Comments - ck3D

Hi Chris, the idea for Closure is the three keys are at the surface (perched on top of each Chance space), but in order to be able to reach them you need to press 1 switch for each and all of the switches are in the underwater area near the center. Duke will take some damage just getting close to them so make sure he has enough boots or health before going for each, otherwise underwater has a lot of supplies but they need to be conquered as the area is hazardous and hostile. Now the weapons are all on the surface too and all rely on solving some sort of puzzle. If you check the walkthrough for the level in the Articles section, it details all of them. There also is a secret place (only one in the level) you can access from the start if you pay the right kind of attention (it has one strong enemy, but lots of supplies and some clues to the rules). And some basic items such as pistol can be found inside of the 'Go' space. Map features some bugs at the very end that are part of the intended design, just saying so you don't think something is wrong if/when you see them. It's the most cruel and cryptic level that I hope feels rewarding as it progresses, so kudos in advance if you complete it. You're also right, constant movement is key. Once you've figured out what the level expects from you as a player it stops being difficult.

I've been mapping a little, maps will come out later this year and so that will be my contribution to it. Radar is just taking a break from Duke - last I heard they're doing fine and might be back sometime.

Hi Chris thanks for stopping by and asking. Well I've been trying to take a break from mapping but also failing at that completely for the past couple of weeks and so yeah I have been working on some cool stuff. You'll see it when it all drops, especially if you can wait until around mid summer this year I suspect you'll be stoked. But it's possible you get something else to play that's different even before that. No I'm not going to do an episode 4 remake but I'm not ignoring that The Birth exists, just I want to approach that one in a different way if I ever do. Episode 5 remake would be redundant as Blast Radius main campaign already is my vision of a Duke 3D world tour so in a way already exists (but I am glad no one is out there comparing both). I wish I could help you with .art but I really never had any interest in learning anything about the game's graphics, the best I can tell you is the EDuke Wiki Utilities page lists software you can use to edit and add textures, some common programs are BastART and DukeRes but again I never used or did any of that myself, I really just draw walls that sometimes overlap and move because Build engine magic. I hope that helps still, blessings and please take care!

The issue can be alleviated but I'm afraid not to the point of being used with gameplay mods the code of which itself involves the drawing lots of extra sprites. AA uses/spawns way more sprites than base Duke 3D for gameplay purposes and so will most likely not run the map (or most largest Duke maps) without crashes until AA code gets lighter or a quarter of the level gets deleted, both of which are unlikely, even if the files technically are compatible, it's a Build engine thing and why Duke players shouldn't expect mod overlap support, Duke modding internals do not work like DooM, most ambitious projects usually are mutually exclusive due to hard limitations and different modders can only make so much work together by nature.

Hi Chris thanks for reporting the bugs, were you using an old version of the level by chance, those issues were present for a day or two after release until I noticed and fixed them. First secret should be safe in the current version, and the bug with the trains can still happen even now (you should still save before boarding or leaving) but is way less likely. Over time I'll keep refining things as I spot them and yes I want to incorporate the new aliens eventually, as well as keep going with Zero Zone but I have no idea when that'll be, these days I'm trying to take a break from screens. Be well, cheers.

Nacho/The Legend Of Devon has a blind stream of the level scheduled for 30 minutes from now (but might open with a short mapping session/demonstration of theirs, so the actual level might start later than that):

I have no idea how .art files work, I never even tried messing with them. Can probably find your answers on the EDuke32 Wiki.

That is such a smart comment, yes obviously I'm aware of the normal sequencing. Just it was part of the exercise (by design) with those reinterpretations to retell the respective stories as closely as possible but within the confines of just one single map each, a restriction which completely impacts what's doable at large (and to a lesser extent, what's most desirable in the sequencing). That means in order to just be achievable as a product, some liberties would have to be taken and some corners would have to be cut. So in this map that is you don't reach lunar grounds as early as Tiberius Station, instead Occupied Territory/Tiberius Station are merged and act as one last gateway before being teleported to Dark Side. Lunar Reactor is (a bit symbolically) integrated between Occupied Territory and Tiberius Station because Duke 3D only lets you blow up one reactor per map without risking issues, and to me made sense to make that happen on the overrun station that has the moon portal (which here is more like an asteroid). And then Overlord mostly is just the battle (but can easily spill into Dark Side and take a cooler turn if you let it) because I was out of map resources and figured the aesthetics may be redundant with Fusion Station (which is big) anyway. You're limited to 16384 walls you can draw in just one map in Mapster32 and my levels typically max that out all the while being optimized in that sense (every split has some kind of purpose); sometimes also the sprite limit which you can rely on for extra detail instead of some walls/sectors but technically adding anything to these maps is impossible, if something isn't in it's because it couldn't be in. I've been calling this 'Johto Kanto'-ing the episodes, since by design you can only summarize the landscapes/experiences due to the context. Blast Radius main campaign takes Duke 3D and expands it, the three remakes instead shrink it. Shrapnel City had the smoothest cuts out of all three maybe. It's also the reason why the ship at the end of L.A. Meltdown 2047 takes off instead of digging into the ground and revealing a cave (which would have fit the narrative better), or the rocket in that map is just a bunch of sprites. Build limits are being stretched out and that choice comes at a cost (but hopefully not just that, engine is very much win some, lose some). Large Build/Duke maps aren't exactly draw as you feel and go nuts (although most every mapper wishes), they take constant consideration for the balancing of a lot in the context of the complete picture. Constructing one in a linear fashion that micromanages detail, you can paint yourself into a corner and fail very easily. A lot of my interest in the process precisely was to see the changes and derivations the shift in format naturally would dictate (or not), was a bit of an exercise of compression.

Ah if you were getting the sprite crashes trying to run this specific level with AA or any gameplay mod then it makes complete sense, technically this is a vanilla map so in theory is compatible with everything but not necessarily optimized for any derivation of the game that will draw a lot of extra sprites. The other maps will work fine because they still have a lot of leeway in sprite count but this one is so packed base Duke can just barely run it already (IIRC it's only a hundred sprites below the hard limit) so it's likely to run into difficulties with more thrown on top. What I'm thinking still is I might make a 'light' version sometime with some of the decoration and explosions cut and offer that as a separate download but I have no idea when that might be. Am also not sure that would even suffice to guarantee smooth compatibility with other mods that use sprites their own way anyway because due to its nature, this specific level is this loaded.

Alright, I didn't realize things could get that extreme since the crashes stopped happening to me personally, but I guess is because I spontaneously follow the ideal route or has to do with gameplay style. There probably is a number of sprites I can cut from certain places around the map which hopefully would suffice to alleviate the problem. Will try as soon as the next update. In the meantime, the route that's always stable for me is going down the first road (to the clinic) killing monsters/grabbing items on the way, reaching the road should trigger an explosion which will unload a considerable bulk of sprites. Then I basically keep progressively cleaning out the streets and subway entrance before getting inside the sushi place, things should be fairly stable by then. Exploding too many trashcans at once also might generate too much debris sprites for the early game to handle (but should be fine individually, or later). Sorry for the inconvenience, I'll be thinking about optimization. In its current form I'd say the map may be fragile for the first five minutes tops depending on the player's actions but stabilizes after that.

DukePlus was pretty great and I remember in the 2010's a lot of people's go-to way of experiencing Duke 3D in modern times for a good while, I have particularly found memories of the Imperium episode the Oostrums, W.G. and Kaiser had made for it. IIRC it used something like DUKEPLUS.CON which reduced the odds of conflicts vs. modifying a base file. I'm not sure how Blast Radius would react to it either, however; BR doesn't change the base code (minus fixing one annoying bug in the Battlelord Sentry AI) but it adds a lot to it for the new projectiles and enemy types. One thing in the item department it introduces as soon as episode 2 Zero Zone is negative Atomic Health in exchange for Shrinker and Expander refills which may or may not clash with DukePlus code. There are a few lines of code that may be dependent on relatively recent EDuke scripting capabilities too (although I did recently get rid of most shorthands so that BR could work with NetDuke32). Of course Blast Radius was designed with the ruleset of the original game + its own code to be traversed as the real experience but I guess will expand to wherever players want to try to take it anyway. L.A. Meltdown remake that is downloadable as a standalone map on here is DukePlus friendly/technically compatible, now that is for sure.

Thanks for the report/feedback; am already aware of those issues, ATM thing in Shrapnel City has everything to do with me being stupid and using the wrong sound, should be gone as soon as the next update. "Too many sprites spawned" issue should be exceptional unless using cheats/somehow sleeping a little on killing enemies/collecting items/general sprite unload throughout BR levels 4, 12 and the Shrapnel City remake especially, I'm always optimizing that along time too but might devote more focus to that aspect soon since at this point it's one of the last technical issues left with the add-on. I also just started 'remaking' episode 2 by the way. Cheers and a great weekend.

It's already happening (the N.U.K.U.M.'s that appear from Zarathustra on are alternate versions of Duke Nukem), but the original timeline isn't looking good at the end of Blast Radius anyway. Technically saved humanity there and then, but Earth is still gone and it's unknown how much of what Duke is experiencing really is happening anyway. Maybe he didn't even survive the original skycar crash in Sunset Suicide, maybe he did exactly thanks to his nature of a video game character. Whatever is the case, whenever the game is going, he has to keep advancing also exactly because he is Duke Nukem. Just a master of his design now, and is all the more unstoppable that he trusts reloading more than ever.

Just heard an update on that, it's coming out sometime this year but no fixed release date.

Lofi timelapse of the rough design process of the level:

I wouldn't know, I've never tried nor been interested. But IIRC the number of weapon slots is set and a lot of the stuff is hardcoded. So one's best option would be to add alternative fires (à la Duke 64) which basically takes being a full-on programmer to do well, which I am not, and most likely would rely on EDuke32 scripting like a lot of features you see in modern mods which otherwise would be impossible to make (e.g.. things as simple as custom projectiles).

I don't think that's possible due to how the game is structured. Duke 3D never worked the way I hear DooM works where everything is contained in one file and you can use one on top of another, instead each individual Duke mod has to work by making their own specific, unique modifications to the same couple of base files. And so the only way to get compatible content would be to have the different modders explicitly cooperate for code that matches, but most of the time they won't since everyone naturally has their own vision of what they want to achieve with the game. I feel like in the future such cooperations may or may not start to happen more for compatibility purposes at least, but yeah. Duke mods are basically by design bound to be played the way they were packaged and designed to be played in that sense because of how the basic game file system works. There are weapons or gameplay mods like DukePlus that exist and will be compatible with standalone vanilla user maps (or most of them), but not with other projects that use new code for that very reason. Hope that helps!

This weekend, Duke 3D streamer & fellow mapper TheLegendOfDevon will be streaming their blind run of the new level, here: Youtube.com

Nah, I think he could in a flash... The true question is, now that he has realized the near-infinity of dimensions at his disposal - all complete with their respective ratio of ***** to kick - will he ever choose to come back?

Almost ironically, only time will tell us - once Duke decides.

List of possible skips I'm aware of, re: speedrunning (CASUAL GAMEPLAY SPOILERS):

- get none of the keys, get steroids from clinic trashcans, jump out of the window and dive right into Flood Zone (good luck);

- get first blue key, don't open the karaoke bar with it and keep it for the next blue lock, that can be combined with the aforementioned skip to get into Flood Zone with either a spare blue key, a spare red key or both blue and red keys (allows for skipping the entire Flood Zone section, or further parts of the level);

- getting inside the part of the firestation where the trucks originally start still is possible without opening the gates, most consistent way to do that seems to be climbing around the structure from the elevated entrance then roof and then jumping down then crouching through the lower sprite roof upon impact, once inside the key can be grabbed and a switch there can be used to trigger the sequence from inside that I replaced a decorative speaker sprite with after I realized breaking in was possible, so get ready for the Pig swarm;

- obviously the subway gates can be jumped whichever way so spending the yellow key on the ticket machines is pointless (way more fun to unlock Freeway instead), first gate is deliberately more difficult since it's meant to be an obstacle on normal play (whereas every other way/gate has stuff to assist) but is possible by luring an enemy nearby or even just from flat ground since I did it once, first try, and then never ever managed to replicate that again;

- Fahrenheit can be skipped if the player entered the last block (whichever way) with a blue key, Movie Set too if they did with a red key;

- it's most likely possible if not very easy if determined to get high enough of a jump boost off an enemy or prop to reach the top of the first floor of the hotel from the street and then just climb all of the tall slope to reach the part with the last red key lock, thus skipping all of Hotel Hell and the need of any key up to that point;

- last but not least, the last gate is a lure, the joke is the red key pad can be used as a platform to just jump it (call the elevator first), meaning it's certainly possible to complete the map in seconds having found zero of the keys.

Hi Chris, I replied to the first half of your comment where you had first posted it, under the file for the map on its page (in case you've missed it). Thanks again for the feedback, happy you had fun. Blast Radius enemies in those two maps actually isn't asking too much but the very next step I've been planning. Might take a bit since it's 1000+ enemies to readjust and a lot to potentially rebalance but I want that eventually for the two versions of the maps I'm including with Blast Radius, while the base versions will remain around as standalone alternatives. But I'm thinking of doing it progressively and starting with the bosses. So I'm going to have a slightly different (new) Battlelord and Cycloid variant soon included with Blast Radius 4.0.1. Then will progressively work more specific enemies in.

Stadium secrets I'm considering adding stuff there when optimizing sprite count which is the only reason why those places are emptyish for now, but the two blimps outside already spawn a lot of stuff so maybe it's good enough a reward to find shelter from half the Battlelord Sentries whilst dealing with the Cycloid. Am thinking about it though. Thanks for sharing the idea.

No worries about video feedback or anything you don't have to do that, I can relate to the technical issues and anxiety and your reactions in text are just as precious. Cheers!

Hi Chris a happy new year to you too, yeah I saw your message on time and appreciated it, just I tend to be busy and distant from online messages so if I ever do not reply, or reply late you can rest assured it's never personal. About the difficulty of the new map well you'll tell me, I think I managed smoother combat than in the LA Meltdown recreation but then the Flood Zone part is a bit of its own anxiety-inducing challenge like we were saying and even the enemy roster is different (more hitscan) so I don't know. Always hard to gauge overall difficulty as the mapper who knows where they've placed everything but player feedback (video too) is precious there to communicate all the possibilities people will read into your designs and so which ones to consider whilst mapping as a consequence. Blessings to you too, cheers!

Hi Chris and thanks for playing, I'm glad you like the level. Yes the level is likely to crash mostly around the first minutes of the map because it's just about too loaded with sprites but then the odds diminish as the player kills the first enemies/collects a few items. Interesting to hear it happened in Flood Zone though which is pretty far into the progression already, didn't expect that. Might optimize sprite count a little at some point later down the line.

Flood Zone part really relies on optimal scuba gear use, it's probably the only really demanding part of the map, thankfully it's big but pretty short once figured out. Whether or not the player has found the secret scuba like you did already sets a big precedent, otherwise the idea is the player has to rely on nothing but the numerous Atomic Healths and Portable Medkits around, and also remember about resurfacing to cross large distances until they find the one you found on the Terminator 2 truck. The TV in the central apartment is a security screen pointing to it if they first miss it, and then there are two extra scubas in the rest of that part. One of them is revealed by a poorly hidden switch under the stairs in the very next hallway (it's in plain sight after going down the stairs if you turn back), and another one is available on the 'dry' office floor with the central elevator to the rooftop if Duke interacts with the Duke 3D Flood Zone loading screen on the PC. But in the midst of all of that the player should find a moment to visit the crane.

Thank you for playing and giving feedback. Cheers!

Hi Chris, yeah, don't worry I already am in touch with all of these people if need be. Build community is one tight-knit niche think tank, the core of it is not very disconnected, most modders are mutually supportive. Fun fact, DeeperThought has already helped me for Blast Radius before; helped me figure out autoaim hitbox issues I was having with the ORGANTIC enemy and pretty much rewrote the entire code for it.

So technically there are two major sprite limits in EDuke, one on how many sprites can be rendered on one frame at the same time (doesn't crash when passed, but the sprites will start clipping in and out of existence depending on view angle for as long as excess is visible), that is determined by the value of MAXSPRITESONSCREEN in the engine code (inaccessible to the average modder) and currently is 4096 in EDuke. The EDuke devs decide on that value based on optimization concerns, so technically could be made higher but 4096 isn't problematic as in practice it's quite rare to hit that limit. And then the second limit is to how many sprites the .map format itself can support (the extent of the code that is allowed to be dedicated to sprites), which is a maximum of 16384 a level can have loaded in at any given time. Passing that limit generates an error/crashes the game as a reaction to overflow in the data. Remember in Build/Mapster, every game object is a sprite including projectiles, bullet holes, blood pools and gibs, breaking glass etc. so mappers need to leave some leeway for all of those to be allowed to spawn at runtime, generally it's wiser for them not to use over 15000 sprites in a single map. Used to be 4096 in DOS Duke 3D/Build so much lower.

I want to keep challenging the player for sure and have established a general direction things could take with those first six maps, on the other hand I also want to make sure difficulty doesn't go over the top just for the sake of being over the top, I have ideas on how to achieve that so we'll just see how development goes once I get to pick it back up. Am curious about your thoughts on the difficulty in both episodes so far, personally I'm satisfied with how Blast Radius plays, only so much about Zero Zone but also because ZZ still is in a rough demo state and bound to keep developing and making better use of the new elements.

Zaxtor, fantastic Build mapper yes, that's a good reference. Oblivion is an incredible piece of work, and then Zaxtor also authored a TC called Trequonia.

I couldn't tell you for sure, I don't work on AA even though some of my user map releases throughout the years were used in that mod I think. But from what I've been hearing from various people involved lately, I think it's almost done, either way it's actively being worked on and tested, so should come out sometime. Main modder behind AA is friendly and I'm sure wouldn't mind if you asked them directly, personally I can only be sure to say so much about an active project that isn't mine.

Maybe I'll learn how to do that sometime for episode 2 but might take forever before I resume work on that one if I ever even do, way busier these days. Original episode will remain the way it is because it was intended, designed and balanced around the possibilities of the base game on the player's end, same old weapons/inventory vs. bigger scale invasion... For now.

About continuing Zero Zone: the process of working on that episode is very loose and spontaneous, so there isn't much I can predict, all I can say is I want 30 maps in total, so 24 more than what currently is in the demo. So that might take some time to make. Maybe I'll update the public demo with more maps as they get done over time. I'm keeping mapping for the mod in general however, doing OK with progress on a Shrapnel City remake in just one big level right now which should come out/be added sometime. Thank you for your interest.

Hi Chris, thank you for your feedback and comment, I'll try and address all your points. About the framerate issues in Zarathustra near the end: the map generates a pretty crazy number of temporary sprites (the projectiles, the debris...) around that time, which can make EDuke struggle a bit depending on the player's hardware and config. Blast Radius should work generally fine using the default Polymost renderer nowadays, but it was designed with the software renderer in mind originally, which processes certain things a little faster, so maybe switching to that might help (that's in the Video Mode part of the in-game menu; try changing from Polymost to Software a.k.a Classic).

Another possible (but least plausible) cause for the slowdowns could be the map has too many sprites loaded in at this moment of the playthrough (if EDuke ever crashes with the error message 'too many sprites spawned', that would indicate that). Sprites include all game objects such as live enemies but also their dead corpses, and the items. So if all else fails, one thing you could try would be reloading a save and backtracking a little to destroy some of the leftover corpses and grab forgotten items around the level (preferably before triggering the last fight), sounds a bit desperate but theoritically can buy you some extra time before lag settles in, since the blue Cycloids are the very last wave of enemies you really are seconds away from the end of the level. It's very respectable to grind it up to that point already; I intended to design it as the ultimate Duke Nukem challenge. Performance isn't supposed to take a hit there though, thanks to your report I will try and think of new possible ways to keep optimizing the map over time to mitigate the possibility of these slowdowns. (It runs fine on my PC from 2009 using the software renderer which is the only renderer it can run, so being told of such technical problems really is helpful.)

The episode as a whole is one long journey yes. It takes personal determination to beat, the challenge is the accomplishment. Just reaching the end game already is quite the test of Duke skills, movement, knowledge of the game mechanics, observation, patience and endurance. I appreciate anyone getting there.

Battlelord legacy idea is pretty cool, I wouldn't have the time to make something like that but maybe someone else in the community will, closest thing that exists I can think of are two Battlelord-themed mods by Russian mapper/modder Sanek, if you're curious to check them out: they are called BattleDuke (1 & 2) and consist in many new (arena-styled) levels where every enemy is a Battlelord miniboss with 3x health, and Duke isn't supplied with endless weapons, so a lot of the gameplay really consists in strategizing around them. Cheers!

Fellow Duke Nukem 3D mapper & YouTube streamer The Legend Of Devon will be streaming their LIVE discovery of, and reactions to "L.A. Meltdown 2047" fifteen minutes from now, on YouTube, here:

Please feel free to come hang.

The Legend Of Devon also has a full Blast Radius (and a half) playthrough on the same YouTube channel in addition to many more curated Duke Nukem 3D user map blind streams.