ZDoom 2.8.0 and ACC 1.55 released

[randi]

After 2.5 years, there's finally a new release of ZDoom and a new ACC to go with it. Visit the download page to get them. There have been significant changes to ZDoom over the years, including:

Mac OS X
The OS X version of ZDoom now features a native Cocoa back end that significantly increases performance, in many case doubling frame rates, and is also more stable than the previous version.

Linux
Linux now uses SDL2 which can produce less frame jitter with high frame rates, has some vsync support, and fullscreen is now a "desktop fullscreen" mode.

Windows
ZDoom already worked great on Windows, so nothing has changed here.

Everything else
A fairly complete list of changes since 2.7.1 is available [wiki=Version_history#2.8.0]on the wiki[/wiki]. I'll probably pick out some highlights to list here eventually. Maybe. Or just read the comments for this post, since other people already did it.

[Siberian Tiger]

WOO!

Anything new or unique about this version of ZDoom? I apologize, I don't really monitor the commits on ZDoom's repo on GitHub.

[Rachael]

Quite a lot, I am sure. XD

If I remember right, this one has quite a lot of DECORATE and ACS enhancements, and some internal code refactoring.

[Major Cooke]

Go look at the wiki. And yes. A LOT of new decorate functions. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

[Eevee]

Taken from the version history on the wiki. I combed through git a bit to find some things that were overlooked, but there were almost 1800 commits, so this is probably not exhaustive.

• Frontend
  • GoG-installed IWADs are now detected automatically. Steam-installed IWADs are detected on OS X and Linux.
  • Improved netcode and added network options menu to configure new features.
  • Two new cheats, god2 and buddha2. The player cannot die from telefrag damage with these.
  • Added WAD compatibility fixes for over a dozen maps, including Cheogsh 2, XtheaterIII, and the infamous missing yellow keycard on TNT MAP31.
  • +warp now works from the command line.
  • Added support for standard file paths on Windows.
  • Added a user-settable factor for earthquake intensity.
• Automap
  • Non-countable monster actors can have their own separate automap color.
  • Extended am_cheat with three modes to prevent lines flagged as hidden from being shown on the automap.
  • Added separate colors for the various types of 2-sided walls for the overlay automap, as well as colors missing from that mode.
  • Actors sprites can be shown on the automap instead of simple triangles when the second, third, fifth or sixth modes of am_cheat console variable are enabled.
• Console
  • Added a closemenu console command, so that menu options that close the menu can be added.
  • The behavior of auto-loading external DEHACKED lumps can be controlled by setting the dehload console variable.
  • Results for console tab-completion are now color-coded; console commands appear blue, console variables green, and aliases red.
  • Fixed: the wi_noautostartmap console variable was not sync-safe.
  • Added sv_freelook, sv_allowfreelook and sv_nofreelook.
• Building
  • Native Cocoa back end for OS X resulting in significant increases in performance over SDL in addition to better overall user experience.
  • Added optional support for the OpenAL sound library, allowing for compiling without FMOD.
  • Added a new software synthesizer, WildMIDI, and a new OPL core.
  • Added support for building with clang.
  • Nearly-complete support for ARM devices such as the Raspberry Pi. (Some known bugs remain — in particular, you must set vid_forcesurface to true in zdoom.ini, or ZDoom will instantly segfault.)
• Modding
  • Added Ceiling_CrushAndRaiseSilentDist.
  • New type of earthquake, can only be accessed with A_QuakeEx or its ACS equivalent, which can replicate the shaking effect seen in many recent games instead of random camera offsets using the QF_WAVE flag. Quakes can now be scaled in, out, or mixed up. Both wave and regular quakes work together.
  • Menu's back button and the pause sign can be animated.
  • The particle engine is now exposed to modders via the A_SpawnParticle action function and SpawnParticle ACS function.
  • Directory-structured archives now support lump filtering, which loads different resources depending on the base game.
  • Friction and TERRAIN-based sector damage are now transferred to 3D floors.
  • Fixed scaling of textures on 3D floors.
  • Overhauled sector types and properties. Sectors have several new UDMF properties.
  • Lines and sectors may now have multiple ids/tags via the moreids UDMF property.
  • checkswitchrange now correctly prevents players from pressing switches embedded in the floor or ceiling, and works correctly with switches that are part of 3D floors.
  • Added blockhitscan and transparent line properties, waterzone sector property, and alpha, fillcolor, gravity, health, pitch, renderstyle, roll, scale, scalex, scaley and score thing properties for UDMF.
• ACS:
  • Added DropItem, DropInventory, CheckFlag, GetLineActivation, GetMaxInventory, SetLineActivation, GetArmorInfo, GetActorPowerupTics, IsPointerEqual, ChangeActorAngle, ChangeActorPitch, PickActor, SetSectorDamage, QuakeEx, Warp and CanRaiseActor functions.
  • Added FHF_NORANDOMPUFFZ flag for LineAttack.
  • Added BLOCKF_HITSCAN flag for Line_SetBlocking.
  • Added APROP_ViewHeight, APROP_AttackZOffset and APROP_StencilColor ACS actor properties.
  • Fixed potential desync with CheckPlayerCamera.
  • Fixed: Thing_SetGoal could put an actor's target and goal out of sync.
  • GetSectorFloorZ and GetSectorCeilingZ now interpret 0-tag as 'any sector' and return the z-height of whatever sector is at those coordinates.
  • Arrays are now supported at the script scope.
• ANIMDEFS:
  • Added an optional worldpanning flag for camera textures definitions in order to make camera textures pan in world units instead of texture units.
  • Added allowdecals option to animated doors.
• DECORATE:
  • Four new keybinds for DECORATE use with weapons (see A_WeaponReady's User states.)
  • Sprites now support mirroring via negative scales.
  • Added Player.UseRange and Player.AirCapacity player properties.
  • Actors can now have extreme death/crash states that are damage type specific.
  • New randompick and frandompick non-action functions.
  • A_Print, A_PrintBold, and A_Log can now use $FOO translation strings.
  • The following functions have been given additional functionalities: A_AlertMonsters, A_BFGSpray, A_Change/ScaleVelocity, A_CustomPunch, A_SetAngle and A_SetPitch, A_DamageMaster/Children/Siblings, A_KillMaster/Children/Siblings, A_Log, A_Print, A_PrintBold, A_RadiusGive, A_Saw, A_SetScale, A_SetTics, A_SpawnItemEx, A_Teleport, A_VileAttack, A_Warp, A_WeaponReady.
  • Added NOFORWARDFALL, NOTONAUTOMAP, RELATIVETOFLOOR, NEVERTARGET, NOTELESTOMP, ALWAYSTELEFRAG, ALLOWPAIN, CAUSEPAIN, DONTTHRUST, BUDDHA, FOILBUDDHA, MIRRORREFLECT, AIMREFLECT, THRUREFLECT, HARMFRIENDS, NOFORWARDFALL, HITTARGET, HITMASTER, HITTRACER, WEAPONSPAWN, INVENTORY.TOSSED, INVENTORY.ALWAYSRESPAWN, INVENTORY.TRANSFER, and INVENTORY.NOTELEPORTFREEZE actor flags.
  • MTHRUSPECIES now works with A_BFGSpray and rail attacks.
  • Added A_DamageSelf/Target/Tracer, A_Remove/Siblings/Target/Tracer, A_KillTarget/Tracer, A_DropItem, A_SetSpeed, A_SetHealth, A_ResetHealth, A_SetFloatBobPhase, A_SetRoll, A_SetTeleFog, A_GiveTo/TakeFromChildren, A_GiveTo/TakeFromSiblings, A_JumpIfHigherOrLower, A_SetFloatSpeed, A_SetSpecies, A_CheckBlock, A_CheckProximity, and A_QuakeEx action functions.
  • Players with the NODAMAGE flag cannot be telefragged anymore, nor can they take any damage via voodoo dolls.
  • The amount of health regeneration gained from a PowerRegeneration powerup can be controlled with the Powerup.Strength property.
  • Improved the NoDelay state flag reliability.
  • Added Subtract render style.
  • Different types of gargoyles and golems could infight amongst themselves (original Heretic behavior).
  • Added CanRaise and Slow actor state flags.
• LANGUAGE:
  • Externalized "New save game" line for save screen, and automap statistics display.
• MAPINFO:
  • Custom colors for both modes of the automap can be set on per-mod basis.
  • Added SlowMonsters, HealthFactor, NoInfighting and TotalInfighting skill definitions property.
• SBARINFO:
  • Extended DrawImage command.
• SNDINFO:
  • Fixed incorrect Maulotaur melee attack sound.
• Internals
  • Removed Polymost code.
  • Vast improvements to movement interpolation.
  • Fixed a lot of leaks and garbage collection issues.
  • Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

[Siberian Tiger]

Great stuff!

[edward850]

I don't think this is exhaustive — someone would have to comb through the last couple years' worth of commits to make sure.

Indeed it isn't. It's missing some more recent stuff such as removal of player start limitation allowing for "clown-car" spawns, more compatibility additions such as for TNT Map31 infamous Yellow keycard, OpenAL (although that's absent from the official builds), filters, critical fixes for garbage collection in the ACSVM and interpolation, smoother interpolation transitions for platforms, a rather dramatic rewrite for object positioning for improved interpolation code, fixed the RNG table offset bug in saved games...

Yeah. I don't think there will ever be a complete list of changes. You know what? That's the game of this release. Jump in and try everything.

[Nash]

Where can I find which commits have any new tags added? I'm looking through the TortoiseGit log but it doesn't seem to show at which point were tags added...

(Reason: I need some references to decide where to add tags for GZDoom-GPL)

[_mental_]

It's quite easy on GitHub website: https://github.com/rheit/zdoom/tree/2.8.0
The complete list of tags: https://github.com/rheit/zdoom/tags

[Nash]

The complete list of tags: https://github.com/rheit/zdoom/tags

This was the information I needed, thanks. :D

[LkMax]

I think I know the answer but just to be sure, can I reuse my zdoom.ini from the older version (2.7)? I don't want to change quite a lot of settings and paths again.

[edward850]

That's why it's an ini file.

[Edward-san]

Why is the SpawnParticle thing not included in the 2.8 changelog? It should be!

[Graf Zahl]

Because that log misses lots of stuff. The thing that's most important to me (sector movement interpolation is finally working correctly) is also not mentioned.

[LkMax]

That's why it's an ini file.

I'll take that as a yes, sorry for the stupid question.