DoomLegacy 1.46.2

[wesleyjohnson]

DoomLegacy 1.46.2 SVN1287 has been released.

This is a bug fix release.
DoomLegacy 1.46.1 creates savegames with config vars missing, which triggers a corrupted savegame check upon loading.
Due to this, DoomLegacy 1.46.1 should not be used.

Some other bug fixes and a download display for network play have been included.

Testers are important. My thanks to the one person who reported this bug.

[Graf Zahl]

Unbelievable!

This version actually worked!
No hassle setting it up, no strange error messages and no weird crash.

See, it wasn't so hard to do a proper Windows distribution after all!

Just one question: What do I have to do to get the proper music playing in Phobia? No matter what I tried, it always plays Doom's MIDIs and that's just no fun with this mod.
The README doesn't help.

[Hell Theatre]

I also have a question: Is this compileable on Windows with a decent compiler setup?
The CMakeLists.txt looks broken and when I try to create a Visual Studio solution from it I only get a huge list of errors, I never get far enough that a solution is created.

[Graf Zahl]

Unfortunately not.

The CMakeLists file is the least of your problems. Yes, it got some apparent errors, for example it references all source files as if it had to be placed in the src/ directory but even if you get a solution built you run into a wall of compile errors and even more compile warnings. It is very clear that this hasn't been compiled with anything but GCC for many, many years, and on an extremely lax warning setting to boot.

I once managed to get it to compile with Visual Studio but it required tons of changes to get rid of compiler specific function calls and other problems. I often just hacked out the problem code, just to get rid of the errors. I'm afraid, that it's not worth the effort unless you really want to do something with it.

I'm still trying because I finally want to analyze the setcorona FraggleScript function, but it's a nasty uphill battle to make this code and Visual Studio 2015 like each other...

[Mr.Rocket]

Hi,

Phobia (at least the version I have) has an external mp3 file packaged with it.

If I remember right, there use to be a way to add external mp3 while launching a game in legacy.
The -digmusic needed to be added to command line and the mp3 name changed to a lump name and loaded in addition to the pwad. It was either 0_RUNNIN or O_RUNNIN to replace the internal midi or mus of D_RUNNIN of course.

This might have all been changed after the years however.
I'm sure there's a much better way now days to handle this.

Cheers

[Graf Zahl]

MR.ROCKET said:

Hi,

Phobia (at least the version I have) has an external mp3 file packaged with it.

The MP3s are inside the WAD, named O_name, which was Legacy's convention to add non-MIDI music. I started it with the batch that came with Phobia which contains the -digmusic switch. But I still hear Doom's MIDIs.

There's two possible reasons:

1. this has been disabled when the code transitioned to SDL.
2. additional decoding DLLs are required, which aren't shipped in the Windows distribution.

[Mr.Rocket]

Oh I see.

I must have the non-legacy version of phobia as its mp3 is in a folder called test/
cut.mp3. ~ so I'll either have to make it a legacy test version or find the legacy version.

I'll have to ask Wesley if something has been changed since the move over to SDL.
Maybe it's simply disabled or as you mentioned, possibly a missing dll.

Will test this out tonight also and I'll bring it to Wesley's attention.

---
Btw, glad you happened to test out with phobia.
I was recently asking about the midi music and why some instruments weren't heard , eg. the guitar in map18 of doom2.
So perhaps this will bring a few things to light.

---

Ok, I tested out the legacy version of phobia, and yeah it seems that digmusic and mb must be commented out somewhere as the console even says unknown command about them.

With the other version of phobia I actually went to the trouble to hear the music in game. I converted the mp3 to wav, added it to the wad, and then added a small bit of fraggle script in the map header to fire the wav/music. ~ which worked but yeah this version of phobia isn't near as nice as the latest one. I'd like to hear the music in that one too.

Nvl, I emailed Wesley. But I'm thinking he has more on his plate then dealing with the music in a couple of wads right now.
Kudos to him though as I'm sure it hasn't been an easy task to better doomlegacy.
Aside from a few things not working exactly as they should, doomlegacy has become much more solid than the previous versions.


Cheers

[Memfis]

In the launcher, why do I have to specify the location of doomlegacy.exe? Can't it find it by itself when it's in the same directory?

[Mr.Rocket]

If you're talking about the Windows launcher?
It has no brain. In that line it only expects the engine executable whether it's legacy.exe(old version), or doomlegacy.exe(new version) to be entered by the user.
The launcher its self is a stand alone program and not so much a part of Doom Legacy, eg. it may be downloaded and installed in a totally different location and has no idea where it or Doom Legacy is located, therefore it needs user input.

Aside from that, the launcher doesn't actually need to be used as Doom Legacy has a built in launcher now. Although the Windows(stand alone) launcher still makes it much simpler to get things up and running in Windows with just a few clicks.
And of course once the paths are setup in the launcher, there's no need to go back to Game Mode, unless perhaps you decide to select a different IWAD.
Is pretty straight forward from that point.

[duh]

how good is this for online play? i don't even care about the modding features.
also does this broadcast servers on LAN (and notify you if any game has been created in the network)?

[Mr.Rocket]

Hi,

Doom Legacy can be played online and actually plays rather nicely depending on the ping.
Unfortunately, there's currently no master server up and running to broadcast when others have a game server running for world wide broadcasting.
~ Although will still broadcast them on LAN.

Legacy will play best on LAN of course where the ping will be next to nothing. ~ although online multiplayer is good too, but again depending on ping.
It also supports split-screen where 2 people can play on the same computer.
As well as bot support. From the console command: addbot

It's easiest to get these things setup in-game multiplayer menu, where a server name can be created so clients can easily connect and join an already hosted and running net or LAN game.
The only notifying of a server running on LAN is from within the in-game multiplayer>connect menu. ~ where your server name can be seen.
I should add, Doom Legacy uses port# 5029 for net games and client side file download.

There is talk about getting the Legacy master server hosted somewhere, possibly through Doom Connector. But I'm not sure if or when that will be.


Cheers

[Boingo]

A new version of Legacy after all these years?

Am I dreaming?

[Graf Zahl]

After all what years? There have been regular releases recently.

[Mr.Rocket]

It's a true story.
Hey Boingo.

[wesleyjohnson]

DoomLegacy has many special switches and abilities that were put in by someone working on their favorite port. Most of these are in the Windows Native port, which has FMOD (incomplete, does not SEEM to have been finished) and other things.
These are things that I try not to wreak in my work, but I do not have the platform or packages to work on myself. There may be a mp3 player somewhere in the Win Native port, as that -digimusic switch seems familiar, but as something that I could not use.

The midi music problem is notorious on Windows, according to searches of the Web.
Note that FluidSynth or some other decent midi package is recommended. There is some complaint that MS has made this even more difficult lately. I do note that some other Doom packages that are being referenced and whose main platform is Windows, are actually bypassing the MS midi player and using some built in midi package of their own. Members here ought to be able to report on that more accurately than I.
I recommend FluidSynth.

My WinXP setup is tore down (needed the table), and the Linux is undergoing an upgrade, so I not going to be doing an major work right now.

[Graf Zahl]

wesleyjohnson said:

There is some complaint that MS has made this even more difficult lately. I do note that some other Doom packages that are being referenced and whose main platform is Windows, are actually bypassing the MS midi player and using some built in midi package of their own. Members here ought to be able to report on that more accurately than I.

That 'lately' dates back to Windows Vista which removed the separate volume control for MIDI output. That's why most ports implement their own MIDI playback - in ZDoom you even got 5 different MIDI synths that can be configured, it's 5 because they all sound different.

[Mr.Rocket]

I can confirm that Doom Legacy's Midi music/play back sounds much better in Linux straight out of the box than it does in Windows.

[Danfun64]

What version of Linux? What soundfonts came with the distro and version of Linux you were using?

[Mr.Rocket]

(Linux Mint 18.1)
(Doom Legacy 1.46.2 Linux2.6 SDL) version.

I'm thinking it used Timidity++, but not certain.

[Death Egg]

Out of curiosity... I don't know much about the beta Doom Legacy 2 branch, what all is in that version that isn't in the currently released version?

[Graf Zahl]

Isn't "It's actually working" enough. ;)

[RestlessRodent]

I actually built and played Doom Legacy 2 in the past and it was rather nice although some parts were a bit unstable. One of the weirdest things though was that the shotgun spread was like the super shotgun, so you could not snipe with a shotgun.

[Mr.Rocket]

Yeah, back when it was mostly active I played around with it too, messed around with adding hi-res textures in one of the alphas, used NTEXTURE. I remember some shots that smite posted which had stencil shadowing, looks similar to bumpmaps.

@Death Egg:
Assuming that you know Legacy 1.46x features pretty well.
Legacy2 is a total rewrite in C++ and introduces a lot of new features and the best I could tell you is to have a look here: https://sourceforge.net/p/doomlegacy/svn/HEAD/tree/legacy/trunk/docs/features.html

And then select "Download this file" to view it, as it's not currently hosted anywhere.

I suggest contacting smite-meister if you have any other questions, he's the main programmer on the side of Legacy2.

[BigDickBzzrak]

So the only essential things that Legacy 2.0 still needs is netcode and model support?
DECORATE/SNDINFO/ANIMDEFS/MAPINFO are already implemented?

If that document is accurate, then Legacy 2 sounds pretty badass.

[Mr.Rocket]

At one point smite meister actually posted a couple shots of models in, I think it was alpha3? of Legacy2.
And I'm trying to remember the type of net code that was going in it, based on Planet Side, I think.

[Death Egg]

Wow, I'm impressed that much is already done. Hopefully it sees a release in the near future. Perhaps it could be released as is now, and the netcode could be saved for the next release...?

EDIT: Also, it says here that Doom Legacy is licensed under both GPL and DSL for Heretic, but since Hereitc is GPL too now, shouldn't the license be just GPL?

[Mr.Rocket]

Legacy 2 is still currently alpha and I assume it's mostly not stable enough for a valuable enough public release afaik, at least until beta stage.
Which I was hoping for a some years ago.
It's going to need a bit of optimization.

It would be nice to see it hit the stage though, I agree!
I ran across this btw:
http://n4g.com/news/53951/doom-legacy-2-0-breathing-new-life-into-a-classic

I'm not a developer for Doom Legacy, though I've updated the Docs a while back, and added a small editing tutorial etc.
I currently only make the Windows installer after Wesley releases a new build.
It's about as far as my development goes with the port, aside from sending random bug reports heh.
I suppose I could only be categorized as a grain of sugar in the big cookie.. :)

Good question though but I have no control over the ins and outs of GPL version.
It's something that Wesley might want to look into when he comes back.



Thanks

[Jon]

My honest opinion at the time, and it is the same now, is that the C++ rewrite is a mistake; and I think to some extent my feelings on the matter have born out. It should just be skipped, imho, and all efforts (and there's precious few people working on it anymore after all) put into the C version, which should be considered the canonical branch again.

[Angry Saint]

Legacy was the first port I used, it is nice to see it is still updated.

[RestlessRodent]

Jon said:

My honest opinion at the time, and it is the same now, is that the C++ rewrite is a mistake; and I think to some extent my feelings on the matter have born out. It should just be skipped, imho, and all efforts (and there's precious few people working on it anymore after all) put into the C version, which should be considered the canonical branch again.

Legacy 2 suffered from feature creep, they kept adding more and more features before they had a finished release. This ultimately lead to major burn out and at that point since most of the effort was on Doom Legacy 2, both ports pretty much died.