Ok not super exciting Duke4 news, but any news is good news..right? Level designer Charlie Wiederhold replied to someone who was complaining about a physics flaw in the UT engine in this thread (basically not liking how bullets are fired). Here's what Charlie had to say:

There is no way that a current game can properly track and adjust for hitscan weapons based on things like this. There simply isn't the horsepower yet. Imagine a guy out there with a machinegun firing 10 rounds a second. Now imagine 8 of those guys out there. It won't work. There is a reason why bullet weapons are "hitscans" as someone already described. It never travels, it simply arrives instantly where it should. Even this minor minor calculation can cause problems if a lot of people are firing hitscan weapons around each other.

And yes, the train isn't moving either, it's the same trick that was done in Blood, Sin, Blood 2, and now UT (as well as other games I'd imagine). You work with what you've got. Someday we'll have a train traveling through the countryside, but for now that's the best you can accomplish and actually be able to play on. It may be cheap, but since almost everything in the games you play are hacks/illusions... it's not a big deal :)

Scott Miller, George Broussard and Charlie Wiederhold all checked on the 3D Realms Duke4 forum this weekend to talk about this upcoming Unreal Tournament-engine powered sequel to Duke Nukem 3D that is looking oh-so-good. Someone started a petition because of something Scott Miller mentioned in the Gameslice Millennium Gaming article that went up a few days ago. Basically Scott would like to see double guns in Duke4, but the team shot it down. Here's what Scott said in the thread:

The idea was that some weapons would require two hands, like an RPG, and therefore you could only carry one at a time. But the single-handed (usually weaker) weapons could be mixed and matched anyway the player wanted. The player could also hold a single-handed weapon plus an inventory item. <snip>

George Broussard then said why this won't happen:

Scott,

>>Anyway, this is obviously an idea with complications, but it's also one that fits Duke's image and would have opened up many cool possibilities. Since we will not be seeing this in DNF, hopefully another shooter will use this idea in the future.<<

Yeah one that can throw away all the additional poly's on guns With this engine we cannot. When cards get a lot faster, or people choose to reduce the detail on the guns, you may see this feature. Until then, it's better to have another guy on the screen.

George

Level designer Charlie Wiederhold has been replying to this thread about the often asked question: what's keeping so long @#)$. With a game looking this fine, they can take their time imho. Scott Miller also posted here where someone was wondering if Duke4 would be shown at E3 this year. Here's what it basically boils down to:

<snip> I think we'll only go to E3 if what we have in place at that time is already good enough for a solid presentation, without wasting time hacking together a demo.

Scott Miller

3DRealm's Chris Hargrove posted in this thread replying to a user's question/comment about skeletal animation in the very anticipated Duke4.

The pinching around the joints is mostly a problem when skeletal vertices only use single bone weights, i.e. each vertex only allowing itself to be controlled by one bone. Although models tend to do fine with single weighting for the most part, our skeletal code allows multiple weighting; as many weights as you need for a particular vertex. It's not something you should abuse to extremes (for efficiency reasons), but if you want to use two or three bone weights for the vertices near knees, elbows, etc., then there's no perceivable hit and it generally solves the pinching problems.

Also, I should note that our model code is not restricted to skeletal; we do support frame-based vertex animation in addition to skeletal animation, for people who are doing simple models that don't need bones or doing things where bones just aren't appropriate for whatever reason. Obviously models that are using frame-based animation will not support certain "features", like blowing off sections of the model, but still the choice is there.

Thanks Unreal Universe.

Following up on the big cdkey debate that's been raging around the net, Scott Miller over at 3DRealms working on Duke4 throws in his 2 cents on the discussion with a .plan update stating Duke4 will 'likely' carry some copy protection scheme as well, although not necessarily a cdkey. (story1 , story2) Get used to it kids, the net is getting bigger and cd burners cheaper every day, game developers are losing more sales due because of it.

...I've been watching the debates regarding QA3's server key validation because Duke Nukem Forever will likely use some form of copy protection too. Software theft (mostly casual theft, such a making a copy for a friend, family member, or co-worker) has become such a huge problem that developers and publishers can no longer release games without protection of some sort. Hit games used to sell many more copies than they do nowadays, and a good part of the dramatic drop must be due to the proliferation of CD-ROM burners.

Not a whole lot going down this afternoon of excitement, been getting a lot of work done however behind the scenes. The nifty new screenshots archive overhaul is just about done. Yup, thumbnails. IF you're bored check out the new format, here are the Duke4 shots and Amen shots for now. Gotten a lot more done and hope to have them all ready by this evening.

George Broussard of 3DRealms is being frisky again and answered several questions on Duke4Ever on the interview item Maarten posted yesterday. I grabbed George's take on multiplayer for Duke4 since I figured that interests you guys the most. Check the thread for his other comments. (There are a few)

Duke 3D was one of the best DM games ever (especially for it's time). We certainly think we can compete well with id/Epic in that "Arena" ;) MultiPlay is a very, very high priority for us because we 1) love to play and 2) know that multiplay extends a games life for 2 years or more.
We will NOT just throw together some generic multiplayer and ship it like many others have done. You can bet that DNF MultiPlay will be on par with anything else out there.
Single play sells the initial game, but multiplay keeps it going and going and going ;) DNF is also our 4th multiplayer FPS title, so we're pretty comfortable with making that style of game and balancing weapons and understanding what most of you want in the experience.
George Broussard, 3D Realms

The guys at Dukeworld have redesigned their site and popped up an interview with GeorgeB of 3DR talking about the upcoming Duke Forever. George doesn't give away too much in this interview, but there are some questions about their decision to switch to the Unreal Tournament code base.

Dukeworld: Why make this decision now despite the fact that you've stated in the past you had broken off from the Unreal code base?

George Broussard: We broke off our code at Unreal 220. But unfortunately that was a fairly unstable version of the engine. We had intended to continue on our own, but Epic simply did too good a job with UT. It's faster, has better net code, better interface, better video drivers. All in all UT is the culmination of all the Unreal tech work and the focus of Epic's efforts since Unreal shipped last year. Not patching to it would be a collossal mistake.

Dukeworld: In the past, you have stated that Duke Nukem Forever would not have team play, or CTF support with the retail version, and that you would rely on expansion packs, and the fan base to create such mods. With the switch to the UT engine, can we expect to see this support now in the retail version?

George Broussard: I'd think you can expect some sort of CTF based play now. Since it's all in the current UT code base, it'd be silly to throw it out.

Be sure to check out the whole interview here. If you never checked out those Unreal engine powered screenshots from a while back, you are a putz. You can make up for it right now though [shot 1] [shot 2] [shot 3] [shot 4] [shot 5].

A very interesting article that went up early this week had some quotes from Bruce Campbell who played in Evil Dead, a movie which many agree was an inspiration for some work at 3DRealms. Well, Scott Miller and Charlie Wiederhold were both kind enough to address Bruce's abrasive statements in the comments. Charlie offered up the full list of quotes from Bruce, which was only 4 phrases. Here is part of what Scott Miller had to say:

<snip> ... I've never understood why Cambell is so put off by Duke, other than he feels spited that we didn't ask him to do Duke's voice, and we haven't talked to him about doing the movie -- that's because he's not the right actor for either role. Duke is not Ash, and therefore Duke is not Bruce Cambell. End of story.

Charlie Wiederhold over at 3DRealms has been feeling a bit chatty lately. He in fact made a couple of postings explaining his view on the supposed 'delays' of Duke4 (I dont remember them ever announcing a release date, so how can it be delayed?) and of course the ongoing "Will Duke4 use the latest technology?" debate. Check it out here and here. (Thanks VE) While on that topic, Scott Miller of 3DR posted to my little blurb about the Duke4 screenshots stating that contrary to popular belief, they lost a truckload of cash when they ditched Quake2 technology:

Actually, we burned a truck load of money (that went to id's account) in changing engines (from the Q2 engine -- the Q3 engine wasn't available at that time). We did this in order to make a better game. id's engine could not handle the design goals of DNF.

Of course, if I were Scott I certainly wouldnt tell anyone if I chose the technology for financial reasons.

A topic that has come up more than once recently is the very impressive Duke4 shots that came out early last week. As many people know, Duke4Ever was originally based on the Quake2 engine (Which george addressed here actually). When taking a look at those shots, and then comparing it to what other developers are doing with the Quake2, I've come the the conclusion that 3DRealms made a good choice. I know a large portion of you guys just hate UT and Epic, but I'm one of those guys who actually dont care who makes a product, as long as it's good. I'm not trying to start a general flame war over which engine is better in general, but for this specific application (The Duke4 title) I'm actually convinced the technology from Epic was the right choice for 3DRealms. If you have a comment, try to keep it specific to Duke4, and none of this Quake3 vs UT crap, god knows we've had enough of that.

oh btw, Gamedealer tells me the $33.95 Quake3 deal should work a bit faster today.

Some more Duke4 Q&A this morning for you guys from George Broussard. If you havent checked out those Duke4 screenshots yet you best be doing so. They will seriously impress you. Here are 3 of the more interesting answers for you guys, you can check out the thread for the rest.

Q: PLEASE Don't release this game until it's finished and is as bug free  as is humanly possible. Take as much time as is necessary, and  don't bend to outside pressures from Publishers or even the rabid   band of nastys on this message board (of which I am included). ;-)
A: We won't. We have zero publisher pressure to ship the game, and have total control of when it does ship. We don't want to release it before it's "fun" and as bug free as possible. We don't want 10 patches after release either, but some are unavoidable with as complex as games are now.

Q: Um, I remember them beginning work on this game right around when Quake 1 was released. I just don't care anymore.
A: You remember wrong. After Duke 3D (May 96), we did the add on called Plutonium Pak. That took us to the end of 1996. In 1997 we brought a game that was originally in production outside of 3DR (Shadow Warrior) in house and finished it up. That took until Sept 1997. Although we licensed the Quake 1 code in May 1997, we didn't officially start the game until about Dec 1997 when we had hired most of the team. We then worked for 3-4 months on the Quake 2 code base and went to E3 1998. Came back and switched to Unreal in July 1998 and that puts us where we are now. A little history for those of you that care ;)

Q: You were talking about motion capture with polygonal specific damage and reaction. Ahh, did you do motion capture on your strippers? Did you nab one of those exotic dancing chicks, slap on the motion capture wiring and let her loose? Heh. Just curious. :)
A: Yes, we will be motion capturing real-life strippers ;) Yes, we'll just hook em' up to the suit, play some music, dim the lights and capture away, and away, and away...

Out with the scanned screenshots..Here's the real deal. Unreal-engine Duke Nukem Forever screenshots. Looking great (image links fixed):

More? [shot1] [shot2] [shot 3] [shot 4] [shot 5] [shot 6] [shot 7] [shot 8] [shot 9] [shot 10] . If this won't blow up the server, nothing will :) Oh yeah, you can also download this zip with the 10 shots in high resolution.

Also for those who want to know, these shots were taken with a Voodoo 3 card, because of the older Unreal drivers 3DR is using it doesn't like Direct 3D as much. This is why they will be upgrading to Unreal Tournament code, to get all that fixed.

George Broussard from 3D Realms posted some comments yesterday in the Duke 4 Feature story, I collected some quotes for you:

>>another fun factor in the original duke nukem 3d was the weapons designs... so many different types of weapons, not just ones that fire at your opponent... like laser tripmines and stuff like that..

We're definately keeping that mindset in DNF. You need variety in weapons. You need in your face blasting action, but also the ability to be sneaky and set traps (ala pipe bombs and laser trip mines -- both replicated verbatim in Half Life BTW :)). If every single gun is designed for a straight up in your face fight you end up with very one dimensioanl DeathMath like "get gun...kill guy". That's great, but add to that the ability to be sneaky and stealthy and you have a whole new dimension of gameplay and fun.

>>#23 - When it's released, it's gonna be like C&C Tiberian Sun... look how much it SUCKED. and we waited so long in anticipation for such a piece of shit... why can't developers learn that they need to develop innovative AND fun games at the same time? AKA Quake 3 and HOPEFULLY Duke 4??

Agreed. That's why DNF is taking so long. We flat out refuse to make a TC for Unreal. Innovation and fun take a long time to create.

>>Hey guys, how about putting a CHAINSAW in duke 4 so's I can enjoy alittle alcoholicly induced godmoded ownage over the *&#^$@!!!! as I was able to do in Doom?

Wait for the screen shots ;) We know what you want ;)

>>and oh make sure to include The Stadium map or a version of it in your final game.. hehe that's the best multiplayer deathmatch mayhem... Duff's Beer :P

Noted. Once again we know what you want. Seems it'd be stupid to release DNF and NOT have some of the favorite DM maps appear in an updated form. We'll also have plenty of new maps for you as well. The hard part will be selecting the old favorites, although a few are obvious.

Well, George and Scott both up at 3DRealms sure talked about the latest issue of PCGamer quite a bit. MajorGaines was kind enough to forward me the actul cover art for the big Duke4 feature. Check it out and stuff:

If are manly with lots of bandwidth, here is a link to a high resolution version. Also, a lot of people seem pretty impressed with the 'Win A Job At Ion Storm' contest listed on that cover image. I'm not sure that contest is the best idea in the world...

Carried this over from late last night... Scott Miller of 3DRealms made a post to the 3DR BBS stating that he is still in search for a name to fit the next Duke Nukem game. (Duke5) Of course Duke4Ever just pretty much fit quite well, but Duke5... check it

I've been thinking about a name for Duke 5 for several years and I have several very good candidates (which I will not reveal here because it's best if everyone thinks along their own lines, rather than the direction I've been going). The name must have something to do with the number 5, or have a play on the word 5 in some way (like Duke Nukem Forever sounds like Duke Nukem Four). Be very creative! So, if any has any ideas, post them here! BTW, this is NOT a contest, but then you never know what I might give away if someone has a great suggestion. ;-) Have fun...
Scott Miller

While on the really weird stuff kick, check out the GodZilla vs DukeNukem contest.

3D-Unlimited has a new interview with Scott Miller of 3DRealms. It's one of the longest interviews I've seen in a while and quite a good one. sCott talks about forming Apogee/3DRealms, the cars they drive, and all that stuff. Of course a couple of pages into the interview you'll get to the juice on Duke4 and Max Payne. Scott mostly just says "get the December PCGamer" though. Here is Scott talking about Duke4 tech:

We're using the Unreal Tournament version of the engine, but we've added a LOT of new technology to it. There's no doubt in my mind that our enhanced UT engine is one of the most powerful, impressive engines ever used, and will very much be leading-edge stuff when DNF comes out. In other words, this game will not in any way suffer from looking dated, which many gamers have expressed some concern about.

update by Maarten: I spotted some more Duke4 news on the 3D Realms forums. Here's what the man George Broussard had to say on playing as different characters in Duke:

>>Something i was just wondering about, cause you can in Unreal, and it would be cool to play as a chick.

Not in single player. You're Duke. Well, we may have a surprise or two for you there later. But, yes, in DeathMatch we intend to have many, MANY models you can play as from the game, so you can pick your favorite.

Oh yeah, here is what Duke4 looked like in the Quake2 engine: [shot1] [shot2] [shot3] [shot4] [shot5] [shot6]

We havent had much Duke4 info lately have we? Well GeorgyB over at 3DRealms made a few posts to the 3DRealms BBS which may interest you guys. He answers some postings and gets a little frisky even. Here's a nibblet:

Has DNF switched to the QuakeIII engine?
Nobody's swicthed to anything around here. DNF will be shown in the Dec PC Gamer and you will all get a small early taste of the game.