What you’ll notice with my voice in the video is that it’s more repressed and quieter. The reason is because the fluffy butt club are sleeping. I spoke too loud last time and woke up the mother that’s now coming to roost while I was recording for this video.
This is a video that talks about the Build Engine, a 2.5D engine from the 90s that rivaled both Doom and Wolfenstein in it’s capabilities, and gave off more impressive displays of 3D as evidenced in Duke Nukem 3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior. But the engine isn’t used as often as something like Gzdoom, and there are fundamental limitations that are still somewhat present in the engine like the way AI is handled, it’s use of the .ART format which isn’t as intuitive as .WAD
But it’s an engine that also made it’s mark in fps history, even with the presence of fully fledged 3d fps games coming out of the woodwork which kickstarted with Quake, and it still has a thriving modding community thanks to the existence of EDuke32 and Mapster32. Also, Ion Fury and AWOL show that the engine is still viable for retro fps game development.
Links:
https://fabiensanglard.net/duke3d/
https://www.eduke32.com/
https://localinsomniac.github.io/ntmai.html
https://www.indiedb.com/games/wgrealms-2/downloads/demonthrone-30
https://www.moddb.com/games/the-amc-tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8tDBg4pfYk&t=81s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qtmkkdND6M&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VK29fPA0OE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0odA4-TVUkE&t=11s
Chapters:
Intro – 0:00
Start of Video – 1:00
#gamedev #gaming #dukenukem #blood #shadowwarrior #buildengine #gamedevelopment #doom #wolfenstein #gameengine
source
42 comments
It's almost 2.75D
Love this video!
Redneck Rampage is excellent, I think it's a bit unfair, the shots aren't accurate because it's a drunk old country boy, I believe the developers intended the intense shooting. The game, because it was released later, has very well-crafted and defined textures. There's a level in the game where I remember seeing a brick wall, and there was a lamp on the wall, and the guys cooked the pre-rendered light from this lamp on the wall, this wasn't common at that time because a single texture consumed precious resources.
As an aside, from a modding point of view, the original versions of Build had line limitations because earlier versions without said limitations (the infamous beta version 'Lameduke') would frequently break because what the engine was capable of outstripped what PCs could do at the time. So, the editor baked in a deliberate cap. Many current versions of the editor remove this cap because modern hardware can handle it.
One of the things that marks most Build games was a sense of not taking itself seriously. Duke3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage and even Ion Fury are all really fun games that constantly also make fun of themselves. Part of me would love to have seen the engine used for a game going a darker route, even moreso than Blood, something serious. I don't think we ever got that with Build. I GUESS Tekwar or Witchaven maybe, but they were earlier versions of the engine and I don't know they really count…
Ken Silverman really was an equal to John Carmack back then and despite the success of Duke3D, he doesn't get enough credit for what he did I feel. Everyone knows John Carmack, everyone knows Duke3D, but Ken Silverman is a name that not many would recognize without any context. The Build Engine has that very certain "crisp" feeling to it that is extremely unique and instantly recognizable even decades later in games like Ion Maiden. Coupled with the amount of detailed sprites and decals that can be placed in the world, games like Duke3D just feel so much more alive and detailed.
blood is still one of my all time favourite fps games. always will be.
Neither Doom nor Duke Nukem 3D was 2.5D, that makes no sense.
Yeah, but gzdoom/zandronum client based on q3 engine open source (3D), but have mix with 2,5D source content (classic doom sprites, maps, etc.), if i'm correct. Thnx for video 👍
PowerSlave Exhumed on PC is based on the Console (PS1 and Sega Saturn) Versions of PowerSlave which did not run on the Build Engine, but instead a Custom 3D Engine. The Build Engine version of PowerSlave was not like these versions, it was more like a run-of-the-mill Doom Clone with an Egyptian Theme.
I remember playing Wolfenstein, Duke Nuke'm, and Doom back in the 90's. I remember the 3D games of those days. Good description on how technology has changed over the years. By the 2000's, when Quake, Unreal Tournament, and other games has improved in terms of graphic videos, sound, etc. Now, I play Call of Duty series, Gears of War and Halo games.
short lived? people are still making games with the build engine to this day
the powerslave exhumed footage you showed in this video is completely irrelevant to the video because there were two versions of PS (console and DOS version) the metroidvania elements were only present in console ones and PS exhumed is remaster of console version only
Only the pc version of PowerSlave was using the build engine.
Redneck Rampage was a good game!
Erm askshually doom & build engine games are 3d 🙄😶🤐🧱🎲🔥⭐😬😳😳🤢🥶🥵💀🌝🌚🙅🙋👽👽🤖
Help.
i wish they still made brand new 2.5d games from scratch. the look of doom and daggerfall is just beautiful
There's a version of Nobody Told Me About id for Zandronum. Nobody seems to bring up Zandronum when talking about Doom. It's the best source port, and sadly gets overshadowed by GZDoom. Sure GZ has multiplayer, but it's not as good as Zandronum. Actually people say that the multiplayer in GZDoom is bad.
Ironically even though full 3D graphics were much more technically impressive I think some 2.5D games like Blood, Duke Nukem 3D and DOOM from that time have held up much better graphically by today's standards.
2.5D games have sort of a timeless look to them, they have their own cool style while many 3D games from that era just look like crap now.
What was the background song? I know I've heard it somewhere.
I had so much fun in the original DOS mapster for Duke 3D back then… and playing those maps with friend over LAN 😀
Man, Ken wasn't 18 when he made this engine. He was 11. Fucking 11 years old! I have been coding since I was 8, now I am nearly 40, and no way I could do the same thing now. And his brother made some cool stuff too. He is one of many examples that made me love computers.
The BUILD engine had Ken Silverman, but Quake's id Tech 2 had John Carmack.
we need more videos about this engine
The engine itself maybe short-lived in terms of being selected to use in new game developments in its time. But remember that all the games that have been using this engine are now resurrected and stay in an undying state which means they're extremely long-lived.
It is a little jarring hearing talk of the 90's engines when using modern ports. Talk of Doom… playing Sigil. Talk of Blood.. playing Fresh Supply. Talk of Duke Nukem 3D… playing World Tour. Yea, these are the versions available now. Though getting a more faithful source port, like Raze. Yea, it's higher res, modern systems, but it's a bit more faithful than World Tour's colored lighting etc. Also a note, PowerSlave's map structure was in the console release, the PC release had more traditional level based progression.
If mentioning Doom Mods for BUILD experience, I highly recommend you try out GZDoom mod Bloom which is a Blood/Doom crossover done incredibly! All Calebs items put into the mod, and the maps and npcs are all unique, combined between the two games, because the universes blended.
Short Lived?
Are you mad?
I like to consider the holy trinity of 90’s fps game engines being idtech, build, and the often forgotten xngine by Bethesda Softworks. The xngine was just as capable as the other two and arguably had more going on under the hood. I’ve yet to see someone compare the three in a video but thought I’d mention it.
11:00 I wonder if Build Engine could kept on if polymost and voxels support was introduced earlier.
I have nitpick with this video. When you are talking about about these games graphics when they came out, you probably should show how they would have looked at 90s not these newer engines that have some improvements.
For example in your doom footage, you have trilinear texture smoothing, same for other build games you have footage for.
Also showing quake with the new remake is also somewhat misleading.
Otherwise good video and information. You made some good point about there only being 3 good games with Build engine from 90s.
It’s mind blowing how good fake 3D could look❤️
you need to try WG realms 2 im surprised it wasnt mentioned in the mods
pc powerslave is not a metroidvania thats the console version. the vanilla pc version is also kinda jank cause the controls. strafing is messed up playing keyboard only back in the day it would have been fine but using a modern control scheme doesnt work without hacks.
I really love the 2.5D aesthetic, its just really neat. I also love that this engine still lives on with Ion Fury, and so many projects for the older games, like Duke 3D and Blood.
I think a lot of the charm is that "Doom Cute" where you have to truly hand craft everything in such obscure ways to make it look more and more like real life. The moment you understant how the sauce is made, even on a base level, it changes how you play and view these games, so there are moments where i will just be left with my Jaw on the floor when I have that moment where i understood what they did, its true craftsmanship, whee others might look at the same thing and not really get my amazement.
The extreme example would be something like MyHouse.Wad, where even if you don't pick up the tricks meant to throw off people who know the tricks, you'll eventually start to notice the oddness while playing just because of how much it stretches that 2.5D Doom Engine to make something unique.
For those who love Build, Shaky Grounds would be a GREAT introduction to Duke 3D (or reentry into it), since it really shows what the engine can do with modern hardware expanding scope of absolutely everything.
8:56 that's the remastered console version which did not run on the Build engine. The PC version was a more traditional FPS, although with a checkpoint and lives system like Dark Forces. Also, Powerslave, Blood and Shadow Warrior were developed in parallel to Duke3D and were not based on Duke3D code. Only Redneck Rampage with sequels, NAM, WWII GI and the infamous Extreme Paintbrawl were based on Duke3D code as well as the N64 game Duke Zero Hour (through Duke 64, itself a port of Duke3D)
Also, just to be clear, Duke, Blood, Shadow Warrior, DOS Powerslave and the Capstone games were directly built on the Build source. While yes Redneck Rampage and NAM and such were based on the Duke code.
No love for Alien Armageddon?
The Build engie actually had a great lifespan for the time considering. 3D Realms used to brag about the amount of games that used it on its website.
I also have to ding a point for using footage from Blood – Fresh Supply and Quake (2021) as neither use their original engines, and are instead based on Nightdive's Kex Engine. If you used NBlood and Quakespasm it'd be a modern incarnation but still a direct descendent.
Redneck Rampage is actually not that bad when you gell with its issues
Perhaps, if the "Redneck Rampage" games had at least start out as 3DRealms titles (if not remaining so), then they might have been a better quality.
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