News from 23 January 2000

[randi]

Progress on ZDoom 1.23 continues. I completely overhauled the way the game differentiates between different types of things so that adding new types is much easier. The original intent for this was so that I could add all sorts of different cameras besides the current fixed one. Level designers will be able to add cameras that follow a path through the level and optionally focus on another thing in the level. In addition, the existing camera has also been enhanced so that it can pan from side to side like Duke Nukem 3D's security cameras.
With the new thing system in place, I have also started work on something I had been planning on doing for a long time: adding support for Heretic and Hexen. I estimate that Heretic is about 75% done, while Hexen is 5% done. Here are two screenshots showing the progress:

ZDoom running Heretic
ZDoom running Hexen

As you can see in the Heretic shot, D'Sparil is on a map other than E3M8. The new thing system made a summon command possible, so you can add anything to any map at any time. (Throwing in a bunch of pod generators and setting up a chain reaction where the pods never stop exploding can be fun, although it also slows the game down to a crawl.)

Another change is that the Windows version of ZDoom now uses FMOD for sound instead of MIDAS. Unlike MIDAS, FMOD supports ImpulseTracker 2.25 modules, MP3 streams, and CD audio. FMOD also supports 3D audio, although I'm not sure if I'll take advantage of that. FMOD is also faster than MIDAS, and I can use it under NT without the sound breaking up.

Unfortunately for Linux users, FMOD is Windows-only, so the Linux version is still stuck with using MIDAS. I had looked at libmikmod a while ago, but wasn't particularly impressed with its sound effects support. It would at least offer better ImpulseTracker support than MIDAS, so I might have another look at it some time.