
Raven Software releases source code for Jedi Academy, Jedi Outcast - GuiA
http://www.polygon.com/2013/4/4/4181560/raven-software-releases-source-code-for-jedi-knight-2-jedi-outcast
======
prg318
There is some interesting code in this release:

    
    
      void FuckingWellSetTheDocumentNameAndDontBloodyIgnoreMeYouCunt(LPCSTR psDocName)
      {
              if (gpLastOpenedModViewDoc)
              { // make absolutely fucking sure this bastard does as it's told... //
                      gpLastOpenedModViewDoc->SetPathName(psDocName,false);
                      gpLastOpenedModViewDoc->SetTitle   (psDocName);
              }
      }
    

My heart goes out to whatever programmer had to meet that deadline.

~~~
Cabal
And thank God that Adria Richards didn't work at the company.

~~~
stock_toaster
No reference to "dongle", so it is probably safe.

------
Argorak
Note that this also includes the second version of GHOUL, the ragdoll system
Raven originally developed for Soldier of Fortune. IMHO, Raven was way ahead
back then when it came to believable interaction between characters (and light
sabres ;) ).

~~~
poglet
I'm not sure how good the ragdoll system was but I loved how the engine could
model damage. I don't think I've seen a game since SoF2 that can render
effects as good as that.

~~~
angersock
L4D2 is the only other game series that came as close.

SoF2 is still the bloodiest game I can recall playing, and not really in a fun
way--kind of disturbing, actually.

------
b0rsuk
A bit off-topic, but if anyone remembers Raven Software for games like Hexen,
Heretic, Shadowcaster, Black Crypt - the creators of these games have
abandoned the developer many years ago. They work together at HumanHead
Studios.

~~~
zanny
I still think the Serpent Riders trilogy is one of my top 3 franchises. The
atmosphere, puzzles, etc all made my childhood. I hate how there is
practically nothing in that geek-fantasy FPS genre with swords and sorcery
that takes it seriously (besides Edge of Chaos).

~~~
b0rsuk
Zeno Clash is the closest thing in my opinion. I don't think they take
anything seriously, but it's not necessarily a flaw.

By the way, Hexen II initially had a different name. The game was later re-
branded to Hexen II. This explains why so few things connect Hexen II and the
other games, and why the setting is so generic medieval fantasy complete with
Devil as the main opponent.

The 3rd game in the trilogy was meant to be Hecatomb.
<http://www.johnromero.com/wiki/index.php/Hecatomb>

Another bit of trivia - Heresiarch from Hexen was initially meant to be the
final boss. Check out the ending animation of Heretic. And Korax looks more
like D'sparil's mount, not a boss. I read somewhere that was the original plan
and they've changed it over the course of development.

Hexen, while a game with deep flaws (extreme switch hunting and "haha, you're
stuck!" puzzles, repetitive combat, lack of class diversity, lame instadeath
traps with no warning) is a game with charm. I made a gameplay mod for it, but
then realized nobody cares about the game anymore and stopped developing it.
If you're interested in it, I can send you the latest (unfinished) version.
Highlights include:

\- Disc of Repulsion actually pulls enemies closer and down (flyers) if you're
a warrior

\- Hammer of Retribution is a huge mana hog, but is reusable because it
produces 20(depends on difficulty setting) mana where it hits. This was done
to change the playstyle of Warrior class to be more in-your-face while still
allowing him to kill enemies at a distance.

\- Quietus, the 4th Warrior weapon, has a railgun-like effect meaning
projectiles pierce multiple enemies. This finally gave it a niche and it's a
great weapon against swarms up close.

\- spiked gauntlets (fists) only have strong punches (called "critical hit" in
the engine) for finishing blows.

\- flechette items work more like grenades and require good timing, they
explode 1 second after first bounce

\- sapphire wand of Mage is severely nerfed in range to make room for other
weapons.

\- Frost Shards deal 50% more damage

\- Bloodscourge (4th mage weapon) overhauled. Each projectile is guaranteed to
home on a different enemy. Second, it deals extreme explosive damage,
especially to the user. With Hexen's cramped level design, it makes it THE
best weapon in the open and extremely dangerous in corridors. I also modified
the homing algorithm, now it has no problem hitting enemies on high ledges.
And a cosmetic effect - big clouds of smoke. Tim the Enchanter would LOVE it.

\- Wraithverge (cleric's 4th weapon) no longer attacks inactive enemies
through walls, which used to wake half of the level and was obnoxious.
Additionally, instead of killing enemies outright, it reduces them to 1 HP.
Nice synergy with mace. Ghost AI makes them ignore crippled enemies.

Monsters: \- afrits (fire imps) have short-ranged flamethrower with
interesting projectile physics.

\- stalkers (water lurkers) have very mean and currently unbalanced attack
where they grab and immobilize you when they emerge. Any hit will break the
grab.

\- fixed obnoxious bugs with Dark Bishop and Stalker Leader which caused them
to attempt shooting through walls (sent the patch upstream)

The goal of the mod was to make enemies and weapons more varied and
interesting, and to challenge a modern FPS player. It utilizes the obscure
Vavoom source port, which is technically very advanced, has engine written in
a scripting language, but is unfortunately quite buggy and poorly documented.
I had some more ideas I wanted to implement, such as alternate effect for
Chaos Device (shuffles positions of all monsters on the level using Knuth's
algorithm). Overall, I love how the 4th weapons of Cleric, Warrior and Mage
turned out, they're now a joy to play with (especially mage).

~~~
zanny
> I made a gameplay mod for it, but then realized nobody cares about the game
> anymore and stopped developing it. If you're interested in it, I can send
> you the latest (unfinished) version.

I still love the series. Send me it, it sounds interesting! Reminds me of
Carnage Galore or Wrath of Cronos and how it modifies all the weapons and
mixes them between games.

~~~
b0rsuk
Okay, I've wrapped up the mod. Sorry that it took so long. The last real
changes are actually from 2011. The first change common to all clesses, in
detail: damage reduction from armor is no longer rounded down, actually based
on chance proportional to AC, but the result is the same as with a float
integer in the long run. Anyway, classes have innate AC - 1 for mage, 2 for
cleric, 3 for fighter. This is very little and rounding errors mean it very
rarely kicks in in vanilla Hexen.

<http://www.sendspace.com/file/0hsrgd>

Three main goals: \- improve balance \- improve variety of classes \- make
classes play differently and have different pros and cons; the failure of
vanilla Hexen is that all classes become plain ranged classes eventually.

Have fun ! I really appreciate feedback, I might even try working on it again.
Feel free to tinker, and ask questions. The "progs" directory has more files
than needed, I'm afraid there's some boilerplate because I wasn't 100% sure
what's necessary.

------
SigmundA
Outcast is still one of the best FPS Melee implementations I have ever played.

Excellent balance between melee and guns, matrix style fights, many hours lost
in duel games. You felt like your skill in saber combat mattered.

If someone could only make an Star Wars MMO based on this core engine...

~~~
the_rara_avis
Agreed. That game is a gem. Have you seen Open Outcast?
<http://www.openoutcast.org/>

------
aw3c2
Direct links: <http://sourceforge.net/projects/jedioutcast/> &
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/jediacademy/>

------
DomBlack
Raven did this for Elite Force quite a number of years ago (after much
pestering from the RPG-X team and myself).

Our copy of that engine (heavily modified over the years);
<https://github.com/UberGames/rpgxEF>

------
raelshark
If someone doesn't release a version of Jedi Outcast with
g_saberRealisticCombat enabled by default, this whole thing will be a complete
letdown.

------
ISL
So cool! How long do you think it will take 'till we can

    
    
      apt-get install jedi-games
    

from a major repository?

Thank you, Raven! It'll be fun to read the code.

Edit: Not sure I ever expected to have a 'jawa' directory on my computer....

Edit2: Just one more gem.

    
    
       // Just give him normal pain for a little while

~~~
Argorak
Forever. They only released the source code without assets.

~~~
antoinec
I'm not sure, but wouldn't it be possible to get the assets from an original
installation of the game ?

~~~
Argorak
Sure, but how would apt handle that? Releasing an apt package with the assets
would be copyright infringement.

All ID games suffer from the same problems.

~~~
zokier
Separate data and engine packages, engine package distributed by Debian, data
left as the responsibility of the user. That way the iD games are in debian
too.

eg. <http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/quake>

------
anonfunction
Now how long until someone who know's what they're doing can tell me if it
will work on OSX and write some install docs?

~~~
MasterScrat
And how log until someone makes a browser-based version using EMSCRIPTEN, à la
BananaBread?

~~~
MatthewPhillips
It's a msvc++ project, so I guess that depends on how much work a person is
willing to put into it.

------
mtgx
I hope someone starts working on releasing an improved and more modern version
of Jedi Academy. It thought it was great for playing in multiplayer.

~~~
DougN7
Agreed. It's the only multiplayer game I've found that had really fluid
movement.

------
endlessvoid94
Jedi academy was one of my favorite games. This is very cool.

------
zanny
These games were based off idTech3, I wonder if ioquake3 will refactor to
support them.

------
tibbon
Why Sourceforge > Github these days? Sourceforge just feels messy in
comparison

------
laserDinosaur
Haha, 1829 instances of the comment //FIXME:

------
seivan
I remember the multiplayer in Jedi OutCast and Academy were amazing. Before
their time. It was so much fun playing (without the obnoxious kicks and force
powers)

I remember the cheat code to have single player enemies die on "1 hit" with
the light saber, you could cut arms and legs and heads off.

------
papsosouid
That's awesome. I really wish this had happened with jedi knight though. It
was so much better than academy and outcast, especially for multiplayer.

------
sseveran
sourceforge...seriously?

~~~
dpiers
If you would prefer to grab the code from GitHub, I have uploaded it to a
public repo:

<https://github.com/dpiers/Jedi-Outcast>

<https://github.com/dpiers/Jedi-Academy>

~~~
tinco
Hi, maybe you could add a README.md that says where the source comes from and
how it is licenced? (it's GPLv2)

~~~
dpiers
Done!

