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.
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GeneralGravez

July 31, 2011 at 6:17 am (CST)
As Interested said, we are still waiting for a way to repack DNF archives.

interested

July 30, 2011 at 1:21 pm (CST)
just so you know...there's still interest in the DNF repacking. ;)
(understand it's a 'when you get to it'...just want you to know folks are still here)

Rich Whitehouse

July 20, 2011 at 9:27 am (CST)
Kristian: "SnakePlissken"/"dukeED"/etc. (likely the same person, or they're both friends and happen to live in or around Ft. Lauderdale) seems to be a weird attempt at trolling or a genuine psychopath. 90% of what he says makes no sense, and for a while he was spamming the hell out of me with mostly-unintelligible insanity. He also seems to believe there's some kind of conspiracy of knowledge that I'm covering up, and doesn't seem to realize that the core editor interface is nowhere in the retail game. Just ignore him.

Barbie: As I mentioned on the twitter feed, I was out of town for 2 weeks. I just got back. I have work things I need to take care of now. DNF stuff has to take a back seat to that, I'll get to it when I get to it.

Barbie

July 17, 2011 at 4:51 pm (CST)
Are you still working at the DNF at a way to repack DNF archives?

Kristian

July 13, 2011 at 6:45 am (CST)
" if he was able to obtain its .uc files he could then rebuild it in unreal thusk"

The only reference I find to "unreal thusk" using Google is that post of yours. What is this "unrela thusk" you are talking about?

dukeED

July 11, 2011 at 12:33 am (CST)
the only thing keeping snake plissken back from being able to launch the duke editor is not knowing how to extract or un pack the dngame.u file. if he was able to obtain its .uc files he could then rebuild it in unreal thusk being able to launch the duke editor. why dont you let him in on it... instead of holding others back.

Boss

July 10, 2011 at 11:48 am (CST)
I'm kinda a noob at this but when I want to add the texture to the model in 3ds max, it doesn't go on properly. Is there a proper way of adding the texture to the model???? When i add the texture to the model it just adds the texture to the model anywhere it wants, it doesnt put the skin where it's supposed to or the clothes where it's supposed to. I really need to know, any help would be really really appreciated.

Snake Plissken

July 9, 2011 at 4:22 pm (CST)
one day people will learn how to compile DNFs editor.u and its respected components into unrealED. and then relise that this is the closes thing will ever get to a dukeED. there is a reson that editor.u is the only unreal packege file that can be decompiled by a bacth file. look at the .uc files that consist of this packege and then say to your self how oddly familiar this is with certain unrealED fronted script packer's. the objective is to take what you get out of editor.y and recompil into UDK. i have been editing DNF scripting and recompiling for about a week now. literly the only thing i can not acsess is the .nav and .dnf file formats. wicth is the only thing that makes this a "heavy modded" engine. lol what i see is a exsact duplicate of UT3 ( perhaps even UT2) with map inputs of .dnf exstention. thats the only extent of modded beyoun UT3 this game is. in the end ill make a video and get it out to you here. will see what happens after that.....

DNF FRANCE

July 7, 2011 at 11:57 am (CST)
Does not work when I want to export the images.
Someone does not have a previous version for me?

BuFu

June 29, 2011 at 4:22 pm (CST)
You can only export the DNF.dat files, neither preview nor open them. Just rightklick and export them ;)


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