DOOM Retro v5.0 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 v17.7.4 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.28.3.
• Extensive optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Any .cfg files placed in the autoload folder are now autoloaded when DOOM Retro starts.
• DOOM Retro now parses any response files specified on the command-line.
• When using the WAD launcher to load a PWAD, if that PWAD doesn’t contain any conflicting maps, SIGIL.WAD or NERVE.WAD will now still be autoloaded if found.
• E1M4B: Phobos Mission Control and E1M8B: Tech Gone Bad are no longer available if either E1M4 or E1M8 have been replaced by a PWAD.
• These changes have been made to the support for DEHACKED lumps:
  • Support has been added for DSDHacked, allowing an unlimited number of things, states, sprites and sound effects.
  • A bug is fixed whereby custom monsters wouldn’t bleed in some instances.
• Minor changes have been made to DOOM Retro’s splash screen.
• Extensive changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• Minor improvements have been made to text autocompleted in the console by pressing the TAB key.
• The caret may now be repositioned in the console’s input using the mouse pointer when the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• The effects of changing the r_gamma and r_color CVARs are now applied to DOOM Retro’s splash screen.
• The r_color CVAR has been renamed r_saturation, and can now be set to a value over 100% to a maximum of 200%, allowing colors on the screen to be oversaturated.
• A crash no longer occurs when trying to display certain patches greater than 200 pixels in height.
• These changes have been made to the menu:
  • Menu entries are now subtly highlighted when selected.
  • Improvements have been made when toggling widescreen using the + and – keys while the menu is open.
  • The fade to black when quitting DOOM Retro from the menu is no longer affected by the player having either a berserk or radiation shielding suit power-up.
  • Minor improvements have been made to the edges of the menu’s background.
  • The skull cursor is no longer positioned incorrectly in the main menu in some rare instances.
  • When navigating the menu using the mouse pointer if the m_pointer CVAR is on:
    • The episode, expansion, savegame and skilllevel CVARs are now only updated when necessary.
    • The precision of selecting menu items has improved.
    • The Nightmare! skill level can now always be selected.
    • Clicking outside of the selected savegame slot when entering text in the save game menu now works as expected.
    • The mouse pointer now becomes visible after having just used a controller to navigate the menu.
  • “New Game” is now selected in the main menu after deleting the only savegame in the save or load game menus using the DEL key.
  • Minor improvements have been made to the vertical positioning of elements in the load and save game menus.
  • The skull cursor’s eyes are now always on while entering a savegame description in the save game menu.
  • The F5 key can no longer be used to toggle the graphic detail while the menu is open and a game isn’t being played.
  • The console can now be opened using the ~ key while the menu is open.
  • The console can now also be opened by selecting the new “Console” entry in the options menu.
  • The shadows cast by the sliders in the options menu have improved in some rare instances.
  • The positions of ON/OFF and HIGH/LOW in the options menu have been fixed in some instances.
  • Right-clicking the mouse or pressing the BACKSPACE key on the title screen no longer opens the menu.
• The r_supersampling CVAR has been renamed r_antialiasing and is now off by default.
• Minor changes have been made to the help screen shown when pressing the F1 key.
• The r_lowpixelsize CVAR can now also be set to 1×2 or 2×1.
• A bug is fixed whereby sometimes the player wouldn’t pick up an item in a liquid sector when the r_liquid_clipsprites CVAR was on.
• The player’s view is no longer affected when walking over certain linedefs in a liquid sector and the r_liquid_lowerview CVAR is on.
• Improvements have been made to equipping either the chainsaw or fists when the player presses the 1 key.
• When a monster is killed in a liquid sector and the r_liquid_clipsprites CVAR is on:
  • The monster’s death animation is now at a consistent height.
  • The item they drop is no longer clipped before it reaches the liquid if the tossdrop CVAR is on.
• A bug is fixed whereby the player’s field of view would sometimes be wrong when changing the r_fov CVAR.
• Minor improvements have been made to the support of REKKR: Sunken Land.
• Floors and ceilings far away from the player are now rendered better.
• The sprites of multiple things that occupy the same coordinates now appear in the correct order, and also no longer flicker in some instances.
• The bobbing of sprites in liquid sectors can now be toggled using the new r_liquid_bobsprites CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled. This is separate to the existing r_liquid_bob CVAR, which now only toggles the bobbing of the liquid sectors themselves.
• Walls that have been incorrectly marked as two-sided are now rendered as intended.
• When the IDCLEV cheat has been entered and vanilla mode is enabled, the player now starts the map with 100% health, no armor, and only a pistol with 50 bullets.
• A slightly darker color is now chosen for the surrounding pillarboxes when displaying certain lumps from PWADs that are only 320 pixels wide and the vid_widescreen CVAR is on.
• A bug is fixed, present in the original DOOM, whereby stairs rising up from the floor would fail in some rare instances.
• If regenerating health is enabled using the regenhealth CCMD, a sound is now played and the “Health picked up” stat is updated every second the player’s health increases by 1% until it is 100% again.
• Several improvements have been made to the player’s health in the status bar when they are dead and the negativehealth CVAR is on.
• The r_althud CVAR is now off by default again.
• These changes have been made to the widescreen HUD:
  • The translucency has been reduced slightly when the r_hud_translucency CVAR is on.
  • Several improvements have been made to the flashing of the player’s health, armor and ammo when they change.
• All lines in the automap can now be anti-aliased by enabling the new am_antialiasing CVAR, which is off by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The player’s crosshair when the crosshair CVAR is on, as well as the crosshair in the automap when the am_followmode CVAR is off, are no longer visible in the background while the console is open.
• These improvements have been made to the support for MBF21-compatible WADs:
  • The A_RadiusDamage codepointer now correctly uses Args1 rather than Args2 for the amount of damage inflicted.
  • Things spawned using the A_SpawnObject codepointer now inherit the blood color of the spawner.
• These improvements have been made to the support for MAPINFO lumps:
  • A bug is fixed whereby many compatibility flags weren’t being parsed correctly.
  • MAPINFO lumps from other PWADs are now parsed if either NERVE.WAD or SIGIL.WAD are also loaded.
  • episode is now parsed correctly.
  • bossaction is now parsed.
  • The compat_stairs and compat_zombie compatibility flags are now parsed.
• Friendly monsters spawned using the spawn CCMD now follow the player into the next map.
• The mouse pointer is no longer displayed on the intermission or finale screens when the player moves the mouse and the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• When the mouselook CVAR is on:
  • Minor improvements have been made when the player aims vertically.
  • The player can now see slightly further when looking up or down.
  • A crash no longer occurs if a blood splat happens to touch the top of the screen while the player is looking down.
  • The vertical direction the player is looking is no longer reset in the help screen’s background when pressing the F1 key.
• Blood splats far away from the player no longer flicker in some instances.
• The text in the automap is now always positioned correctly when the am_external CVAR is on.
• The default value of the am_gridcolor CVAR is now 6 instead of 111.
• The player no longer exits the map if they are dead when a timer set using the timer CCMD runs out.
• Support has been added for the lumps STFXDTH0 to STFXDTH9. If included in a PWAD, the player’s face in the status bar now animates when they are gibbed. This is a feature revived from the old 3DO, Jaguar and PSX DOOM ports.
• The accompanying readme file for the currently loaded PWAD can now be displayed by entering the new readme CCMD in the console.
• These extensive changes have been made when using a controller:
  • Using a controller in the menu is now more responsive.
  • The right trigger can now be used to select menu items.
  • The left and right thumbsticks, as well as the directional pad, can now be used to scroll the output in the console.
  • The B button can now be used to close the console.
  • The speed at which the player turns using a controller no longer increases while running.
  • Turning and moving using a controller is now more precise when only nudging the thumbsticks.
  • Controllers now rumble slightly when the player picks something up. This can be disabled by the new joy_rumble_pickup CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
  • When the joy_rumble_weapons CVAR is on:
    • Controllers now rumble again when the player uses their chainsaw.
    • The amounts of rumble for each weapon the player fires have been adjusted.
  • The left and right shoulder buttons now equip the player’s previous and next weapons by default.
  • The default values of the joy_deadzone_left and joy_deadzone_right CVARs are now both 15% rather than 25%, and their maximum values are now both 30% rather than 100%.
• A bug is fixed whereby the vid_fullscreen CVAR couldn’t be changed in the console.
• The player’s weapon now displays correctly when it touches the right edge of the screen and the vid_capfps CVAR is not 35.
• A bug is fixed whereby the flash of the player’s weapon could be drawn incorrectly if they fired it while falling and the weaponbounce CVAR was on.
• Movement of the player’s weapon is no longer blurred when the r_detail CVAR is low.
• The weapon CVAR can now also be set to the values 1 to 7.
• A bug is fixed whereby the iwadfolder CVAR wouldn’t be updated in some instances.
• The iwadfolder CVAR has been renamed to just wadfolder.
• Improvements have been made to the minimum and maximum levels the player can zoom in the automap.
• A crash no longer occurs when starting a map that has things 4001 to 4004 (player starts 5 to 8).
• The message displayed when using the IDCLEV cheat or map CCMD to warp to a secret map is now gold.
• Minor improvements have been made to translating certain words when the english CVAR is international.
• A character no longer appears in the input when opening the console for the first time in some instances.
• The times on the intermission screen now have shadows.
• The brightmap of the SW2STONE texture has improved slightly when the r_brightmaps CVAR is on.
• The WAD being played is now displayed in the window caption again.
• A bug is fixed whereby certain messages were not being displayed in some instances.
• The player now falls at the correct speed when the clipping or freeze modes are enabled.
• All power-ups can now be given to the player by entering give powerups in the console.
• Conversely, all power-ups the player currently has can now be taken away from them by entering take powerups in the console.
• Widescreen mode can now be toggled using the + and – keys on the intermission and finale screens.
• All actions may now be bound to all controls using the bind CCMD.
• Skies can now be drawn horizontally linear by enabling the new r_linearskies CVAR, which is off by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The automap is now always updated when the r_screensize CVAR is changed while it is open.
• A bug is fixed whereby any player movement wouldn’t be canceled when opening the automap and the am_followmode CVAR was off.
• Savegames that were saved in maps ExM10 or ExM11 no longer crash when loaded.
• The console may now be closed by right-clicking the mouse.

DOOM Retro v4.9.2 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 v17.5.5 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• Optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• DOOM Retro’s window caption now always includes the text “DOOM Retro”.
• Changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• Minor improvements have been made to the text that can be autocompleted in the console by pressing the TAB key.
• The menu’s background is now rendered correctly if DOOM Retro’s window is extremely wide.
• Adjusting the sliders in the options and sound volume menus using the mouse pointer is now more responsive when the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• Widescreen mode can now be toggled using the + and – keys while the menu is open.
• The sucktime CVAR now shows as being off when set to 0, and now has a maximum value of 24 hours.
• The time displayed on the intermission screen is now positioned better if the player takes more than an hour to complete a map and the sucktime CVAR is greater than its default of 1 hour.
• The map’s title in the automap is now gold if the player is in the secret map of DOOM II: No Rest For The Living.
• When the flashkeys CVAR is on:
  • Flashing keycards and skull keys are now positioned correctly in the alternate widescreen HUD.
  • Improvements have been made to flashing keycards and skull keys in the status bar when the player tries to open a BOOM-compatible door that requires all six keys.
• A bug is fixed whereby the amount of armor the player had was positioned incorrectly in the alternate widescreen HUD in some instances.
• Improvements have been made to the console’s background when the player has an invulnerability power-up or the r_textures CVAR is off.
• The number of monsters left to kill in a map, displayed in the automap when the am_playerstats CVAR is on, is now always correct after loading a savegame.
• The bounce of the player’s weapon when they land after a fall is now slightly faster when the weaponbounce CVAR is on.
• The default value of the am_markcolor CVAR is now 89.
• The default values of the joy_deadzone_left and joy_deadzone_right CVARs are now both 25%.
• These changes have been made to vanilla mode toggled using the vanilla CCMD:
  • The +strafe action is now bound to the mouse2 control again, allowing the player to strafe with the mouse, and to also double-click the button to use doors and switches.
  • The speed the player can move forward and back, and strafe left and right, has been reduced.
• Improvements have been made to the alternate widescreen HUD when the r_hud_translucency CVAR is off and either the r_textures CVAR is also off or the player has an invulnerability power-up.

DOOM Retro v4.9.1 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 v17.5.4 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• Optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Several changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• When playing DOOM (Shareware), games are now saved in a separate folder to the full version of DOOM.
• A bug is fixed whereby the music’s volume wasn’t being set correctly in some instances.
• A crash no longer occurs when a corpse is crushed into gibs by a lowering sector in some instances.
• When the m_pointer CVAR is on:
  • Adjusting the sliders in the options and sound volume menus using the mouse pointer is now more responsive.
  • The mouse pointer is now visible in the console if the player moves the mouse while it is open. Clicking anywhere below the console during a game now closes it.
• The map’s title in the automap is now gold if the player is in a secret map.
• The smoke trailing rockets when the r_rockettrails CVAR is on is now colored correctly even if a custom PLAYPAL lump is loaded.
• When loading a savegame:
  • A warning is now displayed in the console if a WAD is missing.
  • A bug is fixed whereby the number of items to be picked up in the map was wrong in some instances.
• The player now slides more smoothly against walls at certain angles.
• These changes have been made to the radiation shielding suit power-up:
  • The screen no longer briefly flashes yellow when the player picks up the power-up and the r_pickupeffect CVAR is on.
  • If the r_radsuiteffect CVAR is off:
    • The screen now briefly flashes green when the player picks up the power-up and the r_pickupeffect CVAR is on.
    • The screen now flashes green again to indicate when the power-up is about to run out.
• The screen no longer briefly flashes yellow when the player picks up a berserk power-up and the r_pickupeffect CVAR is on.
• When the player uses a controller, it now rumbles when they use their chainsaw, there’s no target, and the joy_rumble_weapons CVAR is on.