Doom 32X Resurrection

[Vic]

1 hour ago, Marsguy said:

Understood, then this is probably okay like that?

Yes, if you can tame your OCD :)

[Mittens0407]

Dunno how useful this is for this project or if it's news to you but there's been this new sound driver developed for Genesis development called Fractal https://gitlab.com/Natsumi/Fractal-Sound, it's supposedly lightweight and supports multiPCM. It has conversion support for Furnace https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace, which is a free alternative to/fully compatible with Deflemask (the program Spoony used to create the VGMs in D32xr). There's probably a solution that's better for D32xr already but it's just something I thought would be of interest.

[Dimon12321]

On 3/8/2022 at 11:08 PM, Dimon12321 said:

I noticed the image is shifted down on BizHawk emulator, like shown on this screenshot and in my coop speedrun video. You can see, there is a blank bar on the top and a piece of HUD is not displayed at the bottom.

Bizhawk uses Genesis Plus GX core which claims to emulate Sega 32X more accurately than Kega Fusion emulator. I cannot recall a game which would have such an issue, except for D32XR. Would you please take a look at this issue? Maybe, the game utilises a different resolution to what 32X uses?

Turned out, to fix the image you have to set either US or JapanNTSC region in core settings, if you use Bizhawk. Since xdelta patch is applied to the Europe version of ROM, emulators also set Europe by autodetection.
 

On 5/25/2022 at 10:05 AM, Dimon12321 said:

Oh, boy. I screwed up. Pardon my bad English =( 
I should have said "unpopular". 

@ChillyWilly Well, I can’t influence the quality, but at least I made it a little more popular =)
Right at my 666th post.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Dimon12321

[Dimon12321]

I finally got my hands to the actual version of D32XR and I'm really surprised with the performance of 320x180. I don't know how hard the framedrops will be in a complicated scene, but for most maps it looks wonderful!
Also noticed one undocumented thing: Nightmare difficulty feels quite playable. Unlike the original 32X release where enemies constantly attacking you, here they simply attack more often while still spending some time walking around.

[Vic]

4 hours ago, ChillyWilly said:

He even contributed some fixes to Slade so that you can edit Jaguar/32X wad files using it.

Not quite: you can now view textures and maps using latest versions of Slade. Editing 32X-compatible WADs is still a long way off. Highly unlikely to ever happen even :)

[Dimon12321]

1 hour ago, Vic said:

Editing 32X-compatible WADs is still a long way off. Highly unlikely to ever happen even :)

You mean, it may require a lot of deserialization? For instance, moving all kinds of data and assets from binary form to somewhat eatable for Slade? 

[Vic]

32 minutes ago, Dimon12321 said:

You mean, it may require a lot of deserialization? For instance, moving all kinds of data and assets from binary form to somewhat eatable for Slade? 

 

Slade is a WAD file editing tool, it won't ever support extracting or importing data from/to ROMs.

 

Adding 32X WADs support would require making substantial changes to the UI and also a way to hold meta-information for lumps such as the LZSS compression flag, padding/alignment for bank switching support, etc.

[ChillyWilly]

On 7/18/2022 at 4:24 PM, Vic said:

 

Adding 32X WADs support would require making substantial changes to the UI and also a way to hold meta-information for lumps such as the LZSS compression flag, padding/alignment for bank switching support, etc.

 

Ah, I misunderstood that part. Too bad - it would be nice to have an editor that directly supported the 32X wad format.

[Vic]

Just FYI, there's two 32X+ sound packs for Doom 32X Resurrection available for your enjoyment:

 

https://www.zeldix.net/t2466-doom-resurrection-32x

 

 

[Muusi]

Speaking of sound packs. How about a toggle between original and PSX sound effects? 😆

[Vic]

4 hours ago, Muusi said:

Speaking of sound packs. How about a toggle between original and PSX sound effects? 😆

I'd rather not spend any of the precious ROM space on PSX sound effects.

[Kyle07]

Awesome! Did not know that Zeldix has also MSU patches for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. :D

[Quasar]

17 hours ago, Vic said:

I'd rather not spend any of the precious ROM space on PSX sound effects.

I feel like it could/would be better served as something determined at ROM build time.

[Vic]

Well, you're welcome to maintain your own fork of D32XR that would feature PSX sounds :) I've never played that port and have no interest in investing my time into it.

[Quasar]

14 hours ago, Vic said:

Well, you're welcome to maintain your own fork of D32XR that would feature PSX sounds :) I've never played that port and have no interest in investing my time into it.

Fair enough, just an idea.

[Vic]

SpoonyBard's original WAV renditions have been added as the third MD+ patch for D32XR over at zeldix.net: https://www.zeldix.net/t2466-doom-resurrection-32x

[Dimon12321]

Speaking of those renditions, how were they recorded? Were they played through the D32XR soundfont in a specific player or that was emulator recording with sound effects turned off?

[Vic]

2 hours ago, Dimon12321 said:

Speaking of those renditions, how were they recorded? Were they played through the D32XR soundfont in a specific player or that was emulator recording with sound effects turned off?

I dunno, you'd ask Spoony Bard, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say it'd been exported directly from Deflemask.

[Csonicgo]

I think the new Mega Everdrive Pro Firmware allows for 32X+ features, so this soundtrack should work there as well, if you didn't want to support the MegaSD due to reasons I won't go into here.

[Vic]

6 hours ago, Csonicgo said:

I think the new Mega Everdrive Pro Firmware allows for 32X+ features, so this soundtrack should work there as well, if you didn't want to support the MegaSD due to reasons I won't go into here.

There's no way a game can support 32X+ without supporting the MegaSD along the way. In general, whatever problems you may have with TO, I'm gonna stay out of them.

[Dimon12321]

Here's some more immersive content for you! At first I was going to beat another map in co-op, but then decided to repeat the walkthrough I previously did for SNES version. Map 1 co-op got 1000 views, so it inspired me even more to do something cool.
 

 

My comments are in the video description.

[Vic]

20 hours ago, Dimon12321 said:

Here's some more immersive content for you! At first I was going to beat another map in co-op, but then decided to repeat the walkthrough I previously did for SNES version. Map 1 co-op got 1000 views, so it inspired me even more to do something cool.
 

 

My comments are in the video description.

 

How do you even do such things?! What kind of equipment and/or software do you use?

[Dimon12321]

2 hours ago, Vic said:

What kind of equipment and/or software do you use?

 

Such things are done using emulators which have a set of tools for making speedruns:

- movie recording - basically, it records your input for each frame, so anyone can replay it on his/her side, if all the prerequisites are met (used identical ROM, bios files and specific emulator settings);

- savestates - save your progress and insure the game state is always the same up the point when a savestate was made;

- slow motion - slows the game down, giving you more time for planning and reaction;

- frame advance - steps to the next frame (goes 1/60 sec further), so you can plan your input and reach maximum precision of your actions.

 

From non-essentials:

- RAM search - lets you watch RAM addresses and values of any size and type, so you can find useful addresses;

- TAS editor - moving input spreadsheet where you can set the input for any frame with your mouse;

- Lua script writer/reader - lets you output any information, calculations or graphics on the screen for easier view.

 

What I used is Bizhawk 2.6.1, but you can download the last version (2.8). I've checked it, it plays the movie to the end. 

Bizhawk positions itself as a legit emulator, so you have to download the firmware (bios files) yourself. Just google "bizhawk firmware download" and download the archive for any version, bios files never change.

 

Here is the movie file: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637960783224129298

I have described all the prereqs for you to play it back.

 

2 hours ago, Vic said:

How do you even do such things?!

 

I slowly play the game, planning my every step and aiming for satisfying results. In most cases, I was playing on 25% speed. Of course, I have to set the input recording beforehand.

If I see my progress needs saving, i.e a demon had been killed with 2 shotgun shots or I had successfully run through a room without bumping into the walls, I make a savestate.

If I screw up, i.e take too much damage or deal low damage, then I load a savesate and do it again. Fortunately, there are 10 save slots which is enough to store different moments.

We can compare it to recording a film. If the scene is not played right for some reason, the crew records it again until the director is happy. It took me about 16 hours to make the whole walkthrough. We can consider that the prefection degree ~ time spent on building the movie

 

RAM Search was used to see kills and secret counters and enemies' health. The latter ones are observed by the following way.

A baron has 1000 hp which is 2 bytes. I look for all address which have the value 1000, attack the baron and look for those addresses among "1000"s which now are less than 1000. Newer set is small enough to find the actual address which stores HP of the baron I've just shot. That lets me see if the random is favourable.

If the random is bad, then I have to do various manipulations to deal higher damage. For instance, attack one frame later (or one logic-processing cycle later in case of D32XR) or take some damage in the gap.

 

That's pretty much all.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Dimon12321

[Kyle07]

On 8/15/2022 at 11:28 AM, Dimon12321 said:

 

Such things are done using emulators which have a set of tools for making speedruns:

- movie recording - basically, it records your input for each frame, so anyone can replay it on his/her side, if all the prerequisites are met (used identical ROM, bios files and specific emulator settings);

Randomness in games can break this, I think. I tried in 2009 to record this way lets plays with ZSNES. But due to RNG some levels were broken, because the outcome was always differently and the player was dying due to wrong movements. This happened for sure for Prince of Persia 2 for the SNES and I think for Super Mario All-Stars (SMB1).

 

DOOM has also RNG, shouldn't it also break? The demo recording for DOOM on PC records also the RNG, which is why the demos are consistent, right? Or is it because DOOMs RNG behaves always the same under the same conditions?

[Dimon12321]

6 hours ago, Kyle07 said:

Randomness in games can break this, I think. I tried in 2009 to record this way lets plays with ZSNES. But due to RNG some levels were broken, because the outcome was always differently and the player was dying due to wrong movements. This happened for sure for Prince of Persia 2 for the SNES and I think for Super Mario All-Stars (SMB1).

 

DOOM has also RNG, shouldn't it also break? The demo recording for DOOM on PC records also the RNG, which is why the demos are consistent, right? Or is it because DOOMs RNG behaves always the same under the same conditions?

Things have changed since then. SNES doesn't have any datetime which a game can use for calculations and randomizations. I cannot tell what is causing non-deterministic behaviour of emulators. Probably, render can be run in a separate thread. At least, Mupen64-rr is suffering from desynchronisations on specific renders. 

 

Doom has RNG, but it's totally local and determined: it has a big array of predefined values and the indexer variable which runs over it endlessly. decino explained how it works. And yes, it always starts from the same starting point and always behaves identically under the same conditions.

[Vic]

 

[Vic]

 

[Vic]

I've written a short paper on how Doom 32X Resurrection renderer works. Hopefully I'll be able to cover topics if time permits.

 

https://github.com/viciious/d32xr/wiki/Engine-optimizations,-part-1

[Csonicgo]

On 8/14/2022 at 3:10 AM, Vic said:

There's no way a game can support 32X+ without supporting the MegaSD along the way. In general, whatever problems you may have with TO, I'm gonna stay out of them.

Yes, the Mega Everdrive Pro has preliminary MegaSD support in beta. :-)

[TheShep]

my friend gifted me a boxed copy of 32x.