Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever
Developers: 3D Realms, Triptych Games, Gearbox Software, Piranha Games Publishers: 2K Games, Aspyr Media (Mac), 1C Company (RU) Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac OS X Released internationally: June 10, 2011 (Windows/PS3/360), August 18, 2011 (Mac) Released in JP: March 29, 2012 (PS3/360) Released in US: June 14, 2011 (Windows/PS3/360) This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has uncompiled source code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a development article This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page

Duke Nukem Forever (often shorted to "DNF" by many) was intended to be the series' fourth main game after Duke Nukem 3D, but ended up spending well over a decade in development hell, going through so many concepts, developers, staff changes, engine swaps, and pushed-back release dates that the game became a punchline... but come out it did, including a "Balls of Steel" collector's edition (containing all sorts of nifty stuff) and an announcement that GameStop would honor pre-orders from past years (which ended up including a customer who had preordered the game in 2001).

The finished game itself, on the other hand...let's just say the wait probably wasn't worth it for most. Especially for a certain gray cat.

To do: See the To-Do subpage for what needs to get done. It's definitely, highly very likely that there's more, considering the game's history.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Notes

Unused Audio Unused sounds, voice lines, and music not heard at all (or in their entirety).

Unused Models All sorts of unused models. I've got test models of steel!

Unused Graphics Various graphics and textures; placeholders, early graphics, all that.

Unused Text Welcome to the text-based museum of this game's development.

Internal Names The names of assets in the files. There's a few oddly-named ones here!

Downloadable Content Unused stuff in the two DLCs, Hail to the Icons Parody Pack and The Doctor Who Cloned Me.

Oddities As if being the (former) world record holder for longest development of a AAA release wasn't odd enough.

Unused Weapons

Nuclear Warhead

There was going to be the nuclear option for the RPG with an alternative ammo type, acting not so dissimilar to the similarly-named weapon from Shadow Warrior. It has a whole set of animations, textures, and a model, but isn't used. The nuke ammo can be gained by using commands in the console or on a test map. It is not certain which mode(s) the weapon was intended to appear in.

When loading it, Duke will hit the butt of the ammo against the gun and insert it. A voice will then count down from three before the gun can fire.

The ammo pickup for it uses an unused model and it lacks pickup text, instead displaying an error string. The intended string can be found in the demo.

Flamethrower

There are references to a flamethrower in the files but all that seems left of it is just some audio. A flamethrower is seen in the 2001 builds.

Filename	Audio	Notes
FTGasIgnite.mp3		Unclear purpose, possibly an attack.
FTGasLp.mp3		Likely an idle sound.

Demo and Trailer Leftovers

To do: Add that ESRB notice here. Add the animations from the trailer.

Leftovers from the offical demo exist in the final game. The trailer and upsell screen, along with the standard ESRB notice from the demo, are still in the files.

Demo_trailer.bik	upsellScreen.bik

There is also a model (known as duke_trailer.msh) of Duke with a textureless head and hands used for the trailer, plus his lines for the very same trailer. Text from the demo also exists in dnwindow.int.

DemoTitleText=DEMO
NewDemoText=NEW DEMO
NewDemoHelp=Start a new game.
ContinueDemoText=CONTINUE DEMO
ContinueDemoHelp=Continue a single player game.

DemoText=PLAY DEMO
NewDemoText=NEW DEMO
DemoHelp=Play the demo.
NewDemoHelp=Play the demo.

‎

DUKE_TrailerLine_GoneForever_01.mp3	DUKE_TrailerLine_GoneForever_02.mp3
"What?.."	"Did you think I was gone forever?"

There also exist the animations of Duke (a_scr_trailer_outro.anm) and the dead Pigcop (a_scr_pigcop_top_trailer_outro.anm) seen at the end of the trailer. A copy of Duke's animation exists in the final model's animations folder.

Unused Code

To do: The game's .DLLs need investigating, specifically: 3DRDebugLib.dll - The name kinda gives it away, likely contains a lot of debug content. BugHandler.dll - Has a copyright credit to 3D Realms dated to 2002. Might be good to also look into other DLLs as there might stuff there that's not so oblivious.

The code for Duke Nukem Forever's editor (found in Editor.dll) from development, DukeED, exists in the System folder. There are unofficial utilities to restore functionality.

Unused Cinematics

Unused Logo Cinematics

Logo cinematics for 3D Realms and Triptych. All companies involved were featured in a single cinematic. This version of the 3D Realms cinematic was seen in some of the early trailers for the game.

3DRealmsLogo.bik	TriptychLogo.bik

Other Unused Cinematics

To do: Check if ezmail.screensaver.bik and tripminedisplay.bik are unused. Theses can be seen in various pre-release videos, but I'm not sure if they're anywhere in the final game.

DukeNukemForeverLogo.bik	Logo_DNF.bik

Two earlier versions of the game's logo, seen in the December 2007 teaser and the E3 2001 trailer respectively.

An unused loading video called Load_Rooftops.bik exists, which was intended for the multiplayer map "Sky-High" added in The Doctor Who Cloned Me. While a copy of this is used (called Load_DLC03_Rooftops.bik), this video isn't.

There is also "Load_Generic.bik" found in Duke Nukem Forever's "Movies/" directory. It's a two-frame video showing an image of two Duke Nukems, using Mark Skelton's 2007 design.

Project Name

To do: Anywhere else where this name is used?

The game's project name is "Buckeye", as seen in BuildInfo.ini, strings in the PC executable and .DLLs, the filename of the Duke Burger multiplayer map, and the folder for Duke Burger-associated assets. It is also used for the main content package on Steam.

(Source: Mantis, SteamDB)

Build Dates

To do: These were likely changed more. Add how it was changed from the following: Hail to the Icons DLC, the v1.01 patch, and the Mac port. Also add build info for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions and where it is located in those versions. Build dates of retail builds need to be looked at. Steamdb could be of help here.

The build date of the Windows version can be found in BuildInfo.ini. It has been modified during the game's updates; this is how it was at launch.

[BuildInfo]
BuildNumber=13
BuildTag=Buckeye.13--2011.06.07.17.45.10
SynchronizedToChangelist=479332
RequestedBy=dleslie

Currently this is what the file says to this day.

[BuildInfo]
BuildNumber=244
BuildTag=Buckeye.244--2011.12.01.16.22.37
SynchronizedToChangelist=534893
RequestedBy=mcarlson

Revisional Differences

To do: Likely much more that got changed in these patches. Speaking of which, were there any more patches beside these?

A patch for the Windows version was released on August 2, 2011, updating the game to v1.01 with quality-of-life improvements.

• 4-weapon inventory option in single player campaign
• MP Server favorites
• Dedicated server overhaul
• FOV can be modified
• Change VOIP to push-to-talk (bandwidth fix)
• VAC anti-cheat system enabled
• Support for Japanese Steam ID’s for PC release in Japan
• Auto-aim fix
• Blood effects on surfaces behind enemies when shot
• Steam.exe no longer uses an unusually high amount of CPU
• Texture quality improvements
• Fixes to prevent single player and multiplayer save data corruption
• Leaderboard exploit fixed
• AMD Dual-Core Optimizer no longer automatically installed (fixes rare bugs with Intel processors)
• Crash/compatibility fixes and other minor bugs

The equivalent patch for the Mac version (released on September 6, 2011) added many of these features along with cross-platform multiplayer on PC.

(Source: Steam patch notes (Windows, Mac))

Regional Differences

To do: Investigate the non-English versions with more than what is currently on this page. Was the temperature declaration changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius outside of the Japanese release for non-American releases?

Duke Nukem Forever received a fair few changes and alterations for international audiences. Some simply were dialogue changes to add jokes, while others were a bit more drastic.

Spanish Version

The Spanish translation/dub localization went the extra mile in detail by changing the "Yeah, but after twelve fucking years, it should be." dialogue line and comical reference to the game's prolonged development cycle to a probably-more-accurate 14 years, which supposedly owes to the fact that the Quake II engine iteration of Duke Nukem Forever was originally announced in 1997. The "twelve years" timeframe in the English dialogue seems to stick to the 1999-2011 copyright presented within the game.

To do: We probably don't really need the full scene, just have the Spanish audio and compare to text of the English one.

English	Spanish

Other Versions

Russian Version The Russian release of the game has some censorship in its dialogue, though not as much as...

Japanese Version A heavily-censored and quite strange version, released much later than the other regions' versions.