Reliken

Updates:

• Sent samples of the Dark Forces level format, along with a link to the XL Engine source code to the author of 3D Object Converter. Hopefully with that plus my format documentation he/she will be able to write a plugin. If so I'll purchase a license so I can convert it to a common 3D format, export to .map in Blender, then dump it into GTKRadiant to get some more traction on this project.
• Send a DevianArt message to DarkStarMojo, who had level 7 totally complete and did extensive work on level 9. Whatever I get from him would be a massive increase in productivity. I don't expect to hear from him since very other way of contact I've tried has failed, but you never know.
• Just for fun, here are a few screenshots of level 8 with some VERY early lighting. I can't remember if any of them are actually new areas.

LEVEL 8 - ICE STATION BETA

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, I was trying to come up with some sort of canon-ish way to present the fact that when you go up the elevator in the middle of level 7 that you're actually transitioning into a ship. In the original game it was hard to understand that. Since the hallways look Corellian, I thought I could use the Gozanti-class cruiser as the "ship" you're getting into. My thought is a more obvious "airlock" will help players to understand, and perhaps a schematic image on a monitor before you transition into the ship. Whatever it is, I don't want to add something ultra complex, but rather a simple solution so that we don't lose the essence of what it is. Here are some images of the Gozanti-class cruiser. I don't know for sure it has any of those Tantive IV-style white hallways, but it's Corellian, and it seems like it'd be the right dimensions. Thoughts on this idea?

 

I've recently been replaying the OG game and just beat level 7 a week ago. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on - those interior halls did, indeed, feel like a Corellian ship (aka it reminded me of the opening of SW ANH), but there were Imperial-marked doors, so I didn't know if it was a Corellian ship that was perhaps inside a Star Destroyer, or what. Further, I was confused by the fact that your goal is to get to ANOTHER ship and leave a tracking device on it. Were you basically supposed to be cutting through this Corellian ship at the same dock to come out the other side and plant the tracking device?

I think some kind of a 'blueprint' or mall style 'you are here' schematic (or series of schematics as you progress) would be super helpful.

 If he can get them to load, the tool has the ability to export into multiple formats. From there I can scale to size and import, then rebuild things section by section, making life much simpler. It might not turn out quite as "Ultra HD" as the community might like, but I can physically build detail into areas, or use those areas as a reference and rebuild whole sections, or (worst case scenario) simply run the original geometry. I really don't want to just straight up port geometry, but at the same time I'm just one person. Having an incomplete-yet-completable game might spark interest from mappers outside the community to help.

Honestly, if you could plug the missing gaps with straight-up ported geometry but, as you said create a completable game, I think that would be a HUG achievement.

Interesting. Well, thanks for the update.

Related question, I guess. The original mod promised you would hear "the original music exactly as the composer intended." I'm pretty sure I have this soundtrack, and it does sound like a much higher quality synth than what you hear in the original game. My question is... where does it come from? Did the team just run through original source material through better quality synthesizers, or what? I can't seem to find any details on this.

I have been following the DF conversion mod since its conception, I think 2003.

What is it going to take to get the mod "complete," even if "complete" just means being able to go through rough versions of all the levels with proper cutscenes and music?

My understanding is the work is already more than halfway done. All the DF textures? Made. HUD? Made. DF original weapons? Made. Soundtrack ported in, new menu, rough skeletal outlines of each level, as far as my memory of the original website goes, all that is done already.

What is missing is polish, enemy placement, various event triggers, detail, etc... But make no mistake, in 2008 when this 6 level demo was released, more than half the work to make the mod was already done.

It's a life goal of mine to see the original mod finished. What would it take to get it there? I think the smartest and most realistic option is to finish what's already been started, where all the groundwork has already been laid.

Is there *any chance* of this ever being finished, even if it's rough? Not talking specifically to the TC here, I'm talking to the community.