Blood Enhancements Port

Posted: 21st August 2012 by Maxim Bardin in Uncategorized
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I am a huge fan of the first Blood game, and luckily I’m not alone and there is a whole Blood community that wants to see this game remade and continued.

Recently Jace Hall who was the founder of Monolith Productions Inc, the company who developed Blood – posted on The Postmortem forums his wishes for a modern enhancements port of Blood which will be available on GNU/Linux for free.

Take note that this is not intended to be a remake but a modernized port to suite the modern OS’s and hardware.

 

The compiled list of things discussed includes :

Port Necessities (Maintenance & Convenience)

  • two executables of focus: Blood (the game) and MapEdit
  • no modification of the original maps, art, sounds, music, or gameplay
  • incorporate an updated BUILD Engine from the EDuke32 project
    • this will immediately add cross-platform, stability, and video advancements
      • multiplatform support (Linux, Mac OS X…)
      • increased screen resolutions (up to 3072×2304)
      • (optional) OpenGL rendering support
      • widescreen support
      • “highres” content support
      • vsync
      • uncapped framerate
      • improvements to the map editor
    • closed-source compatible license (but only for the engine; game and Mapster32 are GPL)
    • This would actually need to be done or else a lot of time would be wasted re-porting the BUILD Engine from DOS.
  • cross-platform support (start with Windows and GNU/Linux; Mac and all other ports follow easily)
  • improved control setup and mouse input
  • fix demo recording, which has always been broken in BloodBath, and in SP cannot complete levels
  • replace outdated UPX network code with functionally equivalent or superior modern code
  • fix MapEdit bugs such as inaccurate mouse pointing
  • remove/increase level design limits, such as floor/ceiling mirrors causing hall of mirrors and maximum sector, wall and sprite limits (previously 1024, 8192, 4096)
  • add support for using CD audio without a physical CD (via FLAC and OGG files)
  • ensure proper support for the Bink/Smacker movies
  • port the original Blood command-line tools as well

All of the above should be made first priority before the below is attempted.

 

Port Enhancements

  • easier launching of user maps, mods, and TCs (RATM, Bloody Pulp Fiction, Deathwish, etc.)
  • add support for additively-loaded zip files and user folders in addition to RFF
  • add options to fix original gameplay bugs (warps, eternal fire, panel glitches, stone gargoyle, etc.) but it must be customizable like ZDoom’s compatibility options
  • Multiplayer: client/server protocol, mid-game joining, map/kick/ban voting, “pure” flag, spectating
  • Multiplayer: more configuration options
    • option to have timelimit in multiplayer mode
    • option to force players to respawn after a set time in multiplayer mode (very important with the timelimit)
    • option to have team specific spawning points in team games in multiplayer mode
    • support for more multiplayer spawn points per map
    • option to force ‘show opponents weapon’ off in multiplayer mode, chosen by the player that starts the map
  • Multiplayer: keep text chat record, visible in an overlay window when T is pressed
  • per-player configuration of auto aim: complete enable/disable and options to tone it down (though cap it at original strength to keep it fair)
  • support for additional episodes in the main game (ie. the ability to load user created episodes / maps within the game)
  • status bar shrinking at higher resolutions
  • “modern” small HUD option, like EDuke32’s
  • bloody footprints (after stepping in a blood pool, footprint decals for 3-5 steps)

 

Dreams

  • Multiplayer: additional game modes
    • capture the flag
    • monster rush / horde / endurance
    • king of the hill
    • 1v1 duel
  • Multiplayer: voice chat
  • Multiplayer: target hit confirmation, visual and audible
  • Multiplayer: server lobby
  • Multiplayer: leaderboards: frag tracking, map time records, # of secrets found, hit/miss accuracy
  • Multiplayer: tournaments
  • Multiplayer: multi-skin support, optional clan skins
  • Lua support for modders
  • surround sound
  • achievement system
  • patches and updates for years to come!

 

Stuff We Don’t Want

  • “PunkBuster” or similar buggy and problematic anti-cheat
  • anything having to do with ZBlood
  • changing the original game (by default)
  • a remake, either in whole or in part

 

I personally can’t wait for this game to be ported to the modern OS’s , you can join the discussion and help bring this project to life.

 

Thanks to Curly Brace for letting us know about those wonderful news !

  1. Hamish Paul Wilson says:

    Ah, so you did hear about it Maxim. As someone who is probably a bit more privy to information on this, I must warn everyone to curb their enthusiasm a bit. While it does indeed look promising, nothing is assured; that is a community wishlist so nothing on that list can be assumed as being set in stone. The entire project is still very much a concept only, and Jace still needs to get things pinned down.

    And about Linux support, here are Jason Halls words to me about the subject earlier this month: “Currently, I wasn’t thinking of including Linux on the client side of supported platforms, but that’s one of those things that I would look closely at when the time comes and see what makes sense.”

    So do not get too excited yet. It is promising, but a lot still needs to be demonstrated.