Some Non-Doom64EX Related News

Around late August, I’ve started work on TurokEX which has somewhat consumed most of my life (and sanity). I’ve made a lot of progress since then but there’s still tons of work ahead and I’ve realized that I might be biting more than I can chew with this project.

For those who haven’t been keeping up, TurokEX is my next reverse-engineering project which aims to recreate the N64 game, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (and eventually, the sequels). Unlike with Doom64EX, TurokEX will be using a new engine built from the ground up and also won’t be attempting to match the behaviors/mechanics of the game that accurately. The engine (Kex2) will support a Javascript interface which users can script many different aspects of the game. Most of these features that I am currently working on will also be brought over to Doom64EX eventually.

The engine is still in very early prototype stages and I’ve barely touched the actual gameplay mechanics. Most of the time spent was getting the initial framework implemented and designing a system that works best with Javascript’s interface. While this is currently a one-man project, I am always open for any contributers who can help me out in improving the engine.

No forums, website, etc is available yet though I will post some additional news about this project whenever I make further progress.

 

Not Dead Yet

Okay, so I said in my previous post that I was going to push out a new release by the end of 2012, unfortunately it didn’t go well as I was hoping for. I toyed around with several ideas for new features (like hi-res sprite scaling) but most of these features just didn’t work out very well and was kind of a let down for me. Come to think of it, I’ve been bummed out about a lot of things in this project.

The DS port has also been on hold for a while due to my DS dying. Though all there is left for that port is the missing graphics for the secondary screen. So far no one has offered to contribute those, though to be fair, I don’t think I brought this up often enough. I am also looking for someone to contribute porting Doom64EX to MacOS but so far I got nothing.

I have been dropping the ball a lot recently and I apologize. My obsession with TurokEX has taken up most of my spare time, though I will admit that there are some features that I intend on bringing over to Doom64EX whenever I begin working on it again.

New Version Coming Soon

A new version of Doom64 EX is currently being planned, which will mostly address all known issues reported by users and some minor fixes to the editor. Hopefully this update will be out sometime at the end of this year.

Stay tuned!

Doom 64 Speedrun

Came across a really awesome speedrun (Any 100%) done by peaches in just 44:32. It’s strongly recommended that you check it out!

Possible Wiki Shutdown

So its now October 1st, and Sourceforge has yet to say anything about the mediawiki hosted app retirement nor has done anything in regards to prevention of installing the latest mediawiki version. On top of that, the current Doom64EX wiki has been vandalized and spammed to hell by bots. I know for a fact that not many people use the wiki to begin with and with that said, I plan on shutting down the wiki sometime this week. Any docs that does exist on the wiki will be translated into either a PDF doc or some other text-based format. Though, I have been looking into doing modding tutorial videos on youtube which may be a better alternative.

Support for Doom64EX has been overwhelming and trying to find the time to improve the editor and mod features is becoming more and more difficult. As I mentioned before, I am seeking contributers who would like to improve modding or the game itself so anyone interested please shoot me an email.

Minor ‘Heads Up’

I completely failed to mention it, but a few days ago I’ve uploaded a new version of Doom Builder 64 which addresses some major bugs. Speaking of which, I will be reverting back to the ‘old way’ for macro editing. Seems like a lot of people now have been emailing in regards to their ‘dissatisfaction’ with the BLAM scripting language.

I’d figured I try something different but due to lack of time updating the wiki and writing up docs, I just can’t continue supporting this feature so in a few days I will be updating Doom Builder 64 with it’s old macro editing interface.

I’d truly appreciate anyone who can at least help out fleshing out the wiki and/or writing docs. If you’re interested, shoot me an email!

Doom64 EX 2.3 Released, New Wiki, Editor Updates, DS Port Status

Version 2.3 is finally out! You can grab it at the downloads page. Some changes include:

• Wadgen now extracts detune and pitch wheel sensitivity properties for soundfont
• Checksum lump created by Wadgen to further check for IWAD versions
• Improved console command system
• Automap controls can now be key-binded
• Mouse cursor feature for menus
• Give, mapall, killall console cheats implemented
• Skyboxes implemented for mouselook users
• Zone allocation replaced with zative system
• Support for 65535 sidedefs and segs
• Sound output gain now tweakable in menu
• Better support for handling ‘drag & drop’ pwads
• Many bug fixes

I’ve put in a ton of work since the embarrassing 2.2 release and many issues should be resolved. If you want a full list of what I’ve been doing, then you can view the cia.vc report here. I’ve also put in a lot of work to insure that Doom64EX can be run on min-spec computers with the worse-case GPU settings. I will continue to do updates so be sure to report any bugs if they pop up.

New Wiki

In other news, my host, Sourceforge, has announced the retirement of hosted apps which includes Mediawiki. As a result, I have installed and created a new wiki for Doom64EX which can be found here. Unfortunately there are some issues with SF’s servers that’s preventing me from installing the very latest version of Mediawiki. This can lead to some security issues and the version I have installed does not allow you to upload images or register an account. I’ll upgrade the wiki once I am able to but for the time being, feel free to browse through. Unfortunately it’s still bare as usual but I have added some new topics which includes compiling Doom64EX (incomplete) and some new modding tutorials. The wiki should except anonymous edits though so feel free to contribute.

Doom Builder 64

A new version of Doom Builder 64 is also available at the downloads page. The only major update is the removal of the Macros tab in the linedef editing window. Reason for this is because it has led to many issues and bugs with the editor. It was also very technical and confusing to work with.

BLAM (Basic Line Action Macro) Utility

Speaking of the editor, a few weeks ago I’ve spoke about creating a scripting based tool to replace the confusing macro interface in the editor. I’ve recently created a new scripting utility called BLAM which, like ACC, will compile text-based script files into macro lumps for your level. This utility is already included with the latest version of Doom Builder 64. A standalone version of BLAM can be made available by request. Scripting tutorials will be made available in the near future so be sure to keep an eye out on the forums and wiki. I apologize for not getting everything prepared.

Doom64 DS Status

Lastly, the DS port. The game is fully playable from start to finish but a lot of the menu options and other little features is incomplete. Also most of the game’s content is unoptimized. Due to low interest in homebrew DS in the community, I have not bothered to move forward with this port but I do intend on releasing Doom64 DS in its current state sometime this month.

So there you have it, I could of spent more time getting tutorials ready (especially for scripting) but I felt that you folks waited too long for this release so I decided to get these out the door now. I will continue to make updates to the wiki whenever I have time.

Enjoy