Blood getting what it deserves (along with a few other somew

[ryu91]

Not sure if any of my fellow Bloodites know of the name "Lucius". Being a follower of DarkXL, a reverse engineered port for the game Star Wars: Dark Forces, I have recently read his latest blog on the beta. To my surprise he had something planned that is near and dear to our hearts. If you haven't guessed it already DarkXL will have Blood Support. That's right the wait is finally coming to an end. We will be able to play Blood without the use of DosBox. I'm proud to have been paying close attention to this development and honestly I can't stop smiling about this (it's just like when I heard about DNF)

http://darkxl.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/ ... mas-bonus/

Here's a link to his blog. Sure its only In-Game Editor screenshots but knowing Blood will live again will bring everyone here a smile on their face.

[morhlis]

It truly is Christmas!

[Lawstiker]

That is just fantabulous . I always thought going the engine recreation method was the way to go, and its awesome Lucius is doing this for Blood.

[luciusDXL]

Hello everyone, I've lurked on these forums as a Guest but I figured it's now time that I actually registered over here.

Anyway I'm glad that the DarkXL announcement is getting positive reactions, it will be fun getting Blood fully working in the DarkXL engine. Once the DarkXL Beta hits, I'll probably setup specific forums for the Blood and Outlaws games for DarkXL related discussion.

[Daedalus]

Welcome! It's always good to know that we've claimed that unassimilated thought that floats around the site from time to time.

[Le Babe]

Outlaws is excellent. But how are you working on the games actually ? What makes them work with your engine ? Are you recreating the games or you just found a way to exploit the original resources and modify them ?

[luciusDXL]

Outlaws is excellent. But how are you working on the games actually ? What makes them work with your engine ? Are you recreating the games or you just found a way to exploit the original resources and modify them ?

DarkXL replaces the executable and engine for the original games. All the original resources are used, I'm not creating any art - though, of course, there will be expanded modding capabilities so other people can do so if they wish. Basically think of something like zDoom, but without the source code.

So to re-iterate, the original game is required in order to play it under DarkXL.

[Le Babe]

Okay but what about the physics of the game ? Does your system emulates them too ? Speed, height of jumps, etc. etc. ?

[luciusDXL]

Okay but what about the physics of the game ? Does your system emulates them too ? Speed, height of jumps, etc. etc. ?

Yes, there is game specific code as well as being able to change general engine parameters per-game. All aspects of the games are or will be emulated from sound, music, AI, weapons, special effects (the blood and gore have to work), sector effectors and level scripting, intermissions, cutscenes,... everything. The stuff that is common or can reasonably added to the engine are in the engine. Everything else is in the per-game code, which will ship in different DLLs (or dynamically loaded libraries for other OS's once Mac and Linux support is done). DarkXL will automatically scan the directory for these DLLs, query data from them, and be able to support any number of games.

There's a lot of work of course, but it is doable. DarkXL already supports Dark Forces in this way - and that support will be pretty much complete when the Beta is released in about a week or so. Hope that clears things up a little.

[Dimebog]

Good luck with the project. Hopefully once you actually get into the process, the sheer amount of intricacies and detail that make this game won't turn you off from the idea. Recreating BLOOD is a lot harder than it may seem at first. The game is ultimately more different on every level from any other FPS you've encountered. In terms of physics alone (player movement, moving objects, blood and gibs), BLOOD could be put in one basket and all other FPS games in existence into the other basket. You need to be extra careful when emulating the bits that make the game unique. Without them, it will only be bare bones.

The idea itself is very exciting and curious because it involves interaction between different styles of engines and map formats as far as I understand. I will be keeping an eye on your blog with anticipation, and hopefully your updates will put my mind at ease regarding the concerns I stressed previously.

A couple of questions: does the engine have some sort of a scripting language? What are the plans for modding support (if you can go a bit more in detail, would be appreciated)? Any plans to recreate Mapedit?

[luciusDXL]

Good luck with the project. Hopefully once you actually get into the process, the sheer amount of intricacies and detail that make this game won't turn you off from the idea. Recreating BLOOD is a lot harder than it may seem at first. The game is ultimately more different on every level from any other FPS you've encountered. In terms of physics alone (player movement, moving objects, blood and gibs), BLOOD could be put in one basket and all other FPS games in existence into the other basket. You need to be extra careful when emulating the bits that make the game unique. Without them, it will only be bare bones.

The idea itself is very exciting and curious because it involves interaction between different styles of engines and map formats as far as I understand. I will be keeping an eye on your blog with anticipation, and hopefully your updates will put my mind at ease regarding the concerns I stressed previously.

A couple of questions: does the engine have some sort of a scripting language? What are the plans for modding support (if you can go a bit more in detail, would be appreciated)? Any plans to recreate Mapedit?

The engine already has support for a scripting language. In fact "logics" - things from enemy AI to powerup functionality - are coded in script for Dark Forces already. This means that mods can easily create new objects, new enemies with unique AI, new NPCs and so on. DarkXL also has a built-in map editor, though it is still early in development, which will support Outlaws and Blood as well as Dark Forces. I took those Outlaws and Blood screenshots in the built-in editor, so I could see them in the engine and even run around them in 3D mode. I also plan on adding level scripting, weapon scripting and UI scripting as well - for further moddability.

But since DarkXL reads the original data files, you can still create your maps in Mapedit or use other existing tools. But the DarkXL editor will be the best way of using new or enhanced features. It also has interesting features such as being able to edit sector geometry directly in 3D mode, layers to make things like multi-story buildings and sector over sector easier, and being able to test as you edit with proper player movement and physics.

Some screenshots of the editor:
[3D editing]
http://darkxl.df-21.net/Screenshots/Edi ... rcle3D.jpg
http://darkxl.df-21.net/Screenshots/Edi ... er3D_1.jpg
http://www.darkxl.df-21.net/Screenshots ... ags_LL.jpg

[2D]
http://www.darkxl.df-21.net/Screenshots ... or_Pre.jpg
http://www.darkxl.df-21.net/Screenshots ... xView2.jpg

[Dimebog]

Sounds good. Having to resort to ancient tools and techniques to create maps and add custom textures would partly defeat the purpose of the premise.

It is also good to know that certain important things are accessible through script. That way the community can make tweaks to things that may not feel or behave just right, out of the box.

Once again, I don't want to get in the way of your enthusiasm, but loading the resources from the original data files, handling the map format and all that are things that have been done before. I hope you understand that that is the easy part. I pray that you know what you are getting yourself into on the long run. I don't know how much have you played BLOOD, and how experienced you are with it, but I hope you remember that it is not just another Doom or Duke clone by any stretch.

[luciusDXL]

I pray that you know what you are getting yourself into on the long run. I don't know how much have you played BLOOD, and how experienced you are with it, but I hope you remember that it is not just another Doom or Duke clone by any stretch.

That's why it's interesting. Seriously, though, having gone through this process before I can honestly say that I know exactly what I'm getting into. The difference is that I'm not starting completely from scratch this time. But, of course, the proof is in the pudding which will take some time to prepare.

[luciusDXL]

I put up a blog post, which will be the final blog post I make before the DarkXL Beta is released. I discuss the Beta, release plans and future plans for Outlaws and Blood. Read about it here. As I've stated in the previous blog post, I plan on working on Outlaws and Blood at the same time, so the plans listed include both of them. Though in many areas, such as physics and level functionality, Blood will need more work then Outlaws. Much of that functionality is shared between Outlaws and Dark Forces, such as the way level interactivity works (INF "scripting").

Any comments are welcome.

[luciusDXL]

I setup new DarkXL forums in anticipation of the upcoming Blood and Outlaws support. There's not much to discuss yet but if you have any questions or comments about the Blood support, feel free to drop by and post. In addition you can see new DarkXL screenshots of Blood too: http://darkxl.freeforums.org/.

I also put a link back to this site since this is one of biggest Blood communities around.