Why is Odamex so underplayed?

[-TDRR-]

Why? It has a lot of good stuff, as said in the spoiler below.

 

Spoiler

• Is open source
• Has a truecolor software (?) render
• Is the most vanilla-like multiplayer sourceport
• Actually runs on Linux without Wine (well zan also does this)
• Outperforms ZDaemon and Zandro
• Once was (or still is?) the ESports standard for Doom
• the name guarantees results but isn't as mismash-y as Zandronum
• has recently continued development (not major stuff but bugfixes and the like)
• it runs on the Wii and Xbox (the only multiplayer sourceport to do so!)

 

And probably other stuff.

 

What do you think about Odamex?

[Hypnotik]

Not sure. I tried it out a few months ago, It was a complete ghost town for a week. I think Odamex is pretty neat.

[hobomaster22]

As far as competitive gameplay, Odamex is by far the superior port. Shots feel correct and is playable with a ping higher than like 50, unlike Zandronum. I don't even consider ZDaemon an option because the port has fallen so far I've put in the completely unplayable category. I think what really steers people away from Odamex is the a lack of features, and other things that are not intuitive. It desperately needs a queue feature for duels and a hub map that you don't need to open the console and callvote to actually play. Pressing the home key to actually start a match and come out of 'warm up' mode isn't obvious either. Zandronum does a ton of ZDoom/GZDoom features that Odamex doesn't have, but I couldn't care less. The port actually functioning correctly is far more important to me.

 

I would much prefer to play on Odamex, but it's basically dead. Zandronum is where you can find games so everyone is going to continue to play there.

[-TDRR-]

Indeed, i noticed that it tries to stick to vanilla yet enhance at the same time, and it sure does well.

You are right, i just now noticed that Odamex isn't exactly the most easy to use sourceport but it is neat when you figure out the important stuff.

I only wish that someday we got the chance to bring a lot of players to Odamex. I can imagine many ZDaemon players prefering a more vanilla-like sourceport that isn't so butchered (blockmap bug in cases where it doesn't happen in vanilla?!)

an Android port is what i feel could help a lot considering the only other mp sourceport in there is Delta Touch's Chocolate Doom (and that kinda sucks compared to Odamex for it's own reasons) and is also the only MP sourceport viable for Playstore distribution.

 

Odamex also plays very well with high ping, yet Zandro struggles at 70ms or so, ZDaemon does work decently with 150ms though.

 

Definitely would be my go-to multiplayer sourceport.

[Ch0wW]

The thing with Odamex being dead is that at the very moment is that it's still under heavy development (the devs have been on hiatus for ~4 years, but they've all come back stronger than ever), but it starts getting slightly more populated on Discord (link at the bottom). We've taken a lot of time to fix a few issues/complains people had with Odamex (the ready feature you said was slightly reworked, and it now indicates what key to press in order to start the match), and we've updated it with SDL2 to support even more platforms and to increase the performances unlike SDL1.2 .

 

Granted, there are still a few issues that we're investigating (insta-lifts on King1 are still something we still want to effectively fix), but we've done a lot to make it better and more stable for the upcoming 0.8.0 (happy bugfixing stuff I made for months !). Now, we'd need more devs to add features a few would definitely want : a language to support own HUDS, HUDMessages, more ACS functions, a better DEHacked patcher, ZDoom2.X's LANGUAGE2 lump...

 

That said, one thing what would make Odamex a more popular port unlike the Big Zs, would be being more... "portable": as you said, it's currently on Wii (no network support yet :c ) and XboX (one of the most popular homebrews for that platform), and on my free time, I'm trying to port it to PSP/PSVita and Android (the latter should be quite quick, but i'd definitely need help to do it correctly using Android Studio, which isn't something I'm used to -at all-). I'm sure it'd attract more people joining the fun!

 

Also, every port has its pros and cons, and Oda is neither excellent not awful : it does his networking job quite well, despite the few issues we have/had, and it stays quite vanilla overall in terms of physics (although you can toggle BOOM/ZDoom ones).

 

We're currently making a lot of testing right now, so if you want to join us playing some games or wanting to help us doing some cool stuff, feel free to also join us on the Odamex Discord (which is available @ https://discord.gg/aMUzcZE ).

[Ralphis]

Hey guys, the good news is that a new version is imminent (roughly 900 commits in the codebase since 0.7). If you use Discord, please feel free to join the Odamex community here: https://discord.gg/aMUzcZE. We'd love to have you guys around to organize some games, talk about the engine, etc. Things should continue to improve in regards to usability, new features, and other areas.

 

The issue of people not playing is a bit of a circular problem. Searching players don't see active players so they don't join servers. Because they don't join servers, the searching players don't see active players - repeat. With the new version, expect some events to pop up. If people attend and people play the port, new people join servers. We learned that in the past during our last stretch of significant activity between versions 0.6 and 0.7. There are a lot of ideas that can be implemented to help improve the active player base, but it ultimately takes a village.

 

Hope to see you guys playing on the new version with us very soon!

[Hekksy]

The Discord is actually very active for community stuff and is the best way to get involved. Please join us there :D. Can't wait for 0.8!

[-TDRR-]

50 minutes ago, Ch0wW said:

The thing with Odamex being dead is that at the very moment is that it's still under heavy development (the devs have been on hiatus for ~4 years, but they've all come back stronger than ever)

 

better and more stable for the upcoming 0.8.0

 

That said, one thing what would make Odamex a more popular port unlike the Big Zs, would be being more... "portable": as you said, it's currently on Wii (no network support yet :c ) and XboX (one of the most popular homebrews for that platform), and on my free time, I'm trying to port it to PSP/PSVita and Android (the latter should be quite quick, but i'd definitely need help to do it correctly using Android Studio, which isn't something I'm used to -at all-). I'm sure it'd attract more people joining the fun!

 

Wait, there are PSP and Android ports in early development? That's fantastic!

 

About the Wii port, you should ask the guys who made the Quake ports, they are piko, Eluan and Izhido, all their ports include very stable networking. (no hosting though)

Also, i'm definitely going to do a WiiBrew article on it whenever the Wii port is done ;)

 

Nice to hear that the Discord is growing! I will join too.

 

EDIT: Almost forgot, will the Wii port ever support Wiimote alone and Wiimote + Nunchuck?

Wiimote alone would be really awesome, maybe D-Pad = move and turn, + and - = Switch weapons

B = Strafe, A = Automap, 1 = Use, 2 = Fire. Wiimote + Nunchuck should be obvious.

Edited January 19, 2019 by -TDRR-

[Ralphis]

34 minutes ago, -TDRR- said:

Almost forgot, will the Wii port ever support Wiimote alone and Wiimote + Nunchuck?

Wiimote alone would be really awesome, maybe D-Pad = move and turn, + and - = Switch weapons

B = Strafe, A = Automap, 1 = Use, 2 = Fire. Wiimote + Nunchuck should be obvious.

 

I played through the first 7 maps or so of Doom 2 on just a wiimote a few years ago. I forget what setup I used. Holding it horizontally with the d-pad on the left, I think it was something like: Trigger - Left Strafe, 2 - Right Strafe, DPAD L/R - Turn left/right, DPAD U/D - forward/back, 1 - Fire, A - Use, +/- for next and previous weapon

[-TDRR-]

4 minutes ago, Ralphis said:

 

I played through the first 7 maps or so of Doom 2 on just a wiimote a few years ago. I forget what setup I used. Holding it horizontally with the d-pad on the left, I think it was something like: Trigger - Left Strafe, 2 - Right Strafe, DPAD L/R - Turn left/right, DPAD U/D - forward/back, 1 - Fire, A - Use, +/- for next and previous weapon

 

That setup is way too strange for beginners and isn't really welcoming at all. Just leave the buttons configurable to the user and use the one i suggested which is the simplest to use. Similar to the SNES version of Doom, which despite having input delay controlled great.

[HumanBones]

A lot of people came to play Odamex during special events, weekly or otherwise. Look for those to become a thing again with the next release. 

[-TDRR-]

3 minutes ago, HumanBones said:

A lot of people came to play Odamex during special events

 

Well, of course, i'm talking about most of the time instead of just on special events, which finally appears to be happening once again.

[crazyflyingdonut]

I never even heard of it...

[-TDRR-]

4 minutes ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

I never even heard of it...

 

Click on this text to find out more about Odamex

[crazyflyingdonut]

14 minutes ago, -TDRR- said:

Click on this text to find out more about Odamex

Welp, after downloading the thing and playing it for myself, it's pretty balanced, like playing Chocolate Doom on multiplayer. But, nobody's heard of it. So I can't say I'll be using it very often compared to Zandronum and GZDoom.

[-TDRR-]

5 minutes ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

nobody's heard of it. So I can't say I'll be using it very often compared to Zandronum and GZDoom. 

That can change if you tell your friends about it ;)

 

(seriously though, if you do have someone who plays Doom multiplayer, try to play with them on Odamex, maybe they could play it from time to time)

[Hekksy]

24 minutes ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

Welp, after downloading the thing and playing it for myself, it's pretty balanced, like playing Chocolate Doom on multiplayer. But, nobody's heard of it. So I can't say I'll be using it very often compared to Zandronum and GZDoom.

Odamex's peak playtime was between 2012 and 2014, when the International Doom League and then the World Doom League used it for their Capture the Flag competitions. It was also the port of choice for the 20th anniversary QuakeCon Doom II tournament in 2013. After the release of Odamex version 0.7.0 in 2014 the development slowed down to a crawl mostly due to all of the developers getting caught up with personal stuff in their own lives. The development has started to ramp up again as of October 2018.

 

It is not surprising that you have not heard of it, seeing as the port was mostly a ghost town in the last 4 years. That said we hope that is changing soon ;)

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Odamex is still Doom(2)-only, right?  I know one of the reasons I leaned more to Zandy was the Heretic and Hexen support.

[Doomkid]

I had no idea people were still working on Odamex this much. I’m so, so glad to hear it, FFA on Odamex is my drug of choice. I know this is a superfluous request among things the port actually needs, but is there any chance of player skins becoming a thing? Regardless this was great news to wake up to.

 

edit: afaik it’s not Heretic compatible yet, but as this thread shows I’m way outta touch with Oda development 

[-TDRR-]

Heretic compatibility is planned, but i think it would be for 0.9 and not 0.8.

 

If you guys want to make Odamex more played, then enter a server (even if it's empty) so that if anyone passes by they can see that there's actually activity in Odamex and even join! Because as Ralphis said, when there's no one playing then no one wants to try to play, so it just loops over and over and over.