If you could create your own source port, what would it be?

[Fredrik]

goatse texturez

3d ceilings

[Lobo]

Mine would be an optimized EDGE, but with ZDooms scripting capabilities.

[Lüt]

Archvile64 said:

That would mean just about all the custom WADs would run on MP3s, making them a bitch to download.

Broadband: welcome to 2000.

[Sharessa]

If I made a source port, it would be like the build engine, except it would come with an editor that isn't as crashy, and is easy to add prefabs and such.

[spank]

A WORKING VERSION OF VAVOOM! Or something based off the Unreal 2 engine, that stuff looks spiffy as hell.

[fodders]

Full 3D, runs like shit off a shovel, net code gives everyone 28 ping and Toke's cheats don't work

[Submerge]

I would make Doom 3. Period.

[darknation]

I'd take zdoom, take out all the shit features like mouselook and scripting and reverse engineer it back into the original doom2.exe.

[DooMBoy]

Submerge said:

I would make Doom 3. Period.

/me tries to imagine all the legal trouble you'd get in for creating Doom3 when id software is already hard at work on it

[Naked Snake]

My ideas own everyones

[Lüt]

OK I've got an idea:

ZDoom without butchered gameplay.

What a concept, eh?

It would be called: Düm

[Naked Snake]

Lüt said:

OK I've got an idea:

ZDoom without butchered gameplay.

What a concept, eh?

It would be called: Düm

Wouldn't that be doom2.exe ?

[Submerge]

Ahem. this time I'll be serious.
something like MBF, but with mouselook, jumping, and scripted events.

But without shit lighting and atmosphere like ZDoom

[Captain Red]

Well... I’d make a source that uses telekinetic feedback to build your perfect game using your bodies electrical filed. it can run on a 386, and deathmatches perfectly even at 999 ping! best of all, it’s size is a mere 1K!! so even my super shitty 26k can download it!

Plus it bakes cookies, plays any song you think of, and makes you more attractive to the opposite sex.

I will call it captainredisyourgod doom, and Yay, a new era will be born.

[Zro]

Basicly, take Zdoom, add EDGE's 3D floors and DDF, and finally add jDoom's 3D effects, with ZDoomgl's lens flares.

[sirgalahadwizar]

My own source port huh?:

Well to start out with, id make a new level map engine. Not replacing the old one of course, but this new one would definatly be truely 3D. Except this 3D level engine wouldn't be like quake's, it'd be alot simpler.

Each level would pretty much be a text file. Using objects that are entered into another text file (so for any cube or rectangle, you simply use one object and apply deformations from there). From here you could probably even zip the levels and master object lists - since zip programs do one HELL of a job compressing text (on the order of 10 to 1). Oh, and for objects that should be produced with rounded surfaces, there'd be nurbs, spline, spheroid, cones, cylinders, and many more (most of which would simply take advantage of a mathematical routine rather than a set of lines and verteces, with the ability to compile a mathematical object into a line/vertex model for performance circumstances).

Objects would either be created in a level editor supplied with the port (which would have a wysiwyg gui interface), or by hand in a text file (works for the simpler objects). The simpler objects could be made off-hand while level editing, while the more complex objects would need to be produced in an in-editor object production area.
Note that all of these objects and levels would be in text, and would not be pre-compiled prior to running the game (it would probably parse the level when you try to enter it - like q3 does).

Dynamic lighting would be handled via either software or hardware rendering, allowing the user to choose which one works faster (for those who dont have a very fast 3d accel. card or dont have one at all). The engine would also take advantage of a spheroid sky like quake2 or quake3, not incorporate skyboxes. The game's wad would contain additional skies to doom's original to "fill in the gaps".

As for the sprites/characters, i'd support both sprite-based and 3d models. There would be an extensive scripting language similar to edge's ddf format, with a sister scripting language to handle other level-based events. Note that the scripting languages would have the ability to add new items, and future updates in the port would add new types of items, weapons, enemies, etc. Explosions could be handled in a number of ways - volumetric (goes around corners, for really big blasts), radiant (std. doom type), shrapnel (projectile-like), and electric (goes around corners and only effects things on surface it exploded on).

As for gfx, all graphics, models, etc. could be either placed inside a wadfile or could exist outside the game as another file (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .pcx, .png, you name it). 3D models would come in a variety of fasions from 3ds, quake series .mdl-.md2-.md3, to a textfile defining points and textures (ie, like it's a new object for the level data, just a much more complex object than a simple pyramid or cube), and many more*.

(*like maya, milkshape, and any other formats i'd be able to get my hands on).

The artificial intelligence would have multiple levels, with enhanced bot AI for the "smarter" foes, or the simple motion of the standard doom AI. Also - the AI would be user programmable to a certain degree through the game's scripting language (with improvements/additions to the code as newer versions are released). Note that special considerations would be taken concerning bot AI to expressly make it not seem like a "bot" (as in accidentially running into things occasionally, more realistic accuracy, using special items, etc.)

Netplay would involve a server-client, peer-peer, network, or skirmish mode, with up to 64 players (allowing that levels are large enough).

Now, that doesnt even cover half of what I would want and only uncovers 5% of the details. And since im not a programmer, and dont understand nearly how hard this would be to accomplish, the other 95% probably wouldn't get done...

[Submerge]

Uhh. what's a nurb? sounds obscene.

[fodders]

sirgalahadwizar said:

My own source port huh?:

Well to start out with, id make a new level map engine.

Good luck getting id to make a new engine just for you

[Naked Snake]

Submerge said:

Uhh. what's a nurb? sounds obscene.

<nerd> it is the evolution of a level 31 nerd that has gotten the golden softdisks</nerd>

[Fredrik]

Well to start out with, id make a new level map engine. Not replacing the old one of course, but this new one would definatly be truely 3D. Except this 3D level engine wouldn't be like quake's, it'd be alot simpler.

If it's intended to be a _truely_ 3D engine, then there's no way to get it simpler than Quake's engine, silly.

[Lüt]

bigbadgangsta said:

Wouldn't that be doom2.exe ?

Uh, only if you also believe that Quake3 minus arches = Quake1.

Basically what I'd do is take ZDoom's source, look at Doom2's source, and then cut+paste the proper variables back into ZDoom, such as player speed, projectile speed, splash damage, etc. so that ZDoom would play properly.

[fraggle]

Zro said:

Basicly, take Zdoom, add EDGE's 3D floors and DDF, and finally add jDoom's 3D effects, with ZDoomgl's lens flares.

LENS FLARES!!!

[spank]

If you look at the sun, they'll be nowhere to be seen! It's marvellous!

[IMJack]

MoH:AA didn't have any lens flares. if you looked directly at the sun, your monitor went almost white with brilliance. I liked that, thought it was cool and realistic.

[læmænt]

Yeah, Unreal has that in some places. When you are in a dark corridor, and go close to a light source, everything goes white. Although that's just some kind of fog effect. Blah.

[nxn]

Nuno Correia said:

If you look at the sun, they'll be nowhere to be seen! It's marvellous!

Maybe that's why they're called "LENS"flares.

[sirgalahadwizar]

nurb = a 3d object which is freely deformable and doesn't consist of vertecies, but rather, control points on a parabolic spline.

(in case you really didnt know and weren't being sarcastic).

Fodders said:

"Good luck getting id to make a new engine just for you"

Haha, real funny, I was saying that if it would be my sourceport, that I would program the new map engine (if there are any ghasps, then look at the end of my last post).


Fredrik:
It's much simpler - every time you place a 3D cube or rectangle brush in a quake mape editor (be it quake 1, 2, or 3), you add a truely new object, adding 8 more vertecies, at least 12 more lines, and 6 new faces which must be rendered. If you have a thousand or more cube/rectangle objects, rotated or whatnot, thats just that much more data that has to be put into the map (if a single cube was 500 bytes, then 1000 x 500 = 500,000 bytes, and that's only for the regular surfaces, and I know for a fact that it ends up being much larger than that).

With my system, every time you place a cube or rectangle brush in a level, you're simply inserting a tag which essentially says "insert cube model here, and perform the following deformations/applications...".

Do the imps in doom have different graphics for EACH imp, or are they simply a tag in the map saying "insert IMP object here...". You see my point or are you stupid... Im doing the same thing with level map brushes that most games do with characters.

Most maps under my system would probably be less than half a meg (even for the super-giant or highly-detailed ones) because about 90-95% of the objects in the map would probably be derivatives of a cube - weither they be stretched, scaled, sheared, rotated, etc. You only need one 3D model for all rectangle and cube derivatives.

Of course you need more objects for anything that takes a CGI subtract (ie, like a rectangular door with a hole drilled through it), but those would be relativly few in number IMO.

Aw hell, someone would eventually design a "bad" level just for the hell of it that'd use all unique objects and alot of expensive ones too (like spheres, pillars, and rings). So i'd also probably also have to include some kind of text->map compiler to shrink the object and level data texts down.

-----

Lens flares are one of those things i'd include too. It's a scriptable thingy in either the level script or the game script. With various color halos, sizes, with ranges and intensities... and an optional ability to blackout the screen (hey, if it's bright enough, it'll turn your vision blue just like looking at the sun; option includes target color blackout/texture overlay additive, with intensity, duration, and fade method).

And screen blackout would definatly be included in the scripting too - for stuff like lasers, bfg impacts, and nuke blasts.

[spank]

Maybe that's why they're called "LENS"flares.

Dude, that was sarcasm.

[Rellik]

I just want a port where the game is rotated 90 degrees so in your editor, you look at from the side instead of top down. Like a 3D side scroller or somethin.....

:p

[fodders]

I used to have a Doom 3d editor, can't remember name but I bet the name is here in the next 10 minutes