[idea] Official Unofficial ZDoom Build

Post by **Enjay** » Mon May 30, 2005 11:29 am

I like the idea. Randy clearly has a big re-write on his hands ATM and maybe has other priorities too. It'd be nice to have the new features and any little bugs that may have been fixed along the way sorted out too. I assume, however, that some of the bug reporting that would necessarily be generated would be incompatible across the versions and perhaps unwanted/ unsuitable bug reports may be posted by people. Not a huge issue I suppose. There would also be the problem of people DLing and getting confused with which version they should be using for stuff. Remember that ver 1.22 still sometimes causes confusion.

Again, not enough to prevent it being done IMO. All that being said, I still like the idea of an "official unofficial" build.

What would happen if the unofficial version included a feature that, for whatever reason, Randy didn't/couldn't/wouldn't include in the official build? We would then have an unofficial version that had a feature that some people (presumably) wanted, but a newer official version without the feature. Would future unofficial versions continue to try and re-write the code in - and thereby do something out of step with the official versions? Would it be left out? Is there the potential for Zdoom and UZdoom to fork at some point?

Grubber · Post by **Grubber** » Mon May 30, 2005 11:58 am

There would be warning or something in crash log, something like "Sorry, this version of ZDoom is unsupported, please don't post the crash log into ZDoom Bugs forum."

Compatibility is the biggest problem. It would be good if Randy agreed/disagreed adding each unofficial feature to keep everything compatible.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:18 pm

Let's see it positively. The more support we get behind this the higher the chance that Randy has to keep it as it is to avoid complaints later.

Right now I wouldn't worry too much.

The first time I gave Randy my code he tweaked the syntax a little (admittedly to the code's benefit) but this is a much smaller issue now that the base DECORATE format has been established. The rest is minor internal stuff anyway that is most likely to be used as it is.

But if Randy has objections (or wants to support this) he has to voice his opinion.

Post by **Enjay** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:23 pm

Grubber wrote:There would be warning or something in crash log, something like "Sorry, this version of ZDoom is unsupported, please don't post the crash log into ZDoom Bugs forum."

Although a place to report bugs would still be useful for bugs relating to the new features that do not yet appear in the official build so that they can be squashed before the code is merged.

Grubber · Post by **Grubber** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:25 pm

Heh, it would be best if Randy created new forum for it

.

Skunk · Post by **Skunk** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:44 pm

Okay, well, get Randy's offical apporval for the offical unoffical ZDoom and you'll offically have my offical support.

Phobus · Post by **Phobus** » Mon May 30, 2005 1:00 pm

And I will officially dl it seeing as I'm still running .63a (as I don't have Strife I saw no point in getting .96)

Skunk · Post by **Skunk** » Mon May 30, 2005 1:05 pm

I downloaded Strife. It's actually a pretty wicked game, but confusing at times. After I got a hang of it though...

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:52 pm

I do hope randy allows this, or finishes the next version off. I'm tired of downloading all these seperate builds.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:07 pm

Understandable.

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Mon May 30, 2005 5:40 pm

I can't see where fixing problems and adding what are probably planned features to ZDoom while Randy works on his "rewrite" and deals with Real Life can be anything but helpful in the long run.

However the problem I do forsee is handling editing questions for the releases (crashes are not going to be the subject of the bulk of questions you'll have therefore the crashlog is not the only place version info should be specified). Casual ZDoom users as well as newcomers are going to have to know which version they are using ergo this will require very clear download options and a forum for questions related to each version.

As well any releases made with these versions are going to need them to be easily accessible (as opposed to having to search for a specific forum topic as it stands right now

).

I like the idea of continued feature and bug fixes; just don't want things become choatic

Post by **Kirby** » Mon May 30, 2005 8:26 pm

This sounds like a definite good idea all around. Go for it

Zippy · Post by **Zippy** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:09 pm

Sounds good. Compatibility remains a large issue, but I think the hope is an official unofficial build will not only supply something fresh for the masses, but serve as a relatively stable base to hopefully make developing the official builds somewhat less painful.

that_guy wrote:this will require very clear download options and a forum for questions related to each version.

This may never work. No matter how clear you try and make things, there is a large group of people who just simply refuse to read.

Arcane · Post by **Arcane** » Tue May 31, 2005 2:12 am

I'd like to see WEIRDER features.

Like >180 degree field of vision.

Skunk · Post by **Skunk** » Tue May 31, 2005 2:39 am

Doom for Quadscreen monitors?