I was hoping that I would have a small demo to upload, or a video, but at the last minute I ran into a few issues, so it's going to be a day or two longer (fingers crossed).
For what ever reason, despite the fact that I have been through the source files of AB3D II a million times, there are a couple textures I've yet to locate, and I'm finding it utterly difficult to track down all the sounds.
I found scores of them, but ironically NOTHING for that Red Alien that shows up at the very beginning of both AB3D games. Irony of ironies!!!
My next thought was to record my self playing Alien Breed 3D under WinUAE, but alas, I can't get the video capture part figured out, and I can't find a part that just saves to sound. Though I suppose I can run my audio output into another computer and capture that way, which is what I plan on doing tonight.
Audio and missing textures aside, I have found the majority of the resources used in these games. I have also managed to create a new default palette for BOOM which is 98% identical of that in the original game.
I am polishing off the Red Alien enemy and went ahead and created a few new frames for him to make him a bit more animated when, walking, attacking and dying. All that is left t do for him is to adjust his moving speed and sync that with the speed of the frame cycles. Well that and to get that damned audio in there. Grrr!!
As for the levels, I have not done much, as I'd really prefer to have my resources prepared before I go heavy into the mapping end of things, so thus far all I have done is the very opening to the first map of Alien Breed 3D. Seeing as the maps in Alien Breed 3D II totally suck, I won't be bothering with them, only the enemies, and textures which I will use for creating new levels to take place after AB3D's original 16. On that note, hopefully when I have the resource pack ready and available, perhaps a few of you could chip in and and help with the mapping?
As for mimicking game behavior, I will say that there will be no crouching, unless that feature can somehow be added into BOOM (please God please!!!), but there are always work arounds for that that will not detract from the game play so I have no worries there.
Also you will be able to go into the water, and it will present a little friction while you are in it, but you will not be able to see into it from above, nor above it when under it, though it is fully possible to change the color lighting to that it truly looks like you are under.
At the end of stage three there is a room where you fight some flying enemies from below the water. To compensate for the fact that you can't see them from below the water, I will simply have to raise the floor up a wee bit so that the player's view point is raised high enough to see what's out there.
Player foot steps and water splashing effects will be lost, as DOOM and BOOM never implemented those features, but I will be doing other things with the audio to inject a little ambiance and therefore atmosphere that was not in the game originally, but would really help to bring it alive without straying to far from the feel of the original experience.
There was much more I wanted to say, but I'm having a brain fart so I will report later when my small demo is ready.
There will not be a whole lot to look at yet, but I can assure you that what little there is took me DAYS of trial and error and do and redo in order to accomplish. The palette being the largest pain in the arse of them all, not to mention locating all those resources in the mess that is the sources, then converting all them into a format that the BOOM engine will play friendly with.
Until next time...
