Does anybody here have experience with the Doom 3/IDTech 4 engine?

[6742456972177icemann]

I take it this is the level that you mean?

I don't want to spoil the experience, as I would strongly suggest going blind on your 1st play through of it. Don't read any extensive reviews, don't watch any Youtube videos on it. See if you can get to "the end".

For play through 2 (Don't read this until play through 1 is done):
Go here to the thread over on Doomworld.com: link here

Also jump over to this google drive link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18Nx7kUQwmxUGoXqL6FiUwFY--up64fgo

Follow the forum thread there, and have a read of the files over on the google drive link. When your done, see if you can do it properly this time.

Also recommend having a watch of John Romero (yes that John Romero) having a play of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIl_TqFJNO8

Play through 3 (if your up for it):

Find a walkthrough, or somewhere that fully details what you need to do, and 100% it. As in, get every item that you need in both versions of the house to get the "good ending".



Your in for a real experience with this one. The myHouse.wad mod is one of the most amazing mods I've ever played for a game. Period. Work of art.

[6742456972352JDoran]

Thanks for the spoiler marks, I won't read them until I've finished the mod for the first time. I take it that the .wad file and the .pk3 are the same, and not two different experiences?

[6742456972677icemann]

From memory the .wad version was released back in the 90's by someone else entirely. I remember playing that one off a Doom maps cd long ago.

The .pk3 version is the one to go with.

[674245697276bJDoran]

Understood, thanks.

[6742456972852icemann]

Finished it yet?

[67424569729f3Pacmikey]

A SS2 Black Mesa style remake is totally doable in idTech 4. I've been working on a team with it for a game and know the engine relatively well, although I mostly work on animation/viewmodel/first person stuff. It would require a team though. One person can't do it, but 3 or 4 people making a proper effort? Definitely. If you wanted to contribute to a dedicated remake I'd contact the people who are already doing so and joining them.

[6742456974be4JDoran]

Finished it yet?

I'm not sure. I restarted the game, so as to explore more, and I played through it, found a nice German Shepard dog, which was friendly (I was really glad that I didn't have to kill it, as I've killed a zillion humans in games, but I hate killing dogs in-game, such as in the Wolfenstein games, or the wolves in Skyrim) and a two headed dog who was very hostile, and who I did try to kill (a two headed anything wouldn't trigger my protective instincts) but couldn't - I used up all of my ammunition, and killed one of it's heads, but when I tried to use the chainsaw to finish it off it still managed to kill me. I also picked up what looked like a frisby (it was next to the red dog-dish), and I thought that maybe that was the way to kill the two headed dog- perhaps I was to lead the two headed dog to an area next to the huge drop, then I was to throw the frisby over the huge drop, and the two headed dog would chase it and fall down the huge drop, but I couldn't find the frisby (if it even was a frisby) in my weapons or inventory.

So I avoided the two headed dog, and I was unable to reach the room/area with an 'Exit' sign that was on the  other side of the huge drop.
I arrived at the airport, and in the women's toilets I encountered what I think were the only other enemies (other than the two headed dog) I'd encountered since leaving the house. I went into the plane, pressed the cockpit button, jumped out of the plane, and the level ended.

Next came the second level of Doom 2, Underhalls, which made me think that maybe I had finished My House, and it was only a one level mod, but I completed Doom 2 level 2 (I can almost do it blindfolded by now, like most Doom fans), and My House started again. I quickly ran through the house, and it seems to be the same as when I originally started the My House level, so have I completed My House by reaching Underhalls, or is the Doom 2 level just part of the experience, and when I reach My House after Underhalls does My House continue, with new areas and experiences?

[6742456974d74fox]

You're not done. Not by a long shot.

[6742456974facJDoran]

You're not done. Not by a long shot.

Great, back to the mod it is, then. 

Thanks.

[6742456975212JDoran]

If anyone's interested, then I've not played My House in a couple of days, so I went back to it yesterday, and started from the beginning again so as everything was fresh in my mind. This time I managed to find a small armoury (not in the actual house, it's in the surreal part where all of the walls are grey, I unlocked it using the blue skull key),  and had enough ammunition to kill the two headed dog.  When I finally exited the house, the house vanished, leaving only a 'reality for sale' sign.

Later, back in the house, I found the 'hidden' room behind the book case that is next to the pool table, and emerged into darkness, and the top half of the house looks like a fire has swept through it.

I haven't yet worked out the significance (if any) of the mirror in the attic, that always shows an object (which looks like a round container of potion) in the position where the blue key is found. I so far have, I think 73 out of 112 kills as my highest tally. I've yet to find any other enemies (except perhaps the friendly dog, who I really hope I don't have to kill to beat the game), so I am wondering if to complete the game, I have to locate another (one or more) hidden locations (or hidden states of the house) and kill the remaining enemies and then make it to the gate, open it with the blue skull key, and enter the teleporter square.

When I went back to the 'alternate area' (the grey area, with the friendly German Shepard and the hostile two headed dog) the two headed dog was alive again, so I am going to kill it again, and see if that results in any door opening or another form of 'reward' for killing it. Otherwise, more searching the house and the alternate area for the trigger or entrance to the area where the next group of killables are hiding.

[67424569754e7ZylonBane]

'reality for sale' sign.

Not sure if typo or actually think the sign said "Reality".

[67424569758aeicemann]

I haven't yet worked out the significance (if any) of the mirror in the attic.

Some mirrors may not be what they seem. Some may be gateways to alternate versions of the house.

If you reached the "For Sale" sign, that is the "Ending 1" of 4 possible endings.

Not sure if typo or actually think the sign said "Reality".

That's what he likely came across.

[6742456975a21voodoo47]

I surely could go for a reality of my own right about now. the current one sucks.

[6742456975c2fZylonBane]

That's what he likely came across.

Uh, yes, that is 100% likely what he's referring to. The question was whether he mistyped realty as reality, or misread realty as reality.

[6742456975d97JDoran]

Actually, I must have misremembered what I had read on the sign. I was trying to recall to mind everything I had seen in the mod, when I made that post, and I see I now that I forgot to mention that you can swim in this mod (in the area of the mod where it's mostly just a maze of grey corridors and empty rooms, you get to through the closet in the computer room) and even drown, I don't remember seeing that in a Doom mod before)

[6742456975ea6icemann]

Not the first. First I can recall of swimming in a Doom mod was Arctic Wolf (part of the awesome Wolfendoom series).

[674245697613dPyornkrachzark]

well, not everyone who wanders is lost, and slight off topic will always find its proper place here on Rec.
also no need to you know, sign your posts, they are not letters, and while letters can be posted, posts shouldn't be.. lettered.

I didn't fully undestand this reply until now. I corrected my previous post and... I feel much better now :-)

[67424569764bcLivo]

A SS2 Black Mesa style remake is totally doable in idTech 4. I've been working on a team with it for a game and know the engine relatively well, although I mostly work on animation/viewmodel/first person stuff. It would require a team though. One person can't do it, but 3 or 4 people making a proper effort? Definitely. If you wanted to contribute to a dedicated remake I'd contact the people who are already doing so and joining them.

Sounds interesting! Not many people are making games or mods with the old-school, but very nifty lighting tech from idtech4 & similar engines of the era, so it'd be very unique and distinct looking! What's the name of the game you're working on?

I know there was a single player RPG style mod for Doom 3 released over a decade ago on Moddb, called Doom 3 Evolution, that allowed players to choose their own skills and upgrades via menu as the game progressed, that also had stats like enemy health on the HUD itself. An RPG first person mod can "technically" be done on the engine, maybe with Doom 3 Evolution as a base, but there'd be a horrendous amount of work needed to even vaguely approach an proper approximation of System Shock 2... 

However, isn't there a huge lack of knowledge on doing "basic" engine stuff like swimming for example in idtech 4 (there's no swimming in vanilla Doom 3), since the main source of info & tutorials for that thing, were the old dead Doom3World forums? How has your team worked around this issue out of curiosity? There doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation or tutorials on idtech 4 out there besides the basics, upon a cursory look. It's a big shame proper mod tools for Quake 4 or Wolfenstein 2009 were never released: Raven did a lot of impressive engine upgrades, plus the mod community would have been much more thriving with an actual SDK. Alas, they were assigned to the Call of Duty mines

[67424569767abJDoran]

... Alas, [the once brilliant Raven Software] were assigned to the Call of Duty mines

I hate when a fantastic developer is forced to concentrate on one thing, to the detriment of their various other talents. Raven's Wolfentstein (2009) is my favourite ever Wolfenstein game (though for some reason, I don't know what, it seems to be considered at best mediocre by many Wolfenstein fans), and their Singularity is fantastic (though rushed at the end of the game), and their two Jedi games were really fun, too, to name just some of the games they made when they were free to chose the themes and settings of their games.

It's like how Microsoft killed off Rare (or at least how Microsoft might as well have killed off Rare) by forcing them to only make games for the Kinect (a motion controlled addon for the XBox range, that almost no one cared about), or when Epic stopped making Unreal Tournament games because their game Fortnight became so popular that it started earning them about 2.7 trillion dollars per minute.

[67424569769c0icemann]

my favourite ever Wolfenstein game

Wolfenstein 3D for me anyday. There's nothing else quite like it out there + it's classic FPS brilliance.

[6742456977b2eJDoran]

Wolfenstein 3D for me anyday. There's nothing else quite like it out there + it's classic FPS brilliance.

I've not played Wolfenstein 3D in decades, I should give it another go. What is the best version of the game, do you know ? I've heard that the Atari Jaguar version was the best, but I've never played it (I don't have a Jaguar, so I would emulate it). Is there a PC source port that improves on the original, in a similar way to how GZDoom improved the basic Doom engine? I'd also assume that, like Doom, W3 has (many) fan-made single player campaigns available, if so, would you recommend any?

[6742456977ed4icemann]

Is there a PC source port that improves on the original, in a similar way to how GZDoom improved the basic Doom engine? I'd also assume that, like Doom, W3 has (many) fan-made single player campaigns available, if so, would you recommend any?

In answer to all of those - The Wolfendoom TC's, which were nearly all made by a Laz Rojas back in the 90s - early 00's. Starts with recreations of the original campaigns (Spear of Destiny included), done in the Doom engine, with some additions that more modern source ports allow for. Once he was done there, he went off in an entirely new direction with new campaigns which expanded things bigtime. My favourite of those ones by Laz would be Arctic Wolf, and Astrostein (alternate history + time travel one, where the Nazi's gain tech from the future to conquer the past, and then you jump in after).

THEN we get to more modern times, and a completely new team, with no connection at all with the original developer (of the previous entries), released a new entry entitled "Blade of Agony". Website: here. This one goes all out, but does feel very different to the other entries. More feels like if someone had made a Wolfenstein campaign in the Duke 3D engine. Except that it's done in ZDoom. Give it a try, and my analogy will make sense.

If your interested in some footage:

Original Trilogy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF6i3t_BgTE

Astrostein:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lET55At6ZDs

Blade of Agony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHBoekx5wDE

[674245697800bvoodoo47]

Brutal Wolfenstein3D probably deserves a mention.

[67424569781a3icemann]

PS: You can grab all the Laz Rojas's Wolfendoom TC's here:
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/72674-release-laz-rojaz-wolfendoom-for-zdoom/

12 in total. So I do warn, that going all in will require a bit of a time investment .

Note also that these were updated by another user in 2015, to work with more modern source ports (the original versions only worked with Boom, and were buggy).