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Hello there! I've decided to make an account on here because I've been following this project for quite some time now, but have mostly been lurking at the time seeing this project develop and grow. I've finally done so because I want to help contribute to Hocus Pocus Doom and give out any feedback for ya, Ravage!
I did spot a couple of typos/inconsistencies with the text, like when quitting the game for example, one of the messages says this:
It should be fixed to: It's not fair!
Why do you get to leave?
In Map09, when you talk to the wizard at the beginning, he says this:
It should instead be: These castle walls are guarded by the Mad Monks of Mellenwah! Never touch one!
Note the lowercase "w" in Mellenwah. In the original Hocus Pocus, Mellenwah is spelled with a lowercase "w". But in Hocus Pocus Doom, the "w" is uppercase which is incorrect.
It's the little things I notice here when playing!
This next thing I will address is actually kinda big, and it has to do with the music used in the secret levels which I will get into.
Spoiler:
I inspected the .pk3 file of yours and noticed in the music folder that only the Jazz Jackrabbit secret stage uses an S3M module, but the rest of the secret level music is stored in .ogg format.
I actually took the time to create and replace the ogg files with modules for the other three secret levels. (Map10, Map20, & Map30)
The "s_dark.ogg" that you have for Map10 "Darkwolf Castle" doesn't actually loop correctly. It only seems to repeat the section of patterns 5 through 11 endlessly, but the original Fields Level track is supposed to loop back at the beginning once patterns 5 through 11 repeat three times. My rip addresses this and has the track looping correctly.
Dark Wolf's music actually uses S3M's (stored originally in AMF format) for playback, so what I did was rip all of the music from that game using a Hex Editor and use The Fields Level theme to replace the "s_dark.ogg" file, which takes up far less space and has stereo separation to top it off instead of being only mono like in the ogg file. I adjusted the stereo separation so that the instruments won't be so uncomfortably far apart when using headphones because the original AMF rip had its channels hard-panned all the way to the left and to the right. Balancing the stereo separation out helped a great deal here!
However, I had to convert it to IT because GZDoom's way of handling volume between S3M's and IT's behaved strangely from my experience (volume mixing issues). Gave myself less hassle by converting the remaining S3M's to IT format.
Electroman's theme "s_elec.ogg" used for Map20 "RoboDreams" is missing half the theme. The one you have is around 2 minutes whereas the full track is actually around the 4 minute mark. I went out of my way to recreate this theme originally in IT format which includes the missing funky slap bass section, but then I also converted it in MPTM for filesize reasons. (It'll still play just fine in GZDoom though, so no worries there!)
The Funky theme "s_jill" for Map30 "Hocus of the Jungle" was perhaps the trickiest for me to deal with, but have since found a way to be resolved.
I was attempting various ways of ripping the Funky theme out of Jill of the Jungle (stored in .CMF format, and converting it to IMF & RAW so that GZDoom would recognize it), but no matter how it was ripped/converted, the snare instrument ended up sounding wrong and was lacking any sort of punch during the ripping process (snare ended up sounded like a square wave played at a low pitch), so it may have been the conversion tools I was using. So I had to resort to an alternative...
What I have linked below contains an enhanced version I sequenced together which originally utilized OPL3 FM instruments through OpenMPT, but GZDoom (at the time of writing this message) was unable to playback FM instruments using the Module Replayer as it only recognizes PCM samples, so I kinda had to cheat and make samples out of 'em instead. Ah well, at least that alternative worked haha. Plus, the track I have here loops seamlessly where as "s_jill.ogg" pauses for a bit before it loops again, has noticeable audio clipping, and clicks alot throughout the ogg recording (which I assume was recorded off of real hardware).
I also got Jazz Jackrabbit's Diamondus theme "s_jack" for Map40 taken care of in regards to volume balancing and such, so I recommend using that too along with the other secret level tracks.
So yep! I have a recommendation that when playing back these files during gameplay, that you adjust GZDoom's module replayer Quality to "Aliasing". Of course this will make instruments lose interpolation, but on the other hand will make the instruments sound sharper in general.
If necessary, adjusting the Module Replayer's master volume to have it be balanced alongside the MIDI/FM Hocus Pocus soundtrack is also another recommendation of mine. I have made it more convenient for ya by taking the time to adjusting the internal volume between all the 4 secret level tracks so that one doesn't sound too quiet or too loud compared to the others during module playback, so all you really have to worry about is fiddling around with GZDoom's module replayer settings (in regards to interpolation and master volume) when playing Hocus Pocus Doom!
*phew*
That was quite a bit of stuff for me to write, but hey, I want to see this mod become more and more polished and am happy to help out in any way I can! I'll letcha know when I find more things to address whether it is typos, bugs, or anything like that.
Download link of my Secret Level track fixes will be provided here. (EDIT: 11-14-2019) https://mega.nz/#!Z3RQjYbL!0glZLRpvuBkQ ... -AOyCR7kw0
Also, I really love that Ravage Apogee logo!!! Loads of nostalgia looking at that! That totally should be used when starting up the game for next update!
Last edited by CGA Gillian Seed on Thu Nov 14, 2019 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
S'all good, Ravage! Out of all the Doom Total Conversions out there, Hocus Pocus Doom is easily one of my favorites I've ever experienced and makes me really happy playing through what is essentially a 3D remake of Hocus Pocus! Seeing what's been accomplished here in terms of level design, sprites, textures, etc. is all so inspiring, and has been peaking my interest for getting into Doom modding again!
I have noticed how certain enemies like the Fire Crocs, Bugbears, etc. have different angled sprites, but others like the Demons and Egg Dragons for example have front facing sprites only. Will those enemies eventually have their other angled sprites drawn at some point in the future as a means to keep things consistent for the enemies?
I totally understand that it can be a time consuming process having to draw all different directions for each and every sprite. (My pixel art skills aren't exactly the greatest, but I have dabbled on a few personal projects in the past so yeaaaaah )
Spoiler:
As for that secret music pack thingy, I might actually have to re-adjust something with my music track for Map30 "Hocus of the Jungle" as I'm not fully satisfied with how the pattern data is laid out (In hindsight, I think it can be done much better). The Hi-Hats especially are something that I'll need to fix because they don't crescendo/decrescendo in the proper manner.
I've come to notice how some recordings of the Jill of the Jungle Funky Theme uploaded online have the Hi-Hats playing at a fixed volume throughout, where as other recordings have the Hi-Hats cycling at different set volumes. Just realizing this now, I defo prefer the latter as they aren't so prominent and don't overshadow the FM kicks & snares.
I'll letcha know when I polish it up, matey! When I do, I'll replace the download link in my earlier post with a newer version of the Secret Music Fix Pack.
Found a couple more typos as I was playtesting Hocus Pocus Doom more.
When pressing the Show High Score key while talking to the wizard/Terexin, a couple of message strings will show up which misspells Terexin's name as "Terrexin". The extra "r" should be removed from both of the message strings at the top of the screen, as shown in both screenshots here:
I am aware though that the current High Score system might perhaps be changed (hopefully someday when it does get figured out) to work in the main menu as opposed to ingame to be more accurate to how the original Hocus Pocus handles the scoring system, (though I haven't figured it out myself unfortunately given my limited knowledge on that deal), but I'd thought I point these out anyway. Typos are typos and it's only right for me to mention about 'em!
On a totally random note, I've spent time to actually work on an ENDOOM screen dedicated to Hocus Pocus Doom. Been kinda nervous about sharing it, but I hope you like it anyway, Ravage! Believe it or not, it's actually my very first ENDOOM screen I've ever made for a Doom mod which feels so satisfying to see it finished! It's basically to replicate the behavior of exiting the original Hocus Pocus game back to DOS which shows a screen similar to the one I've made. Of course, mine has a bit more eye candy going on and dithering effects to give off the illusion of there being more colors than there actually are. Mmmmm strict color/resolution limitation workarounds.
Something about ENDOOM screens are so charming to me and I personally love it whenever I see a custom-made one included in a Doom mod, mmmm EGA colors...
Only 16 colors to work with (16 for the foreground, 8 restricted to just the background), and 80 x 25 text resolution.
To see the screen, you will have to enable "Show ENDOOM screen" in GZDoom's Miscellaneous Options, so seeing this screen when quitting the game is totally optional to the player!
I will link the ENDOOM screen here so that you can put it in the PK3 yourself, Ravage matey! Once you insert it in the PK3, you shall be able to see it magically appear when exiting the game.
I was initially going to upload an animated GIF of it as a way to showcase it, but uploading a GIF attachment on my end kinda messes up the GIF playback every time I do, so it'll be best to see it in action for yourself within GZDoom.
For the final packaging of the wad, assuming you will keep the PK3 format, I suggest you take the maps out of the big wad archives you are currently using and place them as single-level wads inside a "maps" subdir. It's nothing that any player would notice, but if I am not mistaken, it'd be better for memory management. (Also note that in this case the name of the single-level wad files would also be those you need to use in MAPINFO.)
I'm hoping to wrap this up in the next few days. Clock's ticking!
I'm not going to worry about the highscore table until maybe a later patch. I just want to get this out the door already so I can focus on other things. :P
changelog:
added ENDOOM by CGA Gillian Seed
added musical fixes by CGA Gillian Seed
added intro card thanks to Scuba Steve
updated map39 to fix some errors
more typo fixes
imported maps for final compilation
shaved off almost 9mb in trimming extraneous files
Just to let everyone know, Hocusdoom has been uploaded to incoming, so should show up within a few days! When its officially accepted I will post the link.