PrBoom 2.4.5 and the revolutionary unified binary!

[Hobbs]

Someone has got to explain this to me. I just got Pr 2.4.5 less than an hour ago and I have let out several wtf's since then.

1) There are 2 exes in the download but the changelog says "Unified the software and gl engine into one binary." Now I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid, I can see why a non-unified binary would be included for the sake of those who still live in the stone age. However this entry in the changelog is a little confusing no?

2) Can somebody explain to me why glboom.exe was turned into a unified exe? The only difference I can see between the 8bit video mode and GL video mode with gl_tex_filter_string set to GL_NEAREST and gl_tex_format_string set to GL_RGBA is that in GL mode my gamma is more like ZDoom and theres still sprites in teh floor unless I change the item out of floor offset. Rather useless change IMO.

3) Under Options->General in the OpenGL portion, there are two fields with Texture Filter, shouldn't the second be Texture Format?

4) In prboom.exe you can change the video mode to OpenGL but as far as I can tell it doesnt do jack shit.

[RjY]

1 and 2: probably minor oversights in the updating of the build process on Windows. I don't know how that works but the make-release.cmd script still seems to refer to glboom.exe. The Autotools stuff only builds one unified binary. Hopefully proff'll come in here in a day or two and see this thread

3: Ah the pitfalls of copy & pasting code :)

4: When you change it does it not say at the bottom of the screen "warning: program must be restarted to see changes"?

[Hobbs]

RjY said:

1 and 2: probably minor oversights in the updating of the build process on Windows. I don't know how that works but the make-release.cmd script still seems to refer to glboom.exe. The Autotools stuff only builds one unified binary. Hopefully proff'll come in here in a day or two and see this thread

Heh k.

4: When you change it does it not say at the bottom of the screen "warning: program must be restarted to see changes"?

Ya, still does absolutely nothing. As a sidenote, glboom.exe obviously has some stuff that prboom.exe does not, just look at their exe sizes.

[proff_fs]

1 and 2 — Why glboom:
- Curiosity — Could it be done at all?
- Speed — Back then everything above 320x200 was too slow, nowadays current computers hardly break in sweat at 1280x960 or even 1600x1200.
- Some people favor bilinear filtered textures
3 and 4:
Bugs!

Why still have two exes on windows?
Because some people are still in stone age and don't have opengl32.dll which is required for glboom.exe even if you only want to use software mode.

[entryway]

HobbsTiger1 said:

1) There are 2 exes in the download but the changelog says "Unified the software and gl engine into one binary." Now I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid, I can see why a non-unified binary would be included for the sake of those who still live in the stone age. However this entry in the changelog is a little confusing no?

prboom.exe has no dependence from OPENGL32.dll in IMPORT section in EXE's header, but glboom.exe has. proff_fs has not wanted to do dynamic loading of this library for some reasons.

[entryway]

hehe. I am slow.

[myk]

Something similar happens to SDL; while I have issues with the newer versions (that aren't being included in PrBoom) others need the newer one. Maybe the old SDL (the one currently in the package) could be included as SDL.old in the package with a note saying it should be used on simpler/older systems if the newer one has issues?

[entryway]

The newest are more buggy IMO. Should be:
SDL_new.zip
SDL.dll
SDL_mixer.dll
SDL_net.dll

[myk]

Maybe, but at least a note would help people get the new one from the SDL site it they have video problems. Like in alexz721's case. Maybe include it, calling it SDL.new? And PrBoom.exe could be called PrBoom.old, also swapping GLBoom's name to PrBoom.exe, so all the distributions can be more consistent.

proff_fs, I'd suggest adding the compatibility found in PrBoom+ where the default translucency of fireballs and other sprites can be disabled. Otherwise one has to get rid of translucency altogether to get rid of that effect which makes the alleged baby Jesus cry, if not downright kill a kitten.

EDIT: I just noted something odd about PrBoom; not sure how long it's been like this but if you reach an exit the only way to force the tally screen to complete itself instantly is by hitting Use. Both Doom and Boom let you do it with both Use and Fire.

[andrewj]

The latest SDL uses the "windib" video driver by default, whereas older versions used the "dx5" driver by default.

My guess is that the latest SDL works just as well as the old one if you select the "dx5" driver. Perhaps PrBoom could add an option like -dx5 to do this (use SDL_putenv with the correct SDL_VIDEODRIVER value).

[entryway]

Windows Notes

The "windib" video driver is the default now, to prevent problems with certain laptops, 64-bit Windows, and Windows Vista. The DirectX driver is still available, and can be selected by setting the environment variable SDL_VIDEODRIVER to "directx".

AFAIUI, you only should create prboom_start.bat

set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx
prboom.exe %1 %2 %3

[myk]

entryway, yeah, that works, thanks! And I already was autoloading a start batch enabling DOSKey to the comman line, so I put the environment there.

So if updating to 1.2.11 becomes handy that deals with that resolution issue we were dealing with on older cards.

[Quasar]

Oh man they are really screwing SDL up now. They need to stop adding all this environment variable crap and make that stuff into an API. I'm tired of that stone-age BS.

[Grazza]

myk said:

Otherwise one has to get rid of translucency altogether to get rid of that effect

Or use the little deh that I made a while back - I presume you have a copy, but if not, there's a link here. You'll need to use this with Prboom+ too if you want to stop these things being translucent in Boom complevels.

Afterthought: Note that I haven't tested this with "official" PrBoom, so I'm not 100% sure how it will work. Try both deh files if necessary.

[Hobbs]

k latereply time.

proff_fs said:

1 and 2 — Why glboom:
- Curiosity — Could it be done at all?
- Speed — Back then everything above 320x200 was too slow, nowadays current computers hardly break in sweat at 1280x960 or even 1600x1200.
- Some people favor bilinear filtered textures

Well, alright, I guess that works for me. Its not something to quit using the port over certainly, just one of those moments where I had to wonder what was going on. And when I use a GL port I use GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR as a texture filter, I was just commenting on the extreme similarities.

3 and 4:
Bugs!

Heh, figured as much.

Why still have two exes on windows?
Because some people are still in stone age and don't have opengl32.dll which is required for glboom.exe even if you only want to use software mode.

Ya I figured that out pretty quick, which is why its in my post. In fact I had my suspicions before I ran it through depends. I was more questioning your changelog wording on the subject there, neways no big thing.

Also, heh translucency.

[myk]

Ah, I had forgotten about that patch you made, Grazza.

Grazza said:
Afterthought: Note that I haven't tested this with "official" PrBoom, so I'm not 100% sure how it will work. Try both deh files if necessary.

Cool, notransl.deh works fine. I added it to the CFG.