The first announcement of this year brings a double-pack for all those who would like to have even more options to choose from when listening to Duke3D music ingame!

Two new music packs have been added for your listening pleasure. While the first one addresses those who loved the Gravis Ultrasound back in the old days (beefed up with EAWPATS patches to sound even better than the original ever did), the second one utilizes the Fluid R3 soundfont, delivering crystal-clear music with great instruments. Duke music has rarely sounded better (at least concerning mere MIDI conversions), so it is definitely worth paying a visit to the Download section!

In other news, there has been some activity within the HRP SVN repository in the meantime. Among other stuff, the maphacks system has seen a revision, featuring support for custom maps without breaking hacks for the classic original levels. Also, Tea Monster released awesome high-quality Duke and Cycloid Emperor models back in February, meant as a goodbye present for the community. He will be missed, but his creative work will live on in our HRP (and hopefully elsewhere, too)!
When all this will be officially available in another public release has not yet been decided, but something around summer might be realistic, after everything has been tested and polished. Right now, we are talking about roughly 100 MB additional or changed content, so it's not bad at all.

Oh, Tidings of Comfort and Joy! Once again, the Duke is bringing some presents - and of course, this means you can get busy with playing until all those freaking aliens finally blow up in those nice, colorful explosions we all like so much. *That* is the Christmas spirit! Well, maybe at least for Duke... :)

Experts among you have already guessed what this is all about. And you are right: We went again into the depths of the SVN repository and compiled for you the latest Duke3D Highres Pack v5.2! Even though not too much new stuff has accumulated throughout 2012, many fixes and tweaks turn this into a rock-solid release. Especially those of you who are running EDuke32 in Polymost mode will be happy since you won't need a separate HRP any more. Be sure to check out the instructions on the Download page for details!

You can expect these changes in v5.2:

• [FEATURE] Full Polymost compatibility (use parameter -hduke3d_hrp_polymost.def)
• [UPDATE] New HUD weapon models for pistol and shotgun
• [UPDATE] New hanging slime babe
• [UPDATE] Improved crosshairs
• [UPDATE] Polymer/Polymost adding/optimization for many textures
• [FIX] FOV change for RPG, fixed animation for HUD Devastator
• [FIX] Model fixes for Trooper
• [FIX] Rotation corrections for various models
• [FIX] Activation of various "forgotten" textures throughout the HRP

Half a year has gone by again already... insane how quickly time passes. Some of you may have been wondering what is going on in the meantime. Well, regarding the HRP project, not THAT much. If you take a look at the SVN repository, you see that mostly tweaks have been applied to existing content, some Polymer versions here, some Polymost versions there, fixes for some glitches etc. Since August, actually no additions have been made at all.

I have been inactive due to RL issues for the better part of this year so far, but I intend to return soon. Even more so since Parkar has asked me to move him to "retired" status officially in the Contact section now. He is more or less not involved in the project any more, so it makes sense to do it like this. As far as I am concerned, I will keep doing what I can to push some releases when it makes sense, and of course I remain available for email support in case you guys have some questions.

Hopefully, the general inactivity is again only a temporary one and we can think about another HRP version later this year, ideally around Christmas. It has become some sort of tradition to issue something at that time, and I hate to break with traditions. :)

After we gave you a little break from the somewhat crazy February update madness, it pays off to head over to the Downloads section for the Polymer HRP Update Pack v5.1.302.

Once more, the list of changes is really short, but significant. Most importantly, you'll get the new HUD pistol made by Tea Monster and finished by Spiker. This was a long-awaited addition to the pack, and the result is quite impressive as you can see on this comparison screenshot! You wonder how you could ever accept the old model for such a long time after you have tried the new one. A definite improvement and closer to the original sprite.

What's happening right now:
LeoD is having a close look at the current HRP contents, re-adding all Polymost items which had been removed after Polymer was introduced. Hopefully, this will make it easier to provide Polymost packs in the future. For now, lots of internal file renaming needs to be made, so any future update packs would probably contain many duplicated files. Maybe it will make more sense to wait until the process is finished and release another "refreshed" HRP version after that. Anyway, there's work going on - and that's never a bad thing.

Well folks, I told you a few days ago there would be a "refreshed" release for the HRP update pack. It really wasn't a joke, so head over to the Downloads section once again (I think you know where it is by now) and get your Polymer HRP Update Pack v5.1.295.

The changes seem minor enough - just two new textures for Episode 4 and a badly needed FOV fix for the HUD shotgun. Wait, what? Yeah, that's right. Our shotty finally doesn't look like a literal "boomstick" any more, now it feels much more like the original sprite we know and like. Take a look at this comparison screenshot and see for yourself! Hard to believe, but the model didn't change - all it needed was a new feature in EDuke32 to adjust the Field of Vision (FOV) for HUD weapons via definition files (implemented a while ago already) - and someone to actually do it, which was Spiker in this case. The result pretty much speaks for itself. Unfortunately, this considerable improvement is only available for the Polymer renderer right now, but anyone who is able to run it should definitely use this.

An eventful month so far regarding files. I have a hard time keeping the site up-to-date, folks. xD

After almost three years, MusicallyInspired has updated his wonderful Duke3D Roland SC-55 music pack we are using for our HRP, bringing it to version 3.0. In general, incorrect instruments or effect settings should be fixed with this release, making it finally completely faithful to the soundtrack of the original game. Needless to say, this is a must-have for everyone, so get it from the Downloads section right now!
If you haven't done so already, maybe also visit MusicallyInspired's site for even more SC-55 music (e.g. for Descent or Blood)!

In other news, Spiker has released a fix for the HUD shotgun lately which didn't make it into the HRP update pack. It's for Polymer only, but I am sure you folks want it as soon as possible. That's why we will probably make a refreshed update pack release in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Well, this month you can't really complain about a lack of updates. :) There is another bunch of files for you, and again, it's definitely worth your attention:

• Polymer HRP Update Pack v5.1.292
  The first update is ready for Polymer HRP 5.1 users. Besides a new model for the hanging slimebabe and two new textures, the major feature of this release are fixes for any incorrectly rotated models which had been previously added to the HRP (special thanks to Tea Monster for providing them). This also required a complete revision of ALL (!) maphacks. From now on, all models should have the same orientation as the sprites, which will enable us to use the same maphacks for models AND voxels. Tons of other corrections have also found their way into the hacks, e.g. bottom-/ceiling-aligned fans which did not show up as models ingame, fixes for models clipping into walls and more. This is a highly recommended release for anyone!
  [For the time being, please do not use this with current DukeDC HRP. It will soon receive an update with new maphacks as well to adapt to the new version.]


• Duke3D Voxel Pack v1.0
  ReaperMan provides the first pack for voxel lovers, similar to the one available for Doom. Quite a bunch of pickups, switches and props have been made already. However, keep in mind that this is a very early release and more work needs to be done to make it look more complete.


• XXX Pack Full/Lite v1.33
  Adds the new slimebabe. This release will NOT break compatibility with earlier HRPs (especially Polymost). New slimebabe skins have different skin names, so both are included.

High Treason worked fast, so we are able to feature the AdLib music pack v2.0 sooner than anticipated! The whole OPL soundtrack has been recreated, eliminating some glitches and offering better quality in general. While the pack has grown considerably in size (over 100 MB more than before), it's still definitely worth the effort, even if you usually prefer listening to the advanced soundtrack that comes with the HRP. As usual, grab it at the Downloads section if you feel like it.