DOOM Retro v5.4 (updated May 2, 2024)

[PhobosGuy]

When I try to load Minor Sprite Fixing Project the game doen't run: Flats section not found in IWAD

[Brewtal_Legend]

Is there a way to adjust the amount of motion blur when it is activated? It looks pretty cool, but when playing with always run on, it becomes a bit much.

[bradharding]

Brewtal_Legend said:

Is there a way to adjust the amount of motion blur when it is activated? It looks pretty cool, but when playing with always run on, it becomes a bit much.

There isn't, but there will be in the next release.

[bradharding]

Version 2.4 of DOOM Retro is now available! This release sees a significant amount of changes, including some extensive rendering optimizations and a new "vanilla mode". As always, visit doomretro.com for the link and comprehensive release notes.

Thank you to everyone for their support. In particular, thanks to Viggles, Im TPhentr, alfasketer and Julian Nechaevsky.

[Revenant100]

PhobosGuy said:

When I try to load Minor Sprite Fixing Project the game doen't run: Flats section not found in IWAD

I had a look into this issue, and it's true that v1.8 of the Minor Sprite Fixing Project currently doesn't work in Doom Retro. The error being shown by the port right now when loading the WAD is "PWAD tag is not present."

Looking deeper into the matter, it looks like the header in the sprite fixes WAD was changed from "PWAD" to "IWAD" at some point, and I'm not sure how that happened. However, this change has not been noticed until now as no other port handles a WAD's PWAD/IWAD header in this manner. Most ports just ignore the header altogether, it seems. Even the original released Doom source code only checks the header to ensure the loaded file is a valid WAD file. It makes no internal distinction whatsoever based on this header.

Doom Retro's current behavior is to check specifically for the "PWAD" header for any WAD file loaded as a PWAD. If it fails this check, the engine will exit out with the aforementioned error message. I'm not aware of any other source port that handles WAD loading in this manner as other engines, including the vanilla executable, will accept loading IWADs as PWADs with no issues.

Obviously, there's a possible fix on my end which is simply to change the sprite fixes WAD header from IWAD to PWAD. I'll have to investigate a little further to see if this change will warrant a whole new release, but I'd say the bigger problem here is with Doom Retro's handling of this rather innocuous header information. It's not necessary to exit out with an error as the game can still load the WAD just fine.

[bradharding]

Revenant100 said:

I had a look into this issue, and it's true that v1.8 of the Minor Sprite Fixing Project currently doesn't work in Doom Retro. The error being shown by the port right now when loading the WAD is "PWAD tag is not present."

Looking deeper into the matter, it looks like the header in the sprite fixes WAD was changed from "PWAD" to "IWAD" at some point, and I'm not sure how that happened. However, this change has not been noticed until now as no other port handles a WAD's PWAD/IWAD header in this manner. Most ports just ignore the header altogether, it seems. Even the original released Doom source code only checks the header to ensure the loaded file is a valid WAD file. It makes no internal distinction whatsoever based on this header.

Doom Retro's current behavior is to check specifically for the "PWAD" header for any WAD file loaded as a PWAD. If it fails this check, the engine will exit out with the aforementioned error message. I'm not aware of any other source port that handles WAD loading in this manner as other engines, including the vanilla executable, will accept loading IWADs as PWADs with no issues.

Obviously, there's a possible fix on my end which is simply to change the sprite fixes WAD header from IWAD to PWAD. I'll have to investigate a little further to see if this change will warrant a whole new release, but I'd say the bigger problem here is with Doom Retro's handling of this rather innocuous header information. It's not necessary to exit out with an error as the game can still load the WAD just fine.

Thanks for looking into this. It was on my list of things to do, and after having a quick look suspected your WAD had the wrong header. You're right, there's no good reason to exit with an error in this instance, and look into fixing it for ready for the next point release.

[Da Werecat]

Revenant100 said:

Obviously, there's a possible fix on my end which is simply to change the sprite fixes WAD header from IWAD to PWAD. I'll have to investigate a little further to see if this change will warrant a whole new release, but I'd say the bigger problem here is with Doom Retro's handling of this rather innocuous header information.

Maybe this fix doesn't warrant its own release, but I'd still change the tag in the future, since it currently prevents SLADE from saving changes to the wad.

[bradharding]

The small point release I snuck out, v2.4.1, won't bother to check a WAD's header if it is specified using the -file command-line parameter. But trying to load the Minor Sprite Fixing Project through the WAD launcher will require some more thought. Since the launcher is designed to load any combination of IWAD and/or PWADs, it relies on this header information.

[R13]

It seems that idclev doesn't reset health/ammo/arms etc... not sure if bug or desired behaviour?

[bradharding]

On 2017-3-19 at 5:57 AM, R13 said:

It seems that idclev doesn't reset health/ammo/arms etc... not sure if bug or desired behaviour?

This is by design.

[VGA]

You can kill yourself with the console command "kill player" if you want to reset.

[Urthar]

Dying to/taking damage from a Cyberdemon rocket seems to crash 2.4.3

[bradharding]

9 hours ago, Urthar said:

Dying to/taking damage from a Cyberdemon rocket seems to crash 2.4.3

Thanks Urthar. I'm looking into it now. The crash appears to be due to the status bar trying to draw a negative number for the health when the player is killed. My intention was to only allow this new feature to happen for the widescreen HUD and alternate HUD.

 

UPDATE: A new build with this fix is now available.

Edited March 27, 2017 by bradharding

[Death Egg]

I requested this for Crispy Doom, but this port might want to implement this too:

I have a feature request: since every feature added so far is specifically to not break compatibility with the original while adding cool new features, I had an idea for one that isn't in vanilla ports but I'm sure many people would find useful. What if whenever someone included midi's for D_E4M1-D_E4M9, it would automatically use them instead of the default tracks from other maps?

[VGA]

But Doom Retro has partial MAPINFO support so this isn't needed :D

[riderr3]

I actually using chocolate doom or prboom-plus for vanilla wads. Did I need to try this source port?
There are crispy doom, but I realize they add some stuff which not belongs to vanilla doom, so tons of bugs are poured out because of this. I guess, with time it's will be turned in some kind of prboom without boom features.

[VGA]

Doom Retro has many changes, more than Crispy Doom. It is my favourite port for vanilla and Boom projects, you should try it, configure it the way you like most and report any bugs that you find here or on its Github page.

[R13]

11 hours ago, riderr3 said:

I actually using chocolate doom or prboom-plus for vanilla wads. Did I need to try this source port?

I thought the same until I tried Doom Retro, it really is something quite different, there are neat visual touches, great gamepad support and feels like a sweet spot between prboom and chocodoom.

[BigDickBzzrak]

What the dudes above said, it's full of interesting features, the visual style is completely different from any other port.

You totally should download DR.

[Marcaek]

According to Urthar here Doom Retro crashes while loading Mayhem 16.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Marcaek

[bradharding]

4 hours ago, Marcaek said:

According to Urthar here Doom Retro crashes while loading Mayhem 16.

Thanks Marcaek. I'll look into it.

 

EDIT: It's crashing due to the presence of PNG lumps (in MAP01's case, the sky).

Edited April 20, 2017 by bradharding

[Doohnibor]

Hey Brad,     I asked this some time ago in some other thread, but I guess it got lost. So her it goes again.

 

Do you think there's a chance there ever will be a look up/down implemented. I got so used to throughout the years and right now it's the only thing that keeps me from switching exclusively to DOOM Retro.

 

Knowing that it's always a challenge to satisfy the purists vs. the other half I think as long as such features / enhancements are just optional there won't be a lot of uproar while many others will be happy.

 

So here's a few more personal "wishes/suggestions"

- optional higher resolution settings

- optional higher resolution for the automap

- different graphics for the small screen size settings, based on the original graphics instead or in addition to the one's used right now, cause it makes it feel a bit like using a mod; )

 

Besides that all I can do is just give the usual praises that you are probably used to by now ; )  DOOM Retro is by very far my fav Doom port since it keeps all the good stuff about the original game and feel alive...  and at the same time enhances it in a near perfect way!! 

Edited April 26, 2017 by Doohnibor

[BigDickBzzrak]

Hi, is there a way to disable monsters infighting after player's death? Or at least delay its start a bit.

When I die and then use "resurrect", all the monsters are already fighting by the time I resurrect myself, and it feels unfair.

[VGA]

4 hours ago, bzzrak said:

Hi, is there a way to disable monsters infighting after player's death? Or at least delay its start a bit.

When I die and then use "resurrect", all the monsters are already fighting by the time I resurrect myself, and it feels unfair.

Just a suggestion. Why don't you use quicksave/quickload to go through difficult sections instead of a cheat like resurrect?

 

Also, resurrecting is unfair to the poor monsters, they got you fair and square the first time :D

[bradharding]

On 2017-4-26 at 7:47 PM, Doohnibor said:

...

 

So here's a few more personal "wishes/suggestions"

- optional higher resolution settings

- optional higher resolution for the automap

- different graphics for the small screen size settings, based on the original graphics instead or in addition to the one's used right now, cause it makes it feel a bit like using a mod; )

 

...

Thanks for the suggestions @Doohnibor. There are a few things I'd like to keep as is so Doom Retro remains "retro". The relatively low resolution is one of those things. I'll consider mouselook though (in fact, I'm experimenting with it now). For the automap suggestion, the automap obviously needs to be the same resolution as everything else, so do you mean an option to disable the "fat" red walls? Also, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by your last suggestion.

 

Hi @bzzrak. There's no option to disable the infighting, but I'll look into it. Delaying it from happening is an interesting idea, but @VGA is right: maybe "resurrect" isn't the right solution for you. :P

Edited April 27, 2017 by bradharding

[BigDickBzzrak]

47 minutes ago, bradharding said:

(in fact, I'm experimenting with it now)

Great to hear, I was wondering what would be the next big thing. Can't wait. :]

 

17 hours ago, VGA said:

Why don't you use quicksave/quickload to go through difficult sections instead of a cheat like resurrect?

Don't kill me, I don't know how... :/

Besides, when I play Doom I'm always like "BIG DADDY IS COMING, BEND DOWN TO YOUR MASTER" and of course don't remember to save. Naturally, some stupid stray lost soul won't/can't bend, and I get killed.

 

17 hours ago, VGA said:

Also, resurrecting is unfair to the poor monsters, they got you fair and square the first time :D

Hahaha, got me.

[Doohnibor]

 

 

 

9 hours ago, bradharding said:

@DoohniborI'm not sure I understand what you mean by your last suggestion.

 

 

sorry Brad, I meant these HUD graphics:

 

 

I thought that using the original DOOM graphics might be more suitable.   

Something like on this shot:

 

and here's one with different placement... but it's from a Quake port - I think there's even a transparency slider for it:

 

 

 

9 hours ago, bradharding said:

I'll consider mouselook though (in fact, I'm experimenting with it now).

That's is great to hear ; ) !

 

9 hours ago, bradharding said:

@Doohnibor For the automap suggestion, the automap obviously needs to be the same resolution as everything else, so do you mean an option to disable the "fat" red walls?

Yes, that's what I meant. If you zoom out they don't look so nice.

 

9 hours ago, bradharding said:

There are a few things I'd like to keep as is so Doom Retro remains "retro". The relatively low resolution is one of those things.

 

haha ; )    got it.

I probably looked at this from a different perspective, that's why.     I remember that back when the game came out, everybody (well, let's almost everybody) always tried to play in the highest resolution as possible...  I got the first official Windows version - it was DOOM95 right? - just because of the fact that it had higher resolutions.      Same with quake. It was a huge hardware issue and most people were stuck with 360x240 or 640x480 at 1 Frame per second.... I got a pentium 200 mHz the day it came out, upgraded to 16MB ram ; ) and a Matrox Millenium just for being able to play at 800x600. So for me it still would be retro - even with a better resolution ; )

 

 

 

 

[axdoomer]

56 minutes ago, Doohnibor said:

 

 

 

 

 

This looks neat. High-res textures is something that I would like to see in Doom Retro (and the multiplayer of course). 

[Doohnibor]

51 minutes ago, axdoomer said:

 

This looks neat. High-res textures is something that I would like to see in Doom Retro (and the multiplayer of course). 

ummm just in case this might end up as a missunderstanding....  in the above screenshot I was ONLY referring to the HUD graphics. not the highres textures ; )

[bradharding]

You can get a HUD using the original graphics by opening the console with the ~ key and entering "r_althud off". :)

 

And I'll look at either implementing an "am_fatwalls" cvar, or automagically draw walls at the regular width once zooming out.