Mars City Security mod for Doom III

1 comment by Oneofthe8devilz on Jan 20th, 2013

MCS: Mars City Security

-==January 2013 Update==-

Credits to the amazing Doom3 Community members that make MCS possible

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 Free project.

-==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 network model "extrapolation" to something more stable during higher client latencies ("interpolation") like used in many other current-gen game engines, is even for advanced programmers a serious undertaking.

An undertaking that requires game netcode programmers to analyse and rewrite D3's netcode. 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.

As with most expertise tasks such a contract will come with expenses as usually the people applying these changes desire compensation for the time and effort invested. So after being fortunate enough finding people with the required skills to be contracted I had to also think about how to finance their contracting. After all we are talking here about several thousand dollars of investment and even though I am planning to release MCS together with its source code for free to the community I am facing serious difficulties in finding people to co-finance this project.

Ideas of registering to a crowd-funding page or finding other ways of people donating to this project are currently being evaluated. Compared to other game projects, the amount of funds required is still very manageable (3000-5000 USD) so ideas about how to raise those funds are very appreciated.

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

highres screenshot link

Dalen DemonWars Screenshot 2

highres screenshot link

Dalen DemonWars Screenshot 3

highres screenshot link

-==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 jONNY=[ReWIRE]=.

youtube video link

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.

youtube gameplay video link

-==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...

youtube gameplay video link: Youtube.com

-==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.

youtube gameplay video link: Youtube.com

-==February 2011 Progress==-

youtube gameplay video link: Youtube.com

-==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==-

youtube gameplay video link: Youtube.com