Knee-Deep in KDiZD: Released! It's KDiZD for doom2.exe - 1.7.1 is now on /idgames

[Edward850]

14 minutes ago, Redead-ITA said:

the sky is the limit.

I believe 128 visplanes is the limit.

[Gougaru]

Absolutely fantastic. Having a blast with it with eternity 

[ducon]

8 hours ago, DU0 said:

Playing this flawlessly on PRBoom+

Same here but the Debian version.

Except a health bonus that I can’t grab in map17.

[Scuba Steve]

12 hours ago, Edward850 said:

I believe 128 visplanes is the limit.

 

*Groansphere*

[taufan99]

22 minutes ago, Scuba Steve said:

*Groansphere*

We need to make a new sprite set for this, just for Doomworld reaction alone!

[Nixx]

Nice work!

I'm on map 5 at the moment, and the technical level is incredible in addition to being fun, I really like the music as well (it sounds great with Microsoft GS/RLNDGM).
I haven't opened UDB yet to see how it's done, I prefer to let myself be carried away by the magic until I finish it in UV Max

I suspect the use of mikoportal, triggered at the beginning of the map, this is the only technical detail I noticed, although I have not played the ZDoom version

 

I guess the midi are available on your website?

[esselfortium]

Just now, Nixx said:

Nice work!

I'm on map 5 at the moment, and the technical level is incredible in addition to being fun, I really like the music as well (it sounds great with Microsoft GS/RLNDGM).
I haven't opened UDB yet to see how it's done, I prefer to let myself be carried away by the magic until I finish it in UV Max

I suspect the use of mikoportal, triggered at the beginning of the map, this is the only technical detail I noticed, although I have not played the ZDoom version

 

I guess the midi are available on your website?

Glad you’re enjoying it!

 

The soundtrack is half by me and half by Jimmy, and we still need to figure out how best to handle releasing it, but we’d definitely like to make it available.

[Nixx]

It makes me think, in terms of rights, it is eligible for an "official" release on the Unity version? I don't know the original contributors and if they are considered as such since it is a rerelease/demake.
You're both already in the ID Software/Bethesda contacts (via Sigil and BTSX) so no worries on that side I guess

[esselfortium]

31 minutes ago, Nixx said:

It makes me think, in terms of rights, it is eligible for an "official" release on the Unity version? I don't know the original contributors and if they are considered as such since it is a rerelease/demake.
You're both already in the ID Software/Bethesda contacts (via Sigil and BTSX) so no worries on that side I guess

Probably not eligible, unfortunately. The other mappers credited for KDiKDiZD are people who worked on this between 2008-2010 and I no longer know any way to contact several of them.

[Sena]

One question, who did the music for Z1M7? It's missing from the readme

[esselfortium]

Just now, Sena said:

One question, who did the music for Z1M7? It's missing from the readme

Whoops. That one's by Jimmy. Will fix the readme for the next update, thanks.

[⇛Marnetmar⇛]

👀

[PsychEyeball]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2TF5BU0lpQ

 

To anyone still on the fence about trying this out... just do it. This is the most mind blowing thing I've ever played on regular Doom. So many mapping tricks in here just blew my mind, knowing this would run on doom2.exe. And hey, as the video length says, you get a lot of mileage for 9 levels as well than the special end game it got. My dumb ass got lost sometimes in the maps, but I'd say for the most part it was a "me" problem.

 

I also didn't talk about the music much during my playthrough, let's just say I was soaking in the ambience. The new music tracks were excellent and sounded great on my SC-8820. As a fan of the more ambient side of the soundtrack, I'm glad this was the avenue that was chosen for the new music and not the more metal vibes (no offense of course to whoever enjoys the heavier side of Doom).

 

I never ever heard of that project ever being in the works so all in all, this was a great surprise. 

Edited November 17, 2022 by PsychEyeball

[TasAcri]

Just to clarify, there are some monsters here that didn't exist in the original KDIZD, right? I don't remember the Serious Sam screaming bombers or the thin mancubus monster.

[esselfortium]

5 minutes ago, TasAcri said:

Just to clarify, there are some monsters here that didn't exist in the original KDIZD, right? I don't remember the Serious Sam screaming bombers or the thin mancubus monster.

Yes. The suicide bomber, dark caco, nightmare demon, and wargrin (the mancubus-like) are all new additions to KDiKDiZD. I've also tweaked the behavior of some of the original KDiZD monsters that were included.

[Deadwing]

Damn, this is fucking fantastic! There's so much innovative stuff, even when considering Boom/MBF wads! And I thought BTSX was the pinnacle of vanilla mapping. I wonder if we'll see some of this trickery on BTSX3?

 

Congratz for the release!!

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Deadwing

[esselfortium]

1 minute ago, Deadwing said:

Damn, this is fucking fantastic! There's so much innovative stuff, even when considering Boom/MBF wads! And I thought BTSX was the pinnacle of vanilla mapping. I wonder if we'll see some of this trickery on BTSX3?

 

Congratz for the release!!

 

Thank you!

 

And some of these tricks will probably show up at least somewhere in BTSX E3, though BTSX isn't really designed as a feature showcase in the way that KDiKDiZD is.

[WH-Wilou84]

FDA on Z1M6 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/g83p33ao6670p3d/KDiKDiZDZ1M6-fda-wh.zip?dl=1

(Build 3)
 

 

FDA sur Z1M7 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8dcopr3d64xzh2/KDiKDiZDZ1M7-fda-wh.zip?dl=1
(Build 4)
 

 

Another fantastic map duet !

Noticing an increase in difficulty from Z1M5 onwards, which is much to my liking.
More new enemies got introduced, including some familiar foes.
I enjoyed the early Soul Reaper encounter on Z1M6, these monsters do look menacing (props to Vader for the sprites !) but felt a tad underpowered compared to, say, Hell Warriors or the new baby Mancubus thingies. That, or maybe I got lucky each time I met them.

Z1M7 brings even more cool special effects, including a lethal forcefield, and a floor portion that becomes red and hurts you as you try to cross over it. Impressive stuff.
I've only played the original Z1M7 once, but from what I recall, progression has been heavily altered here in this KDiKDiZD version (for the better).

Only one map remaining, I'm pretty excited to see what you've done concerning the boss(es). :)

[esselfortium]

Thanks for the FDAs!

 

Z1M7 indeed got some major changes to its layout flow, to eliminate the back-and-forth-across-the-map backtracking treks from the KDiZD version. I rearranged the order that you visit the areas in, turned the silver/comp maze into a dropdown fight, expanded a small cave area into the big lava arena near the green key as an additional connection between the two halves of the map, added a shortcut bridge between the forcefield switch and the forcefield itself, and probably some other things I'm forgetting.

[WH-Wilou84]

FDA on Z1M8 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/h4umd2cg9ygqbxr/KDiKDiZDZ1M8-fda-wh.zip?dl=1

(Build 4)
 

Aaaaand... that's a wrap !
 

 

A particularly memorable ending map, with probably some of the prettiest translucent floor effects in the whole wad (yes, I'm talking about THAT delicious lava pool followed by THAT crazy hall of pillars).

I had completely forgotten about the red forcefield tricks in the original KDiZD map, and ended up clearing both side areas myself here before spotting the on / off switches for the fields, haha. Well, at least it means there's enough ammo to do it yourself :)

I distinctly remembered dynamic scenery changes in the original Z1M8, though, with vines and creepy decorations progressively taking over the tech base, and it's pretty rad to see that this version of Z1M8 also features the same kind of decorum shifts.
No Nightmares though, which is a pity, but I can't say I realistically expected them. :)

 

On the whole, Knee-Deep in KDiZD is sensational.
This wad is comparable to Espi's Suspended in Dusk, in the sense that it pushes vanilla limits to new heights and brings many original and incredible visual tricks and effects to classic Doom. It also retains what made KDiZD memorable and interesting and improves upon it, while not trying to fix every problem from KDiZD (which is great) and while attaining the goal of closely resembling its source material. I've had a blast with the wad and I highly recommend everyone give it a go !
Congratulations once again to esselfortium and team for this tour-de-force.

Obviously the humoristic take on story elements and presentation contrasts massively with KDiZD's somewhat dark and "serious" tone, and will definitely break any sense of immersion. Still, I thought that the whole "actor getting out of his caravan" setting was a perfect way to explain why you'd have to go through some teleporter at the beginning of each level (and enable the Mikoportals in the process). Pretty cool.

That will be all from me, I'll now take a look at the real ending :)

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by WH-Wilou84

[Gougaru]

Any idea when a full gz patch will come through. Only asking because I'm having some recording issues with eternity.  Only issues I've has with gz so far are sound problems. 

[esselfortium]

23 minutes ago, Gougaru said:

Any idea when a full gz patch will come through. Only asking because I'm having some recording issues with eternity.  Only issues I've has with gz so far are sound problems. 

I'm not sure when the fullbright glitches will be fixed in GZ. It's something that the GZDoom developers are looking into, but it has to be fixed in the port itself, so it's out of my hands.

 

What sound problems are you having?

[Gougaru]

47 minutes ago, esselfortium said:

I'm not sure when the fullbright glitches will be fixed in GZ. It's something that the GZDoom developers are looking into, but it has to be fixed in the port itself, so it's out of my hands.

 

What sound problems are you having?

The grey imps make imp pain sounds and their projectiles make archno sounds. Also at a distance their projectiles don't appear 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Gougaru

[esselfortium]

7 minutes ago, Gougaru said:

The grey imps make imp pain sounds and their projectiles make archno sounds. Also at a distance their projectiles don't appear 

Are you using any autoloads or other mods?

[Gougaru]

Only other mod I'm using is colorblood.  If it's only on my end from what you've seen I'll try to figure out the problem 

[Sokoro]

That looks very fun, I loved the original kdizd and it is sad the other episodes never saw the light of day, but this new take on 1st ep is nice.

 

Is there any list of problems with GZDoom and this?

I would like to play it with gzdoom software mode.

[MBison]

I never reply to threads but this is a fantastic wad holy smokes. Cacoward-worthy. Very well done.

[ducon]

Maybe it’s because of prboom+ but I did not see the effect of the mikoportal.

[Kinsie]

38 minutes ago, Sokoro said:

That looks very fun, I loved the original kdizd and it is sad the other episodes never saw the light of day, but this new take on 1st ep is nice.

 

Is there any list of problems with GZDoom and this?

I would like to play it with gzdoom software mode.

The clever fullbright effects are currently broken so you'll get issues with like, glowing Imp teeth and such. I believe a fix has been prepared by the GZDoom team, but it hasn't been reviewed and merged yet, so give it a few days and then try a devbuild.

Edited November 18, 2022 by Kinsie

[esselfortium]

31 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

The clever fullbright effects are currently broken so you'll get issues with like, glowing Imp teeth and such. I believe a fix has been prepared by the GZDoom team, but it hasn't been reviewed and merged yet, so give it a few days and then try a devbuild.

Looks like it's been merged as of last night, so today's latest build on DRDTeam should work, at least for Windows. Hopefully there'll be a new Mac build soon also.

 

Note that autoloads and other mods can lead to hilarious unexpected breakage (I got a report yesterday of the Hell Warrior shield launching rockets), and enabling any of GZ's sprite upscaling options will break the fullbrights, even in software.

 

38 minutes ago, ducon said:

Maybe it’s because of prboom+ but I did not see the effect of the mikoportal.

The mikoportals aren't a visual effect here, they're used to make the scripted events work. If the first door in Z1M1 opens, the mikoportals are working as intended.

 

1 hour ago, MBison said:

I never reply to threads but this is a fantastic wad holy smokes. Cacoward-worthy. Very well done.

Thank you!

 

13 hours ago, WH-Wilou84 said:

On the whole, Knee-Deep in KDiZD is sensational.
This wad is comparable to Espi's Suspended in Dusk, in the sense that it pushes vanilla limits to new heights and brings many original and incredible visual tricks and effects to classic Doom. It also retains what made KDiZD memorable and interesting and improves upon it, while not trying to fix every problem from KDiZD (which is great) and while attaining the goal of closely resembling its source material. I've had a blast with the wad and I highly recommend everyone give it a go !
Congratulations once again to esselfortium and team for this tour-de-force.

Obviously the humoristic take on story elements and presentation contrasts massively with KDiZD's somewhat dark and "serious" tone, and will definitely break any sense of immersion. Still, I thought that the whole "actor getting out of his caravan" setting was a perfect way to explain why you'd have to go through some teleporter at the beginning of each level (and enable the Mikoportals in the process). Pretty cool.

That will be all from me, I'll now take a look at the real ending :)

 

Thanks again for the playthroughs, I'm glad you enjoyed it!