So you’ve decided to give modding a try. You’ve also decided to mod Duke Nukem 3D. Well rock on! You’re in for some fun.
However, in my attempt to make a mod (named Texas Toast), I discovered that there is a lot of information available about Duke Nukem 3D modding… but most of it is in text files on rusting hard drives or locked in the synapse firing patterns of people on the Internet. I’ve had to ask many questions to figure out what’s going on.
What I’ve decided to do is go ahead and blog about the various steps I’ve taken to set up my mod, so that people coming after me can have an easier time modding themselves.
Why mod Duke Nukem 3D? Isn’t that game older than dirt?
I’d like to get this question out of the way, first, right off the bat. Duke Nukem 3D was released on Janurary 29, 1996 by 3D Realms. Which at the time of this post makes it a spanking 13.5 years old. Ancient, in gaming worlds… or is it?
The original game was designed to run on state of the art machines at the time, which means that the textures are pretty simple, the character art is similarly simple, and the programming isn’t that in depth. Heck, the BUILD engine won’t even allow you to put a room above another room for crying out loud!
After 3D Realms relesed the Duke Nukem 3D source code, Ken Silverman (the guy who built the first BUILD engine) decided to take it upon himself to build a true 3D geometry port of the engine renderer, known as Polymost. This uses OpenGL to display the game maps and characters, allowing true mouselook and better handling of textures and sprites.
Enter EDuke32, stage right. Building off 3D Realm’s code release, Ken Silverman’s Build, JFDuke3D by Jonathon Fowler, and EDuke by Matt Saettler, Richard Gobeille (TerminX) and Pierre-Loup Griffais (Plagman) and the open source community provided… EDuke32, a port of the engine for Windows, Mac, and Linux. EDuke32 runs natively on Windows/Mac/Linux, can run at screaming crazy resolutions, allows you to pick between the Polymost and classic rendering images, contains tons of bugfixes to the original engines, and many other features. It contains tons of extensions to the CON scripting system (allowing for modern day conversions with awesome new features), a Quake style console, “Hundreds of optimizations” and fixes to make the games run smoother, upgrades Polymost with shading, fog, glow maps, detail textures, replacement of sprites with 3D models, etc etc. It can handle Ogg Vorbis, has higher wall/sector/sprite handling capabilites for larger maps, and according to the website it even makes sandwiches.
One of the key benefiets of EDuke32, however, is the High Resolution Pack. EDuke32 allows the HRP to override the original textures and sprites with high resolution 32bit textures and 3D models. So, instead of flat Pigcop textured sprites, you have a 3D pigcop staring you down. Instead of a pixelated mash of a sign, you see a pretty high res sign.
What this all comes down to is, by using EDuke32’s advanced features and the knowledge gained from the HRP, we can use the simple tools provded for Duke Nukem 3D edititng to create a new game in less time than with most other toolkits. Mapster32 is simpler to use than many 3D editing programs for levels, textures are simple PNG files with no need to do crazy converstions with silly programs, modifications to game code are compiled at runtime by the BUILD engine meaning all you need is a text editor to update the game… a programmer with Microsoft Paint and Notepad can create a demo in a couple of weeks that could draw the rest of the team necessary to build up an awesome game. And when those Graphic Designers and Mucisians and Sound Editors and Voice Actors show up, the power of EDuke32’s runtime means you don’t have to constrain them into 8 bit textures or tiny animations. You can go as simple, or crazy stars complex as you want.
And you can get started for only 6 bucks. Download the GOG Duke Nukem 3D, download EDuke32, install the High Resolution Pack, and play. When you’re done, come back, and we’ll talk about how you can go about using tools available to you right now to mod the heck out of this awesome game.
