ZDoom

For now it's solved with a batch file to start windowed. May be the problem is driver related (recent drivers could not deal with the poor ddraw emulation) and is affecting only the doubled and quadrupled low resolution modes not he native ones. I'm thinking about removing those modes for the latest windows versions.
@Graf Zahl: Did the modes strictly higher than 640*480 work properly or this is hopeless?

I've checked those lowres modes and they actually are 100% software so 320x240 is the same as 640x480 and there's nothing to do there. However a directdraw to OpenGL wrapper such as DXGL should fix the problem, AFAIK the latest version runs ZDoom on GL 3 cards. On my old GL 2 card DXGL 0.42 worked but was slow, you'd need to add ZDoom to the app list on the configuration panel or copy ddraw.dll manually to the game folder. BTW a new 320x200 mode appeared but worked in 16 colors like some kind of EGA emulation, it was fun for a while. Dgvoodoo 2 should work as well.

I don't see much interest on this however as a bonus i've posted an older version: ZDoom CLASSIC ,a ZDoom version from the good old days recompiled for 486 machines with some stuff and fixes added.
Why not 2.1.7 you may ask, well that one crashed instantly with a SIGSEV signal in thingdef.cpp (CreateNewActor) and didn't look good. May be trying to use memory without reserving it first.
I haven't tried it on a 486 however.

I've just updated the 2.8.1a release to fix sky scaling in low detail modes.

I'm going to release a big update very soon, but first i'd like to comment something on the quad mode algo.
At last i think i know how the original double one worked. It copied the first half of the screen onto the second, i got it right after all (copying half of the pixels) but i could also have copied the first quarter onto the third and the second onto fourth, performance wise it could have been even worse. It's very difficult to see what was going on there without any commentary.

On a pentium mmx rendering interpolation it's extremely slow (1 fps), it wasn't on 2.2 and i don't know where to look at.
AFAIK Graf Zahl did a full interpolation rewrite but doesn't seem mmx is used anywere, on a pentium or pentium 2 it's fine.
Direct3D will be working on the next release BTW.

I've released the new version and updated the first post. I actually wasn't very happy with the old release. Thanks go to Graf Zahl for his advice. I've updated the classic version as well. Have fun!

This sounds interesting - is it a one-off or will it become a true maintenance branch that will continue to incorporate fixes and conservative new features? The latter is what I've been looking for with ZDoom (I'm not interested in those ports that preserve _bad_ vanilla behavior, like infinitely tall monsters), and most importantly it must maintain demo compatibility (as 2.8.1) !!

Andrew Usher

I've just uploaded a new release, i've flagged it as important due to the A_SpawnItem bug of the maint branch i've noticed recently. Thanks to Graf, _mental_, Rachael and the rest of the dev team.

Changes/features since 2.8.1a R2:
- Fixed bug introduced in the maint branch, A_SpawnItem was broken.
- Fixed the timing of Heretic's lava damage.
- Added some wad compatibility fixes mainly for the Doom II, Doom and Heretic iwads.
- Added WadSmooth iwad support.

https://github.com/drfrag666/ZDoom-LE/releases

Can you make a version for mac powerpc os x 10.4? Apparently my g4 700mhz is only equal to a high-end p2 so it's really struggling with fmod. I don't even dare test it on my 500mhz g3.

I've finally released a new ZDoom LE version with the old OpenGL renderer for GL 1.2 cards. It's the GZDoom 1.8.4 renderer with later patches. I also backported the QZDoom render cull options by dpJudas from ZDoom32.
I've managed to fix the bugs introduced with the restoration of the low detail modes as well.
I've switched to FMOD Ex 4.36 for sound. Also there's a last version for win95 without the GL renderer using OpenAL.

I've updated the ZDoom classic version, i've merged an ancient GZDoom 1.0.17 GL renderer with later fixes and additions as well. BTW among them i recreated the 1.0.18 fix with Graf's clues (basically he said what to do in another forum). I had to make the merge manually with DiffMerge since there was still no GZDoom repo.
Also has an early Direct3D renderer and again the render cull options by dpJudas.
It's a good nostalgia trip, i tried to update it to 2.1.7 and even 2.1.6 but kept crashing with GCC.
I've also updated ZDoom32. See first post for downloads and detailed info.

What is the difference between the 3 different ports? Zdoom LE, Zdoom Classic, and Zdoom32? I couldn't quite tell which of each is directed for which kind of specific purpose. I'm definitely going to check them out since I am on an older system which makes these very appealing to me.

I posted a brief description at the ZDoom32 thread and of course there are the readme files.

ZDoom LE was the first and its origins were not too bright (it derived from a 'fork' by another guy @vogons) but later i rescued some missing code and i've recently added a lot of stuff including the GL 1.2 renderer from GZDoom 1.8.4 (i cherry-picked many later patches then so it must be pretty much the same as 1.8.6). I must say that guy did a pretty good job getting it to work on win95.

Later i made ZDoom32 becouse i thought LE was not good enough, this one has the old truecolor renderer and a later version of the old GL renderer for GL 2.0 cards. It's mostly up to date with the last ZDoom SVN with some later stuff.
It keeps the assembly for old machines and it's still the old codebase. Has render cull options by dpJudas (these were backported to LE and CL as well) and the low detail modes from LE.
Both run fine on win98 and up to win10. ZDoom32 is the flagship i could say, LE has even lower system requirements and it's from before the renderer floatification (i haven't actually tried ZDoom32 on a pentium tough).

ZDoom CLASSIC started as a version for 486 machines but apparently it's too slow there. It's the ZDoom 2.1.4 version recompiled and again with later stuff such as a preliminary Direct3D renderer so it runs well on modern machines. That renderer actually looks the same as ddraw but it's not the same. Also has the renderer from GZDoom 1.0.17 for GL 1.1 cards with later fixes, hires scale modes, texture compresion and sprite billboarding.
This one is for vanilla maps as well as very old mods (has resurrect cheat fixes and buddha for instance) and it's the fastest for old machines, I made it for nostalgia reasons and i think now it's the one i like more.

i just tested the Open GL render for version 2.8.1a RC3 in Windows ME. zdoom le crashed and displayed this error message: i am not sure of how to check to see which version of opengl i have. any help finding that info would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE:
i just installed an old diagnostic program that i've used on win2k pro onto win me. according to the program, i have opengl version 1.1.0 Win95 ICD

I'm no OpenGL expert but i think the renderer is requiring some extension not supported by your graphics driver and then the OpenGL subsystem is falling back to the microsoft software implementation.
I thought the rage pro only supported GL 1.1 but then you'd see the unsupported OpenGL version message (BTW i've fixed the not reverting to software renderer in that case issue for the next release). ZDoom LE requires only GL 1.2 support but seems like your hardware is not good enough.

The same thing happens to me with the 1.0.17a renderer in ZDoom Classic on my integrated S3 Savage IX (i've bought that HP Onmibook XE3 for only 10€), the engine is supossed to run on GL 1.1 hardware and does most of the times but i get the same error.
You can try the Classic version but that one only supports old mods. Or you could try GL Direct 5.0.2 from vogonsdrivers, there will be some graphic problems but it should work.

Edit: now i see you've got only GL 1.1 support but i don't know why you're getting that message instead of the other one. I'm glad the other issue is resolved.

i'm not too worried about using the GL reneder. my machine can't handle the demands that GL maps require on a system anyways.
on a seprate topic. the d3d renderer seems to work well. however, i can't seem to see a difference between the ddraw and the d3d.