3D Realms buys physics for Duke Nukem Forever

Advertisement (Why?)

Yep, back to square one for DNF

Meqon is glad to announce that 3DRealms have decided to buy our Meqon Game Dynamics SDK for their upcoming title Duke Nukem Forever. Meqon’s product strategy has always been to create the most easy to use and flexible physics engine on the market, but without compromising the computational speed. George Broussard, CEO of 3DRealms comments – “We evaluated several physics SDK's and Meqon was really fast, had the cleanest interface and integrated into our game very quickly.”

The Meqon Game Dynamics SDK does not only handle basic rigid body simulation but also contain highly advanced character and vehicle modules. Mr Broussard comments – “With its advanced feature set, we feel confident that Meqon's next generation physics engine can help us create the next generation of action games.”

News source: Meqon Press Release

MoreGoogle...

does not trick you into installing it
does inform you about its principal and significant functions
is easy to remove and uninstall
does make clear when it changes your user experience
does not collect or transmit any personally identifiable information
does not allow application providers to bundle MoreGoogle with their software if they do not meet these guidelines.

#1 DoNuTs© on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:10

10 years from now

"3D Realms buys the ArtifactEngine45++++^^^^^"

#2 devilotX on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:11

all I have to say is this game better rock like hell when its released,

Atleast give us a sequal to manhattan project while we wait guys!

#3 niel19_us on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:17

#4 TooPackShaker on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:22

#5 Ravage_J on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:27

Here's a cool idea! Stop switching engines and make a game already!

(2 replies) #6 threetonesun on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:29

Wow, it never ends!

#6.1 SIG on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:41

It's 4evar!

#6.2 tiagosilva29 on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:49

I bet my grandgrandgrandgrandgrandchildren will be the ones who will play this game.

#7 Varsity on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:31

What sort of state is the game in if they are still adding major features like physics?

(6 replies) #8 jeavis on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:49

So does anyone know what engine DNF is based on?

#8.1 meamog on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:02

Doom 3, as far as i know.

#8.2 KayMan2K on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:10

It changes every few weeks. If they are JUST NOW purchasing a physics engine, that is sad. They have been working on this video game for 10 years! Their previous is sooo old they have released the source code.

This game will just never happen.

#8.3 Solarix on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:12

no they said that it was rumored to be using it, not officially using it, last to m knowlege they were using the Unreal engine, which probably by now since its easily upgradeable probably the ut2003 (04) engine

#8.4 olavinto on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:22

And the information to back up the words of the speaker before me can be found here: 3D Realms Denies Duke Nukem Forever using Doom 3 engine

#8.5 radixvir on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:04

last i heard it was the original unreal engine, but its not easily upgradable. i mean the newer ones use the newer directx effects which you have to specify. if you decide to change the engine, its going to take alot of work. my question is: where are they getting this unlimited flow of money to take as long as they want to develop a game?

#8.6 Kestrel on 27 Sep 2004 - 22:41

Originally, it was the QUAKE I engine... then QUAKE II, then Unreal and after that I lost interest. This game will never see daylight and if it does... can anyone say "Battlecruiser 3000AD" ???

#9 Zaic on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:53

"the forever engine"

(1 reply) #10 State Of The Art on 27 Sep 2004 - 19:57

LOL yeah.

They do not have to rush it though, it will give me some time to buy a new system instead of using my crappy laptop

#10.1 KayMan2K on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:13

Don't worry. By no stretch of the imagination could ANY release date for Duke Nukem Forever be considered "rushing it". Don't worry about your new system, the previous version of Duke is capable (and is available) of playing on a cell phone.

(2 replies) #11 qdave on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:14

well guys, you should be happy that at least it isnt canned

#11.1 Spookie on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:16

I doubt they would can it. This whole project is coming out their own pockets.

#11.2 Soviet on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:36

I really doubt people would care much if it got canned.

(1 reply) #12 angrybrit on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:19

Ultra realistic Strippers. Oh YEAH!!!

2050 isn't very far.

#12.1 SaLiVa on 28 Sep 2004 - 10:01

I'd be limp by then

#13 Soviet on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:35

Told ya so

They scrap all progress with each new engine and start over.

#14 MaceX on 27 Sep 2004 - 20:54

Why don't they just get a license for the source engine? Then I can have two good games, hl2 and dnf.

Maybe they can be released together at the rate hl2 is being delayed.

#15 electic102 on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:05

They are planning on releasing a new release saying they just purchased the Doom 4 engine.

#16 SimplyPotatoes on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:11

they were using the old unreal engine, but rumors always come up saying they secretly switched to the newewst unreleased unreal engine. so who knows no one says for sure....

(3 replies) #17 FatCat on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:17

were are they getting the money from is what I ask , who is funding these guys? for 7+ years with no end in sight.

#17.1 theyarecomingforyou on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:35

The developers are funding the project themselves... so, it really is up to them what they do with it.

Still, this is yet more publicity for them - if they ever were to release it all the gaming sites would pick it up and run with it for months and it would sell huge amounts. Still, that seems like a big 'if'.

#17.2 RaWShadow on 28 Sep 2004 - 06:58

Maybe they have very little money so its why its taking them so long?

#17.3 kussie on 28 Sep 2004 - 12:37

Then how can they afford to buy so many engine changes etc. Licening engines is quite a costly process for the top notch ones anyway

#18 kairon on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:33

They are funding themselves and their publisher isn't paying for its long development at all, I read George B. answer in response to the same question. Well, any news is good news for DNF I'd say.So whats out first?HL2 or DNF?

#19 Ficman on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:40

Cool.. I think...

#20 MR_Candyman on 27 Sep 2004 - 21:55

the title just read that they bought physics for the game...I was wondering how that could be accomplished onl to find out it's just about a darned engine.

#21 carpediem on 27 Sep 2004 - 22:13

Lots of misconceptions here:

* They have their own renderer
* They had a physics engine before, but this one is MUCH faster. It'll take a month to replace the old functions with the new ones. (a few hundred that needs to be changed to utilize the new physics engine)

These two statements are both from George himself. THe first one from the 3dr forum, the second one was commented on shacknews a few hours ago.

here's George's own words

QUOTE

Here how it works. You have a physcis engine that does things low level, basic things, like move objects in the world, handle constraints, ragdolls, and all of that. On top of that you build a lots of high level gameplay code that allows you to do things with physics objects. That's where most of the development time goes.

So when incorporating a new physics engine, all the high level game code stays and just needs to have the new physics function calls replace the old physics calls.

So within a couple of weeks we had most of the gameplay back up and running, but now we could move 200 boxes in the world at a time, instead of 10-20.

The integration will end up being about a month of one persons time, simply to hook up the new Meqon function calls to a couple hundred high level gameplay functions we had to deal with physics objects.

Basically it's like having a car, and you do something like replace one system in it like and engine, or the air conditioner, or something. The rest of the car stays in place and you just deal with hooking up the new piece to the old car.

This isn't a radical engine change like changing renderers where you have to create new content for the visuals.

#22 Nose Nuggets on 27 Sep 2004 - 22:54

its all a hoax.

there is no DNF

#23 Nose Nuggets on 27 Sep 2004 - 22:54

DNF = Did Not Finish

#24 MitchShrader on 27 Sep 2004 - 23:42

ya gotta Believe!

#25 SSRules on 28 Sep 2004 - 00:28

The Truth is out There

#26 panacea on 28 Sep 2004 - 02:28

wicked. i cannot wait. i only waited 7 years for it. now just a few more left.

not

#27 Bwizzel-B on 28 Sep 2004 - 02:32

I got $5 that sez that, even with all the delays, it will *still* be better than Daikatana

#28 mzkhadir on 28 Sep 2004 - 03:50

check out the demos for the physics on their website, pretty awesome.

#29 SeMz... on 28 Sep 2004 - 07:12

it will still be released before half-life 2 :p

#30 AsciiSmoke on 28 Sep 2004 - 08:34

It's no coincidence that 'DNF' means 'Did not Finish' in other realms

#31 Chicane-UK on 28 Sep 2004 - 11:45

What a shocker.

If I owned or had heavily invested in 3D Realms, I would have sacked the whole team and just written it off as an embarrassing loss.

#32 Palmeiro on 28 Sep 2004 - 12:14

The screenshots for the game are so old now, they could run on my old Nvidia RIVA TNT!

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Neowin.net