Duke Nukem Forever 2001 build leaked

[EvaUnit02]

https://archive.org/details/1652058670472
Obviously it's very much unfinished and has stability issues. Dukeforever.exe in the \system\ directory is the executable.
Go for the Oct build and then overwrite with the \patches\megapatch\ directory contents. If the game doesn't boot then delete from the \system\ directory d3d8.dll, d3d8.on12.dll. d3d9.wine.dll, wined3d.dll.

To get it to render properly I had to use a DX8 to DX9 wrapper and then a DX9 to Vulkan wrapper. Put d3d8.dll and d3d9.dll (latter is from the DXVK archive's \x32\ directory) in the game's \system\ directory. The game's supplied DX8 to DX12 wrapper wouldn't let the game boot for me under Win11.

F12 brings up the developer console. Useful console commands and cheats:-
setres <width>x<height>x<colour bits> (eg 1920x1080x32)
togglefullscreen
god
allammo
ghost

[henke]

Hearing a lot of reports that it's a very impressive half-baked mess. I'm curious to try it, but I think I'll wait a bit and see if someone wrangles it into a more easily installable and playable shape. Apparently there's a level editor included as well? Maybe eventually the fans will piece together an entire campaign from the remains? Exciting stuff!

[Malf]

Even Broussard commented on it, and not negatively, so here's hoping it won't get crushed in to non-existence by takedown notices.

[Jason Moyer]

It's weird that a tech demo from 2001 that was 1-2 years of polish away from releasing looks so much shittier than NOLF, which came out in 2000. By looks I don't just mean graphics/style, I mean the actual gameplay.

I think the problem with DNF's development is that, instead of saying "what is a Duke Nukem game" and iterating on that, they were like "man, Half-Life and NOLF were cool, let's do that". And they kept doing that every time a new genre defining FPS came out until they were so far from releasing a game it became a running joke.

[New Horizon]

It's weird that a tech demo from 2001 that was 1-2 years of polish away from releasing looks so much shittier than NOLF, which came out in 2000. By looks I don't just mean graphics/style, I mean the actual gameplay.

I think the problem with DNF's development is that, instead of saying "what is a Duke Nukem game" and iterating on that, they were like "man, Half-Life and NOLF were cool, let's do that". And they kept doing that every time a new genre defining FPS came out until they were so far from releasing a game it became a running joke.

I was reading that there is some Unreal 1 or 2 source code in there, potentially the same engine source code deadly shadows was based on. Wonder if that might help with any Deadly Shadows improvements...in terms of understanding the engine and patching it.

[demagogue]

As I recall the problem with Deadly Shadows was the real time shadow casting lighting code that was coded in-house by that guy that left it in a state that (they later realized) hobbled the game, long after he himself had left the company.

Well, I'm not an expert on patching when you have source code, but I feel like the lighting code sounds like such a fundamental change that I wonder if it'd practically help. Like, restoring the original lighting system sounds like a lot more than just changing a few hex registers.

That said, I wouldn't stand in anyone's way that wanted to give it a try or knows things I don't.

[catbarf]

Funny to hear the Megadeth cover of the theme as menu music. Now I know why 3DR commissioned that.

I think the problem with DNF's development is that, instead of saying "what is a Duke Nukem game" and iterating on that, they were like "man, Half-Life and NOLF were cool, let's do that". And they kept doing that every time a new genre defining FPS came out until they were so far from releasing a game it became a running joke.

From what I've read that's more or less exactly what happened. Constantly playing catch-up to industry trends, rebooting each time they missed the relevancy deadline.

[EvaUnit02]

As I recall the problem with Deadly Shadows was the real time shadow casting lighting code that was coded in-house by that guy that left it in a state that (they later realized) hobbled the game, long after he himself had left the company.

I didn't play much of T3 to get a lasting sense of the implementation there, but holy shit were the dynamic shadows poorly optimised performance vampires in DX:IW. Even on several years newer hardware I threw at it saw noticeable performance drops, I recall.

From what I've read that's more or less exactly what happened. Constantly playing catch-up to industry trends, rebooting each time they missed the relevancy deadline.

Yeah, Jason was on the money. You can very much see the FPS idea catch-up philosophy in the "finished" DNF that was ultimately released. Half-Life 2 had gimmicky physics weigh puzzles, DNF has it too. HL2 had a shitty driving through long stretches of road chapter, DNF has one too. Halo 2/3 has regen health and a 2 weapon limit, DNF has those too. Popular games of the time in general had cinematic QTEs, DNF has them too.

[henke]

QUICKLY! WATCH THIS!

[EvaUnit02]

QUICKLY! WATCH THIS!

If that's real then the 1990s were wild.

I vividly remember a 1995/1996 PC Zone or PC Gamer UK ad for a strategy game called "Gender Wars". The ad said "How many women have you killed today?" and there was a gruff marine man with a smoking gun standing in front of a pile of dead women.

EDIT:
I tracked down a variation of it. At least they did mirror versions, so nobody can argue prejudice either way.

[zajazd]

Lo Wang > Duke Nukem

[EvaUnit02]

Civvie11 did a good summary of the content present in the leak.

[Anarchic Fox]

I saw that, it was well made.