Essel's feature wishlist

[esselfortium]

If I remember right, a while back Quasar suggested I make a post(s) in the Eternity forum about the features I'd like to see in Eternity Engine, rather than just pestering him about it on IRC, so I put together a list. It started out as a little thing, and ended up getting a bit gigantic. Whoops.

The items in this list range from very minor to very major features.
Some are in-progress Eternity features that aren’t yet completed, some of them are things that have been discussed as possibilities and ideas in #noteternityenginerelated, some are found in other sourceports, and a few of them are things that don’t exist in any other ports and are thus rather pipedream-ish. Of course this is a wishlist, not a demand list. :P
If anything on this list is already implemented, I wasn’t aware of it.

- UDMF support
- Aeon
- EDF inventory
- Translucent and/or masked flats on portals
- Linked portal 3D clipping code
- Slopes (done! O_O)
- Unlatched framerate
- Uncapped resolution (or increased resolution cap)
- Texture/flat mixing
- Swimmable deep water
- Text-based animation/switches definitions, a la Hexen/ZDoom
- Vertical lighting, a la Legacy/ZDoom
- Tall textures
- Flat alignment, rotation, and x/y scaling
- Automatic colormap generation from color/intensity/etc. info
- Line translucency based on opacity/blending-mode info
- Extradata/UDMF numeric line scroller (Boom’s specials can’t sync the scrolling of lines that both face different angles and need different alignments, for example a circular column of downwards-scrolling nukage)
- Ability to use custom tranmaps for thing translucency
- Sector actions (actor enters sector, actor hits floor, etc.)
- A codepointer argument that allows monster-fired custom missiles to fire straight if no target is found (done!)
- A codepointer argument that allows player-fired custom missiles to use 0 ammo or a custom amount, for things such as bullet casings (done!)
- Hexen-style bounce flag (object dies when momentum has run out, afaik)
- Block Everything line flag
- Option for 3dmidtex to allow projectiles through
- Texture, flat, sprite, and HUD/statusbar graphic scaling
- 16-bit sounds in regular WAV format and maybe OGG and FLAC as well
- Decorate-format state definitions in EDF, via heredoc
- Titlemap support (non-interactive scripted map displayed behind the main menu on launch)
- Secret flag on things
- Camera textures
- Horizontal 3dmidtex movement
- Models (This was your idea, not mine :P )
- Using portal silhouettes to draw special effects into (warping, etc.)
- Fully-functional multiplayer
- Alt-fire for EDF weapons

Yes, it's a long list. I never said I actually expected to see all of them. :p

[Csonicgo]

I've always wanted to see how EE would do water. I showed quas the way legacy rendered it, maybe he could work with that somehow to get a warpy effect.

[esselfortium]

I agree that that would be a nifty feature, especially since I don't think it's ever been available in a finished form in any sourceport, but I'm more interested in the ability to actually swim in the water rather than just falling to the bottom of deep water like a rock. :P

[Creaphis]

I'm most intrigued by improved portal functionality (I just noticed that 3D clipping issue today), horizontally moving 3dmidtex lines (this never crossed my mind before, but now I can't think of any reason why it isn't possible) and other things like that. Essentially, I'd most like to see those features that aren't already in ZDoom, and I have a good and a bad reason for that.

The good reason is that if development time is devoted to replicating features that are already in other ports, then this game of catch-up might never end and Eternity will fail to define itself with unique features.

The bad reason is that, for me, limited capability is like a security blanket. For example, I'm comforted by the fact that the absence of slopes removes all pressure to use them, and I irrationally feel that it would be wrong to not make full use of them when they are available. This point should not be taken into consideration by Eternity coders.

[esselfortium]

Those are mostly very good points (with the exception of the point about slopes, which you yourself said not to consider, heh).

From my perspective as someone who's never worked with the Doom or Eternity source, horizontal 3dmidtex movement seems like it should be feasible. The code to dynamically generate segs already exists in EE's polyobjects, and the code to move things already exists from Boom's scrollers (though I'm not sure that'd really be the right approach to it). There's still the issue of correctly determining the order to draw the lines in, with the added complication of lines having both front and back sides to draw, and surely some other issues I'm not thinking of.

[Creaphis]

Is it possible to define custom damage types and custom vulnerabilities to the different damage types? If not, I'd add that to the list.

[Butts]

Dynamic lights, but not the way they are like in Gzdoom, more like they are in Cube.

[printz]

esselfortium said:

- A codepointer argument that allows monster-fired custom missiles to fire straight if no target is found

Do you mean that custom monster-fired projectiles act different to the stock ones, when their shooter's target dies?

Also, some codepointers could be replaced by HEREDOC (or whatever may be planned) ascii code, to allow ANY kind of effect in game.

[Gez]

Butts said:

Dynamic lights, but not the way they are like in Gzdoom, more like they are in Cube.

Dynamic lights in a software renderer sounds like a good idea that's really going to happen soon.

printz said:

Also, some codepointers could be replaced by HEREDOC (or whatever may be planned) ascii code, to allow ANY kind of effect in game.

Yeah! The game would then just compile the modded C code at run-time! Genius.

[printz]

Gez said:

Yeah! The game would then just compile the modded C code at run-time! Genius.

Calm down. You know what I'm talking about (or not). Quasar DID think at one point about code within edf files.

[esselfortium]

Well, scripting codepointers inside heredocs should be possible once the new scripting language is in.

[SoM]

esselfortium said:
- Slopes

... get ready to cross that off your list

or replace it with "slope clipping" ;)

[esselfortium]

Or patch meshes!

/me runs away

[Quasar]

[SoM]

Quasar said:

Seconded.

[esselfortium]

^_^

[Mordeth]

From that list, things I could use right now:

- Translucent and/or masked flats on portals
- Linked portal 3D clipping code
- Swimmable deep water


Things I imagine other people could use right now, and myself in future:

- EDF inventory
- Slopes
- Texture/flat mixing
- Flat alignment, rotation, and x/y scaling
- Texture, flat, sprite, and HUD/statusbar graphic scaling
- Sector actions (actor enters sector, actor hits floor, etc.)

Things that are nice perks to have:

- Text-based animation/switches definitions, a la Hexen/ZDoom
- Tall textures
- Titlemap support (non-interactive scripted map displayed behind the main menu on launch)
- Fully-functional multiplayer
- Alt-fire for EDF weapons

[Gez]

My own feature wishlist:
- Better handling of mouse input (mousewheel up/down, mouse buttons from 3 to 8, etc). (I like to use Mouse4 for open door/activate switch; currently it's very odd as each one can be activated once, and only once, with that button -- afterwards, I have to use the space bar.)
- Better handling of keyboard input (especially stuff like USB keypad).

[Rachael]

Interesting stuff, some of it sounds new and other parts of it sounds like it might end up coming from other source ports, or something... I have to admit, though, I haven't played with Eternity that much.

[MG_Man]

Gez said:

My own feature wishlist:
- Better handling of mouse input (mousewheel up/down, mouse buttons from 3 to 8, etc). (I like to use Mouse4 for open door/activate switch; currently it's very odd as each one can be activated once, and only once, with that button -- afterwards, I have to use the space bar.)
- Better handling of keyboard input (especially stuff like USB keypad).

I think the mouse support in general should be improved. It's just...off. I'm not sure what about it, but it just seems to be too slow no matter what I do.

[printz]

?
I set the vertical and horizontal mouse sensitivity to 30, and it's fine by me. Slower than the setting I have in ZDoom, but fine. Is the sensitivity in Eternity scaled the same way as in vanilla Doom?

[SoM]

printz said:

?
I set the vertical and horizontal mouse sensitivity to 30, and it's fine by me. Slower than the setting I have in ZDoom, but fine. Is the sensitivity in Eternity scaled the same way as in vanilla Doom?

You can pull down the console and type:
mouse_accel choco

MG_Man said:

I think the mouse support in general should be improved. It's just...off. I'm not sure what about it, but it just seems to be too slow no matter what I do.

If it's too slow, up the sensitivity. The menu allows you to input numbers now, so just keep going higher until you get what feels fast enough. Also, try pulling down the console and typing:
mouse_accel linear

which gives you a linear (y = 1.5x) acceleration.

[esselfortium]

I believe there's also a mouse accel mode option in the actual Mouse Options menu page nowadays, too :)

[Super Jamie]

Though I'd use this thread to add a couple more minor wishes:

- More crosshair options. Specifically a dot. (edit: i see custom crosshairs is a todo in the source. this would be rad)
- An option for crosshair transparency, or just default it to use base transparency like for imp fireballs.

[printz]

Let's see what's left of @esselfortium's list now! Look like we went a long way since then.

 

- UDMF support: DONE
- Aeon (currently under progress by @Altazimuth)
- EDF inventory: almost done, probably once we have Heretic support proven and released it's 100% done. @Altazimuth knows better if it's available now in Git builds.
- Translucent and/or masked flats on portals: translucent flats done since years ago. Masked flats currently under progress and almost done!
- Linked portal 3D clipping code
- Slopes (done! O_O) (printz note: physics not done, still heavy work in progress :) )
- Unlatched framerate
- Uncapped resolution (or increased resolution cap)
- Texture/flat mixing
- Swimmable deep water (I'll probably look at both how ZDoom and the Quake games do it)
- Text-based animation/switches definitions, a la Hexen/ZDoom: done, both in EDF and Hexen-compatible ANIMDEFS (with a few ZDoom extensions imported)
- Vertical lighting, a la Legacy/ZDoom
- Tall textures
- Flat alignment, rotation, and x/y scaling
- Automatic colormap generation from color/intensity/etc. info
- Line translucency based on opacity/blending-mode info
- Extradata/UDMF numeric line scroller (Boom’s specials can’t sync the scrolling of lines that both face different angles and need different alignments, for example a circular column of downwards-scrolling nukage)
- Ability to use custom tranmaps for thing translucency
- Sector actions (actor enters sector, actor hits floor, etc.)
- A codepointer argument that allows monster-fired custom missiles to fire straight if no target is found (done!)  (OP comment)
- A codepointer argument that allows player-fired custom missiles to use 0 ammo or a custom amount, for things such as bullet casings (done!) (OP comment)
- Hexen-style bounce flag (object dies when momentum has run out, afaik)
- Block Everything line flag
- Option for 3dmidtex to allow projectiles through
- Texture, flat, sprite, and HUD/statusbar graphic scaling
- 16-bit sounds in regular WAV format and maybe OGG and FLAC as well (printz note: is it done? The sound code elludes me)
- Decorate-format state definitions in EDF, via heredoc
- Titlemap support (non-interactive scripted map displayed behind the main menu on launch)
- Secret flag on things
- Camera textures
- Horizontal 3dmidtex movement (printz note: I actually have this in a branch, it's almost done, it works great, maybe I should polish it)
- Models (This was your idea, not mine :P )
- Using portal silhouettes to draw special effects into (warping, etc.)
- Fully-functional multiplayer
- Alt-fire for EDF weapons

Edited February 6, 2019 by printz

[Altazimuth]

6 hours ago, printz said:

- EDF inventory: almost done, probably once we have Heretic support proven and released it's 100% done. @Altazimuth knows better if it's available now in Git builds.

I mean I dunno what more there is to do. Inventory is effectively done, it's just weird Heretic effects aren't supported, but inventory is basically done.

 

6 hours ago, printz said:

- 16-bit sounds in regular WAV format and maybe OGG and FLAC as well (printz note: is it done? The sound code elludes me)

We only support mono wav sounds, not ogg or flac (because blech).

 

7 hours ago, printz said:

Alt-fire for EDF weapons

This exists, as well as Reload/Zoom/User[1-4].