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wesleyjohnson

DoomLegacy has Launcher

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DoomLegacy now has a built-in Launcher.
For now (testing) it is only available if you access DoomLegacy subversion on SourceForge and get SVN-1071 or better.

The Launcher should make it easier for those who don't use or don't have command line, or if you want to launch from an Icon.

The Launcher window appears if there is an error with the game selection, the IWAD or legacy.wad loading, or if there are no switches on the command line.

The Launcher window has entries for:
HOME:
DOOMWADDIR:
SWITCH:
IWAD:
GAME:
CONTINUE:
QUIT:

I am interested in how it works with Windows 7, 8, etc.. Does it suffice, or did I miss something.

It does handle using "-opengl" on the SWITCH line.
A few switches will not work from the Launcher.
Example: "-mb" is ignored because the memory system starts before the Launcher runs.

Tech:
Uses a built-in bitmap font to display error messages, and the menu, even when it cannot find legacy.wad or IWAD.

Testers:
(assuming I have any interested testers)

I am planning another alpha release soon, and a Beta release to replace that old 1.42 version. This Launcher involved so many changes to the video code that I expect someone will have problems,
and I hope to find out about major problems before it gets into Release.

DoomLegacy SDL Port status (SDL is the Officially supported port):
Linux-SDL : Tested (My code development port).
Windows-SDL : Untested, especially on Windows 7,8.
(Update: 12/27/2013, Compiled on Win98, with one bug fix.
has some problem with OpenGL)
MAC-SDL : A work in progress, needs testing and development.

Other DoomLegacy Video Ports:
Windows-win32 : Untested, I have a Win32 system that I will set up after the holidays.
(Update: 12/27/2013, Compiled on Win98, with several bug fixes, Total crash on program start. Appears to be video startup order.)
DOS : Has not been compiled for ages. I should be able to do this one but I think I am missing a library.
OS2 : Has not been compiled for ages, and its future depends on someone admitting they still have OS2.
MACOS : Questionable
Linux-X11 : Tested and appears to work, even better than before.
Linux-GGI : Does not look complete.
Linux-Glide : Does anyone use a Voodoo anymore ?

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I would like to test it out. I don't really know how to compile anything though so you'd have to provide a compiled build for me in order to do so.

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The problem is ... anything that I could compile, I could test myself, and any port where I need testing, I cannot compile.

Also, I do not know which OS you have, or which optional libraries
you might have. There is also a file of compile options that could be
customized (doomdefs.h, ... I have been working on something else and cannot remember the exact name right now).

Do you have any gcc compiler installed at all ??
That is the hardest prerequisite to satisfy. I have been testing with gcc 3.6, gcc 4.3, on Linux. I will have MinGW setup again on Win98 soon. I cannot compile for any newer Windows version.
This is where I really need help from users who can compile on the newer Windows.

The second problem is installing SDL, and you still need to do that even with a precompiled binary, unless you intend to test one of the non-SDL port options.

To compile the only commands needed are.
make
Edit make_options for you desired port, according to the instructions in the Makefile, then ..
make

Also, there are already some fixes, so get latest SVN version.
That is probably the 3nd hardest thing to accomplish.

Perhaps if you post the necessary information, there might be some other reader willing to compile it.

Also, within a week or so, this will get released as alpha5. I was hoping to find any bugs concerning the Windows compile before then.
But you could wait for that version to be released.

Thank you for your interest ...

Added:
There is no installer yet, mostly because there is no predetermined installation location.

Generally, you copy everything in ../bin to your running directory, put in the legacy.wad file. You also might add a WAD, or configure DOOMWADDIR env var.

I am curious to how users set up their running directory for Doom ports.
There does not seem to be any predictable organization.

On Linux, I might consider putting a DoomLegacy directory in
/usr/local/games

but what do Windows users do ...

Adding entries to the menus is a OS version dependent exercise that is rarely to the users liking.

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It's very cool you threw in a built in launcher. I was never a fan of the command line.

I have a windows 8 64-bit laptop. I don't mind volunteering to test the alpha 5 when its out. The alpha 4 ran nicely with no issues with both renderers.

The only thing that bugs me that the aspect ratio is stuck at 4:3 in which I use a 16:9 screen. Is it possible to add proper aspect ratio with out major surgery to the code?

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Good ..
I may have to release Alpha5 without proper testing.
One problem is the large number and breadth of video changes from alpha4 to this alpha5 caused major changes in every video driver in DoomLegacy.

Something like an aspect ratio selection, is too late for this release.
If it finds a video mode of that aspect, it would probably use it.

Have a new problem:
Win32 Direct port compiles, but crashes on first call to PeekMessage or CreateDirect. I don't know if it is code or something in my MinGW compile setup.
I really need someone with a Windows machine, familiar with Windows code, that can compile.

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Send me your stuff and I'll take a crack at it. I only exclusively code/compile in Windows (usually under MinGW, but I also occasionally use Cigwin). I have x64 of Win7 and x86 of WinVista.

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Beta?.. This is exciting! Just how long has it been since legacy had a release like this?

Should I use this thread to post bugs and technical issues since I don't know else where?

Even the old old launcher worked fine in windows 8. Every thing on it worked. I will try to keep you posted on doomlegacy's behavior for the beta.

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wesleyjohnson said:

We are rapidly approaching a beta release (may skip the alpha5).
Chu: Have not heard anything from you ... Did you get my email ???

I'm sorry I was MIA, I'll compile through Monday and give you my report then.

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I am still fighting with the OpenGL fullscreen problem on Windows.
On this old machine I get windowed OpenGL fine (normal colors).
When I switch to fullscreen it draws everything in Red and Yellows.
I can draw the palette to the same screen and see that it is colored fine.
But the menu, backgrounds, and rendering come out RED. I have debugged it down to the GL statement that draws the polygon and what goes in looks fine, but it comes out RED.
This same code draws OpenGL to a window perfectly fine.
If I modify the Surface request so that the fullscreen mode actually does not get fullscreen, it will draw to a window in RED.
(Edit: Turning off the accel. polygon draw on the Matrox card got rid the of the red draw. It had spread to the OpenGL window drawing too.)

It would help, if any other Windows user could tell me if they have used DoomLegacy with OpenGL, fullscreen, on their machine and it worked for them. It does not seem to matter which 1.44 alpha is tested, they all behave the same for me.
(Edit: No replies)

If no one else is seeing this, then I could assume it is a problem with SDL using this Matrox card. We could then get on with releasing this version.
(Edit: No replies)

Edit: 2014/2/2 SVN1088 will be Ver 1.44 alpha5.

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The colors come in fine for me in full screen openGL. Your GPU must be the problem.

I used doomlegacy on windows xp up to windows8.1 and no color problems on all of them in GL mode.

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Thank you, Thank you. It is nice to know that as I only have a Win98 system to work on, and horrible things happen.

I fixed most of the problems by turning off accel polygon draw on my Matrox card, and some others with a glGenTextures call.

DoomLegacy 1.44 Alpha5 was released yesterday Feb 5, and I am just waiting for the site administrator to get the binaries up on our web site before making a formal announcement.

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wesleyjohnson said:

Other DoomLegacy Video Ports:
Windows-win32 : Untested, I have a Win32 system that I will set up after the holidays.
(Update: 12/27/2013, Compiled on Win98, with several bug fixes, Total crash on program start. Appears to be video startup order.)
DOS : Has not been compiled for ages. I should be able to do this one but I think I am missing a library.
OS2 : Has not been compiled for ages, and its future depends on someone admitting they still have OS2.
MACOS : Questionable
Linux-X11 : Tested and appears to work, even better than before.
Linux-GGI : Does not look complete.
Linux-Glide : Does anyone use a Voodoo anymore ?

If I were you I wouldn't even bother thinking about these. Just delete the code for them already and be done with it.

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I do not obey popularity and champion the continued use of odd computer hardware. If you may have noticed I use Linux and only have an old Win98 system to work with (it was not originally mine).

I will not be dumping the Windows code despite the horrors of trying to get it working.

If there are no users, thus no debuggers, then I may have to remove some of the least likely to resurface (0S2 and voodoo card).
It gains me nothing but disk space, (where disk space being cheap might apply).

The others depend upon being able to get the libraries and compile.
The X-win port works, without any SDL library problems.
Such direct ports should be more responsive than the SDL library port.

The current position is that the SDL port is official. The other ports are updated infrequently, possibly years behind. This only becomes a problem when the port interfaces are changed to suit SDL (which someone did sometime in the early 2000's). It is not likely that I will get OS2 port fixed.

I got FreeDOS, I got MinGW (and other compilers), I recently got Allegro. The existing code ought to work. Only the interfaces need to be updated. According to these Forums, there are still people that want to get that DOS experience. So I may fix the DOS port to compile and function, at least.

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