Progress Update

UPDATE: I just finished a new room in the narshada level tonight. I decided to check it out in game and took some screenshots so I wouldn't have to replay the entire level on the off chance I figure out where the new screenshots are being saved. Curiously, the screenshots I took tonight are showing up in the right folder (but none of the screens I took of the level earlier). I'll see if this repeats itself in the future but tomorrow I'm going to set up an online gallery with a few preview images of the new room (and hopefully more).

First, let me wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year. Come what may, I hope 2009 is great for everybody.

Anyway, on to business. The plan, as of the end of December, was to update with some screenshots of the latest progress on narshada as well as the newest version of the detention center. Much of that level is going to be rebuilt from the ground up and will support much improved architecture, though the gameplay will be largely the same.

Unfortunately, I've been having a lot of trouble ironing out the issues I've been having with Jedi Academy, half of which have stemmed from a busted CD, the other half of which are the result of my upgrade to a new computer which has led to some Vista-related complications with GtkRadiant (the same problems were more or less present in every different build of the editor). With a packed schedule last semester, I didn't have time to comb through all the problems and sort things out and the only used copies of JA I was able to track down on Amazon.com were ridiculously overpriced. As much as I love Dark Forces and want to see the mod completed, I wasn't willing to spend $60 minimum to purchase a replacement JA copy when I don't have a steady stream of income to make up for it. So I managed to make some replacement CDs which I can install the game from with one catch, I can install the game from the replacement CD but I still need the CD to play it. Needless to say, I'm in the market for a working no CD patch or a solution to the error I was receiving with my previous patch (namely, entities would not show up in game when running off the patch).

Regardless, I have the game working for the most part but I can't find any of the screenshots I've been taking. I get the standard "wrote screenshot 0012.bmp" but when I open the screenshots folder in the mod's directory there are no new screenshots added. Until I can figure out where they're going (if they're even being written at all) I'm going to have to hold off on putting together a new gallery. With any luck this won't take long as I'm planning to have my old computer set up with an external monitor so I can test run the game by the end of next week (I just have to clean up and do a bit of household reorganizing first).

On the plus side, I worked out the errors I was having with gtkradiant. I can now save map files and compile lighting without q3map2 crashing on me. So, there will be updates coming in the future.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, folks. I think it's important that I can everyone up to date on the progress/problems/situations we're encountering. Even if we don't have anything physically to show for it yet it's important that you know we're still alive and committed to making some progress. Hhunter6 is working on a revised version of Jabba's ship at the moment and I'm going through his executor map to see what changes/improvements can be made, so maybe we will have some mapping updates sooner that we think.

Stay tuned,

DSM

Happy Holidays!

We're just taking a few moments out of our busy schedules to wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays!

There will be some updates coming around the start of the New Year. We haven't decided what yet but you can expect a more active year than the last few months which were very busy for all of us with other concerns.

Happy Holidays!

- The DFMod team

Celebrating

Today I'm celebrating the joyous twenty-second anniversary of my birth.

And that's pretty much about it. I should have some updates on the progress of the Executor map in the next post, very soon.

Executor Screenshots

Hhunter6 has been making some very good progress on the Executor level (13 for those of you who may have forgotten ;) and we thought it'd be prudent to share some of the best screens with everyone.

So, without further ado:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6366/shot0048te9.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/20/shot0045sz8.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2227/shot0041ed7.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8225/shot0036dc4.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/4303/shot0020xy2.jpg

Some other status information:
I've been swamped with art projects for school so, unfortunately, I haven't had much time to devote to mapping for the mod, just team coordination and the like. I expect to be able to get back into the swing of things sometime next month, once I complete the bulk of my senior thesis project for the fall review. If anything changes in the interim, you'll hear about it here first.

One last note. I don't mean to side track this post with a political discussion but election day is coming up here in the US. I'm going to take the time to urge US residents of legal voting age to get out there on election day and cast your ballot for President (and Congress if your representative is up for re-election). If not, take advantage of early voting and absentee ballots. I'm not going to encourage anyone to vote for a particular candidate nor will I share my own political views if I'm not pressed to do so (and maybe not even then) but I think it's important that we all exercise our civic duty, if we can.

Thank you.

School & Mod Slowdowns

Hey, folks. A few quick updates on the status of the mod.

First, I've been using my new computer for about two weeks now. It's a sweet machine but I'm not ready to switch all my JA/DFMOD files over yet as I don't want too many easy distractions when I'm trying to finish my schoolwork. So, for the meantime I'm going to leave the files on my old machine and use that as a gaming platform. I expect a switchover sometime around late Novemeber but I can't guarantee a timetable.

Also, I've just restarted school so that's going to be my priority for the next 8 or 9 months especially since I'm working on my senior project and that's going to take a considerable amount of time to properly finish. So, you can expect a slowdown on mod progress but we'll be sure to post updates as they are available.

I'm about to checkout Hhunter's new version of Executor (hopefully by this weekend) and I'll send if he can post some screenshots of his progress once I've had the chance to review it.

Detention Center Revision 2.0

Here's a list of some changes that will be made to Detention Center 2.0:

• Reduced y-value for most rooms: One of the major internal beta criticisms of Revision 1.0 was a y-value height in most rooms that was too tall, creating a Duke Nukem style shrunken feeling. I was unable to address this concern without major reconstruction before the 6 level release was due. Most of the rooms below the first level of the base will have their y-values reduced by approximately 80 units. This brings most of the rooms into line with standard room heights and should keep objects, control consoles, etc. from feeling oversized. Unfortunately, this will require a lot of reconstruction and will delay the completion time for the map.
• New archways between rooms: The relatively dull square archways are being replaced with more visually interesting pentagon-shaped transitions, ala the detention cell blocks.
• New detention cell blocks: 100% new cell blocks are being constructed to be more in-line with the movie interepretion (i.e. the definitive) version of a cell block. They will be narrower, more confined, and claustrophbic.
• New terrain lighting: The blue lighting crystals are being removed. They never quite achieved the effect I wanted and depart a bit too much for the original styling of the level. In addition, rock textures will be replaced with new versions that include the ochre-colored mold from the original level.
• Extended escape sequence: More areas are going to be added between Madine's rescue and your escape to the roof of the base.
• New trash compactor service tunnels: I'm rebuilding the service tunnels leading to and from the trash compactor to make them more technically interesting. The trash compactor itself should be largerly the same design, with only a few minor adjustments.

That's the bulk of what's going to be changed. The gameplay should be largely unaltered save a few improvement to pre-existing puzzles. The elevator jumps will be improved to make them easier to accomplish.

In somewhat related news: I'm expecting a new computer to be arriving in the mail later this week. With the inevitable time it's going to take to set up a new system, reinstall software like JA and GtkRadiant, and school starting the week after you should expect some significant delays on the development of the mod. Rest assured, we will continue to devote as much time as possible to the development of the next release. More information will follow once I have my new rig.

What's In the Next Build

I'm in the process of developing a new working build for the mod and as such I'm planning what will likely be included in the next release. All of this is tentative but any changes are likely to be the addition of more content than is currently in this list.

So, here we go:

• Cutscenes between levels 1 and 2 will now feature the correct music tracks. Additional architectural improvements are being made to the rebel frigate conference room.
• Misaligned and poorly aligned textures in Testbase are being corrected and portions of the terrain are being rebuilt to correct graphical errors.
• A new build of detention center is under construction. This build will feature most of the gameplay and environments from the original with a few key areas completely rebuilt. It should provide a more visually exciting overall experience.
• New level: "Ramses Hed Docking Port, Cal-Seti: Deadly Cargo." The complete seventh level of the original Dark Forces featuring new areas, puzzles, and enemies.
  
• New game Icons optimized for hi-rez LCD monitors and modern GUI interfaces (read, Windows Vista quality).

There is currently NO ETR (Estimated Time of Release) for the next build but we are working to get things squared up as soon as possible.

Stay tuned.