DF, JK, MOTS with JO Engine?

[JediBendu]

To make this game utterly legendary, they need to have an add on disk that you'll be able to buy that will have Dark Forces, Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith all redone with the Jedi Outcast Engine.

 

Imagine the early levels of Dark Forces with the stormies in beautiful 3D. All the weapons could be altered to conform with the later games.

 

The go on to play Jedi Knight, your character's grown a beard, there are some new toys. And then you'd get to fight the Dark Jedi with much better looking sabres and better moves. You could re-use all the cut-scenes as well.

 

It would be magnificent.

 

If LA didn't put it out, someone in the mod community needs to make this.

[PreTZeL]

hmm...LEC doesnt have the time to literally remake all those games, but if someone ELSE wants to...i support them entirely, ill even help out!

[Guest Kurgan]

Would I like to see this? Laws yes!

 

The question is, would they do it? Of course they've got JK2 and Obi-Wan to finish up first, but seeing the original JK/MotS with more polygons and dedicated servers? I'd buy it again, for sure. ; )

 

Hmm, sort of like Cyan did with realMyst (or LEC with the TIE Fighter/X-Wing Collector's CD's).

 

That would be awesome, although a monumental task. Maybe they could start with Dark Forces (adding multiplayer, mid-level save, and mouselook in addition to improved graphics and sound would really "bring it back").

 

Kurgan

 

[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: Kurgan ]

[OnlyOneCanoli]

I doubt LucasArts wouldn't do this. This would take a lot more development time... I mean they would be literally remaking a game, minus the engine. It wouldn't be feasible to release it at JKII's release time. Maybe instead of an expansion, we'd see this.

 

Other than that, this may be just one of those TC's that never come out. But I'd love it if it happened.

[Gabrobot1587246497]

That would be very cool! And if Lucasarts is smart they would release it as an add-on for JO.

 

[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: Gabrobot ]

[acdcfanbill]

while this would be cool, doubtfull that it will ever happen, except thru a mod by someone. wow, that would be a monumental task!!

[Ice Man1587246496]

Well it would definitely be cool! The one problem is that large amounts would probably have to be redone. We don't know how easily the levels would import from the old game engine to the JO engine, if at all. Then all the textures would have to be improved to higher resolution ones, which would take an entire crew. Technichally it could be done and it would be easier than creating a whole new game, but if Lucasarts wants to invest the time and the resources is a different question. Personally I would really like to see this done.

[PreTZeL]

hehe

if only it were as simple as changing the extension name of the file or something

heh....you guys do realize the jedi (DF) engine....ran on DOS right? lol...hell ill jump on a boat to convert it over...but im not gonna start the project

[The Wanderer]

seeing as I've said this multiple times in other posts, but EGADS would I LOVE to see them redo DF and JK!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm going to say right now that I would PREFER this done as one or two expansion packs MORE than I'd like to see them make an expansion pack with new levels.

 

I mean, the level design is even already done. Imagine Dark Troopers done in glorious high poly true 3D =)

 

It can't be that bad of an idea, everyone here seems to be quite eager to see it, seems like it'd sell to me.

[The Wanderer]

P.S. IF they did (which sadly is probably unlikely) I'd like to see them with their old cutscenes as someone said above. The DF cutscenes are dated, but I'm still fond of them.

[toms]

It would only be likely if it was valve making JKO... they seem to have a fondness for recreating old games (when they should be working on Team Fortress 2... talk about easily distracted...)

[Sith Warrior1587246504]

Does anyone here really beleive that LucasArts and/or Raven would do that? I mean C'mon, that take forever. Although cool, it would be extremely difficult for anyone else to do that anyway. Look at DAK (if you're framiliar with TACC), he is doing a Dark Forces TC for MotS and it's taking him excessive amounts of time.

[The Wanderer]

Well, nobody's saying it'd be easy. We're just saying we're willing to plunk down perfectly good money to pay for it, just like any other game. And if they're willing to make it, we're willing to buy it.

 

Obviously it wouldn't be as easy as renaming a few extentions, but on the other hand I don't think it'd be as difficult as making an entierly new game either.

 

For one they wouldn't need to make or modify a new engine. the engine would be there already, it'd be the JO engine. from there it'd just be a matter of making new levels for the JO engine.

 

from here on in I'm assuming we don't alter the original games with level re-designs or anything like this, just a simple faithful remake with the new engine...

 

then again, they really aren't building a new level from scratch either. as a matter of fact, they don't even need to come up with a story. GIVEN they can't simply port the old levels over and then POOF, buuut the levels ARE already planed out.

 

A good analogy being copying someone else's scool report. the report has already been written, you're not coming up with a new report, it's just a matter of copying it down onto your fresh new piece of paper.

[magnum1587246490]

I started making Quake 2 and 3 editing two weeks ago (I can say it seemed a lot easier than JK editing, BTW).

I liked the idea of porting the maps from DF-JK-MotS, but I think that the most difficult part wouldn't be just translate a mesh system into another (and they're very different: one has negative space (DF-JK) and the other positive space), but the differences in the "physics" of the engine.

 

Just come to my mind:

• The relative size of the world where the player moves (think about the holes where you have to crouch!)
  
• the acceleration and jumps - how the player character reacts
  

 

Even if we translate the poligons (which I don't think that they are equal, each engine is/could be optimized for different rendering ways) and leave the textures as they are, I don't think that would be easy to get the same feeling while playing.

 

Anyway, I think that would be cool trying it. If anybody who knows well the DF-JK's maps file construction wants to get in touch with me, I could try to make a translator.

[magnum1587246490]

Ooops! Another thing came into my mind!

Would it be legal to use these levels in the new game?

I don't have at hand the EULAs (I'm working in the office right now), so I can't check it.

 

I wonder if I ever could publish a mod for Q3A with JK levels... don't think so

[JediBendu]

"I will make it legal"

-Darth Sidious

 

Legality wouldn't be a problem for a LA version. The l;evel design work is basically done, but they would need to be done like any other Level for JO, playtested and altered to fit the physics of the new engine.

 

Beyond that, level design isn't that much of a problem when you're a professional with all of the development tools at your fingertips. I had friends who worked on Starship troopers and they could turn out a new level in about a week, barring the design issues.

 

Also all the characters for the first two games should be available, other than the specials like Dark troopers, the Dark Jedi and some wildlife. And the first two are just a matter of new skins.

 

The level design, the engine, the characters and the music are all available, all they need is to write it. They did it for X-wing and tie-fighter which had some pretty major re-writes of their code from the first to the last versions, why not their second most successful star wars series?

[TornSoul]

The easiest way to do this would be to just make the levels. This wouldn't really be a remake of DF, JK and MotS. If you want to make a remake you'd have to get all the same weapons and make it "feel" the same way. I'm not sure if you can get the original DF/JK/MotS feel without triangle particles

Anyway, my point is: a complete remake takes more work than just making the levels. Although it's less work than creating a completely new game and I think it would sell great. LA would get a lot of profit out of it (that should get their attention ). I hope they do make it, but I doubt it. But that shouldn't stop any talented mod makers to make an "unofficial" remake.

[Roger]

Porting isn't possible, if you remember, the darkforces engine wasn't truly 3D, ie. no rooms on top of eachother etc. Just like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D.

 

You can recreate the whole thing in Radiant (Quake editor) but you need to script all the events and create all the textures.

 

It's a lot of work but I bet we'll see some fan made recreations of famous DF and JK levels.

 

LucasArts won't do it, they're not going to spend any time or energy on old stuff... They will be hard at work on new titles.

[Guest digl]

DF with the JO engine!!

That would be amazing!!

But I higly doubt anyone would do it

[PreTZeL]

digl, getting close to knight-ness

i said it before and ill say it again, ill help work on it if anyone plans on heading the project

[Roger]

So PreTZeL, in what way could you help in such a project?

[PreTZeL]

i think it says above, but...

i can code (somewhat)

i can easily learn level editing and can support web administration (i have background in both)

hmm....i dont know what else would be needed really, i can learn more code if necessary, but i dont really know what would need to be done...are you planning on heading a project?

[Roger]

No I'm not (yet)...

 

But I'm working on another project and see this one as a nice addition, cause it's fairly straight forward (everything is layed out and only needs to be copied).

 

It is a lot of work though.

 

Oh, I'm a designer (2D and 3D) with an architecture and web background.

[PreTZeL]

i was thinking of getting 3d studio max...would that be necessary for this sort of project? this would be fun to do i think, lots of fun!

[Roger]

You won't need 3D Studio Max to create levels. Right now most people use QERadiant for level editing. It's free, so a lot cheaper than 3D Studio Max and available at the above mentioned website.

 

I hope it will be compatible with JKII:JO