ZDoom LE (Legacy Edition)

[FluffyRalsei]

ZDoom LE 2.8.3a does not show "titlepic.png" in FullScreen mode, he shows black screen instead. But "credit.png" shows normally.
I don't know, maybe this is issue of my graphic card or some else.

[Redneckerz]

Now another ZDoom Classic release, a very minor update with some pending things. Still the statusbar for the 4x4 low detail mode only is adjusted after changing resolution, even selecting the current resolution again does.
https://github.com/drfrag666/gzdoom/rel ... .4a_GL.zip

A late quote, but i want to have it on the record that this link is not found on the main github page. It simply links to the software rendered version.

Removing the zip url and leaving 2.1.4a_R2 on leaves a File Not Found.

Unrelated, but ive also finally untangled your naming scheme and what every version of your ZDoom versions supports, aside the truecolor fixes and merges. This will be useful for documenting on a later date because I couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

But now i can, so thank you for the more than extensive legacy support, Frag! They will come in most handy for my thin clients which all support anemic GPU's.

[drfrag]

That's the GL version but then you had to enable the GL subsystem besides changing the renderer. I'll explain the mess a bit to you one of these days. That one was intended for 486s at first but it ran like shit there, it has an early prototype of the D3D backend and the pixel doubling code to emulate lower resolutions. May be that backend could be easily portable to other old versions: 2.0.98x? ZDuke? Not that i plan to do it, you always could use a DDraw emulator.

[Redneckerz]

That's the GL version but then you had to enable the GL subsystem besides changing the renderer. I'll explain the mess a bit to you one of these days. That one was intended for 486s at first but it ran like shit there, it has an early prototype of the D3D backend and the pixel doubling code to emulate lower resolutions. May be that backend could be easily portable to other old versions: 2.0.98x? ZDuke? Not that i plan to do it, you always could use a DDraw emulator.

I'd appreciate the explanation!

I got the general gist for the major ZDoom versions documented properly for now, with a feature list.

Two questions though:

• You mention an "Early Direct3D renderer" for ZDoom CL - what is this? i know D3D is used for HUD, but i assume this renderer is from a really old GZ build? If so, which one?
• Given the source is available and QEffectsGL code is fixed function stuff, i was surprised that you did not make a ZDoom32 or LE (Likely LE) derivative of it and integrate the code. How come?

So that people even on limited GPU's with lower than OpenGL 2 have access to some advanced visual effects.

Call the abomination QZDoom LE. (joking, but it has a ring to it)

[drfrag]

It's the "renderer" between ZDoom 2.1.7 and 2.2 and is used to present everything. There still wasn't a 32 bit HUD and had no shaders, it looks pretty much the same as DDRAW but works well on modern hardware.
QEffectsGL is not a renderer but a wrapper or as described a pseudo-driver, i see it works with GL 1.1 games. Nothing to do, it translates calls to an old GL API to calls to a modern one (i guess) so it will require a modern driver. Try it but it won't work on your machine, GZDoom 1.8.4 officially required GL 1.3 but LE runs well on nvidia 1.2. I merged ZDoom 2.8.1 with GZDoom 1.8.4 (more or less). So i injected that GL renderer somehow. I did a merge with Git and then i fixed it and added a lot of stuff.

[Redneckerz]

It's the "renderer" between ZDoom 2.1.7 and 2.2 and is used to present everything. There still wasn't a 32 bit HUD and had no shaders, it looks pretty much the same as DDRAW but works well on modern hardware.

Interesting stuff, and quite not documented as far as my eyes can see (This specific implementation, that is). Good stuff

QEffectsGL is not a renderer but a wrapper or as described a pseudo-driver, i see it works with GL 1.1 games. Nothing to do, it translates calls to an old GL API to calls to a modern one (i guess) so it will require a modern driver. Try it but it won't work on your machine, GZDoom 1.8.4 officially required GL 1.3 but LE runs well on nvidia 1.2. I merged ZDoom 2.8.1 with GZDoom 1.8.4 (more or less). So i injected that GL renderer somehow. I did a merge with Git and then i fixed it and added a lot of stuff.

It is indeed a wrapper but with source code available. I have seen many posts that use these with a specialized .ini file but none made a special build out of it. From what i traced back, the visual effects are fixed-function work, requiring 1.3 or 1.4. Reshade was introduced as an replacement when GZDoom 1.9.1/2.0 came around when the renderer changed.

Sadly, despite a search, i have not come across the exact requirements of QEffectsGL, so i do not know to which calls it translates to and thus which GPU is required.

Some links:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=47448
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34585

[drfrag]

It's a wrapper so it translates fixed functions to something else, those are modern effects.
That's randi's WIP D3D "renderer" obviously and then i cherry-picked her later fixes, i don't remember exactly what i did but it works well.

[Redneckerz]

It's a wrapper so it translates fixed functions to something else, those are modern effects.
That's randi's WIP D3D "renderer" obviously and then i cherry-picked her later fixes, i don't remember exactly what i did but it works well.

I think its safe to say that those modernish effects require shader support, despite the code (as said by Graf on DRDteam) being fixed-function.

Though obviously these kinds of effects can be done on fixed-function hardware.