ReMooD

I added social media buttons to the page, so you can share any postings to various social media sites. I even added a DoomWorld button which will start a new post on the forum, since being a Dooming site it would be apropriate. I also ... [More] advertisements, which you probably noticed, this is to hopefully pay for ReMooD.org eventually. Other than that, there have been minor fixups to the site. ReMooD is still progressing and I'll hopefully make a new development posting before the end of the month. [Less]

The 1.0a development RSS link has been fixed, it previously linked to this new page but now it points to the real development stuff. I also made a nice posting there also. So update your bookmarks, bloggers, whatever!

I've been silently working on ReMooD for the past two months, sorry about not posting any updates. Although work is slow (due to my job), the changes are plentiful. One major note if you read the last news posting is that I switched ... [More] from C to C+++, well I went back to C. In the end I figured the switch to C++ was not worth it. Increased code complexity, longer compile times, the ability to no longer reliably static link, lack of C++ on some platforms, lack of C++ standard on certail platforms. I've always been comfortable working in C however so it will make coding a bit easier for me, rather than beutifying all the code into C++ when there is no real point to it. There was a one month gap of no development happening before I went back to C, and once I switched back development shot off. Major changes would be, highlighted in bold and notes in parenthesis: Simpler identifiers in the code (this means there are no more 30 character typedefs and what not so it should be easier on the eyes); Profiles are now supported again (and their settings are saved, although currently rather cheaply, needs improvement); Improved the timing code (the game should run closer to the standard frame rate now); Client/Server Networking support (although it desyncs if you are not on the same type of system as the host and if your game options are not the same); Joystick Support (you can play with up to 3 other friends in the same game now and you can join them in via the sticks too) Minor changes would be: Mouse Button Support (i.e. mouse buttons now do something rather than nothing); Improved socket code (the old code was a huge mess); Improved block stream performance (Block streamers work faster now); WAD loader bottlenecks reduced (it will no longer take forever to load a simple WAD); Basic Demo Support (you can record and play back a demo, but it will most likely desync); Transition to support Heretic (converting some of the old data tables and code into the new format); Improved split screen code (works much better now and is much cleaner); Even drawing of patches (the graphics are no longer jiggly when you are playing on a resolution above 320x200); Intermission screen with counting up (The new-style scoreboard but one where all the numbers count up like the standard Doom one); OSS MIDI Support (if you have a /dev/midi or whatever, you can listen to MIDI music) As of this writing my current work includes improving the ReMooD Data loader (contains all the object data). It currently is much faster and instead of the game taking 5 minutes to load it is much much less than that. I am also working on an auto build system located at http://remood.org:10080/, so once this is up and running you'll be able to download bleeding edge ReMooD and test it out. No real screenshots to show anything new and whatnot since most of the changes that were made are under the hood. [Less]

The 1.0a development RSS link has been fixed, it previously linked to this new page but now it points to the real development stuff. I also made a nice posting there also. So update your bookmarks, bloggers, whatever!

Since my last update, i have switched from C to C++. However it is not a full blown rewrite, just anything new I write might be full of C++ stuff. I am avoiding templates and STL in the interest of speed, since the code base is still ... [More] pretty much in C it will not make much difference anyway. The switch was mostly done for convenience, certain sections of the code are much easier to read and work smoother. I was also able to remove some duplicate code that did not need to be duplicated everywhere. On other things, I have worked on demo support, so ReMooD is capable of playing certain demo kinds, although they usually desync due to incompatibilities. In other news, I have a job now so I will not be able to work on ReMooD much since it is very busy. I know I promised to hopefully make a July or August release but I do not have much days being off to work on ReMooD, so currently when ReMooD comes out it comes out. I will set up automated builds in the future sometime after a few things are completed so that you could run the game. [Less]

Since my last posting I have made a bunch of updates, there are now workable menus (although you need the console to access some of them). Each player can have its own menu to control (per player menus). I moved virtually all the game ... [More] state variables to the new variable system and it works quite well. I did not make much progress in the save game or netcode areas though (the netcode needs some re-factoring before I go further with it). The intermission screen looks much nicer. Textures and floors are now animated with ANIMATED along with SWITCHES for switch textures. Generalized LineDefs and Sector Types for somewhat customized line def types for internal usage. I started base work on a script interpreter and compiler for faster and hopefully cleaner script execution. A basic Legacy-like status bar overlay (the standard Doom bar is not yet implemented). An improved hash function. I added MiniZ into the game but it is not yet used, so this would pave the way for compression and stuff like PNG output rather than PCX. I am currently working on demo support so you can play back and record various demo types. I entitled the demo support backend as "Demo Factories" which basically can encode and decode demos at the same time. As of this writing you can play back Vanilla demos (and record them), but they pretty much instantly desync which is being worked on. However in the mean time I'm currently adding Legacy demo support so you could play old Legacy demos better than Legacy itself, provided you did not open the menu while recording a demo in Legacy. I also started base work on Heretic support so the maps load without problems and most of the line and sector types work, however there are no map things, weapons, or inventory objects. I'll need to add support for those. In the end, menus will be mostly independent but glued together. I need to implement per player automaps however. The profile system also needs to be able to be modified with loading/saving of profiles. [Less]

I just made an update to Chocorenderlimits. Chocorender limits is a utility that assists Vanilla mappers in their fight against the dreaded VisPlane Overflow, and other such terrors. This new release includes brute forcing which looks ... [More] at many locations throughout the entire map. So sit back, relax, grab something to drink and wait until it finishes. When it is completed, it outputs a nice picture of the map and where the vis plane action is so you can determine where VPOs are the most likely to occur. It also includes Segs, Openings, and Sprites. Although openings and sprites are not really that important, i've never actually seen a level that opening overflows. Enjoy! [Less]

I just made an update to Chocorenderlimits. Chocorender limits is a utility that assists Vanilla mappers in their fight against the dreaded VisPlane Overflow, and other such terrors. This new release includes brute forcing which looks at ... [More] many locations throughout the entire map. So sit back, relax, grab something to drink and wait until it finishes. When it is completed, it outputs a nice picture of the map and where the vis plane action is so you can determine where VPOs are the most likely to occur. It also includes Segs, Openings, and Sprites. Although openings and sprites are not really that important, i've never actually seen a level that opening overflows. Enjoy! [Less]

I've made numerous changes over the last month, the more pressing ones i've explained in more detail. Some minor changes include an OPL emulator from Chocolate Doom (although it cannot make any noise), Generalized LineDef Types (LineDef ... [More] specials defined in a lump), replaced non-free dsjump/dsouch with free versions, extra resolutions, initial bot support, joystick control, better profiles, cluster spawning, console history, Beta BFG, and some more things. I have also added a loading screen indicator for when levels load to indicate how far along levels have been loaded. This is to show at least some progress rather than indicating nothing. Note that the loading screen will not appear for the first 2 seconds of map loading, after that point it appears. I do this because drawing the loading screen costs time and the time could be spent loading the level rather than drawing. I also got plans down for a new intermission layout as seen below. It should be rather simple and show information for more than a few players. Any scoreboards will probably look the same and could share the same code. I have also brought the video intialization code to the near start of the game to inform the user that the game is loading (since it takes a bit longer due to all of the dynamic data being loaded). The single line message informs the user of what is happening (in this case it is loading objects). The red piece on the bar moves around to indicate activity. I am currently working on the save game code so that you will be able to save and load games. The save games are made in a way so it should feel like you never even stopped playing. As a small fun thing to do, you can play as a monster, although you move like a monster. [Less]

I've made numerous changes over the last month, the more pressing ones i've explained in more detail. Some minor changes include an OPL emulator from Chocolate Doom (although it cannot make any noise), Generalized LineDef Types (LineDef ... [More] specials defined in a lump), replaced non-free dsjump/dsouch with free versions, extra resolutions, initial bot support, joystick control, better profiles, cluster spawning, console history, Beta BFG, and some more things. I have also added a loading screen indicator for when levels load to indicate how far along levels have been loaded. This is to show at least some progress rather than indicating nothing. Note that the loading screen will not appear for the first 2 seconds of map loading, after that point it appears. I do this because drawing the loading screen costs time and the time could be spent loading the level rather than drawing. I also got plans down for a new intermission layout as seen below. It should be rather simple and show information for more than a few players. Any scoreboards will probably look the same and could share the same code. I have also brought the video initialization code to the near start of the game to inform the user that the game is loading (since it takes a bit longer due to all of the dynamic data being loaded). The single line message informs the user of what is happening (in this case it is loading objects). The red piece on the bar moves around to indicate activity. I am currently working on the save game code so that you will be able to save and load games. The save games are made in a way so it should feel like you never even stopped playing. As a small fun thing to do, you can play as a monster, although you move like a monster. [Less]