Whoa, half a year since the last news over here. But fear not, I haven't let things slide in the meantime!

After a considerable delay, but just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Duke Nukem 3D retail version hitting the store shelves, I give you the EDuke32 Addon Compilation v2.0! This is a lot more than just an update to the previous release - it's a full re-release! Over the course of more than a year, I have tirelessly polished pretty much each and every existing entry of the collection, fixing smaller and bigger bugs along the way. Tons of content was added, making the pack grow to 86 included addons with more than 1.000 SP levels! And it's not only about old stuff - four high-quality addons from 2015 have made the cut: "Death Drive", "DN64 Revisited", "Haunted Nukem" and "TamDuke"! My heartfelt thanks to all the authors who gave their kind permissions to make this possible!

A rough overview of the changes (for details, consult the readme):

• 27 new addons with over 280 additional SP levels
• Widescreen support for all addons with custom statusbars and weapons that were previously cut off in non-5:4 video modes
• Tons of fixes, e.g. sprite resize bugfixes finally working properly, corrected skyboxes, typo corrections and much more!
• Covers a large variety of themes - there is stuff for X-Mas, Halloween, a collection of space and city maps, old and brand-new content

Just as a reminder: I didn't create any of these addons - this was just about fixing and polishing them for convenient usage in EDuke32. The real heroes are the mappers and modders out there who keep sharing their amazing creations with us, from 1996 till the present day. Due to their remarkable contributions, the classic Duke Nukem 3D becomes timeless.
My credits wouldn't be complete without giving kudos to the guys from the EDuke32 coding team who gave us this amazing port, the best one of its kind. It allows us to enjoy the game any way we like - the old-fashioned way or with fancy special effects. Without their efforts, a compilation like this one would have never been possible!

If you really took the time to read all of the text above, I'll even tell you where to get it. Download the EDuke32 Addon Compilation v2.0 RIGHT HERE!

So here's to Duke! Happy 20th anniversary, and now let's go for the next 20 years!

Not too much has happened since June, as you may have guessed. I am working on a new release of the EDuke32 Addon Compilation, and it's turning out to be a lot bigger than expected: Every single addon has been reviewed and over 250 maps will be added! Right now, the whole thing is in testing stage, with a few things pending due to some potential problems caused by EDuke32 (or myself, that hasn't been completely determined yet). Hopefully, everything gets solved until December so I can release this one year after v1.0 - as intended.

In other news, EDuke32 has seen quite some enhancements lately, especially regarding rendering of wall-aligned sprites which were often flickering or clipping into walls in OpenGL rendering modes. On top of that, you may now adjust the dynamic lighting feature of the Polymer renderer conveniently through the menu (Options > Display Setup > Polymer Setup)! EDuke32 will now even "realize" when a switch is hidden and automatically turns off its tell-tale glow even if dynamic lights are activated. Grab latest EDuke32 snapshot now if you haven't done so already!

For the time being, there is the Duke!Zone II Custom Patch v1.1 to check out if you wish. Patch your original Duke!Zone II groupfile with this once more to profit from some CON code optimizations and a remapped Duke3D soundtrack (instead of following the default ep.1-3 soundtracks, music now fits better to the individual levels).
Also in August, I had already silently added a small patch file for original Duke3D that basically restores the 8-bit redfont from Duke3D v1.3D for Duke Atomic (results in better legibility of fullscreen HUD and menu), a widescreen statusbar (based on graphics provided by Fox) and the enhanced "Grabbag" title MIDI by Lee Jackson.

You can find both of these new uploads in the Duke3D Bonus Files section.

Almost six months of silence here doesn't mean nothing happened. Need proof? No problem!

At long last, the Duke Community brings you the Duke3D HRP v5.4! We managed again to add about 130 MB of additional content to the pack since September 2013. Even though this is impressive, the amount of stuff which is really new and noticable remains modest: There is a Luke Skywalker model for the famous secret in E2L8: Lunar Reactor now, together with a few new textures.
Emphasis rather lies on enhanced maphacks support for more custom maps (now powered by a more flexible maphacks system implemented in recent EDuke32 releases), considerable progress regarding Polymer support for textures/models and updates applied to some secondary models which had visually suffered throughout the years.

The changes in detail:

• [FEATURE] Spiker's Luke Skywalker model (1354) and 3 new highres textures (280, 323, 2452)
• [FEATURE] DEF files for basic Megaton Edition "support"
• [UPDATE] Maphacks for 800+ custom maps (1700 map files recognized by checksum)
• [UPDATE] Tweak for some textures: 395, 966, 5099-5104
• [UPDATE] Polymer versions of 44 existing textures/sprites/models added or revised:
  134, 150, 196, 197, 242, 294-296, 310, 348, 389, 441, 446, 451-453, 584, 609, 660, 705, 706, 718, 791, 795, 802, 876, 915, 976, 1174, 1175, 1186, 1191, 3386, 3394-3396, 4201, 4202, 4282, 4283, 4285-4287, 4308
• [UPDATE] 12 models updated:
  Shotgun pickup (28), camera (621), hydrant (950/981), switch (1155), pole (1221), crane (1222), nuke barrel (1227), newspaper (1275), cable (4386), robotdog2 (4560), pipe (4583)
• [UPDATE] Mighty Boot model improved
• [UPDATE] Polymost optimizations for some textures and models
• [FIX] Minor adjustments for glowmaps and texture/model scales

Thanks again to everybody who contributed to this release and helped with taking care of the SVN repository. You will find that EDuke32 also made some really nice progress in the meantime, so kudos to its coders are again in order!

Download HRP 5.4 HERE - don't say we didn't tell you where to find it! :P

... you will find something you may not have expected this year!

Let's face the bad news first: No new HRP... yet! While there has been quite some comm activity since v5.3, it just wasn't enough to justify an updated version for the time being. We are waiting for Roma Loom to finish some additional textures to make it more worthwhile for you. No need to despair, though - we are confident that we can present a release to you early next year.

In the meantime, ReaperMan got busy with voxel stuff again. After two years, he is finally coming up with the Voxel Pack v1.1 which adds new voxels for five pickups, seven switches and several props.

Last but not least: In my previous news, I talked about the EDuke32 Addon Pack. Well, what should I say? It's finished after working on it for over 1.5 years (with several interruptions, I admit)! At the end, 60 addons with over 670 levels (more than 1.1 GB of data) have been compiled, many of them carefully fixed and polished for smooth operation with EDuke32. You will find classics there like Last Reaction & Water Bases or The Gate just as well as recent (and excellent) releases such as Metropolitan Mayhem or Duke Hard.
Setup is quite easy: After downloading and decompressing the file into your EDuke32 installation dir, launch the game with an additional -jaddons parameter. Afterwards, you will see a huge list of addons in the launcher like this:

A heartfelt thank-you to all the mod authors I was able to contact for their kind permissions to make this possible! If you want to know more about the impressive scale of this project, just take a look at the readme file. You will realize one thing: With this, you won't get bored any time soon during the holidays!

Before I forget it: You can download both the voxel and addon pack in our Download section as usual, of course.

We hope you like what we stuffed into Santa's bag. On behalf of the Duke4.net Community: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

I have been working on something not related to the HRP for a change. Never having played Duke!Zone II, I decided to give it a try - not only in order to realize by myself that level design is quite poor at best, but there were also a few issues that really bothered me.
Since I had a lot of time during my recent holidays, I took a look at the most imminent issues and created a patch for Duke!Zone II which legitimate owners of the full DZ2 groupfiles may apply. Get the DZ2 patch at the bottom of our download section if you dare. Just keep in mind that this is a non-official update created by myself and has nothing to do with its original authors, so you are doing this on your own risk. Also be sure to check the readme file for details.

Other than that, I am making progress on the EDuke32 addon pack, using the grpinfo feature to enable custom mission packs to be selected via the EDuke32 launcher menu. 50 addons containing over 575 levels are currently planned to be included. Provided I can figure out some remaining issues and get release permissions from a few more authors, this could be a really neat thing for EDuke32 users. It's the best port for Duke3D after all, so it's never a bad idea to get something to feed it with, right? Stay tuned!

For a while now, I have been reading comments on Steam from Megaton Edition players, complaining about the Steam version of Duke It Out In D.C. "lacking" the changed music and green font they know from the DukeDC HRP. These modifications had always been a bit questionable since they are personal interpretations of mine, custom selections which had never been part of the addon in the first place.
Therefore, I have decided to revert the current DukeDC HRP a bit: DukeDC HRP v1.62 removes the green highres menu font (it's still in the pack, but commented out in defs) and separates the previously integrated OGG soundtrack into an external pack (DukeDC HRP Music Pack) which remains available, but as an additional - optional - download. This way, I hope to avoid further misunderstandings. Anyway, the custom level ending screen (with the burning Capitol in the background) will remain for the time being since I think it's kinda cool and really fits into the game.

Furthermore, I am currently in contact with James "Jimmy" Paddock who is a very capable MIDI composer for various Doom maps and episodes (e.g. "Plutonia 2"). My idea is to let him compose an all-new soundtrack for the DukeDC levels, giving them a more individual touch and avoiding any tunes known from other games, movies or TV series. Jimmy's Doom music is fantastic and he seemed quite motivated to get into Duke3D stuff for a change. Will keep you posted about progress as soon as I know more!

Just a few days ago, legendary game composer Lee Jackson surprised the Duke3D fans with a MIDI release of the extended "Grabbag" main theme. Until then, the track in this form had already been available as a prerecorded CD audio track on the Duke3D Atomic installation disc. Now, at long last, we are able to also listen to the full version in our music packs without having to worry about violating any copyright issues!
Therefore, the Arachno and GUS+ Music Packs have been updated to include new "Grabbag" recordings (SC-55 Pack may follow later), based on the extended version Lee has provided. Thanks a lot to him for this late, but nevertheless highly appreciated gift to the community!

Half a year has passed since the last news here anyway, so what else happened? Well, we are gathering material for the next HRP release still. So far however, not too much significant content has been added (there are about five new and 40 updated textures or so). Hopefully, some motivation boost will kick in among active community members and we might get a release together again by fall or early winter. One way or the other, we intend to give you a new version again this year, sticking to our goal to issue a new HRP at least once annually.

Some of you may have also noticed that the Rapidshare mirrors in our download section didn't work so well any more. Rapidshare is about to change their pricing model in July and in preparation for that, conditions for previous account owners deteriorated. Due to that, I have decided to switch to another service which will be Mega - at least for the time being. Hopefully, none of you folks will have any problems with that.

More music is in the air, and it's nothing for the ARACHNOphobic! Anyway, you shouldn't be, as the power of the amazing Arachno soundfont has finally been discovered to create yet another variation of our various Duke Nukem 3D Music Packs which are available already.

I tested it with DOOM MIDIs before and it sounded surprisingly good - actually one of the best soundfonts I have ever heard (besides maybe using a native Roland SC-55 for playback, which is a luxury solution, of course). After doing an Arachno music pack for Plutonia 2, I remembered the Duke tracks. And I wondered, hey, why actually not...

So, here it is - the Duke 3D Arachno Music Pack, normalized for your optimized ingame listening pleasure. Download and judge for yourself, it's definitely worth it!