Doom 64 for Doom II - v1.4 released, /idgames link is up

[SiFi270]

I kind of wish it had more in common with the arch-vile than the demon, but after accomplishing that much it's obviously not worth starting over just because of what I think.

[Mechadon]

Alrighty guys, I have some news regarding the v8 build release date and the final deadline that's looming on the horizon.  I'm thinking that it would be wise to slow down just a tiny bit on the v8 release.  Just to clarify, I intend for v8 to be feature-complete.  Basically meaning that all map bugs and features are addressed, all music is chosen, and anything else that's really important to the gameplay is done.  There's still some map updates that I'm waiting on.  And Cage thinks he will be done with the new Motherdemon in a few days more or less.  So I'm going to say that the Jan. 31st deadline will likely be the v8 release date, and then the release will happen sometime after that.  We'll take as long as necessary until we're confident that we've found and fixed as many issues as possible from the v8 release.

 

So tl;dr is this - if you have something left to update/address in this project, try to get it to me by the 31st.  And let me know if your not able to do that for any reason.  I can extend the deadline or help you out.

 

Also since we're on a new page now, I want to repost the Motherdemon sounds I smooshed together the other day.  Basically I have next to no skills when it comes to making sfx...so these are just barely passable in my opinion :P.  I would really appreciate if someone out there can improve them, or even just make some new ones entirely.  Since we're very likely getting entirely new Motherdemon sprites, I think having some Doom-like sound effects to go with it is very important!  If you know of anyone I could contact to help us out here, please let me know.

 

mothersfxv1.zip

 

13 hours ago, SiFi270 said:

I kind of wish it had more in common with the arch-vile than the demon, but after accomplishing that much it's obviously not worth starting over just because of what I think.

I think Cage was looking at making it more in-line with the Doom 64 Motherdemon design than anything else.  Though when he mentioned what the skin color should be, I thought pink looked best (seems more fleshy/hellish to me).  Also once he finishes up the arms/hands, it might look a bit more like an Archvile (with its long, spindly arms).  At any rate, thanks for your feedback :)

[Dexiaz]

Is it possible to get the higher quality of sounds you've posted? I want to improve them, but I need the "unedited" originals also.

[Mechadon]

I'll have to double-check, but those are likely already the highest "quality" versions.  That should probably tell you how terrible I am at sfx stuff :P

[Dexiaz]

1 hour ago, Mechadon said:

That should probably tell you how terrible I am at sfx stuff

Not really. I'm working with sfx about 10 years and sometimes I suck like a noobie.

 

Ok, that's not a big problem. If I'll find anything useful - I'll post here (of course). Thanks for the fast answer!

 

UPD:

Ok, I've tried. I decided to do "Doom sounds the way id did", lmao. So I took stock free sound library from 1950-1990s and edited them.

Edited January 26, 2018 by DeXiaZ : Added sound

[Nevander]

On 1/24/2018 at 6:08 PM, Cage said:

Current progress on shrimp demon:

Lmao "shrimp demon" I'm dying. Looks great though. I actually like the idea that the Mother Demon has the same skin type and general style of the normal Demons in Doom.

[Mechadon]

DeXiaZ those are great!  Maybe I'm biased because I wasn't happy with my efforts, but I'll definitely use these over mine.  I think partially why mine didn't turn out so great was because the samples I used were of poor quality.  Great work!

[scalliano]

@Cage: That is the best attempt at a classic-styled Motherdemon I've seen yet - Hopefully it downsizes well to the required resolution.

[Dexiaz]

7 hours ago, Mechadon said:

DeXiaZ those are great!  Maybe I'm biased because I wasn't happy with my efforts, but I'll definitely use these over mine.  I think partially why mine didn't turn out so great was because the samples I used were of poor quality.  Great work!

Thank you very much for such high appreciation!

 

P.S.: It could be not very noticeable, but I also have used your sounds too. I mean, they were included into my work too. With edits, of course.

[Mechadon]

Yea I noticed them in your versions, so I went ahead and credited both of us :).  If there's any other info I should know for the readme regarding the sounds, just let me know.

[Dexiaz]

Well, I've used "TV Tropes" as information wiki about stock sounds used in videogames and movies to create those ones. That's all, I think :)

[Da Werecat]

I will not click that link. I will not.

[Megalyth]

@Mechadon

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/psdrb4z9pbw24w9/Megalyth-Dark_Entries-V2.wad

 

I think I addressed all the issues in the bug tracker, everything seems to work fine in Chocolate Doom and GzDoom. If you find any issues that are a quick fix, feel free to make modifications to the map rather than waiting on my slow ass.

 

Edit: I forget to mention, the music is "Butt Clencher" by Jimmy.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Megalyth

[Mechadon]

Thank you very much for the map update and the music choice Megalyth!  I'll gladly take care of any bugs that pop up for you :)

 

I'm still planning on doing the v8 release on the 31st.  So to the few of you who still have updates to get in to me, try your hardest to get them in to me by that day.  I may end up delaying it a bit depending on how close Cage is with the Motherdemon sprites, that way they can be in this final test build.

[TwinBeast]

Here's some little adjustment on the coop monsters in the lava area, also made it 2 nightmare imps each alcove there. Added soundblocking flags for the lines in the lowering walls in the spider area, so it's not so easy to lure them under the crusher. Otherwise player can just suicide and wave fist at the top, the spiders wake up and move under the crusher. Now players need to at least jump down there.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/6npcv8x5ncucynb/TwinBeast_Hectic_v007.wad

 

Used the Dream, Dream Eternal by DILDOMASTER666 for music while playing. Maybe it fits.

[Da Werecat]

I have a challenging location ahead of me. Then it's gameplay tweaking and coop. And I'm tired.

 

When I'll finish, I would like to:

 

- Go over the skies.

- Go over all the levels and nitpick them to death again. I'm sure I'll find something to complain about. I always do.

- Go over the texture set. I have a few candidates for minor tweaking. The hardest part will be remembering them all.

 

These are the realistic ones.

 

[Mechadon]

I've got more release news for you guys.  I'm still planning on releasing v8 on or just slightly after the 31st (I'll probably wait until the following day to account for time zones).  However Cage's sprites won't be ready by then, so those will come with the final release (or in another test release if that's necessary).  Speaking of the Motherdemon sprites, we did a quick test with some rough sprites and I think you guys are really going to like the end result :D

 

_bruce_ and I updated his MAP21 slot today, so I wanted to share a link to that.  There's quite a few changes/fixes in this update too, but feel free to check it out in the upcoming build.

 

Watch Your Step v6

 

There's really not much left to do here other than tweaking and a couple other additions.  One thing that I will need right before the release are some sample demos for the opening carousel.  Mirroring the maps that are demoed in the original Doom 64 game seems like a good way to go.  I need to do a bit of research to see which maps the orignal game demoed because D64ex doesn't seem to play them.  But once I figure that out, I could use some volunteers to record those demos.  So just let me know if your interested!

 

Something else that I need help with is the readme.  It's been updated a bunch since I posted it last, and I just need to make sure everything is correct.  Check it out HERE.

 

Does anyone have any final thoughts on the statusbar graphics?  I mentioned that I may make some different ones if I had the time and if enough people didn't care for the current one.  I haven't heard much else about them since then though, so I can only assume that the current one is ok?

 

I've made some preliminary music choices for the few remaining maps that don't have any.  I took the initiative since I had some ideas for what I thought sounded good.  These can be changed without any issues, just let me know.  Music choices are as follows:

 

MAP01: Extradimensional Beings by CoTeCiO

MAP04: Sanity Decay by CoTeCiO

MAP08: Zephyr Zone Infiltration Method by Viscra Maelstrom

MAP09: Dark Halls by Robert Prince

MAP10: Suspense by Robert Prince

 

@TwinBeast Thanks for your map update and music choice!

@Da Werecat I'm really looking forward to your update of Alpha Quadrant!  Any ideas what your looking to do with the sky textures?  Like I said, I'm pretty happy with them on the whole, apart from maybe reusing the foreground on the alternate versions.  Also I'm definitely open to any other vanilla texture fixes/updates that you'd like to contribute!

[Da Werecat]

2 hours ago, Mechadon said:

I need to do a bit of research to see which maps the orignal game demoed because D64ex doesn't seem to play them.

Out of memory: Main Engineering, Even Simpler, and Watch Your Step.

 

2 hours ago, Mechadon said:

Does anyone have any final thoughts on the statusbar graphics?

Well, you know my opinion - I really like it.

 

2 hours ago, Mechadon said:

Any ideas what your looking to do with the sky textures?

Moon sky: maybe add some smaller structures to the mountains and/or tune the brightness of the existing ones. I think they're sticking out a little more than they should.

 

Aqueduct sky: I think the structures are uncomfortably high, breaking the perspective somewhat, but maybe I'm just hallucinating. In any case, I wanted to just take a look and make sure I can't make anything better.

 

The Eye of the Storm sky in particular needs some reflections on objects when the lightning strikes, I think. Looks a bit dry as it is.

[CoTeCiO]

9 hours ago, Mechadon said:

Does anyone have any final thoughts on the statusbar graphics?

I think it looks great, but I'm not sure if it fits this project as it is very conservative in nature. I won't complain if it stays, though haha! The only thing I think doesn't look right is the text, I think it would look a lot better with the classic font/style and more contrasting so they are easier to see.

 

I could record demos for the demo loop, but that should be the last thing to do as changes done to the wad afterwards might break them.

 

One thing I did that I never mentioned was doing a new GENMIDI lump for the OPL music that I included in the compilation I put together near the end of the first thread. The only change is the Overdriven Guitar patch that sounds like the one in Doom 1 instead of the Doom II version that mirrors the Distorted Guitar patch (so both patches sound exactly the same in Doom II, making some Doom 1 music sound weak, you can hear that in Plutonia when it plays the music from E1M1). This makes the Doom I rock music sound the way it should and at least make my own MIDIs sound better as well. You might include it. I attached it here.

GENMIDI.zip

[Da Werecat]

9 hours ago, Mechadon said:

MAP04: Sanity Decay by CoTeCiO

MAP08: Zephyr Zone Infiltration Method by Viscra Maelstrom

MAP09: Dark Halls by Robert Prince

MAP10: Suspense by Robert Prince

I finally listened to the leftover tracks, and I didn't find a lot of them very fitting for my maps. Then again, it was to be expected, since I mostly imagined something like this when making them. Kinda hard to find that in MIDI format.

 

Some impressive tracks though.

 

Sanity Decay sounds a bit like a Christmas adventure movie to me. For some reason I feel like going the opposite of dark and mopey for MAP04 with something like Gunfire or Blackness Ahead. Probably the latter, to not overdo it. It has some great moments and satisfying percussion.

 

Agree for MAP08. Not sure if the track really belongs there, but it's a great track and I want to see it in the wad one way or another.

 

I was never quite fond of Dark Halls. It's my least favorite E1 track. I'm thinking maybe Dark City. Not sure about two tracks of roughly the same mood and by the same author being so close together, but, like with Zephyr, I really want this track somewhere, and it sorta fits MAP09, more or less.

 

I like Suspense. I wanted Waltz there, but I don't want duplicates. I wanted to stick something from Evilution somewhere, but MAP10 isn't a very fitting destination, and certainly not at the expense of Viscra Maelstrom's tracks.

 

[StalkerZHS]

1 hour ago, CoTeCiO said:

...GENMIDI... that sounds like the one in Doom 1 instead of the Doom II (so... some Doom 1 music sound weak, you can hear that in Plutonia when it plays D_E1M1).

 

I always knew that was the reason why E1M1 sounded so different.

I tried making a custom wad replacement in Slade, even trying to overwrite the Iwad in DeepSea but neither worked!

[Mechadon]

@Da Werecat Sounds good regarding the sky textures, I definitely welcome any improvements you can make (especially improving the lighting with the lightning strike, that's a good idea).  I'll get those music changes in for you as well.  We still have time after the v8 release to change up music selections if you end up not liking one or more of them.

 

@CoTeCiO Thanks for the GENMIDI lump, I'll definitely include it!  I must have missed that from the old thread while trying to get everything reorganized, sorry for that.  I probably would have included it then, but it was pretty confusing getting the project back on track at the time.  And about the demos, I'll shoot you a PM once the time comes.  You can get first dibs on the map choice as well!

Edited February 1, 2018 by Mechadon

[CoTeCiO]

I don't have much time right now to play though the mod, but I played the first four maps and I have a couple of things to say.

 

MAP01 has bonus duplicates (so every health and armor bonus give you two instead of one), I think that's the only map in the mod that has them.

MAP02 is a little bit unforgiving with the Lost Souls (or maybe I'm just being a pussy, I don't know). You gotta know that Lost Souls in Doom 64 have half the health (50 instead of 100) and are a lot more aggressive. So Doom 64 has a more "quantity over quality" approach to them. Also, the music for this map in Vanilla sound like farts over and over again. I'm sure it sounds a million times better with the Windows wave synth, but as it stands, with FM synth (OPL) sounds like farts. That's why the original Dooms didn't have pure ambient stuff; because it doesn't work with the hardware limitations. Aubrey, when working on Doom 64, had the possibility of working with his own samples for his music, we don't.

MAP03 and MAP04 are ok, but I'm not sure about the aesthetic changes done to MAP04, but oh well, that's just me, I'm too conservative and the old version looked a lot closer to the original. It would be cool to connect the secret exit room with the actual exit using that door that apparently does nothing (unless I'm missing out on something).

 

Maybe I'll pick it up again later today and play a little more.

[Mechadon]

1 hour ago, CoTeCiO said:

MAP02 is a little bit unforgiving with the Lost Souls (or maybe I'm just being a pussy, I don't know). You gotta know that Lost Souls in Doom 64 have half the health (50 instead of 100) and are a lot more aggressive. So Doom 64 has a more "quantity over quality" approach to them. Also, the music for this map in Vanilla sound like farts over and over again. I'm sure it sounds a million times better with the Windows wave synth, but as it stands, with FM synth (OPL) sounds like farts. That's why the original Dooms didn't have pure ambient stuff; because it doesn't work with the hardware limitations. Aubrey, when working on Doom 64, had the possibility of working with his own samples for his music, we don't.

I appreciate the feedback CoTeCiO!  I assume you mean MAP03 in regards to the Lost Souls, right?  You had me second-guessing myself because I couldn't remember if there were Lost Souls in MAP02 (there aren't).  Anywho, I haven't really felt it was much of a problem in this instance, though you are right that Lost Soul usage in this project shouldn't reflect the Doom 64 maps exactly because of their larger health pools.  In the maps I've worked on, I've tried to be thoughtful about Lost Soul and Pain Elemental usage.  I'll probably mark some of them as COOP-only in that map.

 

I also got around to listening to most of the soundtrack in OPL recently, and yea you are right about MAP02's music.  MAP24 and MAP30 have a similar ambient-style tracks; I need to listen to them again to make a better judgement.  And apart from how it sounds in OPL, I've kinda felt like its a really big departure from the rest of the music in the wad...its almost too moody and ambient, then it jumps back to more upbeat stuff.  Kind of a shame though because I like how it sounds in other soundfonts.  I ended up changing the track to Dark Halls after Da Werecat chose a track that replaced it, and it fits pretty well I think.

[Da Werecat]

4 hours ago, CoTeCiO said:

It would be cool to connect the secret exit room with the actual exit using that door that apparently does nothing (unless I'm missing out on something).

You mean the EXITDOOR door?

[CoTeCiO]

1 hour ago, Da Werecat said:

You mean the EXITDOOR door?

Yep, that one.

 

Also, I played until MAP12 and so far everything looks and plays fine except for a HOM I found in MAP08:

 

 

By the way, I absolutely loved the small areas next to the switches telling you what they do in MAP09, they look awesome!

 

Now, I want to bring up again the topic of the music. D_READ_M is broken, the pitch bends don't work as they should and in my honest opinion, the song fading in and out sound quite "unprofessional" to put it in a way. I already brought this up before but apparently @DILDOMASTER666 never got around to fix it. I have a song I wrote that might fit that spot that I uploaded (Departure1). If he doesn't fix the original and everyone prefer the Death song instead of mine, I can try to recreate the original MIDI and make it sound OK in Vanilla.

 

Another thing, the opening music is too long. You are supposed to put a short tune that lasts less than 11 seconds. When I did the intermission music, I also started doing the ending music but never finished it (I figured it would work nice for the ending cast, but that same song plays for MAP31 and I don't think it fits that one, so I discarded it), I took that and rearranged it to make a small opening piece that sounds quite nice, I also uploaded it here.

D64D2 CoTeCiO MIDIs 3.zip

[Brewtal_Legend]

Regarding the status bar, The current one looks pretty nice. I kinda liked the bloody one, but I can see why it's kinda hard to see in some spots. 

 

Personally, I would really like to see one based on the stone/marble texture like the one used in the current intermission/tally screen (the one shown on page 9). I think it would fit really well with the darker and less techy vibe of doom 64. 

 

It's likey too much to realistically ask, but one thing I would really like to see would be a different doomguy face based on Helmeted doomguy (like the one also shown on page 9's ending screen) that got more cracked and damaged as the player got lower on health. Maybe even showing part of doomguy's bloodied face behind a completed cracked/removed chunk of the visor when the player is near death. 

[CoTeCiO]

2 hours ago, Brewtal_Legend said:

I would really like to see one based on the stone/marble texture like the one used in the current intermission/tally screen (the one shown on page 9)

I was doing one in that style a while ago but never finished it. I never tried it in game so I don't know if it looks ok or not.

[galileo31dos01]

Could I suggest something for the status bar? A more detailed texture like STARTAN2 for the ammo box. 

[Brewtal_Legend]

57 minutes ago, CoTeCiO said:

I was doing one in that style a while ago but never finished it. I never tried it in game so I don't know if it looks ok or not.

I think that combined with the rounded shape frame of the current status bar would look really cool.