Queuing multiple demos on Prboom+?

[DeathevokatioN]

I was just wondering, is it possible to lineup multiple demos for the same wad so that they play in sequence and so that I don't have to manually reload the wad after each demo... call it lazy but sometimes it's nice to eat pizza and listen to music while watching VDGG blasting through Suspended in Dusk in it's entirety without interruption. :P

[Memfis]

Make a *.bat file with something like

prboom-plus -playdemo ga02-150
prboom-plus -playdemo ga24-509

and run it?

You mentioned "reloading" the wad. You mean you select wads every time you want to watch a demo? You should enable extended demo format already. :) ("demo_extendedformat 1" in prboom-plus.cfg)

[Never_Again]

I think that .bat file will open three separate instances of prboom-plus at once. Try this instead:

@echo off
START /WAIT glboom-plus -iwad doom2 -file sid.wad -playdemo sid1-uv
START /WAIT glboom-plus -iwad doom2 -file sid.wad -playdemo sid2-uv
START /WAIT glboom-plus -iwad doom2 -file sid.wad -playdemo sid3-uv
START /WAIT glboom-plus -iwad doom2 -file sid.wad -playdemo sid4-uv

The demos will need to be in the same dir as prboom-plus, and sid.wad too (or else in %DOOMWADDIR%). This .bat works as intended under XP/SP3.

As for "demo_extendedformat 1" it's for recording; for playback you need "-auto" on the CMD. In any case, vdgg's demos have no demo footer, so you'd need to add something like this to the list of pattern in your .cfg:

demo_patternxxxx          "Suspended in Dusk/(sid[1-4]-uv)\.lmp/doom2.wad|sid.wad"

or, better yet, queue up Never_Again's SiD demos: they have the footer and are a bit longer, too, so you get enough time to have a few beers with your pizza. :P

@echo off
START /WAIT glboom-plus -playdemo sid01-na -auto
START /WAIT glboom-plus -playdemo sid02-na -auto
START /WAIT glboom-plus -playdemo sid03-na -auto
START /WAIT glboom-plus -playdemo sid04-na -auto

[DeathevokatioN]

Thanks for the responses guys, your suggestion worked Never_Again, cheers! I haven't seen your sid demos yet but will watch them as it should be fun to see all the different ways of conquering this non linear mapset. :)

[Memfis]

Never_Again said:

As for "demo_extendedformat 1" it's for recording

It affects demo playback too. If it's set to 0, the launcher will always load. If it's set to 1, the demo you're trying to watch has a footer and you have all required wads, the launcher will be skipped.

Never_Again said:

I think that .bat file will open three separate instances of prboom-plus at once.

Works fine on my XP, depends on the system I guess.

[Never_Again]

Memfis said:

[demo_extendedformat] affects demo playback too. If it's set to 0, the launcher will always load. If it's set to 1, the demo you're trying to watch has a footer and you have all required wads, the launcher will be skipped.

There's some confusion here, I'm afraid.

The launcher will come up only if "launcher_enable" is set to 1 and you try to play back a demo without "-auto". What "demo_extendedformat" is set to has no effect in this case.

If "launcher_enable" is set to 0 it will never come up regardless of what "demo_extendedformat" is set to and whether or not "-auto" is used. The demo will play back correctly if "-auto" is used, however (or if it's incidentally a DOOM2 IWAD demo). The demo will not play back correctly without "-auto" (unless it's a DOOM2 IWAD demo), and toggling "demo_extendedformat" does not change that.

[Memfis]

Ok, I think I understand where the confusion comes from.

Never_Again said:

What "demo_extendedformat" is set to has no effect in this case.

It does have effect if I load demo by double clicking on it (or "open with...") in Windows Explorer.
It doesn't have effect if I create *.bat-file with "prboom-plus -playdemo ga02-150" and run it. Interesting.

EDIT: disregard that, it does have effect in both cases for me. Now I'm totally confused >_<.

[Never_Again]

I'm confused as well. ;)
What are you settings, exactly? I mean the "launcher_enable" and the "demo_extendedformat" ones. Do you have the demos associated with prboom-plus with "-auto" or without? Please list the scenarios you tested, the corresponding settings and CMD lines and the results. Try a demo that matches an existing pattern, a demo with a demo footer, and a demo that neither has a footer nor matches an existing demo pattern and is not a DOOM2 IWAD demo.