DOOM Retro v5.0
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- E1M4B: Phobos Mission Control and E1M8B: Tech Gone Bad are no longer available if either E1M4 or E1M8 have been replaced by a PWAD.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.