I suppose an engine change is out of the question...

[Campaignjunkie]

I'm wondering whether an engine change is completely out of the question, in light of the recent UDK announcement ( http://udk.com/ ); you already have all the assets and textures, so for a lot of it, it's just a matter of re-importing. And I'm told Unrealscript is quite powerful, especially if the game is kept as an FPS. Plus the UDK is a fairly recent version of the engine with SSAO and all kinds of fancy things too.

 

And a copy of Doom 3 wouldn't be required, which would expand your player base a lot more. And the game would look considerably prettier. And I would be grateful since UE3 is a lot better to work with, IMO.

[Hyeron]

On the other hand we're still waiting for those bloody GNU/Linux binaries (opinion as a player and a linux user) - is that a problem with the DK ? :/

Edited November 6, 2009 by Hyeron

[Springheel]

Asking a project to switch engines at this stage is like asking someone who has moved into their house if they would consider changing their foundation to a different kind of concrete.

[SneaksieDave]

The long answer is very long. But the short answer is: the TDM source is available if you want to get started. Be sure to remove any D3 assets used, as they can't be used outside of this SDK.

[Mortem Desino]

I'd say throwing 5 years of work out the window is out of the question.

 

Just comparing the Doom3 sdk and the TDM code: we've got tons of re-written code and scratch-written code (other than closed-source crap like the D3 renderer. Angry Face.) Animations would probably have to be remade. I've got doubts about exporting some of our models (particularly md5meshes). It'd be 5 more years work to switch engines. How long has Duke Nukem: forever taking because of engine changes?

[Sonosuke]

And a copy of Doom 3 wouldn't be required, which would expand your player base a lot more. And the game would look considerably prettier. And I would be grateful since UE3 is a lot better to work with, IMO.

 

Yeah, you guys should work 5 years more, why should i buy one expensive copy of doom 3?

[jdude]

What is really bugging me is this misconception that the doom3 engine is ugly and slow. It's sort of old but overall the prettiness and performance comes to down to the artistic and technical abilities of the mapper. People end up playing a map or level that lags them and assumes the entire game will lag regardless of the map/level their playing... Then they do things like suggest we use the UT or HL2 engine which i consider insulting.

 

What's even worse is people that still play Thief 1 and 2 making these arguments when the Thief 1 and 2 engine lags and looks far worse then TDM.

[nobody]

to the OP I can only say: "Are you friggin kidding?"

 

this question actually came up a few times earlier on with all sorts of engine suggetions and the Unreal engine was mentioned. even back when it wouldn't be a complete tear-down to change engines the team made the right choice: keep working with what you have. other mods have done engine changes and as far as I know it has almost always been the death-knell of the mod.

 

putting this question up now is boarderline trolling.

 

in the end Sneaksy Dave has put forth the best answer: "Sure go ahead and do it, we wish you the best of luck."

[Baddcog]

I wouldn't even want to look at converting models. It's never as easy as just porting in, there's alot of work in material def files alone. Plus smoothing groups, shadow meshes, collision meshes all change.

 

And that's the easy stuff. Try to get coders to recode all their work. That's probably 80% of the Mod right there.

 

Plus Unreal Ed might be familiar to you, but the few times I tried it I hated it. I like Hammer though. I even liked Dromed more than UnrealEd.

[Mortem Desino]

Besides: the TDM beta has been released, and people are already trying Dark Radiant. What would you say if Bioshock 2 released a public demo, then decided to do a total engine change? Sad face.

[Tels]

Beyond all the insanity of actually switching the engine, there is also this:

 

Will my UDK program run on Mac, iPhone, PS3 or Xbox 360?

 

As of right now, UDK is a Windows-only program. Please see our licensing page if you would like to discuss using UDK for cross-platform use.

 

No linux. Forget it.

[demagogue]

The long answer is very long. But the short answer is: the TDM source is available if you want to get started. Be sure to remove any D3 assets used, as they can't be used outside of this SDK.

 

The most diplomatic answer yet!

Yeah, sure, go for it!

[Campaignjunkie]

Okay okay, forget I asked - it's just a thought, because believe it or not the Doom 3 requirement really is the biggest obstacle to a bigger TDM player-base - not as a matter of expense, but rather the time and effort needed to configure everything and get it all working. Very few people own a copy of Doom 3, and fewer still have it installed. If someone says they went out to buy Doom 3 just for this (as I did), I wouldn't necessarily take it as a compliment because we're the hardcore Thief fans, a sliver of a minority.

 

But then a large player-base obviously isn't a priority, you're right and I'm wrong, an engine change would be suicidal, etc... which is reasonable and true. I just can't help but wonder how amazing a UE3-TDM would be.

[jdude]

So the entire reason you asked is because your computer doesn't have enough processing power to smoothly run Doom3?

[Crispy]

I just can't help but wonder how amazing a UE3-TDM would be.

Probably pretty similar to the one we already have. The grass is not especially more green over in that direction.

[New Horizon]

I say this in the kindest way possible, but it was a ridiculous question at this stage. I don't take offense to it however, since I'm under the impression you really don't have a firm grasp on the amount of work something like this would take.

 

It's not just a matter of porting assets...even though that would be months of work, it's recoding all the AI, sound prop..everything. It's not as easy as 'porting the code', they're two completely different engines.

 

In addition to all that, our team has spent part of the last five years completely rebuilding GTK Radiant into our own customized, stand alone editor.

 

What a waste that would be. It's almost insulting, but as I said...it's an innocent enough question, I guess. lol

 

Okay okay, forget I asked - it's just a thought, because believe it or not the Doom 3 requirement really is the biggest obstacle to a bigger TDM player-base - not as a matter of expense, but rather the time and effort needed to configure everything and get it all working. Very few people own a copy of Doom 3, and fewer still have it installed. If someone says they went out to buy Doom 3 just for this (as I did), I wouldn't necessarily take it as a compliment because we're the hardcore Thief fans, a sliver of a minority.

 

But then a large player-base obviously isn't a priority, you're right and I'm wrong, an engine change would be suicidal, etc... which is reasonable and true. I just can't help but wonder how amazing a UE3-TDM would be.

[GabrielSans]

I'm wondering whether an engine change is completely out of the question, in light of the recent UDK announcement ( http://udk.com/ ); you already have all the assets and textures, so for a lot of it, it's just a matter of re-importing. And I'm told Unrealscript is quite powerful, especially if the game is kept as an FPS. Plus the UDK is a fairly recent version of the engine with SSAO and all kinds of fancy things too.

 

And a copy of Doom 3 wouldn't be required, which would expand your player base a lot more. And the game would look considerably prettier. And I would be grateful since UE3 is a lot better to work with, IMO.

 

People can grab it for the best price: http://software.pric...skd=1/st=query/

 

No money now? Well, so they should save a little and that's it. For a "huge" Thief fan that obstacle is irrelevant.

 

Anyway, as Epic games released the Unreal source code, to develop "something" based on that engine might be a good idea for the future (2013 maybe?). With skillful devs like the ones that made TDM, they could develop "a real game" apart from mods, and even get paid for that (a new gaming company ). Not a bad idea, really, but not for now obviously.

Edited November 7, 2009 by GabrielSans

[Crispy]

Anyway, as Epic games released the Unreal source code

From what I read, the UDK doesn't contain the C++ source code of the Unreal engine. Its scripting support is reasonably powerful though.

 

Anyway, an easier way to make a standalone TDM would be to wait for Doom 3 to go open source - that would still be hard, there are many additional obstacles (I made a post a little while back detailing them; there are many) but it's a lot less work than would be entailed by switching engines entirely.

 

Oh, and if I was going to make a(nother) commercial game, I wouldn't use Unreal. Too expensive (25% royalties). I'd much rather use Ogre (open source) or Irrlicht (open source) or Unity (formerly commercial, now free for most uses, although also has no source code by default) or roll my own (depending on the technical requirements).

[Ishtvan]

Yeah, I doubt Unreal script can do things like include the open source C++ libraries we are using now (devIL, for example).