter" would end with a little cinematic of sorts, just to give the player a little reward for making it to a whole new area.
Three new bosses (Don't want to say what they are, obviously, one of them is the Octa Queen, but beyond that I won't say.)
Weapons - Obviously we were fairly inspired by the 1998-2001 builds of DNF, and i'd probably stick with that to a degree. Duke's Golden Eagle will probably take the place of the P99 seen in the video. (Might even go for the cool and OTT concept of having it be scoped ala the 1998 builds.) Duke's shotty, pipe bombs, trip mines, RPG, and Devastator just need some clean up and to be recoded properly. Might go with the Sonic Resonator and Laser Chainsaw for "odd ball" weapons if I can't get the shrinker or freezer in there. (Might convert Duke's N64 plasma gun to be the huge toy. I'm REALLY hoping to get someone knowledgeable in coding to come on board and go to town on this.
Multiplayer models/skins (Just sorta riffing ideas right now.)
1. Duke Nukem (Blue jeans, red tank)
2. Retro Duke (With purple overshirt and white under shirt, much more vibrant colors.)
3. Commando Duke (Duke in military style outfit. green camo pants, different ammo components.)
4. Wild West Duke (Duke sporting cowboy duds and a stetson. Stetsons are cool.)
5. Tech Noir Nukem (Duke Nukem with exposed metal bits. Terminator. Red light glowing behind one of the shades.)
6. Night Strike Duke (Based on the action figure, Duke in all black with battle paint.)
7. Blaxploitation Duke (Duke with a 'fro and darker skinned... Hell, I don't know.)
8. Rambo Nukem (Shirtless, with an ammo belt across chest. )
9. Biker Duke (Leather jacket, black pants, American flag bandana)
10. Doug Huggem (The environmentally friendly Duke.)
11. Coat Nukem (Duke with his long coat from the Zero Hour ads.)
#16 Posted 26 January 2014 - 11:29 AM
I really want to try making a deathmatch map on a moving train again, I experimented with that in quake but never got too far due to the engine limits
Also this is just a stupid small detail, but the 2001 trailer used the Unreal Tournament gibbing sounds - probably just never changed them at the time.
Taking those sounds straight from UT99 would probably help make it feel like the 2001 version a teeny bit.
#17 Posted 26 January 2014 - 01:41 PM
What was the engine limitation for Quake that kept you from finishing it?
If you(Or anyone reading this, actually) would be interested in ripping those sounds out of UT99 and sending them my way, i'd definitely add them in. (I'm totally unfamiliar with editing Unreal Tournament or it's file formats.)
Seeing as Duke is the most important aspect of this mod, I figured i'd start there. This is a hack job of various CS-CZ models, with some minor and major vertex manipulation. The skin is going to need to be completely redone, and I am now in the process of adding on the ammo and accessories. Basically, for each multiplayer skin/model I just want to be able to swap the accessories fairly easy. This will also be the standard by which all the other characters are done.
Stylistically i'd love to get Duke looking very close to this:
One thing I was thinking about, too, which we never got implemented was the jetpack. Now I know Natural Selection was able to do it. (Even giving the player models a sub model to show that they were wearing the jet pack.) This will have to be something I work on going forward, but it would be so cool. I might try contacting Flayra/The NS team and see if they could let me in on how that was done.
#18 Posted 26 January 2014 - 02:19 PM
I can't say for the new Duke and Overlord models as the High Polys came from other people, but the new and old Cycloids, the Queen, sky car, signs and any of the static props I've done I don't mind you using. It would be amazing to see this come to life.
#20 Posted 26 January 2014 - 04:56 PM
Tea Monster, on 26 January 2014 - 02:19 PM, said:
I can't say for the new Duke and Overlord models as the High Polys came from other people, but the new and old Cycloids, the Queen, sky car, signs and any of the static props I've done I don't mind you using. It would be amazing to see this come to life.
Thank you very much, dude! That's awesome.
Loke, on 26 January 2014 - 02:22 PM, said:
Anyway, I believe the attached file is what they used in the trailer.
Gib1.wav
Thanks for that. Hey, whatdya know, I never would have guessed that. That'll fit in very nicely. I'll have to reinstall UT99 and see what's in there.
I've been scowering various builds of "Spirt of Half-Life" which is akin to a Half-Life version of Duke Plus. It adds in a number of features for level designers to work with, and would be a great place to start working forwards from on the coding side. It allows for a lot better control of monster scripting, and adds in a particle system of sorts (including rain and fog). Though the problem is some of these features are strangely broken, and i'm not sure why... This was also the place we nicked the 3D skybox code from back in the day.
I've found a tutorial to port over the Opposing Force night vision to stock Half-Life, so that right there will bring back some of the Dukeism.
#21 Posted 26 January 2014 - 05:08 PM
My other problem was that the map limits were too small to make one long train level, they were more designed for things to be overlapped. I'd imagine HL's limits are much higher though.
Commando Nukem, on 26 January 2014 - 01:41 PM, said:
One thing I was thinking about, too, which we never got implemented was the jetpack. Now I know Natural Selection was able to do it. (Even giving the player models a sub model to show that they were wearing the jet pack.) This will have to be something I work on going forward, but it would be so cool. I might try contacting Flayra/The NS team and see if they could let me in on how that was done.
Heh heh well ain't you a lucky devil
Something I'm thinking about to spice up DM gameplay would be having a lot of traps in MP - like, expanding the "destructibility" element to other things - making light fixtures that can be shot and have them fall down and crush people, billboards where you can break the supports, etc.
Also on the topic of Opposing Force, OP4 had ropes that you could swing on and that was awesome
This post has been edited by Bloodshot: 26 January 2014 - 05:17 PM
#22 Posted 26 January 2014 - 05:37 PM
Bloodshot, on 26 January 2014 - 05:08 PM, said:
My other problem was that the map limits were too small to make one long train level, they were more designed for things to be overlapped. I'd imagine HL's limits are much higher though.
Map limits are a bit better than Quake. The scale is slightly different too (the player is 72 units high instead of....I think, 64 in Quake.)
Bloodshot, on 26 January 2014 - 05:08 PM, said:
Now i'm excited.
Bloodshot, on 26 January 2014 - 05:08 PM, said:
Most of those should be doable with things like linked func_breakable and func_doors. Using things like env_spark, different light/light_spots set to trigger to change things around. A lot of the stuff in Half-Life is all faked, there's no modern physics engine going on. No ragdolls. But there's nothing stopping one from making a map very much riddled with destructive scenery and changing the gameplay up. Hollywood Holocaust, as an example, can be recreated pretty much identical inside of HL.
#23 Posted 26 January 2014 - 05:51 PM
I was definitely thinking of using func_doors for stuff like simulating something tipping over, (maybe) func_trains for having things fall down (though I'll have to see what other entities HL1 has that can accomplish this)
I wonder if func_pushables can cause damage to players? (perhaps they can be made to?)
This post has been edited by Bloodshot: 26 January 2014 - 05:55 PM
#24 Posted 26 January 2014 - 06:07 PM
At this point there's nothing really solid coding wise for the mod, but as I said, i'm planning on using Spirit of Half-Life as the ground work for the mod, as it adds in a huge array of functionality for all kinds of things, including, to an extent (and depending on how much you want to learn) the ability to do some really cool things.
https://dl.dropboxus...36/Spirit14.zip
^ I packed Spirit version 1.2, and then dumped in the updated version 1.4 over the top of it. There are a few compiled example maps, documentation/entity guide, and an fgd file. So if you wish to map with some features already in place, there ya go.
Here's an example of what SoHl's entities can do:
This post has been edited by Commando Nukem: 26 January 2014 - 06:10 PM
#25 Posted 26 January 2014 - 06:25 PM
also browsing mod db jesus christ
http://www.moddb.com...barney#imagebox
This post has been edited by Bloodshot: 26 January 2014 - 06:30 PM
#26 Posted 26 January 2014 - 06:53 PM
Holy crap. That's got some excellent code under the hood.
#27 Posted 26 January 2014 - 07:50 PM
Apparently light textures automatically generate light in HL, had no idea. That's a useful way to make the map a bit brighter without putting point lights everywhere.
#28 Posted 26 January 2014 - 08:51 PM
Been tweaking the VIP head that I was using for the Duke model. Eliminated the unshaven look and tweaked the hair. The glasses have been extruded and grouped into two parts. The shades will actually have a reflective/chrome effect going on, and I may double that part and move it back slightly to give the impression of Duke's eyes in shadow behind the lenses (So if you look closely you'll see his eyes, faintly)
Update #2:
Some dodgey UV mapping and more hacking. Some things are going to have to be given a heavy coat of paint before it's where it should be, but it's a start.
This post has been edited by Commando Nukem: 27 January 2014 - 12:13 AM
#29 Posted 27 January 2014 - 12:20 AM
#30 Posted 27 January 2014 - 12:43 AM
Got some more progress
It's not quite the same, trying out some new ideas
and yes, you can go out the door and use the fire escape to climb down/back up the start building instead of just jumping down.