DOOM Retro v4.6.1 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 v17.3.2 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• Minor optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• The menu’s background is now displayed correctly when pressing the F9 key to quickload a savegame.
• A bug is fixed whereby savegames saved using versions of DOOM Retro earlier than v4.6 would crash in some instances.
• SIGIL is now recognized if it is named SIGIL_v1_0.wad.
• Minor improvements have been made to the playback of MIDI music.
• The following changes have been made to the alternate widescreen HUD:
  • The power-up bar now depletes from left to right.
  • The amount of time the power-up bar is visible is now more accurate.
  • The blue color used in the armor bar and for keycards and skull keys is now slightly lighter.
  • The number of notches in the ammo bar has increased by one.
  • The number of notches in the ammo bar now doubles if the player picks up a backpack.
  • The power-up bar, as well as any keycards or skull keys the player has picked up, are no longer displayed while the player is dead.
• The player’s super shotgun will now always be positioned correctly.
• A crash no longer occurs in the automap when the player turns and the am_followmode CVAR is off and the am_rotatemode CVAR is on.
• The position of player messages has shifted in some instances.
• A bug is fixed whereby entering a cheat would not work correctly in some instances.
• Minor improvements have been made when specifying .deh and .bex files on the command-line.
• Any .wad, .deh or .bex files are now autoloaded if placed in a subfolder of the autoload folder based on the current IWAD, even if a PWAD is also loaded.
• The default of the am_allmapcdwallcolor CVAR is now 109.
• Improvements have been made to unmapped areas of the automap when the player has a computer area map power-up.

DOOM Retro v4.6 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 v17.3.1 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.24.0, SDL_mixer v2.6.2 and SDL_image v2.6.2.
• Extensive optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• DOOM Retro no longer crashes if run from a folder that contains non-Latin characters in its path.
• Several changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• Minor improvements have been made to the console’s autocomplete feature.
• The amount of blood splats displayed now depends on their distance from the player again.
• A message is now displayed with an accompanying sound effect whenever the player finds a secret. This feature may be toggled using the new secretmessages CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• Secrets are no longer considered to be found if the player happens to walk into one while no clipping mode or freeze mode is enabled.
• The position of player messages has shifted in some instances.
• Several improvements have been made to the alternate widescreen HUD.
• The r_althud CVAR is now on by default.
• The following changes have been made to the menu’s background:
  • It now has a border with curved corners.
  • The player’s field of view is now increased to 135°.
  • The player’s view is now lowered to the ground.
  • The player’s view is now vertically centered if the mouselook CVAR is on.
  • The spin of the player’s view now sometimes reverses direction if the menu is closed, the player doesn’t move, and the menu is then reopened.
  • Any animated textures or lighting effects are now slowed down.
  • The automap is no longer used as the background if the menu is opened while it is displayed.
  • Unmapped lines in the automap are no longer mapped while the player’s view spins.
• The text caret is now always positioned correctly when entering a savegame description in the savegame menu.
• The following changes have been made to the help screen displayed by pressing the F1 key:
  • Subtle noise is now applied to the background.
  • HELP, HELP1 and HELP2 lumps in PWADs that are wider than 320 pixels are now displayed correctly.
  • The correct background is now displayed if the help screen is opened while the automap is displayed.
• If it doesn’t already exist, an autoload folder is now created during startup. Any .wad, .deh or .bex files that are placed in this folder, (or in the subfolder based on the name of the current WAD), will then always be automatically loaded during startup.
• The number of gamma correction levels set by the r_gamma CVAR that are brighter than 1.0 has been reduced.
• The r_translucency CVAR has been split into the following two CVARs:
  • The new r_sprites_translucency CVAR toggles the translucency of certain sprites. This CVAR is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
  • The new r_textures_translucency CVAR toggles the translucency of certain BOOM-compatible wall textures. This CVAR is also on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• Blood is now spawned during melee attacks from monsters. This feature may be toggled using the new r_blood_melee CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• Bullet puffs are no longer spawned instead of blood when the r_blood CVAR is none.
• The following changes have been made when the r_liquid_clipsprites CVAR is on:
  • The bottoms of monster sprites are no longer momentarily still clipped as they move out of liquid.
  • The bottoms of monster sprites are no longer clipped when in liquid if their top offset makes them too high.
• A crash no longer occurs:
  • When entering the IDBEHOLD cheat while the alternate widescreen HUD is displayed.
  • When entering the map CCMD in the console with an invalid parameter.
  • During intermission if the WIENTER or WIF lumps are taller than the screen.
• Minor improvements have been made to the playback of MIDI music.
• The IDCHOPPERS cheat is now canceled properly when the player exits a map.
• The following changes have been made in the automap:
  • The angles of thing triangles when the IDDT cheat is used are now interpolated when the vid_capfps CVAR is a value other than 35.
  • The current map’s title is now in italics when the r_althud and vid_widescreen CVARs are on.
  • All text displayed now has the same amount of translucency when the r_althud and vid_widescreen CVARs are on.
  • The position of the current map’s title has changed in some instances.
  • There are no longer fade transitions when using certain controls and the fade CVAR is on.
• The status bar and widescreen HUD are now displayed correctly when DOOM Retro is paused by pressing the PAUSE key.
• The chainsaw has been shifted to the left slightly when the r_althud and vid_widescreen CVARs are on.
• The following changes have been made to the support of DEHACKED lumps:
  • The player’s super shotgun is now positioned correctly if the offsets of any of its frames are changed.
  • Using the SHADOW flag in Bits now always works as intended.
  • A crash no longer occurs when attempting to display the player’s health in the widescreen HUD if Initial Health or Max Health are changed to a value greater than 999.
  • Gibbing corpses are no longer affected if Exploding frame is changed.
  • Blood color may now be used to change the color of blood spilled by monsters. This is set to a value between 0 and 8 (representing the colors red, gray, green, blue, yellow, black, purple, white and orange).
  • If the SHADOW flag is used in Bits, the monster now spills fuzzy blood if the r_blood CVAR is all.
  • Blood in Thing blocks is no longer used.
  • The TRANSLUCENT_REDTOGREEN_33, TRANSLUCENT_REDTOBLUE_33, REDTOGREEN and REDTOBLUE flags in Retro bits are no longer used.
  • Pain elementals, lost souls and barrels are no longer translucent when exploding if any of their states have been changed.
  • The player’s view now shakes if a thing other than a barrel (but not a missile) uses the A_Explode codepointer and the r_shake_barrels CVAR is on.
  • If a thing is changed in any way, the offsets of all of its sprite’s frames are no longer corrected even if the r_fixspriteoffsets CVAR is on.
  • The values of Green Armor Class and Blue Armor Class in Misc blocks are now always used.
  • By adding an underscore before and after text in a player message, that text will appear italicized in the console and when the r_althud and vid_widescreen CVARs are on.
• The following changes have been made to the support of MAPINFO lumps:
  • nofreelook and nojump now work as intended.
  • enterpic now works as intended.
  • exitpic can now be used to specify the lump displayed when the player exits a map.
  • compat_nopassover can now be used to override the effects of the infiniteheight CVAR when off.
• Minor improvements have been made to the support of MBF21-compatible WADs.
• The following changes have been made to brightmaps when the r_brightmaps CVAR is on:
  • A new BRGHTMPS lump has been introduced that allows brightmaps to be changed in a PWAD.
  • Minor improvements have been made to the brightmaps of the COMPUTE2 and COMPUTE3 textures.
  • Brightmaps can now be applied to masked midtextures.
• The existing feature of randomizing the starting frame of certain sprites may now be toggled using the new r_randomstartframes CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The player’s speed when strafing has been reduced when moving the mouse while the ALT key is held down, and is more consistent with the speed when using the A and D keys to strafe.
• The following changes have been made when vanilla mode is enabled using the vanilla CCMD:
  • The am_grid CVAR is no longer turned off.
  • Red blood is now spawned when shooting a lost soul.
  • The value of the vid_showfps CVAR is now remembered when disabling vanilla mode.
• When a monster or its corpse is crushed, the color of the resulting gibs now matches the monster’s blood.
• The following changes have been made when playing DOOM (Shareware):
  • .deh and .bex files may no longer be loaded.
  • MBF-compatible helper dogs may no longer be spawned using the spawn CCMD.
  • Entering map random in the console will no longer warp the player to E1M4B: Phobos Mission Control or E1M8B: Tech Gone Bad.
• The con_backcolor and con_edgecolor CVARs have been removed.
• A bug is fixed whereby the colormap applied to monsters could be wrong in some rare instances.
• Sectors without thinkers are no longer interpolated if the vid_capfps CVAR is a value other than 35.
• The screen will now smoothly fade to black if the player has a berserk or radiation shielding suit power-up, the console is opened, the player uses the quit CCMD, and the fade CVAR is on.
• The vid_borderlesswindow CVAR is now off by default.

DOOM Retro v4.5.1 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:

• Minor changes have been made to the menu’s background.
• A crash no longer occurs when the r_ditheredlighting CVAR is off.
• Obituaries displayed when a monster is killed by an explosion are now correct.
• Minor improvements have been made to the color chosen for the surrounding pillarboxes when certain lumps from a PWAD that are only 320 pixels wide are displayed and the vid_widescreen CVAR is on.
• Blood splats are no longer spawned when using the kill CCMD to kill a spectre, or if the r_corpses_moreblood CVAR is off.

DOOM Retro v4.5 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 compiled using v17.2.2 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses SDL v2.0.22.
• Extensive optimizations have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Moving the mouse to turn the player is now even smoother.
• Several changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• Minor improvements have been made to the console’s autocomplete feature.
• Minor changes have been made to the menu’s background.
• The following changes have been made to the external automap:
  • The display used to show the external automap can now be specified using the new am_display CVAR, which is 2 by default.
  • Zooming in and out of the external automap is now only possible if the +zoomin and +zoomout actions are rebound from the + and - keys.
• The player’s stats shown in the automap when the am_playerstats CVAR is on are now positioned correctly if there are no monsters in the map.
• Text displayed in the top right of the screen while the automap is open is now slightly more translucent.
• The colors of keycards and skull keys in the automap when the IDDT cheat is used can now be changed using the new am_redkeycolor, am_yellowkeycolor and am_bluekeycolor CVARs. These CVARs are all 112 by default (the same as the am_thingcolor CVAR) and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• When a pain elemental spawns a lost soul, the number of monsters the player has left to kill now increases as intended.
• Blood splats are no longer spawned when a lost soul is killed using the kill CCMD.
• Bullet puffs are now positioned correctly when shooting at a lost soul and the r_blood CVAR is none.
• The am_followmode CVAR no longer changes when enabling vanilla mode using the vanilla CCMD.
• Changing the r_fov CVAR from its default of 90° is now effective again when the vid_widescreen CVAR is off.
• The effects of changing the r_corpses_mirrored and r_mirroredweapons CVARs in the console are now immediate.
• The following changes have been made when the player enters a cheat:
  • The display of the cheat in the console is now redacted.
  • The cheat is now skipped in the console’s input history when pressing the ↑ or ↓ keys.
  • A warning is now displayed in the console indicating that the player has cheated.
  • Fade effects are no longer applied when entering most cheats if the fade CVAR is on.
  • More time has been given to the player to enter the IDBEHOLDx cheat.
• The pausing and then resuming of any liquid sectors in view when opening and then closing the console is now smoother.
• Improvements have been made in determining whether something is in liquid or not.
• Dithering is no longer applied to fade transitions if both the fade and r_ditheredlighting CVARs are on.
• The branding in the console is now positioned correctly again when the vid_widescreen CVAR is on.
• The swirl of liquid sectors when the r_liquid_swirl CVAR is on has been slowed down slightly to better sync with their bob when the r_liquid_bob CVAR is also on.
• The player’s currently equipped weapon can now be changed using the new weapon CVAR. It can be fists, chainsaw, pistol, shotgun, supershotgun, chaingun, rocketlauncher, plasmarifle or bfg9000.
• The bobbing of power-ups when the r_floatbob CVAR is on is no longer affected if the ceiling above them is too low.
• The following changes have been made to blood splats:
  • Extensive optimizations have been made to the rendering of blood splats.
  • The amount of blood splats rendered no longer depends on their distance from the player.
  • Blood splats now retain their random shades of color if the r_blood CVAR is changed in the console.
  • The translucency of blood splats when the r_textures CVAR is off now depends on the r_bloodsplats_translucency CVAR rather than the r_translucency CVAR.
  • Blood splats are now left on the floor as intended if blood falls on a moving sector.
• Centered messages are now spaced better vertically.
• The player’s face in the status bar and widescreen HUD now always looks forward while the console is open.
• Displaying the player’s health as less than 0% when they die can now be toggled using the new negativehealth CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• When the player tries to open a locked door that they don’t have the keycard or skull key for, that key now flashes in the status bar as it already does in the widescreen HUD. This feature can also now be disabled using the new flashkeys CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• A timer set using the timer CCMD can now be turned off by using off as a parameter.
• Minor improvements have been made to how MBF-compatible helper dogs are displayed.
• The following improvements have been made to the support of MBF21-compatible WADs:
  • The DMGIGNORED and FULLVOLSOUNDS flags now work correctly.
  • The JumpIfFlagsSet, AddFlags and RemoveFlags code pointers now work correctly.
  • The player can now walk over certain linedefs in E2M7: Spawning Vats again.
• The “automap opened” stat shown by the playerstats CCMD is now reset at the start of each map as intended.
• The playerstats CCMD now displays how many monsters have been telefragged and also how many have respawned.
• The following improvements have been made to obituaries displayed in the console then the con_obituaries CVAR is on:
  • Obituaries are now displayed whenever the player or a monster is telefragged.
  • Obituaries displayed when a corpse is gibbed now indicate the monster is dead.
• A crash no longer occurs when:
  • An arch-vile is attacked while resurrecting a monster.
  • The player telefrags a monster.
• The player’s plasma rifle is now lit correctly when fired.
• The map CCMD can now be used to warp the player to maps up to E9M99 and MAP99.
• The mapstats CCMD now displays how many linedefs have line specials in the current map.
• Commander Keens are no longer spawned at the start of a map when the nomonsters CCMD has been entered in the console, or the -nomonsters parameter has been specified on the command-line.
• The following changes have been made to the support of MAPINFO lumps:
  • compat_light can now be used so when a light level changes to the highest light level found in neighboring sectors, the search is made only for the first tagged sector, like in Vanilla DOOM.
  • nograduallighting can now be used to disable the effects of the r_graduallighting CVAR.
  • compat_vileghosts can now be used instead of compat_coprsegibs.
• The following changes have been made to the support of DEHACKED lumps:
  • A bug is fixed whereby the bounding box of monsters wouldn’t change when using Width.
  • REDTOBLUE and REDTOGREEN now work.
  • If Wolfenstein SS or Commander Keen are changed, and a new Name isn’t specified, “monster” will be used in their obituaries in the console.
  • Multiple DEHACKED lumps are now parsed in the correct order.
• Flying monsters now spawn at the correct height when using the spawn CCMD.
• Sliding corpses can now nudge other corpses when the r_corpses_nudge CVAR is on.
• Corpses in liquid sectors can now be nudged again when the r_corpses_nudge CVAR is on.
• Minor improvements have been made to the sliding of decorative corpses and barrels that are too close to an edge.
• Now only the alert and death sounds of cyberdemons and spider masterminds are at full volume.
• Savegame descriptions in the console and player messages are no longer truncated when loading or saving a game.
• Further improvements have been made to the support of Freedoom: Phase 1 and Freedoom: Phase 2.
• The window is now positioned correctly when changing the vid_windowpos CVAR to centered in the console and the vid_fullscreen CVAR is off.
• A bug is fixed whereby when the window regains focus, input could be disabled in some instances.
• Blood splats are no longer removed when using the remove CCMD to remove all corpses.
• Brightmaps are now applied to more textures when the r_brightmaps CVAR is on.
• Pressing a mouse button bound to the +left action will now cause the player to turn left rather than right.