STRAIN demos [-complevel 2]

DSDA page aka strain10 // strain10.wad

 

I wandered through STRAIN recently, looking for suitable maps for strolling. Apart from map01 and the trivial map21 (too trivial to be worth recording), I didn't find much. However, having reminded myself how cool this wad is, I decided to record a few non-strollers:

map20 UV Pacifist(?) in 0:58
map31 UV Speed in 0:39
map32 UV Speed in 1:51

Somewhat scrappy demos, but fun.

They'll all play back with strnhack.exe (i.e. doom2.exe with strain.deh applied), Eternity or Prboom 2.2.6.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Maribo

Does PrBoom play it back with all the different enemies though?

Version 2.2.6, yes. Earlier versions have some problems with dehacked support that can cause desyncs (notably, in 2.2.4 the invisible holobots are visible, and this affects monster behaviour).

I'm not sure that even 2.2.6 fully works with STRAIN, but these three demos at least play back OK with it. Actually, I switched to using the original strnhack.exe, even though this meant I had to use -nosound (or PC speaker for sfx), and get used to slightly different mouse behaviour. (That's my excuse for crappy movement in St32-151, and I'm sticking to it! :p)

I believe Eternity is reliable for playing back STRAIN demos (I don't recall it ever failing).

I got it to work. Thanks.

There aren't enough demos on STRAIN....

Map22 ("Specimen Storage") UV Speed in 0:57.

Two tricks; mediocre first exit. This would be more fun if it weren't for the wait at the start. Still, it gives you plenty of time to type in IDMUS23 or whatever.

Grazza said:

There aren't enough demos on STRAIN....

So here's another one:

Map15 ("Subsidiary Power") Normal Exit, NM Speed/Pacifist in 0:04.

As you'll gather from the time, I use a shortcut. :) But don't get too excited, it is of quite a standard type.

BTW, I imagine cack_handed could do map07 really quickly. I haven't got the glide to work though, despite the start position apparently being perfectly lined up with it.

Grazza said:

BTW, I imagine cack_handed could do map07 really quickly. I haven't got the glide to work though, despite the start position apparently being perfectly lined up with it.

I did this in a built demo (built entirely using LMPC):

STRAIN map07 *Built* UV Speed/Pacifist in 0:01.

So why not 0:00? I found that if I moved even a tiny bit faster than GB1, the glide failed - presumably the momentum needs to be absolutely rock bottom for these "impossible" 32-unit glides to succeed. I speed up as soon as I can once the glide has worked, but by then well over a second has elapsed. (BTW, I have done this glide in "normal play", but it's not worth uploading.)

For further details, see the txt and the comments in the src included. Note that the exit from this map relies on a spechits overflow, so the demo will not play back with a port that doesn't have spechits overflow emulation.

I recorded some demos for Strain.
map01 - uv speed in 0:26
http://hellscauldron.narod.ru/st01-026.zip
map07 - uv speed in 1 second - glide trick.
http://hellscauldron.narod.ru/st07-001.zip
and map01 - Nightmare TAS run in 0:21.
http://hellscauldron.narod.ru/st01-021.zip

jongo said:

Hm, can you (Kristian Ronge or entryway) please give a link to Russian forum or the direct link to the MM TAS run?

This TAS run still in progress, sorry...

STRAIN map27 ("Dispensary Beta") Nonomsters Speed in 0:46:

st27o046.zip

And a first-exit Pacifist/Speed:
STRAIN map27 ("Dispensary Beta") UV Pacifist in 1:04

Annoying that I miss the lift, and that the second glide was slow (it often is though), but it was nice not to get blocked too much.

st27p104.zip

=================================
New STRAIN UV Max Demo Pack
=================================

This is a collection of recorded demos (lmps) for all 32 levels of "STRAIN" megawad by The Alpha Dog Alliance. All lmps were recorded on skill 4 (Ultra-Violence), ending with at least 100% kills and 100% secrets where it's possible.

The demos were recorded in doom2.exe-format using compatibility level "2" with PrBoom-plus using strain.wad & strain.deh, without any TAS features. All demos should play back all right using newer versions of PrBoom-plus and Chocolate-Doom. These will all also play back with STRNHACK.exe (modified Doom2.exe), of course. Except bonus demo on map 32 with 99% Kills (recorded in boom-format).

"STRAIN" is available at ->
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=8467

All recorded demos and comments (in russian) available at:
http://hellscauldron.narod.ru/strain.html

-----------------------------------------
    Level                      Time
-----------------------------------------
01  Barracks                   01:13
02  Outskirts                  04:03
03  Downtown                   03:21
04  Industrial Zone            02:37
05  Depot                      01:54
06  Launch Control             08:20
07  En Route                   02:01
08  Hangar                     09:36
09  Cargo Bay                  04:14
10  Entryway                   04:14
11  Command Control            06:55
12  Power Station              08:43
13  Ruins                      03:06
14  Engineering                06:53
15  Subsidiary Power           05:10
16  Living Quarters            06:19 *
17  Promenade                  09:44
18  Relay Station              05:19
19  Waste Processing           06:43
20  Reactor                    01:17
21  Maintenance                01:38
22  Specimen Storage           04:37
23  Dispensary Alpha           09:51
24  Sub-Laboratory             05:27
25  Main Laboratory            09:49
26  Main Laboratory II         02:22
27  Dispensary Beta            11:45
28  Unknown                    06:52
29  Self-Destruct              06:36
30  Boss                       03:31 **
31  Secret                     04:25
32  Super-Secret               02:59 ***
32  Super-Secret               03:03 !    
             
                  Total time -  2:51:34

------------
* - on map 16 Only 98% Kills are possible.
** - on map 30 Only 48/57 Kills are possible.
*** - on map 32 Only 82% Kills are possible in doom2.exe-format.
! - Bonus demo. Only 99% Kills are possible in boom2.02-format.
------------

That's it - enjoy the lmps!

Thanks to Jason Henry, Michael "Migru" Grube, Kai-Uwe Humpert, Peo Sjoblom, Yonatan Donner for original maxpack and Adolf "Gusta" Vojta for mini-maxpack. :)

Get it here -> http://hellscauldron.narod.ru/stuvmax.zip

Or here -> http://www.doomworld.com/sda/dwdemo/stuvmax.zip

Wow, congrats !

hehe I have been thinking about improving my oldest demos for STRAIN for a long time so this is a sweet surprise, heretic :) I haven't watched the demos yet but you have obviously put into them much more effort then I had ever did, congrats for the good times!

Outstanding set of demos. I watched every one of them yesterday. Some of those levels are just total chaos but you made it look relatively easy. Great job!. Thanks.

Hey, I've got something to watch tonight.

Strain MAP02 Speed (1:17) and MAP07 Tyson (3:52)

strmisc.zip

It's nice to see new STRAIN demos. It's a very underdemoed wad, relative to its quality.

Heh, thanks for bumping this thread. I never knew about Heretic's demo pack.

It's surprising how many of these maps I remember, even though I only ever played through this wad once, ages ago.

In case it is useful to anyone, I'm posting a little demo showing a simple trick at the start of map14. I spotted this idea years ago, but never had a use for it as a Speed would still be too violent and lengthy for my taste.

It should be fairly useful in most demo categories, as it saves a bit of time, and gets some goodies rather early. And it looks cooler than the intended route. :) It also enables you to keep the monsters in the central area penned in.

vdgg wrote in st02-117.txt:
It looks like everyone hates this map.

Can't be true for any map in STRAIN, 'cos I love them all.

st14trik.zip

Map19 (Waste Processing) Nomonsters Speed in 1:57

New route featuring two flat-faced glides. I had this route idea some time ago, but couldn't get the first glide to work. In this demo I use what I think is a new approach to north-to-south glides, but I could be wrong.

I guess this would be easy enough to do with monsters.

st19o157.zip

MAP13 UV Max 3:03

st13-303.zip

Map 02, respawn in 5:51.

st02-551.zip

Springy said:

Map 02, respawn in 5:51.

Haha, nice HOM. :D

Memfis said:

Haha, nice HOM. :D

Yeah I noticed that but I never remember those lifts from years ago though or the HOMs heh.

May sound silly, but where do I get these "Strainfix, Strain Jive" from?

vdgg said:

May sound silly, but where do I get these "Strainfix, Strain Jive" from?

http://www.doomwadstation.com/main/strain.html I think that's where I got a fixed version from I got that around last year or so in order to replace the original I had. Really saves a lot of time and my PC won't install the original version I had unlike my old PC I used back in the day. EDIT: Just to clarify the fix is the wad and the jive is the dehacked I do believe. Allows for easier x64 use and source port use.

Please don't use that mucked-about and badly-damaged version for recording demos. You can get STRAIN unpacked but otherwise unchanged at DSDA: http://doomedsda.us/lmps/830/strain10.zip

MAP17 UV Max 9:30

st17-930.zip

MAP17 UV Speed 3:14

st17-314.zip

MAP09 UV Speed 1:41

st09-141.zip