DOOM Retro v5.6 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 v17.12.3 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.30.10.
• Several changes have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Minor 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.
• A bug is fixed whereby textures wouldn’t load from a PWAD in some rare instances.
• These changes have been made when a PWAD is loaded that has a custom character set:
  • The message displayed when the player finds a secret is now gold if the secretmessages CVAR is on.
  • The message displayed when using the IDCLEV cheat or map CCMD to warp to a secret map is now gold.
  • The title in the automap is now gold if the map is a secret map.
  • The title in the automap now has a drop shadow.
• A bug is fixed whereby the screen wasn’t being immediately updated after changing the r_hud CVAR in the console.
• The health of the player when they are dead if the negativehealth CVAR is on no longer affects voodoo dolls.
• Extensive improvements have been made to the support of Legacy Of Rust:
  • Partial support has been introduced for the new ID24 specification so that:
    • The sky in some maps is now on fire.
    • An animated intermission screen is now displayed when finishing a map.
    • Maps are now denoted as “ExMy” rather than “MAPxx” in the automap.
  • Stats for killing banshees, ghouls, mindweavers, shocktroopers, tyrants and vassagos, for picking up fuel, and for firing the incinerator and calamity blade, are now all displayed by the playerstats CCMD.
  • A fuel can icon now appears in the widescreen HUD when the player has their incinerator or calamity blade equipped.
  • Fire from the player’s incinerator and calamity blade is now randomly mirrored and translucent.
  • DOOM Retro’s higher resolution status bar is now displayed, with “FUEL” replacing “CELL”, rather than the STBAR lump in ID1.WAD.
  • The help screen has been updated to include the incinerator and calamity blade.
  • The positions of shadows cast by some monsters have improved.
  • The new monsters no longer bob up and down when in a liquid sector.
  • Adaptive translucency is now applied to projectiles fired by ghouls when the r_sprites_translucency CVAR is on.
  • A bug is fixed whereby the calamity blade was inflicting too much damage.
• A bug is fixed whereby Andrew Hulshult’s IDKFA soundtrack wasn’t being played in some maps when extras.wad was autoloaded.
• The volume of MP3 and Ogg Vorbis music lumps has increased slightly.
• Minor improvements have been made to the support of Master Levels, SIGIL, Chex Quest, Chex Quest 2, Ancient Aliens and Back To Saturn X E2: Tower In The Fountain Of Sparks.
• These changes have been made to the support of MAPINFO lumps:
  • The order in which multiple MAPINFO lumps are loaded is now correct.
  • EPISODE is now parsed in more instances.
  • Up to 10 episodes can now be specified using EPISODE and will display correctly in the episode menu.
• These changes have been made to the support of DEHACKED lumps:
  • A bug is fixed whereby a line wouldn’t be parsed in some instances if the previous line was blank.
  • If the fists or chainsaw are replaced using WEAPON, that weapon can now consume ammo.
  • Blood splats are no longer spawned if the states of blood have been changed.
• The fake contrast applied to walls at different angles is now more varied.
• A bug is fixed whereby the player’s aim was slightly lower when the freelook CVAR was on and the r_screensize CVAR was 8.
• These changes have been made to the alternate widescreen HUD:
  • The weapon silhouette now accurately reflects the pickup sprite for each weapon.
  • Certain elements have now either shifted position, increased in size and/or cast a slight shadow.
  • The health bar no longer flashes white while it is red and the player picks up some health.
• Pressing the PRINTSCREEN key no longer advances the finale.
• The mouse wheel can no longer be used to advance DOOM II’s cast sequence.
• The amount of ammo the player has is no longer momentarily translucent in the widescreen HUD at the start of each map if the animatedstats CVAR is on.
• These changes have been made to the help screen:
  • A bug is fixed whereby the help screen wouldn’t be fully displayed when the vid_widescreen CVAR was off.
  • The TITLEPIC lump is now always used as the help screen’s background when not playing a game.
  • The help screen now displays better in some PWADs that have custom PLAYPAL lumps.
• Using the mouse pointer to move the scroll bar in the console is now more responsive when the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• Drop shadows are now always displayed correctly for all elements on the intermission screen.
• A bug is fixed whereby the wrong INTERPIC lump would be displayed in some instances.
• The vid_widescreen CVAR no longer resets to off at startup if -nosplash is used on the command-line.
• A bug is fixed whereby the z-coordinates of things bobbing in liquid sectors were altered upon loading a savegame when the r_liquid_bob CVAR was on.
• Very short sprites are no longer clipped in liquid sectors when the r_liquid_clipsprites CVAR is on.
• These changes have been made to the automap:
  • Aspect ratio correction is now applied. This feature can be toggled off using the new am_correctaspectratio CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
  • In the original DOOM, if the player moved around while the automap was open, walls seen by the player for the first time weren’t mapped. This behavior can now be restored by disabling the new am_dynamic CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
  • The automap now displays correctly when zooming out in very large maps.
  • The grid now always covers the entire screen when the am_rotatemode CVAR is on.
  • A bug is fixed whereby the player’s path would stop being drawn after the player teleported and the am_rotatemode CVAR was off.
  • A bug is also fixed whereby the player’s path would display incorrectly at the start of a map in some instances.
• The fuzz effect from spectres and the partial invisibility power-up now:
  • Doesn’t cause the status bar to bleed into the player’s view while the console is open.
  • Freezes along with everything else when freeze mode is enabled.
• Flying monsters no longer nudge corpses beneath them when the r_corpses_nudge CVAR is on.
• Scrolling textures are now smoother when the vid_capfps CVAR is a value other than 35.
• The interpolation of moving floors and ceilings is now smoother in some instances when the vid_capfps CVAR is a value other than 35.
• Semi-colons are now parsed correctly when using the alias CCMD in the console.
• All actions can now be bound to a second key using the bind CCMD in the console.
• If the key bound to the +followmode action is bound to another action, pressing that key now works outside of the automap.
• Maps that use BOOM’s WATERMAP lump are now supported.
• A bug is fixed whereby the next map wouldn’t load after displaying a text screen during intermission in some rare instances.
• The episode CVAR is now reset to its default if the WAD loaded in the launcher is different than last time.
• Minor improvements have been made to the support for MBF21-compatible WADs.
• A bug is fixed whereby Wolfenstein SS were replaced by zombiemen at the start of each map in some rare instances.
• The behavior of lost souls spawned by pain elementals is now consistent with the original DOOM II.
• The drop shadows of menu items displayed using a DBIGFONT lump no longer overlap.
• Torched trees no longer bob when in liquid sectors.
• The player and monsters now traverse liquid sectors at different heights better.

DOOM Retro v5.5.1 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 now uses SDL v2.30.6.
• Minor changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• Player messages that don’t fit on the screen when the vid_widescreen CVAR is off now wrap to a second line rather than being truncated with an ellipsis.
• These changes have been made when loading a savegame:
  • The date and time a savegame was saved, and whether it has changed the skill level, is now displayed in the console.
  • The episode and skilllevel CVARs are now updated as necessary.
  • A bug is fixed whereby certain floor heights, ceiling heights and wall texture offsets could be slightly off after loading a savegame in some rare instances.
• A crash no longer occurs when killing something that has both an Exploding frame and Bits = NOBLOOD specified in a DEHACKED lump, and the r_blood_gibs CVAR is on.
• These changes have been made to the support of MAPINFO lumps:
  • A bug is fixed whereby a MAPINFO lump wouldn’t be parsed at all in some instances.
  • Actions specified using BOSSACTION now always trigger as intended.
  • INTERTEXT = CLEAR is now parsed.
  • Up to 9 episodes can now be specified using EPISODE and will display correctly in the episode menu.
• A bug is fixed whereby the player wouldn’t telefrag monsters.
• The player now equips their fists if they pick up a berserk power-up and they already have one.
• Player and voodoo doll corpses can now trigger line specials again.
• A bug is fixed whereby the mouse pointer couldn’t be used to move the text caret or scroll bar in the console when the m_pointer CVAR was on and the vid_widescreen CVAR was off.
• These changes have been made in response to id Software’s rerelease of DOOM and DOOM II during QuakeCon on August 8, 2024:
  • When DOOM Retro is run for the first time, the WAD launcher will now also look for the IWADs included with installations of this release.
  • A bug is fixed whereby several wrong lumps would be displayed when loading a PWAD alongside the new DOOM or DOOM II IWADs.
  • Several compatibility fixes have been implemented for Legacy Of Rust.
  • If extras.wad is found alongside DOOM.WAD or DOOM2.WAD, it is now autoloaded, and Andrew Hulshult’s IDKFA soundtrack is played instead of the regular MIDI music.
• Minor improvements have been made to the support of REKKR and REKKR: Sunken Land.
• The STTMINUS lump used in the status bar and widescreen HUD when the negativehealth CVAR is on and the player is dead, is now positioned correctly in instances where its vertical offset is missing.
• A bug is fixed whereby a string CVAR couldn’t be changed in the console to the same string but with a different case.
• The length of the playername CVAR is now limited to 16 characters.
• Blood splats now move with everything else on BOOM-compatible scrolling floors.
• If the +alwaysrun action is bound to the CAPSLOCK key, and the alwaysrun CVAR is on, the CAPSLOCK key is now toggled off when the console is opened, and then toggled back on when it closes.

DOOM Retro v5.5 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 v17.10.5 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.30.5.
• Several changes 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.
• The mouse no longer has any effect on DOOM Retro’s window when it doesn’t have focus.
• Changing the r_mirroredweapons CVAR no longer affects the random colors of marine corpses when the r_corpses_color CVAR is on.
• These changes have been made to the support of MAPINFO lumps:
  • A bug is fixed whereby map names wouldn’t be parsed correctly in some instances.
  • EPISODE is now parsed correctly in more instances.
  • Newline characters in INTERTEXT and INTERTEXTSECRET strings are now parsed.
• These changes have been made to the support of DEHACKED lumps:
  • The values specified using Initial health and Initial bullets will now be used at the start of each map if the pistolstart CCMD or -pistolstart command-line parameter are used.
  • A bug is fixed whereby the health of spiderdemons would always be 3,000 even if a value was specified using Hit points.
• These changes have been made to the support for controllers:
  • Improvements have been made to the rumbling of controllers when the player uses certain weapons and the joy_rumble_weapons CVAR is on.
  • A bug is fixed whereby the player would continually turn to their right if the joy_analog CVAR was off (including when vanilla mode was enabled).
  • Hotplugging controllers now always works.
  • Pressing the left thumbstick of a controller is no longer bound to the +alwaysrun action by default.
  • Controllers no longer rumble if the mouse or keyboard are being used by the player instead.
• The aspect ratio of the display when in widescreen mode can now be forced by changing the new vid_aspectratio CVAR from its default auto to 16:9, 16:10, 21:9 or 32:9.
• Pressing the ENTER key to close the help screen no longer causes the previous player message to be displayed.
• The save and load CCMDs can now be used to save and load games by specifying numbers 1 to 8.
• The player’s currently equipped weapon is now translucent when they have a partial invisibility power-up and the r_textures CVAR is off.
• A bug is fixed, present in the original DOOM, whereby sprites wouldn’t be rendered if the sector they were in wasn’t in the player’s line of sight.
• Sprites also no longer disappear when drawn against the left and right edges of ultra-wide displays.
• A small amount of blood is now sprayed when a monster is gibbed. This can be disabled using the new r_blood_gibs CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The playername CVAR is now “” rather than “you” by default.
• A bug is fixed whereby the ammo the player had for their equipped weapon wasn’t displayed in the widescreen HUD while they were dead.
• The power-up bar is now displayed in the alternate widescreen HUD when the player enters the IDBEHOLDL cheat.
• These changes have been made to the menu:
  • Minor improvements have been made to the highlighting of items selected in the menu.
  • The highlighting of items selected in the menu can now be disabled using the new menuhighlight CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
  • Shadows cast by items in the menu can now be disabled using the new menushadow CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
  • The episode, expansion and skilllevel CVARs are now always updated whenever the selected episode, expansion or skill level are changed in the menu.
  • DBIGFONT lumps are now supported. This will allow more menu items to be displayed in the correct font, and CONSOLE... to be displayed in the options menu, in some instances.
  • These changes have been made to the load and save game menus:
    • The text caret in the save game menu is now larger and flashes quicker.
    • A bug is fixed whereby the text caret could become momentarily stuck at the end of a truncated savegame description in some instances.
    • To be consistent with every other menu, pressing a key that corresponds with the first letter of a savegame description now navigates to that savegame slot.
• The sound effect heard when opening and closing the console by pressing the ~ key is now slightly louder.
• Further improvements have been made to rendering liquid sectors when the r_liquid_bob CVAR is on.
• The screen’s brightness can now be adjusted using the new vid_brightness CVAR. This CVAR can be between -100% and 100%, and is 0% by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The screen’s contrast can now be adjusted using the new vid_contrast CVAR. This CVAR can be between -100% and 100%, and is 0% by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The screen’s red, green and blue levels can now be adjusted using the new vid_red, vid_green and vid_blue CVARs. These CVARs can be between -100% and 100%, and are 0% by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The r_saturation CVAR is renamed vid_saturation, is now a value between -100% and 100% and is 0% by default.
• The vid_scaleapi CVAR is now direct3d11 by default.
• The map title in the automap is now always positioned correctly when the am_external CVAR is on.
• Additional brightness can now be applied to all of the lighting in the current map using the new r_levelbrightness CVAR. This CVAR can be between 0% and 100%, and is 0% by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The infiniteammo and regenhealth CCMDs can no longer be entered when a game isn’t being played.
• The color of the bottom edge of the console now changes to reflect the color of the digits in the status bar, (or in some cases, the text in the menu), if the relevant lumps have been replaced by the currently loaded PWAD.
• The mouse pointer may now be used to move the scroll bar in the console when the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• Minor changes have been made to text in the status bar and alternate widescreen HUD.
• The r_shake_damage CVAR is now a value of on or off and is on by default. Improvements have been made to the shake effect when this CVAR is on.
• A confirmation message is now displayed when entering the endgame CCMD in the console.
• A bug is fixed whereby a controller’s left thumbstick would be too sensitive while the player was running.
• A minor improvement has been made to the rumble of controllers when the player picks something up and the joy_rumble_pickup CVAR is on.
• A bug is fixed whereby advancing the intermission screen wouldn’t work in some instances.
• A crash no longer occurs if a texture is missing a patch.