RRWM [ver. 1.5.1] [2024-12-31]

[Player701]

Thanks for informing me about that. So here's what I can do:

1. Remove it from my autoloads every time I play the mod. Very annoying.
2. Disable autoloads for RRWM, and relist every other thing. Also very annoying.
3. Remove the abstraction layer and HUD CVars from RRWM (and probably the HUD itself) , which would be needed to be redone on every release.

Pretty much, except that in case no. 3 you will again end up with ZScript errors because the support code in the HUD package is a stripped-down version compared to the one in the primary package.

[yum13241]

So:

Remove the abstraction layer FROM THE HUD. I can use the main one.

Remove the HUD CVars from the HUD/RRWM. Does it even matter if I remove the HUD CVars from the HUD or the main mod? I'd assume it doesn't matter (they're interchangeable).

(Possibly) Remove the HUD from RRWM?


Sorry for bothering you, I bet you have more important things to do.

[Player701]

So:

Remove the abstraction layer FROM THE HUD. I can use the main one.

Then the HUD won't work as a standalone package because it will be missing the required classes.

Sorry for bothering you, I bet you have more important things to do.

It's OK, but I've already said that the actual solution won't be that easy. You are of course free to do whatever you want with your own copy of the package(s), but just moving and/or removing classes from them won't work here because it wasn't designed to operate in a way you want it to. But since you have suggested this use case to me now, I will try to account for it in a future release. I understand it can be annoying to mess around with autoloads all the time, it's just that I've never used them myself so this issue wasn't on my mind at all, not until you've mentioned it.

[yum13241]

Then the HUD won't work as a standalone package because it will be missing the required classes.

D'oh!

It's OK, but I've already said that the actual solution won't be that easy.

Which I understand.

I understand it can be annoying to mess around with autoloads all the time, it's just that I've never used them myself so this issue wasn't on my mind at all, not until you've mentioned it.

Thanks for taking this into your consideration.

[Player701]

Thanks for taking this into your consideration.

No problem at all, just be patient. Like GZDoom itself, RRWM is also purely a hobby project, and I do not get paid for working on it. And yes, I've been a bit busy at work (the one I do get paid for) in the last couple of weeks, and this is expected to continue until at least the 2nd half of the month. By then, if someone happens to answer my request, I will likely be able to spare some time to continue development.

[yum13241]

No problem at all, just be patient.

Which I am. I don't mean any toxicity/impatience/whatever.

Like GZDoom itself, RRWM is also purely a hobby project, and I do not get paid for working on it.

Which I understand. Again, I don't mean any toxicity/impatience/whatever.

And yes, I've been a bit busy at work (the one I do get paid for) in the last couple of weeks, and this is expected to continue until at least the 2nd half of the month.

Completely OK with me. After all, being able to live > a mod.

[Player701]

RRWM has been updated to version 1.5.0. Download the new release HERE. Standalone HUD package can be found here. The links in the first post have been updated too.

NB: This release bumps the minimum required GZDoom version to 4.11.0 due to the use of the latest ZScript features and bugfixes.
Please update your GZDoom if you're using an older version. (Latest is recommended)

Please note that older save files are NOT backwards-compatible with this RRWM version.

Perhaps a bit late, but Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone! This is a major update with several new features and tons of small tweaks and fixes.
To report a bug, please use the issue tracker (no registration required), or post your report directly in this thread.


New feature highlights:

As an attempt to increase its overall usefulness, the chainsaw has received a major overhaul in this release.

Chainsaw: Protection

The most significant enhancement is the ability to use the chainsaw as an improvised shield, helping you survive close-range encounters. This feature engages automatically as long as you keep attacking and dealing damage - but to make the most use out of it, you must learn to face the danger head-on, as the shield will only protect you from frontal attacks! Any frontal damage will be reduced by half before being further absorbed by armor.

Additional notes regarding this feature:

• The protection zone is actually quite wide - you don't have to be looking directly at an enemy to shield from their attacks.
• The difference in Z-coordinate is not considered when calculating attack angles.
• It is not possible to defend against non-directional damage sources such as crushers or damaging floors.

Chainsaw: Upgrades

You can now also improve the chainsaw's engine efficiency by finding and picking up other chainsaws during your playthrough. Upgrades reduce the rate at which fuel is drained, letting you sustain attacks for a longer time.

Your current upgrade level (starts at 1) is displayed above the ammo counter:



There is no hard limit on how many times you can upgrade, but each next upgrade brings diminishing returns. The first few upgrades are the most significant, adding tens of seconds to your chainsaw's total attack time before the entire fuel reserve is depleted. Upgrades work only in single-player games: multiplayer chainsaws are already upgraded to a fixed level, and it is not possible to upgrade further.


Chainsaw: Effects and more

The chainsaw now produces smoke while the engine is running, although you can disable this in the RRWM options menu if you experience performance issues.

Also, if the chainsaw is dropped while the engine is still running, its pickup sprite will now display an animation to reflect that. (Huge thanks to Gampi Sora for providing the animated sprites, BTW!)

And last but not least - be careful to not drop the chainsaw while attacking, lest you might hurt yourself and others around you! (This may actually come in handy in deathmatches if "Drop weapon" is enabled, but since I do not play deathmatch, I can't say how useful it might be.)


Non-chainsaw improvements

There are many smaller QoL improvements in this update. Here are the most important ones:

➔ After multiple back-to-back playthroughs of several megaWADs and much consideration, the clip capacity of the 4th weapon ("Zen-II handgun" a.k.a. "Chaingun" or "SMG") has been increased from 40 to 50, making it somewhat more suitable for prolonged fights. To counterbalance, dry-fire now won't click continuously, so you can no longer reload as fast as you used to in full auto mode. Watch your ammo levels!

➔ Vertical bullet spread is now controlled via the player setup menu, just like with vanilla weapons. The previous implementation used a separate option because it was made when GZDoom had not yet incorporated this feature in a stable release. The RRWM options menu now provides toggles to also enable vertical spread for monsters, as well as force-enable it for all players in the game simultaneously. The latter is useful in multiplayer, especially deathmatch, to ensure no one gets an unfair advantage.

➔ From now on, even if you enable "Separate slot for super armor", you can still use armor bonuses to replenish it, with a caveat: you must have already maxed out the normal armor slot at 200 units, or else it will take priority when the bonus gets applied.

➔ For those who like to play without freelook (apparently such people still exist even now in 2023), weapon recoil has been fixed to take this into consideration so that it no longer conflicts with the game constantly resetting the player's view pitch to 0. To put it simply, vertical recoil no longer applies when freelook is turned off. Note that you must disable freelook in gameplay options for this to work (via "Allow freelook"), and not in mouse options (via "Always mouselook") - this is because the latter option applies to the current player only, which is an important distinction when considering multiplayer games.


Full changelog:

• The chaingun's clip capacity has been increased from 40 to 50.
• Half of incoming frontal damage is now absorbed by the chainsaw while attacking.
• It is now possible to upgrade the chainsaw's engine by picking up additional chainsaws.
• Smoke will now be produced by the chainsaw while the engine is running.
• Introduced chainsaw pickup sprite animation while the engine is running.
• Super Armor can now be replenished with bonuses even when it resides in a separate slot.
• Account for vertspread and sv_novertspread when applying vertical bullet spread.
• Sourced a new charging sound for the railgun.
• Updated chainsaw pickup sound.
• Plasma rifle now plays a looping sound while attacking.
• Eliminated an infinite ammo exploit related to the backpack.
• Rectified an issue with incorrect casing spawn height for ghost monsters.
• Skip applying vertical recoil if freelook is disabled.
• Exterminated a rare bug that could trigger a VM abort while reloading the SSG.
• Corrected some math errors in the spark spawning code.
• Re-enabled the tossing of weapons dropped on death with sv_weapondrop.
• Edited dry fire state of the chaingun to make it more realistic.
• Trimmed extra silence in the beginning and/or end of certain sounds.
• Minor fixes and refactoring of shotgun reloading code, also realistic reloading is now the default.
• Ensure chainsaw ammo is no longer affected by inventory manipulations.
• Skill adjustment of ammo amount for partial pickup purposes now takes sv_ammofactor into account.
• Simplified the "Drop extra ammo on death" option and renamed it to "Drop all ammo on death".
• Avoid redundant allocations in the settings subsystem.
• Garnered some performance improvements by using Map<K,V> whenever possible.
• Excised some unused obituary code.

UI-specific changes:

• New option to interpolate the color of the enemy health bar depending on the remaining health percentage.
• Extended the ammo table to include chainsaw ammo (only when the chainsaw is in the inventory).
• Various long-standing bugs related to scrolling were fixed.
• Ensure inventory bar is not shown if MAPINFO has the NoInventoryBar flag.
• Removed extra space for item tags in the inventory bar if the corresponding option is disabled.
• Multiple fixes related to padding and line spacing.
• Incorporated old status bar drawing code to resolve rendering issues in corner cases.
• Now animation speed is no longer tied to the game's frame rate.
• Deployed various optimizations to the UI code to avoid redundant allocations.

Playtesting log:

Lots of older and newer stuff:

• Memento Mori
• Memento Mori II
• Requiem
• 2048 Unleashed
• Corrupted Cistern (The world desperately needs MORE maps like this!)
• Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2 (Plutonia 3 when?)
• Shotgun Symphony
• Going Down (hard)

Multiplayer note

Unfortunately, this time I couldn't find anyone to conduct extensive multiplayer testing with, so I had to limit myself to testing specific scenarios in a local setup. At this point, I'm pretty sure multiplayer won't break, but I'm unable to completely rule out minor issues.

If, by chance, you happen to enjoy co-op and would also like to help me in my efforts to perfect multiplayer support in RRWM, please send me a private message so that we can discuss the necessary arrangements. Thanks in advance!


See you next year!

[Player701]

RRWM has been updated to version 1.5.1. Download the new release HERE. Standalone HUD package can be found here. The links in the first post have been updated too.

NB: This release bumps the minimum required GZDoom version to 4.13.2 due to the use of the latest ZScript features.
Please update your GZDoom if you're using an older version. (Latest is recommended)

Save files from 1.5.0 should be backwards-compatible with this version.

This is a maintenance release focused mostly on UI improvements and polishing.

Full changelog:

• The air supply indicator (which only appears underwater) has been redesigned and moved to the bottom left corner. It can now also be disabled with a new UI option.
• Hiding the maximum amounts of health and armor displayed in the HUD is now possible with a new option.
• Introduced an option to hide the list of displayed powerups and/or their remaining times.
• Simplified the player color indicator to allow it to work with all games, skins, and player classes.
• Implemented new styles for level statistics counters: percentage and current/percentage.
• Some settings were visible in the menu even when they shouldn't have been - this has now been fixed.
• Hid some text that could erroneously show up in the wrong place when displaying item tags in the inventory bar.
• Actor properties are now backed by meta fields to save memory whenever applicable.
• Refactoring of the HUD vitals counters (health, armor etc) code.
• Deployment of newer ZScript features available in version 4.13 for better code readability.

Playtesting log:

• Newdoom Community Project
• Newdoom Community Project 2 (fixed version, still a bit buggy though)

Multiplayer note

Sadly, I still haven't found any volunteers for multiplayer testing, so the state of multiplayer support remains unchanged from the previous version. Which means it will likely work, but minor issues cannot be ruled out. If anyone would like to help, please PM me.


See you next year... again!

[Grimthwacker]

I remember playing this way back in the day, and I applaud your efforts to keep it current. It's still great fun!

[Player701]

I remember playing this way back in the day, and I applaud your efforts to keep it current. It's still great fun!

Hey, thank you very much for the kind words!

I will continue to keep the mod up to date to ensure it is fully compatible with the latest GZDoom, unless something in the engine changes so drastically that it becomes no longer possible. Although I don't think it's likely to happen because the devs generally do value backwards compatibility above other things.

What's really missing here is original sprites - only with them I would consider the mod truly complete. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it sounds because I have exactly zero drawing skills, and no one has expressed any desire to contribute artwork to this project so far.