Have any of the builds of Duke Nukem Forever ever leaked?

[Feyd Rautha]

There's now a Restoration Project for DNF2001.

The DNF2001 Restoration Project was created roughly a day or two after the initial leaks by x0r_jmp. While starting off small, it quickly blossomed into an organized team the size of a small studio; boasting over 100 members in various positions at peak.

Current progress has been focused on finishing the polish for the first chapter of the game, 'Lady Killer' and working on a plethora of render and engine fixes alike; with many major and small fixes already developed, such as a proper 'hair fix' and progress on an entirely new renderer for the game in DirectX 9.

While the project has been worked on under veil for the past two weeks, it is now in a state where we are willing to start showing off some of our work on the game and future plans.

At the moment, this article serves to inform you that this project is a thing, and it is being worked on

Stay tuned for some updates! In the meantime, have a few snapshots of some of our work so far:

 

[Morenatsu.]

I'm not working on it so it's going to suck.

 

[geno]

[/QUOTE]
Furry avatar.

 

[ironmask]

The voice actor for the general is very amateurish. However duke's voice sounds pretty good.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Some new assets!

We've just imported our first custom model for the DNF2001 restoration project.

Spoiler

Yeah, Shrek is quite literally DNF2001's first custom model. Quite happy to announce this; expect some cool assets being churned out into the restoration in future!

Update 2:

Wanted: Anyone who is knowledgeable with writing model import/export plugins.

Hello, friends!

We've received an enormous amount of feedback on the project so far. It's been extremely motivating to our team of developers. We've been hard at work attempting to fix the game as best as we can.

However, we've hit a snag.

We've been attempting to recruit developers to help us with a specific issue: writing a model import/export plugin. Duke Nukem Forever 2001 uses a proprietary model format that 3D Realms created. It does not use Epic's Unreal engine 1 model format. The level editor only accepts ancient versions of 3dsmax files for import. And we have no source files for the existing meshes in the game, so we cannot edit existing ones.

Duke Nukem Forever's model format (.cpj) is very powerful and allows for things like modularly swapping out meshes on characters. The bug with the hair on babes was actually related to that. It also allows for both skeletal and vertex animations. However, finding someone to help us write a Blender plugin has been harder than we anticipated.

We have the source code to everything, it was contained in the leak. However, we just need to locate someone who would be willing to help us create a model import/export process. We absolutely need it at this point to continue development as certain things in DNF01 are broken beyond repair, such as the Doctor Proton boss fight.

That's where you guys come in.


Please get the word out, we're actively looking for developers skilled with Python to help us construct a Blender plugin. Or at the very least creating a utility that would allow us to convert from cpj to and from another format like FBX. If you know anyone who might be interested please either PM me here on Moddb or contact me on DIscord. thatdarnowl#6218

 

[randir14]

The voice actor for the general is very amateurish. However duke's voice sounds pretty good.

They're using Gianni Matragrano for Duke, he also does an excellent JC Denton.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Another update from the Restoration Project with information on current progress.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Wow, random newly modeled props in the most finished level, great. Is that extra fog I smell...?

Modders gonna mod.

 

[Haba]

Wow, random newly modeled props in the most finished level, great. Is that extra fog I smell...?

Modders gonna mod.

They fixed a couple of the most glaring bugs already, so you gotta hand them that.

But there is a shitload of work to be done, and most of it isn't really... exciting. Lets see how long their motivation lasts.

 

[Morenatsu.]

I don't like modders. Modders killed my cat.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

The Original Grabbag from the 1998 build has been recovered!

News here.

 

[Baron Dupek]

son
I'm disappoint

looks like that because it's based on official shots

still managed to mess it up

 

[axx]

There was a stream yesterday to showcase progreess.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Modders gonna mod, I'm gooooona retextoooor!!!

 

[Lyric Suite]

One problem is gonna be the voices. Modders can't hire professional actors and this game was doing the whole Half Life thing with voiced NPCs.

 

[Tacgnol]

One problem is gonna be the voices. Modders can't hire professional actors and this game was doing the whole Half Life thing with voiced NPCs.

They've got that Duke imitator, Gianni Matragrano, to voice Duke. He's pretty decent, though much like Duke's actual voice actor, is pretty woke thesedays.

As for other NPCs? Who knows.

 

[gerey]

One problem is gonna be the voices. Modders can't hire professional actors and this game was doing the whole Half Life thing with voiced NPCs.

While they are likely not going to have the budget to hire actual professionals, there's quite a few decent amateurs around that can do the job, either for free or via commission. There's enough interest in the project it would be easy to raise enough cash to hire talent.

It wouldn't be the first mod to feature actually tolerable voice acting. It's not like how things were 20 years ago when even big budget games could struggle to source good talent (or didn't bother to). There's so many people playing games, or tangentially connected to gaming, or simply doing VA for other non-professional projects, that you can source decent VA at reasonable prices.

 

[Tacgnol]

One problem is gonna be the voices. Modders can't hire professional actors and this game was doing the whole Half Life thing with voiced NPCs.

While they are likely not going to have the budget to hire actual professionals, there's quite a few decent amateurs around that can do the job, either for free or via commission. There's enough interest in the project it would be easy to raise enough cash to hire talent.

It wouldn't be the first mod to feature actually tolerable voice acting. It's not like how things were 20 years ago when even big budget games could struggle to source good talent (or didn't bother to), the number of people playing games, or tangentially connected to games, or simply doing VA for other non-professional projects, that you can source decent VA at reasonable prices.

Yep modder voice acting has come on leaps and bounds since the early days. Probably helps that it's much easier to record decent quality voice clips on home recording equipment thesedays.

Back in the early to mid 00s every bit of modder voice acting sounded like someone talking on ventrilo.

 

[Bad Sector]

Also AI seems to do a decent job - not good enough for full blown production but i remember some mods for Skyrim and Witcher a year or two ago using AI-generated voices that sounded decent.

 

[Baron Dupek]

 

[Feyd Rautha]

The first slice is coming December 21!

 

[randir14]

The first slice is coming December 21!

That's a nice surprise. Awhile back I read that there was some kind of drama that caused the team to split up and abandon the project.

 

[Wunderbar]

Crispy dies at 1:52

 

[Baron Dupek]

sauce
didn't expect to see Action Form again, in such combination

also

demo soon

 

[jebsmoker]

endangered species eventually getting reworked into vivisector: beast within is one hell of a wild game dev story. playing the pre-vivisector iteration is gonna be interesting

edit:

those ultra low fidelity duke voice lines really make the experience