GZDoom 3.3.0 released

[Graf Zahl]

Some early numbers from the survey after getting 500 reports:

- 10% of reporting users run GZDoom with software rendering
- 5% of reporting users run OpenGL 2.0
- 1% of users run Windows XP

No users so far run on hardware so old that it triggers the legacy paths for the software renderer.
This last point is of particular importance, because if that holds up it means that the entire software rendered 2D fallback can be removed and this is one of the biggest feature blockers in the engine because it works completely differently from the hardware accelerated 2D implementations and prevents any kind of consolidation.

[Rachael]

Ubuntu IA32/AMD64 and Mac OS X builds now available.

The Raspberry Pi build will be a little delayed this time around - but it'll get there soon.

[Collegia Titanica]

Why did my sound change after this update ? I feel like I've lost quality and haven't changed any setting.
Also, I implemented the materials for a model yet it doesn't seem to interract with lights.I'll try with textures now, i really want to replicate what Nash did in the demonstration video.

[_mental_]

Why did my sound change after this update ? I feel like I've lost quality and haven't changed any setting.

Is it only about music? If so, it depends on what MIDI device was used earlier.

Also, I implemented the materials for a model yet it doesn't seem to interract with lights.

Without runnable samples such reports are useless. And actually, this is not bug reporting topic.

[HexenMapper]

Do the reports show what graphics settings users are using? if so, will you disable Smooth sprite edges by default if you see most users doing so?

Also is there any plan to have WASD bindings etc. enabled by default?

In one way this source port stays old fashioned (the lack of modern bindings), and in another it completely goes against old fashioned (the smooth sprite edges). Some consistency might be good - either choose the old school look and let people choose to enable smoothing, or choose modern and give us some modern bindings by default.

I know seasoned doomers will have .cfg / .ini files set up and will never have to worry about re-binding, but people new to the port may think that doom is supposed to have smooth sprite edges and that you need to re-bind everything and re-set all your settings every time a new version comes out - not ideal.

[_mental_]

It's a hardware survey, not user preferences one.

[Graf Zahl]

It is of absolutely no interest, what settings you use. What we need to know is the amount of users still running on 10+ years old legacy systems because those require a disproportionately large amount of work to support.

One example: Can we drop software rendered 2D? Are people actually still using that? So far we had no idea but from the current sample it looks like this can be safely removed without seriously affecting anyone. So far all users of the software renderer that sent their data have reported using one of the hardware accelerated backends.

[Rachael]

Do the reports show what graphics settings users are using? if so, will you disable Smooth sprite edges by default if you see most users doing so?

Also is there any plan to have WASD bindings etc. enabled by default?

In one way this source port stays old fashioned (the lack of modern bindings), and in another it completely goes against old fashioned (the smooth sprite edges). Some consistency might be good - either choose the old school look and let people choose to enable smoothing, or choose modern and give us some modern bindings by default.

I know seasoned doomers will have .cfg / .ini files set up and will never have to worry about re-binding, but people new to the port may think that doom is supposed to have smooth sprite edges and that you need to re-bind everything and re-set all your settings every time a new version comes out - not ideal.

While I certainly would have no personal objection to having modern control schemes enabled by default, I feel like you're going a little too far with this.

The thing that you're forgetting is that it's all about freedom here - and sometimes the cost of that freedom is having to actually use it. Some of those modern control keys may interfere with cheat code entering, like IDDQD, oops I moved right 3 times.

I would suggest a compromise - a simple command alias in the menu that drops the modern control scheme into the current game's keybinding layout. Optionally, have it so the user can customize said alias to their own liking, so that they can use controls THEY are actually interested in. (Personally, I do not use WASD - I use WQSE - and no I will not change and I do not feel like I should be thrust into someone else's arbitrary preferences - so that's my personal take on it) At the very least - that would save time in rebinding said keys.

[Graf Zahl]

Adding some presets should be ok, but let me say something else:

I was just in the need to buy a new mouse and when browsing the stores I found that there's some 'gaming' keyboards out there that have WASD as colored keys, conveniently highlightes as directional input. That's the same stupid attitide of 'this is THE ONE control scheme'. Which I find baffling because it's probably the worst combination of keys that could be chosen. It's right at the edge of the keyboard with nowhere to move to for additional keys. If I were right handed I'd probably have bought a separate directional pad by now to comfortably play.

[Rachael]

Agreed. The only real advantage of WASD is it's comfortable for right-handed players to use the mouse to aim, but modern RPG games do not use that layout and when you play both FPS and RPG it is a bit frustrating to deal with that.

RPG games use Q and E to strafe and use A and D to turn. I therefore set all my FPS games likewise, because that control scheme is more comfortable to me.

Very much agreed - it's absolutely silly that WASD is assumed to be *THE* control scheme, or that everyone would even want it.

[NightFright]

Thanks a lot for this new release! I'll gladly submit some data to you guys if it helps you to improve the port (I already did, at least on one of my two systems I use - more incoming).

Finally the megasphere has its light definition! I had always wondered why it looked to dark compared to the soulsphere. Small but important change! It's also great to see you added even more music options, even though I'd be totally fine with just having the Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi plugin implemented somehow. No idea if it's legal (but should be since Yamaha never released a commercial version and stopped supporting it 15 years ago) and/or technically possible, though. Ofc you can always set this up externally with the DLL and some VSTi MIDI driver, but considering it's quite an awesome synth with a lot of retro flair, it'd be great if GZD natively supported this at some point.

[drfrag]

On the modern control layout i just added that to LE, according to a recent poll @doomworld is what most people use. It won't harm since those are just added default controls and people can still use the classic layout. I also enabled mouselook and autorun by default and increased mouse sensitivity. On the iddqd thing i've allowed to use cheats as console commands as well, some of them were already there so i added the rest for consistency.

[Apeirogon]

This doesn't happen on Windows.

No, this happens on windows too.

Like, I miss ";" in the end of a line, or type "variable nam" instead of "variabl name", or some other misspelling due old notebook keyboard. Not a big deal.
And gzdoom point me to this error

"line with error "path/to/file.txt" unexpected identifer, expected ";" or "class" or "}" or "struct" or "anything else". "

But he/it/gzdoom also founds "errors" in other files, which before misspelling in new part of code work perfectly and dont trigger error message, and which disappear after I fix true error.

I faced this many times, and thought that this is feature of gzdoom. I must report it, with file which cause its, or what?

[HexenMapper]

WASD... it's probably the worst combination of keys that could be chosen. It's right at the edge of the keyboard with nowhere to move to for additional keys.

Its pretty close to the number keys (commonly used for changing weapons) and allows c to be used as crouch comfortably, caps lock, tab and left shift all to be taken advantage of, tilde for the console, all without moving your hand. R is right there for reloading, left ctrl easily accessible with left pinky.

Don't shoot the messenger here - I'm just saying its an incredibly common binding (as shown by your example of having a keyboard with those keys highlighted) and it would be nice for the majority of us who use it to have it bound by default. If you want to cater to a modern audience (as hinted at by the smoothed sprites on by default, and the myriad of modern lighting effects implemented in this port), why not cater to their control scheme as well?

Its fine if you want to keep your controls vanilla and/or old-school, but then why are things like sprite smoothing on by default? That is certainly not vanilla or old-school.

If I were right handed I'd probably have bought a separate directional pad by now to comfortably play.

I'm a left handed too and I find WASD with left hand and mouse with right hand no problem. As a left-hander you're often forced to learn things right-handed anyway. Playing doom is generally a two handed affair, just depends how you learn it.

Some of those modern control keys may interfere with cheat code entering, like IDDQD, oops I moved right 3 times.

WASD isn't going to trigger IDDQD - not sure which "modern control keys" involves I, D and Q in very quick or often used succession. I is a long way from Q and D. In my many years of using WASD on doom I have never accidentally triggered a cheat.

The old school doomers will easily use .cfg / .ini files and have no problem with bindings, but its the newcomers who it would be nice to cater to. Imagine someone sees an interesting video of a doom mod, goes to download GZDoom and then has to wade through settings and bindings for many minutes before being able to get an acceptable looking and playing game. Some may never even notice the sprite smoothing and play with those awful smoothed sprites the and think this just what doom is like...

[Gez]

ESDF is better, but I personally prefer 8456 on a separate numpad.

WASD isn't going to trigger IDDQD - not sure which "modern control keys" involves I, D and Q in very quick or often used succession.

'D' isn't a key in WASD? Huh.