Earlier than Nightfall HD ballooned right into a full overhaul of the sport’s graphics, it was meant to be a companion piece to an oft-requested characteristic for the beloved 2018 boomer shooter: a full software program improvement equipment (SDK) for modders to run wild with, alongside Steam Workshop help for these mods.
“You see what folks do with Skyrim,” New Blood boss Dave Oshry mentioned in a current interview. “If there’s not anime massive tiddy waifus in Nightfall by the point we’re finished with the SDK, then we have not finished it proper.
“We’re not going to make these official, opposite to fashionable perception. ‘Nightfall Very HD.'”
The studio head was (possibly?) kidding when he invoked these most colourful cultural exports of NexusMods, nevertheless it got here from a really actual place of wanting Nightfall to have that potential as a modding vacation spot: “Folks can do no matter they need to Nightfall. Nightfall HD might need gotten carried away and change into this loopy challenge, however on the finish of the day, it is presupposed to be a showcase for what you are able to do with a five-year-old recreation and the added modules.”
To that finish, possibly the best factor in regards to the SDK is its skill to load map recordsdata from a bevy of traditional FPS engines.
“Early on, we made the choice that the sport would load .bsp recordsdata, that are the identical ranges Quake, Half-Life, and the Supply engine used,” mentioned New Blood programmer Ben “Zombie” Moir.
“It is sort of insane, as a result of for lots of various video games, you may simply copy the maps in and Nightfall will load them. It simply works.”
It wasn’t a straightforward course of—when requested what it took to implement such broad compatibility, Moir merely quipped, “What went into it? Years of my life.”
Moir appears grateful for the problem, although, noting that he is now a way more skilled programmer than on the challenge’s begin. He additionally notes that the continuity with FPS historical past might actually set Nightfall modding aside: “It signifies that when folks make customized ranges, there’s all these totally different instruments, and there is all this documentation and movies and references on the market that they will use, and this massive group of a long time of individuals making maps for different video games that they will pull assets from.”
New Blood already showcased a Half-Life map conversion for Nightfall all the way in which again on the SDK’s alpha launch in 2020, however I am actually desirous to see the place folks go together with Supply stuff specifically—plenty of my adolescence was on that engine, and I would like Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines map conversions for Nightfall yesterday.