Super Sonic DOOM Intro still broken

[BFeely]

Super Sonic DOOM (https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/level ... wads/sonic) still has broken rendering in the intro sequence, where the water only appears directly under the ship.


The classic software renderer is fine (truecolor included), and the SoftPoly renderer has a shadow underneath the ship that isn't normally present.

[wildweasel]

Super Sonic Doom relies on a lot of rendering hacks that, frankly, never worked right on OpenGL - in addition to all the highly experimental stuff that only ever worked right in the very specific ZDoom release for which it was designed (2.0.94f, IIRC?). What it honestly needs is someone willing to go through it and replace all of the older hackier stuff with modern functionality, so that it can at least be playable in a future-proof manner. And that includes all the skybox "portals," monitors, and fake doors.

Shame, really, because I loved the concept of it, and The Ultimate Doomer clearly has an eye for architecture - it's just pushed so hard against the limitations of the time that, ironically, the work becomes limited to older ZDoom in order to function as intended.

[Graf Zahl]

This mod simply does not work right with the hardware renderer due to all the hacks.
The main issue with the intro is that it depends on a weird combination of skyboxes and horizon effects that cannot be replicated in the hardware renderer without a lot of extra work - and this mod's intro practically being the only thing in existence to depend on it, I saw little point supporting it. Back when this was released I officially declared it unsupported due to all the render hacks that don't work right with hardware rendering. Many maps were totally unplayable due to all the window skybox hacks slowing it down to a crawl, which even now do not play nicely with how the hardware renderer processes portals.

This really could use an upgrade, with 3D floors replacing all the Transfer_Heights hacks and other things it got.
BTW, having played 007LTSD recently, that mod also could use an upgrade, although not quite as extensive as SSD. But there's also a few places where some incompatibilities have developed over the years, mostly related to the bridge things it uses throughout.

As for permissions, the text file states:

Authors may NOT use any of these levels as a base for modification or re-use.
The only exception is for fixing any bugs that appear with newer ZDoom versions,
in which case let me know and/or send over any patches etc. so I can add them in.

The main problem, of course, is that what is needed here is not bugfixing but some extensive rework. If TUD gave permission to create an updated version targeted at modern GZDoom, I'd be happy to help with it.

[Rachael]

He still posts here on occasion, I can shoot a PM at him and see if he gets it and if he's interested.

[salahmander2]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but has anyone been in contact with him? I actually have made an updated version with the fixes and the more modern features implemented. Moreover, it's been updated to the modern DECORATE format and is now sorted into a PK3. I really would love to release it but of course, I need his permission to do so.

[Rachael]

You can send him a PM, yourself.

Link

[wildweasel]

You can send him a PM, yourself.

Link

From personal experience, though, good luck with that.

[salahmander2]

Already sent him a PM on Doomworld last year, he was last seen on there 2 years ago.