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Erick194

[GEC] Master Edition PSX Doom for the PlayStation. Beta 4 Released [11/16/2022]

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On 9/5/2020 at 11:39 PM, Impboy4 said:

Anyone who's part of the conversion project want to help add Jim Flynn's Enigma episode and/or Tim Willits Raven series to the Master Levels? I've started Enigma today, will be a solo effort unless others are interested in map spot.

Enigma Episode:
--------------------
Mt. Doom - Completed - The Slow Demonic Pulse
Rings - WIP - N/A
Twisted - Not Started - N/A
Gulch - Not Started - N/A
The Wheel - Not Started - N/A
Triplet - Not Started - N/A
Wack - Not Started - N/A
The Tower - Not Started - N/A
The Citadel - Not Started - N/A

 

Sure, I'm always warmed up to convert some :)  But, which map to select?

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I've already finished two and now working on maps 3-5. If you're eager, I may need help converting the last four maps.

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12 hours ago, Impboy4 said:

I've already finished two and now working on maps 3-5. If you're eager, I may need help converting the last four maps.

 

Does it mean the final ones of Enigma or Raven? Whatever, I could give a hand for it. Just send a PM.

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I haven't touched Raven yet so you can grab some map slots of that if you want. :)

Edited by Impboy4

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Enigma in PSX Doom? Awesome. I loved all of Jim Flynn's maps, except for his cyberdemon fight, having his maps in PSX Doom is a neat way to honour his contributions to the community, RIP.

 

He had a few standalone maps too, outside of Enigma and Titan

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Hey this is a question that probably has an obvious answer. Does this support the multiplayer feature? 

I've been having fun playing through Playstation Doom with my friend and I would love to continue the experience with this project. :) 

Btw. This project looks amazing. I would love to see some love for Doom 64, with projects that work on the real hardware too. 

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Hi @VonHeer of course, PsxDoom has multiplayer by default, but you need 2 consoles to connect to each other. Regarding Doom64 I am working on reverse engineering for the real N64 hardware.

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1 hour ago, Erick194 said:

Hi @VonHeer of course, PsxDoom has multiplayer by default, but you need 2 consoles to connect to each other. Regarding Doom64 I am working on reverse engineering for the real N64 hardware.


Everytime you say that, it makes me happy! haha

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@Erick194Good stuff. I've been getting into streaming and ill make sure to post here if i happen to stream the multiplayer with a friend.

Doom 64 EX and the release are amazing but there really is something special when you are using the original hardware. My n64 is RGB modded and it's actually pretty amazing how well Doom 64 holds up today visually. Would love to see the missing monsters re-added. I bet if you get it to run with the n64 ram expansion pack there would be plenty of ram for all the new sprites and stuff. 

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On 10/8/2020 at 5:10 AM, VonHeer said:

@Erick194Good stuff. I've been getting into streaming and ill make sure to post here if i happen to stream the multiplayer with a friend.

Doom 64 EX and the release are amazing but there really is something special when you are using the original hardware. My n64 is RGB modded and it's actually pretty amazing how well Doom 64 holds up today visually. Would love to see the missing monsters re-added. I bet if you get it to run with the n64 ram expansion pack there would be plenty of ram for all the new sprites and stuff. 


Oh sweet RGB modded! I have been thinking about doing a visual upgrade on mine. If people start making their own Doom 64 roms, I definitely will since I already got an everdrive to load them. From what I remember the N64 team was mostly battling the cartridge memory as opposed to the RAM, which means there might be extra space anyway. But with the added memory of the expansion pack, so much could be done. I am excited just imagining the possibilities on real hardware. :)

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7 hours ago, Immorpher said:


Oh sweet RGB modded! I have been thinking about doing a visual upgrade on mine. If people start making their own Doom 64 roms, I definitely will since I already got an everdrive to load them. From what I remember the N64 team was mostly battling the cartridge memory as opposed to the RAM, which means there might be extra space anyway. But with the added memory of the expansion pack, so much could be done. I am excited just imagining the possibilities on real hardware. :)

By "cartridge memory" they mean the ROM. The original game came on an 8 MB ROM, and IIRC the devs used about 7.75 MB of it.

 

Of course, nowadays, expanding the ROM would be a trivial thing.

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@Immorpher Ya I soldered the basic rgb mod by myself. The n64 ultra HDMI mod has some advantages (it bypasses the blur filters used by the n64) but it's much more costly and requires someone much more experienced with soldering. I'm all about using CRTs so I use the n64 with both my PVM and my PC crt monitor via an OSSC and a hdmi to vga cable. 

Considering that the largest roms on the n64 used 64mb cartridges I bet a Doom 64 project could stuff all the new monsters, new sounds, the extra music tracks, and a new megawad's worth of community created levels, no sweat. 

Doom 64 runs the smoothest of all the n64 fps games but I beat the extra ram could help with things, especially if multiplayer was introduced. 

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Every few months I get nostalgic and check out the progress of GEC Master Doom. Would love to add a new map but it means re-learning everything from scratch!

 

EDIT: Thrilled to see Crossing Acheron now has the Toxin Refinery theme.

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Does the password system work properly with this hack? I am asking because it has more episodes than the original ...

 

I am currently going through vanilla PSX Doom on my PSP :D

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1 hour ago, VGA said:

Does the password system work properly with this hack? I am asking because it has more episodes than the original ...

 

I am currently going through vanilla PSX Doom on my PSP :D

I think it does, but of course, you have to select the proper "episode" since the password system can't delineate that.

 

In other words, the same password will send you to MAP12 regardless of what episode you pick, but it won't be the right MAP12 if you didn't select the same episode as before.

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36 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

I think it does, but of course, you have to select the proper "episode" since the password system can't delineate that.

 

In other words, the same password will send you to MAP12 regardless of what episode you pick, but it won't be the right MAP12 if you didn't select the same episode as before.

That sounds weird to me, you don't select episodes before inputting a password. I think it is not true that each episode starts at MAP01, they probably start at one map after the last one ended, for example MAP38. So the password just sends you to the correct map in the sequence without having to carry the information about the episode.

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4 hours ago, VGA said:

That sounds weird to me, you don't select episodes before inputting a password. I think it is not true that each episode starts at MAP01, they probably start at one map after the last one ended, for example MAP38. So the password just sends you to the correct map in the sequence without having to carry the information about the episode.

Well, this is done to get around a (current) limit in the PSX Engine.

 

In short, at the time of Beta 3's release, the game engine could only handle up to 64 maps - anything past that and it would crash. Hence, the password system only encodes for up to 64 map slots. That's a bit of a problem when the project aims to have (as of last count) 101 maps in all.

 

Erick's way around this was multiple EXEs for the game, each able to access their own set of 64 maps. Hence, the "episode" selection - when you tell it to pick Doom/Master Levels/TNT/Plutonia, it's loading up a different EXE with a different set of maps. But since the game doesn't have this concept of "what set of levels did you pick" encoded in its password (the original games, after all, were 59 and 30 maps, respectively), its password system basically just encodes stuff like "Start on MAP12." What that MAP12 is depends on what set of levels you pick, but regardless of what set of maps you pick, the same password will plop you down in the same map slot with the same equipment, so it's just that in the Doom set of levels it'd be Gotcha, in the Master Levels it'd be The D.M.Z., in TNT it'd be Shipping/Respawning, and in Plutonia it'd be Neurosphere. Hence, my comment on that you need to ensure you pick the right set of levels when you input your password, or the password will work but you'll load an entirely different map.

 

I believe he's since figured out a way to expand the system to up to 255 map slots, and this did necessitate a different password system to store that higher map number as well as the Nightmare difficulty flag, etc. Basically, the password system was tweaked slightly in Beta 3, and old passwords will not work.

 

As an example, try this password: 28VK9X5901. This should start you off on MAP02 with 200% Health/Armor, Backpack, Chainsaw, Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, and 50 ammo for each (except for Rocket Launcher, which will have 12). But if you enter that password on the Doom level set, you'll be in MAP02: Forgotten Sewers. Do it in the Master Levels set and you'll be in MAP02: Trapped on Titan instead. In Plutonia, you'll be whisked right to MAP02: Hanger. And in Plutonia's set, it's MAP02: Caged for you.

 

I mean... I've done work on this project, you know. Five of the maps in it are conversions I did (and I still got a sixth on the table once Erick does some updating - and maybe more than that, depending on how things shake out). I'm pretty sure I know how it works. :P

Edited by Dark Pulse

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37 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

I believe he's since figured out a way to expand the system to up to 255 map slots, and this did necessitate a different password system to store that higher map number as well as the Nightmare difficulty flag, etc. Basically, the password system was tweaked slightly in Beta 3, and old passwords will not work.

 

The password system supporting more map slots is actually just an extended version of the game's original password system and still works with original format passwords - PsyDoom implements it currently. It was just noticed there were 3 unused bits of information being encoded into the password itself, so me and @Erick194decided to put those to use for PSXDOOM-RE (and by extension GEC ME) and PsyDoom. One of the bits is used for 'Nightmare' mode and the other 2 are for extended map slots, which approximately multiplies by 4 the number of maps that can be supported. Some more background discussion: https://github.com/BodbDearg/PsyDoom/commit/78436a90bfb8e2318141c13bce2e9c8f313af814

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29 minutes ago, intacowetrust said:

 

The password system supporting more map slots is actually just an extended version of the game's original password system and still works with original format passwords - PsyDoom implements it currently. It was just noticed there were 3 unused bits of information being encoded into the password itself, so me and @Erick194decided to put those to use for PSXDOOM-RE (and by extension GEC ME) and PsyDoom. One of the bits is used for 'Nightmare' mode and the other 2 are for extended map slots, which approximately multiplies by 4 the number of maps that can be supported. Some more background discussion: https://github.com/BodbDearg/PsyDoom/commit/78436a90bfb8e2318141c13bce2e9c8f313af814

Hmm, that's odd. I tried some sample passwords floating around on the net (for example, QJNLNNLNNN which should pistol-start you on MAP12) and Beta 3 refused to accept it.

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@Dark Pulse Indeed in Beta 3 the original passwords do not work, they change flatly by adding the Nigthmare difficulty, but that was because the modification was by Hack in the EXE, much more before obtaining the rebuilt code, @intacowetrust is currently right the Nigthmare difficulty currently it works with the original passwords, but that will work in Beta 4.

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6 hours ago, Erick194 said:

@Dark Pulse Indeed in Beta 3 the original passwords do not work, they change flatly by adding the Nigthmare difficulty, but that was because the modification was by Hack in the EXE, much more before obtaining the rebuilt code, @intacowetrust is currently right the Nigthmare difficulty currently it works with the original passwords, but that will work in Beta 4.

So then basically, the old passwords will become re-compatible as of Beta 4?

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38 minutes ago, needwax@comcast.net said:

someday in the future can you add freedoom phase 1 and freedoom phase 2 maps?

1. No

2. Freedoom is ever changing. It wouldn't make sense to convert the maps when they might get replaced later on.
3. You can do it yourself once the project is done and the tools are released.

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22 hours ago, needwax@comcast.net said:

someday in the future can you add freedoom phase 1 and freedoom phase 2 maps?

As was said earlier, this is primarily for the actual Doom games.

 

That said, once the project is complete, Erick has said he will release an updated toolchain, and from there stuff like the graphic replacements and the like that Freedoom would need would be totally possible, and someone else would be free to do exactly that.

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I hope things are still moving on this project, it has been a very long time since we've had an update ..

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By the way, my last update for The Titan Anomaly map that I submitted in September 2020, was downloaded one time from "My attachments" just last month. I dare to assume that the maps have slowly started to compile.

 

P.S. Also, if there are additional places on this map in which the player can get stuck, give me the numbers/tags of the sectors, since I found only one such.

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