Question on GLPRBOOM+ and Demo Recording

[Tolwyn]

So, I have the compatibility set to "current" (17?) and enabled vertical aiming, etc.

Without recording a demo, I can shoot where I aim via mouselook.

The moment I start recording a demo, I'm shooting straight ahead, regardless of where I aim.

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

default_compatibility_level    17
demo_insurance                2
demo_smoothturns              1
demo_smoothturnsfactor        6
demo_extendedformat           1
comperr_freeaim               1

Thanks for the help. ;)

[rehelekretep]

as far as i know vertical aiming is not allowed in demos, as the 'data' for it is not included in the demo format

more info here (Technical info subheader) http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Demo

[plums]

There are a few features in PrBoom+ that only work in single-player without recording (aiming and jumping, at least), presumably for compatibility purposes.

I've actually been thinking about this lately too, since PrBoom+ has its own demo format I don't see why it couldn't have these features in demos. Especially as there are no other ports that have them and maintain demo compatibility, AFAIK.

But for now, you're out of luck I'm afraid, and you'll either switch ports or deal with classic auto-aiming.

rehelekretep: PrBoom+ actually can record the view angle if a player is using vertical mouselook, even for vanilla-compatible demos. It just doesn't affect vertical aiming.

[rehelekretep]

thanks plums, i didnt know that. not sure of the value for me personally but good to know :)

[Ribbiks]

plums said:

rehelekretep: PrBoom+ actually can record the view angle if a player is using vertical mouselook, even for vanilla-compatible demos. It just doesn't affect vertical aiming.

is there a config option somewhere that handles this? I just tested it on complevel 2 (made a demo where I looked up and down with the mouse) but when I played it back the camera was static and only showed horizontal movement.

[plums]

Not sure. Was vertical mouselook enabled when you played the demo back in PrB+?

I just tested it myself to make sure I wasn't talking out of my ass ;) and it worked ok for me

[Ribbiks]

ah hah! found it. you need to have extended demo format turned on:

# Prboom-plus demos settings
demo_extendedformat           1

edit: I'm too lazy to dig through the source, is there documentation somewhere on how the extended format differs from standard? Is it still compatible with vanilla exes, etc?

[plums]

Ah, good find. Also if you had that setting off before, that explains why your demos never auto-load the right wads automatically, something I noticed watching Eternal FDAs.

Don't know any technical info about it but extended demos do work with vanilla at least.

edit: from http://prboom-plus.sourceforge.net/history.html

Now PrBoom-Plus can save all necessary playback information at the end of demos without loss of compatibility. With such demos you just need to type "prboom-plus demoname" or click on a demo from your browser, archives manager or explorer and prboom will make any additional work by itself without any assistance. PrBoom-Plus will check for a demo footer and if it is present, will read which IWAD, PWAD and DEH files were used for recording, will try to download necessary add-on files from the Internet and will play the demo for you.

Currently, PrBoom-Plus saves the following information (with demo_extendedformat 1):

VERSION - version of DemoEx format (1.0)
PORTNAME - port name and version (PrBoom-Plus 2.5.0.1)
PARAMS - iwad, pwads, dehs and critical for demos params like -spechit
MLOOK - mouse look data

For the automatic downloading of files, one must specify the getwad_cmdline parameter in the PrBoom-Plus config file. Examples:

getwad_cmdline "D:\games\Doom2\getwad\getwad.exe"
getwad_cmdline "C:\my_cool_app -download_pwad_from_somewhere %wadname% -here c:\doom2"

[kuchitsu]

AFAIK the only thing extended demo format isn't compatible with is the old LMPC tool for converting demos to a readable format.

[Never_Again]

plums said:

Don't know any technical info about it but extended demos do work with vanilla at least.

The info is out there.

[Tolwyn]

Can someone help me out with this a little bit more?

I use extended format, but when I play back a demo, say, with a PWAD, it doesn't automatically load the pwad, etc.

?

[plums]

How are you trying to play the demos back?

For one thing PrBoom+ needs to be able to find the wad, so it should be in the same directory as the demo, or the $DOOMWADDIR directory.

[Tolwyn]

Ah. That might be the issue.

My PWADS are in different folders. But I looked at the CFG file. There is no such $doomwaddir variable.

Where is this, where is it documented? how is it set?

glboom-plus.exe -iwad doom2.wad -skill 3 -warp 01 -file d2pwads\master\attack.wad -record t_attack

So, when I do:

glboom-plus.exe -playdemo t_attack

Obviously, that won't work, I take it.

[plums]

Sorry for not elaborating before. DOOMWADDIR is a regular system environment variable. A bit more info here: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Environment_variables

Here's instructions for setting env variables in Windows 7, I'm sure you can find similar instructions for other OSes: http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-addedit-environment-variables-in-windows-7
(the variable name here is DOOMWADDIR and not $DOOMWADDIR)

DOOMWADPATH might work better since you can use multiple directories, I don't know if PrBoom+ uses it, I just found out about it looking at that doomwiki article in fact... (edit: It doesn't.)

Tolwyn said:

So, when I do:

glboom-plus.exe -playdemo t_attack

Obviously, that won't work, I take it.

Correct, you'd have to do glboom-plus.exe -playdemo t_attack -file d2pwads\master\attack.wad instead. If DOOMWADDIR was set to C:\whatever\d2pwads then you can also just do glboom-plus.exe -playdemo t_attack -file master\attack.wad

[kuchitsu]

Can you set it like c:\wads\* so that it would look in c:\wads\vanilla, c:\wads\boom, etc?

[plums]

Don't think so. You can set DOOMWADPATH to something like

C:\wads\vanilla;C:\wads\boom

etc., but it looks like PrBoom+ doesn't support DOOMWADPATH right now.

[Tolwyn]

Got it. No worries.
Totally cool with the command line.

doom2.exe -file d2pwads\awesome\mywad.wad -playdemo mydemo

Works just fine. ;)