Eternity Engine 3.40.30 "Alfheim"

[Quasar]

Alfheim has been unleashed!

Get it here:

• Read Me!
  
• Win32 Binaries
  
• Source
  
• Spare EDFs
  

The synopsis:

*** FEATURED ADDITIONS *******************************************************

- BFG Edition Support -

  * Support for BFG Edition IWADs
  
  * Support for "No Rest for the Living" mission pack. After configuring the 
    path to the nerve.wad file on the Wad Options menu, use console command
    w_playnorest, or, if using the BFG Edition DOOM II IWAD, you can choose
    to start the episode directly from the main menu.

- ZIP Support -

  ZIP format archives are now supported as first-class resource archives along
  with DOOM WADs. Support is compatible with ZDoom, including support for
  WADs embedded inside ZIP files.
  
  Eternity-specific modifications publishing in ZIP format are encouraged to
  prefer the "PKE" file name extension.
  
  
- MacOS X Launcher -

  MacOS X builds now feature a stylish and highly functional GUI frontend
  created by printz.


*** END FEATURED ADDITIONS ***************************************************

- EDF 3.1 -
  
  * Support for color translation tables in fonts, both as strings in EDF
    and as binary lumps. Fonts support up to 4 custom translations on top of
    the ten fixed BOOM colors. Default color can be specified as a font
    property. Translations are now provided for the "big" font in DOOM, and 
    the HUD font in Heretic.
      
  * Braces around the values in list-type options are now optional.
    
  * Support added for \x## hexadecimal character constants inside quoted 
    strings.
    
  * Colons are now allowed as optional assignment operators, in place of '=',
    allowing syntax similar to CSS and JSON. Requires EDF dialect to be set
    to "Alfheim".
      
  * Consecutive string literals (ex: "Hello," " world") are now coalesced by
    the tokenizer.
      
  * Linear fonts now support PNG-format resources.
    
  * Support for title properties in thingtypes. Ex:
    
    thingtype MyImp : DoomImp, 10001, 10001
    {
       ...
    }
      
    This provides an alternate compact means of specifying inherited
    thingtype, DoomEd number, and DeHackEd number. Fields can be left off at
    the end. Use "Mobj" for a default parent thingtype when needed.
      
  * "Mid" font is now available for use in DOOM and DOOM II gamemodes;
    this is the font that appears embedded on the DOOM and DOOM II CREDITS
    resources.


- Error Proofing -

  * All DOOM patch resources will be verified when loaded from an archive.
    Invalid patches will be replaced with a "default" patch graphic and will
    no longer cause the game to crash.
    
  * Missing screen patches no longer cause the game to exit. They will be 
    replaced with the "default" patch.

    
- Gameplay Features -
    
  * Further enhancements to Master Levels native support:
  
    + Custom interpic graphic is now provided.
    
    + Level choosing menu will prompt before returning to the title screen.
    
    + Proper level names will be displayed in the intermission if the levels'
      text files were found.

  * High scores are now saved to a CSV file in the user directory, and can be
    queried in-game using the mapscores console command.


- Interface Enhancements -

  * BOOM HUD will now display weapons which are completely out of ammo in dark
    gray instead of the same color used for "low on ammo".
    
  * New console commands:
  
    + mn_testfont allows testing fonts at runtime; provide a font name and an
      optional test string to display and it will be displayed in all ten
      standard translations.

    + v_dumppatch will extract any patch-format resource as a PNG and save it
      in the user directory.
  
    + v_fontcolors will dump all colors used by a patch font to a text file in
      the user directory. Useful for creating translations.

    + w_norestpath sets the path to the No Rest for the Living mission pack.

    + w_writelump command can extract any WAD lump to the user directory.


- Optimizations - 

  * Short string optimization support in qstring class reduces fragmentation.
  
  * MetaObject key interning further reduces fragmentation and optimizes
    property resolution.

[printz]

Quasar said:

- MacOS X Launcher -

  MacOS X builds now feature a stylish and highly functional GUI frontend
  created by printz.

You can get that them here in the neighbouring thread.. They're numbered after SVN builds (with the occasional version codename e.g. "Alfheim") and are being updated regularly.

[GreyGhost]

Looks like mancubus.net is down again. :(

[Gez]

r2253 on DRD Team corresponds to Alfheim (in fact, a little bit newer than Alfheim), so you can use that instead.

[Holering]

Don't know why but zdoom and gzdoom don't allow Doom to play like Doom; it's like a game engine that uses Doom's resources for a different game.

This is probably the best source port; looks professional and has high quality like something to pay good money for. Goes great with Slackware Linux and Mac OSX.

Features that stand out the most are integrated menu's for custom wad selections; notably the master level wad selection menu. Blows everything out of the water. Selectable menu backgrounds are total icing on the cake. All this with looks and gameplay like genuine Doom under Dos. If any source port can make Doom feel new and mint this is it.

Hopefully more custom wads for zdoom will be ported to Eternity and other source ports that can be like Doom. As an example, PerkFixes.wad and Perkristians smooth weapons animation wad add lots of animations to doomguys arsenal but only work properly with zdoom. PerkFixes.wad is located here http://forum.zdoom.org/download/file.php?id=12923&sid=809dd3be94b92e33329895676c2281fc and a quote from "Z86 Tenenbaum" about http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=32628 :
contains:
- Smooth chainsaw (2 frame sawing anim, smoother idle anim from doom beta)
- PKS2P0 missing hand frame fixed (barely visible while animating, but anyway better to have it)
- Fixed PerkChaingun. In the original it works nothing like the Doom chaingun (fires 1 per cycle, and has a 1 frame A_REFIRE). Now it fires 2 per cycle, 0 frame A_REFIRE, and spindown animation is split up into 1 frame A_WeaponReady commands, to mimic the original behaviour as close as possible.
- PerkChaingun lower part also smooth animated
- The aforementioned BFG. Works like the original with the same amount of tic delays, and is also highly reminiscent of the original fire cycle.

Zip support with embedded wads is really great.

Best regards