WidePix v1.3 [complete/final] - GZDoom 4.7.1

[Acts 19 quiz]

Thank you, just wanted to make sure.

As a fan of Chex Quest, I really appreciate the work that went into this effort. There's a couple of nitpicks of course, like the orange mountains in ENDPIC on the extensions alternate from sharp to interpolated between the mountain and black sky (the original middle part seems to stick with sharp), INTERPIC looks a little funny with the stars disappearing on the extensions and staying in the middle (as opposed to CREDIT and PFUB#, the later in particular is super snazzy and looks like Charles Jacobi himself might have drew it), and I'm pretty sure Chexter's shoulder armour is solid on the sides (VICTORY2, chex2) and not hollow. These are of course nitpicks and minor observations, the overall effort is appreciated and great. Thank you, Nash.

The following, however, isn't a nitpick, and is more complicated (and convoluted).

There is a bug with Chex Quest 3 with the E1 intermission. To be fair, it's not exclusive to WidePix, but correcting that bug makes it a nightmare. For reasons unknown, chex3.wad changed the way the E1 intermission background works, having no left hand on the background and instead bearing three small glove graphics. However, what happens here is for the entire duration of the melt animation and the first tick or two, the left hand is visually missing since it takes that long for the animations to start. The hand then jarringly pops on screen.

The solution is a corrected WIMAP1 (contained within game_widescreen_gfx.pk3) with the whole boot (like with chex.wad), but then that requires new WIA00900/901/902 graphics since chex3.wad would otherwise display three feet with a corrected WIMAP1. This in turn requires a new IN_EP1, which is beyond the purview of game_widescreen_gfx.pk3. I can handle that part easily enough, the issue comes down to whether or not to update game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 for the balance of these changes (looks like a 'nope'), or whether or not an updated CQ3 IWAD should package widescreen graphics with it.

The later point is providing some difficulty for me: A test run of an updated IWAD using IWADINFO causes it to not only ignore game_widescreen_gfx.pk3, but also a test PK3 containing my own widescreen graphics. Is there a way to carry my own widescreen graphics with a custom IWAD such that things don't go to pot when an updated IWAD is used with new GZDoom versions, yet other ports like Zandronum 3.0 respect the old 320x200 graphics in the main IWAD? I get something kind of like that loading a custom widescreen graphics PK3 with the old chex3.wad (widescreen graphics on GZDoom 4.5 and 4:3 on Zand), but that's no good. I need the widescreen graphics to load with the updated IWAD. I've tried both an external PK3 with a custom IWAD as well as including them into a filter/chex.chex3/graphics directory in a custom IWAD, but no dice on either front. Having them as the sole graphics resource in the root /graphics directory also isn't an option.

tl;dr I need a way to update or replace buggy/outdated graphics in game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 in a custom IWAD based on one of the games game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 supports, and in such a way that those changes are portable to whatever updated engine version (i.e., GZDoom 4.9.x) the user wants (if we assume game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 itself is frozen to any changes); preferably in a way that won't confound Zandronum. This is so the E1 Intermission bug fix isn't locked into a single GZDoom version. As of now, using a custom IWAD causes all widescreen graphics (whether from game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 or the IWAD itself) to be ignored and default to 4:3.

If there are any fuzzy details about this not related to the technical aspect or questions, feel free to PM me.

[Rachael]

If you are doing a custom IWAD you must change its "AutoName" entry to something else - using the same name as one of the internal GZDoom games is not supported nor encouraged, and will cause those problems you mentioned.

You can however label it as [Chex.MySuperAwesomeMod] or something like that. But using the internal names - don't do that.

https://zdoom.org/wiki/IWADINFO (I went and added that on the wiki for clarification)

[Acts 19 quiz]

That fixed most everything. I had assumed that using "chex.chex3" would be appropriate for an updated version of the same IWAD, but apparently not. That is apparently for v1.4, v1.4 alone, and will probably remain so for the future. I just had to make sure the root /filter directory was like "filter/chex.funrun/graphics" to match IWADINFO.

Having said that, while it mostly worked, credit.lmp and help1.lmp from game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 still aren't replaceable, probably because they are in the general /filter/chex/graphics directory, so the "chex.funrun" thing doesn't work, and neither does trying to have /filter/chex/graphics in the root IPK3 directory. Those are the only two graphics I'm still having trouble with. They work when used in a slightly older version (like g.4.5.0) that supports WidePix but doesn't have the Chex additions yet. There could be something else funny with IWADINFO or maybe it's just because they're placed in /filter/chex/graphics, which makes them hard to replace. This might well be beyond the purview of this topic, though. Thank you anyway.

[Rachael]

Well - in that case, the filter system for the widescreen graphics does need to be changed. It probably would make more sense to simply not load the internal engine assets at all when loading a custom IWAD.

[Nash]

I can't comment much about the issue with custom IWADs... I'll let the other developers decide what's best here. I just draw the stuff.

I'll see what I can do to improve the artwork for the Chex graphics in a future update. It's not urgent though, as I am a little occupied working on some other projects right now...

[Acts 19 quiz]

I can't comment much about the issue with custom IWADs... I'll let the other developers decide what's best here. I just draw the stuff.

Most of the problems were fixed with some IWADINFO changes. The Wiki was recently updated with new advice that I incorporated and heeded. Still a couple of issues, though (like why stuff in the /filter/chex/graphics directory can't be replaced, but /filter/chex.chex3/graphics can).

I'll see what I can do to improve the artwork for the Chex graphics in a future update. It's not urgent though, as I am a little occupied working on some other projects right now...

Take all time. Like I said, there's no urgent rush, it's just little things. Your work is great regardless, supporting so many games. Thank you for that. Just here with my two cents representing Chex. (;

[Devalaous]

The original Chex Quest is seemingly not covered by the widescreen graphics, should be an easy fix, I dont think the graphics changed between CQ 1 and 3. CQ2 can only be supported via a pwad though I think. I keep the originals around as its always nice to compare the originals to the remasters and remakes in CQ3

EDIT: Also, the Help screens in Doom, Doom 2 and both parts of Final Doom are not widescreen

[Nash]

EDIT: Also, the Help screens in Doom, Doom 2 and both parts of Final Doom are not widescreen

Sounds like you have a mod loaded that overwrites the graphics - for example the sprite fix project.

[Rachael]

For custom IWADs you can now add the definition "LoadWidescreen = 0" in your iwadinfo to stop the widescreen graphics from loading in your iwad.

You still should not use the actual internal full autonames, as before, though.

[drfrag]

Just a friendly reminder, the Hacx filter change is still not in WidePix.

[Nash]

And an even friendlier reminder,

Ah, I missed that. I'll have to manually do it on the WidePix repo. Currently busy with other things but I'll get to it ASAP.

;)

I already opened a ticket on my Github as soon as I read your message back there. I will get to it. Eventually. :P

[drfrag]

Ha ha i don't really care much, i don't need it myself. It was just a reminder so you (or someone else with access) don't forget. xD
The "friendly" part was a joke.

[Nash]

All good. Yeah, there's a couple more issues open on the WidePix repo, too, besides the Hacx 2 thing... it's just that I am so burned out from working on WidePix for the time being (I hope it is plainly obvious why) that I'd rather just not deal with it for now.

[Acts 19 quiz]

For custom IWADs you can now add the definition "LoadWidescreen = 0" in your iwadinfo to stop the widescreen graphics from loading in your iwad.

You still should not use the actual internal full autonames, as before, though.

This creates some interesting notes. As previously found, if one were to use "chex.chex3", that'll bork everything in the "chex.chex3" filter within autoloaded resource packs. So something like "chex.funrun" is recommended. This allows one to use in-WAD or in-line replacements for resources within that filter group.

The effect runs a bit deeper, though. There's also a generic "chex" filter with two resources (CREDIT.LMP and HELP.LMP) common across all three games. So while "chex.funrun" allows replacement of everything else, the two resources mentioned are still borked with that. You essentially have to go backwards a further directory and go "funrun" by itself in order to open up replacing resources in the generic "chex" folder. But this has undesirable consequences: Auxiliary resources from "game_support.pk3" like dbigfont entires for special characters (i.e., ¿, Â) are also not loaded, when in reality one might want to have all standard auxiliary resources load for a game, but selectively replace a handful of them.

The two options are to do as my example, remove any ties to chex in "Autoname" (and accept that the custom IWAD will have to be updated in parallel anytime GZDoom happens to change or add resources for Chex within game_support.pk3 or game_widescreen_gfx.pk3, the former of which is not at all uncommon given the number of times the language system or files have been updated); or change zmapinfo so the help and finale pages reference "HELP2" and "CREDITS" and break any mods which happen to have changes to the primary files (custom HELP AND CREDIT, not uncommon replacements for mods).

The new "LoadWidescreen = 0" IWADINFO property seems to be the only third option around this conundrum, for when it hits the release channel anyway.

[Nash]

Nightdive Studios adopted the Strife artwork from WidePix into the Veteran Editions available on Steam and the Nintendo Switch! :D Feeling really blessed :)