Modder Dan Peterson, also known as Cheello, has officially released Voxel Duke 3D, a gigantic project that replaces the game’s original billboard sprites with hand crafted voxel models. Every enemy, item, pickup, and questionable civilian now pops out of the screen in crunchy, chunky 3D. And this isn’t some quick AI upscale either. This is three years of obsessive, frame by frame work recreating the entire Duke Nukem world in blocky glory.
The setup is simple. You need eDuke32, the mod’s ZIP file from ModDB, and any version of Duke Nukem 3D. Once it’s installed, the voxels are turned on by default. And the best part, you can toggle between the original sprites and the new voxel models in real time, like a time traveling archaeologist of FPS history.
If the name Dan Peterson sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same mad genius who voxelized Doom and Doom II back in 2022, His work went viral, and now he’s back with even more detail, texture, charm, and nostalgia.
And yes, he voxelized everything. The Battlelord. The Pigcop. The Octabrain. The “why is this in a video game” NPCs. If it existed in 1996, it now exists in lovingly sculpted tiny cubes.
Honestly, seeing Duke Nukem with actual volume feels like uncovering a lost remaster from an alternate timeline. It’s retro. It’s modern. It’s beautiful. It’s stupid. It’s perfect.
Hail to the king, baby. In 3D. Again.
