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Hodapp87

Some small problems with Eternity

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First, before griping about problems, I would like to say that Eternity is the one DOS engine I have found that is essentially perfect. Legacy crashes on me, Vavoom is very slow, unstable, and sometimes just not DOOMesque enough, BOOM is awesome but has no mlook or hi-res, SMMU crashes when I save, I can't find MBF or DosDoom [and neither are developed any more, are they?], EDGE doesn't run on my PC because it's too slow, and ZDoom has no music. Those engines all had one large problem that either physically prevented me from playing, or something that just bugged me too much to enable me to play - i.e. bad performance or a lack of a feature. Eternity, in addition to having what I needed, also had some other neat features - such as the start map and allies.
But, of course, when I initially see something as perfect, I very quickly find flaws in it.
Here are some of my gripes about Eternity - none are major enough to keep me from using it, but none are minor enough that I didn't notice them.
(a) You can't select the episode whenever you start an IWAD based on the Ultimate DOOM instead of DOOM II. I suppose very few level sets exist now that use the episodes instead of MAP01-MAP32, but they do exist.
(b) On some level sets that change the skull cursor on the main menu (so you can do New Game, Save, Load, Features, Quit, etc.) to something else, the cursor doesn't appear when you hit New Game and it asks you for the difficulty. For example, I notice this in Alien Vendetta and Icarus.
(c) The crosshair seems to have some problems, as follows - when you aim upwards, the weapon shoots much farther up than the crosshair indicates, and when you aim downwards, it shoots much farther down than the crosshair indicates. I was messing with Twilight Warrior (which said it needed Legacy but worked fine with BOOM, ZDoom, and Eternity) and I saw this with the sniper rifle and grenade launcher. I tried with normal DOOM weapons and they showed this problem too. Under ZDoom, this problem does not occur - the weapon hits right at the crosshair as accurately as it can.
I can make up some screenshots and demonstrate what I mean if you want me to.
(d) I would kinda like to see the ability to jump in the game, although just for a few levels that are meant to be used with ZDoom/Legacy where you have that ability but work fine with Eternity, until you get to the point where jumping is needed at least.


[wow, I only noticed one of those problems nearly immediately, and that was (b)]

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A)Hmm, I don't seem to have that problem
B)Odd, but I once again, have not had this problem
C)I have had this problem too
D)Jumping kinda sucks IMO but hey, to each his own.

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jumping sucks. but the looking feature is somewhat okay.

just have that music problem fixed and it will own all.

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(a) Have you tried the Ultimate DOOM with it or are you stating you've never had the problem with it because the opportunity has never come up for the problem to exist? Maybe try shareware DOOM with it...well that has only one episode anyway... oh blah.
(b) Have you tried Alien Vendetta or Icarus? You might want to try one of those and see if you get the problem.
(c) I can't see why this would occur - maybe, the angle that is being viewed and the angle that you are actually aiming at are slightly out of sync? The crosshair is exactly correct, it seems, because moving it anywhere wouldn't fix anything, unless you slightly moved it proportionally to what angle you were looking at.


"just have that music problem fixed and it will own all."
What? Are you talking about ZDoom when I said it had no music? It's because the Linux and DOS versions of ZDoom have no music.

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(a) You can't select the episode whenever you start an IWAD based on the Ultimate DOOM instead of DOOM II. I suppose very few level sets exist now that use the episodes instead of MAP01-MAP32, but they do exist.

Known problem. This feature is ok for DOOM II but should not activate for Ultimate DOOM. 'Twill be fixed in the next version.

(b) On some level sets that change the skull cursor on the main menu (so you can do New Game, Save, Load, Features, Quit, etc.) to something else, the cursor doesn't appear when you hit New Game and it asks you for the difficulty. For example, I notice this in Alien Vendetta and Icarus.

Never seen this happen. If I do, I will investigate. May be related to the above problem.

(c) The crosshair seems to have some problems, as follows - when you aim upwards, the weapon shoots much farther up than the crosshair indicates, and when you aim downwards, it shoots much farther down than the crosshair indicates.

Known problem as well, however, I don't know how to easily and compatibly fix it. You weren't able to shoot at the floor and ceiling in DOOM originally anyways, and that is why this problem is present.

(d) I would kinda like to see the ability to jump in the game, although just for a few levels that are meant to be used with ZDoom/Legacy where you have that ability but work fine with Eternity, until you get to the point where jumping is needed at least.

This is already on a list of possible features. The concern I have with it is how it destroys most levels not meant for it. Also, the jump command has to be sent for netgames, and Eternity's ticcmd structure is getting too large.

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"(a) . . .
Known problem. This feature is ok for DOOM II but should not activate for Ultimate DOOM. 'Twill be fixed in the next version."
Actually, I just noticed, it lets me select the episode with the Ultimate DOOM IWAD alone loaded, but not with any other PWAD.

"(b) . . .
Never seen this happen. If I do, I will investigate. May be related to the above problem."
Another error on my part. It only happens on Icarus; I was somehow thinking it happened on Alien Vendetta. Otherwise, I have lots of WADs that change the main menu skull cursor and not one of them reproduces this problem. Sounds like an error in Icarus and not Eternity.

"(c) . . .
Known problem as well, however, I don't know how to easily and compatibly fix it. You weren't able to shoot at the floor and ceiling in DOOM originally anyways, and that is why this problem is present."
Perhaps could you adjust the crosshair slightly according to how far up and down you aim? That seems simplest to me. As I said, it just seems to me that the angle being viewed and the angle being aimed are out of sync.

"(d) . . .
This is already on a list of possible features. The concern I have with it is how it destroys most levels not meant for it. Also, the jump command has to be sent for netgames, and Eternity's ticcmd structure is getting too large."
Yes, it does destroy levels not meant for it... my main aim was for the few levels that do require it. Oh well, I guess I can just idclip as necessary and forget about it.

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People will probably never understand that you DON'T have to use the jump function when it exists.

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boris said:

People will probably never understand that you DON'T have to use the jump function when it exists.


In all ports that allow it I don't have and binds for jumping or looking.

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i dont see how anyone in their right mind could actually like that y-shearing crap many doom ports call "mlook" (yes i understand the impossibility of implimenting the real thing without rewriting the entire 3d engine)

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esayeek said:

i dont see how anyone in their right mind could actually like that y-shearing crap many doom ports call "mlook" (yes i understand the impossibility of implimenting the real thing without rewriting the entire 3d engine)


Doom doesn't really have a 3d engine. More like 2.5d.

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Like I said, I'm looking into jumping :P

Never once did I say that I did not LIKE jumping or that I thought it had no place in the engine :P

The netplay issue is a real one, too. Once Eternity has working netcode, its probably gonna be hella slow with a ticcmd_t that just keeps getting bigger. Its a real shame doom has to send so much crap to stay in sync.

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Make sure it's disabled by default or something, that way you should keep everyone happy.

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Yeah, if you do ever decide to add jumping you could make a flag to disable jumping in netgames like say dm_jump # (0 by default).

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bigbadgangsta said:

Doom doesn't really have a 3d engine. More like 2.5d.


that is what i just said in my post you know

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