[DIY] Support PSXSoftware mode in GZDoom

[Valken]

Holiday here, WFH, so was revisiting Console / PSX Doom and I noticed the lighting in GEC's PSX Doom viewtopic.php?f=19&t=62839 is different than current GZDoom SOFTWARE lighting mode.

Can PSXSOFTWARE mode be considered for addition to the next build of GZDoom because I want to play it under Vulkan renderer as well as to stay feature updated.

I toggled it back and forth between default SOFTWARE and PSXSOFTWARE and it seems the differences are:

an additional light source around the player
colors or brightness intensified around the player
light draw distance from the player is cutoff earlier / shorter.

It looks amazing without being complete blacked out. Would be a great fit for Alien's mod for example.

I am unsure if there needs to be further integration of the GEC's custom build. Source code listed above.

It would allow support to the "original" console "wads" in the way it was meant to be enjoyed plus I actually prefer software render modes unless a mod specifies a preferred mode.

[Graf Zahl]

Since this is a mod for GZDoom, the obvious answer is DIY.

[Nash]

I think the OP is talking about a modified lightmode, which can't exactly be DIY'ed (you can't edit/add a user lightmode shader).

[drfrag]

GZDoom GEC is a fork of an old GZDoom version (1.9.1?), i believe he never uploaded the source to GitHub but it's available in ZIP format. That PSX light mode surprisingly even worked on GL2.

[Redneckerz]

Holiday here, WFH, so was revisiting Console / PSX Doom and I noticed the lighting in GEC's PSX Doom viewtopic.php?f=19&t=62839 is different than current GZDoom SOFTWARE lighting mode.

Can PSXSOFTWARE mode be considered for addition to the next build of GZDoom because I want to play it under Vulkan renderer as well as to stay feature updated.

No, because its outside the scope of what GZDoom seeks to achieve (which isn't render compatibility with PSX Doom)

It would allow support to the "original" console "wads" in the way it was meant to be enjoyed plus I actually prefer software render modes unless a mod specifies a preferred mode.

There is an itany of subprojects that do exactly just that - DZDoom, TC's, or PsyDoom. The latter achieves pretty much perfection since its a backport of the actual PSX engine to PC. Which means yes, you get all those fancy enhancements that are close, but not completely perfect as done with PSXDoom TC, DZDoom and so on.

GZDoom GEC is a fork of an old GZDoom version (1.9.1?), i believe he never uploaded the source to GitHub but it's available in ZIP format. That PSX light mode surprisingly even worked on GL2.

Its DZDoom now, but they haven't renamed it yet, nor have yet provided a solid executable (Like DZDoom.exe). The current source zip frankly leaves me highly confused - Not something i'd call clean. I would prefer a GZDoom styled zip with an exe and just what about is needed (sans illegal resources ofcourse!) to get the PSX visuals running.

Nevertheless DZDoom is an impressive show piece. Its the lack of clarity however in terms of packaging and perhaps wiki documenting that works against it imo.

[Valken]

Thanks for the insight. And yes, I was mainly asking for the PSX lightmode as I could not figure out how to get the current GZDoom to make it look like it.

Not a coder so forgive my lack of code understanding.

I didn't know "DZDoom" existed or virtually exists... lets see if the GEC team will update and release it.

[Nash]

A "Build engine" lightmode was recently added, so a "PSX Software" would be do-able (on the engine side, that is)... but I'm unsure if it's a good idea, given the current state of the main.fp shader (let's just say it's starting to get a little crowded in there). :D

[Rachael]

I think it should be done. "PSX Software" like it or not is officially part of the Doom ethos, even if it came from a "second-party" as it were. It's the light mode of a console port of Doom. I see way more justification for it than a Build light mode (which, don't get me wrong, it does have a good reason for being there, as well).

[Gez]

I'd love if the work that went into the whole GEC Masters thing could allow GZDoom to have native support for PSX Doom and Doom 64, but between using an outdated base (to keep support for old hardware), not using GitHub, and packaging their source release is a confusing way, it's unlikely to happen.

[drfrag]

Now DZDoom will be a fork of LZDoom on GitHub but he (Erick194) still has to merge his code and it's also an old codebase, they care about of hardware. In south america a lot of people are still on GL2 and even on 32 bit.

[Rachael]

If someone does a pull request to add the lightmode it shouldn't be too hard to put it in. It shouldn't be that difficult to update GL2 code to GL3.

[drfrag]

May be he wants do do it, i don't know.

[Erick194]

Poor my wink disappeared, well as always sometimes we cause anger to other people. Cheers guys.

[Erick194]

But I will try to do something about it.

[Redneckerz]

Thanks for the insight. And yes, I was mainly asking for the PSX lightmode as I could not figure out how to get the current GZDoom to make it look like it.

Not a coder so forgive my lack of code understanding.

I didn't know "DZDoom" existed or virtually exists... lets see if the GEC team will update and release it.

Yeah that's practically impossible for GZ to replicate, hence the need for a fork.

It is updated, its just that, as Gez says, how DZDoom is distributed now is kind of a hodgespodge. Moving to a LZDoom base might improve things, but i'd rather see DZDoom released as is and then a second LZDoom successor thereafter.

If someone does a pull request to add the lightmode it shouldn't be too hard to put it in. It shouldn't be that difficult to update GL2 code to GL3.

Afraid its not as easy as a pull request. The lighting mode required a heavy rework on the rendering back end and its not even perfect either, but perfect for 99% of use cases kind of perfect and a vast improvement over PSXDoom TC.

I do recall that there were some quarrels on these very forums with these authors, so i digress on that regard.