Duke Nukem Forever

[Laughing-Man]

Lol I thought this was joke, but there is actual news on DNF, the physics at least: GameIndustry.biz.

GDC: Duke Nukem Forever physics surpass Half-Life 2

Rob Fahey 17:33 09/03/2005

New tech far surpasses Half-Life 2's physics; breakable objects and cloth both possible

Swedish company Meqon, the firm behind the physics for 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, have rekindled interest in the long-delayed game with a stunning demonstration of its latest physics technology.

The company, which was relatively unknown before 3D Realms announced them as the provider of the physics middleware for DNF a few months ago, is showing off version 2.0 of its technology behind closed doors at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week.

In a short but hugely impressive real-time demo, a room is almost completely demolished using a weapon that fires tennis-ball sized projectiles. In the first section of the demo, glass panels shatter realistically and fragile boxes full of objects suspended from the ceiling are smashed, leaving jagged corners hanging on ropes while the contents smash to the floor.

In another section, a tiled wall is destroyed realistically, with tiles breaking and popping off the wall when they're hit sufficiently hard, while further demonstrations of the engine's prowess include human shaped "rag doll" models in glass boxes, which react realistically to the environment around them being damaged, and most impressively of all, a completely interactive piece of cloth suspended between poles - which billows and stretches when it's shot, and can even be filled with balls like a hammock.

The demonstration goes far beyond the rigid-body physics which has impressed so many players in games like Half-Life 2, and according to Meqon CTO Dennis Gustafsson, every effect is entirely real-time - with even the smashing of fragile objects being generated on the fly, rather than happening along "fault lines" inserted by artists.

Although the company adamantly refused to be drawn on any details regarding its most famous client, or just how much of this technology will make its way into Duke Nukem Forever, it seems logical that 3D Realms would use this next-generation physics system as one way to gain an edge over the critically acclaimed Half-Life 2.

The second version of Meqon's technology is designed for next-generation consoles, and is multi-threaded from the ground up to take advantage of the multi-processor designs of systems such as the next Xbox and PlayStation consoles, Gustafsson told us. The demonstration at GDC, however, is running smoothly on a medium-spec PC laptop.

It is emphasising a number of key features of the Meqon technology, including the ability for developers to easily add new behaviours to the system which interact properly with existing behaviours - "we don't want physics to look the same in every game," according to CEO Jonas Lindqvist - and a level of detail system that allows some objects in the game to be simulated more accurately than others, depending on the developer's preferences.

Also impressive was the company's toolset, which it says has been an area of major focus over the past year. Meqon has integrated physics data with the filesystem, allowing developers to tweak problems as they see them in the game itself - using an intuitive debugger that allows for visual changing of physics parameters and behaviour - and then export that new physics data right back through the tool chain into the modelling application.

The company, which was set up as part of an incubator program at the University of Linkoping in Sweden in mid-2002, intends to hand out time-limited versions of its SDK to developers at the conference over the coming days.

[Mx]

rofl yea, and it comes out when? :p

[Laughing-Man]

Its only a matter of time before the demonstration video leaks on the net if there is one...

[Mx]

True. True.

[pacifica]

yeah, that's good and all but it will be no time before broussard scraps these guys and decides to build yet a new engine.

[vincent]

If there keeping this game so hush hush, they are doing a damn good job

[Mx]

If there keeping this game so hush hush, they are doing a damn good job

585596967[/snapback]

Yup, very true.

[Lurchybaby]

If there keeping this game so hush hush, they are doing a damn good job

585596967[/snapback]

That's probably because most people lost interest in this game long ago.

[RangerLG]

All this and gameplay will probably suck. That is assuming it even gets released.

[Laughing-Man]

That's probably because most people lost interest in this game long ago.

585596999[/snapback]

What it has only been like 7 years since they announced it, I have been refereshing the 3DRealms homepage everyday since then for news!

[Ficman]

Yeah holding my breath on this one... :x

What's the chance we'll ever see this game...?

[bush]

OMFG who wants some

[pacifica]

That's probably because most people lost interest in this game long ago.

585596999[/snapback]

true dat. i swore off this game long ago. it will have to be a true milestone in gaming for me to change my mind.

i think it's funny that they still have warnings telling people not to bite if sites say they're takng pre-orders for the game.

[Ciderx]

Meqon have offered demos of their physics engine on their site for ages now. Good engine, really. Better than havok's physics technologies? I'd say so.

And you are so wrong about it being 7 years since DNF was announced.

Duke Nukem Forever was originally going to be an add-on pack for DN3D and was announced early 1996. So, 9 (NINE!) years...

[GameOverRob]

sounds interesting

[kampioen]

lol I wish they made a new duke nukem game.. I loved the forever.. but I just feel like the duke's reals is over...

rekindle it 3d Realms.. please!

[Stingray]

Yes very impressive... NOT.

[Lurchybaby]

What it has only been like 7 years since they announced it, I have been refereshing the 3DRealms homepage everyday since then for news!

585597066[/snapback]

then you wouldn't fit into the "most people" category now would you? Notice "most" does not mean "all"

I was hopeful for a long time. I absolutely LOVED Duke Nukem 3D back in the day, but now, I could care less. Will I give it the time of day if/when it does get released? Probably. Am I going to sit and wait for it? No.

[insanekiwi]

duke nukem forever has been in development since 1990 or something :rofl:

the release gets pushed away every 1-2 years.

[Obraxis]

Seems like 3DRealms will simply keep porting their game to the next engine...then the one after that...and the one after that....and the one after that.....

it will never get released ;)

[ANova]

Like I said on another forum, Source does all of that today.

[Chode]

Like I said on another forum, Source does all of that today.

585598549[/snapback]

I was about to say soft-cloth dynamics....then remembered Vampire: Bloodlines.

I do think that the Havok engine is getting overhyped lately. Every lazy developer who can hack together an installer is implementing it into mostly terrible games.

It's like Punkbuster. People just think Punkbuster is anti-cheat, therefore for there to be no cheats there must be Punkbuster.

[ANova]

I was about to say soft-cloth dynamics....then remembered Vampire: Bloodlines.

I do think that the Havok engine is getting overhyped lately. Every lazy developer who can hack together an installer is implementing it into mostly terrible games.

It's like Punkbuster. People just think Punkbuster is anti-cheat, therefore for there to be no cheats there must be Punkbuster.

585599067[/snapback]

HL2 had the mattress, which used the same type of bone system consisting of multiple fragments just like the cloth.

Yes, everyone is implementing Havok, but the version in HL2 is a heavily modified version. I still have yet to see any other game with the level of physics that HL2 utilized, with the possible exception of UE3.

[backwards]

Duke Forever

Unlike Valve, who have spent most of their time developing the source engine, DNF has been under design for, um, a decade now. Regardless of engine changes, 3drealms must have produced a hell of a lot of content. A lot of ideas. A lot of set-pieces.

I swear this game is going to be *huge*. Literally, I'm expecting it to take a loong time to complete. They keep recruiting new level designers (see site).

And what of all those videos and screensnaps from a few years ago? If even half of that stuff makes it into the final release (driving down a freeway away from an enormous thermonuclear explosion whilst firing at choppers) we have something special to look forward.

And anyway, this is 3drealms. Those guys aren't stupid... they know what the industry is like now, and that they can't get away with producing inferior content. Games like Half-Life lasted purely because they are of such high quality, irrespective of any graphics or game features or haveing two trillion weapons....

I have high hopes. PS, the 'Prey" project has reappeared again.

[qdave]

i had no doubts that it will come out sooner or later :D