Some Info About EDuke And Duke3D Mods?

[The Dying Informant]

First, I apologize if I'm being the typical annoying n00b. I've had Duke 3D ever since it came out, and I have the book that says all about level making with build. But I had no idea there was this EDuke that totally modifies Duke so that it can make totally new games. Ofcourse, I can't believe this is a popular idea for anyone other than fans - isn't the build engine quite dated?

Anyway, I have absolutely no knowledge in programming or hacking the con files. I want to know if EDuke is a userfriendly program that allows you to edit the game to your liking. Or is it more like an add-on to build that updates it and allows you to do more with it? I heard that it helps you edit the con files, but can't you do that without EDuke? But in any case, I hope it's easy enough for me to use, because I have some ideas I wasn't able to implement in my levels. I did check out the EDuke site, but I don't think I can find out everything I want to know there. Actually, I don't understand a lot of the info there. Like, is there a good source of info on EDuke and Duke modding? There were links on the site, but they didn't work and I couldn't find them manually.

Now I want to ask about what I want to do n Duke 3D and if it's possible.

1) I want to make a new playable character. This includes the third person view, the holding of the weapons, and the one liners. Maybe even the height of how much off the ground you can see from because the character will be pretty short I think. I'm not sure about that. Anyway is that possible? I know you can make new monsters. I haven't tried that yet.

2) Is it possible to edit either the subway or the conveyorbelt? I want to make a ride where Duke sits in a small boat and goes along the water, and some parts of the ride will have an angle that I want the boat to go down fast. I wonder if I could add waves to this subway/conveyorbelt as well? I know this idea may be nuts, but it's not like it's a rollercoaster or anything.

3) Is there a way to make enemies huge or tiny in the level, or Duke huge or tiny? I mean more than the shrink ray does. I want the huge enemies to try and stomp on tiny Duke and Duke can use his weapons to shoot them, but it would take a lot of shooting to harm them enough. I also want normal Duke to stomp tiny enemies that try to shoot Duke, but also try to run away when he gets closer to them. In addition I would like to make a tiny area of levels that can have everything a normal level can - but much smaller. I don't know if this is possible.

So what help can you give me? I look forward to your posts.

[ 05-07-2002, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: Nadine ]

[Kef Nukem]

1) I want to make a new playable character. This includes the third person view, the holding of the weapons, and the one liners. Maybe even the height of how much off the ground you can see from because the character will be pretty short I think. I'm not sure about that. Anyway is that possible? I know you can make new monsters. I haven't tried that yet.

- 3d view = F7 so yeah that should be possible. But I doubt about the "holding different weapons", this has more to do with "models" and pollys which are not in Duke. And yes you can change the player's art and the art of the enemies.

2) Is it possible to edit either the subway or the conveyorbelt? I want to make a ride where Duke sits in a small boat and goes along the water, and some parts of the ride will have an angle that I want the boat to go down fast. I wonder if I could add waves to this subway/conveyorbelt as well? I know this idea may be nuts, but it's not like it's a rollercoaster or anything.

- The thing with the boat is not possible.

3) Is there a way to make enemies huge or tiny in the level, or Duke huge or tiny? I mean more than the shrink ray does. I want the huge enemies to try and stomp on tiny Duke and Duke can use his weapons to shoot them, but it would take a lot of shooting to harm them enough. I also want normal Duke to stomp tiny enemies that try to shoot Duke, but also try to run away when he gets closer to them. In addition I would like to make a tiny area of levels that can have everything a normal level can - but much smaller. I don't know if this is possible.

- Yes this is all possible, it can be changed in the cons. The command "sizeto" goes for the "resizing" of enemies. I don't know what you mean with the "tiny area of levels" ? Like in Mario Land or what? images/icons/smile.gif

[B.T. Clegg]

Perhaps he wants Duke to play Godzilla and rampage a city 10 times smaller than him? You know, like Smallville.

[The Dying Informant]

What I mean with the weapons is not to change the weapons but the hand and arm that holds them. You know, I'm going to put Jazz Jackrabbit in place of Duke so his hands are green and furry, have only four fingers, and he wears gold things on his wrists. It wouldn't make sense to see a green bunny in a mirror and see your hand on screen as a human hand, know what I mean?

With the size, I think I described it good. Not just to change the size of monsters and of Duke, but to change the actions that happen. For example, when Duke normally get shrunk with the shrink ray he can run, but can't use his weapons. I want him to be able to. I meant by small area of the level is this: You can play the level as normal, but there is a secret if you shrink. This secret isn't just a normal size room that you get to by running through a mouse hole. You can stay small until you press a certain key (remember I want Duke to be as normal, but just shrunken). You stay small and enter into a tiny bathroom or tiny equivilant of anyplace you can normally make in a level. I don't know if this is possible because I don't know how small they allow you to create things, and there has to be room for the sector effectors and everything to fit into a swinging door sector or whatever you want to make. You normally need room for certain sprites. I also want the enemies to say, be shrunken without using the shrink ray on them, and they are still able to shoot at you if you're not too close to them. Normally you can squish them when close up, and they try to run, but they run in circles. I would like them to really try to keep running away from you and maybe even hide and you have to track them down. Likewise, when Duke is shrunk I want him to be able to shoot the enemies. I already said that though.

With the boat thing, I wanted to make a ride and there has to be an angle that goes down fast. I either want a boat to be made like you normally do for a subway. Or I want to use a coneyorbelt, and the "Boat" can be made out of blockable sprites. But I tested it, and it doesn't go down the ramp - it flys off into the air. I was wondering if EDuke allows you to edit Build to do things it wasn't originally allowed to do.

Making a playable character: Is there an FAQ on how to do that? The animations will just be "replaced" there won't be any new ones or new actions. So do I need to do anything complex? Is it easy to do once I have all the frames done? I don't have the frames done yet, but I'm working on them.

[WhyteTyger]

Eduke is a source code update to allow TC creators greater flexibility and control over the CON code by making most hard-coded functions accessible and changeable in the script.

1.) You do not need Eduke to accomplish this. All you need to do is edit the art tiles for both the weapons and the player to replace the portions you wish to change.

2.) The subway "track" sector must be flat with no steps or slopes. This is a Build limitation. It may be possible to use the "conveyor belt" sector effector and blocked sprites with the fall command in the cons, but they will appear at irregular heights depending on their position on the "slope" since sprites cannot be angled horizontally. Your boat will take on a "stair-step" look or, if you use several large sprites, will appear to hover above the slope.

3.) As explained previously, the sizeto and sizeat commands can be used to change the default size of the monsters. Sizeto is a more gradual change in size while sizeat is done instantaneously. The code already allows the player to "auto-stomp" shrunk monsters. With a small line of code, you can easily check to see if the monster is a certain distance from the player and then execute a fleeplayer AI routine (which is also a hard-coded primitive).

As far as the player or the monsters being able to shoot when shrunk, again it appears to be hard-coded and unaccessible at this time. I've not verified this in the cons, but you could possibly use Eduke's ability to check for key events. This would more than likely render that event unuseable as normal and allow you to put your own code in its place. Then you could place a variable check in the event code and place the "shrink code" within the Aplayer section of the Game.Con for execution.

In regards to placing sector effector sprites, turn off grid locking to position them within your sectors. Naturally, there must be enough room so that the sprite is not sitting on a sector line, but you can certainly make "miniature" structures and still have them work properly.

Hope this helps clear up some things for you.

Steel Kats Design (http://www.geocities.com/steelkats)
WhyteTyger aka SteelKat