Waiting for Eternity

[Graf Zahl]

JoelMurdoch said:

Yes. This is the default behaviour for Doom engine menus and should not be changed. ZDoom got it wrong, not Eternity.

Depends on your view of things. I am sure that many users prefer ZDoom's handling of this. Just because id did it as they did doesn't make it 'right'. It was one of the things that bothered me from the start.

[myk]

Graf Zahl said:
I am sure that many users prefer ZDoom's handling of this.

Well, they can change it in Eternity. It's no mystery that Eternity's keeping a similarity with the "classic" menu while ZDoom deviates more from it, since that has to do with the very nature of the engines and what they're made for.

[Graf Zahl]

myk said:

since that has to do with the very nature of the engines and what they're made for.

I doubt that this is the reason. It's a simple matter of preference, nothing more. Most software uses escape to go back one level so why has Doom to be different? (well, unless you want to save yourself the work of implementing such functionality - which IMO is the only reason Doom works as it does.)

[entryway]

Ajapted said:

All the code to change should just be in p_setup.c.

You are wrong. I think.

[Graf Zahl]

entryway said:

You are wrong. I think.

I think the only major thing outside p_setup is the sidedefs because the game uses them as indices internally. But aside from that everything is converted into pointers during setup and the instances where the sidedefs are used are easily found.

[myk]

Graf Zahl said:
I doubt that this is the reason. It's a simple matter of preference, nothing more. Most software uses escape to go back one level so why has Doom to be different? (well, unless you want to save yourself the work of implementing such functionality - which IMO is the only reason Doom works as it does.)

I'd say the id guys made it like that because the menu was a rather minor tool; you don't really configure the game from there (using instead setup.exe) and just adjust some things that you rarely change often. After the initial setup I never go there except to start a game... even saving and loading are best done from the function keys.

Team TNT decided to add many functions to the Boom menu, and they sought a way to make it more navigable without really changing the way the menu works, in sake of compatibility and Doom user familiarity. On the other hand R. Heit didn't really concern himself too much with those things and instead simply chose the Quake model for the menu, and he was already adding other Quake like features (e.g., the console.)

In turn Boom based engines still stick to the basic Doom framework and generally resort to adding things around it, while less conservative or less classic engines which make more changes from the roots often change the framework for either a more modern or an otherwise necessary model.