[HMNuke93]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

Thanks to all of you. Before anyone says anything, no, I don't cruise the forums looking for positive remarks about the music (although I do like it when I find one). Instead, I'm judging whether there might be interest in an audio-file-only release of the World Tour music plus outtakes and extra tracks. If something like this were to appear on Amazon, would you consider kindly purchasing a copy of it?

HELL YEAH

[icecoldduke]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

Thanks to all of you. Before anyone says anything, no, I don't cruise the forums looking for positive remarks about the music (although I do like it when I find one). Instead, I'm judging whether there might be interest in an audio-file-only release of the World Tour music plus outtakes and extra tracks. If something like this were to appear on Amazon, would you consider kindly purchasing a copy of it?

Absolutely .

[Minigunner]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 01:54 AM, said:

This is one that I don't know how to respond to. I was asked to convert the music from EMIDI files to OGG audio, which meant stripping out all of the non-General MIDI information and recording the result through my SC-88. I recorded everything through a Mackie 1202-VLZ and a Focusrite Scartlett 2i2 (Gen. 1) into Adobe Audition as 44.1 KHz 24 bit WAVs. Those got mastered down to 44.1 KHz 16 bit OGG files, with metadata for copyright and for loop points.

In short, they're almost practically the same thing you would have got would you have played the original game with an SC-88 as your output source. The only difference is the conversion to OGG. I apologize if your copy sounded different.

Ah, it's all good. It's odd though because it sounded like a later Sound Canvas model and wasn't sure if it was by you or not.

Personally, I'm not really too fond of some of the replaced GM instruments from the 88pro onwards (at least for standard MIDI usage), and I mentioned CC#32 because it'd make use of the proper instrument set for a better result (particularly with Prince's SC55-based tracks). As for the renders I mentioned, I'm making use of just that, and am doing it as more a personal project if anything.
However, you make good use of the later instruments (even the distortion guitar, which only tends to be good in specific uses) in your new music.

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

Thanks to all of you. Before anyone says anything, no, I don't cruise the forums looking for positive remarks about the music (although I do like it when I find one). Instead, I'm judging whether there might be interest in an audio-file-only release of the World Tour music plus outtakes and extra tracks. If something like this were to appear on Amazon, would you consider kindly purchasing a copy of it?

Of course. Your music was a good part in my purchasing of WT, I'd definitely buy this.

[Lee Jackson]

Minigunner, on 30 June 2017 - 06:47 AM, said:

Ah, it's all good. It's odd though because it sounded like a later Sound Canvas model and wasn't sure if it was by you or not.

Mea culpa, mea culpa - you're right, I forgot my model number. I did use an SC-88Pro. (Not enough coffee before hitting the Add Reply button.) Does that make a difference in your evaluation?

[Minigunner]

Ah. Did you always have it or did you upgrade at some point?

Also sorry if I'm being a bit of a smartass. I really like Sound Canvas as a result of your works, even having gotten VA (which is frankly way more expensive than what it's worth) due to that. Truth is, I do like almost all the tracks, it was only a couple instruments that struck me as sorta unfitting (but then again, I tend to cement my own views on how things are meant to be). As long as you personally see it as good, then it's all fine by me.

[Never Forgotten]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

If something like this were to appear on Amazon, would you consider kindly purchasing a copy of it?

Definitely! Your music for Duke 3D, Word Tour included, is my favorite of any video game! I don't have much money, but it's still something I'd love to get.

[MusicallyInspired]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

Thanks to all of you. Before anyone says anything, no, I don't cruise the forums looking for positive remarks about the music (although I do like it when I find one). Instead, I'm judging whether there might be interest in an audio-file-only release of the World Tour music plus outtakes and extra tracks. If something like this were to appear on Amazon, would you consider kindly purchasing a copy of it?

YES.

[Sledgehammer]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

If something like this were to appear on Amazon, would you consider kindly purchasing a copy of it?

Definitely, people asked for this since the beginning. However, would be nice to have digital release too (and in lossless format of course). It's not that easy to get physical stuff in Japan from the West, mostly due to lack of shipment service or sometimes due to shipment being very expensive. Don't think western Amazon branch ships physical stuff to Japan. I have no intention to buy WT itself and would rather spend those money (or more) on the OST only.

[LkMax]

Sledgehammer, on 30 June 2017 - 10:43 AM, said:

I have no intention to buy WT itself and would rather spend those money (or more) on the OST only.

It's on sale now (just got it), if you think $10 is not worth it I'd still suggest to wait for a bigger sale (like $5) and eventually get World Tour because despite the overall poor handling by Gearbox the "DLC" is good in general, IMO, and the new art combined with the new ost makes things a bit fresher, which many custom episodes -despite also well made- don't.

[Sledgehammer]

Oh, it's summer sale, right? Well, I think 10 bucks is fine, but at the same time I'm not entirely sure either, mainly because I need to get Sonic Mania and Revelator 2 which likely aren't part of the summer sale (Rev2 just came out, almost one month ago and Mania already has pre-order 10% discount). Would probably get it otherwise with some of the doubts.

I actually was able to play new ep though (on friend's PS4 mostly, but didn't fully finish it). Pretty sure I expressed my impression about the game as well in this very thread. Basically I said that I liked level design with music, but the rest they fucked up real bad. Aside from bad enemies placement in some cases and especially terrible last boss, my biggest issue is that they wasted money on making their own engine instead of using EDuke32 as the base since it works much better and people wouldn't suffer from the most terrible weapon wheel in FPS history (or do I miss something?). Would get it for 5 bucks without any doubt though, I spent less on DNF on Steam after all.

[LkMax]

Sledgehammer, on 30 June 2017 - 12:42 PM, said:

Pretty sure I expressed my impression about the game as well in this very thread.

Oh, I might've missed or forgotten, thread's old.

Sledgehammer, on 30 June 2017 - 12:42 PM, said:

since it works much better and people wouldn't suffer from the most terrible weapon wheel in FPS history (or do I miss something?).

Arguably the worst thing about the engine, shit's broken as hell. >_<

[Lee Jackson]

Minigunner, on 30 June 2017 - 08:39 AM, said:

Ah. Did you always have it or did you upgrade at some point?

The only box I've had since leaving 3DR has been the SC-88Pro, which I bought off of Ebay. I had to leave the SC-88 behind when I left.

Minigunner, on 30 June 2017 - 08:39 AM, said:

Also sorry if I'm being a bit of a smartass. I really like Sound Canvas as a result of your works, even having gotten VA (which is frankly way more expensive than what it's worth) due to that. Truth is, I do like almost all the tracks, it was only a couple instruments that struck me as sorta unfitting (but then again, I tend to cement my own views on how things are meant to be). As long as you personally see it as good, then it's all fine by me.

Don't worry about it. Everyone's entitled to their own views. You should have seen some of the early beta reviews of my ROTT songs.

Sledgehammer, on 30 June 2017 - 10:43 AM, said:

Definitely, people asked for this since the beginning. However, would be nice to have digital release too (and in lossless format of course). It's not that easy to get physical stuff in Japan from the West, mostly due to lack of shipment service or sometimes due to shipment being very expensive. Don't think western Amazon branch ships physical stuff to Japan. I have no intention to buy WT itself and would rather spend those money (or more) on the OST only.

If I release anything, it would be a digital-only release. I don't think I'd be able to afford to publish physical discs. The lossless format is something I haven't worked out, however. I don't know if Amazon even sells FLAC files, and I would definitely need to distribute via Amazon (as one release point, but hopefully not the only release point) in order to maintain my voting status within the Grammy organization.

There is one other thing that's holding me back at the moment - my health. I've been fighting multiple maladies and injuries since the beginning of the year, to the point where I haven't been able to do much of anything for very long. The list of things I've been going through includes:

• A broken left big toe that required surgery to fix and still hasn't healed.
  
• MAJOR back pain that prevents me from being able to drive and is forcing me to go to a third pain specialist.
  
• A chronic cough that lasted two months and injured my throat, again something that hasn't healed.
  
• Major swelling (edema) in my right leg that scared the hell out of my doctor and, again, still hasn't healed.
  
• Chronic irregular heartbeats for which I had to wear a long-term cardiac event monitor.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. My medicines fill a shoebox. Literally. I'm fighting through lower back pain that hits a six with hydrocodone and a ten (yes, ten) without it. I've had injections, diagnostic procedures, and steroids, none of which solved the problem (hence the third pain management doctor). Other issues you don't want to hear about fill up the rest of my shoebox.

IF I can fight my way through all of that, get the already recorded songs re-mastered, record and master the outtakes plus the extra material, and get the details of the distribution solved, THEN you'll see something up on Amazon. I hope. Until then, please wish me luck.

[icecoldduke]

Lee Jackson, on 01 July 2017 - 07:53 AM, said:

I hope. Until then, please wish me luck.

I can probably speak for all of us, we will pray for you to get better. I just remembered another memory of my childhood. I got Duke3D when I was 8 years old. My mom fucking hated Duke3D(because of the content in the game), everytime she would hear grabbag, she would come down to the basement and go "your not playing that game again are you?".

Even to this day my parents and grandparents(who never played Duke3D), still hum parts of Stalker or Grabbag because I played Duke3D so much as a kid.

[Duke of Hazzard]

icecoldduke, on 01 July 2017 - 08:45 AM, said:

I can probably speak for all of us, we will pray for you to get better. I just remembered another memory of my childhood. I got Duke3D when I was 8 years old. My mom fucking hated Duke3D(because of the content in the game), everytime she would hear grabbag, she would come down to the basement and go "your not playing that game again are you?".

Even to this day my parents and grandparents(who never played Duke3D), still hum parts of Stalker or Grabbag because I played Duke3D so much as a kid.

One of the coolest things about Grabbag IMO is how it seems to magically fit the original 1.3D demos. I really don't think the gameplay was intended to sync with each riff, but it almost sounds like it does.

Besides, Grabbag sounds great regardless of the equipment you have (from the lowly OPL cards to the mighty SC-55 modules).

[NNC]

I always liked to play Dark Side as it had been played in that legendary demo. Like shoot some slimers but before one that eats the enforcer, throw a pipebomb in the train in a hope it might blow the secret wall up (sometimes succeeded), grab only one freeze ammo in the other station, shoot the troopers with devastator etc etc...

While the music of Dark Side is one of the best moon themes ever, I always hear Grabbag when I play the early parts of the level.

The other legendary demo IMO was the Freeway one in v1.5. The music was a huge part why they were great.

[Forge]

got a bit of b-day money early and bought this a short time ago when it went on sale for $10.

i can tolerate the spongy controls and other quirks - but three things annoy me

-the stupid mouse-wheel weapon selection 'mini-hub' fuckin sucks. I want a crisp weapon change, and quickly - pretty much forced to use the keyboard now.
-the duke-talk is a deadpan monotone. Listening to JSJ reading a dictionary or math problems would have more feel to it.
-the nerfed pistol accuracy bites. The player cannot shoot a button or turret with the thing if his life depended on it (and sometimes it does). It's fuckin pathetic when I can hit shit across a fairly large room with the chaingun or shotgun, but not the pistol. Even at medium-short distances it's ridiculous. I engaged the turret in front of the bank in Bank Roll with the pistol; the 1st round hit it, then I proceeded to miss 199 more times. wtf!?!!. The gun is near useless now. (when auto-aim is disabled)

Been playing it from episode 1 and haven't reached the final episode yet, so I don't have anything to say about it at this time.

[LkMax]

I didn't mention yet but the new light system is a big plus in my opinion for the most part (and the skybox 3D distortion , if it's an algorythim that is).
On the other hand it's unfriendly to mods and the other problems still persist so I don't see me playing with the official port for too long.

(edit: if there's a way to use bump-mapping in eduke - or whatever they used in WT - with standard textures, someone tell me please).

Forge, on 04 July 2017 - 03:56 PM, said:

the nerfed pistol accuracy bites. The player cannot shoot a button or turret with the thing if his life depended on it (and sometimes it does). It's fuckin pathetic when I can hit shit across a fairly large room with the chaingun or shotgun, but not the pistol. Even at medium-short distances it's ridiculous. I engaged the turret in front of the bank in Bank Roll with the pistol; the 1st round hit it, then I proceeded to miss 199 more times. wtf!?!!. The gun is near useless now. (when auto-aim is disabled)

Huh, I agree about the controls feeling a bit off compared to eduke (still, easy to get used to) but the weapons didn't change accuracy or any stats. The pistol was always terrible to shoot buttons and I remember that well because of that sewer part on Memorial Service from Duke it out in DC, having to shoot multiple buttons to temporarily open 3 or so doors..
Example I found: >youtube link with timestamp<

[stumppy84]

I totally agree with you on the mouse-wheel!! WTF? I swear it's like they didn't play test that at all! I'm also so used to Eduke32's mouse-wheel and how well that works that I first try that in WT and it fails.. I run and hide then select the right number and go back..

[Minigunner]

There's another critique I totally forgot when scrambling my mind over the music stuff:
I personally would have liked it if the settings were mini-episodes rather than maps. That'd mean smaller maps, sure, but that'd bring back a big thing about Duke that I like: connectivity. Certain settings like the Golden Gate and Hollywood are good as single maps though.

[Forge]

LkMax, on 04 July 2017 - 05:24 PM, said:

The pistol was always terrible to shoot buttons and I remember that well because of that sewer part on Memorial Service from Duke it out in DC, having to shoot multiple buttons to temporarily open 3 or so doors..

There is a huge difference in the WT version between auto-aim on and off.
With auto-aim on, it isn't so bad, but turn it off and you'd have better luck throwing the pistol at an enemy, turret, or button.

[LkMax]

Forge, on 04 July 2017 - 08:04 PM, said:

With auto-aim on, it isn't so bad, but turn it off and you'd have better luck throwing the pistol at an enemy, turret, or button.

So, I decided to use the "scientific method"^tm and test both Eduke32 (without mods) and World Tour with auto-aim off, shooting from the same point in one map, and seems like there's actually a difference indeed. While the bullet spread seems to be exactly the same while shooting at a wall in both ports, for some reason in eDuke32 the pistol has almost perfect accuracy when aiming at an enemy, as if it have some kind of semi-autoaim.
Someone more knowledgeable on the source-codes could confirme or deny that.

[Forge]

LkMax, on 05 July 2017 - 06:15 AM, said:

So, I decided to use the "scientific method"^tm and test both Eduke32 (without mods) and World Tour with auto-aim off, shooting from the same point in one map, and seems like there's actually a difference indeed. While the bullet spread seems to be exactly the same while shooting at a wall in both ports, for some reason in eDuke32 the pistol has almost perfect accuracy when aiming at an enemy, as if it have some kind of semi-autoaim.
Someone more knowledgeable on the source-codes could confirme or deny that.

You'll get the same results with the JonoF port as well.

Maybe those ports spoiled me, but auto-aim turned off in WT is horrible.
If the player is static & the target is static (i.e. the player is standing in one spot with the cross-hair dead on a non-moving target - like a turret) - it should make no difference to the accuracy of the pistol if auto-aim is on or off - but such is not the case.

[axl]

stumppy84, on 04 July 2017 - 05:24 PM, said:

I totally agree with you on the mouse-wheel!! WTF? I swear it's like they didn't play test that at all! I'm also so used to Eduke32's mouse-wheel and how well that works that I first try that in WT and it fails.. I run and hide then select the right number and go back..

I agree. For me, the weapon wheel is THE most annoying thing in WT. It's so slow and unresponsive it completely ruins the gameplay.

[pacman]

Lee Jackson, on 30 June 2017 - 02:03 AM, said:

Thanks to all of you.

I would like to see some of the outtakes.

I also would like to ask you personally, if its posible to use some of the DN3D midis in our own projects without ending up in any legal trouble? For example a youtube video which is monetised with adsense (adding credits in video description). Is there any problem with that?

Im just tired of always being limited to the Youtube music library and some of your music in DN3D is perfect for some of my videos and it would be also like a tribute of one of my favorite games instead of some random music from the library.

[NNC]

The game originally meant to be played with auto aim on. The pistol is the most effective weapon against turrets (with autoaim of course). That's one of the reasons why they placed turrets in distant areas both horizontally and vertically. Pistol is very effective with auto aim against distant targets.

[Hendricks266]

If your crosshair is on your target, EDuke32 will grant you the hit for any hitscan weapon. This is because Duke 3D was balanced with the forced autoaim in mind. (The DOS exe did not have this setting.) Otherwise, the pistol becomes useless due to the high amount of random variation. Disabling autoaim in EDuke32 makes it harder only by acceping hits within the sprite itself, which is less than autoaim guaranteeing hits that are not even on the sprite. Disabling aim in WT is going from a guaranteed hit to a small chance of one.

[Minigunner]

pacman, on 06 July 2017 - 03:27 PM, said:

I also would like to ask you personally, if its posible to use some of the DN3D midis in our own projects without ending up in any legal trouble? For example a youtube video which is monetised with adsense (adding credits in video description). Is there any problem with that?

Figure out a way to funnel a portion of it to Lee, granted he agrees with it. If it's not possible, then try other music or go non-monetized for the particular videos, or, you know, do your best to adhere to Fair Use, the obvious thing being using the midis as intended, being played in Duke3D on a playthrough.

[Forge]

Hendricks266, on 06 July 2017 - 07:21 PM, said:

If your crosshair is on your target, EDuke32 will grant you the hit for any hitscan weapon. This is because Duke 3D was balanced with the forced autoaim in mind. (The DOS exe did not have this setting.) Otherwise, the pistol becomes useless due to the high amount of random variation. Disabling autoaim in EDuke32 makes it harder only by acceping hits within the sprite itself, which is less than autoaim guaranteeing hits that are not even on the sprite. Disabling aim in WT is going from a guaranteed hit to a small chance of one.

^Yes. This^.
This is what I don't like about WT - turning auto-aim off is a painful option.

I don't need a lecture from a purist about there being no auto-aim 'off' option in the original game - I own it, played it many times, and already know this.
My point is if there's going to be an option to turn auto-aim off, at least make the weapon hit where the cross-hair is..(like it does in eduke32)

[TerminX]

It pleases me to see people praising hacks I came up with a decade ago.

[Forge]

Finished the WT episode Alien World Order.
It was enjoyable enough outside the odd engine quirks and design decisions that mar the entire game.

A few of the maps were a bit too 'busy' with their spritework decorations which hindered movement in a few instances. They kinda reminded me of earlier MRCK maps.
Most of the maps themselves were pretty good. Nice architecture, design, and layout. Some more distinct than others.
_ except the last map Hollywood Inferno - pretty basic & linear.
_The final boss fight sucked. That kind of boss is made for close-quarters combat, not for a wide open area.
_As if the boss fight wasn't easy enough, there's a duff balloon over the area as well.
_I feel short-changed because there were only 8 maps in the episode instead of the usual 11.

Overall it was good, but not great. I'm glad I got it on sale; especially since it doesn't include the three major commercial addons.