Intriguing developments

[Nash]

A little curiosity on the menu rewrite:

Now that menus are actually strings, what happens to those WADs that actually replace the graphics as part of their main menu design? Wouldn't it break their intended design if those graphics are ignored and simply replaced by text?

[Gez]

I'm guessing that before the menu rewrite is over, something like what already exists in MAPINFO will appear to allow to use graphics instead of strings, and the standard menus will use it.

[Graf Zahl]

No menu graphic has or will be replaced by strings.

[esselfortium]

It's pretty exciting, considering I've never finished Doom64 due to Project64 messing up on that game for me. I still need to try Doom64ex, though I have been meaning to get a N64 for years...

Do it. I finally got around to it recently, after putting it off because I thought it'd be hard to get a working rom, and I was lazy. (I own the game, but not any sort of cartridge transfer hardware, soo~oo..). Doom64ex is fantastic.

[Ceeb]

I haven't got the patience to get Doom64ex running, so I just play my cartridge of it. However, it's supposed to be dead-on, and if that's the case, try it, it's great.

[esselfortium]

Patience? You just download EX, get the rom from the first google result, double-click WadGen, pick the rom, and wait something like 1-2 minutes for it to build the iwad. That's literally it. :\

If you like Doom64 at all, there's really no excuse not to get it. It's a brilliant port and it's woefully underappreciated.

[Zippy]

If you like Doom64 at all, there's really no excuse not to get it.

Not true. I like Doom64 a whole bunch, but I don't care at all about "purity" or exactness of a port. Hence, the older Absolution TC serves my purposes more than well enough.

[InsanityBringer]

My Absolution installations constantly keep on failing to work for reasons I'm yet to determine.

That is only one of the reasons why I love Doom 64 EX. The better lighting is also a reason.

[esselfortium]

If you like Doom64 at all, there's really no excuse not to get it.

Not true. I like Doom64 a whole bunch, but I don't care at all about "purity" or exactness of a port. Hence, the older Absolution TC serves my purposes more than well enough.

Meh? There's some pretty glaring differences between the two, particularly in the way the maps are lit. It's not as though they're extremely similar to each other or something... I can't think of any reason, if you're going to play one or the other, to not go with EX.

edit: Yes, I realize that. I'm saying that this makes about as much sense as intentionally downloading ZDoom 2.1.7 to make mods from instead of updating for the new features and bug fixes. Why the aversion to it?

[Zippy]

Meh? There's some pretty glaring differences between the two, particularly in the way the maps are lit. It's not as though they're extremely similar to each other or something...

I know there are. That's exactly why I qualified my statement...

Not true. I like Doom64 a whole bunch, but I don't care at all about "purity" or exactness of a port. Hence, the older Absolution TC serves my purposes more than well enough.

[Zippy]

I can't think of any reason, if you're going to play one or the other, to not go with EX.

edit: Yes, I realize that. I'm saying that this makes about as much sense as intentionally downloading ZDoom 2.1.7 to make mods from instead of updating for the new features and bug fixes. Why the aversion to it?

Because I've already downloaded Absolution when it originally came out, and switching to EX would just an extra something to do?

Alright, alright, quick remarks aside I'll go into detail. First, no, it's not like downloading an old version of ZDoom. It's be more like already having and old version and not getting a newer version because it doesn't offer anything of value to you. As in, maybe you don't care about any new things it can do. Maybe you really love Boom-compatibility and never want to go past those base features. DECORATE? Screw that shit. Ergo, new version, new nothing-of-interest, waste of time to even download.

Drawing it back to Doom64... while the content of the old TC and EX are different to quite a degree, in the way of a qualitative experience they are really quite similar. On that level, actually, all the different versions of Doom outside Doom 3 aren't much different at all. Some monsters, some guns, a level to shoot them in, go find the exit. In the essentials are the different versions of Doom aren't anything more than mapsets with new textures and sprites. And in that respect between Absolution TC and EX, not much changes there between the two. There are ways in which the specific sprites, textures, etc. and all that come into play in the experience, true. But that's the line that's really going to separate you and I. Being the mapper that you are, it's the uses of these kind of things that are going to affect you in a different way than I, for good or for ill. For example of a downside in this very case, you can't enjoy Absolution as much as the more technically accurate EX (you admit this yourself) in part because of how you perceive maps. I, on the other hand, can enjoy it just as much or perhaps even more (I don't care to take the time to make the distinction) precisely because I don't factor in those elements in the same way or to the same degree. (Just to help clarify what I'm trying to say, an upside to your more mapper oriented view would be that when somebody does something particularly interesting or clever in a more technical way you'll enjoy it more and it will add to your experience, and oppositely I can't enjoy that in the same way.)

So, in short, it's just exactly what I've been saying: the things that EX offers over Absolution don't matter to me so it'd be pointless for me to take the time to procure it, no matter or short or effortless it would be.

[esselfortium]

Okay, I guess I can accept that.

Even though you could've downloaded and set up Doom64EX In less time than it took you to think about and write up that post

[Zippy]

Even though you could've downloaded and set up Doom64EX In less time than it took you to think about and write up that post

True, but I enjoyed spending the time thinking of and writing the post more, because that's the kind of contentious douchebag that I am.

[Ceeb]

Actually, don't you need to download the music seperately?

Either way, I've got my N64 right here, plugged in, hooked up to a sound system far superior to the speakers on my PC and I like the N64 controller anyway. I appreciate all of Kaiser's work, really, both to satisfy curiousities I never would've been able to before and because it's never been easier to get D64 resources I want, but I have no use for a port of the game when I have the original right here.

Also, Absolution won't work for me anymore, either. It apparently hasn't since I got WinXP SP3.

[Gez]

Actually, don't you need to download the music seperately?

Not at all. You only need to do that if the very CPU-intensive USF player makes the game too slow for you, so you can use an MP3 music pack that'll be way quicker to decode and play.