Duke Nukem Forever: 3D Vision Experience

After a 14 year gestation, Duke Nukem Forever has finally arrived. Those of us who played the original Duke Nukem games after weaning ourselves from Doom and Quake have finally had our patience rewarded, but adding a little frosting to the cake is the fact that Duke Nukem Forever was coded to take full advantage of NVIDIA's 3D Vision technology: it's a "3D Ready"-qualified game. Benchmark Reviews takes a look at this irreverent take on the FPS genre in 3D.

3D Vision

Benchmark Reviews has always been interested in 3D graphics technology, starting with our original review of the NVIDIA 3D Vision bundle. We've covered games that make particularly good use of the technology, like Mafia II, published a 3D Vision Multimedia Resource Guide that you might find useful, and compared it with AMD's competing HD3D system in this article. NVIDIA's 3D Vision will work with virtually any available game, albeit with differing levels of success.

But Duke Nukem Forever is, arguably, special: originally announced in 1997 after the runaway success of the original Duke Nukem 3D (itself an update to the original 1991-era Duke Nukem, which was a two-dimensional "side scroller" game), technical problems and (more significantly) poor management delayed its release for over a decade, making it one of the top vaporware titles of all time. So how does it play now that it's finally here? Before I get into that, I should review how 3D Vision works.

3D Vision requires an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, the 3D Vision bundle consisting of the LCD shutter glasses and IR emitter that drives them, and one or more 120Hz 3D-capable monitors. The system works by sequentially displaying offset "left" and "right" versions of each frame in a game, and blocking the vision from one eye or the other by darkening the shutter glasses in synchronization with the display. The effect is real and convincing: images seem to extened back into the space behind your display, as if it were a window looking into a different world. You can even have objects appear to protrude out from the monitor's screen surface! NVIDIA's software works by examing the "Z" co-ordinates the game sends to the graphics card driver, which means it works with virtually any video game.

But there are limitations. Two frames (left and right) must be generated where only one frame was before, so your game's FPS will drop by 50% or so when 3D Vision is enabled. This is less of a problem that it was when 3D Vision was introduced since moderately-priced yet powerful cards like the GTX560 made their appearance. There are also limitations to some games: to increase FPS performance, developers will often take shortcuts that will affect the 3D appearance of some objects in the game. For example, fire and particle effects like smoke are often rendered without full 3D information, as are heads-up displays for things like character health and weapon status, or gun sights for targeting. Items like this will appear at the wrong visual "depth" relative to other items in the game. In some cases you can disable some of the game's graphics effects to work around these problems, and the 3D Vision driver can even supply its own gun sight in some cases. To help users, NVIDIA defines six levels of game compatibility with 3D Vision.

The highest level is 3D Vision Ready. Games in this category are written specifically to take maximum advantage of 3D Vision. It's a short list: 17 items at the time of this writing, with several being demos or technology examples like NVIDIA's own Endless City. But Duke Nukem Forever is on the list, along with such luminaries as Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Mafia II.

Under 3D Vision Ready, in descending order, are Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, and Not Recommended. The majority of games fall into the Excellent and Good categories, wherein you'll have to disable some in-game graphical effects and perhaps use NVIDIA's gun sight for the best experience. But none of these compromises are necessary with Duke Nukem Forever.

For this article, I played Duke Nukem Forever on my personal system; sadly, I have but a single, 1680x1050 3D-capable monitor. I used NVIDIA's newly released 275.33 WHQL drivers, which include the profiles for this game.

Forever Is a Long Time

If you're interested in this game, you've probably already read some of the currently available reviews, wondering if it was worth the wait. And yes, many of the criticisms are valid: the graphics don't approach the level you'd see in Crysis or Mafia II; the humor is vulgar and misogynistic, and the gameplay at times can be uninteresting, such as the early section were Duke is accidentally shrunk and must make his way in a toy car, without the ability to even shoot anything (there are advantages to this viewpoint, as shown in the image below). True, this is a DirectX 9 title(!), but I think such carping misses the point of the game, which is that it's supposed to be cheesy, vulgar, and misogynistic. These are the same people who have never, ever enjoyed Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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The game begins with the Duke playing...Duke Nukem. It's a sly bit of referential humor, but establishes the setting well. 14 years after the alien invasion, Duke's cashed in on his celebrity with a massive, Las Vegas style hotel/casino complex named after him. There are also "Duke Burger" franchises and other homages. The aliens return, but the president orders Duke to stand down so they can try peaceful negotiation. This doesn't work. Unexpectedly! The aliens are gunning for Duke himself, and most of the action early in the game takes place inside Duke's casino as the aliens blast through walls and ceilings, gunning for The Man. As the Duke would say, "Come get some!"

Although most of the "kill actions" (like stomping on shrunken enemies) from the original Duke Nukem 3D remain in Forever, there are some new moves such as "Execute": a brutal head kick that decapitates a downed enemy. The Pig Cop on his knees in the image below is ripe for this. There's a certain visceral satisfaction to watching the head bounce away in real 3D. In the shot below, you can see Duke's "Ego meter", which replaces the "Health" you normally see in first-person shooter games. When Duke's ego runs out, he dies; but you can increase it by drinking beer, and increase the maximum ego by doing things like lifting weights and killing boss monsters.

Once you move outside, the "3D Vision Experience" really comes into its own. In the image below, I'm shooting a turret gun at Pig Cops that rush out from behind burned cars and charge towards you. It's hard not to flinch backwards the first few times you see this, as the enemies appear ready to burst through the screen.

Here's where the trouble started: the local Duke Burger franchise. What, you think this is over the top for a burger joint? Nothing's too good for the Duke! 3D Vision excels at giving the impression of distance.

After lots of fun above ground killing baddies in the shattered remains of the city, you'll move underground into the alien hive. Here, you'll need Duke Vision to make your way about. I guess that's why he wears those shades all the time.

One of the boss-level monsters you'll have to overcome: the aptly-named Queen Bitch. Just guess where you have to shoot her to take her out. While you're trying to do that, she'll bombard you with bugs that skitter towards you and spit acid balls, as well as slashing at you with giant lobster-like claws and some sort of electrical/telekinetic attack.

With most of the boss-level monsters, killing isn't as simple as firing into them until they go down: you'll often need to jump onto your vanquished foe and physically rip off a valuable piece of anatomy to make the kill. But this being a modern game, there's more than just blowing away bad aliens: there are several "puzzle areas" as well, where Duke must use wits and cunning to proceed. Sometimes, a little radio-controlled car can be really useful, and those bouncy alien lilly pads can often put that pipe bomb right where you need it.

Come Get Some

Although I didn't have the equipment to test it, Duke Nukem Forever also supports 3D Vision Surround, where two NVIDIA graphics cards drive three monitors at resolutions up to 5,760x1200. This is an awesome setup if you have the desk space (and money) for it, but even with my relatively puny 1,680x1050 monitor, the Duke Nukem Forever experience in 3D Vision was a treat. Experiencing real 3D graphics makes the "flat" 3D we've grown used to seem primitive and limiting.

Of course, NVIDIA's 3D Vision isn't limited to games: you can use the same equipment to view 3D still images and even 3D Blu-ray movies. For professionals, there's scientific visualization using 3D Vision with one of NVIDIA's Quadro graphics cards. I bought my monitor when 3D Vision first came out, and only 1680x1050 screens were available, but now a number of vendors offer 1920x1080 displays, some with integrated IR emitters. And while Duke Nukem Forever's one of the "A"-list 3D Vision Ready titles, I've played a number of games on the Excellent and Good lists as well, and the experience is still worth it.

Honestly, the only thing I missed from the original Duke Nukem 3D was the buzzy, square-wave-synthesized music and sound effects of the original. A few bars, rendered on modern equipment, has made it into this sequel, but it's not the same. At least they managed to get the original Duke voice actor Jon St. John.

Overall, I thought this game was great, even if most of the pundits in the gaming world weren't that enthused. The flawless 3D support only made it better.

Benchmark Reviews invites you to leave constructive feedback below, or ask questions in our Discussion Forum.

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