GZDoom 4.0.0 Released

[Caligari87]

If you really really really really need 320x200 resolution, that can be achieved with a post-processing shader mod. In fact I believe there's one or two such mods on the forums already.

Retro FX with dither
Retroshader

[Enjay]

It's also worth remembering that the fonts people are attached to (smallfont and consolefont) did not feature at all in the original, and much, much simpler Doom menus.



I mean, I know that the GZDoom SmallFont uses Doom resources and fits in with the game much better, and I do feel that the NewConsoleFont is not the prettiest. However, having had a good look forother options myself, it's really not easy to find a suitable alternative to it (I couldn't find one).

More importantly, the new console font is much more readable and allows the menus to be presented in a much more user-friendly form: which is, after all, the main point.

[Graf Zahl]

Thinking of it, the real setup menu in Doom.exe was the setup tool which was a DOS text application and essentially used - you guessed it - the VGA font!

[Enjay]

Heh, you're not wrong:



GZDoom is more "purist" than I thought.

[edit] What we need is someone to create a mod that makes the in game menu look like the old setup program. [/edit]

[Kinsie]

What we need is someone to create a mod that makes the in game menu look like the old setup program.

Didn't Zippy do that (as a gross ACS thing) for the Master Levels menu mod thing back in the day?

[Enjay]

Also worth remembering, GZDoom still offers a very configurable menu that still feels part of the normal menu system (IMO).

Other ports have gone via different routes:



I'm not trying to say that the above is bad (actually, I like it and find it very user-friendly) but it's certainly a different approach to what GZDoom is doing.

The one that I do struggle with, however, is:



I guess that's as much a launcher as anything, but the settings are mostly available there rather than in game, and I find the whole setup slow and rather painful to use.

Didn't Zippy do that (as a gross ACS thing) for the Master Levels menu mod thing back in the day?

I knew someone had done something a bit like already. That's what I was thinking of.

BTW, I was mostly suggesting it as a joke. Personally, I would have no need or desire to use something like that in game.

[Graf Zahl]

Also worth remembering, GZDoom still offers a very configurable menu that still feels part of the normal menu system (IMO).

Other ports have gone via different routes:



I'm not trying to say that the above is bad (actually, I like it and find it very user-friendly) but it's certainly a different approach to what GZDoom is doing.

It's usable but the color theme is atrocious with far too high contrast. While I like the style of this, its colors need to be toned down. Still, for some port going from this to...

The one that I do struggle with, however, is:



I guess that's as much a launcher as anything, but the settings are mostly available there rather than in game, and I find the whole setup slow and rather painful to use.

this, is where I have to start to question a developer's goals. Doomsday really strikes me on something that totally has lost focus of what it should be about.
It's funny that 15 years ago it was a port that missed the important things and over all those years has only gotten worse. It still doesn't have a good renderer but instead only got more clutter - and more - and more... Right now starting something like MAP01 eats half a gigabyte of RAM!

[Nash]

I like this one actually. Reminds me a lot like Unreal's. Has the potential to be good, if reskinned/artwork'd properly. Should (for whatever reason) someone ever decide to give GZDoom's menus a facelift, IMO it should head in this direction, aesthetically.

[Enjay]

Agree on the Risen3D colours. Something more subtle (hey, even configurable forum-like themes) would would be nice. I'm pretty sure that Graham Jackson now has very little to do with Risen3D development these days. He has been tiring of it for some time and the (very few) recent updates have been mostly to support Willem Sitters' mapping work. I used to "speak" with him quite a bit over email but I haven't heard from him for a while (to be fair, he hasn't heard from me either, and I think it's my turn to reply. )

I like this one actually. Reminds me a lot like Unreal's. Has the potential to be good, if reskinned/artwork'd properly. Should (for whatever reason) someone ever decide to give GZDoom's menus a facelift, IMO it should head in this direction, aesthetically.

For me, the biggest downside of it could be (unless it was done carefully) is lack of customisability. With the current, relatively simple menus in GZDoom, a stand alone game can easily configure things to look like it's own menu, with game-important features obvious and irrelevant Doom-specific ones less so. Something allowing for a nice modern Unreal-like menu interface, but with a good level of customisability would be great.

The current system does do the necessary stuff quite efficiently though.

As for the Doomsday interface, I actually set up Doomsday this morning just to remind myself what it was like (I deleted it a few months back because it simply wasn't working very well for me at all). Slow and clumsy was the answer. In game, the midi sound was awful for some reason (I eventually found a setting that worked) and the whole process to get the Doom, Heretic and Hexen IWADs set up, working and configured to my control scheme took well over an hour! I may have sowrn at my computer a couple of times during the process too.

[Apeirogon]

Internal code restructuring to agnostisize level structures.

Huh? Philosophical debates in source code of game from 1993? I get that this is typo

Making things something-agnostic is not about philosophy but about software design in this case.

The aim was to make GZDoom able to load several levels at once, which means that level structures have to be self-contained and to stop relying so much on global variables. The objective is still far from being reached but there's progress.

Ah, another word fell victim of the peoples who cant invent new word for new thing. Shame...

Also, how detect that gzdoom runs using vulkan, except using "change backend" command line parameter before run?

[Gez]

Ah, another word fell victim of the peoples who cant invent new word for new thing. Shame...

We're talking tech jargon; I can guarantee you that whatever word they'd have coined instead would have been so much worse. I mean, they're the same guys who gave us "cloud computing", "gamification", "friending", "freemium" and bevies of other linguistic horrors.

[_mental_]

how detect that gzdoom runs using vulkan, except using "change backend" command line parameter before run?

Open console when GZDoom has finished loading. It contains information either about OpenGL (GL_VENDOR, GL_VERSION, etc) or about Vulkan (device, version, etc).

[Apeirogon]

IMO its english, as language, fault in this case. Because to make new word you need only add some ending to the word and voila new word created.
Overall, almost in all technical related sections much of the words and greek letters have different meaning, depending of context where it used.
For example, "I" can be electrical current, imaginary unit, inertia, etc.

So this is fine, I think, because they use mostly "unknown" word.

[Graf Zahl]

Actually, they chose a word that perfectly describes what it's supposed to mean. For someone not really fluent in the language it may be confusing if they only know one specific meaning of it but that's unavoidable.

[Enjay]

So this is fine, I think, because they use mostly "unknown" word.

I don't think it is that unknown in as much as many people will be aware of the term "agnostic" :"a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God". And, with that definition in mind, I think it works pretty well in the context it has been used here too.