September 2002
| Monday, September 30, 2002 |
Doom III FAQ
We have updated our Doom III FAQ here at Newdoom bring it up to version 0.4. You can check it out HERE.
| Sunday, September 29, 2002 |
Doomsday Future
When we recently asked Jaakko 'skyJake' Keränen what's the next big new feature he has in store for the Doomsday engine, we had no idea what to expect. We're quite pleased to say, what we got in response was, as you'll see, much more than even we could have reasonably expected:I'm starting to feel that the things that can be achieved with the current Doomsday 1.7 codebase are becoming pretty limited. Features I've been planning for quite some time now, like the floating point timing and client/server clean-up, would be cumbersome to implement with the current architecture, where much redundancy exists between the game DLLs. In many respects, the game DLLs are doing things that the engine should be responsible for, like setting up maps and handling high-level tasks in multiplayer games.
Thus, my current plan for Doomsday is to begin a major revisal of the engine architecture. I'll continue working on 1.7.x for a while as there are some bugs and issues to resolve (mostly glitches with networking). Simultaneously with this, development of Doomsday 2.0 will begin. Most of the effort will be going into merging code shared between all the game DLLs into the engine. This includes the code in the game DLLs that handles the physics, object interaction and other such game events. In practice this means that this code is taken from jHexen, inserted into Doomsday and adjusted to work correctly with jDoom and jHeretic. Since jHexen is the most advanced of the lot (with e.g. polyobjs and scripting), this means that jDoom and jHeretic will gain access to its advanced features.
When this is done it's much easier to implement features such as the floating point timing. Future development will become easier as it won't be necessary to maintain three copies of the same code (as must be done at the moment with some things).
Since the engine will be responsible for maintaining the game world in Doomsday 2.0, it will be easier to make large changes to the way things work. I've been thinking about implementing a sectors-over-sectors feature, for example. And since the engine will also handle all the networking, the client/server code can be done in a more elegant fashion. (In 1.7, part of the clientside code is in the game DLL and the engine has its own, separate copy of object movement code.)
I'm also planning to rewrite the console pretty much entirely for 2.0. The new console will have such features as scripting and, quite importantly, possibility to interface with the game world. The ultimate goal of the new console will be to surpass Hexen's ACS scripts in functionality.
Given the large magnitude of the changes required, and with school taking a major portion of my time this fall and spring, I expect that Doomsday 2.0 won't be done until next summer. However in the meantime, I will continue releasing patches to 1.7 as necessary. They won't contain anything grand, most likely bug fixes and minor feature additions. Does that make you excited about the future for jHexen, jHeretic, and jDoom? I should think so! Best head on over to the excellent Doomsday Headquarters for more info!
New Doom Talks DooM Legacy (UPDATED)
We had a chance to ask Hurdler to give us some information on the next release for DooM Legacy. Here's what we can expect:We will follow a new development approach. There will be stable releases at the same time as development releases. I mean, when something in the development branch is stable enough, it will go to the stable branch. As a result, there will be more stable release than in the last few years (because we had to stabilize ALL the development stuffs before doing the new stable release). So, the next stable release will include mainly bug fixes of the 1.40 version. It should be out soon. At the same time, we will work on bots and a new network code (I mean playbale over the internet) in the development branch.
There will be also some improvement in the script engine and in the opengl renderer (I don't know which one yet). And maybe new OS supported. We'll have more info to add, provided we can nail down more specifics from the ever-busy Hurdler. If there's some far off chance you don't know what DooM Legacy is by now, be one of the many to check out their site and visit the official DooM Legacy forums.
(UPDATE:) We had some follow-up questions for Hurdler, pressing him for some specifics based on the information he gave us earlier today (see above). Here are the Q and A's:Q: Which new OS?
A: IRIX or a PDA not running under windows (I don't want to buy a licence).
Q: When exactly is the next release expected?
A: It's hard to say. I hope we will do at least one new (maybe two) stable release this year. The date depends a lot on my job and on the things that should be fixed.
Q: What bugs will be fixed?
A: I'm waiting to have more bug reports to start working on it (and doing a priority list, most annoying bugs and crashing bugs must be fixed first).
Q: What changes are being made to the network code?
A: It's a complete re-write in the hope having something similar to Q3, CS or UT (meaning also adding a native CTF support).
Q: What are the improvements to the script engine?
A: Scripting should work with net game (that's not properly working right now). More native functions will be added (depending on the users' requests).
Q: What new changes will we see in the graphics engine?
A: MD2 might be supported properly. Lighting should be completely configurable (all the things might have a light attached, not only original doom lights). Thanks again to Hurdler for that information. Once again, you can always head to the DooM Legacy site for more info.
Skulltag v0.93b
It has been nine months in the waiting but at last Skulltag has arrived. Here is whats in the new version.· A new level, d2dm5, is included.
· One flag CTF mode has been added. A placed yellow skull becomes the white flag.
· Custom bots can now be added. ... of course, since the bots don't do anything, I won't bother going into how this is done right now. However, if you're REALLY curious, look at the BOTINFO lump in skulltag.wad. You'll see the one custom bot that has been added to skulltag, "crackwhore". heh. She will be promptly removed in the next version :)
· Network code should now be significantly more stable.
· Skulltag can now be ran with -ctf or -onectf, which will setup a teamgame (-teamgame), and change the skull graphics into flags. Head along to the Skulltag Homepage to grab it.
Nickster Picster
Nicksters Place has updated with the news that he is still alive. There isn't much else as he says there is not much to talk about. There is however a rather nice screenshot that will be added to the EDGE version of Gedoom.
| Thursday, September 26, 2002 |
Out of the DOOM
Our old friend Stephen 'Blue' Heaslip talked a little about his recent DOOM epiphany in his daily commentary. It's a great little story of inspiration, told in Blue's inimitable style, so we're reprinting it here for your enjoyment as well:I did something last night I can't believe I haven't tried prior to now, which is check out DooM Legacy. I had previously tried a couple of ports and such that allow you to play DOOM under Windows, but met with frustration as factors like an inability to kill the vertical sensitivity on my mouse and swimmy feeling controls that really harmed the joys of the grand old game. This lead me to conclude that playing under Windows was at the root of the problem (I never dug WinDOOM either), so in spite of more and more frequent reminiscences between me and my friends about missing the experience of old-style DOOM deathmatch as we speculate about how well it will be recreated in DOOM III, I ceased feeling very compelled to check out similar projects. Last night I learned the error of my ways, as playing Legacy was an absolute blast... a few easily-ignored texture glitches aside, the gameplay offered was amazing. The most interesting part to me is how much it felt like the original game considering how many game play changes it includes. Some are just improvements over the original like in-game control mapping, joining games in progress, new weapon selection options, and 32 player(!) support, but others are outright changes, like the addition of things like mouselook and jumping. All-in-all an amazing experience... like a time machine through rose-colored glasses as my opponent RedAnt pointed out. I also want to thank Blue for mentioning that our Raven-Games Heretic Walkthrough has been posted... much like id's DOOM, Raven's venerable Heretic has become new again, thanks to the efforts of skyJake at DoomsdayHQ, and others, so most people who are rediscovering the game's singleplayer merits will probably find our walkthrough opportune. 
Kick Started
Doomsday HQ has updated with news that Cheb has has been working on a new version of KickStart with the result being the release of a new beta. If you find any bugs then report them to Cheb. Skyjake also has a bit of news on Doomsday. Take a look at Doomsday HQ.
| Wednesday, September 25, 2002 |
DOOM Movie Sometime Next Year?
Fox News Channel had a piece about DOOM on the television. According to the Fox Report With Shepard Smith, the long-rumored DOOM movie is apparently really in the works. They showed some in-game classic DOOM action and mentioned that, although the screenplay has yet to be written, the feature film's storyline will most resemble that of the upcoming DOOM III. Sounds like what we dreamed of, back in the early DOOM days, when we first heard the distant whispers of a DOOM movie. But what do you think, can they pull it off...?
Feel free to post about it on the forums.
WHY
Jussi Pakkanen has reported that Why is now up to version 0.9. This new version has improved documentation as well as a lot of improvements to the UI. You can find it at the Why homepage.
| Tuesday, September 24, 2002 |
GG Inc
Joel has updated GG INC with this Doom news: Progress on my programming work for Doom has been absolutely zip thanks to the incompetence of the people who wrote my CD burner software To read the rest get along to GG INC.
DLW Poll
There is a poll over at Doom Legacy Wads so that people can let Jive know what they think of his site and a little more about yourself.
| Sunday, September 22, 2002 |
Leagcy 1.40
Doom Legacy has updated with the news that Legacy has a new stable version. It has been two years since the 1.30 was released which was the last stable release. Here is a list of all the good stuff:Editing
- Added 3D-Floors and 3D translucent water in both software and hardware mode
- Added volumetric fog and 3D lights in software mode
- Added enhanced FraggleScript support
- Added Heretic support
- Coloured sector lighting
Hardware specific enhancements
- Some work on the lighting and the coronas
- Much improved OpenGL and Glide support (supports nearly all software features)
- Added support for 3D positional sound cards (require DirectX 7 or above)
- Improved map loading time
Multiplayer
- Timeout detection and kick player if connection timeout
- New menu option : create server and connect server
- Use masterserver to detect all servers in the world
- Fixed issues with netgame and dehacked
- No more palette change in splitscreen
Misc
- New console variables added (see help inside Legacy)
- New utility to easily add FraggleScript to any map
- New slightly modified launcher
- New demonstration map (RainBowStar)
- ...and the usual bug fixes (lots of them)... This is available from the Doom Legacy download section. The Legacy team would also like you to report bugs that you have found by using their bug tracking system but also to read the docs first in case it is already listed.
| Friday, September 20, 2002 |
DOOM II GBA Site Lives
Even though they embarrassingly have the CyberDemon shooting bullets out of his rocket launcher, Activision has officially made the site for the Game Boy Advance port of DOOM II live. Check out the site and see what's in store for all you portable gamers. This looks poised to be even better than the original DOOM port for GBA released late last year. DOOM II is scheduled for release on October 23rd.
| Thursday, September 19, 2002 |
DOOM III Preview
Computer & Video Games recently payed a visit to Dublin for a presentation of DOOM III and the chance to interview Tim Willits and Todd Hollenshead. Read the results HERE.
Lock & Load Release
Pilotbombadiers Doom Page has announced the release of Lock & Load for EDGE. This will only work with EDGE 1.24 and not 1.27 cos it's been tried. So head on over to Pilotbombadiers Doom Page and grab it.
| Wednesday, September 18, 2002 |
And They Shall Pray for Death...No Longer
And They shall Pray for death the Doom review site has changed it's name to And They will Pray for death. All the site's major sections have been updated and two new sections are also in progress: a Co-Op section and the Wargear itinerary.
| Tuesday, September 17, 2002 |
Hells Curse
Hell's Curse has updated with news on the projects progress. ViRUX404 says that the project is going slow at the moment but he is hoping this update will get things moving again
| Sunday, September 15, 2002 |
Doom Radio
Sgt Crispys World has episode 3 of Doom Radio for you. This edition contains Doom news, Unreal Tournament 2003 review, Doom the radio play, and sgt Crispy mumbling.
| Saturday, September 14, 2002 |
Tricky Levels
Kaiser has added a new section to DSV Outworld called walkthrough. This section will cover all the tricky areas and such on any wad he has made. So far though only DSV4 is covered. Also two new megawads and a new single level that Kaiser says will have everyone surpirsed.
Karthik Is 82
Our old freind Karthik has parted from us here at Newdoom.com and has now got his own site which is a more general site not just Doom related. We would like to wish him all the best. You can check out his new site at Karthik82.com.
| Thursday, September 12, 2002 |
And They Shall Pray for Death
A new DOOM level review site, called And They Shall Pray for Death just arrived on the scene. Here is the news info sent to us here at New Doom:"And They Shall Pray for Death" is primarily dedicated to the reviewing of Doom levels both new and old. There will be extensive screenshots, tactics articles and I might even mention the new Doom. Unusually, I am also looking for any and all examples of Doom fiction. If you've written anything - and I mean anything - to do with Doom, submit it or send me a link and I'll get it onto this site. At the moment there are only a few articles up but I am working on a LOT more. Head to And They Shall Pray for Death for more info.
Doom Radio Episode II Released
SgtCrispy released episode II of his Doom Radio project. Go to Sgt Crispys World. for more info and such..
Doomsday 1.7.4 Released
DoomsdayHQ has sent us news that version 1.7.4 of the Doomsday engine has been released. This version has a bunch of small fixes. For the full list of changes, go to DoomsdayHQ for the latest download.
| Wednesday, September 11, 2002 |
DoomCad Can Now Edit Legacy 3D Floors, etc...
I just updated my site and can't help but post this news myself!! I figured out a way to enable the Doom editors DoomCad5.1 and DoomCad6.1 to accept the special lindef types that Legacy uses. Now Doomcad can finally edit 3D floors and 3D water for the Legacy port. I have a zip file ready for download on my site for anybody interested in using Doomcad to make all that cool 3D stuffage. Head over to The Megawad to check it all out! You can also contact Doom_Dude (me) for more information if need be.
2002 ADO
2002 A Doom Odyssey has updated with this short but interesting news:2002 ADO V2 Is Now Available. Go to downlaod page to get it! see I said it was short.
EDGE Progress
EDGE has been updated by Darkknight who says this:The focus of my work at the moment is utilising the C++ support that was recently completed, it would seem prudent to implement some basic and efficent classes for file and string handling. I will not be using the STL as it has varying degrees of support in different compilers. This is not a full-blown conversion to C++, as such a task would take a great deal of time and would result in a shedload of things being broke and the rate of progress will be somewhat slower than it is already. There you have it.
Rememberance 9/11
 Posted
by
at 2:01 AM |
Category: General |
.....While I stood there, mouth ajar, unsure if this was a dream or not, reality struck - directly into the side of the other tower. I could feel the impact deep inside, a part of myself got struck along with the building. But there they were... on CNN and only a few miles away... two buildings that I had gazed upon every time I went to work, and every time I went out on the town. Two monoliths that symbolized my home town were up in flames.
[Read More on the NewDooM Forums]
| Tuesday, September 10, 2002 |
Dude Of Doom
The Megawad is moving along nicely and Doom_Dude has released the first screenshots of Vilecore II in a stitched together 'before & after' shot taken from map02: The Halls Of Doom.
Hate, Help And Hope
Andy Leavers Doom Projects has updated with Mr Leaver saying that after Infliction of Hate is completed he plans to continue with No Hope For Life. The only map done for Epsiode 2 is E2m1. So there are 8 more maps to go and help would not go amiss.
| Sunday, September 8, 2002 |
Review Time
Doom & DoomII Reviews have four new reviews Elements, Doom Resurrection, Debut Episode and Cody says that One Bloody Night should be posted later today or tomorrow.
Doomsday 1.7.3 Released
Posted
by
at 1:26 PM |
Category: General |
DoomsdayHQ has sent word that version 1.7.3 of the Doomsday engine has been released. This version has a few bug fixes for JHexen, adds new XG functionality for JDoom and JHeretic, and has support for more axes for joysticks, and for more mouse buttons.
For a full list of the changes and the latest downloads, check out DoomsdayHQ.
Compet-n
Compet-n has new demos for TNT Evilution, Plutonia Experiment, DOOM2, Hell Revealed, Requiem, Memento Mori 2, and Cooperative demos. This selection is available in one big zip. A new form for Czech player Adolf "Gusta" Vojta has been added as well making hime the 48th profile at Compet-n.
Edge Shell / Launcher
Robotech TC's For Doom has updated with news that the Edge Shell/Launcher(ESL) is ready for download. Here is a description from the autour: Edge Shell/Launcher (ESL) is a simple to use graphical front end (launcher) for use with the DOOM Source Code port EDGE. The purpose of this launcher is set the command-line options for EDGE by simply clicking what you want and then launching the game, instead of repeatedly typing commands or making multiple shortcuts. It *should* work with most other source ports, albeit in a more limited fashion than with EDGE, but be careful if you do. You can find it HERE along with a list of features.
| Saturday, September 7, 2002 |
Contest Revised
Doom Legacy Wads has changed the contest that it has been running. Jive has changed the name to 'Darxide Challenge'. There has also been a change in the rules to allow more time and the ability to add more textures. Jive has posted the news HERE.
| Wednesday, September 4, 2002 |
Sgt Crispy's Doom Radio Experiment
Sgt Crispy sent us word that he's going experimental again with some kind of Doom Radio idea. Here is a part of what he has to say from a snip off his site: Yes you heard me. Doom Radio. After my failed Speedmapping Radio experiment went kaput I still wanted to get some kind of show put together. For more info head on over to Sgt Crispys World.
ReMix: DOOM II 'Gothic Sandy'
Mazedude over at the Overclocked Remix site has a new remix of the music from DOOM II, Map09. Check out the Gothic Sandy remix on this page.
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