Remilia Scarlet

A new version of Benben (my music player) will be out at the end of next month.  It's got a bunch of new features for v0.5.0, too.
Benben is no longer only for VGM files.  Those are still totally supported and always will be, but Benben also now supports: MP3, MP2, MP1, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, MIDI, MUS, WAV, Au, and any tracker/module format supported by libxmp.  Essentially it's now a general-purpose music player. FLAC, MIDI, WAV, Au, and of course VGM are all done entirely in native Crystal. MP3/MP2/MP1 is provided via libmpg123 Opus is via libopus Vorbis is via libvorbis The Ogg demuxer is from-scratch and native Crystal All of these can be dumped to WAV/Au in parallel (except WAV/Au, which makes no sense). High quality resampling via a native Crystal port of libsamplerate. Theme support. Seeking (just MP3/MP2/MP1, Wav, Au, and tracker/module files right now). ReplayGain support for the formats that support it. New UI animations. A bunch of internal changes, performance improvements, memory optimizations, and fixes.  Basically it's still fast as heck, doesn't use much RAM, and can run on a Raspberry Pi or PineBook just fine. The release date is July 29th, but you can grab unsupported development AppImages from the repo for now.  Or you know, just build it yourself.
 
There's a FAQ now as well.
 
Now that Benben supports MIDI files and has all of the same functionality as midi123, my older midi123 program is now deprecated and won't be updated any longer.  Benben has all the same features (and more) starting with v0.5.0 anyway.

A new version of Benben (my music player) will be out at the end of next month.  It's got a bunch of new features for v0.5.0, too.
Benben is no longer only for VGM files.  Those are still totally supported and always will be, but Benben also now supports: MP3, MP2, MP1, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, MIDI, MUS, WAV, Au, and any tracker/module format supported by libxmp.  Essentially it's now a general-purpose music player. FLAC, MIDI, WAV, Au, and of course VGM are all done entirely in native Crystal. MP3/MP2/MP1 is provided via libmpg123 Opus is via libopus Vorbis is via libvorbis The Ogg demuxer is from-scratch and native Crystal All of these can be dumped to WAV/Au in parallel (except WAV/Au, which makes no sense). High quality resampling via a native Crystal port of libsamplerate. Theme support. Seeking (just MP3/MP2/MP1, Wav, Au, and tracker/module files right now). ReplayGain support for the formats that support it. New UI animations. A bunch of internal changes, performance improvements, memory optimizations, and fixes.  Basically it's still fast as heck, doesn't use much RAM, and can run on a Raspberry Pi or PineBook just fine. The release date is July 29th, but you can grab unsupported development AppImages from the repo for now.  Or you know, just build it yourself.
 
There's a FAQ now as well.
 
Now that Benben supports MIDI files and has all of the same functionality as midi123, my older midi123 program is now deprecated and won't be updated any longer.  Benben has all the same features (and more) starting with v0.5.0 anyway.

More pics from my WIP project. This is E4M3.
 

So.... nearly all of my music is now available on Bandcamp :D

New year, new me!
 

The year is almost over, and the Wadazine has its 2023 survey ready! I'd love if you guys would take a minute of your time to respond the survey and share with us your thoughts and opinions about our work. It helps us a lot to improve and do better each year!
 
https://forms.gle/w8RtFNivSHgWq55Z6

I decided to post a list of all maps I've released. I know that probably nobody cares about me and my maps, but why not, right?
 
In order from newest to oldest:
 
8.  Bunker of Death (from the upcoming Doomworld Maximum Project 2023)
 
This is a short limit-removing map that can be beaten in around 3 minutes. Personally, I wouldn't release a map this short standalone, but in megawads where people play maps in batches, short maps work very well. Anyway, this map is linear, simple and straighforward. Of note, it has easily my favorite secret I've put in a map, so go find it!
 
Link: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2734602
Also, I've recorded a UV-Max semi-speedrun of it just for fun (-complevel 2): https://doomshack.org/uploads/lil_bun2_demo.zip
 
7. Monster's Frankenstein of a Map
 
I think this is the best map I've made. It has a ton of design variety, a lot of custom content, advanced features like 3D floors, and around 50 minutes of gameplay. The reason why it has a lot of variety is because this map is actually a whole bunch of scrapped projects fused together. This is also the reason behind its name, which I don't like, but I don't know how else to call it. Collectively, all these scrapped projects and the resulting map took me at least 3.5 years to complete (with huge breaks due to me losing interest in Doom).

If you want to play at least one map of mine, this is the one I recommend! You'll visit forests, a bunker, underground areas, vast city plazas, challenge areas, etc. It has a lot. Also, the final area is actually the entirety of an earlier map of mine, remastered (reasons see below).
The map is for GZDoom, and I can actually recommend playing it with weapon mods. Most people who played it played with mods, and it arguably made the map better because people who played without mods complained about ammo shortages.
 
Link to the thread with screenshots:
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/137493-my-first-map-everyone-play-it/
Link to idgames: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/0-9/20230715
 
 
6. E2M1: Overrun Factory (from The Joy of Mapping 6: Joy Eternal)
 
Another very short map of mine, but this time there were reasons for that. Firstly, for JoM6 we were only given 3 days to make a map, and since I'm not a speedmapper, there was only so much I could do in 3 days. Secondly, this map is the episode opener, and those are better being short and easy (unfortunately, the map right after mine ended up being brutal, lol). This map is a mostly straightforward techbase with a couple of minor quirks I guess, heh.
 
Link to the project: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/joymaps6
 
5. MAP08: House Cleaning (from 20 Heretics Challenge)
 
20 Heretics Challenge was an obscure follow up to the 20 Monsters Challenge on ZDF, which I also participated in (see below), this time for Heretic. My map there is a bit short and simplistic, but with a couple of gimmicks that you may like or not. For one thing, you play through most of the map with just a wand (pistol), which isn't a problem due to low monster count, but probably not as fun as I thought it was. In the end you'll suddenly be given the best weapons to fight the boss though, lol. Then there's the "maze" near the end which teleports you back if you walk in the wrong direction, but it's easy to figure out. I was also proud that I made the keys drop out of monsters, which isn't impressive I guess, but was for me. Also, one funny thing: the music I used in this map, despite being a MIDI, actually gave a friend a copyright claim, I guess because it's too reminiscent of the original, heh, which speaks for its quality.
 
Link to the project: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/20hcc
 
4. MAP02: Ambush Facility (from 20 Monsters Challenge)
 
First of all, I want to talk about 20 Monsters Challenge. It was hosted on ZDF and was a massive project, with 42 maps contributed by some of the biggest names on ZDF. Yet... it ended up in a total obscurity. Why? I think a part of the reason is because it was never uploaded to idgames out of fear of copyright issues. As a result, almost no one knows about it now, which is a massive shame. Trust me, there was a ton of passion put into it, and participating in it was so exciting. It seemed huge at the time. I honestly recommend giving the whole project a try.
 
As for my map, it's... full of ambushes! This is probably my most trollish map, hehe. It has this really challenging moment near the start involving tons of barrels that a lot of people died to, lol. Otherwise it's also short and is centered more around gimmicks than combat.
 
Link to the project: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=54247
 
3. MAP35: Li'l Devil's Map (from Doomworld Mega Project 2016)
 
Firstly and importantly, I've just released a standalone and remastered version of this map, which fixes some glaring issues of the original, and it's the definitive version to play (link below).
 
This is arguably my second best map, designed for vanilla. But oh my does it have a history. To keep it short, this map ended up in the project unfinished, because I got banned for causing mischief the day after I posted the last revision. But then it got worse: for whatever reason it was put in map 35 slot despite being for vanilla, which caused the sky and the music to be swapped if you tried to play it on ports other than ZDoom-based ones. It's for this reason that I finally decided to fix a couple of glaring flaws and rerelease it standalone, although I did plan a much more elaborate remaster at one point, but was told that the map was okay as is.
 
As for the map itself: it's atmospheric. I managed to create this very somber feel, which, coupled with creepy music from Blood, made it honestly a bit uneasy even for me to play. This is why I consider it better than most of my maps, but also because this map has quite a bit of variety to it. This is another one I can definitely recommend!
Also, forgot to list in the credits for the idgames release, but thanks to rd. for giving useful feedback back in the day.
 
Link to the remaster: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/j-l/lildevil3
Link to the project with the original version: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/dmp2016
Also! I recorded a UV-Max semi-speedrun of the remastered standalone version (-complevel 2): https://doomshack.org/uploads/lildevil3_demo.zip
 
2. Noirlab
 
A standalone Boom map I released under my old alias ChekaAgent. This map is notably designed entirely with textures from NOIRPACK, and requries them to play. This is that map that was included in its entirety in Monster's Frankenstein of a Map. Why? It's because this original version is, sadly, botched. Of all things, by the music. When choosing the music, I mindlessly decided to put in a noisy ambient track from System Shock 1. I didn't mind it, but most people who played the map hated it. It was sad to see an otherwise okay in my opinion map to be ruined like that, so I decided to "redeeem" it as part of the map I talked about above. So, this version remains as merely a historical artifact now, and I don't recommend playing it.
 
Link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/noirlab
 
1. Heavily Infested Area
 
You want some trash?? Here's trash!! This is my first released map (although I did have a number of attempts at making a map prior to it), and by calling it trash I don't mean that it's not enjoyable. It's just that it has trash design philosophy behind it. Very dumb monster placement, stupid level design, etc. It also has a gimmick that there's a secret passage that allows you to skip most of the map, which rd. liked, lol. If you like childish myfirstmaps, it's for you!
 
Link: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/89909-heavily-infested-area-my-real-first-map/
 

Alternate link for those who want a privacy-respecting interface: https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=hXLCDDVdFQg
 
This is not ACS or Rube Goldberg BS (aka voodoo dolls/conveyor belts).  This is in Doomsday and is using nothing but XG line types.  The layout is a VERY rough draft implemented quickly, so just a simple blockout with just enough implemented to test the core mechanic.  So expect temporary textures, enemy placement, sector movement timing, etc.  There's still work to be done, detailing to be done, optimizing, and I need to fix the sounds.  Also ignore the snake dudes seeing you right off the bat >_>
 
Just excited to do this.  I've never used "ticker" and "mobj_gone" line types before.
 
Sometimes I'm just reminded how much I love Doomsday.  Yeah, it isn't the fastest engine (especially with the current renderer), and yeah it's missing some things... but damnit, I love it.  I want to see more stuff for it, too, because it deserves it 🖤

EDIT: yes I use Eureka and Rakefiles for my Doom projects.  I have for a while now.

Alternate link for those who want a privacy-respecting interface: https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=hXLCDDVdFQg
 
This is not ACS or Rube Goldberg BS (aka voodoo dolls/conveyor belts).  This is in Doomsday and is using nothing but XG line types.  The layout is a VERY rough draft implemented quickly, so just a simple blockout with just enough implemented to test the core mechanic.  So expect temporary textures, enemy placement, sector movement timing, etc.  There's still work to be done, detailing to be done, optimizing, and I need to fix the sounds.  Also ignore the snake dudes seeing you right off the bat >_>
 
Just excited to do this.  I've never used "ticker" and "mobj_gone" line types before.
 
Sometimes I'm just reminded how much I love Doomsday.  Yeah, it isn't the fastest engine (especially with the current renderer), and yeah it's missing some things... but damnit, I love it.  I want to see more stuff for it, too, because it deserves it 🖤

EDIT: yes I use Eureka and Rakefiles for my Doom projects.  I have for a while now.

Have a little time free now, so I went back to Doom for a bit and wrote some articles for the blog:
WAD Review: Decades of Doom Why E4M1 is the Best Doom Level The article was previously published on Wadaazine #21.
 
So, Doom 30th anniversary is coming soon, and I had a lot of plans ahead to celebrate three glorious decades of demonic bonanza. Sadly, this year has been a little rough and quite difficult for me, particularly regarding time management, so I wasn't able to do much of it in time. I was (still am) creating a E4 inspired Doom episode to release by December, but I only got as far as E4M3. Also wanted to finish my Doom WAD history book by this point, but only got to 30% more or less. Still, such projects will be finished at some point, but probably later than sooner.
 
On the other hand, I'm currently writing an article about the best 50 WADs from 1994, as a little celebration of the good ol' days of Doom early mapping. I should have this one ready for December 10th, if all goes well.

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

So I'm finally getting around to doing something I've planned to do for ages: a small update to my Shadows of The Nightmare Realm level set.  The changes are all finished, I just want to play through it a few more times to test things out before I upload it.  I also want to record official playthroughs of all the levels before I release it.  So probably in a week or two.
 
Changes:

* The ZScript in it has been converted to DECORATE.  It now works in both GZDoom and K8Vavoom.
* Some story retcons that I've been planning for years are finally in place. SoTNR was always meant to be part of a sort of personal mythology I have going, which also includes Umbra of Fate (its prequel), my Xala'noth level for Quake, Eschatology, The Unending, and I think a few others.  It's still heavily Lovecraft inspired, it's just not using the Lovecraft mythos anymore.
* Small rebalancing tweaks here and there.  Mainly a few extra stimpacks and a few extra rockets.
* Small lighting fixes in level 3.
* Texture alignment fixes in level 3.
* A few secrets are a tiny bit more obvious.
* The Archon of Hell's health was reduced from 2000 to 1650 so they don't feel quite so much like a bullet sponge (final health amount may change in the next few days).
* A spelling issue was fixed.
* A softlock on levels 1 and 4 in their tech areas was fixed (the areas in question use the same layout).
* Added a pillar to a room in level 2 so that the fight with the spider mastermind feels better and less stressful.  Or maybe I'm just getting older and find things like that stressful anymore ^_^;
* Added a light in level 3 to make a switch more obvious.
* Reduced the absurd ceiling detail on the outside of level 3 that couldn't ever be seen properly anyway.
* The crusher trap in level 3 that people complained about is now a bit more obvious.
* Changed how I build the game to match how I do all my levels anymore: A Rakefile, command line utilities, and a standardized (for me, anyway) directory structure.

Something to keep in mind is that there are a few small lighting bugs with SoTNR in K8, and the performance absolutely tanks in a few areas when shadows (r_shadows) are enabled.  This seems to be because of how I did lighting back then, which was much more inefficient than how I do it these days.  But, it is totally playable in K8 and still runs at 60+ FPS for me in most places.

That being said, most people should probably use GZDoom to play it, but nothing says you have to anymore.   I use K8 for it because I like how I can adjust the player's movement to feel like Quake, and the shadows :-P

Just got year older today, now I'm 27 years old and closer to my 30's than never before (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

So remember midi123, my command line MIDI player, and it's associated SoundFont synthesis library, Haematite? Both written in pure Crystal?  Yeah, the code in the repo's tip now supports mmap()'ing of SoundFonts for vastly improved memory usage and (basically) streaming sample data from disk.
 
Playing a MIDI using my custom SC-55 SoundFont:
before: 128 MB used after: 32 MB used after finish playing More updates to the program coming soon.  Gonna take a break from Benben and work in it instead.

My VGM player Benben v0.2.0 is out! New features include YM2612 and SN764xx support (so, Sega Genesis music now works), OPL and OPL2 support, greatly improved CPU and memory usage when rendering to WAV or Au, and various other things.
 
Full release notes, source code, and an x86-64 Linux AppImage, are all available here: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/benben/technote?name=acb3dbf5feb1f957b7d1c84c8ac942d3e4b104b7

I'll see about possibly getting an AppImage for AArch64 out later today as well.  The program works fine on my PineBook Pro and Raspberry Pis, so it's just a matter of packaging (or you compiling it from source).
 
Related, my underlying YunoSynth library is now at v0.2.0 as well: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/yunosynth/
 
 

My VGM player Benben v0.2.0 is out! New features include YM2612 and SN764xx support (so, Sega Genesis music now works), OPL and OPL2 support, greatly improved CPU and memory usage when rendering to WAV or Au, and various other things.
 
Full release notes, source code, and an x86-64 Linux AppImage, are all available here: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/benben/technote?name=acb3dbf5feb1f957b7d1c84c8ac942d3e4b104b7

I'll see about possibly getting an AppImage for AArch64 out later today as well.  The program works fine on my PineBook Pro and Raspberry Pis, so it's just a matter of packaging (or you compiling it from source).
 
Related, my underlying YunoSynth library is now at v0.2.0 as well: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/yunosynth/
 
 

My VGM player Benben v0.2.0 is out! New features include YM2612 and SN764xx support (so, Sega Genesis music now works), OPL and OPL2 support, greatly improved CPU and memory usage when rendering to WAV or Au, and various other things.
 
Full release notes, source code, and an x86-64 Linux AppImage, are all available here: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/benben/technote?name=acb3dbf5feb1f957b7d1c84c8ac942d3e4b104b7

I'll see about possibly getting an AppImage for AArch64 out later today as well.  The program works fine on my PineBook Pro and Raspberry Pis, so it's just a matter of packaging (or you compiling it from source).
 
Related, my underlying YunoSynth library is now at v0.2.0 as well: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/yunosynth/
 
 

My VGM player Benben v0.2.0 is out! New features include YM2612 and SN764xx support (so, Sega Genesis music now works), OPL and OPL2 support, greatly improved CPU and memory usage when rendering to WAV or Au, and various other things.
 
Full release notes, source code, and an x86-64 Linux AppImage, are all available here: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/benben/technote?name=acb3dbf5feb1f957b7d1c84c8ac942d3e4b104b7

I'll see about possibly getting an AppImage for AArch64 out later today as well.  The program works fine on my PineBook Pro and Raspberry Pis, so it's just a matter of packaging (or you compiling it from source).
 
Related, my underlying YunoSynth library is now at v0.2.0 as well: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/yunosynth/
 
 

My VGM player Benben v0.2.0 is out! New features include YM2612 and SN764xx support (so, Sega Genesis music now works), OPL and OPL2 support, greatly improved CPU and memory usage when rendering to WAV or Au, and various other things.
 
Full release notes, source code, and an x86-64 Linux AppImage, are all available here: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/benben/technote?name=acb3dbf5feb1f957b7d1c84c8ac942d3e4b104b7

I'll see about possibly getting an AppImage for AArch64 out later today as well.  The program works fine on my PineBook Pro and Raspberry Pis, so it's just a matter of packaging (or you compiling it from source).
 
Related, my underlying YunoSynth library is now at v0.2.0 as well: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/yunosynth/
 
 

My VGM player Benben v0.2.0 is out! New features include YM2612 and SN764xx support (so, Sega Genesis music now works), OPL and OPL2 support, greatly improved CPU and memory usage when rendering to WAV or Au, and various other things.
 
Full release notes, source code, and an x86-64 Linux AppImage, are all available here: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/benben/technote?name=acb3dbf5feb1f957b7d1c84c8ac942d3e4b104b7

I'll see about possibly getting an AppImage for AArch64 out later today as well.  The program works fine on my PineBook Pro and Raspberry Pis, so it's just a matter of packaging (or you compiling it from source).
 
Related, my underlying YunoSynth library is now at v0.2.0 as well: https://chiselapp.com/user/MistressRemilia/repository/yunosynth/