June 2003
New From Mystic
Mystic has posted news on what I believe will be his first release this year. After many releases last year, it seems that Mystic has been having some downtime and has only now announced his latest release. This wad has a working title of 'Wet Pie' and uses some rather nice Egytian looking textures. He has posted about this on our Forums, including links to 4 screenshots. Actually, there's a mistype, as there are two links to screenshot four. So just change it to a three to see the correct screenshot.
Hellmouth Update
The Hellmouth Project has updated with this little lot:A new map has been started - Outpost A , by Electro. Im still modelling the fusion rifle, (wanted extra frames also) which replaces the plasma rifle. The story is being written by Rave, so that I can incorporate other elements into it. Progress is steady, and healthy. Status section fully updated with all data! Expect the screens section to have a long overdue update soon as well. Check out the Hellmouth Project.
Doomsday Net Test
There has been a big update over at the Doomsday HQ with the news being that Skyjake has released 1.7.11/net. I think the new network code is now good enough for the first public testing round. As usual, I've been overly optimistic with my predictions of how long it'll take to finish something. For the past week, I've been debugging and polishing the multiplayer mode of jHexen. During the weekend, I've tested a little with jDoom and jHeretic and they now seem to be working.
Because I've been spending so much time with the network code, virtually no work has been done to fix other bugs. It appears that somewhere along the way halo clipping has pretty much completely broken down. At least in Heretic and Hexen I'm seeing halos through some walls, ledges and polyobjs. Before I release 1.7.11, I want to fix some of the most obvious bugs that remain, and of course polish and optimize the network code even more.
I said "public testing", which means you get to participate. In fact, there are few things left that I can do on my own, so now's a good time for some feedback. There is a list of how you can help Skyjake with this plus a list of bugs that are already known.
Hi-Res Dynamic Lights
Bam has been working hard on Dynamic lights for Hi-res textures and has posted this in the forums:I have made a doom1lights.ded that is compatible with the hires textures in JDoom. I basically just added the extra required flags at each new decoration declaration, so I cannot guarantee the full compatibility or dynamic light position accuracy with the various hires textures, this was a very quick and dirty job.
However, I did have a quick play with the lights and added a few quick little effects of my own, namely, glowing lights for the main red, blue and yellow keydoor sidepanel lights, as well as a dynamic light for the main hires BIGDOORx textures at the point on the texture where a fake red light is drawn. Take a look at the screenshot and get that all importent download by heading off to the Doomsday Forums.
Doomarena
I have finished Map17 for the NewDoom Community Project which I will be sending along after this very update. There is also some news on the progress of Spone 3 and a screenshot to accompany, plus the Clan NewDoom page also has been updated with the latest. Read the rest of the update at Doomarena.
This And That
The Legacy site has updated with a few bits of information which may interest you. First of all there is a new skinspecs page thanks to some outside generosity from Dan. I have been unable to locate a link for this but one may appear soon. There has also been some minor site tweeking, and the manual and the coding is coming along nicely. Finally the "corrupt savegame" has been traced back to the spawn() fragglescript function.
Inferno Remake
Ninja_of_DooM has decided that he would like to remake his favourite Doom episode Inferno. He is looking for about seven people to help him with this and if you would like to then you can let him know in the Forums.
Hellcore Update
Hellcore has been updated by Vorpal with the latest on what is happening to the DoomII partial conversion. It would seem that two maps have been started by Adam but are going slow and Ismaele has submitted the first draft of a large map for Hellcore. Also involved in the project is Chris Hansen who should have some more material soon.
Doomsday Goodness
There has been an almighty flurry of activity in the Doomsday Forums of late and Slyrr has been contributing with news of a new project. He aims to make some New Monsters which will be incorperated into a new wad called Heretic 3. Skyjake has even agreed to help out with coding the monsters. The thing is, Slyrr needs people to make maps. So, if you are interested, read the rest of the post on the Doomsday Forums and place your offer of help.
Strike One
Striker has announced on the Forums that he has released his first level. It's a Deathmatch level and can be retrieved from Doombunker. He also mentions that Novashock is on hold for the moment as most of the previous incarnation was scrapped.
Why Is Unstable
Jussi Pakkanen has released an unstable version of his Doom editor called 'Why'. This is due to the fact that so many new features have been added that he would like people test it. Here are some of the new features: · Undo/redo.
· Graphics previewer for all graphics.
· Tabbed interface.
· Support for arbitrary level names.
· Tons of bugfixes, tweaks and new features. You can download this latest version from The home page of Why.
Doomsday? Not Today
Skyjake was hoping that today would see a new release of the Doomsday engine. This is not going to happen, but here is a little in the way of explanation:A week ago I was hoping to release 1.7.11 by this Tuesday. That's not going to happen. The new networking code is showing great promise, but it still has a rather large number of small issues that need to be dealt with. But it's all good progress, especially since many of the issues have existed since version 1.05.
I've been developing the system exclusively with Hexen, which is the most demanding of all the three games when it comes to the usage of mobjs, sounds and complicated maps. The close scrutiny has revealed a huge number of bugs in multiplayer jHexen, many of which have now been fixed. Most of the bugs I'm seeing now have been in there since version 1.0. The new networking code, which is finally starting to work rationally (unlike the previous code, which relied mostly on good faith), is allowing me to tackle the problems one by one in a systematical fashion. There is more, including a list of fixes that Skyjake has made today.
Compet-n
Compet-n has come back to life after a three month quiet period. There is a whole list of demos to view, plus the announcment of a new competition.
Texture Top Up
The Doom 2 Retexturing Project has a new 60 MB update with about 200 new/reworked textures. The textures are for use with Doom2 using the Doomsday engine.
Scythe Demopack
Thanks to Chris Ryeback who has let us know that The Official DSF Scythe Demopack has been released. This has been released by the DSF team and contains 93 demos from your viewing pleasure. The collection is split into three parts: 34 maxkill demos, 34 speedrun demos and 25 nightmare demos. That's at least 127 minutes of action.
Doom On The Go
Thanks to Planky who brought this up on the Forum.Japanese mobile phone users could be taking to the streets early next year to play shoot-it-up computer game Doom – thanks to technology developed in New Zealand.
San Francisco mobile technology company GeoVector, which has its advanced development lab in Christchurch and a concept development team in Auckland, has developed a "real world" version of the classic computer game.
It lets mobile phone users battle it out with one another on the streets, using their phones to zap opponents and the screens on their mobiles to view the Doom environment.
Wow, Read the rest of this over at Stuff.
Review Time
Outpost Of Doom II has posted a review of the recently released Metamorphosis which was made by Karthik Abhiram and Brad Spencer.
Captain's Log
The Doomsday website has a rather large update in which Skyjake has listed his Dlog for the week. This includes his thoughts and ideas, which helps him to organize his work. There is also news that he may have to delay the release of 1.7.11 by a day or two to iron out all the wrinkles. He does say, though, that it is about 80% done.
Meta Morphing
Metamorphism is a map made for Doom II and has taken 5 months to complete. It has been put together jointly by Karthik and Brad Spencer and is available for download from Karthik82.com site as well as Brad's site.
ESL Bug Fix
Lobo has let us know that there has been a bug fix release for his Edge/Shell Launcher. This brings it up to v1.21. This release is to correct a problem when an .elc file had no Pwads assigned to it. If you've seen some kind of "type mismatch" error then this is the cause. You can get it from HERE.
ZDaemon
ZDaemon has announced that there is to be an update of the ZDaemon server and launcher programs. Here is the update in full: There will soon be an upgrade to the ZDaemon server and launcher programs. This will be a MANDATORY upgrade. When we cut over to the new servers, you MUST download the new launcher to continue playing ZDaemon. Effective immediately, there is a new master server running in addition to the one we’ve been using all along. What this means to you is that NEW servers won’t show up in the OLD launcher. When a server is upgraded to the new version, it will appear as a blank server in the old launcher. At the same time, OLD servers will not work with the NEW launcher. To allow for a smoother transition, BOTH masters will remain running over the next week. After that, the original master will be decommissioned. At that point, any servers that have not been upgraded will not appear in the new launcher. Also, the old launcher will no longer work. This includes IDE, Doom Connector or any of the home-grown launchers out there.
Be prepared for these changes. Be sure to download the new launcher. If you run a Zdaemon server, be sure to download the latest version of Zserv32. Source: Blues News.
Sonic Is Out
Sonic 2 Robo Blast has been released! It weighs in at a massive 32 megs, but there is five and a half years work in there. The addons section should be updated in a day or so with plenty of new content, but for now head along to Sonic 2 Robo Blast , and more importantly their Downloads section.
Doom III Programmer
It seems that before the game has even hit the shelves Splash Damage has a job opening for the following:Splash Damage recruiting Graphics Programmer for Doom 3 engine!
As a London-based independent game studio working in collaboration with id Software and Activision, we are looking for a talented Graphics Programmer to join us for our new project based on the Doom 3 engine.
We are more interested in your enthusiasm, talent and passion for game-play and design than in veteran commercial game development experience. I knew I should have taken computer science and not cookery at school.
Source: Homelan Fed
REX's Nexus News
Doom Nexus has got some information on Rex's latest project. He has done some graphics work for the ZDoom version of the wad and this has resulted in the E1 sky of Doom being reworked. There are some screenshots as well, so head along and check them out.
Opulent Demo Delights
Doom SDA has got some new demos for you to feast your eyes upon. Here is a small sample:Altima Mantoid:
· Hell Revealed 2 beta - new Map12 maxdemo record. Excellent.
· Eternal - Map13 maxdemo -- the first (and probably last ;) ever!
Grazza:
· Equinox -- This wad is dazzling; great creative vision.
· Whole demoset for Map04 - ITYTD max, ITYTD speed, UV max, UV speed, and UV -fast max. Recommended.
· Telelab - maxdemo
· Dna_tech - good -fast maxdemo
· Enigma -- great persistence. :)
· Map03 - nightmare, and pacifist
· Map04 - nightmare, speed, and pacifist Check out the full listings at Doom SDA.
Two Skins
Our Kinkyfriend has posted in the Doomsday Forums that he has made two Heretic Skins. He said that he was not planning on remaking all heretic skins and that he Just made these two for fun.
Legacy Doings
The Legacy site has been updated thanks to that hard working fellow Rellik. The new manual is nearing completion. There have been some changes to the site and if you have any bugs to report or requests then you can post them HERE.
Doctor On Call
We have been sent an email by Jeremy Stepp who has told us about his site which is home to lots of ZDoom conversions. The latest being DOCTOR DOOM which uses zdoom's sprite scaling ability to make the monsters hi-resolution. Check this out plus many others at Doom2 Homeworld.
E4 Remapped?
Midnight Storm has been mulling something over in his head and here it is: Lately I've been foolig around with the idea of making an updated version of E4 for Ultimate Doom. However, it would be pretty hard to do by myself...I'll need designers, mappers, playtesters, etc. It will be in class Doom style (no 3D effects or such), but more like a remapping of the entire episode with a bit more class and care. Any comments on this? If you would be interested in giving him a hand then let him know via the Forums.
It's All In The Planning
The Doomsday HQ has updated under the title 'Planning Ahead'. Skyjake tells us that he is planning the next release of Doomsday on Tuesday the 24th. It will not contain any new features, only bugfixes. Read the full list of what to expect in that release at Doomsday HQ.
Doom 3 Enemies
We have been busy here at NewDoom, trawling through the Doom 3 movies that are available and have posted up some screenshots of some of the Enemies you can expect to encounter. There are other screenshots as well showing some of the weapons amongst other things.
Chesty Wad
The ultimate Doomers Page of Doom has got news that the Community Chest megawad has been released. Ultimate Doomer has made two maps for this plus the titlepic, credits and map titles. Head over to his page and grab it.
Pic Post
Zdoom has updated with a screenshot showing the port running at 273 frames per second. The only text is one line saying 'This screenshot has not been doctored in any way'. Check it out for yourself at ZDoom's homepage.
ESL v1.2
Lobo has announced the latest release of his EDGE Shell Launcher. Here is the list of new features:- You can now add Iwads to the Add-ons list due to the possibility that someone might want to include Doom.wad or Doom2.wad as if it were a Pwad.
- If the DebugFile option is selected then the debug files will be created in the Edge directory with the same name as the current .elc project. For example if you have GoldenEye4.elc open and you run it with the DebugFile option checked, then you will get a debug file called GoldenEye4.txt in your Edge directory.
- Option to allow automatic deletion of .gwa files. I can't believe I've had all these releases of ESL without that option!
- Possibility of adding .scr files(RTS scripts) to the Add-ons list.
- Possibility of defining a DDF directory.
- Fixed silly problem with Custom Buttons.where if you pressed Edit and then Cancel the button was reset to empty. (thanks Tobester)
- Drag and Drop code fixed. In the previous version it was accidentally disabled.
Get this new version at the ESL Homepage.
Detailed Texture Wad
There has been a release of the first high detail texture wad for Doom and Doom2. This is to run with the Doomsday port and is about 1.31 megs. This was put together by Subwolf1 and you can find out how to do it by reading the instructions in the Doomsday Forums
New Legacy
There has been a Doom Legacy release which is a binary for win32 only. This is available from HERE. You will also need another file which you can get from HERE. These will both need to be unzipped into your current legacy directory to work. This brings it up to v1.41 and if you find any bugs then report them in the Legacy Forums.
Doom Bunker Movement
The Doom Bunker has been moved to a new location. Here is the explanation plus a bit more: Due to the instability of my ISP server, DOOMBunker has a new home now along side HaloBunker. Work on the first level in the NovaShock project is progressing well. It's about 5% done. I expect to release the first level in mid August, early September. Hopefully by then I can get a team assembled to help out. If not, I will go it alone. If this is to be the case, then I estimate that the full 9 level project will make release by late December, early January. Don't forget to update your bookmarks once you are there.
Tormentor Wants Your Opinion
Tormentor, he of the 667Realm, is asking for your feedback on his latest project, which is called Netherworld : A Cursed Legacy. It is a new adventure in the world of Heretic / Hexen, which uses the zDoom engine to power it along. You can give your feedback by visiting the post Tormentor made in our Forums.
Re-Connected
According to this post on the forums by Gherkin, Doom Connector's back online, after being down due to server issues for a bit. The server is hooked back up on a temporary connection now. So, go satiate your DC fixation!
B.Stone TC Progress
Darkwolf has updated his Blake Stone page with some new screenshots. There has been some work done on it although not quite enough for a release. The next update will probably see the files being somewhere near the final version, but until then you will just have to stare at the pics.
Doomsday v1.7.10 Released
Skyjake doesn't rest for a minute! Doomsday v1.7.10 has been released. It features more eye candy and a number of convenient new features, such as:- Doomsday now supports PK3 files for collecting lots of resources into a single file.
- Surfaces can be decorated with fixed light sources. This is completely customizable using Decoration definitions (see Doom1Lights.ded). More information in the DED Reference. Use the rend-light-decor cvars to adjust maximum distances.
- Sprite frames and raw screen images can now be replaced with external resources. See the Readme for details.
- The speed of 3D model loading during startup has been greatly improved.
- Smooth camera movement (rend-camera-smooth) now also affects the Z-movement of planes.
- rend-light-num now works as expected.
There's lots more info, but you'll have to go to the Doomsday HQ site for the rest, and of course to download the latest version.
New Heads Up
Rightfield has been working on a new Heads Up Display for DOOM. The HUD pack contains the full HUD +menu skull and some numbers. He is on the look out for a Hi-resolution picture of Doom guy to put into the HUD so if you have one maybe you could help him out. There is a screenshot available although it takes a little while to download. Take a look in the Doomsday Forums.
jDoom Screenshots
Jaakko has been busy yet again and has posted some screenshots of his work over at the DHQ Screenshots page. There are ten screenshots in total including two from the Underworld Megawad.
Mega Dudeage
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The past few weeks have been quite productive ones for our good Doom_Dude friend, as he relates over on his Megawad site. For one thing, he started three new Legacy maps. D_D also updated his Best of DOOM page with DooMAD's Vacuity map for Legacy. But there's more! As relates to Shadowcore, his Heretic Legacy project:Mostly I worked on E2M3: The Paths (working title) and did some texture work and scripting while designing this cool bridge area complete with waterfall. On Vilecore 2.0:First of all I decided to put all my xtra projects on the back burner until I have Vilecore 2.0 finished. Secondly I decided to reset my Progress Report page so that all maps have none of those % done ratings and anything that was reported as 'finished' is now considered being worked on as well. There's even more project news, so check that all out. Also, Karthik reviewed Doom_Dude's excellent Underhalls Remake over on his Karthic 82 site.
Novashock
A new DOOM site has opened up called Doom Bunker. This site has been put together by D.Z Carroll who has been Dooming since 1994. He is also putting together a team for work on a new project called "NovaShock". He is looking for help with this project, so if you fancy helping then click on the link.
Quakecon DOOM
Not strictly DOOM, but well worth a mention in anyone's book. I am on about Quakecon, in case you hadn't noticed the title, and this bit in paticular:There are more reasons than ever to be at QuakeCon 2003. Whether you want to compete for $125,000 in cold, hard cash, or simply enjoy the company of over 4,000 other gaming fanatics, you can't afford to miss QuakeCon 2003. The first-come, first-serve general attendee registration begins at 9:00 p.m. EST on June 9, 2003 at www.quakecon.org. The dates and times for tournament registration are outlined in the specific tournament information below. The definitive gaming tournament and party is free to all attendees and scheduled for Aug. 14-17 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in graphics processing, is putting up a combined purse of $125,000 in cash for the four QuakeCon tournaments. Gamers ready to test their mettle will compete in one vs. one or team competitions in QUAKE III Arena™, Return to Castle Wolfenstein™, or Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory™. For full details check out Quakecon 2003.
Doomsday Disco
Skyjake just can't sit still and has been hard at work once more. Since Doomsday 1.0 he has been meaning to make it possible to define custom 'static' lights on textures, such as those for Doom II's BRICKLIT and BSTONE3 in jDoom. This is going to appear in the next release which is planned for tuesday. So keep a look out for that and you can also take a look at a screenshot of this on the Doomsday Forums.
Oh, Mammy!
'The Heretic' sends word that Team Mamtech has updated their Hellmouth project pages. The latest screenshots have been added, as well as info on three new levels. A demo of some sort is said to be in progress, so look for that within a month's time. There'll even be a beta tester sign-up for those interested. Other team positions are still welcome to be filled. Info on all this will appear on the Team Mamtech site in the near future.
Smooth Moves, Fast Loads
Jaakko 'skyjake' Keranen has been busting at the seams with his Doomsday Engine improvements, and we're doing our best just to keep up with him in order to present them to you. Here's but the latest:Somebody mentioned the smoothing of plane movement with rend-camera-smooth. It wasn't that hard to do, as you can find out if you get the latest snapshot.
Use settics 17 and cruise around in slow motion!
Mobjs are still not smoothed, because the calculation of their visible positions is more complicated.
Texture loading might be slightly faster. I tested in E1M1 with highres textures and measured about a 3% improvement in precache time. Unfortunately the two slowest factors in highres texture loading are 1) PNG reader and 2) GLU mipmap builder (with OpenGL). Neither can be made any faster. Keep your eye on the Doomsday Forums and Headquarters, and right here on the New Doom main page, lest you miss something.
Simply Shocking
The Doomers Recess has updated with this: I have decided to give up reviewing. No need to worry those of you who have been promissed a review. Those I will write, trust me. These are the levels in question: P:AR, TnT3, The Hub, Bloodworks, Darkhour M.P. and the RTC demo. The reason is that I am way too busy with the dreaded Real Life ™ in all its various haunted shapes. Perhaps once in a while you will see a review in the future. Perhaps. Well, how about that then? There is also a thank you concerning feedback on "Helpyourselfish" and some screenshots of "Pandemonium".
Skyjake In The Forums
There is an interesting thread in the Doomsday HQ Forums started by skyjake about some work on a faster model loader.For testing purposes I made a pk3 out of the latest jDoom model pack.
It took 40 seconds for R_InitModels() to finish. A bit of closer inspection revealed that the algorithm for finding model related files was incredibly slow. After I got the new algorithm working, R_InitModels() only took 1.6 seconds! This was the first post in the thread and there are more from him in answer to some other questions.Do you have any plans to add Hires texture precaching?
High resolution textures are precached like are normal wall textures. However, only the textures which are present when a map is loaded are precached. If you're using verbose messages, you should see a number of images being loaded just before a map begins.
The very next thing I'm going to do is:
· Optimize texture uploading / scaling.
· Set more texture groups (like the wall animation sequences) that are all precached at the same time.
These should improve the situation. Head to the Doomsday HQ Forums for more Doomsday discussion than you can shake a lens flare at.
Doom 64 TC In Your Hands
The Doom Depot has pretty much closed down. There are no links, downloads or news but a strong worded piece by Rob and an Email address where you can send your support for this TC.
Purge
Andy B has updated Purge with news that the DDF documentation for EDGE is now complete and a download of this has been added to the project page by the EDGE Team. Work has also begun converting the unfinished planetfall level for use in the 'purge' mod.
3 Reviews
The Doom Wad Station has three reviews up to view. They are Return to Exit, Dark Fate and Ks7 By Cory Banket. Kettle on, Feet up and click the link.
ReX's NeXus
Rex 'ReX' Claussen has posted nine screenshots of his newest level, entitled The Wicked and the Damned. The map requires no source port and is the sixth in his Wicked series. Mapping is about 75% complete at this point. More info can be found here.
New Legacy Manual
Rellik has been working on a new manual for Legacy and has put a rough version up for you all to take a look at. He says that this is 'a pretty rough and lacking version' and would like your info/input on many a subject. So head along to this thread and see if you can help out rellik put together the best Legacy manual he can.
DSV Doings
DSV Outworld has got news on a new Legacy port. Kaiser has been planning on a mod for the Doom Legacy source port, which will feature Capture the Flag support when the Legacy source is converted to C++. Also in DSV news, Dsv5 has been changed once again to vanilla DOOM II compatibility, with complete 32 Deathmatch levels.
Deep Release
SB Software has released version 11.77 of the popular Doom editor Deep. Here are some of the changes in the latest version:- Safety feature that prevented opening read only files, now gives warning messages (since you can’t rename a read only file when saving) and allows you to open the level for editing. Usually these are CD files, temporary zip files or network files where the access is read only.
- Angle field now permits any value. This is for the new Legacy feature that lets you set the angle in 1 degree increments.
- All Linedef and Sector bottom info boxes now go directly to a popup dialog to modify just that entry and no longer go to the main dialog. Except for textures, only one item is modified, regardless of the number of items selected. Click on the appropriate bottom field to activate.
There is a complete list of the changes available by clicking HERE.
Alive Again In The Combs
Now, this could be interesting. Catacomb Abyss - Living Dead is a Total Conversion for DOOM, which is obviously in the beginning stages, by Patrick 'Kinky Friend 85' Westermark and friends.
A little bit of history is in order, for those of you who don't know what The Catacomb Abyss is, or was. It's one of the first ever first-person shooters. It's based on an early id Software raycasting engine, similar to the one used in Wolfenstein 3D (which came months afterwards), but only used 16 colors. The game was originally published in 1991 by Softdisk Publishing.
Riddler's Favorite Wad Editor
Jussi Pakkanen has added three new screenshots to his Why pages. These show how the GUI in the next release version of this DOOM level editor will look. There's also this information:- a new tabbed interface shown here opening all levels of Doomworld's 10 sector wad
- newly redesigned menus are no longer as ugly as some of the old ones
- the interactive texture aligner makes complex alignment jobbys extremely easy
You can find all that and the who, what and where of Why.
A Pit Of Weirdnesses
Mike F, a.k.a. 'Gokuma' sends word that he's constructed a page showing off DOOM v1.2 weirdness and nostalga. It contains:- levels showing bugs and oddities
- demos of cacodemons biting themselves and barons clawing themselves to death
- monsters committing assisted suicide and infighting
- instructions to get Ultimate Doom to normal full Doom v1.2 through a series of patches.
And various other sundries. That's at pit.condemned.com.
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