Saturday, September 7, 2019
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DOOM Retro v3.0

DOOM Retro v3.0 is now available, in 32-bit and 64-bit varieties. Its release notes are as follows:

  • DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.0.10 and SDL_image v2.0.5.
  • When DOOM Retro is opened for the first time and the WAD launcher automatically navigates to a DOOM or DOOM II installation it has found, the corresponding IWAD will now also be selected.
  • Optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
  • The format of savegames has needed to be changed, breaking compatibility with previous versions of DOOM Retro. (Provisions have also been put in place to avoid breaking compatibility when adding new features in the future.)
  • If the 32-bit binary of DOOM Retro is used on a 64-bit version of Windows, a warning is now displayed in the console at startup recommending the 64-bit binary instead.
  • The logo on the splash screen is now animated.
  • The branding in the console has been redesigned.
  • The following changes have been made to the support for John Romero’s megawad SIGIL:
    • SIGIL.wad will now only be automatically loaded alongside The Ultimate DOOM and not the registered version of DOOM.
    • If Buckethead’s SIGIL_SHREDS.wad is found, it will now also be automatically loaded.
    • Savegame descriptions will now be updated with the current map’s name when saving over an existing savegame.
    • The IDMUS cheat can now be used to play SIGIL’s music.
    • The episode CVAR will now be updated if the IDCLEV cheat is used to warp to a map in SIGIL.
    • Par times are now displayed on the intermission screen for each map.
    • The next, last and random parameters of the map CCMD now accommodate for SIGIL’s maps.
  • Minor changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
  • Minor improvements have been made to how blood hits the floor.
  • Fading to black upon quitting is now smoother, and will now also occur when a PWAD has its own COLORMAP lump.
  • DOOM Retro’s support for MBF-compatible maps has been improved by supporting monsters with the MF_FRIEND flag. This also allows the following:
    • The spawn CCMD may now be used to spawn a friendly monster in front of the player. For example, to spawn a friendly imp, enter spawn friendly imp in the console. These monsters will follow the player around and occasionally attack other monsters.
    • A helper dog may now be spawned in the current map by entering spawn friendly dog in the console (whereas just entering spawn dog will spawn a dog that will attack the player).
    • All friendly monsters in the current map may be killed by entering kill friends in the console.
    • Obituaries, as well as the thinglist CCMD, now indicate if a monster is friendly.
  • The player can now give any monster a unique name using the new name CCMD. For example, entering name cacodemon Hissy will give the name Hissy to the nearest cacodemon that the player can see. The name given will then be used in any obituary that involves that monster. This also allows the following:
    • The thinglist CCMD will now show a monster’s name.
    • The kill CCMD may now be used to kill a monster by specifying its name.
  • Further improvements have been made to the console’s autocomplete feature.
  • A bug has been fixed whereby music often wouldn’t play at all in episode 4 of The Ultimate DOOM if the s_randommusic CVAR was on.
  • The following changes have been made to the mapstats CCMD:
    • The PWAD of the current map will now always be correct.
    • Improvements have been made to how BOOM compatibility is detected.
    • Whether the current map is MBF-compatible or not is now displayed.
    • The author of some of the maps in DOOM II: No Rest For The Living has been corrected.
  • The playerstats CCMD now shows how many times the player has saved the game in the current map.
  • The +screenshot action can now be bound to a mouse button.
  • A camera’s shutter sound is now played when taking a screenshot using the PRINTSCREEN key.
  • A bug has been fixed whereby starting a new game after playing either E1M4B: Phobos Mission Control or E1M8B: Tech Gone Bad would cause the wrong map to be loaded.
  • Partially restoring behavior present in Vanilla DOOM, the sound effects of the bosses (that is, the barons of hell in E1M8, the cyberdemon in E2M8 and the spider mastermind in E3M8) are no longer clipped by distance from the player.
  • Improvements have been made in determining if animated flats depict liquid.
  • The edges of liquid sectors are now rendered better in some instances.
  • The status bar will no longer be partially displayed in the background when ending a game from the options menu.
  • The friction applied to corpses in liquid is now greater rather than less than the friction applied when not in liquid.
  • A bug has been fixed whereby the colors used in the automap would be wrong in some rare instances.
  • The external automap displayed when the am_external CVAR is on will now:
    • Also fade to black when quitting DOOM Retro.
    • No longer be negatively affected by the vid_vsync CVAR.
    • Be displayed correctly when the help screen is opened on the main screen by pressing the F1 key.
  • Entering the IDBEHOLD cheat without any parameter will now:
    • Timeout after 2 seconds like all the other cheats.
    • Show underscores under the message if entered when the alternate widescreen HUD is displayed.
  • A bug has been fixed whereby if the player fires their weapon the moment they are exiting a map, a crash could occur when they then try to spawn in the next one.
  • The player will no longer move forward slightly once spawning in a new map in some rare instances.
  • The lighting of sectors that have sector special 17 (“Light Flickers (Randomly)”) will now always flicker as intended.
  • Gradual lighting is now applied to doors and crushing ceilings over damaging sectors.
  • A compatibility fix has been implemented for Eviternity that changes the blood of nightmare demons to green.
  • If the +use action is used against a wall that has a line special requiring it to be shot at instead, or has a scrolling or translucent texture, the player will now make an “oof” sound.
  • The effects of using the fastmonsters CCMD are now immediate.
  • The effects of changing the con_backcolor CVAR are now immediate.
  • The direction the menu’s background spins is now the same as the direction the player last turned.
  • The freeze, notarget, pistolstart, regenhealth and respawnitems CCMDs will now all be turned off when enabling vanilla mode.
  • If the filename of a PWAD is used in the caption of DOOM Retro’s window, the correct case will be used.
  • The crosshair displayed when the crosshair CVAR is cross or dot will now always be displayed correctly.
  • The use of the color blue in the alternate widescreen HUD has been improved.
  • The designs of the 4 and 5 digits used in the alternate widescreen HUD have been tweaked slightly.
  • Recoiling of the player’s weapon when the weaponrecoil CVAR is on no longer requires the mouselook CVAR to be on, or a control to be bound to the +mouselook action.
  • A bug has been fixed whereby a gamepad could randomly start vibrating during a game even though the player was using the mouse and/or keyboard instead.
  • A bug has also been fixed whereby a gamepad could continue to vibrate once it should have stopped doing so in some rare instances.
  • If an error is found in a MAPINFO lump, a warning will now be displayed in the console rather than DOOM Retro exiting with an error.
  • The IDFA and IDKFA cheats will no longer work if the player already has all the items those cheats provide.