PSX Doom: The Lost Levels - New Pre-Beta Available courtesy of Salahmander2

[Megamur]

Dragonsbrethren said:

Ragnor is talking about the shader light mode that mimicks software.

The "fog mode" thing, I guess?

[Devalaous]

When I play the TC, I always have to bump up gamma on or two levels to see anything. LCDs are always darker than CRTs though, so it never surprised me.

Thanks for confirming that the original did have that kind of lighting in it, Ive forgotten so many of the smaller things by now.

[Megamur]

Dragonsbrethren said:

I just know that, even on bright, the TC is darker than the real thing running in an emulator on this same monitor.

Perhaps I should stop encouraging mappers to darken their levels. I was just going by the style guide that suggests darkening everything.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Megamur said:

The "fog mode" thing, I guess?

No. In recent versions of GZDoom, there is a light mode called software. It's shader-based, so if your GPU can't support it, it might not show. It's a replica of software distance fading, but smoothed and without the palette limitations. Next best thing to a true color software renderer (and without anywhere near the speed hit that gives). PrBoom-plus has the same thing, as "shaders".

-edit-

Ragnor said:

Thanks for confirming that the original did have that kind of lighting in it, Ive forgotten so many of the smaller things by now.

Yeah, it uses a simpler form of distance fading, but it's there. One noticeable thing is that bright areas on the PSX get significantly darker in the distance than they do on the PC. Here's a vid:

Not the best quality, but you can see how dark the fading is in the courtyard when he goes for the megaArmor.

Megamur said:

Perhaps I should stop encouraging mappers to darken their levels. I was just going by the style guide that suggests darkening everything.

The problem isn't with the light levels in the map, it's with the renderer not being the same as the original. If we match the light levels in the PSX maps, we're being authentic, but unfortunately it means everything is dark. Bumping up ambient lighting (gl_light_ambient in console) is the best option we have right now.

[RichardDS90]

http://www.mediafire.com/download/l6d36yz363z79mf/PSXStronghold-V1%2C2.wad

Stronghold V1.2

Megamur has done it again! Went by his suggestions and not only are the sidedefs down to a better level, it's even more PSX like.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/gs4bz5o4tnncryw/PSXDeadZone-V1%2C1.wad

Dead Zone V1.1

Went by Megamur's suggestions and made it even more PSX like, on top of that I darkened the levels due to the night sky.

[Megamur]

Always happy to help. :)

Dragonsbrethren said:

No. In recent versions of GZDoom, there is a light mode called software. It's shader-based, so if your GPU can't support it, it might not show.

Crap. I guess my badly aging video card can't handle it. That sucks. It sounds really nice.

[ScottGray]

If there's any Final Doom Bonus track use want in the lost levels ill build it into the latest version of Sp00kyFox's PSXTCMUS from OST tool. Just let me know what levels and what tracks.

[Devalaous]

I renamed them to the same name scheme, ie PSXMUSXX and finmus11 to finmus13 and then assigned them to fitting levels.

It'd be nice if there was an 'official' alternative music listing for those of us with the bonus tracks, but I dont see it happening.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Hey Baron, how's Tombstone coming along? I'm gonna be busy most of tomorrow, but maybe sometime this weekend I can get the beta or at least a pre-beta out. I'm probably going to go with Ragnor's Master Levels order.

[BaronOfStuff]

Most of it's done, I've got the monster variety within the points limit and have reduced several areas of unnecessary detail. All that's really left to do is jazz the place up with some coloured lights and see what happens. I'll most likely have it ready by some point tomorrow.

[betabox]

Hot damn, I'm looking forward to playing this map pack. Without having to dig through this thread, any plans for the other classic Doom maps (NRFTL, GBA Doom deathmatch maps, etc.)?

[Avoozl]

Just a thought but maybe we could make new skies like different colour versions of the firesky like in Doom 64 with a green and a blue variation, perhaps maybe even use them in any secret maps.

[Devalaous]

buttspit said:

Hot damn, I'm looking forward to playing this map pack. Without having to dig through this thread, any plans for the other classic Doom maps (NRFTL, GBA Doom deathmatch maps, etc.)?

Yes, BaronofStuff has converted several GBA deathmatch maps, and converted Cat and Mouse into a PSX map. Dexiaz has converted a few NRFTL maps. They will come in time.

[aviergaz]

the level progression will be the original or the lost levels will be in a seperate set?

[BaronOfStuff]

LL will be a separate (& optional) episode, as will any other extra mapsets.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Avoozl said:

Just a thought but maybe we could make new skies like different colour versions of the firesky like in Doom 64 with a green and a blue variation, perhaps maybe even use them in any secret maps.

Not for this project (remember, authenticity). It might be cool for the guys working on other conversions. I was never a fan of the colored fire sky, though.

BaronOfStuff said:

LL will be a separate (& optional) episode, as will any other extra mapsets.

Yeah, this is what it'll be distributed as by default. I'll include a bonus MAPINFO to use the original PC level order (barring moved secret exits) too, for Salahmander2 and anyone else who wants that.

[Gez]

Avoozl said:

Just a thought but maybe we could make new skies like different colour versions of the firesky like in Doom 64 with a green and a blue variation, perhaps maybe even use them in any secret maps.

Well, they've been done already.

Though as Dragonsbrethren says, it's probably more appropriate for projects with less of a focus on verisimilar Williams-Midwayness.

[Avoozl]

Considering how final doom had newer textures I didn't think it was be a problem to add a few new ones for the same reason but okay.

[Dragonsbrethren]

On the subject of new textures, for the guys who are working on the other conversions, you're probably gonna want to use a sharpen filter on any custom textures. I'm not sure of the perfect value to use to match the PSX textures (and it would likely vary between programs anyway), but it'll definitely help them fit in better.

[BaronOfStuff]

Dragonsbrethren said:

On the subject of new textures, for the guys who are working on the other conversions, you're probably gonna want to use a sharpen filter on any custom textures. I'm not sure of the perfect value to use to match the PSX textures (and it would likely vary between programs anyway), but it'll definitely help them fit in better.

They also used some dithering effect, but sod that. Photofiltre has a basic sharpen filter which results in near-perfect matches for PSX textures:


Obviously in the above case there are some differences, but with completely new textures there's nothing to compare the result with so it shouldn't matter.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Yeah, it looks like you might need to adjust the contrast/color too to get it perfect.

Heh, I used to think maybe the dithering was the result of a lossy conversion stage between the PC and PSX formats. It was probably intentional, though, part of grittying them up. PSX textures look surprisingly good for being run through a bunch of filters.

[Avoozl]

Could probably darken the dark parks on top of the sharpening if there's such a filter which can do that.

[Devalaous]

Well, now we know how to get PG and HTP textures simplified. Also, that needs to be done to the IOS textures for Baron's Last Gateway to Sin map. (It is still called that...right?)

[D_GARG]

isnt it possible to extract the textures from ... somewhere?

in not else the PSX TC has the correct textures, and if not that wad, then maybe the PSX DOOM CD itself?

or its a hardware thing about reading the texture and you actually need to edit each texture, eugh.

[Gez]

It isn't possible to extract textures which do not exist! :p

[BaronOfStuff]

Ragnor said:

Also, that needs to be done to the IOS textures for Baron's Last Gateway to Sin map. (It is still called that...right?)

Regardless, I've already done the textures. I'll upload them in a WAD once I've finished Tombstone, which is taking longer than I wanted it too because DB has decided that it doesn't like UDMF maps much any more and attempts to crash when I am checking texture alignment.

When this happens, I've hit 'Quit' by accident way too many times.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Alright, there's still a bit of work to be done, but in time for the anniversary, here's a pre-beta:

http://dkk.slickproductions.org/files/doom/psx/PSXLOST.PK3.zip

Get testing! Music assignments are probably horrible, so make suggestions for those too.

I can say right now that my maps still aren't entirely done, although I gave Bloodsea Keep a major update, and Power Control a minor one. I will get to the others soon.

[Job]

Love you guys. In a manly sort of way.

[mrthejoshmon]

Dragonsbrethren said:

Alright, there's still a bit of work to be done, but in time for the anniversary, here's a pre-beta:

http://dkk.slickproductions.org/files/doom/psx/PSXLOST.PK3.zip

Get testing! Music assignments are probably horrible, so make suggestions for those too.

I can say right now that my maps still aren't entirely done, although I gave Bloodsea Keep a major update, and Power Control a minor one. I will get to the others soon.

Now how do you get these to work?
I try loading them up with PSXDOOM and they just bug out on me.

[Dragonsbrethren]

It has a gameinfo lump so everything should autoload if you drag and drop it onto GZDoom. Alternatively, you can edit PSXDOOM.CFG and add it there after the other files.

(You can remove .zip from the file extension. My host will try to render PK3s as text files.)