Thursday, December 31, 1998

Direct3D Support
George Broussard posted a follow-up message to the Duke Nukem Forever progress reports thread on 3D Realms' Message Boards replying to a question about Direct3D support in Duke 4 (Thanks again Blue):

The ultimate goal is to try and move DNF over to D3D, so the video card hassle is minimized. This is an issue we will start to address after we patch to the 220-222 Unreal code base and evaluate the state of the current D3D drivers.

Wednesday, December 30, 1998

Progress Update
Saw on Blue's News that George Broussard posted a Duke Nukem Forever progress report on 3D Realms' Message Boards with the latest on Duke 4's development:

Code: Been adding lot's and lot's of neato features so our mappers can do insane, and I mean insane amounts of interactivity. Also working on things like skeletal character system, level of detail, and preparing to do a major patch to Unreals version 220+ code base (Janurary).

Maps: the guys have been working steadily on majorly detailed level scripts, so that we know where you are and what you will be doing on a level per level basis. This is analogous to a blueprint for a house, or a script for a movie. They are about to start on "real" maps according to the scripts we've drawn up. Major design meetings and level reviews have been taking place as we continue to refine the game.

Art: Modellers have been building some characters and smaller decorative objects for the game. We are amassing a library of items that can pop into the game at any time and they know how to react to being shot or USEd. Texture guys are always jamming on textures for the levels, or skins for the characters.

Concept sketches: Been working on nailing final looks for BombShell, and storyboarding some cinematic sequences. About to start doing sketches of level locations so the mappers have a good visual to build off of. Will continue with character sketches as we refine what will/will not be in the game.

That's a brief run down of what we've been doing. The major part of the last 2-3 months has been uplifting Unreal to do a lot of what we wanted DNF to do. We are now 95% happy with the interactivity we can do and are moving to more mundane things like Unreal patch upgrades, weapons coding and neat little interactive touches.

All in all, things are going great and we're about in our stride in full production on the game. We'll also probably be building a small motion capture studio in house and getting the equipment in here asap (as we've done the research and demo'ed a couple).

We've still got an immense amount of work to do, to bring the game up to playable "game" status, but all the separate parts are coming together and we're all really, really excited at what we see forming.

Thanks for the patience and support. DNF will rock you.

George Broussard, 3D Realms

Wednesday, December 16, 1998

Unofficial Mailing List
There's now an Unofficial Duke Nukem mailing list on Maximum Threshold for all Duke Nukem games. Here's the info I received by e-mail:

This is a mailing list to discuss 3D Realms' game, Duke Nukem. The discussion could be about anything and everything about the game Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem II, Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem Forever.

To subscribe to this list, send email to imailsrv@speckz.com and include in the body of the message:

subscribe dukenukem3d

To unsubscribe from this list, send email to imailsrv@speckz.com and include in the body of the message:

unsubscribe dukenukem3d

Tuesday, December 8, 1998

3D Realms Dementia
Brad Wernicke of 3D Portal appears on today's Daily Dementia to talk about 3D Realms and their games, including Duke Forever. RealPlayer required.

Tuesday, December 1, 1998

No Sneak Peek
Thanks to Brad at 3D Portal for word that the previous report of Impulse 98 sporting a demo of Duke 4 is false. Here's Impulse 98's statement concerning the issue:

GT Interactive have made it clear that there will be no Duke Nukem Forever demo at Impulse 98. Our apologies to GT and the public for suggesting otherwise. The only contact for GT that we had was the contracted person who was supposed to be setting up their stand, and he told us that there would be an unplayable demo at the event. That should teach him to make up stories, and it has certainly taught me to deal directly with the people who know, not the people who pretend to know.