Category: News

2.1 RC2 was released today (build 2895).

The issues discovered in RC1 were fixed but a couple of new ones were found. If you download RC2, please note the following:

• MIDI sound font cannot be changed via the audio settings GUI. One can still change the sound font manually via the “music-soundfont” cvar, though.
• A resource error occurs during the Ultimate Doom (BFG Edition) title sequence.
• Some data files are inadvertently tagged as “hexen” (thanks to deus-ex for researching this!).
• Data file version numbers are not always parsed from the file name.

In addition to these, there is an older issue that the 32-bit Windows build does not support FluidSynth for music. This will be addressed before the next build.

2.1 RC1 is now available (build 2890).

I’ve listed many of the changes in the previous post. Since writing that I’ve been optimizing rendering performance. You should find the engine running a bit snappier now.

However, there are a couple of known issues in this build:

• Weapon switching keys are cycling weapons instead of switching to a particular weapon.
• There are warnings about random “renderer.pack” issues.
• Readme has not been updated with any of the new features, and some of the links are obsolete.

Let me know if you find any other issues. RC2 will be available once these are fixed.

The stable version 2.0.2 (build 2372) is now available. The release notes can be found in the Manual.

This is another patch release that fixes incorrect behavior and improves the stability of the engine. Some of the fixes affect data file identification, so if you’re experiencing issues with your WAD files or other resources, try selecting Clear Cache from the DE menu and restarting Doomsday so that all your data is reindexed.

I recommend anyone currently running Doomsday 2 to upgrade to 2.0.2.

The stable version 2.0.1 (build 2311) is now available. The release notes can be found in the Manual.

This is a patch release that fixes a number of crashes and various cases of incorrect behavior. Many of the fixes are related to the new Home UI, but there are also other important improvements like faster model renderer performance.

I recommend anyone currently running 2.0 to upgrade to 2.0.1.

Update: New build 2272 available with updated IWAD recognition rules.

The third and possibly final release candidate of version 2.0 is now available (build 2272).

There is a whole bunch of fixes:

• IWAD files are now recognized with stricter rules to avoid files from being misidentified as known IWADs. If you have been seeing problems dealing with WAD files in the Packages browser, try DE → Clear Cache and restart.
• Under specific circumstances, opening the game profile package selection dialog would crash.
• Hang when trying to spawn damage particles triggered by a very large amount of damage.
• Light from the Torch powerup in Heretic and Hexen was rendered incorrectly.
• 3D model animation problem where a non-animating mobj would be repeatedly restarting its animation sequences.
• Several UI glitches of varying severity. For example, the Update Available notification was triggering a fatal error, and there were occasional random color changes happening when UI widgets were being drawn.

Another notable change is that the folders where Doomsday looks for IWADs and other data files are now configured in the same Data Files dialog. I’ve added a new quick-access button to the bottom of the Home’s Packages list for opening this dialog.

Full change log

The second release candidate is available: build 2257.

This build has a number of bugfixes and minor improvements, particularly when it comes to loading and unloading data files. Some of the fixes affect metadata generated for data files, so if you’ve been running RC1, I recommend clearing Doomsday’s resource cache. This will also ensure that all add-ons are detected again, if some files were previously missing.

When one loads a savegame, Doomsday will attempt to load or unload resources depending on what was used in the save. However, this was quite buggy and could easily lead to a crash. There was also a mixup that caused Doomsday to try load and unload the same files twice. These issues are resolved in RC2.

I’ve made a couple of usability tweaks in Home. It should now be clearer when a profile is unplayable because the game IWAD is missing, or if the problem is that your selected additional packages are unavailable.

RC1 notes

Build 2250 is the first Release Candidate for 2.0.

The full release notes will be available later, but the short version is that 2.0 introduces two big changes in how Doomsday works:

• The Snowberry front-end application has been replaced with a new Home screen within Doomsday itself.
• Doomsday has gained more understanding of various data file formats, resource packs, and add-ons so that it can load them without assistance from a front-end app. This Packages system has wide effects inside the engine, influencing game session configuration, savegames, multiplayer games, and the UI.

The updated Readme covers most of the new stuff, so that is a good place to start if you havent been using any 2.0 unstable builds recently.

There are certainly still bugs left to find and fix, so please report any problems you encounter with the RC build(s). The best place to do so is the Tracker.

In practical terms, development of the 2.0 release has been switched to the stable branch and is now in feature freeze mode. The master branch will roll over to 2.1 for new unstable builds. Now that the stable branch is using CMake as well, I’ve resumed the first-day-of-the-month stable builds.