PrBoom+ Choppy mouse movement while recording demos

[Archvile Hunter]

So, I recently downloaded PrBoom+ for demo recording, and first I tried it out on the first episode of Doom without recording. Gameplay was smooth and natural. Then I tried recording a demo and suddenly my mouse started acting very strangely.

 

Mouse movement below a certain speed is not recognized at all. Moving the mouse fast enough for it to register causes MASSIVE pixel skipping (the view "jumps" instead of turning smoothly). These two issues combined make playing the game comfortably almost impossible. Again, it only happens while recording a demo.

 

How can I fix this?

[Linguica]

This is a known issue with the Doom engine. Normally when playing, mouse movement is registered using a 16-bit value, so the minimum turning angle is like 0.005 degrees. But when recording a demo, turns are only recorded using an 8-bit value, so the minimum turning angle is like 1.4 degrees.

 

The solution is to add -longtics to the command line, which will force PrBoom to record demos with 16-bit turning values.

[Da Werecat]

Should be noted that -longtics will create demos that are incompatible with emulated engines. They'll only work with... I dunno, PrBoom+ itself, I guess?

[BigDickBzzrak]

^ Choco Doom can play them too, afaik.

It needs some parameter or something, though.

Edited April 28, 2017 by bzzrak

[Archvile Hunter]

Okay, so I fiddled around with -longtics a bit and it seems like it only works when recording demos at -complevel 2. Is it possible at all to record Boom-demos with smooth mouse movement?

[Linguica]

Try going into Options > General and on the third page changing "Use extended format".

[The Bandit]

I don't know the specifics, but I get this in Prboom+ myself.  Maybe a shitty cpu?....which I have.  The start of Water Spirit(map 01) does it bad on me, but then it stabilizes pretty quick.

[Grazza]

1) This has nothing to do with extended format.

 

2) I presume Andrey didn't enable the longtics option for Boom demos (and others such as MBF) because there isn't such an option in Boom itself, so it would be introducing a demo type that doesn't emulate anything. Generally he has avoided creating additional incompatible demo types. (Note: I haven't specifically checked this. It would take research and my rate is $100/hour ;P.)

 

3) If you desperately want to record non-vanilla demos with longtics, then you should use -complevel -1 (i.e. "current Prboom-plus"). Then you don't need to specify -longtics as it is the default behaviour. Note that you may then need to set a variety of compatibility options for all sorts of in-game behaviour, as these are individually recorded in this demo format (a feature inherited from MBF).

 

4) -shorttics behaviour is the standard for almost all demos ever recorded, and it's much easier to get used to than you would expect. In fact, -longtics feels wrong to me. -shorttics also makes some tricks, notably glides, a lot easier, as you can align yourself much more easily with the axes.

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Grazza

[kb1]

5 hours ago, Da Werecat said:

Should be noted that -longtics will create demos that are incompatible with emulated engines. They'll only work with... I dunno, PrBoom+ itself, I guess?

Not 100% sure right now, but I think Doom+ does longtics too, but it ups the version number when it saves demos (to avoid generating demos that look vanilla, but are incompatible). "shorttics" was a goofy optimization, if you ask me. It reminds me of the old TRS-80's that only displayed upper-case characters, 'cuase they wanted to save $1.50 on a 1 Kb/1 bit RAM chip!

3 hours ago, Archvile Hunter said:

Okay, so I fiddled around with -longtics a bit and it seems like it only works when recording demos at -complevel 2. Is it possible at all to record Boom-demos with smooth mouse movement?

Again, not 100% sure, but there's a "latest PrBoom" complevel -1. Try this as well.  ( As Grazza says below :)

8 minutes ago, Grazza said:

1) This has nothing to do with extended format.

 

2) I presume Andrey didn't enable the longtics option for Boom demos (and others such as MBF) because there isn't such an option in Boom itself, so it would be introducing a demo type that doesn't emulate anything. Generally he has avoided creating additional incompatible demo types. (Note: I haven't specifically checked this. It would take research and my rate is $100/hour ;P.)

 

3) If you desperately want to record non-vanilla demos with longtics, then you should use -complevel -1 (i.e. "current Prboom-plus"). Then you don't need to specify -longtics as it is the default behaviour. Note that you may then need to set a variety of compatibility options for all sorts of in-game behaviour, as these are individually recorded in this demo format (a feature inherited from MBF).

 

4) -shorttics behaviour is the standard for almost all demos ever recorded, and it's much easier to get used to than you would expect. In fact, -longtics feels wrong to me. -shorttics also makes some tricks, notably glides, a lot easier, as you can align yourself much more easily with the axes.

 

@#2: $100/hr - Wow, you're cheap! I got some research I need done :)

@#4: Wow. I've been wrongly assuming that everyone would always like -longtics better. Interesting. Does the mouse actually not update at all when it is moved slowly? And, do you use PrBoom+ enough to be able to verify that -shorttics in PrBoom+ feels right to you? I have to confess: For many years, I never used the mouse - I used analog joysticks! (in a digital fashion). You can actually get pretty good with them, but they're no match for mouse+keyboard, of course.

[Da Werecat]

Ah yeah, I forgot about Doom+. This is actually the first implementation of the feature, I believe, and the reason it's supported by Chocolate Doom and PrBoom+.

[Grazza]

47 minutes ago, kb1 said:

Not 100% sure right now, but I think Doom+ does longtics too

 

No, the whole longtics trainwreck was started by Doom v1.91 and not Doom+, which extended a bunch of limits, etc.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Grazza

[Archvile Hunter]

7 hours ago, kb1 said:

Does the mouse actually not update at all when it is moved slowly? And, do you use PrBoom+ enough to be able to verify that -shorttics in PrBoom+ feels right to you?

Nope, it doesn't update at all. I can move the mouse slowly all the way across my mouse pad and Doomguy won't turn at all. It probably doesn't help that my mouse sensitivity is very low. Also, I find it absolutely astonishing that anyone can bear playing like that. Just shooting an imp a few feet in front of me is a struggle.

 

Also, is there an option in PrBoom+ to always align the weapon while shooting? I find it really hard to aim anyway when the weapon is off to the side. This shorttics thing certainly doesn't help. And I don't want to disable the weapon bobbing, that makes me uncomfortable.

[Grazza]

12 hours ago, Archvile Hunter said:

my mouse sensitivity is very low

Well there's your problem. Try setting it higher - much higher*. Twiddle with the acceleration setting until it feels comfortable, though give it some time as you'll need to adjust.

 

* Most competn players, I believe, had it at a value where the game would crash if they looked at the Options screen! You'll no doubt be aware that they had no problems moving precisely and shooting things accurately.

 

FWIW, here are my [relevant] mouse settings:

 

# Mouse settings
use_mouse                     1
mouse_sensitivity_horiz      12
mouse_sensitivity_vert        2
 

 

# Prboom-plus mouse settings
mouse_acceleration            2

 	

	...	

 

movement_mouselook            0

movement_mouseinvert          0