Proto:Duke Nukem Forever/2001/General Differences

This is a sub-page of Proto:Duke Nukem Forever/2001.

To do: Levels from the builds can loaded into the final game (unless they contain movers, which will crash it).

Game Icon

2001 Prototypes	Final

The game icon of the 2001 builds is much different from the final game's. The nuke symbol is more orangish, less scuffed/detailed and is 32 x 32; whereas the final icon is 256 x 256.

Ego

While the final game has Duke's Ego function as a regenerating health system, not unlike the shield from Halo (with a loading screen tip even telling the player to think of it as a shield), at this point it functions more like a traditional health system like in Manhattan Project.

To heal, instead of hiding behind cover, the player must either use health items (such as the Medkit or Food) or kill enemies. "Ego Boost" interactions, which are one-use max Ego increases in the final game (such as admiring yourself in the mirror or using toilets), function as a means to recover lost Ego in the prototype instead.

Killing friendly NPCs will cause the player to lose 25 Ego.

While Manhattan Project has Ego from kills depend on the weapon, here the amount of Ego you get depends on the enemy type (such as 8 from Infected EDF and 3 from the small parasite-like bugs that try to latch onto Duke's face), this can actually "overheal" Duke's Ego above 100, something that only the Hypo Spray Gun weapon can do as well.

Ego is also represented by a number rather than a bar in the prototype.

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  Gaining Ego from killing an enemy. The green number above the left part of the HUD represents the Ego obtained.

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  Losing Ego from killing a friendly NPC. The red number above the left part of the HUD represents the Ego lost.

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  Ego restored after pissing in a toilet.

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  A player with over 100 Ego.

Maximum Weapons Held

Both prototypes let the player hold all of the weapons in the game. The final game makes it so that the player can hold only two at a time, with a patch offering an option that expands this to four.

HUD

Both prototypes have a vastly different HUD than the final game does. All relevant information, such as Ego, ammo left in the magazine, and how much ammo the player is currently holding for a weapon is represented via meters on the lower left-hand corner of the screen, with numbers in the middle of the bars. The final game:

• moves the Ego meter to the upper left-hand corner and removes the number in it.
• puts the ammo and remaining rounds in the magazine meter to the upper right-hand corner and makes the remaining ammo in a magazine represented by graphics of the ammo type it uses
• and replaces the bars at the bottom with an inventory view

The HUD also has a futuristic theme that is changed for a more punk-looking HUD theme in the final game.

Both prototypes show picked up items as icons without displaying how much of the item was picked up on the far right side of the screen. The final game moves the icons so they're no longer hugging the right side of the screen and shows the amount of an object (or ammo from an object) that the player picked up to the right of the icon.

The August 2001 build's HUD is quite different from the one in the October build. While keeping the same theme and placement, the August proto's HUD has the bars to the right of the container instead of being inside them. This makes the container have the same width instead of it stretching at various points to accommodate different bar sizes. All of the meters are the same size in the August build, while the October build makes them shorter the further a meter is in the HUD. In addition, the status meters are broken into smaller chunks that disappear when the player loses the element inside the bar. Finally, the Shield meter is between Ego and Power in the prototype, but moved to the bottom of the status bar section in the October 2001 build.

The October 2001 HUD has an Easter egg that shows who made Duke's shades and the programs for it in-universe. To access it, press "q", then click on the tab to the right of the status bars. This easter egg only works in 4:3 resolution.

Pre-release screenshots reveal that the October 2001 HUD's design survived at least up to 2005 before being replaced with another design.

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  October 2001 HUD easter egg.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto	Final

Protos	Final

October 2001 Proto	2005 Screenshot

2001 Protos	2006 Video

Footage taken from a build made in 2006 reveals it had the same picked up item display system that the 2001 prototypes have, but with a different icon.

Editor

Both the August and October prototypes come with a working editor based on Unreal Tournament's Unreal Ed 2.0. No editor was shipped with the final game.

Console

The August and October builds have a console that lets the player input commands. The final game removes this.

Both prototypes also have a quick command console that allows the user to type commands without having to fully open the console. The August 2001 build represents it with the text "Command" on the bottom of the HUD, but the October one replaces it with text that makes it look like a DOS-style command.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto

Saving and Loading

Both prototypes let the player save and load their progress at anytime. This can be done via manual saves done in the menu or quicksaves. The final game gets rid of this in favor of a checkpoint system.

Of note is that loading saves is broken in the October 2001 prototype. Loading causes the game to crash due to a error with the game's UI.

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  Prompt that appears when the quickload key is pressed.

Protos	Final

Looting

The player can loot most enemies and dead bodies placed in the world by a level designer in the 2001 prototypes. This is the main way the player obtains supplies, as boxes containing weapons and ammo are rare. This is removed entirely in the final game in favor of the player picking up supplies dropped by enemies when they die.

Both protos do not let the player loot an ammo type from a dead enemy if the player does not own the weapon it's for. For example, the game will not let the player pick up M16 ammo unless the player already owns it. Ammo the player cannot pick up is in red text in the August 2001 prototype and has a red-tinted icon in the October 2001 proto.

The UI for looting enemies is different between the August and October builds. The August 2001 looting interface uses a system that prints the body's name, has a line pointing to the body, and what goodies the body has underneath the line. If a body has multiple items, they are represented with a list underneath the line. The October 2001 build changes this so that getting near a lootable enemy will show the body's name and graphical representations of what the enemy has to the right of the ammo and health bars.

Looting a dead enemy

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto	Final

Looting a generic dead body

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto	Final

After picking up supplies from a dead body

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto

Trying to pick up ammo for a weapon the player doesn't have

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto

Pissing

Pressing F will cause the player to piss. There isn't a limit to how long the player can urinate. Amusingly, looking in a mirror reveals that the urine exits from the player's head.

The player can also piss in toilets. To do so, the player has to press the "use" key near one. Once activated, the player will automatically do so and regain 10 Ego after finishing. 180 seconds must pass before the player can piss in a toilet via the use key again. One can also pee directly into the toilet with the F key, but this will not trigger the Ego reward. It is also possible to press F and pee manually while pissing automatically into a toilet.

It is also possible to piss in urinals, but their behavior is inconsistent: some will require the player to press the use key, then press the piss key. Others will make the player automatically begin to piss ala a toilet. Once the player has pissed for a short period of time, it will automatically flush and the game will give the player 10 Ego.

• 

  Piss coming from the player's head.

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  Pissing in a toilet for an Ego reward.

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  Pissing in a urinal.

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  The urinal automatically flushing, complete with a "please wash hands" message appearing on it. The player has also gained 10 Ego from doing this.

Ropes

Both prototypes have ropes the player can climb on and jump off of. Pressing the forward key will make the rope start to swing back and forth. The farther down the player is on the rope, the easier it is to make it swing. However, the player will jump further from a rope the higher they are on it. If the player jumps from one rope to another, the rope the players goes to will conserve some of the player's momentum.

Some ropes are connected to an object on both ends, which prevents the player from swinging them.

Climbable ropes were removed from the final game.

Bullet Penetration

The October 2001 prototype has a bullet penetration system that lets the player hit enemies behind walls with the Pistol, M16, and Sniper Rifle. The August 2001 prototype does not have this and the final game restricted it so that only the Railgun can penetrate walls.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto

Weapon Selection System

Both prototypes use a weapon selection system that's very similar to the one in Half-Life: pressing a number key shows a list of weapons that can be accessed by pressing the number key again until the weapon the player wants is selected, then press the fire key. The protos also lets the player open up the weapon bucket at any time by pressing the Q key, then clicking on whatever weapon is wanted with the mouse. Items in the inventory, including keycards, are also accessed this way.

The August and October 2001 builds represent the remaining ammo for a weapon with a meter, like how Half-Life does.

This was removed in the final game and replaced with a system that limits the player to holding two or four weapons at a time, depending on if the "hold four weapons" option is enabled or not.

The August 2001 build has an earlier version of the weapon selection system. Its weapon icons are much larger than the ones in the October 2001 prototype and don't have a border around them. In addition, the icons for the numbers were redesigned from being futuristic circles to rectangles that match the rest of the HUD. Spacers that fit the HUD's style were added between rows as well.

An upgraded weapon selection system, more in-line with how Half-Life displayed it, appears in footage shot for the Jace Hall Show. What's interesting is that both the 2001 prototypes share three similarities:

• Both have 6 categories for weapons
• Both have the RPG in the "3" category.
• Both show the amount of ammo remaining for a gun, though the Jace Hall Show footage displays it numerically instead of with a meter.

This suggests that the fundamentals behind the weapon selection system from 2001 stayed until at least 2008, which is when the Jace Hall Show's footage was recorded.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto

October 2001 Proto	Jace Hall show footage

Objective List

The August 2001 prototype comes with an objective list feature that keeps track of things the player needs to do in order to complete a certain level. It can be accessed by pressing 7 on the keyboard and then clicking, or by opening the weapon selection screen by clicking on its icon (found next to the section labeled 7).

The October 2001 prototype removes this, but it can be readded via some work with it's script.

The following text that explains it was cut and how modders could use it can be found in it's script file.

// Todo List
// Mod authors: We decided not to implement an objectives list system, so this is only partially implemented and not enabled.
// You might be able to trace through all the elements of the objectives/todo list code and do something with it.
// Perhaps modeling your own objectives system after it.

• 

  Graphic that appears whenever the player's objective list is updated.

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  The objective list with a completed objective.

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  Generic text that shows when a level doesn't have defined objectives.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto (restored)

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto (restored)

Level Titles

In 2001 prototypes, a title and a subtitle for a level appear at the start of each map. Early levels state information like where the player is located and the time of day the level takes place in, while later levels are notes from the level developers.

The formatting between the two prototypes is different. The August 2001 build has the text appear to the left of the center of the screen in a small font with an animated icon showing. The October 2001 prototype changes this so that the titles show a bit below the center of the screen with large font, but without the icon the August 2001 prototype had.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto

Death Sequence

The death sequence that plays when the player dies is different in both prototypes. The player's camera goes forward instead of going backwards, lacks the broken shades effect the final game has, and the screen is not tinted red.

Once the player has been dead for a few seconds, the game switches to an animation of Duke's heartrate flatlining in his shades, then gives the player the option to either continue or quit. Continuing will place the player at the start of the level they died in, while Quit will kick the player back to the main menu. The final game reloads the last checkpoint after the player has been dead for a few seconds.

Funnily enough, the 2001 prototypes will usually show the player's inventory like they were a dead enemy, making it look like the player could loot their own dead body. Sadly, attempting to loot yourself at this point is not possible.

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  Part of the animated sequence that plays after the player has been dead for a few seconds.

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  Ditto.

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  Ditto.

Protos	Final

Killable Friendly NPCs

Both prototypes let the player kill friendly NPCs. The final game removes this.

Protos	Final

Prop Health and Name

The August and October 2001 prototypes will show the name and health of certain props, such as chairs and faucets, along with a health bar for them. The final game does not have this.

Of note is that the interface for looking at props is the same as the one used for looting bodies, but with a health bar in place of the items the body has.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto	Final

Female Character Hair Rendering Errors

Both prototypes have issues rendering the hair on female characters properly. The August 2001 prototype has issues with properly placing it and with transparency, while the October 2001 build has an issue where the head is rendered above the hair, making it appear they're bald and having hair floating above their heads.

August 2001 Proto	October 2001 Proto	Intended look (from E3 2001 trailer)