Raze officially revealed!

[Rachael]

It's Duke Nukem 3D's 24th anniversary, so...



(Full disclosure: Most credit goes to Graf for this)

[Sgt. Shivers]

It's Duke Nukem's 24th anniversary, so...

https://youtu.be/GT4mZUwuoXQ

(Full disclosure: Most credit goes to Graf for this)

Woah! This looks awesome, I can see it opening up a lot of modding possibilities!

[Jeimuzu73]

It's Duke Nukem's 24th anniversary, so...

https://youtu.be/GT4mZUwuoXQ

(Full disclosure: Most credit goes to Graf for this)

ZBuild? Impressive. Does it use the same DECORATE format of coding as ZDoom or its own?

[Rachael]

Right now the focus is more on usability (and actually being able to PLAY the games without frustration) than mods. That being said, it borrows features from several parent ports so it will inherit the capabilities of said ports. More details than that, though, I will let Graf explain.

[Pompous Seed]

It's Duke Nukem's 24th anniversary, so...

https://youtu.be/GT4mZUwuoXQ

DUDE YEEEEEES.

[Captain J]

HOLY CRUD now i can play redneck rampage soon??

[Redneckerz]

Some additional information scavenged from the Discord for those who are not on it:

• This is a seperate project from mainline GZDoom.
• The port uses code from various source ports: Primarly EDuke32, GZDoom (For UI/Input) and NBlood/RedNukem/VoidSW/PCExhumed.
• It uses ZMusic as its music system, which is from GZDoom. A standalone library of this can be found here.
• The port has a name, but this is under Graf's discretion for now and it will soon be revealed.. Graf is also primarily in charge of this port

[Graf Zahl]

It uses ZMusic as its music system, which is from GZDoom. A standalone library of this can be found here.

With one caveat: Thanks to the Build license clusterfuck I had to remove all MIDI players that are LGPL v3 or GPL, so only FluidSynth is available right now. I still plan to port the Build OPL player but that's a lower priority task, there's more important things to do first.

[
Woah! This looks awesome, I can see it opening up a lot of modding possibilities!

Don't get too excited. There's a few things to note about Build games:

1. Each one is different.
2. Coding quality of all the original games is generally vastly inferior to Doom. Even Blood, which is more sophisticated than the rest isn't nearly as well structured - and all Build games suffer from the engine's own limitations, first and foremost the lack of named textures.
3. Hacks were an approved tool for all the original games to achieve special effects, most notably the ROR implementations are all different and mutually incompatible.

For now, reaching stability and a nice user interface are the primary concerns.

[Teddipetzi]

Wow, cool!

Let's hope this is what I've been waiting for all these years - a Build engine port that gets the fundamentals right before branching out into the cool features area.

So, from what I understand this is very much like BuildGDX, i.e. separate game code for all games, right? Is there really no chance to merge them together and are all those people correct that say the code is not compatible?

Which renderer does this use? Polymost or Polymer? Or both?

[Tea Monster]

Polymost is very primitive and Polymer is a pile of crap. GZDoom has some kind of PBR renderer, that would kick ass if it works properly.

[Kinsie]

So, from what I understand this is very much like BuildGDX, i.e. separate game code for all games, right? Is there really no chance to merge them together and are all those people correct that say the code is not compatible?

Most BUILD games have completely and totally different game code on every level, with the exception of a couple of games (Redneck Rampage, EXTREME PAINTBALL!) that also licensed the Duke code and used it as a base. In comparison, every officially licensed Doom engine game used either Doom 1 or 2 as a base, so it's a lot easier to find a cohesive middle ground between them.

[jdredalert]

I knew it! After ZDuke being brought back from the dead and all the Build Engine discussions by the end of the last year, i had this strange feeling inside me that we would soon see something related to Build games here.

Thank you Graf and team, you guys really know how to make someone happy!

[Graf Zahl]

Polymer is very primitive and Polymer is a pile of crap.

So which one is which? I think you wanted to write "Polymost" for one of these.

Let's hope this is what I've been waiting for all these years - a Build engine port that gets the fundamentals right before branching out into the cool features area.

That's the plan - so don't expect fancy effects and cool lighting right out of the box. I think the Polymer renderer is a great example of something that got its effects added before the foundatiin was working, and we all know how it ended up (... that thing that's slow ...) Once there is a solid foundation these things can be added.

So, from what I understand this is very much like BuildGDX, i.e. separate game code for all games, right? Is there really no chance to merge them together and are all those people correct that say the code is not compatible?

Yes, that's precisely what it is - 5 different game modules using the same backend. No, there really is no chance to merge it all together. Theoretically it could be done to merge RR with Duke, but that'd only be worthwile if the code was completely restructured so that the different elements can actually be used together. Unfortunately that's pretty much impossible because these games also feature a scripting language, which means that you cannot make changes which break the scripts.

Which renderer does this use? Polymost or Polymer? Or both?

For now Polymost only. It remains to be seen where we can go from here. One thing is certain, though: Thanks to how it processes coordinates, it would be hard to do advanced effects with it.

I knew it! After ZDuke being brought back from the dead and all the Build Engine discussions by the end of the last year, i had this strange feeling inside me that we would soon see something related to Build games here.

Trivia: The reappearance of ZDuke was a lucky coincidence, nothing more, actually. It was an interesting glimpse into history, but that's really all it was.

[Cacodemon345]

One question: did the original Build engine contain bulit-in physics apart from rendering?

I am actually looking forward to this port.

[Redneckerz]

That's the plan - so don't expect fancy effects and cool lighting right out of the box. I think the Polymer renderer is a great example of something that got its effects added before the foundatiin was working, and we all know how it ended up (... that thing that's slow ...) Once there is a solid foundation these things can be added.

Plagman (Author of Polymer) only had some limited time to put that in, and he now works at Nvidia. Given that there has been nobody else having a go at it (I am not sure if the source is even available), it is simply existing. Ion Fury does not target Polymer either way, preferring software or Polymost at best.

I know icecoldduke has been doing a lot of high end Duke3D stuff in a similar fashion as dpJudas, but Ice has a habit of not finishing things. Which sucks, because the stuff he has worked on could have been interesting for this contraption.

Using Polymost gives one a stable base but its also not the latest OpenGL.

Yes, that's precisely what it is - 5 different game modules using the same backend. No, there really is no chance to merge it all together. Theoretically it could be done to merge RR with Duke, but that'd only be worthwile if the code was completely restructured so that the different elements can actually be used together. Unfortunately that's pretty much impossible because these games also feature a scripting language, which means that you cannot make changes which break the scripts.

Okay, so this is more like a frontend to various game modules using the Build Engine (given how Build is simply a renderer). That sounds a bit like Retroarch to me honestly.

Trivia: The reappearance of ZDuke was a lucky coincidence, nothing more, actually. It was an interesting glimpse into history, but that's really all it was.

I have it on the record that this thread is what inspired you.

And yeah, it was a lucky concidence both threads were roughly in the same timeframe. It seems the world was waiting for a marriage between Doomguy and Duke, especially now that the latter is on allowance at Gearbox.

So here we are then...