Mars City Security mod for Doom III

2 comments by Oneofthe8devilz on Feb 6th, 2015

Mars City Security: A Doom3 Next Generation COOP Mod

Credits to the amazing Doom3 Community members that make MCS possible

-==February 2015 Update==-

Hey to all MCS fans,

today we would like to showcase some of the new network code rewriting progress that we have been making with MCS.

The first video is showcasing MCS Version 1.1.8.5 Internet Gameplay recorded @ 1080p @ 60FPS, with a distance of ~2000 Kilometers between the dedicated server and client.

And for all the tech-geeks among us, we also recorded a second Client / Spectator video session, that pushes our new netcode to the limits with an average ~800ms ping delay between the clients and the dedicated server.

With this second hardcore latency scenario we want to make sure that all network states (like Player/AI entity positions, rotations and animations and all multiplayer relevant events such as Player/AI: weapon discharges, deaths, projectiles traveling and impacting and all concomitant effects are properly and smoothly replicated across all clients throughout the network regardless of the distance and location between dedicated server and clients on our planet).

There is still plenty of fine tuning to be done regarding the netcode and so hopefully the small crowdfunding campaign scheduled for Spring 2015 will help speed up that process during crunch time.

-==October 2014 Update==-

This update showcases the latest state of the MCS DemonWars COOP gameplay. The Doom3 netcode rewrite is in full progress and the majority of milestones regarding the project's visuals, assets and code have been reached/completed. Since this period of crunch time, a few months before the first public beta release, is very resource draining, we are considering to launch a small crowd-funding campaign to speed up the final polish in those last few months before release.

Details about that will eventually follow shortly...

-==January 2014 Update==-

Hey folks,

a new year arrived and a new update regarding the MCS development is due.

The last few months of the past year we pushed a remarkable load of work bringing us closer to a public beta release. Big thanks go out to CharmingNY who joined the team and started knee deep in the codebase getting his hands dirty...

Here are some of the features that we were able to successfully implement:

- Improved clientside AI movement and synced effects
- Fixed the famous T-Pose bug and other Join in Progress issues
- Fully fixed and multiplayer enabled weapon sights aiming
- Added a new gametype called "DemonWars"
- Smoothing clientside world entities movements & animations

Now we are down to one final feature that we want implemented before releasing our first public multiplayer beta. It's the porting of D3 BFG's client prediction interpolation netcode to our D3 1.3.1 based MCS codebase. We are in desperate search of people with experience in that field since that code portation turned out to be quite a complex endeavor.

If you think you are qualified or you think you know someone that might be, please don't hesitate to contact us here at moddb or over at D3W or simply write us an e-mail at oneofthe8devilz@hotmail.com

Further details about the above mentioned Milestone Task can be found in this updated Job Application Thread.

For anyone else who is a MCS fan and would like to support us by speeding up the development process and public beta release you can go to our MCS Donation Page and donate to this project. Every donated Dollar gets us closer to hire the people with the required expertise to finish the job.

And finally here some MCS 2014 footage that was recorded during some feature testing:

-==May 2013 Update==-

In this update we would like to showcase the latest version of our MCS coop dev-build and talk a bit about the roadmap for summer 2013...

(click to enlarge)

Further adjustments to the weapon-mechanics have been implemented allowing ironsights-aiming for weapons.

As mentioned in earlier news the goal now is to improve the way client prediction is handled making the whole coop clientside gaming experience less vulnerable to sub-optimal network conditions.

Fortunately the Doom3 BFG GPL sourcecode has been released in the meanwhile by id software providing us with the required netcode changes and so we used the past months to gather funds in order to be able to hire programmers with the required experience to backport those netcode changes from Doom3 BFG to Doom3 1.3.1.

Since MCS will be released as a free Doom3 download modproject all collected funds are used in a strictly non-profit manner with the goal to make a public coop beta available for download as soon as possible. In case you are a fan of MCS and would like to contribute in speeding up the public coop beta release process, you can now support the team by donating funds (5,00 $) at our MCS Donation Page.

Things are shaping up nicely and we are getting more excited each day as we make leaps towards a release date...

-==January 2013 Update==-

Here we have an early and raw port of rideable/controllable demons for MCS. As usual getting this to work across the network will be a real treat

All credits for the code go to the "FFteam" (Ivan_the_B, Starfir3, Neurological) and their Fragging Freeproject.

-==November 2012 Update==-

Hey folks,
a tiny video update on a feature we are currently still testing. The idea was sparked by the
Doom 3 REVISED! Mod by OliveD and found its way into an MCS testbuild. The ironsights and
change of spread values definitely give the gameplay a more tactical touch.

Weapons and hand models are still subject to change in case we decide to implement these
new mechanics into the final MCS release candidate...

Now with the DOOM3 BFG GPL Source released the goal of implementing a new, more latency resistent netcode has come a lot closer. The BFG netcode was extensively tested clientside
and looks very very promising. Currently we are evaluating the amount of work required to
backport the BFG netcode to DOOM3 1.3.1.

Mars City Security: Revised Test Build Video

-==September 2012 Update==-

Showcasing timewarped footage of a recently included community made MCS demonwars & custom campaign map with slowmotion and time lapse scenes combined. DemonWars gametype maps now also offer optional friendly AI support...

Mars City Security: TimeWarp Tranquility video

-==August 2012 Progress==-

I would like to take the time and update you guys on the progress MCS has made throughout the last couple of months and also go into details about which hurdles still need to be taken before we can finally start to think about public beta testing.

The goal with MCS from day one besides adding coop capabilities and updating it to current/next gen visuals, is to deliver clientside an as close as possible Listen Server experience. It became apparent that the stock Doom3 1.3.1 netcode isn't really the best foundation to achieve that goal (especially when clientside latency comes into play), so over the past months/years I first needed to identify the problem before I could think about ways of attacking it.

It turned out that Doom3 is using "forward prediction" trying to recreate the server's gamestate as accurate as possible at client-game-time which leads to a set of problems as soon as client latency (the delay a client has to the server) comes into play.

Basically what this means is that the game client tries to predict what game entities are doing BEFORE it actually gets the confirmed snapshots from the server. In a typical MCS scenario where a lot of dynamic events are happening this naturally leads to misprediction so that when the server snapshots arrive these errors are being instantly corrected.

We experience these corrections as "snapping" where on our client, another player or AI that happens to have been mispredicted is being snapped back to it's verified position/location/action according to the snapshots arriving from the server, making the entire gameplay feel quite jerky and sluggish clientside.

Although we are in the unique position with Doom3 to have the full SDK and GPL engine sourcecode available, a change from the current D3 client prediction model "extrapolation" to something more stable during higher client latencies ("interpolation") just recently became available with the release of the D3 BFG GPL sourcecode.

Backporting those D3 BFG client prediction changes require an experienced game programmer to analyse and rewrite the D3 1.3.1. code wherever needed. So a big amount of my time during the last months, I have spent searching for capable people willing to do those necessary steps in order to bring MCS closer to a public beta release.

Content-wise MCS is being updated frequently with features on the to-do list while others are being constantly added to the list during the developing progress.

Also I would like to apologize for the somewhat delayed updates here on moddb on my side but please keep in mind that this is basically a one man project and every side task, even the posting of news here on moddb is taking developing time away from MCS, so thanks for reading and tracking this project and stay tuned for more.

Todays media update consists of the new DemonWars map "Dalen" added to MCS with fully dynamic time of day capability co-developed by AphexJH.

Dalen DemonWars Screenshot 1

Dalen DemonWars Screenshot 2

Dalen DemonWars Screenshot 3

-==October 2011 Progress==-

Thanks to Simulation|EMZ's relentless technical support this month we successfully implemented a fully multiplayer compatible time of day system for the MCS gametype "DemonWars". The Global Sunlight, Ambientlight, Fog and Skybox now dynamically change and influence each other as the players cooperatively fight monsters over the network/internet.
The first video shows a timelapsed tod cycle of the new DemonWars arena map "Mars Station" which was kindly contributed by j

The second video features 3 minutes of cooperative gameplay showcasing some of the latest game changes on the new time of day enabled Omega Complex DemonWars Arena map.

-==September 2011 Gameplay Walkthrough==-

The September 2011 MCS Build is showcased in this twelve minutes "Gameplay Walkthrough" video demonstrating the latest additions to the codebase. This video was recorded at 1080p clientside connected to a dedicated server. The showcased MCS group consists of two human players (the wife & me) and one friendly MCS AI player cooperatively fighting our way through a custom community made Doom3 map. One of the most important yet to implement features will be the a change of Doom3's netcode from currently "forward predicted" to "running behind the server" method. As soon as the Doom3 Source Code will be released later this year, that change, along with an improved projectile code, will ensure that clientside latency will become a much less influentual factor of the player's multiplayer cooperative gameplay experience. In order to speed up this process and thereby move faster towards a public build release, we welcome every interested & experienced c++ game programmer to join us in achieving the targeted goals.

Interested people can drop us a mail at oneofthe8devilz@hotmail.com and we will be happy to provide you with all the tools and codebases required to get you started...

-==May 2011 Progress==-

Amoung many other SP Campaign related updates the gametype "DemonWars" was added to MCS which offers a more action/combat focused way to play the game outside the SP Campaign fighting against the Legions of Hell on Earth being humanity's last line of defense.

-==February 2011 Progress==-

-==January 2011 Progress==-

After the long awaited Sikkmod 1.0 source release the new features are slowly but surely making it into MCS
Here a shot of the freshly ported SSAO

-==December 2010 Progress==-