Thread: Wrath of Earth
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Old 08-05-2009, 10:32 AM   #29
Dave Faller
Guest
Smile Editors and Remakes

Even if I did know the format of the RSC/LIB files, it probably wouldn't really help. The level data was significantly different to Wolf3Ds. Although both games fundamentally used the same system*, a grid based level where each square was either a wall or open space, WoE levels had far more data in them than Wolf3D. For starters, Wolf3D could only have one texture on any wall with the N/S sides brighter than E/W, WoE could have any texture on each face. Also, WoE could have quarter-blocks (columns) and 45 degree walls/doors. There was also ceiling/floor texture and upper wall texture (the bit at the top of the wall when looking at buildings from outside. And there was also temperature, radiation, light and footstep sound information on each block. Levels did take a while to build!

Remaking the game has been something I've always wanted to do. The story was good I think (although underdeveloped in WoE - there was a logical reason the robots had turned) and the game mechanics seemed to work well, there are gameplay elements I've not seen elsewhere (sonar! which I think could be used to 'see' cloaked enemies). However, there have been two main stumbling blocks. The first is time/money, games like this take a long time to make. The second is that I don't know who owns the rights to the game.

Any publishers out there reading this?

Dave

* My first iteration of the rendering engine was visually identical to Wolf3D because I reverse engineered the Wolf3D code using a nifty debugger called SoftIce. I subsequently improved the renderer, fixing the 45 degree error Wolf3D has (position yourself correctly and one pixel wide vertical strip of the wall will appear twice as far away as it should be - yeah, I fixed a John Carmack bug!).
                       
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