Odamex 0.6 Previews - Now with GPL Slopes

[Ralphis]

Here's a thread that shows off some of the new stuff that players will find in Odamex 0.6. I figured a discussion thread might be a better idea than a news submission each week (although somebody did submit the videos to the news feed). Although these videos don't represent every single change and addition to the new major version of Odamex, they do a pretty decent job of showing off the new, key features.

I'm really hoping that Odamex 0.6 can bring a lot of Doomworld players back to the world of multiplayer Doom. It hasn't quite been the same since the CSDoom implosion of the early 00s. I'm really excited to be a part of this great team and project, so check them out, comment, and ask any questions!

[TIHan]

Ah very nice! I like the implementation of interpolation/extrapolation. Very cool.

[MP2E]

Odamex 0.6 will be the best release yet, exponentially. Excellent job! The netcode feels much more robust and I absolutely love the "feel" of it and the direction the coders are taking the project in.

Keep up the great work, I greatly look forward to the full release of 0.6 despite already being able to play with these amazing features in svn :D

[Ralphis]

[LexiMax]

That is quite possibly the best video I have ever seen on youtube.

[andrewj]

Sweet!

[_bruce_]

Looks great - slopes seem to be solid both visually and physically.

[mandax]

Good job Odamex team! I really enjoyed watching these videos!

Ralphis said:

I'm really hoping that Odamex 0.6 can bring a lot of Doomworld players back to the world of multiplayer Doom. It hasn't quite been the same since the CSDoom implosion of the early 00s.

What do you mean 'bring back'? Let's be fair, they are probably already playing Skulltag and ZDaemon since then ;).

Wanted to comment on the preview video #4, ironically named "Lose The Lag".
I'm not sure how useful the implemented features are given Dooms extreme movement speed and here is why:

interpolation:
Actually adds lag on top of your ping. None of the serious players will enable this feature, because it would be an disadvantage when e.g. the opponent comes around a corner and you could have seen him earlier without interpolating.

extrapolation:
Seems neat at first, but desyncs the opponents positions. When you miss a couple position updates you start guessing the player position. When you receive the actual position you slowly correct your wrong guess towards the real position. This desync will make it hard to hit the target during the 'resyncing phase'.

collision prediction (gradually move towards new position):
Same problem as above but this time it is the player position. Your own position is desynced and your aim will be wrong while you slowly move towards your actual position.

All of the above looks nice, but is not really useful for 'serious' play imho. I rather have my view snap for a split second and be in the correct position afterwards than remaining in some faulty state that messes my aiming. Even when the correction only lasts a couple ticks, in doom these ticks can be the difference between a good shot or instant death.

Can anyone tell me if there are any plans or concepts to battle cheating in odamex? Competitive play will put pressure on players to perform better. I ask this, because when I was watching the preview videos the youtube suggestions already seem to link to a working odamex cheat some idiot programmed :( The modified client presented in the video doesn't seem to leave any traces of "weird behavior" (like aimbots do) that could be verified in demos later. I really don't want to see this great port choked off before it even gets started because of cheaters and mutual distrust ruining it!

[Dr. Sean]

mandax said:
interpolation:
Actually adds lag on top of your ping. None of the serious players will enable this feature, because it would be an disadvantage when e.g. the opponent comes around a corner and you could have seen him earlier without interpolating.

extrapolation:
Seems neat at first, but desyncs the opponents positions. When you miss a couple position updates you start guessing the player position. When you receive the actual position you slowly correct your wrong guess towards the real position. This desync will make it hard to hit the target during the 'resyncing phase'.

collision prediction (gradually move towards new position):
Same problem as above but this time it is the player position. Your own position is desynced and your aim will be wrong while you slowly move towards your actual position.

All of the above looks nice, but is not really useful for 'serious' play imho. I rather have my view snap for a split second and be in the correct position afterwards than remaining in some faulty state that messes my aiming. Even when the correction only lasts a couple ticks, in doom these ticks can be the difference between a good shot or instant death.

These are all valid concerns that had occurred to me when I implemented the features. Those features trade off some degree of accuracy for gameplay smoothness, as is the case with most commercial FPS games. This is why we allow a player to choose to disable those features. However, the majority of players I have talked to seemed to highly value smoothness and that's why we chose to include these enhancements.

[Ralphis]

re: interpolation/extrapolation

As Sean said, these enhancements are optional. Also like Sean said, after testing 0.6 a decent amount with some of the top players in the world, most responses have been favorable to these enhancements (although sometimes they want to tweak them a little bit and that is why we provide that option through variables).

re: players & zd/st

After many long years of being fairly active at both Doomworld and the more isolated multiplayer communities, I was referring to the fact that most Doomworld players play single player almost exclusively. Although some members here do occasionally tread into ZD/ST/ODA, more often than not it's only for special events. Fortunately, I've seen a lot of familiar faces from Doomworld attending events like Saturday Nitro and playing frequently throughout the week. I've had the lucky opportunity to make some new personal connections with these guys over the past few months as a result of that. New players and new friends are helping to quickly build a new community.

The ZDaemon/Skulltag communities chose to practically cut themselves off from Doomworld years ago (ZD in particular was more guilty of this) and I'm hoping that Odamex can help bring some of those people back.

[wesleyjohnson]

Will Odamex ever reach 1.0, you're approaching it asymptotically ?
(sorry, cannot see videos on dial-up modem)

[CaptainAhab]

I have never played Doom before, and this all looks amazing! Nice work, devs! Looking forwards to it. :) Should be a wonderful experience.

Will be picking up the Doom Complete Set if/(hopefully) when it goes on sale during the Spring Steam sale.

[Chronohunter45]

Ralphis said:

The ZDaemon/Skulltag communities chose to practically cut themselves off from Doomworld years ago (ZD in particular was more guilty of this) and I'm hoping that Odamex can help bring some of those people back.

This. I recall a much closer knit community prior to my enlistment 7 years ago. Its sad to come back and see what was once refuge for myself and numerous other players from the hassles of everyday life to be in shambles - destroyed by conflicting opinion and drama. It hurts even more when you realize you hardly even have the time to participate in even the smallest of community projects due to life obligations and occurrences outside of individual control.

However, seeing a project such as Odamex moving forward with such revolutionary features - which should have been implemented in multiplayer doom years ago - sparks a glimmer of hope for those of us who remember the glorious days of CSDoom, where the only drama that occurred was because we were kids being kids, but still having fun.

By the way, if slopes are now supported, many of the old projects I put together with my old team may run on Odamex now.

I am now on the verge of being an Odamex purist.

Excellent work. =D

[CaptainAhab]

Should be coming out very, VERY soon! Within days, according to the website.

Looking forward to this.

[Manc]

We are doing final testing with a release expected very soon. We want to ensure with everything that's been added that it's stable enough to stand on its own without requiring any quick point releases after.