Eternity Engine 3.31 Delta Pre-Release Alpha

[Quasar]

A pre-release alpha version of Eternity Engine v3.31 'Delta' (the final release for v3.31) is now available!

http://eternity.mancubus.net/ee331d-prealpha-win32.zip

Only the Windows binary zip is available for the pre-alpha, since this version is only for testing. In a few days, barring the report of any game-breaking bugs, the final version will be released for Windows and DOS with source code and other support files.

Please help us out by downloading and testing this. I'll upload the updated Heretic support wad later, and post here when it's up, for those interested in testing the progress made in Heretic support.

[Mordeth]

HELL YEAH!

Please release some docs as well. Testing new stuff which isn't documented is a bit bothersome :)

[Julian]

Good news indeed! =)

Mord, what's the status on Mordeth's music? Since you use Eternity, I thought ambiant mp3s could work fine, don't you think?

[Mordeth]

Julian said:
Mord, what's the status on Mordeth's music? Since you use Eternity, I thought ambiant mp3s could work fine, don't you think?

There's currently nobody working on music, alas. I never seem to be able to hold on to contributors :P I'd LOVE to have somebody on par with RTC3057's skill, if you get my drift :)

Mail me.

[Julian]

Mordeth said:

Mail me.

Done.

[Mordeth]

You'd still have to wait another five hours before I get home from work :)

[Mordeth]

BUG REPORT

I hate to spoil the party here, but I think a pretty big bug got introduced. When running two different maps on the latest pre-release alpha I noticed that monsters do not behave correctly on 3dmidtex lines anymore.

Some imps that are walking on 3DMidTex lines do so without any oddities. Other imps fall instantly off a 3DMidtex line as soon as awakened (but remain standing on it while still dormant). In yet another case an Imp walks from a solid floor onto a 3DMidTex line and falls instantly to the floor below. Other imps do not see the 3DMidTex line as something they can walk on and refuse to move from their solid platform. The player itself does not have any problems with the same 3DMidTex lines.

Obviously, everything was OK when running on the previous beta.

[EDIT]

Now I've also seen an Imp walking on a 3DMidTex, and after a short while booted back to floor level.

[Quasar]

Mordeth: if you want this fixed before 3.31 final release you're gonna have to make me a minimal test map that displays the problem. I have a feeling I know what it is, but none of my 3DMidTex test maps display any problems with monsters walking on the lines so I can't test any changes I make using them.

Please do not send any maps that would require large texture or sprite wads.

[Mordeth]

I copy & pasted a trouble section and removed all extraneous stuff. Lo and behold: it still features the bug :)

http://mordeth.doomworld.com/misc/test.wad

At the start of the 'level', the pillar which carries the imp lowers, landing it on a 3DMidTex line. It stays up, until it awakes.

[Quasar]

You probably haven't read the changelog, but there's a recent note about some code I had to pull out to fix dog jumping. SoM and I are looking at it, and I'll use your map to test it once we come up with a fix ^_^

[Mordeth]

Out of curiosity, where do you keep that changelog?

[Julian]

Mordeth said:

Out of curiosity, where do you keep that changelog?

http://www.doomworld.com/eternity/engine/ee-changelog2.txt

[Quasar]

I hate to tell you this but your map is working fine for me. No matter what I do, the imp is not falling off of the 3DMidTex lines. Is there anything special you're doing? I might have to look at your configuration file to be sure it's not a certain setting responsible for this.

EDIT: Do you have the compatibility option "Some objects don't hang over cliffs" turned on? When I turn it on, the imp falls off.

[Mordeth]

WTF. I'll try that when I get home.

[EDIT]

No, "Some objects don't hang over cliffs" = NO. I also did not change any settings, just copied your new files over my old files.

[EDIT 2]

Did some more experimenting, and copied the old .exe, .wad en old .edf files from the previous build back. The Imp in that example level now stays on the crossbeam and does not fall off. I've also noticed that copying this stuff back totally fuxored the key bindings, which I had to reset from the options menu. I use the default doom2 settings for movement, btw.

Then I copied the those same files back from the latest alpha. Imp falls down again. Movement keys seemed allright, until I tried to enter the menu. The normal keys didn't work anymore. Sometimes a random key made the skull jump a few notches up or down, but never more than once. I had to kill the app to exit.

WTF..?

[EDIT 3]

I put back all the files in ee331b7-win32.zip. Imp stays on crossbeam. Configuration files:

http://mordeth.doomworld.com/misc/ETERNITY_OLD.cfg
http://mordeth.doomworld.com/misc/KEYS_OLD.csc

Overwriting files with the latest alpha. Imp falls off. Configuration files:

http://mordeth.doomworld.com/misc/ETERNITY.cfg
http://mordeth.doomworld.com/misc/KEYS.csc

No problem with keybindings so far.

[Quasar]

The new version comes with a keys.csc file for a reason. The automap and menu bindings are now dynamic and will not be present unless I provide a keys.csc file to force an overwrite of peoples' existing ones. You can't copy beta 7's keys.csc to the new version unless you intend to add the new bindings by hand.

Also, you cannot use beta 7 save games with Delta. The same goes for save games between any two other versions. The configuration file should be fine, however, since unknown variables in it are ignored and ones not present will be added after the first execution.

Since you don't have "Some objects don't fall over cliffs" turned on, you are going to have to send me your configuration file for Delta with the options set that cause the imp to fall off the 3DMidTex lines -- the link in your post is giving me a 404. Otherwise I cannot find what the problem is. For me, they don't fall off with that comp variable set to "NO".

The segment of code which was removed to fix dog jumping interacts with the "comp_dropoff" variable, and that's why it has an effect. If other variables are also having effects, then something more severe is going on.

EDIT: I found it, it was ETERNITY.cfg (Telefragged is case-sensitive). Also, I found the OTHER variable. It's "monkeys", aka "monsters can climb tall stairs" -- this variable also interacts with the edited code segment. These are just side effects of the same problem.

[Mordeth]

So you now have everything you need, right?

I'm also not doing anything strange. See "edit 3". Install beta7, install alpha on top of that, overwriting all files. Configuration settings for the things mentioned are the same for both.

And still, in beta7 the imp stays up while running under alpha it falls off.

[sargebaldy]

oh rawr! you should have topicked this in #zdoom, since I actually don't check the Eternity forums all that often :P Those spectre splots were getting really annoying.

[sargebaldy]

uh, Quas', you do still remember quicksaving crashes Eternity I hope? And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who uses quicksave :P

[Quasar]

Everybody:
The docs package and Heretic support wad for this pre-release alpha are now available:

http://eternity.mancubus.net/ee331d-prealpha-docs.zip
http://eternity.mancubus.net/ee331d-prealpha-htic.zip

Don't plan on keeping these zips after the final release, as I'm sure some stuff could change. PS: don't forget that you still need to activate "Heretic hack mode" to try out Heretic, like this:

eternity -iwad doom.wad -file heretic.wad -heretic

To remind you why, Eternity can't use heretic.wad as the IWAD until it stops trying to use anything from DOOM, and I write some slightly complicated gamemode detection code for it.

Mordeth:
I have everything now. All the problems are related to the dog-jumping-fix change. I'm waiting on SoM to show up so we can try to fix it. As a temporary work-around, turn on the "monsters can climb tall stairs" option and they'll behave normally.

SargeBaldy:
I can't get that bug to happen no matter what. I think you might have a corrupt save game file (possibly a save from a different source port?). Try deleting them all and see if it goes away. The only other possibility is that you somehow typed a non-printable character into a save game name, and that would be a real bug for sure, one I thought was fixed already a very long time ago -- in order for me to rule that out, you'd need to try doing it again with the new prealpha ;)

[ZappaZ]

i did a fresh install and had to make a .bat file and put in the -v_mode parameter, otherwise it would just start in a window like 1 pixel high.

Well, you probably already knew this =)

Back to play some more...

[Quasar]

That's an SDL/WinXP/video driver interaction issue and isn't anything we can help. I'll make a FAQ question on this if there isn't one already though, so thanks for mentioning it ^_^

[Entropy]

I am not currently an official beta tester but i noticed a couple of things that do not seem to work.
(1) monsters never infight
(2) auto aiming cannot be shut off

[Grazza]

I've done some testing, mostly for compatibility, and don't have any bugs to report. Some feature requests perhaps, but I assume that's not what you're looking for at this point. I notice that Boom 2.02 demos often desync, but this is not a new problem. The stairbuiling fix seems to work for things that had been a problem previously.

I'm surprised that falling damage is on by default, given that the policy generally is that the default settings are those of the original game. This isn't a bug though, of course.

One display issue: there is a one-pixel-deep line of random crud at the bottom of my screen when (and only when) I use the normal status bar. I'm using 1024x768 fullscreen. This could well be highly system-dependent though.

Entropy said:

(1) monsters never infight

Options - Setup - Enemies - Monster Infighting: On

(2) auto aiming cannot be shut off

Edit Eternity.cfg (autoaim 0). Hitscan weapons still seem to autoaim though.

[Entropy]

Grazza:
Autoaiming and infighting cannot be changed either with the options menu or alteration of configure file.
Have tested this out several time and like monsters will still not fight like monsters.
I have tried to do the same with autoaiming.
With mouselook on i can shoot way above monsters or below them and i still hit them.
I am using windows 98 ....perhaps eternity only works with more current operating systems?

[Quasar]

Eternity is developed primarily on a Windows 98 system. I have not had any problems with infighting or the autoaim variable, so I do not understand what's going on for you. Can anybody else verify any of these problems?

And to whoever had a line of crap at the bottom of 1024x768, oh man, that is the LAST thing I wanted to hear. I thought we fixed all that stuff already :(

[Mordeth]

BTW Quasar, I sent you an email offering to be a beta tester but you never replied.

[Quasar]

Mordeth: I never got your email, or at least I hadn't as of the last time I checked. Also, it's not really necessary. I've invited the entire community to test, so if you want to, just grab the files here. We still need as many people as we can get.

[MAZter]

Good job. We need new beauteful classic Doom port.

Thanks!

[Murdoch]

Now I have some docs to play with I may be able to muscle something up. Maybe. Hope you're around James, as I will have many questions!

[Quasar]

Hey Joel, it's great to see you around these parts again. Sorry I haven't been on your forum in forever, I'll stop by sometime. Eternity's stalled out for now; SoM hasn't worked on the 3DMidTex bug much and I don't personally have a clue on how to fix it.

I may release a new alpha soon, though. I've fixed several problems since the last one and added a couple of features to boot, so keep an eye on the forum.

Also, while you're here, can you send me the complete Millennium source by any chance? I wanna integrate some stuff but the p_enemy.c file you sent me before isn't enough. I'm mostly looking at the teleporting enemies, child objects, and of course those particle effects I keep promising to implement.