[WIP] ZDL 4.0

[Salad Viking]

That's cool. I think the XML config file replacement and "favorites"/presets library are particularly interesting. I would love to contribute, but I really don't know anything about your widget system or GUI programming with C++ in general.

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Yay confusing variable names! (Nearly all of them are global too!)

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for(i=0;i<dst;i++){BitBlt(GetDC(vr.wnd),stx+(i*mx.inx),sty,mx.inx,mx.iny,vr.gfx,mx.ict,mx.inf,SRCCOPY);}

Whitespace is for pansies!: (Oh yeah, and a goto inside an unneeded if.)

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for(i;vr.open?i<=dest:i>=dest;vr.open?i+=cf.anim:(i-=cf.anim)){SetWindowPos(vr.wnd,0,i,vr.rct.top+cf.yoff,0,0,SWP_NOZORDER|SWP_NOSIZE);if(!vr.wnd){goto exit;}}

Good enough for a stable release version, right?

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/* The code below creates a memory leak */
...memory leaking code...

*cringe*

[Gez]

A new feature I don't think a lot of people will notice is ZDL 4 should auto-identify IWADs and their versions when you add them to the IWAD list, based on file hashes in ZDLDefs.xml. Don't know if it would be appropriate to warn the user if their IWAD is out-of-date or not, but it's possible.

It should be needed only for the versions of Doom 1 that are too old to work correctly with ports (notably because of changes in the way the status bar is constructed) and for the Hexen and Deathkings IWADs (which don't have music if not patched to 1.1). You could also warn if the user has strife1.wad without voices.wad, or hexdd.wad without hexen.wad.

The hashes could also be used to prevent using -file or similar options with shareware/demo IWADs.

[Bio Hazard]

It should be needed only for the versions of Doom 1 that are too old to work correctly with ports (notably because of changes in the way the status bar is constructed) and for the Hexen and Deathkings IWADs (which don't have music if not patched to 1.1). You could also warn if the user has strife1.wad without voices.wad, or hexdd.wad without hexen.wad.

Actually, I have some questions about IWADs.

1. How does hexdd.wad work anyway? (I don't have it to test with) Is it basically just a PWAD (Run with "-iwad hexen.wad -file hexdd.wad") or do I just do "-iwad hexdd.wad" and ZDoom has to magically handle hexen.wad? In the latter case, hexen.wad may not be in ZDoom's IWAD search directory. ZDL just uses full paths to everything, and you can't be sure what the working directory will be. ZDL does this on purpose so you can put your IWADs anywhere without needing to add IWAD search directories to your zdoom.ini.
2. With Strife, can I just put voices.wad on the command line with -file or does ZDoom have to do some special magic to make it work? Note that the above problem is still a problem here.
3. At what version does heretic.wad stop being "Heretic" and becomes "Heretic: Shadow of The Serpent Riders"?
4. tnt.wad and plutonia.wad appear to have special "Anthology" versions. They have the same version number as the regular version but different hashes. Should I designate the anthology versions with "(Anthology Version)" or does it not matter?
5. Freedoom "Shareware" (as "doom1.wad") can or cannot load PWADs?
6. Chex Quest only ever had a 1.0, right?
7. Would chex2.wad be considered an IWAD if it were loaded with chex.wad a'la hexdd.wad?
8. Is the fan version of chex3.wad an IWAD?
9. Which versions of which IWADs are known to be unusable with ZDoom?
10. Are there any very common renames for IWADs? Currently, I have support for:
    • Ultimate Doom (doom.wad/1.9ud) as "udoom.wad"
    • Any Freedoom wad as "freedoom.wad"
    • Any Blasphemer wad as "blasphemer.wad"
11. What other minor/fanmade IWADs are there? Currently I have: (Let me know if I have the filenames wrong or if I'm missing a version.)
    • Chex Quest ("chex.wad", 1.0)
    • Chex Quest 3 ("chex3.wad", 1.0)
    • HACX ("hacx.wad", 1.1, 1.2)
    • Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl ("action2.wad", 1.0)
    • Harmony ("harm1.wad", 1.1)

Until I can figure out how to handle extra files in IWAD definitions (hexdd.wad, voices.wad and maybe chex2.wad), ZDLDefs just doesn't handle them. You can still manually add any IWAD you want of course, but ZDoom needs to be able to find the extra files on it's own.

[Sodaholic]

1. Not sure, but I think ZDoom may handle it itself.
2. I know for sure ZDoom handles automatically loading voices.wad if found.
3. It becomes "Heretic: Shadow of The Serpent Riders" if a lump with the name "EXTENDED" is found inside of the IWAD.
4-6. No idea, sorry.
7. No, Chex2 was only ever a pwad for Chex Quest 1.
8. Don't know, but why bother supporting it?
9. No clue.
10/11. "hexdemo.wad" and "hexendemo.wad" for the hexen demo. "freedoom1.wad" for the freedoom demo. "freedoomu.wad" for ultimate freedoom. "freedoom.wad" for freedoom. "udoom.wad" is not correct, it is supposed to be "doomu.wad". "blasphem.wad" and "blasphemer.wad" for Blasphemer (heretic equivilent of freedoom).

Hope this helps.

[Gez]

How does hexdd.wad work anyway? (I don't have it to test with) Is it basically just a PWAD (Run with "-iwad hexen.wad -file hexdd.wad") or do I just do "-iwad hexdd.wad" and ZDoom has to magically handle hexen.wad?

The normal way is the magical way, i.e. zdoom -iwad hexdd.wad. If hexen.wad can be found by ZDoom it works this way.

With Strife, can I just put voices.wad on the command line with -file or does ZDoom have to do some special magic to make it work? Note that the above problem is still a problem here.

Again, it's magical. If strife1 is the IWAD and voices can be found, it's loaded.

At what version does heretic.wad stop being "Heretic" and becomes "Heretic: Shadow of The Serpent Riders"?

1.3.

tnt.wad and plutonia.wad appear to have special "Anthology" versions. They have the same version number as the regular version but different hashes. Should I designate the anthology versions with "(Anthology Version)" or does it not matter?

It's more complicated than that since most id anthology boxes had the normal versions. You could mark the rarer versions as "bugfixed" though.

Freedoom "Shareware" (as "doom1.wad") can or cannot load PWADs?

Although there is no legal reason to prevent loading PWADs with the Freedoom demo, since it is meant to replace the shareware version, it behaves identically.

Chex Quest only ever had a 1.0, right?

Yep.

Would chex2.wad be considered an IWAD if it were loaded with chex.wad a'la hexdd.wad?

Nope; it was always treated as a PWAD.

Is the fan version of chex3.wad an IWAD?

Nope, only the one made by Charles Jacobi is an IWAD.

Which versions of which IWADs are known to be unusable with ZDoom?

Doom IWADs before 1.2 IIRC, and (though not entirely unusable) unpatched Hexen IWADs, for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Are there any very common renames for IWADs?

What other minor/fanmade IWADs are there? Currently I have: (Let me know if I have the filenames wrong or if I'm missing a version.)

See [wiki=IWAD]wiki[/wiki]. That page should be exhaustive. Note that Hacx versions before 1.2 are not IWADs, and likewise you won't find an IWAD version of Harmony 1.0 (it wasn't even a single file).

[NeuralStunner]

The normal way is the magical way, i.e. zdoom -iwad hexdd.wad. If hexen.wad can be found by ZDoom it works this way.

Last I tried, I had problems regarding absolute vs. relative paths, and it's not actually ZDL's fault. More info here.

[Bio Hazard]

The normal way is the magical way, i.e. zdoom -iwad hexdd.wad. If hexen.wad can be found by ZDoom it works this way.
...
[voices.wad is also] magical. If strife1 is the IWAD and voices can be found, it's loaded.

Is there a way to do it without the proper entries in the IWAD search table? As in, a way to do it with -file or something similar?

Doom IWADs before 1.2 IIRC, and (though not entirely unusable) unpatched Hexen IWADs, for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

When you say "unpatched Hexen", I assume you mean Hexen 1.0. And if that's correct, does the ZDoom incompatability include the Hexen Demo? (Which appears to only have a 1.0.)

See [wiki=IWAD]wiki[/wiki]. That page should be exhaustive.

Oh, excellent. I had been working off the Doom Wiki pages about IWADs. Honestly, It didn't even cross my mind to check the ZDoom wiki.

Okay, now I have another set of questions:

• So the Hexen demo IWAD is oficially "hexen.wad"?
• Heretic, Hexen and Strife Teaser are all not allowed to load PWADs?
• The Strife Teaser Doom Wiki page only mentions the "Strife Teaser" and "older version". Version "1.0" and "1.0-old" respectively sound good?

Heh, 208 lines of XML for these IWAD definitions. Nearly 10 kilobytes.

[Gez]

Actually, I haven't checked Hexen 1.0 to see if it doesn't work with ZDoom since I only ever had the 1.1 IWAD. I know Deathkings 1.0 will have no music if unpatched. I don't know what changes are done to the Hexen IWAD with the hexn11rp patch.


Yes, the Hexen demo IWAD does not have a different name.

[sirjuddington]

Oh nice, knew you were working on this, had no idea it was cross-platform. A launcher would be handy for running zdoom in linux.

[Xtyfe]

One thing that I would like to see is a loader for save games files. That one extra step of having to choose it at the start screen it just so much work

[QBasicer]

I'll be helping Bio a bit more when my life calms down. For now, I'm sort of a wall that he bounces things off of... no toasters yet thankfully. I'm glad to have somebody to work with here, qZDL was a lot of work and I felt like I wasn't the best man for the job. I've collected a lot of feedback over the lifespan of ZDLSharp and have passed it along, so don't fear! I've also lent my computer resources for spinning Windows Beta builds when the time comes.

[amv2k9]

I just gave ZDL 3 a try the other day, I have to say its pretty neat, and certainly faster than drag 'n drop all the time!

My only caveat with it was this: I thought how it worked was, you could load as many PWADs as you like into the PWAD box, then select the ones from there you wanted from that, then chose an IWAD & source port. Then I get about a thousand errors and realize that it runs everything that you've added in the PWAD box. I think doing the former, as opposed to the latter, would be a big timesaver in some instances.

Say, for example you have 12 weapon mods and 12 maps/megawads. That's 144 possible combinations, and thus 144 config files that have to be made, saved, scrolled through, and loaded each time a user wants a particular combination. Now doing it the other way, all a user has to do is make 1 config with the 24 wads, then select the two he or she wants to play.

Of course, I do understand that reworking that would mean a hell of a lot more work for you, and that the vast majority of people who will be using 4 are used to the way 3 does things, and thus it'd be counter-intuitive to them.

I do have two slighty more reasonable suggestions:
-Custom names for PWADs in addition to the custom names already allowed for source ports & IWADs. Useful to remind a user if a PWAD needs a certain source port or a certain version of a source port to run.
-An option to either open the last opened folder when looking for a config file (as it already does), or to always open the same, user-specified folder (good if you keep all your configs in the same place).

[Enjay]

My ony caveat with it was this: I thought how it worked was, you could load as many PWADs as you like into the PWAD box, then select the ones from there you wanted from that, then chose an IWAD & source port. Then I get about a thousand errors and realize that it runs everything that you've added in the PWAD box. I think doing the former, as opposed to the latter, would be a big timesaver in some instances.

EeeeK! Not for me. No no no no no! That would kill ZDL for me. I really don't like the "playlist" type of launchers. An explorer window with my WADs in it can serve that function if I want it: select the files I want and drag them to ZDL. However, having to configure ZDL with a list of pre-registered WADs in the PWAD list... is just IMO.

In fact, the simplicity of ZDL and the fact that it doesn't have that kind of approach is exactly why I like it and why I don't like so many of the other Doom launchers that have existed.

I hate that type of approach for music too. Just let me play the music files that I want dammit, don't force me to create playlists.

[Bio Hazard]

Well, to relieve both of your concerns, ZDL 4's "General" tab will still work like the current ZDL does. I also plan on adding an optional "Library" plugin for people who want to do what amv2k9 suggests.

Got you both covered.

However the Library plugin is not scheduled to be included in the initial 4.0 release. 4.0 is intended to be more-or-less the same as ZDL 3 from the user's standpoint. I plan on adding the Library and Save Browser plugins in ZDL 4.1.


While we're talking about ZDL, I've been thinking about making some sort of configuration file that could be embedded in a .PK3 (and possibly .WAD) file, to automatically configure things like IWAD, minimum source port version warnings, extra files and stuff like that. Would anyone have an interest in using such a thing?

Sorry ZDL 4 is taking so long BTW, I'm always getting stuck on making sure I'm doing things "properly". It's taking a lot longer than I want it to.

[sirjuddington]

Sorry ZDL 4 is taking so long BTW, I'm always getting stuck on making sure I'm doing things "properly". It's taking a lot longer than I want it to.

That's exactly what SLADE3 development has been like If I hadn't bothered with making everything 'nice' code-wise, it'd probably be much further advanced than it currently is. But, on the other hand, much buggier and harder to work with