Duke Nukem Forever

The Duke Nukem Forever demo is out. I can't even convey how surreal it is to me to be typing those words. But anyway, I've been poking around the demo for the last couple of days, and a new version of Noesis is up now that supports extracting 5 different variants of its included .dat packages.

The picture is of the world's first (well, probably) right and proper DNF content mod, with Duke sporting his brand new Takei Pride tanktop. Noesis spits out all of the info you need to re-inject textures while it's extracting them, and I've already got a fully functional repacker that I intend to release sometime relatively soon. I've also finished hammering out the model format now, and Noesis v3.27 and later can view/export them.




The process of exporting the models is pretty simple, but requires a few steps. Here's a step by step of what you need to do.

1) Using Noesis, extract the contents SkinMshes/defs.dat, SkinMeshes/meshes.dat, and SkinMeshes/skels.def. By default, Noesis will want to extract these to separate folders. You don't want this, and instead you want to extract them all to a single folder. (e.g. "c:\steam\steamapps\common\duke nukem forever demo\SkinMeshes\allfiles")

2) Browse to the .msh of your choice in Noesis and open it.

3) If .skl or .def files cannot be found automatically you will be prompted for them. Additionally, Noesis will attempt to find MegaPackage.dat and TextureDirectory.dat relative to the path of the .msh file. If it cannot, you will be prompted for those files as well.

4) Export and enjoy. Note that materials are still a work in progress, and it can't automatically find the right materials in most cases. But certain models are working. (like Duke and one of the Holsom twins)

I've got model re-import/modification working, but the material situation limits it pretty severely. In the coming days/weeks, I'll be continuing to reverse that data and trying to figure out a reasonable process for replacing/overriding assets that doesn't involve rebuilding all of the game's packages.

Also, if you haven't heard yet, you can play the vehicle sequence in first-person. It's much nicer this way.

Update: I've successfully exported a model to COLLADA, modified it (re-weighted, added and modified geometry, modified the texture), re-exported it to .msh using my in-progress Noesis exporter, and got it to load in the demo. Have a look:



Wait for the scene with the twins.

Comments

131 comments in total.
Post a comment

duduzinho silva pahon

March 5, 2013 at 5:33 pm (CST)
baixar

GYANA

September 20, 2012 at 4:45 am (CST)
Great job lucky time

LUBDAR

February 18, 2012 at 10:25 am (CST)
HA!!! I love the new Dick Cam picture.

snake plissken

January 11, 2012 at 2:45 pm (CST)
Presumably, I'm still insane, and no one should be following any links I provide.

LUBDAR

December 28, 2011 at 11:04 am (CST)
Ahh yes, working hard over the holidays...your work is very much appreciated!!

LUBDAR

December 11, 2011 at 3:49 am (CST)
The modified arcade cabinet looks VERY good!!

LUBDAR

November 29, 2011 at 11:39 pm (CST)
soon you'll have you're own arcade...

ukurereh

November 29, 2011 at 6:38 am (CST)
I hear CamStudio is good, though I've never tried it myself.

Rich Whitehouse

November 28, 2011 at 10:32 am (CST)
Sure, that sounds easy enough. Although I've never done any desktop capture before, and will have to find some software that does a good job at it. I can just record the whole process of discerning a new model format or something and edit it up a bit.

ukurereh

November 27, 2011 at 5:38 pm (CST)
If it's not a bother (and if you think it'll be useful), do you think you could do a "MSVC debugger casting for morons" video? Like starting a blank project, making it loading a simple file, then screwing around with the debugger to cast structs and stuff.

i.e. Something the Python folks could use to explore files quickly, even if they don't plan on making the final plugin in C++ (though some C++ knowledge required).


Comment Pages:
Previous ... 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 ... Next

Post a comment

Name:


Enter the following (refresh if you can't read it):



Comment:

Stream Tags

Projects

Everything

Personal

Analysis

Indie

Technology

AVALANCHE

R-Cube Engine

Modding

Game Design

Commercial

iPhone

Pleasure

Recent Comments