DosDoom, TASDoom and TASMBF in PrBoom?

[ultdoomer]

Would it be possible to implement those ports into PrBoom? I'm not talking about their features, but the ability to playback their demos, like it did with MBF. I'm asking because demos recorded with those ports only play back with those ports, and they don't seem to work on more modern systems (at least on my Windows XP-powered computer they don't).

[Grazza]

PrBoom (versions 2.1.0 onwards according to the documentation, though I haven't tested any before 2.2.3 in this respect) does play back TASMBF demos. Which ones have you tried that failed?

Budko's modified PrBoom has many TAS features. It doesn't support the method of joining that TASMBF had, but it offers something more akin to TASDoom, but in easier-to-use form (with -skipsec and -warp).

PrBoom 2.3.x supports playback of DOSDoom demos. I don't believe it autodetects them though, so you need to put the appropriate -complevel* in the command line. Again, have you tried this and had it fail?

I'm not sure about support for TASDoom demos in PrBoom 2.3.x. I've just tried one and it failed, even though the program claims to have a compatibility level for them. I presume they need to be modified (i.e. by having the save tics removed) before they will play back. (Edit: I've just tested that with a TASDoom demo that was modified in that way - Xit Vono's rn06x827 - and it worked.)

* Note that in the documentation, README.compat.txt gives the wrong info for the complevels - it gives the ones for version 2.2.x. I think the relevant ones are:

-complevel 4	DOSDoom 0.47
-complevel 5	TASDoom

You may need to experiment a bit with this though.

[ultdoomer]

Grazza said:

PrBoom (versions 2.1.0 onwards according to the documentation, though I haven't tested any before 2.2.3 in this respect) does play back TASMBF demos. Which ones have you tried that failed?

My mistake, MBF and TASMBF demos (I'm not sure if there's a difference) do work well. I'm still having a problem with DosDoom demos, though.

Grazza said:

PrBoom 2.3.x supports playback of DOSDoom demos. I don't believe it autodetects them though, so you need to put the appropriate -complevel* in the command line. Again, have you tried this and had it fail?

A lot of demos recorded with DosDoom on the orininal TAS site desynced. I didn't change the complevel, but that was because I thought it detected them automatically like it does with MBF demos. I played hr181329 back using Andrey's modified PrBoom 2.2.6 on -complevel 4 as a test. It got a little farther than I remember, but it still desynced (later, in the cyberdemon teleporter room). Do only the experimental PrBooms support those demos?

[Grazza]

You chose a very unfortunate one to try - there are some weird problems with hr18 demos, which cause some as yet unexplained desyncs. Try any of the other "DosDoom" ones, using PrBoom 2.3.1 and -complevel 4.

The reason it can't autodetect them, and that the complevel is needed for playback, is that the header info in the lmp file doesn't identify it as a DosDoom demo. If left to autodetect it, the program will assume it is a Doom(2).exe demo, and attempt to play it back accordingly.

It's only Prboom 2.3.x (experimental) that has a compatibility mode for DosDoom. Prboom 2.2.x doesn't have one.

[Opulent]

odd.
I tried Adam H.'s classic Yaotzin demo.
prboom2.30 does change the playback behavior for both complevel 4 and 5 differently... but it still doesn't work.
I think in this case, the wadfile is desyncing it.

[Grazza]

Do you mean Andy Olivera's Yaotzin TAS demo? I'd assumed Adam's Yaotzin demo was Doom2.exe, and just one of those unfortunate demos that won't play back correctly with anything (or at least play back reliably - presumably it worked OK for Adam or else he wouldn't have sent it in).

Anyway, I've just tried Andy Olivera's yao-uv demo with Prboom 2.3.1 -complevels 4 and 5, but (also) without success. As you note at DSDA, this is a demo that plays back erratically with DosDoom itself.

Edit (7-Jan-2006): Mystery explained: it's a problem with the REJECT (and too big to be emulated by prboom-plus 2.2.6.25). Probably no yaotzin demos will play back reliably with anything with the wad as it stands.

[Opulent]

IIRC, Adam's demo is DosDoom47 as well.
I find is weird that it would CHANGE behaviour only after the desync... I think that proves something.

and Andy's demo is wild -- definitely a demo oddity.