Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996 and still holds up today. Now a fan project called Voxel Duke Nukem 3D is bringing back those memories. Modder Dan Peterson has spent years converting the 2D graphics into voxel based 3D models. These models are exact to the originals, replacing 2D images with 3D models that rotate as you move.
Duke walks down the streets of Los Angeles and a cop approaches the corner, gun drawn. In the old game the enemy flipped like a card. In the voxel version he turns towards you, his tusks catching the light from a flickering sign. You use the foot—yes that crazy kick weapon—and the pig crumples, his body folding in on himself with weight. Cut to a dive bar interior. Duke yells something about hailing the monarch and you continue, rolling pipebombs under tables to scatter enforcers.
- XBOX EXPERIENCE BROUGHT TO LIFE BY ROG The Xbox gaming legacy meets ROG's decades of premium hardware design in the ROG Xbox Ally. Boot straight into...
- XBOX GAME BAR INTEGRATION Launch Game Bar with a tap of the Xbox button or play your favorite titles natively from platforms like Xbox Game Pass,...
- ALL YOUR GAMES, ALL YOUR PROGRESS Powered by Windows 11, the ROG Xbox Ally gives you access to your full library of PC games from Xbox and other game...
The trailer gets more intense as it goes. Underwater labs flood and tentacle creatures emerge from vents, their tendrils writhing in 3D. A boss fight in dark caverns: the Battlelord, a stiff sprite, charges with axes swinging wide. As you circle him the model reveals armored plates and glowing eyes that watch your every move. Props are also getting special treatment—beer cans stack correctly on shelves, while exploding dev packs hover with a small wobble. The camera strafes through it all to a thundering remix of the original soundtrack.
Weapons feel the same: the ripper slashes through the air, the devastator eats up crowds with debris showers. Assault troops flank from alleys, octabrains hover and spit acid. But the voxels build up. Blood splatters in thick red globs that stick to the walls. Shrunk enemies scatter like toys under your boot, their little bodies scurrying for cover. Peterson made about a thousand of these models by hand, each one tracing the source image.
Installation should be easy; based on Peterson’s Doom mods, a PK3 file should show up in your Build engine port—EDuke32 works fine or try the sharper Raze engine for recent updates. No system requirements have been listed, since voxels can run on older systems. When combined with community mods for widescreen or higher resolutions, you have a Build engine that respects the original. Peterson says extension packs will be compatible in the future, but for now, the three episodes are standalone. The soon to be announced download locations will probably be the same as ModDB, where his other releases are listed.
[Source]
