DAWN OF THE DEAD - MP1 Total Conversion

<font color="red"> DAWN OF THE DEAD </font>
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<font color="blue"> A Max Payne Total Conversion </font>


I don't know if anyone's intersested but I myself have been working on a MP1 total conversion, called, DAWN OF THE DEAD for some time now thats based on the 1978 Zombie Horror classic ( & not the 2004 remake ). I'm trying to stick the movie as closely as MP1 will allow me, and i'm using a DVD of the movie for refferance. This total conversion has the same story, weapons, characters, music and green skinned zombies as the movie, & just like the movie you have to shoot the zombies in the head to kill them.

Any weapons that became avalible to characters in the movie also become avalible to them in this total conversion, & at the same time & places in the plot. This can also mean weapons that are used by non main characters, like the police & the hell's angles. The main characters will only be able to pick the weapons of non main characters however, if they used them in the movie.

Because i'm sticking to the movies original weapons, I've had to drop a lot of default MP1 weapons, but theres 6 New ones, Which are.

<font color="blue">44 Magnum
Colt 45 Revolver
Flare
Sword
Tear Gas Granade Launcher
Tommy Gun
some Fighting moves ( not Kung FU )
</font>
Also the Zombies heads fly off if you kill them with the right weapon and when this happens they fall to the ground grasping the air with gushes of blood pumping out of their necks.
Characters also realy smoke in this T.C, and not just hold a burning cigarette, as they have done in the few other smoking mods that I seen.

<font color="red"> THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TOO IN This T.C ARE:</font>
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<font color="blue"> (1) A New helicopter with the same paint job as the one in the movie ( COMPLETED )

(2) Completely New Caracters ( SOME COMPLETED )

(3) Completely New story ( IN PROGRESS )

(4) New Weapons ( COMPLETED )

(5) Some fighting moves - Not Kung FU ( IN PROGRESS )

(6) Completely New tutorial level ( COMPLETED )

(7) New bullet time music ( COMPLETED )

(8) New main music ( CHOSEN )

(9) Smoking Character ( COMPLETED )

(10) New Graphic novels ( IN PROGRESS )

(11) New Huds ( COMPLETED )

(12) New menus & loading screens ( COMPLETED )

(13) New easier console commands ( COMPLETED )

(14) Level Selletor ( COMPLETED )

(15) New Death cams ( COMPLETED )

(16) New blood & other decals ( COMPLETED )

(17) New graphics ( IN PROGRESS )

(18) New painkillers - Surringes ( COMPLETED )

(19) New Sounds ( IN PROGRESS )

(20) New worldspheres ( COMPLETED )

(21) Zombies ( IN PROGRESS )

(22) New Settings & scenery ( IN PROGRESS )
</font>

<font color="red"> And many other things********</font>


<font color="green"> As you can see this is what you call a T.C.</font>
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I came to Max-Payne later, so most of the mods & T.C out there were already avalible to me, & thats why I'm able to do this complete T.C, as I've got so many great examples of everything to learn from.

You may be asking why I'm choosing MP1 & not MP2 to do this mod, well I've herd that MP1 is more user freindly & more flexible about what your allowewd to mod than MP2. But on a more personal note I think that MP1's graphics have a rough edge about them that adds to the atmosphere of the game play that was sadly missing in MP2, although I might do a sequal to this T.C uusing MP2 if this turns out well.

<font color="red"> PLEASE NOTE: </font> I will not releasing any part of this T.C separetly, as I am going to release it in it's entirety as so many modders have promissed great things in the past but never delivered, & I don't want to be one of them.


Below is a screenshoots of my <font color="red"> DAWN OF THE DEAD </font> helicopter that matches the one from the movie.


<font color="yellow"> All the Best ( Halloween 4 ) </font>

[Mariamus]

This sound great! can't wait to see more of it, and play it when you've finished it.

[cassa]

ooooooh, I thought this was going to be one of those "can you help me by doing everything" type threads, I too will download this. It looks very cool. ETA?

[Seribicus]

That sounds awsome
I loved that movie

I look forward to seeing zombies in MP's engine

[Starblade]

Halloween4 said:
I will not releasing any part of this T.C separetly, as I am going to release it in it's entirety as so many modders have promissed great things in the past but never delivered, & I don't want to be one of them.

Good. Read what I have done regarding my TC . It might interest you.

http://www.space1999.net/~payne1999/history.html

Thanks for you input, your link was quite interesting & i'm sorry to here that you have had such a long and hard time learning to mod with Max Payne.
I myself am not new to computing or computer programming, as i've been using computers for twenty odd years now. My first computer was a Spectrum ZX81 would you believe, one of the first computers ( if not the first ), to be on sale to the puplic. I wish I still had it now as it would be worth a mint. It was on this computer that I first attempted computer programming, but the graphics were very basic back then, they were block graphics like that old tennis game you used to get, you know the one with 2 lines & a dot ( strangely still enjoyable though ), would you believe this computer only had 4megs of memory, but you could knock that up to 8 if you plugged in an memory modual in the back (wow), to think I'm now using 1500megs. Since the old days, I've worked my way through many computers and courses in compiuting, and have made many add-ons for games in the past, including The Sims, Microsoft Train Simulator, Zoo Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon & Max Payne.
The things I've made for The Sims were Interactive Object's, Skins & clothing, & for MSTS I've made Routes, Activiteis,Trains & other objects. For ZT I've made new animals. For RCT I've made senario's, & for Max Payne I've made done many things including a new tutorial level as you can see from my earlier post.
I've already done many things with this mod & unlike you I don't find it too difficult to do, it's just finding the time to do it. I do dissagree on your view about the user made tutorials out there as I've found them most helpfull and put into much more simpler terms than a lot of the official ones, and theres so many to choose from, more than I have seen for any other game.
I have released some things onto the internet before for The Sims & MSTS, but not for the others. I even had someone from Maxis ( maker of The Sims ), ask me if they could use a couple of my items in one of their add-ons if they wished, I said yes but my items never made the release in the end ( Pitty ). I've also done some modding ( level's & stuff ), for Tomb Raider & Quake, & I've fond Max Payne's 3D CAD not dissimilar to theirs, although Max Paynes is much easier.

By the way have you finished your MP mod yet, & just as impotantly will you be releasing it.

Attached is some pictures of some of my work......

All the best.

[janys_THU]

Wow... this sounds great! And yes, I think you're right - Max Payne 1 is more user-friendly in coding (imo) and it has a natural support for melee attacks. Keep it up, I'm looking forward to hear more about your TC.

[Sayantan]

Halloween4 said:
Below is a screenshoots of my <font color="red"> DAWN OF THE DEAD </font> helicopter that matches the one from the movie.

Strange. It looks so much like the one I made (look below). Is yours a bell helicopter too?
Sorry for this off-topic stuff but I'm not that knowledgable with vehicles whether it belongs to road air or sea.

The first moment I saw it I thought thats mine ..... LOL.

You had me worried then I thought you were trying to accuse me of stealing your work. I have to disagree, these hellicopters look nothing alike.

However i do believe mine to be a Bell hellicopter & it's actually a reskin of the original hellicopter found in max payne but luckily for me it's exactly the model used in this movie. I just had to give it a matching paint job.

[Sayantan]

Halloween4 said:
You had me worried then I thought you were trying to accuse me of stealing your work. I have to disagree, these hellicopters look nothing alike.

Well .......... I never did accuse you of stealing anything. What I wanted to say in my above post is that the moment I saw your helicopter in a glance, I thought its the one made by me, then I realized it isn't, I was in a hurry browsing the forum and I'm mistaken.

Here are some ScreenShots of the MP1 T.C I'm working on.

ScreenShot (1)

ScreenShot (2)

ScreenShot (3)

[Sayantan]

Beautiful Photoshop job. Looks polished.

[GlorFinderIV]

Nice job halloween , it looks so cool .

Like sayantan said.

Nice photosop job

[Theonewayman]

Cool good job.

[Fragmeister]

agree good job man

[Samji]

I like that. Very good skins.
You haven't been tacky with the blood, which some people might have been.

[Cleric]

Wow....very nice. I can't wait to get my hands on it once it's all done

Here's another Screenshot of ' DAWN OF THE DEAD ' the T.C I'm working on for MP1.

Zombie looks good, the level.. a bit empty

[theHunted]

Cypress said:
Zombie looks good, the level.. a bit empty

considering it's for mp1 it looks good to me.
the house could need some more extrusions to add detail however. like extrusions for window and doorframes. and the roof looks odd to me for some reason. i guess it could run a bit further down the side. i fear nobody understands what i mean though.

Well since MaxED isn't actually meant to build outside levels, its good yes. But still empty...

[wiktorus pro]

Yep the level is looking good
it's a outside level in daylight
I hope You will do something like in RE4
PANIC

[Uisor]

Cypress said:
Well since MaxED isn't actually meant to build outside levels, its good yes. But still empty...

You can create outside levels just fine. Making outiside and inside levels works excatly the same way. It's just a big myth that Max Payne doesn't support outside enviroments.

Sure it can't do anything FarCry like enviroments, but it still handles very huge outside areas very well. It just needs a bit more planning and talent than levels which happen in closed quarters.

In the end I still want to mention that a small room may be running worse than a big outside area.

Halloween4 said:
Here's another Screenshot of ' DAWN OF THE DEAD ' the T.C I'm working on for MP1.

It's already looking quite nice, but like TheHunted said above you could add more detail to the house by extending the roof so it comes over the walls, i see that it already does so, but extend it a bit more. Also try adding frames to door and windows by making a seperate mesh for glass and frames. Atm. they are same mesh on the walls. The frames doesn't need to be a very thick or have collisions so there won't be any affect to performance of the level.

Addind some grass, fences and hills/bumps there will also make the level look more grouded and nicer than plane ground. Hills/bumps are quite hard to do, but not impossible.

At least I suggest you to experiment with these things. Add more things there and test how well it works after that, add more and test again. Create something that players won't expect to be there.

These details are what makes the level imo, in the end the players won't propably pay any special attention to them, but they do pay attention to lack of them.

theHunted said:

considering it's for mp1 it looks good to me.
the house could need some more extrusions to add detail however. like extrusions for window and doorframes. and the roof looks odd to me for some reason. i guess it could run a bit further down the side. i fear nobody understands what i mean though.

I don't know why people always insist on saying that your level's look bare when in fact all that they are seeing is a snapshot of a very small part of it ( you only have to take a look at the scale of the Zombie in the picture to work that one out ), & infact this level is so large & detailed that it's been, FPS wise, a bit of a worry to me as one of the cinematic sequences seems to lag a bit because of this. I also think that this T.C is not going to work well on less powerfull P.C's for this reason as I myself am using a reasonably powerfull machine, but I have no way of testing this out as my other less powerfull P.C is in bits at the moment. Perhaps it will work on less powerfull machines with some of the detail settings turned down, although you can get to a point when turning down detail level's when then modder's hard work start's to be in vain. Also the problem with some level's in this T.C is that not only are they large & detail, but being a Zombie mod there are also a great number of characters on the sceen sometimes ( as many as 10 or more Zombies ), & this is only the Zombies, this mod also has NPC helpers.

As for the comment's about the house, this house looks more impressive in 3D & dose infact have extrusions like door & window frame's & roof extrusions among other things but sadly the detail is lost in this 2D picture. Also on the subject of the roof, this house looks perfectly in scale in 3D, & I worked on the scale for 2 day's to make sure of this, so I think that the roof probably looks out of scale here due to the camera angle that I used in this picture. I do however like to use a more arty camera angles when creating snapshots, for dramatic affect.
I would also like to say however that this house is for level decoration only & plays no real part in this ( exterior ), level's gameplay so this in it's self say's something about the earlier mentioned comment about lack of detail in my level's don't you think?.

And as a small note to Uisor, this level's already contains Hills & grass ( it's nearly all grassed in fact apart from one winding road ( & you can see both the road & the grass in the above picture ), there are also trees, tree stumps, plant's & rocks, cars, jeeps & a van, telephone & mail boxes, trash cans & Barrels, a house, a barn with grain sacks, seating, a road barrier, lights, ammo boxes, weapons & painkillers. Along with 12 Zombies, 5 NPC helpers, 2 New animations, 4 Cinematic sequences, New music, New sound affects & a enemy reactivatin button ( like in the MP1 tutorial ), so how much more detail do you want. So as you can see you have done what I mentioned above & judged the extent of my level by this one small snapshot. Shame on you.

[wiktorus pro]

what's your specs ?

wiktorus pro said:
what's your specs ?

Cpu: AMD Anthlon XP3000+ (2.17Ghz)
Memory: 1500MB DDR PC2700
Video Card: GAINWARD Ultra/780 TV/DVI Geforce FX5600 256MB of Ultra/DDR RAM

[Uisor]

I agree that I commented your level by the newest screen + the old screens you've posted. When typing my text I was aware that the level is bigger than we seen in the screen and it's more than likely that you've already placed several objects in there, but like you said I judged the content of your level by the screen and in the screens I don't see these things I've mentioned.

I didn't meant to offend you or anything, I just based my comment on the stuff in the movie and real life compared to what I've seen from the screens.

I'm sure you know what you're doing and as a fan of the movie you try to create it as true to the movie as possible. So keep up the good work.

Uisor said:
I didn't meant to offend you or anything, I just based my comment on the stuff in the movie and real life compared to what I've seen from the screens.

I'm sure you know what you're doing and as a fan of the movie you try to create it as true to the movie as possible. So keep up the good work.

Don't worry mate I didn't mean to sound offened as I wasn't & any feedback is helpfull in my book & your comments are gladly wecome. I just wanted to clear up the fact that it is near on immpossible to take a screenshot of a hole level ( especially a large one ), without pulling the camera up so far that you need breathing apperatis, & then the camera is so far back you can't make out any detail anyway, so in fact it's worse than having a parshall level screenshot like the one above.

But still people do seem to judge your whole work on these parshall screenshots. What's the old saying, judging books by there covers.

I can't wait until I've finished this T.C so that people can see how quick they where to judge ( but i'm not going to rush It of course ), as I'm determind to make this the best MP1 T.C to date & make it a T.C that's the closest to any movie then any other T.C or original game ever as this is a labour of love for me as I love this movie.

By the way this <font color="red">DAWN OF THE DEAD </font> T.C is based on the original & best 1978 version of the movie & not the recent 2004 remake & the level above is taken from the hillbilly zombie hunt section of that movie which is set in the countryside so there is some amount of open space ( although mostly broken up by hills, trees & rocks ), & this is your Zombie hunting ground, but there is also plenty of other detail ( as mentioned above ), in other area's of the map & after all if you didn't have some open ground in the countryside it wouldn't be countryside would it?

P.S

This level also contains that section in the movie where you have to shoot the old car ( that standing in the field ), gas tank to kill the zombies that are standing by it.

Nice.

[Hudson]

First of all as a Romero fanatic I would personally like to thank you for making a mod based on the ORIGINAL 1978 "Dawn of the Dead" and not that shitty remake.

Secondly, this mod looks fxcking awesome and I cannot wait until I can get my grubby hands on playtesting it.

If you're into Duke3d and are a fan of zombie flicks, I'll have a little project coming up that's right up your alley

Hudson said:
First of all as a Romero fanatic I would personally like to thank you for making a mod based on the ORIGINAL 1978 "Dawn of the Dead" and not that shitty remake.

Secondly, this mod looks fxcking awesome and I cannot wait until I can get my grubby hands on playtesting it.

If you're into Duke3d and are a fan of zombie flicks, I'll have a little project coming up that's right up your alley

Wow someone who knows were I'm comming from, thanks dude, & can't wait to here more on the little gem you have in the pipeline.

[Uisor]

Halloween4 said:I just wanted to clear up the fact that it is near on immpossible to take a screenshot of a hole level ( especially a large one ), without pulling the camera up so far that you need breathing apperatis, & then the camera is so far back you can't make out any detail anyway, so in fact it's worse than having a parshall level screenshot like the one above.

It's like you're reading my mind. That's excatly what I was thinking myself

And the part of the movie where this is based on is propably the best part of the whole movie imo. Guys drinking booze and shooting zombies with rifles, what would be better than that

Btw. I'm a broud owner of the 'Trilogy of the Dead' box

Uisor said:
Btw. I'm a broud owner of the 'Trilogy of the Dead' box

I myself have the full uncut Directors version of DAWN OF THE DEAD on DVD & have been working from this DVD in the making of this T.C. & I'm also using sound samples taken from it. I also used to have Night of the Living Dead but I don't know what happen to it, but I hope to get it again sometime in the futre. I would also like to see the recent aniverary edition of this movie as all new sceens were reportedly shot & added to this version in celebration of it's aniverary, but still you can't beat an original cut can you?, well not unless it's a directors cut of course, that being said I prefered the cinema version of the movie Blade Runner ( you know the version with the Talk Over ), rather then the Directors cut, but there you go.

But back on subject, I didn't mind the third movie in the DEAD series but it wasn't a classic like the first 2 & the recent third sequal LAND OF THE DEAD, far from being a return to form for Romero & avertised as his ultimate Zombie master peace, was to my mind complete shite.

DAWN OF THE DEAD is also my joint favorite Horror movie along with the original Halloween. But you can't compare the two as they are both excellent movies in totally different ways.

Halloween it's self was mocked in the past, mostly because it was the real first modern horror slasher movie & this made critics & the public feel uncomfortable for enjoying it, but it is now deemed by many as being the modern day Psycho, but I personaly think it's a much better film then Psycho as the thrills are substained throughout & not just limited to one or two sceens. This movie also substains a level suspence & horror thats unrivalled concidering that this movie ( unlike DAWN OF THE DEAD ), has no blood or gore in it at all. I also considered Halloween as a classic from the onset even when it was being panned by all, but then I've always had a good eye for a movie. I've also lost count of the number of times I've seen both of these movies & I also watch the movie Halloween on every Halloween. I've also got a very rare highly sort after numbered copy of this movie that has not only the original cinema cut of the movie but also contains a new cut with some added sceens that didn't make the original cut. This version is now worth a mint & it was going for 300 dollors on some auction sites when I snapped it up about 5 years ago now ( but I got it for about 100 dollars from someone who didn't know what they had ), god knows what it's worth now though.

P.S

Again a little off subject , I've just seen that this post has just obtained the status of Hot Topic with over 1500 hits ( with nearly 100 hits since yesterday alone ), & I'd like to thank all you guys & girls out there for your on going interest & support for my T.C over the past year.

[Sayantan]

Halloween4 said:
& I'd like to thank all you guys & girls out there for your on going interest & support for my T.C over the past year.

Did you just say girls? Well ......... Mariamus isn't that cool sometimes ......... j/k.

Sayantan said:Did you just say girls? Well ......... Mariamus isn't that cool sometimes ......... j/k.

Well I didn't want to offend anyone as it's hard to tell gender when your just using usernames. I myself am an alien form the planet Zog.

Sorry did I say I was an alien from the planet Zog, I ment Gog.

[Damien_Azreal]

Looks awesome, great work so far man.

I love Romero's work, the original films were brilliant. Any kindof zombie killing is good wholesome fun to me.

[wiktorus pro]

Did you just say girls? Well ......... Mariamus isn't that cool sometimes ......... j/k.

This post will be deleted

[Mariamus]

wiktorus pro said:

This post will be deleted

Nah, because he speaks the truth. hehe

[Uisor]

Damien_Azreal said:
Looks awesome, great work so far man.

I love Romero's work, the original films were brilliant. Any kindof zombie killing is good wholesome fun to me.

Same here. I's so waiting for the one zombie game (Dead Rising?)which is coming to Xbox360. It's supposed to have tens even hundreds of zombies coming after you at the same time and it also looks damn nice