GZDoom 4.3.1 released

[Enjay]

Thank you very much for this new version and to all contributors for their continued hard work.

[Eonfge]

4.2.4 Linux had roughly 3600 downloads over the last 2 months.
Here's the actual numbers for the various packages:

gzdoom-4-2-4-macOS.dmg (15.48 MiB) - downloaded 3,667 times. Last updated on 2019-11-04
gzdoom-4-2-4-Windows-32bit.zip (11.17 MiB) - downloaded 10,315 times. Last updated on 2019-11-03
gzdoom-4-2-4-Windows-64bit.zip (12.50 MiB) - downloaded 3,741 times. Last updated on 2019-11-03
gzdoom-4-2-4a-Windows-64bit.zip (12.54 MiB) - downloaded 66,394 times. Last updated on 2019-11-04
gzdoom_4.2.4_amd64.deb (11.29 MiB) - downloaded 3,148 times. Last updated on 2019-11-04
gzdoom_4.2.4_i386.deb (10.03 MiB) - downloaded 488 times. Last updated on 2019-11-04

Wow, those are some serious numbers It's hard to believe that there are 40.000 downloads a month for a 25 year old game. Then again, it shows how awesome Doom is. Also fun, with 4.5% being Linux users, that's about 400% above the Steam hardware survey Linux user estimates.

The first release of GZDoom on Flathub was 10 September 2019, so the year figures I just mentioned are really only of the last 4 months. Interpolating the data, in the time that there are 3600 downloads from the website, there are 500 downloads from Flathub. Not bad.

[Graf Zahl]

The real Linux share is even higher. The last survey said 6%, apparently many are self-compiling the code instead of downloading the package.
That 40000 downloads per month number has been nearly constant for quite some time, btw.

[Blzut3]

apparently many are self-compiling the code instead of downloading the package.

Not necessarily. Those numbers also don't count those subscribed to the apt repository. (Or any third party repositories which carry GZDoom.) I don't track downloads from the repo, but just going by the most recent access logs it's probably somewhere between 300-3,000 people.

[Graf Zahl]

The Downloads page still points to the old version, although all builds are online now.

[mjr4077au]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to know about two things if I may?

1. Is Vulkan still considered 'experimental'? Having it as a boolean in the launcher indicates perhaps not, but the menu still advertises it as experimental.
2. Unless I'm mistaken, I think the SoftPoly renderer isn't working. When I look up and down in either SoftPoly or True Colour SoftPoly, I just get Y-shearing instead of a true 3D render.

Cheers,
Mitch.

[Graf Zahl]

1) Not really, it should be fine - but there's still the risk that on some poorly designed maps with stupid portal effects it may crash because those maps can overflow some buffers.
2) That old softpoly renderer was removed in favor of the new software backend for the hardware renderer. We just forgot to remove the now obsolete settings in the menu.

[mjr4077au]

1) Not really, it should be fine - but there's still the risk that on some poorly designed maps with stupid portal effects it may crash because those maps can overflow some buffers.
2) That old softpoly renderer was removed in favor of the new software backend for the hardware renderer. We just forgot to remove the now obsolete settings in the menu.

Thanks, I see how that works now (and that it's been fixed in master).

I'm probably best off putting a bug report in, but there's some performance regressions with it (Would get ~50fps using TC SoftPoly, now only ~28-29fps). Is that unexpected?

My next and final two question:

1. Any chance of the 8-bit SoftPoly returning? It's a bit lighter and I'm fond of the limited palette
2. How would one force the software renderer to use DX9 should they wish to, or is it pure fallback only?

[Graf Zahl]

The performance regression is to be expected. Softpoly never implemented the full feature set of the hardware renderer which made it faster - but also far less precise.

1) I wouldn't expect it. The current softpoly renderer sits at a far lower level where palettes and color maps no longer exist.
2) Choose the softpoly backend in the startup dialog.

[mjr4077au]

The performance regression is to be expected. Softpoly never implemented the full feature set of the hardware renderer which made it faster - but also far less precise.

1) I wouldn't expect it. The current softpoly renderer sits at a far lower level where palettes and color maps no longer exist.
2) Choose the softpoly backend in the startup dialog.

Thanks

[Teddipetzi]

Is there a reason why the download page still links to 4.2.4?

[Redneckerz]

Is there a reason why the download page still links to 4.2.4?

Lag of time most likely. It got updated on the forum though.

I imagine making a change there either takes more time than everything else or Graf/Rachael simply forgot about it.

Ill apologise in due advance for not having a more sensational possible reason as to why.

[Graf Zahl]

Is there a reason why the download page still links to 4.2.4?

Links are fixed now.

[Apprentice]

Details

• implement ccmd 'togglehud' for taking screenshots

[/list][/quote]
Since I made the suggestion: it works like a charm . . .