GZDoom 4.12.2 released

[Graf Zahl]

-stdout either attaches to the existing Windows console or opens a new one and redirects all printed content there.

[Acts 19 quiz]

I am not sure I really get the need here exactly. If the startup fails you see the usual fatal error log window where you can read the entire log. If it doesn't fail you can see the startup log by bringing down the console.

If someone wants to volunteer and code the feature then I don't think anyone would reject the PR, but personally I'm not going to code it.

It's less about, 'I need to take these 5 seconds the load console is up and copy every single thing it says before my time's up!', and more, 'Uh oh, I saw some yellow text zipping by. I need to check the console and/or console output for details.' It was a quite nice and helpful reminder that I needed to check the console, versus just having to always check the console on the off chance something's amiss with my mod code, with no guarantee I'm not wasting my time by doing so most of the time.

Of course, it's a relatively minor detail. I remember (and saw personally when poking around inside) having to maintain three different versions of the IWAD Selection dialogue, how big of a deal it was when g4.11 brought feature parity to Linux, and the simplicity using ZWidget brings to that. It's less, 'I hate you removed this!', and more, 'I understand the practical reason it was removed, and the new launcher is for the most part a nice improvement. There's just a couple of things I miss.' As always, progress marches on.

[dpJudas]

I see - that makes sense. I don't know if the console is available yet for rendering while it is loading, but if it is then it could show it if developer mode is enabled.

[Acts 19 quiz]

Dumb question maybe, but is there a console variable or user setting to make the console text display above the new universal loading bar (as part of the normal game window)? That would effectively replace the prior console. The ability to choose to have or not have console text (on the WAD's side), and control the colour of the loading bar, would also replace the prior GAMEINFO control of the loading window (changing banner colour, theme, etc.). I'm not especially familiar with new loading bar, so I'm a little behind on what is or isn't possible.

[dpJudas]

I added a startscreen_console cvar now to vkdoom that you can try in the nightly build. If enabled it will display the console while loading instead of the start screen. I'm not 100% sure if it can be safely ported by cherry-pick to gzdoom due to backend differences (shader initialization is a little different), but if it can then it could also end up in gzdoom.

Edit: seems github is having trouble with their buildbots atm, but once they work the build should be updated.

[dpJudas]

Turns out there's some load order issues with that change so I'm reverting it. I'm sorry, but while I understand why some may want this feature its too much trouble for me to implement. I had hoped adding just a few lines of code would do the trick but we weren't that lucky.

[Acts 19 quiz]

No problem. Thank you for trying.

[Lycanite]

Is there a way to get the AUR package updated? It's still at 4.11.3-1.

[HyperAlpha]

Unpopular opinion: Windows 7 support should be removed.

[Graf Zahl]

There's no pressing need for that yet and last year the user share was still slightly below 4%.

[Acts 19 quiz]

Unpopular opinion: Windows 7 support should be removed.

What is gain by doing this, or what specific problems are addressed and fixed?

[Xterra]

Unpopular opinion: Windows 7 support should be removed.

Alienate people by deliberately breaking something that works. Yeah, like the ZDoom community needs more nonsense like that.
Get real, buddy, nothing's gained by breaking it deliberately.

[merlin86]

I mean Win 7 is not supported anymore and reached its EOL In 2020. At work we deliberately broke IE support in our web app mainly because we can finally use more modern libraries and throw away Microsoft Webforms ( yuck) .

Same fate will have source ports when the gains to use more modern libraries will outweigh the low percentage of Win 7.
Even Firefox dropped support for 7 ages ago.

[Rachael]

If it becomes too much of a hassle to support it, then support will be dropped - there are no plans to go out of our way to keep Windows 7 working.

But that being said, we're not going out of our way to intentionally break it, either. We're not going to break it "just because". That is not our way.

[Xterra]

If it becomes too much of a hassle to support it, then support will be dropped - there are no plans to go out of our way to keep Windows 7 working.

But that being said, we're not going out of our way to intentionally break it, either. We're not going to break it "just because". That is not our way.

...which is completely understandable. Breaking something that works "just because" is not a cool thing to do. I understand not going out of the way to keep it supported, but, quite literally, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Conversely, if it's fixed, don't break it. If the support's there and it ain't harming or holding anything back...why the hell would you break it just because?

I don't understand why these folks are saying "break it".