Duke Manager Version 4.0 Release Notes

Date:   December 11, 1999
Author: Charlie Wilson
Email:	cwilson@3dportal.com
Web:	http://dukemanager.dukeworld.com/


New For Version 4.0:
 Con Editor
 Group File Manager
 Launcher Functions
 Total Conversion Launching
 Oppenent Information


DMV4 Details and Information:
  
The Launcher 
 Single Player launching 
 Saved Game Launching (Atomic only) 
 Multi Player Lan launching 
 Modem-to-Modem and Serial launching 
 iC launching (Host or Join) plus ICQ web link 
 Total Conversion and Custom Group launching 
 Player List to keep track of opponents 
 Set Skill, Episode, and Level 
 Use any MAP regardless of what directory it is in 
 Multi Dukes for Simulated Duke Match (Atomic only) 
 User, Game, and Defs Con Selection 
 RTS Selection 
 Socket Number can be entered for Net Games 
 Player Name can be entered for Net Games 
 Menu Option for Switching between Duke versions 
 Respawn Options 
 No Monster Option 
 Fake Multi Player for Map Testing 
 Hide Duke3D DOS Window on ALT+TAB Exit 
 Close Duke3D DOS Window on Normal Exit 
 Auto-Return CON and RTS Files to Original Option 
 Launch Duke3D, Setup, Build, Duke3D Help, Build Help
 Game Timer 
 Unlimited User Defined Menus with Menu Manager 

Group File Manager 
 The group file manager does not use kgroup or kextract 
 so more functionality is available. A group file can be 
 viewed without being extracted to see the files, file 
 sizes, file types, group size. Files can be extracted by 
 type or by name or as a whole group. Groups can be created 
 using files from any folder or location by type or directory, 
 etc. Also added Extraction Optimization - this allows you to
 specify the size of the 'chunks' you want to extract files 
 with (Kextract used 512 bytes for the chunk size. Current day 
 computers can easily handle extracting the ENTIRE file all at
 once and not use small chunks. This decreases the amount of
 time an extraction will take). 

Con Editor 
 The new Con editor will be a one-stop shop for editing all 
 Duke3d con files (user, defs, game). The Editor extends
 current functionality with full screen text editing, open
 and edit multiple cons at the same time, Cut, Copy, Paste,
 Search, Randomize, 1.3d to 1.5 Conversion, Color Coded text,
 Uppercase, Lowercase, Line remark, Section remark, Indent,
 Function word list with parameter listing, right-click text
 area for menu of tools (including Parameter Info...right-click
 a function or keyword in the con and clicking Parameter Info
 will locate the word in the Function word list and show you
 available parameters), Easy User Con changes, and much more. 

Total Conversion Manager 
 The Total Conversion/Custom Group Manager allows you to define
 TC's and Custom Groups to Duke Manager. After a TC is defined,
 you can then launch the TC by selecting it from a list. Duke
 Manager allows you to launch any of the Episodes or Levels in
 the TC by selecting the Level from a list. TC Developers can
 easily create TC Scripts for users of their TC to download. 
 The Script can be loaded in Duke Manager and the TC will
 automatically be defined. 

Other 
 Duke Manager has been developed entirely with Visual Basic 
 6.0 (SP3). Each area in DMV4 (Launcher, Con Editor, Group 
 Manager) is a separate ActiveX OCX control. 

 Having seperate OCX's and DLL's allow for more 'black boxing'
 of code. This means each area can be upgraded individually and
 the user can simply install the newly upgraded piece instead
 of reinstalling the entire set of files. 

 Duke Manager Version 4.0 currently supports Duke Nukem 3D,
 Version 1.3d, 1.4 (Plutonium PAK upgrade from 1.3d to 1.4
 Atomic), and 1.5 (Atomic). DM98 will also work with the
 Shareware versions of Duke3d. Some of the options (such as
 the registered version's Episodes and Levels, as well as
 the weapons listed in the CON editor) will be invalid for
 the Shareware user.