DOOM Retro v5.3 is now available to download as either a 32 or 64-bit Windows app. Here’s a list of what’s changed since the last version:

• DOOM Retro is now built using v17.9.2 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.30.0 and SDL_mixer v2.8.0.
• Changes have been made to DOOM Retro’s splash screen.
• Several changes have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Support has been added for maps with compressed, extended nodes.
• A warning is now displayed in the console at startup if a lump in a PWAD is an unsupported PNG image, since trying to display it would cause DOOM Retro to crash.
• Minor changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• Improvements have been made when the player moves using a controller.
• A bug is fixed whereby corpses weren’t being nudged whenever the player or a monster walked over them and the r_corpses_nudge CVAR was on.
• The blood splats spawned around a corpse at the start of each map when the r_corpses_moreblood CVAR is on are no longer spawned outside of the map if the corpse happens to be too close to a wall.
• These changes have been made when entering the IDCLEV cheat:
  • If it is used to restart the current map, the player message displayed is now always correct.
  • If invalid parameters are entered, such as if IDCLEV01 is entered while playing DOOM instead of DOOM II, the player no longer equips their fists because the 1 key was pressed.
• The IDMUS cheat now works as intended.
• The thing triangles of spectres in the automap are now translucent when the IDDT cheat has been entered.
• Improvements have been made to parsing custom monster names in DEHACKED lumps.
• These changes have been made to the support of MAPINFO lumps:
  • BOSSACTION now always works as intended.
  • NEXT and SECRETNEXT now always work as intended.
  • Custom episodes greater than episode 4 now work as intended when playing DOOM.
  • A crash no longer occurs during the finale when playing DOOM II and ENDGAME = TRUE is present.
• If the music lumps D_E4M1 to D_E4M9 are found in a PWAD, they are now heard when playing maps in episode 4 of DOOM.
• These changes have been made to the weapon silhouettes in the alternate widescreen HUD:
  • The DRHUDWP0 lump can now be changed in a PWAD to display a weapon silhouette when the player has their fists equipped.
  • If any of the player weapon sprites have changed in a PWAD, the weapon silhouettes can now be displayed if the DRHUDWP0 to DRHUDWP8 lumps are also changed.
• Several improvements have been made to the position, translucency and truncation of player messages and the current map’s title in the automap.
• When playing DOOM (Shareware), files no longer attempt to autoload from the autoload folder during startup.
• A bug is fixed whereby the presence of SIGIL_SHREDS.WAD in the autoload folder would cause a crash in some instances.
• Restoring a lesser known feature from the original DOOM, pressing the ENTER key now displays the previous player message if the messages CVAR is on. Also, pressing the ENTER key while a player message is displayed will now hide that message.
• Further improvements have been made to the support of Freedoom: Phase 1 and Freedoom: Phase 2.
• Solid walls now always clip correctly against the left and top edges of the automap.
• The puffs of smoke that trail behind rockets fired by the player and cyberdemons when the r_rockettrails CVAR is on are now randomly mirrored.
• The spawn CCMD no longer spawns something if the ceiling in front of the player is too low.
• The stairs in MAP30: Last Call of Final DOOM: TNT - Evilution now rise up to their correct heights.
• A bug is fixed whereby the player’s view angle would be slightly off after they teleported.
• Both the player and monsters can no longer move under corpses hanging from the ceiling if the infiniteheight CVAR is on.
• The number of power-ups the player picks up is now displayed by the playerstats CCMD.
• The use of DEHACKED and MAPINFO lumps is now displayed by the mapstats CCMD.
• A bug is fixed whereby the screen would glitch slightly as the player exited a map if the vid_scale_api CVAR was direct3d11.
• The vid_scale_api CVAR is now direct3d9 by default.
• Minor improvements have been made to the position and translucency of several elements on the intermission screen.
• The total amount of time played is now displayed in the console each time the player exits a map.
• The amount the screen shakes when the player receives damage has been reduced if the r_shake_damage CVAR is greater than 0%.
• These changes have been made when using the kill CCMD in the console:
  • The distance a monster slides upon their death, and the amount of blood splats that are spawned, are now consistent regardless of the size of the monster.
  • Friendly monsters no longer affect the total number of monsters killed in the current map.
  • A bug is fixed whereby invalid obituaries would be displayed in some instances.
• Entering explode barrels in the console now works as intended.
• Entering explode missiles in the console now also explodes any projectiles that the player has fired.