Freedoom in Debian

I've just received word that Freedoom 0.2 has been packaged for Debian and is currently sitting in the FTP upload queue for the Debian package repository. Now it should be possible to include not only Freedoom but also Free engines such as PrBoom as part of the standard Debian distribution!

Awesome! Apparently there's already a package for Legacy, too bad that it isn't fully Boom compatible.

Nice.

What's bad though is that this project's chances of succeeding looks quite slim at the moment.

Maybe we should abandon the PWAD-compatible IWAD replacement project and just make a nice small stand-alone Doom-like game instead.

Maybe fraggle should get off his Elton loving ass and start promoting it again :P

Fredrik said:

Maybe we should abandon the PWAD-compatible IWAD replacement project and just make a nice small stand-alone Doom-like game instead.

After all the work making it compatible? I don't think that's such a great idea. As I see it the "only" things left are some of the enemies and a couple levels. The "90% done" on sprites is a bit misleading though ;)

Maybe the Freedoom team should let Scuba remake a bunch of stuff nice like he's been saying he'd like to so it doesn't look like trash :P

Though this reminds me I should probably finish up E3M9...

fraggle said:

I've just received word that Freedoom 0.2 has been packaged for Debian

Hmm I have been beaten to it - I was planning on packaging it myself but I thought it would be better to wait until it was a bit nearer completion.

boris said:

Awesome! Apparently there's already a package for Legacy

Not for long :( prboom is in there though.

For reference here's the(/an?) ITP for debian: http://bugs.debian.org/206139

Linguica said:

Maybe fraggle should get off his Elton loving ass and start promoting it again :P

This is the correct solution :)

Effectively the "shareware" miniproject is what Fredrik has described though, a PWAD-incompatible standalone Doom game. It really wouldnt be that much effort to finish it. The same could also be said of FreeDM.

boris said:

After all the work making it compatible?

The work done so far wouldn't be undone. There could be both a free IWAD and a free game under the Freedoom roof.

Creating entirely original stuff is both easier and more fun than replicating the exact hues and dimensions of bricks in IWAD textures.

Fredrik said:

Creating entirely original stuff is both easier and more fun than replicating the exact hues and dimensions of bricks in IWAD textures.

True, but I'd say let's finish Freedoom and if then there is any desire to make a whole new game...

boris said:

True, but I'd say let's finish Freedoom and if then there is any desire to make a whole new game...

Agreed. Trying to bolt a consistent theme or plot on FD now most likely will not work. Get to 100%, then fork if there's enough interest.

I just did an apt-get install freedoom and it worked. Cool beans.

My bro is a Linux fanatic and I always enjoy making 'apt-get install' jokes when it's not working for him. "Try apt-get install Windows." he laughs. "apt-get install clue" hee. Ah I got a million of 'em.

Fredrik said:

Creating entirely original stuff is both easier and more fun than replicating the exact hues and dimensions of bricks in IWAD textures.

Indeed but we're at 100% of our texture needs. I suppose your argument applies to some extent to the other content but not as much.

(the hires stuff is low-priority)

The chances are, the screenshots and textures I upload to ftp won't be on the website anyways. Even if the new website is nice, there's still jdoom screenshots that won't work with the boom levels.

As for Debian package of freedoom, I don't want to see it limited to prBoom as I would like to see some candy eyes with it, such as 3drisen. The website needs to stay updated and we need to ask the help of others to finish the project. Even thoe some of the charaters sucks, it would still be a building block for further work and development.

tony said:
The chances are, the screenshots and textures I upload to ftp won't be on the website anyways.

I still plan on using them! I've only had my vect.org account reactivated in the last few days.

Even if the new website is nice

Judge for yourself - http://freedoom.sf.net/newsite/ . feedback appreciated!

there's still jdoom screenshots that won't work with the boom levels.

Yah .. but you could still use the IWAD with jdoom in order to use PWADs so its not a total failure at least.

As for Debian package of freedoom, I don't want to see it limited to prBoom as I would like to see some candy eyes with it, such as 3drisen.

Same here, but debian has very strict guidelines on the software they include. Legacy, jdoom and risen3d are unfortunately technically illegal as they mix and match inappropriate licences and are unclear etc. etc. so debian won't include them until thats sorted out.

The only real hope I think is for activision to give the go-ahead on GPLing heretic/hexen code.

The website needs to stay updated and we need to ask the help of others to finish the project.

Yes. Well, progress is being made. Interest in the project has picked up since the debian ITP - I've seen people in #debian on freenode asking for help getting freedoom to work which was nice.

Great news, glad to see things getting back on track, jDoom illegal ?

tony said:

Great news, glad to see things getting back on track, jDoom illegal ?

I've heard a claim that there is ACS code in jdoom taken either from zdoom or hexen (where the code in zdoom originates from hexen, afaik, although predates the official release of the hexen source). The interface between the heretic/hexen licenced portion and the GPL portion is also hotly debated. Additionally, the whole lot is advertised on sf.net as `GPL', leading derivatives into believing the code is 100% gpl (although to be fair, each individual source file clearly indicates the licence at the top).

I see.