GPL transition complete.

[Graf Zahl]

As of now GZDoom is licensed under the GPL.

Over the last 3 days I rewrote the last piece of code, the middle layer of the OPL player to be free of MusLib. This was achieved by picking equivalent code and data structures from Chocolate Doom.

In order to complete the license transition the FMod sound backend also had to be removed. As of now OpenAL is the only remaining option for sound playback.
I have been using the OpenAL backend exclusively for the last few months and so far it hasn't shown any problems, so I am relatively confident that this won't pose a stabilty issue.

Note that no license headers in the source have been changed yet, this will be done over the next few days.

[Graf Zahl]

I just want to add: As of now GZDoom has switched to release preparation again - if all goes well, 3.0.0 should be relased on May 1st. Obviously until then no new features will be added, unless they are minor additions.

[Major Cooke]

Skipping 2.5? Curious what for?

But damn, this has to be the shortest release cycle I've seen yet.

[Rachael]

GZDoom 3.0 was always proposed as the next major version, anyway. I was surprised he proposed 2.5 to begin with but understood why when he did it.

[Major Cooke]

He has at least feature marked as 2.5 in zscript. Those might want to be changed to 3.0 then or something so as to not confuse modders.

[leodoom85]

That's a surprising jump considering all the previous additions implemented in the past...
Never thought that 3.0 could be released this sooner, honestly. I predicted that could be released in like 5 months from now after the release of GZDoom 2.4.0...

[JPL]

Really good to hear this! Years of excellent work paying off here...

[Nash]

Oh shieeettt, already?! Awesome.

What about the copyrighted art assets? Any plans on how to handle that portion?

[Shadow Hog]

Forgive my persistence about this one, but would that make this old feature suggestion about expanded VGZ functionality feasible now? I mean, obviously for 3.1, not 3.0, but still.

[Graf Zahl]

That's a surprising jump

Why?
3.0 contains a major addition, i.e. the entire software rendering advancements from QZDoom, plus the license change.
My plan has always been to make a major version bump when the license can be changed, not earlier.

[Enjay]

I have been using the OpenAL backend exclusively for the last few months and so far it hasn't shown any problems, so I am relatively confident that this won't pose a stabilty issue.

Not so much a stability issue but a sound fidelity one, I have noticed in the last couple of days that sometimes if I go from one type of reverb area into another (including underwater reverb), I get an audible "click" as I move areas in OpenAL. This is particularly obvious in maps with a lot of background noise. The click is either absent or far less pronounced in FMOD Ex.

My Waterlab map, for example, often shows this when I go in/out (more out than going in) to the secret air vent containing the plasma rifle. I also notice it when diving into/out of the deep water in the cave to get to the Doom computer/megasphere secret. Also, I would say that the sound changes between reverb areas is far more abrupt with OpenAL than it is with FMOD Ex.



I can still hear a very faint click when going in and out of the water with FMOD Ex, but nothing like there is with OpenAL.



Generally, sound is quieter with OpenAL and there is something generally "not quite so good sounding" about it. It's hard to describe exactly what that is though, not being an audiophile. In short though, OpenAL simply doesn't sound as good to me as FMOD Ex does.

[ZZYZX]

It might be your OS/drivers/whatever. I your video I can hear clicks even after it says "FMOD ex".
edit: it actually clicks for me as well, but not as loud, more like you have with FMOD, and only when there are background sounds playing when I go underwater/surface.

[Graf Zahl]

I don't think that this is an issue with the backends but with how the transition is implemented.

[Enjay]

It might be your OS/drivers/whatever. I your video I can hear clicks even after it says "FMOD ex".

Although I do have a pretty loud system on my main machine (5.1 system), I've tried it on three machines with quite different hardware/software and got similar results.

edit: it actually clicks for me as well, but not as loud, more like you have with FMOD, and only when there are background sounds playing when I go underwater/surface.

I sometimes get faint clicks with FMOD Ex, especially with deep water reverb (and I can hear them in that section of the video), but they are far less noticeable than with OpenAL.

I don't think that this is an issue with the backends but with how the transition is implemented.

So it might be fixable then?

[Nash]

For the environment transitions, there are 2 solutions:

1) Ensure the environment transition only happens at zero crossings
2) Apply a very fast crossfade between transitions. I'm talking sample-level-fast here, like maybe 32 or 64 samples worth of crossfading. I don't know if the DSP allows this or not but this is a common-sense-way to seamlessly transition two sounds.

(for the record, I can hear the click on both the OpenAL and Fmod portion of Enjay's video, just the OA one is more loud)

For the "Fmod somehow sounds better", this can be investigated with a spectrum analyzer. Enjay, can you provide a scenario where you can clearly distinguish the "richness" difference you describe between the 2 sound systems? If we can record that scene's audio and run them through an SA, it'll reveal better results.