Emulated Resolution & Soundfont Loading

[Nieb]

Hello all.
I'm really liking the new features being introduced with gzdoom version 4. I have a couple requests.

The emulated resolution feature is nice, but it appears to be clamped to 640x400 on the low end. I'd like to go down to 356x200 (the widescreen version of 320x200) to get the full DOS-1993-PC-gaming vibe. Can we lower the accepted values for resolution a bit?

While using a large soundfont file the game hangs for a second or two every time a map loads. Can we get an option to force it to preload the entire soundfont and keep it loaded?

Thanks!

[Caligari87]

The emulated resolution feature is nice, but it appears to be clamped to 640x400 on the low end. I'd like to go down to 356x200 (the widescreen version of 320x200) to get the full DOS-1993-PC-gaming vibe. Can we lower the accepted values for resolution a bit?

Not at this time, lower emulated resolutions break the menu layout and so the minimum was set at 640x400. There are some possible solutions to this issue but they have not been implemented yet.

[Nieb]

Bummer. It's good to hear it's being looked into.

[Graf Zahl]

This is also *very* low priority.

[Guest]

Being able to run the game in native resolution is low priority?

Sorry but, how about you remove the ability to downscale resolutions, and only support a display's native resolution? Really drive it home that accuracy is not a priority in ZDoom.

[wildweasel]

Being able to run the game in native resolution is low priority?

Sorry but, how about you remove the ability to downscale resolutions, and only support a display's native resolution? Really drive it home that accuracy is not a priority in ZDoom.

With that attitude?

[Graf Zahl]

Well, you can't please everyone. No matter what we do, somebody will always find reasons to complain. If you are so desperate to play Doom in pixel-vision, there's countless ports out there that can do it.

[drfrag]

You can play in lowres with LZDoom and the feature will be in my next legacy port in case i do another one. But hey if you pay me in a couple of days you'll enjoy a xZDoom version with lowres, take advantage of this special offer!

[Zenon]

The emulated resolution feature is nice, but it appears to be clamped to 640x400 on the low end. I'd like to go down to 356x200 (the widescreen version of 320x200) to get the full DOS-1993-PC-gaming vibe. Can we lower the accepted values for resolution a bit?

Things

You two should look up RetroShader and Vanilla Essence, I think they might have what you're looking for, especially Vanilla Essence, since it emulates that delicious 320x200, and, after I referred to this thread, might possibly start emulating 356x200 too.

Well, you can't please everyone. No matter what we do, somebody will always find reasons to complain. If you are so desperate to play Doom in pixel-vision, there's countless ports out there that can do it.

Oh, that reminds me.
I think I forgot to say thanks for implementing the soundfont list for Fluidsynth a few updates ago, it's exactly how I would've imagined it.
Sure a few things you've done have met with some negativity, but it's not all bad. Don't let the community get you down, focus on those who motivate you and tell you how good a job you've been doing, however few and far between they are.

While using a large soundfont file the game hangs for a second or two every time a map loads. Can we get an option to force it to preload the entire soundfont and keep it loaded?

This is very much something I can get behind.
In fact, I think it may deserve it's own thread.

[Graf Zahl]

While using a large soundfont file the game hangs for a second or two every time a map loads. Can we get an option to force it to preload the entire soundfont and keep it loaded?

Unfortunately not. At least not with FluidSynth - the library's interface is too limited.
Other MIDI synths implement a sound font cache. I'd recommend using Timidity++ anyway, it sounds a lot better than FluidSynth.

[Nieb]

Just tried out gzdoom 4.5.0. It looks like we have low-resolution support now and it appears FluidSynth loads soundfonts faster (or maybe I'm imagining things). Thanks for the updates Devs!

I tried Timidity++, it has some issues for me. For example, on e1m2 the woodblock-clicky sound gets stuck in a loop and clicks away for the entire length of the song . Also, Timidity++ doesn't sound as full as FluidSynth, perhaps it's just a volume thing.

The "Full Options Menus" behavior is a bit strange. "Full Options Menu" appears to change into "Simple Options Menu" (with the rest of the options appearing), then toggling "Simple Options Menus" ON-OFF doesn't appear to do anything. Then, pressing ESC returns to the simple menu.
I now realize that toggling "Simple Options Menus" OFF makes it so the simple menu never shows again after returning to the main menu. This seems a bit unintuitive, or perhaps I'm just a bit slow.