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

[Impboy4]

I had to sacrifice the Cyberdemon in both my SIGIL slots, but they are replaced by Nightmare HKs so they add up to 4000hp still.

Also, do you think you can sacrifice "Twisted Beyond Reason" in your converted Halls of Perdition? I want to use that track for Abaddon's Void cuz it gives it that void feeling and compliments the level's colored theme. If you don't want to, I'll try to find another track to fit that vibe.

[riderr3]

On 1/25/2020 at 12:24 AM, Impboy4 said:

Also, do you think you can sacrifice "Twisted Beyond Reason" in your converted Halls of Perdition? I want to use that track for Abaddon's Void cuz it gives it that void feeling and compliments the level's colored theme. If you don't want to, I'll try to find another track to fit that vibe.

 

I think it is advisable to wait until the OP is updated and the situation becomes clearer. One way or another, there are still two consecutive maps - MAP04 and MAP09 from NRFTL in which Beyond Fear is played in a row (both are choice of @mr-around), the track itself is pretty overused. Still, GEC did not impose any strict restrictions in this direction.

[Gokuma]

Just in case someone wants to do something with idmap01 which the major complaint is it has no monsters for single player/coop...

 

I converted the Heretic E6M3 version back to Doom 2 map01 and took a lot of care in doing so.   Lots of details and some suggestions in the txt file.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ylbwuo6gek1o01x/idmaphd2.zip/file

 

Do whatever you want with this.

 

 

EDIT:  I click the link to any mediafire downloads and my recently installed ESET protection (since Microsoft is stopping updates) says

Quote

 

Threat found

This web page contains potentially dangerous content.

Threat: HTML/ScrInject.B trojan

Access to it has been blocked. Your computer is safe.

 

But going to mediafire.com itself and logging in was no problem.   Is ESET being overly protective?   False positive?

I scan all my stuff before uploading and it's always been clean.   Or should I ditch mediafire and use something else?

 

EDIT EDIT: Just attached the file here.

 

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT: Using a different browser at the minute but not getting that warning from ESET about mediafire now.

 

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Updated just the txt file in attached copy as my total health calculation was off.

 

The following post could use an exclamation point.

 

idmaphd2.zip

Edited January 31, 2020 by Gokuma

[Impboy4]

We're not going to include Idmap01 for the very reason that it's designed as a deathmatch map.  If it was a single player map that has deathmatch starts within that's fine, but deathmatch arenas aren't allowed.

[mr-around]

On 11/11/2019 at 4:52 PM, riderr3 said:

I converted memory values to Gameshark cheats, use them to to enable it. As example, ePSXe has "cheat codes" section and "cheats" folder. Google how to use them.

 

For Doom:

SLUS_000.77.txt

#Nightmare skill
800775FC 0004

#VRAM View (Pause menu)
800A88AC 0010

 

For Final Doom:

SLUS_003.31.txt

#Nightmare skill
8007796C 0004

#VRAM View (Pause menu)
800AB3CC 0010

 

 

I entered those codes in both games to check out whether they work. It does the job for Final Doom, but not for regular Doom (it's ntsc region). What happend?

[Whiteysnakey]

_

Edited April 29, 2020 by Whiteysnakey

[Impboy4]

@DeⓧiazYou need to either shorten that jump in Gotcha to progress the level or add some detail to slow down the frame rate so I can glide over that gap.  I died trying to complete the level because of that and it's fucking annoying.

[VGA]

How are some of these maps playable on PSX? For example, isn't the first map of NRFTL too complex? It doesn't play on doom2.exe 1.9. I mean, I get that you simplify the map but still ... how does it run?

 

Has any video been posted of it?

[Dexiaz]

7 hours ago, Impboy4 said:

I died trying to complete the level because of that and it's fucking annoying.

 

Sorry, but I did it in this purpose. I'm an asshole, right. But it's the same as challenge and experience from the DOS version without mouselook, jumping and other things. You must hate this place, because it's designed like that by John Romero. And I won't change it. Almost...I've make the ledge longer to make it easer for PSX players. But for you it's not enough... But I can't help here, sorry. No joking, sorry for that.

@VGA
Just simple google searching gives me those videos:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by Deⓧiaz : added reply to VGA

[VGA]

Hah, pretty cool. The gardens and the outer area of the Earth Base had to be cut down but it's cool. Although I don't like that translucent "window" effect. It is a bit annoying and ... it doesn't break. I think it is also overused because I saw in in the conversion of TNT's Stronghold.

 

By the way, geometry and area size seem much more important than the number of enemies on-screen, interesting. But as I am writing this, I remember you have to limit the enemy types per map.

[riderr3]

On 1/29/2020 at 10:44 PM, mr-around said:

 

 

I entered those codes in both games to check out whether they work. It does the job for Final Doom, but not for regular Doom (it's ntsc region). What happend?

 

As previously mentioned in the thread, regular PSX Doom have two CD release versions v1 and v1.1, and their gameshark codes are different. You probably have different version and the values are shifted (if any other working GS codes exists for your version, you can calculate how far they are shifted.)

 

4 hours ago, VGA said:

By the way, geometry and area size seem much more important than the number of enemies on-screen, interesting. But as I am writing this, I remember you have to limit the enemy types per map.

 

In the short words: less detail = more monster types will be available.

[mr-around]

7 hours ago, riderr3 said:

As previously mentioned in the thread, regular PSX Doom have two CD release versions v1 and v1.1, and their gameshark codes are different. You probably have different version and the values are shifted (if any other working GS codes exists for your version, you can calculate how far they are shifted.) 

 

What's the difference of those versions? Are their maps different? Are they both for PAL and NTSC regions, or one of them was exclusively for latter or former? I guess the codes for v1.1 only?

[Gerardo194]

@mr-around  I think those versions that riderr3 is referring to are the standard PSXDoom CD (V1) and Greatest Hits CD (v1.1)

[Impboy4]

14 hours ago, Deⓧiaz said:

Sorry, but I did it in this purpose. I'm an asshole, right. But it's the same as challenge and experience from the DOS version without mouselook, jumping and other things. You must hate this place, because it's designed like that by John Romero. And I won't change it. Almost...I've make the ledge longer to make it easer for PSX players. But for you it's not enough... But I can't help here, sorry. No joking, sorry for that.

I can make it in the PC version just fine with a normal straight run and jump across. The PSX version however I cannot no matter how hard I try. You know why? The gravity physics in PSX Doom are different to PC's. Framerate determines gravity in PSX Doom and since the jump is in an area with a high FPS, I sink like a rock when I go off the edge.

[intacowetrust]

11 hours ago, Impboy4 said:

I can make it in the PC version just fine with a normal straight run and jump across. The PSX version however I cannot no matter how hard I try. You know why? The gravity physics in PSX Doom are different to PC's. Framerate determines gravity in PSX Doom and since the jump is in an area with a high FPS, I sink like a rock when I go off the edge.

 

Was curious about this problem and whether it affected PsyDoom so I did a little investigation and made a video:

 

 

Sure enough, PsyDoom also suffers from the same bug. I only managed to complete this jump when running at 30 Hz by doing some straferunning - otherwise it's pretty much impossible. When I artificially cap the game at 15 Hz however the jump is extremely easy and I get it first time.

 

Hope to investigate the cause of this inconsitency more later and maybe come up with some sort of solution to the problem, at the moment the key jump in 'The Mansion' is also broke for me in PsyDoom :P

 

As for this particular level issue - my suggestion would be move the higher ledge a little closer so that the level doesn't break for people running in overclocked or non vanilla PSX environments. It doesn't seem to me like this jump is supposed to be hugely challenging (certainly not on PC anyway) so I don't think such a change would detract from the map much.

[Dexiaz]

Oh...

 

I mean, it's my very first map for this project, so I did it way before than GEC have patched some things including gravity of the Doomguy.

 

It worked perfectly on unchanged PSX Doom. Well, feel free to fix this, as I said earlier:

On 12/9/2019 at 11:51 PM, Deⓧiaz said:

I'm quitting the Doom modding. Not for eternity, but for a long time, I suppose.

[intacowetrust]

15 hours ago, Deⓧiaz said:

I mean, it's my very first map for this project, so I did it way before than GEC have patched some things including gravity of the Doomguy.

 

 

Not your fault at all - this is a very obscure gameplay/timing bug in PSX Doom that could easily catch any mapper off guard. If you were running on an actual PS1 or a very precise emulation then this wouldn't register as a problem. From what I've seen of the map so far you've done some admirable work, so thank you for you contributions towards the project!

Edited February 2, 2020 by intacowetrust

[Erick194]

@intacowetrust Thanks for checking, that must be, of course, the drop in frame rate and player gravity, you can try on the map The Mansion when you run to the throne and take the blue key.

 

Here a look at the code of P_PlayerZMovement since the gravity is a (FRACUNIT * 4) a difference from Doom PC that is only FRACUNIT.

 

void P_PlayerZMovement (mobj_t *mo)//L800298D8()
{
	/* */
	/* check for smooth step up */
	/* */
	if (mo->z < mo->floorz)
	{
		mo->player->viewheight -= (mo->floorz - mo->z);
		mo->player->deltaviewheight = (VIEWHEIGHT - mo->player->viewheight) >> 2;
	}

	/* */
	/* adjust height */
	/* */
	mo->z += mo->momz;

	/* */
	/* clip movement */
	/* */
	if (mo->z <= mo->floorz)
	{	/* hit the floor */
		if (mo->momz < 0)
		{
			if (mo->momz < -(GRAVITY*2))	/* squat down */
			{
				mo->player->deltaviewheight = mo->momz>>3;
				S_StartSound (mo, sfx_oof);
			}
			mo->momz = 0;
		}
		mo->z = mo->floorz;
	}
	else
	{
		if (mo->momz == 0)
			mo->momz = -GRAVITY;    //In Doom PC it would only give 0x20000, but in Psx Doom it would result in 0x40000.
		else
			mo->momz -= (GRAVITY/2);//In Doom PC it would only give 0x10000, but in Psx Doom If we divide the FRACUNIT by 2 it would result in 0x20000.
	}

	if (mo->z + mo->height > mo->ceilingz)
	{	/* hit the ceiling */
		if (mo->momz > 0)
			mo->momz = 0;
		mo->z = mo->ceilingz - mo->height;
	}
}

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Erick194

[Erick194]

I must also apologize for not responding and update my threads, in addition to not answering PM's.

 

I inform that the PsxDoom is already completely rebuilt, it is compilable with PSYQ and can be executed in real hardware, at this moment we are discarding and looking for possible errors in the real hardware, soon I will be publishing the code, stay tuned.

[intacowetrust]

1 hour ago, Erick194 said:

I must also apologize for not responding and update my threads, in addition to not answering PM's.

 

I inform that the PsxDoom is already completely rebuilt, it is compilable with PSYQ and can be executed in real hardware, at this moment we are discarding and looking for possible errors in the real hardware, soon I will be publishing the code, stay tuned.

 

That's most excellent news indeed - sounds like you've been very busy :) Once the complete code is ready that should greatly accelerate efforts on PsyDoom also. Thanks to the render code you shared with me previously I've gotten the in-game renderer pretty much completely in native C++ now, right down to where it submits packets to the 'gpu', at which point the emulator's rasterizer kicks in and does the rest.

[Erick194]

40 minutes ago, intacowetrust said:

 

That's most excellent news indeed - sounds like you've been very busy :) Once the complete code is ready that should greatly accelerate efforts on PsyDoom also. Thanks to the render code you shared with me previously I've gotten the in-game renderer pretty much completely in native C++ now, right down to where it submits packets to the 'gpu', at which point the emulator's rasterizer kicks in and does the rest.

 

It is a pleasure to help you, I have also made modifications of variable names of your suggestions too, the version that I will upload is the one interpreted by me, but I will make more changes of names and modifications once I upload it to me github, to save the progress of your changes in the names of your interpretations and merge them with my version ;)

[D88M3R]

Does this currently includes just the levels that were in the PSX version? And how do i execute it?

It does not seem to work with Win10 :/

Edited February 2, 2020 by D88M3R

[Lollie]

36 minutes ago, D88M3R said:

Does this currently includes just the levels that were in the PSX version? And how do i execute it?

It does not seem to work with Win10 :/

This is specifically for PS1, so you will need a PS1 emulator! Emulators like Xebra, Mednafen, or ePSXe will do the trick — however, it is up to you to find PlayStation BIOS files in order for Mednafen or ePSXe to function. (Xebra doesn't need official bios files.)

[intacowetrust]

@Erick194 on the topic of VRAM in PSX Doom... I've just converted some of the texture cache handling code in PsyDoom over to C++ and noticed something very unusual - perhaps you may be able to shine some light on why this is? Maybe it could be an optimization opportunity for your rebuild to ease VRAM restrictions a little?

 

Basically VRAM in PSX Doom is split into 16 256x256 'pages' @ 8 bits per pixel, or 64 KiB per page. The first 4 pages are used by the front and back frame buffers (2 256x256 regions @ 16 bpp) and also to store CLUTs and the other 12 are free for other uses.

My question is this, I noticed that the texture management code only deals with 11 of these 12 available pages - leaving one 256x256 pixel chunk of VRAM unused. Running in the avocado emulator on a particularly heavy level (The Suburbs) seemed to confirm that the last 64 KiB chunk of VRAM was not being populated at all - it should be having sprites written to it at some point it was:

 

 

I don't see this chunk being used at any point during gameplay - was there any reason I wonder why the developers left that page unused? It seems odd that they would throw away this memory when VRAM was at such a premium. Maybe there's something I'm missing here...

[Erick194]

@intacowetrust You are correct with everything you say, maybe Williams as I approach to consume more memory I leave it only in 11 blocks and not in 12, but it really can be used, here my interpretation of the code, I must say as I have already said time back, PsxDoom uses part of the Mortal Kombat 3 code and Vram is no exception.

 

PSXDOOM VALLOC CODE.c

[intacowetrust]

6 hours ago, Erick194 said:

@intacowetrust You are correct with everything you say, maybe Williams as I approach to consume more memory I leave it only in 11 blocks and not in 12

 

Oh that's cool then, maybe you could enable it at some point later to allow a little more variety in future maps, or to help out with overflow errors. The cost would be an extra 1 KiB of main RAM (to manage it) which I think would be well worth it. Your point reminds me of this story also (see "The Programming Antihero"): https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132500/dirty_coding_tricks.php?page=4

Perhaps this was a similar situation, a page of VRAM held back as an insurance policy in case it was desperately needed towards the end? Maybe it was forgotten about for the retail release... It could have definitely helped out in levels like the 'The Suburbs' which were prone to crashing.

 

Lastly on the subject of the 'Texture Cache' overflows, I'm wondering why the devs never tried to do a draw sync (finish up all gpu operations) and purge the cache when this situation occurred? I'm sure there would have been a large performance hit and all but it would have still been preferable to the alternative - crashing. Might be something to try experiment with when you have time later! I'm sure I could do this in PsyDoom and see almost zero impact but I'm wondering what the cost is on a real PSX :)

 

6 hours ago, Erick194 said:

PsxDoom uses part of the Mortal Kombat 3 code and Vram is no exception.

 

Interesting! I can definitely see some of the DNA of that vram code in MK3. It looks like they changed things around quite a lot though to suit the needs of Doom.

[Erick194]

The current advantage of rebuilding Psx Doom, has around 58-56 kilobytes free that I can use for the vram, implement the Icon Of Sin, Archvile (if it really works), the WollSS and Keen. ;)

[intacowetrust]

8 minutes ago, Erick194 said:

The current advantage of rebuilding Psx Doom, has around 58-56 kilobytes free that I can use for the vram, implement the Icon Of Sin, Archvile (if it really works), the WollSS and Keen. ;)

 

Nice! That would be awesome... :) Yeah it seems like the Archvile should actually be doable if you pull in some of the missing Doom II code - you could even add in Aubrey's unused vile sfx for added authenticity.

 

From just looking at the lump sizes in DOOM2.WAD it actually looks like the Cyberdemon is heavier than the Archvile (and the Mastermind is even heavier) - so I'm not sure why the claim was made that it couldn't be done. Maybe I'm missing something but it seems like if you just lighten the monster variety a bit then you should be able to add the Archvile into some maps.

[VGA]

But Archviles are used sparingly due to their nature. So you would reduce the monster variety for almost all of the enemies in the map just to add 1-4 Archviles.

 

Now that I think about it, they decided to cut some monsters and since the Archvile has special programming and is a breeding ground for bugs and edge case scenarios ... they definitely wanted to cut that :D

 

Doom has bugs related to the Vile, like the ghost monster bug. And now that I think about it some more, the existence of the Vile requires a Raise state and animation for all resurrectable monsters. Also, it requires the fullscreen fire effect. And the big jump that the player does can sequence-break a map, so mappers need to take it into consideration. Also, the game tracks the percentage of monsters killed and needs to take into account the resurrected ones so you don't get 114% Kills.

 

Is all this worth it?

[Gerardo194]

The Healer Stalks

Edited February 2, 2020 by Gerardo194