Thanks for taking the time to evaluate DukeEdit, the only level editor for Duke Nukem 3D™ currently available on the Macintosh (so far as I know).
System Requirements:
System 7 or better. It has been tested with Mac OS8 and works fine.
68040 or better. It has not been tested on anything lower than this.
Power PC recommended.
2 MB of RAM is the absolute bare minimum. 4 MB is suggested, 8 MB is recommended.
256 Color graphics is recommended.
It will run with fewer colors, but you probably won't like it.
Takes less than 1/2 MB of hard disk space.
Duke Nukem 3D must be installed on your system to use this product.
In order to make your own maps, you will need the commercial version of DN3D.
With the shareware version, this product can be used only as a map viewer.
DukeEdit was created on a Power Mac 7500 using CodeWarrior 12, AKA CodeWarrior Professional Release 1, and is available in both 68K and Power PC versions. The Power PC version is native. I am not convinced anyone is interested in a 'fat' version; i.e. a single version that supports both Power PC and 68K. If you wish to receive a fat version, please contact the author at the e-mail address given below or write to him at the address used to register the product, also given below.
Software Contents:
The DukeEdit software package should include the application (either the PPC or the 68K version), this readme, a registration form, the software licensing agreement, and a tutorial.
Also included is a sample DukeMatch level I created using DukeEdit (JCI2001.MAP). If the package you downloaded was missing any of these items, please contact me and let me know so I can rectify the situation.
Registration:
DukeEdit is a shareware product, although the unregistered version can be freely used for as long as you like; there is no time limit for evaluation. The editor as provided is fully functional with one exception: until registered, DukeEdit will only allow you to save maps containing fewer than 20 sectors. This should be adequate for evaluation purposes. If you wish to use this product as a map viewer only, there is no need to register it. Use it with my blessing.
To register this product, please read the licensing agreement, then fill in and print out the registration form included in this package and send it along with a check for $20 (US currency) to:
John Inman
1042 N. Mountain Ave. #B298
Upland, CA, USA 91786-3631
I currently do not accept any credit cards, although this may change in the future. Let me know if this is payment option is important to you.
Please note that I require that the payment be made in checks for US dollars only; any checks sent to me in other monies will be returned uncashed.
Your check will also be returned uncashed if the completed registration form (or facsimile) is not included with your check.
If you do not have access to a printer so that you can print out the registration form, a handwritten copy with the same information will of course be happily accepted.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at the above address or e-mail me at jcinman @ compuserve.com.
Once payment has been received, I will mail or e-mail a registration name and a registration code to you. You will use these to make your copy of DukeEdit fully functional using the 'Register DukeEdit' menu item in the 'Edit' menu.
The registration name and code work equivalently on either the PPC or the 68K version of DukeEdit, so if you upgrade your system you will not need to obtain a new registration code.
One last and rather obvious point: please do not post your registration code on the 'net or publish it in any other form. Keep it safe and secure. There is nothing quite so discouraging as finding out that the product you worked so long and hard writing and debugging is being given away by those who don't own title to it. This only causes shareware providers like me to think long and hard before creating another shareware offering.
Upgrades:
I am planning on a number of upgrades to DukeEdit over the coming months, and I have a simple upgrade policy: upgrades are free for all registered users of DukeEdit. You will not need to obtain another registration code; the original one I sent you will work for any published version of DukeEdit. If you experience any problems in this regard, contact the author (me) and I will do whatever it takes to get you up and running. A list of upgrades I would like to implement can be found at the bottom of this document. It is a notional list only, and I am not making any promises, but nonetheless there it is.
Documentation:
I have provided a tutorial in this package. I cannot stress strongly enough that you read through this documentation as you get started with DukeEdit. It should save you some time. It also contains examples of things you might try that won't work as you may expect them to. The fault for these things are entirely mine; there are parts of the user interface that even I don't like and I intend to fix or improve in the future.
I also strongly suggest you obtain some documentation on Duke Nukem mapmaking. There is some documentation that comes with the game itself, but for better and more complete documentation I recommend either of the following:
1. The Duke Nukem 3D Level Design Handbook, by Matt Tagliaferri, which is available in nearly every decent bookstore. The only complaint I have about this book is that it has no index, so you have to search around a bit to find what you need.
2. The Map Editing FAQ 1.3 available online at www.dukeworld.com. In fact, this URL is a great place to find all kinds of information on Duke Nukem, including some great levels, and even some 'Total Conversions' where people have made completely new sounds, artwork and levels. There is also a forum where you can post mapmaking questions.
There are no doubt other works of equal or better quality, but these two I can vouch for since I have used them myself.
Bear in mind, of course, that these references are meant to be companions to BUILD, the DOS-based program the 3D Realms people used to make their own levels, and will not be tailored to DukeEdit. You will probably have to do some investigative work on your own to make things work, or if you want, you can drop me a line and I'll try to get back to you. Be advised that answering technical questions might take a while, since some research may be involved.
Update info:
Version 1.02:
Fixed a bug in the create child sector code which could cause spurious failures.
Detect null sectors when map is read.
Patched code to auto-delete null sectors on the fly.
Added an application palette to DukeEdit so colors always come out right.
Version 1.01:
Made all dialogs position themselves at alert position on the main screen.
Made main map windows, when created, size properly so the size box is accessible.
Distributed preferences over three dialogs to help out those with small monitors.
Changed the window titles on the Preferences windows.
Changed the look of the floating windows on System 7.5+ and on OS 8 systems.
Included an OS 8 style folder.
Fixed a bug in the sector creation code that caused problems when creating the ramp in the second tutorial.
Fixed a possible bug in the 'reset' code for the stratum window.
Good Luck,
John Inman, 12/5/97
jcinman@compuserve.com
Upgrades planned, *not* in order of importance, but in a randomly chosen order:
1. Printing support.
2. Support for third-party group files (i.e. Total Conversions).
3. More texture alignment helpers (graphical presentation of wall textures in relation to neighboring wall textures, for example).
4. Improved palette pop-ups for sprites, walls, sectors.
5. Some sort of help or guide (beyond info window).
6. More tool windows, patterned loosely after the sprite window, that let you drag and drop wall and sector prototypes onto the map (i.e. an existing wall would be changed to match the prototype wall you create in the wall window, similarly for sectors).
7. Ability to launch Duke Nukem and play the map from within DukeEdit.
8. Save document-specific DukeEdit settings in map file resource fork.
9. Outer loop needn't be first loop in sector -- remove assumption from code. If this makes no sense to you now, just ignore it.
10. Cut, Copy, Paste ability for sectors, along with requisite dragging and dropping of sectors.
11. Sprite histogram; i.e. a way to determine which sprites appear in a map and with what frequency.
12. Texture inspection window; i.e. a relatively large window that will permit the user to get a better view of the texture. Some beta testers complained that the textures were too small to see properly.
13. Sizing sprites. Currently the only way to make sprites larger or smaller is by using the xrepeat and yrepeat fields of the sprite window, which is quite non-intuitive.
14. Implementation of a 'Check Map' feature.
None of these upgrades is guaranteed; I reserve the right to leave them unimplemented if I so desire. Do not make purchasing decisions for this product (DukeEdit) based on planned upgrades.
The author, John Inman, is a 38 year old American mutt. He graduated from UCLA with a BS and MS in Mathematics and has worked for 16 years as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, California. He lives with his wife and four kids in a nice, quiet neighborhood in Upland, California. DukeEdit is his first shareware product.
