DOOM Retro v5.3 (updated March 3, 2024)

4 hours ago, endoomer said:

Hey! It is just me or it really feels kinda weird when you change the level via IDCLEV cheat and all of your previous weapons come with you?

That sounds like a feature, not a bug!

Hi everyone! Version 4.2.3 of DOOM Retro is now available to download. It's a small point release, but packed with a lot of minor fixes and improvements. Visit www.doomretro.com to download and check out the release notes.

Also, if you haven't done so already, please check out issue 14 of @Endless's Doom Master Wadazine here. 😀

Minor bug, hellknights don't seem to leave any pool of gore when crushed.

15 hours ago, JimDoeson said:

Minor bug, hellknights don't seem to leave any pool of gore when crushed.

 

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Thanks for this. I'll look at fixing it for the next release.

Is there a way to implement more brightmaps from the side of the user?
or is it hardcoded in the Sourceport?

2 hours ago, BerserkerNoir said:

Is there a way to implement more brightmaps from the side of the user?
or is it hardcoded in the Sourceport?

At this stage, no, you cannot specify a brightmap for a different texture.

Finally got round to giving this one a blast.  This is some great stuff Brad, amazing that you managed to make this from Chocolate Doom.  Love it, top class.

3 hours ago, Gibbon said:

Finally got round to giving this one a blast.  This is some great stuff Brad, amazing that you managed to make this from Chocolate Doom.  Love it, top class.

Thanks @Gibbon! Much appreciated! :)

So I spent some time getting this to work on MacOS (Intel and M1).  Needless to say, a few tweaks of the Makefile.osx file and it was done.  There are a few issues that are likely related to permissions (MacOS is getting more and more strict) but it works.  A bug on TNT.WAD (title screen) has the intro music playing constantly (like a broken record) but the others (DOOM/DOOM2/PLUTONIA) are fine.

Obligatory screenshot:

Would you like me to submit a PR and some binaries for you?  These are not Xcode App bundles, because I don't like wasting 50GB of space on a 120GB Mac :)

The title screen music for TNT.WAD could be an SDL issue. Just having double-checked on Windows, and it only plays once. And yes please, @Gibbon, a pull request would be great!

5 minutes ago, bradharding said:

The title screen music for TNT.WAD could be an SDL issue. Just having double-checked on Windows, and it only plays once. And yes please, @Gibbon, a pull request would be great!

@bradharding done

Also, a GPG verified upload of a binary package is here: https://github.com/atsb/doomretro/releases/tag/4.2.3_Gibbon

Your code is damn clean, even clang did not complain too much :)

Hey, Brad, thanks for the fantastic port. The level of polish is just staggering, feels like a proper commercial product rather than just a hobby project. After going through cvars list on wiki and reading this thread, I've managed to resolve most of my problems, but I still have some (non-)issues and would love to hear your opinion on them:

a) Couldn't find a way to scale fullscreen HUD. I'm playing on a 15.6" laptop and default size is really small for me and hard on eyes. Currently using althud and it's great, but could use some scaling too.

b) MIDI reverb. I really miss it, it makes music sound so much richer and less flat. Any chance to see hear it in DR?

c) ZDL3 is the most convenient WAD loader for me, but DR doesn't parse folders, only files. Really handy, if there's multiple files, like BTSX. for instance. It seems like an inherited behavior from crispy/chocolate doom, so I wonder if it's possible to fix on your side.

d) I had a custom HUD layout for GZDoom and would really appreciate if you could implement it. But I'm not begging! I would rather do it myself if the HUD wasn't hardcoded.

https://i.imgur.com/JYnkwRe.png

https://i.imgur.com/oXGwUfL.png

That's all, I guess. Thanks again for DR!

If you install Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth then you can use any soundfont you want, customise the settings, the volume etc. Independently from DR. It replaces the native Windows MIDI device.

8 hours ago, lisiczka said:

Hey, Brad, thanks for the fantastic port. The level of polish is just staggering, feels like a proper commercial product rather than just a hobby project. After going through cvars list on wiki and reading this thread, I've managed to resolve most of my problems, but I still have some (non-)issues and would love to hear your opinion on them:

 

a) Couldn't find a way to scale fullscreen HUD. I'm playing on a 15.6" laptop and default size is really small for me and hard on eyes. Currently using althud and it's great, but could use some scaling too.

b) MIDI reverb. I really miss it, it makes music sound so much richer and less flat. Any chance to see hear it in DR?

c) ZDL3 is the most convenient WAD loader for me, but DR doesn't parse folders, only files. Really handy, if there's multiple files, like BTSX. for instance. It seems like an inherited behavior from crispy/chocolate doom, so I wonder if it's possible to fix on your side.

d) I had a custom HUD layout for GZDoom and would really appreciate if you could implement it. But I'm not begging! I would rather do it myself if the HUD wasn't hardcoded.

 

https://i.imgur.com/JYnkwRe.png

https://i.imgur.com/oXGwUfL.png

 

That's all, I guess. Thanks again for DR!

Hi @lisiczka and you're welcome!

a) I have considered allowing an option to scale the widescreen HUD. Because of the resolution DR is locked at though, to increase the scale of the HUD, would mean it'd be 2x the size, which is huge.

b) @VGA provided a solution, but to add reverb myself, I'm not sure how I'd do that with SDL_mixer at this stage.

c) Could you please be more specific on what you'd like to see? The launcher in DR is meant to be simple as possible, doing as much as it can with only a standard windows dialog, but it does keep track of where your IWADs are kept, and will autoload them when a PWAD is loaded, even if in a different folder. You can also ctrl-click multiple files. (You mention BTSX: it gets special treatment in DR: if you only open btsx_e1a.wad, btsx_e1b.wad will be autoloaded, and vice versa.)

d) Customized HUD layouts will probably never happen, sorry.

12 hours ago, VGA said:

If you install Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth then you can use any soundfont you want, customise the settings, the volume etc. Independently from DR. It replaces the native Windows MIDI device.

I've tried VirtualMIDISynth and... it kinda doesn't sound as good as fluidsynth. Maybe it's just me.

9 hours ago, bradharding said:

 

Hi @lisiczka and you're welcome!

 

a) I have considered allowing an option to scale the widescreen HUD. Because of the resolution DR is locked at though, to increase the scale of the HUD, would mean it'd be 2x the size, which is huge.

b) @VGA provided a solution, but to add reverb myself, I'm not sure how I'd do that with SDL_mixer at this stage.

c) Could you please be more specific on what you'd like to see? The launcher in DR is meant to be simple as possible, doing as much as it can with only a standard windows dialog, but it does keep track of where your IWADs are kept, and will autoload them when a PWAD is loaded, even if in a different folder. You can also ctrl-click multiple files. (You mention BTSX: it gets special treatment in DR: if you only open btsx_e1a.wad, btsx_e1b.wad will be autoloaded, and vice versa.)

d) Customized HUD layouts will probably never happen, sorry.

a) Given how tiny HUD elements are, maybe 2x is fine? Do they look even bigger than on the screenshots I've posted?

c) I don't use the default launcher. I keep PWADs in separate folders (for example, 'pwads/btsx1/btsx1.wad) and drop folders with whatever they have inside (.deh or whatever), and also keep a few WADs sideloaded al the time (smoothed.wad, pk_sfx.wad etc), very handy how ZDL3 remembers last used wads, and next time you just click 'launch'. But nevermind, it's not much of an issue.

7 hours ago, lisiczka said:

I've tried VirtualMIDISynth and... it kinda doesn't sound as good as fluidsynth. Maybe it's just me.

Which soundfonts did you try? Try this one:

https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/1348

Also, I see you are using SMOOTHED, nice! Do you know I have also released a mod for smoother weapons? It is called Black Ops. You can load them both.

EDIT:

Here is a second soundfont recommendation:

2 hours ago, VGA said:

Also, I see you are using SMOOTHED, nice! Do you know I have also released a mod for smoother weapons? It is called Black Ops. You can load them both.

Yeah, I use it too. Great stuff. Was really surprised it was one of the few dehacked mods and DR to be the first to support it. Getting back to vanilla weapon animations after playing with smoothdoom.pk3 would be really painful for me, so it was the first thing I checked and glad it exists. I'm still experimenting with it, also found Scuba Steve's vanilla version for smooth weapons but it has some compatibility issues with both smoothed.wad and splus.wad, but works with altered pallets, so I'm having conflicting feelings what to do, lol, things are not so easy like with GZDoom (as for custom palette, I simply converted smoothed graphics to png and it worked perfectly with BTSX).

On 9/26/2021 at 12:55 PM, lisiczka said:

I've tried VirtualMIDISynth and... it kinda doesn't sound as good as fluidsynth. Maybe it's just me.

Virtual midi synth allows you to load different soundfonts, including the one used in fluidsynth mode. I personally recommend giving this one a try: https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/433

I've been using it for about 4 years now. 

A while back, I reported an issue where a switch did not work on MAP08 of Sunlust. Today I investigated this issue further, and it turns out not to be a linedef issue, as it is a result of a voodoo doll being placed incorrectly on the map upon saving a game. I am attaching a map that shows this issue. When you flip a switch, voodoo doll gets carried by conveyor belt. However, when you save a game before interacting with the switch, voodoo doll moves past the blocking ceiling and does not trigger a linedef placed in front of it, resulting in the door not being opened. This issue occurs only in Doom Retro, as it does not occur in PRBoom+. This behavior results in not being able to beat certain maps if User saves at least once. I am positive it prevents the User from completing Map08 of Sunlust, but I am pretty sure it also occurred in one of the maps in the middle of Eviternity. 

VoodooIssue.zip

4 hours ago, NieMaMordy said:

A while back, I reported an issue where a switch did not work on MAP08 of Sunlust. Today I investigated this issue further, and it turns out not to be a linedef issue, as it is a result of a voodoo doll being placed incorrectly on the map upon saving a game. I am attaching a map that shows this issue. When you flip a switch, voodoo doll gets carried by conveyor belt. However, when you save a game before interacting with the switch, voodoo doll moves past the blocking ceiling and does not trigger a linedef placed in front of it, resulting in the door not being opened. This issue occurs only in Doom Retro, as it does not occur in PRBoom+. This behavior results in not being able to beat certain maps if User saves at least once. I am positive it prevents the User from completing Map08 of Sunlust, but I am pretty sure it also occurred in one of the maps in the middle of Eviternity. 

VoodooIssue.zip

Thanks @NieMaMordy! This gives me something to work with.

EDIT: And thanks again! Issue is now fixed! (Long story short: problem has nothing to do with saving the game. When the menu is open, I allow for the scroller to continue to animate, but failed to stop things moving. Load your test map, open then close the menu, and the voodoo doll will move.)

Today I finally had an occasion to play Doom Retro on an actual retro computer with Windows XP. I remember that DR supported this system, so I tried it with some wads. It works properly most of the time, but it freezes for a few seconds from time to time. It appears to be a RAM issue. As far as I know, PC I used has 1GB of RAM. Is that something that can be dealt with by using some cvars, or is it unavoidable? I made sure to disable blood splats, and most transparencies. Note, that this issue occurred both with bigger PWADs, and with raw IWADs such as Doom2. 

You can check it in this video. It's in Polish, but you will be able to easily spot the issue as soon as it appears. 

2 hours ago, NieMaMordy said:

Today I finally had an occasion to play Doom Retro on an actual retro computer with Windows XP. I remember that DR supported this system, so I tried it with some wads. It works properly most of the time, but it freezes for a few seconds from time to time. It appears to be a RAM issue. As far as I know, PC I used has 1GB of RAM. Is that something that can be dealt with by using some cvars, or is it unavoidable? I made sure to disable blood splats, and most transparencies. Note, that this issue occurred both with bigger PWADs, and with raw IWADs such as Doom2. 

You can check it in this video. It's in Polish, but you will be able to easily spot the issue as soon as it appears. 

 

DR is always compiled using the latest version of Visual Studio, but the 32-bit build uses an earlier toolset that is meant to support XP. It could be SDL2 that's the problem. Does doomretro-4.1.3-win32.zip have the same problem? Also, is this XP with SP3?

This issue is still there in version you sent, but it is occurs much less often. Only once per map, opposed to more than 4 times in the newest version. Yes, this is Windows XP with SP3. Let me know if I can attach more detailed info or some logs. I will have access to this PC for a long period of time now. 

A couple of other things to try, if you please: try deleting midiproc.exe from the installation altogether and testing. Also, do other SDL-based ports do the same sort of thing (Crispy, PrBoom+ Chocolate)?

On 10/1/2021 at 8:38 PM, NieMaMordy said:

A while back, I reported an issue where a switch did not work on MAP08 of Sunlust. Today I investigated this issue further, and it turns out not to be a linedef issue, as it is a result of a voodoo doll being placed incorrectly on the map upon saving a game. I am attaching a map that shows this issue. When you flip a switch, voodoo doll gets carried by conveyor belt. However, when you save a game before interacting with the switch, voodoo doll moves past the blocking ceiling and does not trigger a linedef placed in front of it, resulting in the door not being opened. This issue occurs only in Doom Retro, as it does not occur in PRBoom+. This behavior results in not being able to beat certain maps if User saves at least once. I am positive it prevents the User from completing Map08 of Sunlust, but I am pretty sure it also occurred in one of the maps in the middle of Eviternity. 

VoodooIssue.zip

I tested this too on my source ports.  This works (save/load before interacting).  Could be an issue in either the saving or loading code I would guess, it at least narrows it down a bit.  Once Brad finds it, I'll be happy to test it on other platforms too.

1 hour ago, Gibbon said:

I tested this too on my source ports.  This works (save/load before interacting).  Could be an issue in either the saving or loading code I would guess, it at least narrows it down a bit.  Once Brad finds it, I'll be happy to test it on other platforms too.

Thanks @Gibbon. I have fixed this though (see reply above). Definitely a DR-specific bug! 😁

3 minutes ago, bradharding said:

Thanks @Gibbon. I have fixed this though (see reply above). Definitely a DR-specific bug! 😁

Ahh I didn't see the edit.  Good stuff!

8 hours ago, bradharding said:

A couple of other things to try, if you please: try deleting midiproc.exe from the installation altogether and testing. Also, do other SDL-based ports do the same sort of thing (Crispy, PrBoom+ Chocolate)?

The issue continues to occur after deleting midiproc. It is worth noting, that music continues to be played as usual. I tried running all of these ports, but none of them work on my windows xp, due to "The procedure entry point GetTickCount64 could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.DLL." error. The only exception is Chocolate doom, which does start but displays blank screen.

16 minutes ago, NieMaMordy said:

The issue continues to occur after deleting midiproc. It is worth noting, that music continues to be played as usual. I tried running all of these ports, but none of them work on my windows xp, due to "The procedure entry point GetTickCount64 could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.DLL." error. The only exception is Chocolate doom, which does start but displays blank screen.

The minimum supported version for that function (GetTickCount64) is Vista/7, I doubt it would work properly on XP.  Basically the Kernel32.dll doesn't have it and so likely this is the culprit.

13 hours ago, NieMaMordy said:

The issue continues to occur after deleting midiproc. It is worth noting, that music continues to be played as usual. I tried running all of these ports, but none of them work on my windows xp, due to "The procedure entry point GetTickCount64 could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.DLL." error. The only exception is Chocolate doom, which does start but displays blank screen.

I'm surprised DR works at all on XP tbh. I'm not sure it's a RAM issue. Checking the 32-bit build on my system using that map, it's using about 250Mb of RAM. Is that about the same in your case? I'm not sure that there's anything in DR's code that would cause it to stutter like that though. If it were a performance issue, it'd slow down in the usual way. If you run it with the -nosound command-line parameter do you still get the same problem?