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Marathon Mod Possibilities...
Posted By: HolyMcGibbletsDate: 8/8/04 9:08 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Hmm. Another seven? (a disreputable source)

: Does Unreal 3 count as an engine today? It'll probably be about that long
: before someone gets going on another 3D Marathon project.

: There was a Marathon mod for Half-Life, and Half-Life was based on the Quake
: engine. So Marathon might end up on a Doom III engine game.

: I thoguht Half-Life 2 looked good too, but I haven't seen much of it.

Just to clarify: It's not Unreal 3. It's the Unreal Engine 3.0. They're not making another Unreal game (at least not at the moment), so it's the engine. People confuse that a lot.

Anyway, the Doom 3 and Quake Engines are worlds apart in the code structure but have similar implimentation methods. I think of all the new generation game engines that the Doom 3 Engine would be most suitable for a Marathon mod, for several reasons. One, the lighting actually matches the dark corridors of Marathon 1, while still having the possibility of outdoor environments (the parts of Doom 3 where you had to run across the surface of Mars were incredible from a graphics standpoint). Two, Doom 3 will be released for both Mac and PC. This one is big-- I would imagine that most Marathon followers are Mac users, and this availability would be a very important part. Three, all of id's games are really easy to mod. Four, Doom 3 runs surprisingly well on almost all systems that meet the minimum requirements, and with some tweaking, they can run marvelously. Five, the terminals in Doom 3 are very, very, extremely well implimented to the point where it's just insane. It's literally like walking up to a computer and reading what it has to say or hitting switches, etc. This could be very good for a Marathon mod.

While I await Half-Life 2 and look forward to what the mod community can do with it, I don't think it's a great choice for a Marathon mod. For one, Valve probably won't release HL2 on OSX, which is unfortunate but better in the long run because we'll see the game this decade =P. I still hold out hope for a Mac version so everyone gets a chance to play, but I don't think it will happen. The graphics system has a very different feel than Doom 3, Marathon, System Shock 1 and 2, or any other game that prizes dark corridors and tenseness. Half-Life 2 does have vehicles though... I could see some possibilities there.

As for the Unreal Engine 3.0, it's still several years off. It's probably the best graphics that have been shown to date, far exceeding Half-Life 2, Doom 3, FarCry, and many others. It is simply incredible. The demo video from E3 was insanely detailed and showed how versatile and pretty the engine was. Really, though, the engine was shown this year, and if Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 is any indication, it'll still take them anywhere from 1 to 4 years to release the game that UE3 will be using.

I had a chance to try the Marathon Mod for Half-Life, but it was a beta, maybe even an alpha. They had weapons from Marathon, Marathon 2 and Infinity, and Marathon EVIL (I think-- may have been RED), but they didn't have any new models, so the MP5 shot the AR rounds, Gauss Cannon shot the Fusion Pistol, etc. I only remember Thunderdome being actually implimented. The Unreal Tournament Marathon mod Marathon: Resurrection, which was surprisingly fun and well-done. I was honestly expecting it to be a little watered down, but it turned out great. It's really unfortunate that no one played it. No one ever tried to mod Unreal Tournament 2003 or 2004, which is sad because the engine was really good (though I heard it was hard to mod the game). I can always hope that Wideload actually announces their project and it turns out to be Marathon related or similar to Marathon. Halo Engine + Former Bungie Employees = Possible Marathon game.

In short, I think that only Doom 3 has the capability for a decent Marathon mod at this point in time. Other engines are dandy, but don't quite capure the same feel or have the same types of items that are needed.

But really, I'd rather not have this thread get derailed. So, uh, woo Craig Mullins.

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

not strictly Marathon-related (but it's Mullins)Anaphiel 8/6/04 7:37 p.m.
     Re: not strictly Marathon-related (but it's Mullinukimalefu 8/6/04 9:15 p.m.
     Re: not strictly Marathon-related (but it's MullinHolyMcGibblets 8/6/04 9:24 p.m.
           Wait-- I found it. *NM*HolyMcGibblets 8/6/04 9:32 p.m.
           Hmm. Another seven?HolyMcGibblets 8/8/04 10:34 a.m.
                 Re: Hmm. Another seven?a disreputable source 8/8/04 11:39 a.m.
                       Re: Hmm. Another seven?HolyMcGibblets 8/8/04 7:45 p.m.
                             Re: Hmm. Another seven?a disreputable source 8/8/04 8:24 p.m.
                                   Marathon Mod Possibilities...HolyMcGibblets 8/8/04 9:08 p.m.
                                         Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Anaphiel 8/11/04 5:40 a.m.
                                               Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...HolyMcGibblets 8/11/04 10:12 a.m.
                                                     Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Adam Ashwell 8/11/04 10:17 a.m.
                                                           Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...HolyMcGibblets 8/11/04 10:28 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...sd 3/3/06 9:07 a.m.
                                                                       Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Andrew Nagy 3/3/06 6:32 p.m.
                                                                             Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...ukimalefu 3/3/06 8:12 p.m.
                                         Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Andrew Nagy 8/11/04 7:32 a.m.
                                               Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...HolyMcGibblets 8/11/04 10:25 a.m.
                                                     Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Bob-B-Q 8/11/04 11:35 a.m.
                                                           Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Bob-B-Q 8/11/04 1:52 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...HolyMcGibblets 8/11/04 2:48 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...sd 3/3/06 9:09 a.m.
                                                     Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Anonymous Coward 7/18/05 8:25 a.m.
                                                           Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...Andrew Nagy 3/3/06 7:16 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Marathon Mod Possibilities...swolf 3/3/06 11:17 p.m.

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Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

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