Well this was unexpected! 3D Realms is back, teaming up with Voidpoint for a brand new FPS named Ion Maiden [Steam, Official Site] and the first part is now available in Early Access with Linux support.
It's using an upgraded version of their "Build engine" to include bigger levels, more colour support and many more modern features. However, they said it's being built using original old-school tools and methodologies. They say it's the "true successor to classic shooters such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood".
Direct Link
From the press release I got sent today:
Ion Maiden laughs at the idea of constant checkpoints and straight paths through shooting galleries. But just because this is a true old-school first-person shooter doesn’t mean there won’t be all the good new stuff the last two decades have brought. Headshots? Hell yeah. More physics and interactivity? You betcha. Widescreen, controller support, and Auto Saves? 3D Realms and Voidpoint took the best of both worlds and cooked it all into a bloody stew.
3D Realms and Voidpoint are proud to bring back the Build engine, which powered Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, in all of its hand-crafted pixelated glory. They’ve spent a lot of time tinkering under the hood to take advantage of new technology and techniques. Bigger levels, hundreds of new colors, and morphing maps that transform mid-level are all just a few of the advancements made to the engine.
On top of crafting an oldschool FPS with modern touches, they are also hinting at some form of multiplayer too.
"Bringing back classic build-engine shooters has been our aim for years, so we’re diving right into a spiritual successor to the games which put 3D Realms on the map,” Frederik Schreiber, Vice President, 3D Realms. "The team assembled for this project knows exactly how to execute our vision, and we couldn't be more excited to finally bring back a true 3D Realms shooter."
Pretty nice that it has full Linux support—exciting! The current version is a "polished exclusive multi-hour preview campaign", with a plan for the full game to be ready in "Q3" of this year.
You can grab it from Steam, or from their official site for a fully DRM free build. From what I understand it will also head to GOG sometime as well, but I've not been told when.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: KithopSo I did grab this, and... holy hell, there's actually slowdown still. Vsync off, 60fps cap, but it stutters in places and seems to drop to ~30fps. On an i7-4790K + GTX980 in OpenGL mode, knocked Anisotropic down to 4x. Whaaaaa? Something's not right there. :p
Also, while the *first* screenshot through the Steam overlay I took was fine, the second caused the game to lock up, music still running away. Early Access indeed, I guess. Will definitely have to come back to it and see, but, semi-spoilery easter egg - this looks familiar, doesn't it?
Spoiler, click me
for me it runs very well. the fps range was from ~2000fps to ~100fps alls very smooth. I used mesa drivers with amd ryzen 1800x and vega64lq
Quoting: Doc AngeloYou are forgetting input methods for one thing; I notice in one of the Steam reviews it mentions that you can play the game entirely with the keyboard if you wish, which is something I might actually opt for seeing that is how I play most of the classic Build engine games. You could arbitrarily add this limit to a polygon shooter I suppose, but it actually makes more sense with a raycaster. And as you said, you have to build your levels around the restrictions of the engine, but this also seeps into every other aspect of the game's design. It is a small but in the end non-trivial difference.Quoting: HamishI for one am definitely game for another 2.5D sprite based shooter. They look and play fundamentally differently to true 3D FPS gamesWhat makes the gameplay different for 2D-Raycasters (Doom/DN3D) in comparison to polygon based shooters (Quake/Doom 3/etc...)? You have some restrictions while designing levels for Raycasters, but apart from that, I don't see why the render technique would interfere with the game design.
Quoting: MblackwellI'm sorry you think that. Myself and the rest of the developers are huge classic FPS fans and long time members of the BUILD/Duke and Doom modding communities and have put in years of effort toward this release. I hope that you will give it a chance, even with your reservations.Always nice to have developers giving us their perspective on here.
Mblackwell Feb 28, 2018
Quoting: throghWhen looking at the hardware requirements it seems bit overdriven at all and that there is no further interest in good optimization. So, thanks but NO! Wrong way and looking at the times back then when there was even not that "big hardware" at all the games were more playable and better than today.
I will say, this is not running the DOS version of the BUILD engine but is based on the modern EDuke32 source port.
The requirements are for the expected rendering mode most people can and should pick: OpenGL. It tends to be a lot faster than running everything through software, particularly since the engine is already CPU bound due to the dynamic nature of BUILD (it's not a raycaster, it's a portal engine).
However, software mode is available if GL isn't cutting it for various reasons, for example being on older integrated Intel - if your resolution is low enough (and/or you use pixel doubling) you may actually see playable framerates. Keep in mind this is a much more demanding game than any other BUILD game before, with a lot more effects work and sector geometry, and some cool things that are only possible in BUILD.
The hardware requirements are just what we feel is the easiest to directly support.
There is work being done to bring performance up even further as Early Access goes on, although we probably won't change the listed requirements it's something to look forward to.
Thank you for at least being interested. :)
Quoting: Luke_NukemI read the whole article as "Iron Maiden"... Doh!You're not alone, my friend.
It was a good misclick, tho. (If such thing does exist.)
Comandante Ñoñardo Feb 28, 2018
In those days, the devs did what they could with the few hardware resources they had at hand ..
Today there is no technical excuse for those archaic graphics.
Anyway. For curiosity I downloaded the Demo (because I own the Deluxe Edition of Bombshell), but for some reason I can't make the Linux version run; I had to run the Windows version via crossover...
The game is enjoyable, by the way, like I enjoyed Duke Nukem and Doom in those days...
But 10 USD is too much.. For 5 U$D I will buy it.
I remember being shocked looking at the build engine source.
http://www.advsys.net/ken/buildsrc/kenbuild.zip
What an incredible mess. :D
PublicNuisance Feb 28, 2018
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