Doom Connector returns 2019 - (with cat pictures!)

[Mr.Rocket]

 

 

Hi All!

 

It's been a while and the Doom Connector Team would like to announce the return of Doom Connector after many years!

We've all been working hard to make the Doom Connector a more comfortable place to chat and play our most loved Doom engines.

Over the years the Doom Connector team has been working behind the scenes updating the client and server to be more secure, in addition to adding support for several more Doom engines, as well as a fresh new look of the client.

While it may not run as expected on older Windows O/S's now, it is fully compatible with Win7 and up.

 

What is Doom Connector?

Doom Connector is a lobby-based, online service which allows you to play Doom online using modern source engines.

Beside playing Doom you can chat, send instant messages, p2p file transfers for a quick way to send pwads to each other, buddie list, and a simple whiteboard for drawing and sharing your creations. Also shows masterserver lists of general public servers for most source engines that support this feature.

Doom Connector is also known to be very helpful with community projects, while you can chat and test your maps with your project co-workers on the fly!

 

Current look of the client:

 

Currently supported Doom Engines:

 

So feel free to jump on the Doom Connector again after all this time, or if you're totally new to the service. Have a go and let us know what you think!

Even though Doom Connector has been reworked and updated to hang with todays standards, it is still considered Beta, so please give us some feed back!

 

One of the more recent (non-Doom related additions) is the support for M.A.M.E. ~ using C.S.U.M.E for online play.

Since Zorcher made support for ZSNES some years ago, I decided to broaden this road a bit and add MAME to the mix. However Doom Connector will continue to support Doom Games exclusively.

 

Engines I plan to add soon:

Doom Retro

Prboom

 

Some engines don't support multiplayer, but they are added for future multiplayer functionality or added to at least be able to launch the game via Doom Connector if wanted.

 

Hope to see you there, and by all means, enjoy!

 

https://doomconnector.com/

Cheers!

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Mr.Rocket

[Z0k]

Oh BOY downloading right now is where i meet most my friends i know for years. glad to see it back. Just curious any plan to add support doom64ex? i know well at least knew the version i used have multiplayer already done but kinda unstable if i recall correctly so i dont know if there a new version.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Z0k

[Doomkid]

Really hope to see this picking up some traction

[NationwideMoose]

This is incredible

 

[Bauul]

For those who aren't familiar with Doom Connector, can you give a run down of what it is and what it does?

[Mr.Rocket]

1 hour ago, Bauul said:

For those who aren't familiar with Doom Connector, can you give a run down of what it is and what it does?

Ah thanks!

And done, added to the OP. :)

 

Oh I should probably also mention that Doom Connector supports the original Doom and Doom2 via DOSBox IPX emulation!

More info here: https://doomconnector.com/doomipx.html

 

To everyone else, thanks!

And I hope to see you there soon!

 

[Mr.Rocket]

Cough* - Bump - Cough* oops .. :)

 

Wow 162 views and only 4 replies?

What's going on peoples.. :P

Edited August 2, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[ketmar]

add "(with cat pictures)" to the title. at least people will post, demanding their cat pictures.

[Mr.Rocket]

Haha.. I suppose I might have to if I don't hear something soon. :P

[Johnny B. Getgoode (The Guy)]

O_O

 

Do my eyes deceive me? Doom Connector is back? In 2019? The same Doom Connector that got canned a year ago?

* Looks at original post date *

 

O_e

 

HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

 

:D

 

Seriously, this is the best news I could have asked for! I've been wanting to put PvP, possibly co-op, in my GZDoom mod for quite a while, but I lacked a way to get lobbies for it. And now this turns up?! Booyah, bitches! Fury's Sky Versus is a go!

Thanks so much man. Let's hope DC stays alive this time. :P

[StevenC21]

Is it open source?

[ketmar]

On 8/2/2019 at 4:13 AM, Mr.Rocket said:

Haha.. I suppose I might have to if I don't hear something soon. :P

see? it works! cat pictures always works!

[Mr.Rocket]

On 8/5/2019 at 5:58 PM, Johnny B. Getgoode (The Guy) said:

Seriously, this is the best news I could have asked for! I've been wanting to put PvP, possibly co-op, in my GZDoom mod for quite a while, but I lacked a way to get lobbies for it. And now this turns up?! Booyah, bitches! Fury's Sky Versus is a go!

Thanks so much man. Let's hope DC stays alive this time. :P

Yeah we should be able to get something going with that. 

Your welcome! Will be glad to see you soon. :)

 

On 8/5/2019 at 6:38 PM, StevenC21 said:

Is it open source?

The client and server unfortunately are not. The game dll's could be though.

We would like for someone, that we could trust, that would totally be into working on the client, to be part of the team, however.

It's about 98% VB. The other 2% is in C++.

The game dll's are in C++, which is what I usually work on..

 

It's Windows only, but I have heard that it will run in Linux and MAC O/S, under Wine and .Net emulation.. 

 

On 8/5/2019 at 8:14 PM, ketmar said:

see? it works! cat pictures always works!

You weren't kidding! lol

 

 

Oh btw, let me know if you guys are having any issue logging in?

Delta said the server was acting a little weird last week, but it seems ok now.

 

Cheers

Edited August 7, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[Mr.Rocket]

Currently adding support for:

Doom64 EX

Brutal Doom64

 

Testing phase:

Fury's Sky

Doom Retro

Prboom-plus

 

Most game support added will have multiplayer functionality.

Some, will not, or currently does not support multiplayer: Doom Retro and Doom64EX.

Hopefully one day they will, but until then, at least they can be launched and played in Single player mode.

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[Mr.Rocket]

And.. done..

Doom Connector now has additional game support for:

 

Doom64 EX - disabled multiplayer, even though the option is there.

Fury's Sky - multiplayer is working

Doom Retro - may never have multiplayer

 

See you soon!

 

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[tml]

Super sick to see this back. But for some reason Windows 10 is identifying it as a trojan. 

[Mr.Rocket]

Hmm, that's strange.

Most of us are on Windows 10 on DC and you're the first to mention anything like that.

I'm on Windows 10 Pro 1908 and always have an anti-virus program running.

 

Only thing I can think of is your anti-virus might be catching it as a false positive because of the auto-updater.

I'll let Delta know of this report, he hosts the server.

 

Thanks

Edited August 15, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[NationwideMoose]

Yes I am having the same issue except I am using 3rd party antivirus. Was going to download but that made me cancel it. Looks like a great program.

 

[Mr.Rocket]

What exactly is your antivirus saying?

[Mr.Rocket]

I see what the problem was now.

It seems as that it wasn't in the anti-virus data base.

I rereleased it and submitted it to Kaspersky Labs.

 

 

If it happens again then I'll know someone is trying to hack the site.

 

Thanks!

Edited August 19, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[ketmar]

9 hours ago, Mr.Rocket said:

It seems as that it wasn't in the anti-virus data base.

av vendors become really lazy these days. i still remember times when false positive was a vendor problem... and now they simply don't care anymore.

[Doomkid]

Just tried using the new DC earlier today, looking great!!

 

..because I am insane, I decided to collect every single Doom Connector related thread ever made on Doomworld right here. Don't ask why, I don't even know. It's 18 hilarious years of history - mostly lost, but some of these threads made me laugh for various different reasons.

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Doomkid

[Mr.Rocket]

Those aren't cat pictures!

The last one there where Dagger was wanting everyone to get on the Game Connector; That was our first run of getting the old DC2 based program up and running, until Vin sent me the new source he was working on.

We're actually trying to get the oldie version and the current new version to run off the same server. That way users will have a choice of which client they'd like. The current DC5 is for Win7 and up, the oldie version will work on WinXp sp2 and up.

 

Some of them are pretty funny though, wish it wasn't such a long list..

Could you cut it down to like 4 or 5 posts Doomkid?

 

Thanks!

[Erick]

When looking at the FAQ, it shows that you can have a folder for your IWADs and that you don't need to put them in each engine directory. When I was setting up Doom Connector myself, I have a folder for my IWADs yet for ports like GZDoom and Chocolate Doom, it says I need to have my IWADs in both folders. What's weird is that Chocolate Doom was shown in the FAQ not needing the IWADs in the folder. Zandronum can be set up without needing the IWADs in its folder. Is there something I am missing?

[Mr.Rocket]

Yes unfortunately, you'll have to place your IWADs in the selected engine folder.

Otherwise, we'll say no folder was selected, then when you go in multiplayer settings, there wouldn't be an IWAD/game type to select. Which is why DC won't let you get past that point if there are no IWADs in said engine folder.

 

Since the beginning of time, pretty much every source port expects the game IWAD(s) to be in it's working directory. As like the original game, Doom, Doom.exe and the Doom.wad need to be in the same folder, otherwise the game simply won't run heh.

The support for Zandronum on the other hand is a special case where Vin6 (the creator of the Zan dll for DC) didn't add a catch in the code to add an Iwad from within the engine setup dialog. What happens though is when you go to setup a Multiplayer game, DC will tell you to (configure the engine) in a nice little chat line, anyway.. yeah I know, I need to update that one. But if you place your Iwads in the engine folder, there won't be any problems adding the game to your configuration in DC in the first place. I've been working on some other things, but I'm glad you reminded me, I totally forgot that Zan was setup like that.

 

I'll have to update the Zandronum dll so it won't let you get past that point, if there's no IWADs in its working directory. ~ like the rest of the supported engines do.

 

Also the FAQ need updated also!

Thanks for spotting that, they are based on the Game Connector version, which basically doesn't exist anymore.

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

Ps, I should also add that, in some cases like if you were to setup a DoomIPX game and add your IWAD location, you will also need to add your PWAD location there also, as some engines like Doom expect your pwads to be in its working directory also, they were never meant to search beyond that point. Once you have a few pwads in there that you want to play, they can be added to the same engine location from the Addons directory selection.

Most modern ports now days can have a pwad anywhere however. So it's something to keep in mind depending how old the engine is it could have a lot of it's own restrictions and Doom Connector doesn't always have a way around that. 

The good thing is, once you have those locations added, you won't often need to make changes to it, form that point it's well, point and click.

Edited August 18, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[Mr.Rocket]

Updated Zandronum game support dll, to catch if there's no IWAD in its working dir..

It will be in the auto update before login.

Also updated the Game setup page 

 

Cheers

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by Mr.Rocket

[Mr.Rocket]

I'd like to be adding Zdaemon to the server list, of course it works as is when creating a game server in a room though.

But again I'd like to add Zdaemon to the server list in Doom Connector, but I can't find a source or the protocol.

 

In other news, will be adding prboom plus..

 

Cheers

[Mr.Rocket]

So I suppose Doom Connector has shut its doors again..

I haven't even been around my computer for awhile and I wish someone would have told me.. :(

After all my hard work with pretty much any Doom based game support I've recently added in the past year, as you'll notice by the pics above.

It is rather unfortunate.

 

Anyway, I still have the client source and the server app to host with. I suppose I could host if need be, but I doubt I'd have enough bandwidth to hold any additional connecting clients than my own heh.

 

Doom Connector shutting down is news to me, I'll let everyone know what I find out.

Stay tuned!

 

Thanks for your support!

 

[Doomkid]

I'm really sorry to hear it ended up shutting down :(

[Grazza]

Fortunately the more important promise can be kept.