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_scaleapi CVAR was direct3d11.
• The vid_scaleapi 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.

DOOM Retro v5.2.1 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 v17.8.4 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022.
• DOOM Retro now uses Direct3D 11 by default rather than Direct3D 9 to scale every frame on the screen, resulting in a considerable boost in performance. The vid_scaleapi CVAR can now be direct3d9, direct3d11, opengl or software.
• IT, S3M, XM and MOD music lumps now play again.
• These changes have been made in the automap:
  • The player’s path is now drawn correctly if the am_path CVAR is on and they have just teleported.
  • A controller’s left and right shoulder buttons can now be held down to zoom in and out.
  • The subtle shadow cast by the status bar is now only visible when the am_backcolor CVAR is its default of 0.
  • Minor improvements have been made to drawing marks added by pressing the M key.
• The con_obituaries CVAR has been renamed to just obituaries.
• When the r_rockettrails CVAR is on:
  • A bug is fixed whereby no smoke was trailing behind rockets fired by the player and cyberdemons.
  • Smoke trailing behind rockets fired by cyberdemons won’t be spawned if certain states or sprites have been changed in a DEHACKED lump.
• A sound effect is now played when using a control that has been bound to the toggle CCMD.

DOOM Retro v5.2 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 now uses SDL_image v2.8.2.
• Minor optimizations 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.
• If the player dies, their obituary is now displayed in the console in red when the con_obituaries CVAR is on, and also as a player message when the messages CVAR is on.
• A bug is fixed whereby Buckethead’s music wouldn’t be autoloaded when SIGIL_SHREDS.WAD was present.
• The z-coordinate displayed by the IDMYPOS cheat is now correct when the automap is open and the am_followmode CVAR is off.
• These improvements have been made to the support for John Romero’s SIGIL II:
  • A warning is now displayed in the console when attempting to load SIGIL II extracted from the official DOOM port. Please download SIGIL II from here instead.
  • Par times are now displayed on the intermission screen.
  • The correct intermission music is now played when both SIGIL and SIGIL II are loaded.
  • The IDMUS cheat can now be used to change to SIGIL II’s music if it is available.
• Right-clicking the mouse in the menu now hides the mouse pointer if the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• Minor improvements have been made to the help screen opened by pressing the F1 key.
• A bug is fixed whereby the width of monsters was being miscalculated in some rare instances, which in turn could cause nearby line specials not to trigger as intended.
• These improvements have been made to the parsing of DEHACKED lumps:
  • All things declared now have their sprites clipped in liquid sectors if the r_liquid_clipsprites CVAR is on.
  • All monsters declared now cast a shadow if the r_shadows CVAR is on.
  • If a name is specified in parentheses when declaring a thing, it is now used in obituaries when the con_obituaries CVAR is on.
  • The smoke that trails rockets fired by cyberdemons when the r_rockettrails CVAR is on is no longer spawned if certain states or sprites have been changed.
• The mapstats CCMD now correctly indicates if a map is BOOM, MBF or MBF21 compatible.
• Improvements have been made to the console’s background.
• If map titles are obtained from a MAPINFO lump:
  • The maplist CCMD now lists them correctly.
  • When exiting a map and the autosave CVAR is on, the description of the current savegame is now updated with the title of the next map.
• The .wad file extension no longer needs to be included when using the -iwad or -file command-line parameters.
• The weapon CVAR can no longer be changed while the player is dead.
• Helper dogs spawned using the spawn CCMD in the console are now friendly by default. Use spawn unfriendly dog to spawn a dog that will attack the player.
• The player may now use the term unfriendly to refer to monsters that will attack the player when entering the kill, name, resurrect and spawn CCMDs in the console.
• Using the kill CCMD with a value specifying a type of monster no longer thrusts those monsters away from the player.
• A bug is fixed whereby midtextures weren’t being clipped in some rare instances.
• The thinglist CCMD now displays the angle and flags of every thing in the current map.
• Opening the console while entering a savegame description in the save game menu now works correctly.
• When deleting a savegame in the save or load game menus using the DEL key, the closest remaining savegame in the menu is now selected.
• A crash no longer occurs if a map’s title needs to be truncated in the automap.