Tag: release

Doomsday 2.1 released

Doomsday 2.1 has been released (build 2900), coinciding with the 25th anniversary of DOOM!

This version contains several improvements for an all-around nicer experience:

  • Graphics optimization. While games still use the classic renderer like in 2.0, all graphics are now drawn using OpenGL 3.3. This enables optimizations for more efficient rendering of the player view, menus, text, and the Doomsday UI.

  • UI improvements. The Doomsday UI look and feel has been refreshed. The game library is now more flexible and powerful with further game customization settings and view options.

  • Multiplayer convenience. Clients will automatically download missing PWADs from the server before joining the game.

Download 2.1

Release notes

Doomsday 2.1 RC3

The third and possibly final release candidate of 2.1 is now available (build 2898).

This build comes with a couple of Windows-related updates: the Qt library has been upgraded, and the 32-bit Windows build now has a fully functional FluidSynth audio plugin. This has been available in the 64-bit build for a while.

Unless any showstoppers are discovered, the next build will be the stable 2.1.0.

Doomsday 2.1 RC2

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.

Doomsday 2.1 RC1

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.

What’s new in 2.1

Version 2.1 is now feature complete. While I originally hoped to focus on multiplayer-related enhancements in this release, it turned out a little differently. Roughly speaking the first half of 2018 was spent working on the foundations of the next revision of the renderer (not included in 2.1), and only during the second half I focused on 2.1 related work.

One important multiplayer improvement has been added for 2.1, though: clients can download mods (e.g., PWADs) from the server in case they are needed for joining a multiplayer game.

The stable 2.1.0 will be released before the end of the year. I intend to spend the remaining time on fixing bugs (some already listed in the roadmap).

Let’s have a quick look at the changes done over the past weeks.

Continue reading What’s new in 2.1

Doomsday 2.0.3, other minor updates

Over the past few weeks, I’ve made a couple of stable builds with the version 2.0.3. The first one of those was made a bit early as I was about to leave for a trip abroad, and mainly included one bug fix for Hexen related to saving and restoring object state from save files. Recently I’ve made a couple of additional stable builds to investigate and fix a problem with the Ubuntu Launchpad build scripts, where the “doomsday-stable” packages were correctly built but nothing was actually included in the generated DEB packages.

On the whole, progress has been somewhat slow. Perhaps the biggest advance was in the dengine.net website backend, where I’ve now split the API functionality to a separate api.dengine.net server, so that things like master server and update queries won’t interfere with the normal operation of the project home page and forums. I hope this will alleviate the issue of dengine.net sometimes failing to respond to requests.

Prompted by a forum post, over the weekend I was investigating an audio volume issue on Windows. It turns out there is a problem with the SDL_mixer music volume controls. I have yet to determine if there is a workaround that Doomsday can do to avoid the issue. Such a workaround would be preferable to disabling SDL_mixer music on Windows completely, since SDL_mixer does bring value to the table (e.g., music formats). The situation is also slightly tricky because SDL and SDL_mixer are built in to the engine, so there isn’t a plugin to take out or something simple like that.

Doomsday 2.0.2 released

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.

Doomsday 2.0.1 released

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.

Doomsday 2.0 released

The first stable build of Doomsday 2.0 is now available.

The highlighted features of 2.0 are:

  • Home Screen replaces the frontend app. A launcher is no longer needed; games and add-ons can be managed using Doomsday itself.
  • Built-in support for different data file and package formats. Used packages are tracked in saved games and multiplayer games.
  • The new 3D model renderer that has been in development since the 1.15 release is now mature enough for use. It supports FBX and MD5 models, skeletal animation, GLSL shaders, and scripting.
  • This is the first 64-bit stable release for Windows.

See the Manual for the complete release notes.

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs in the release candidates! A number of nasty bugs were found and fixed. There is still a few less serious known issues that have been scheduled for next month’s 2.0.1 update.

Work on the 2.x series will now continue along the lines planned in the roadmap, with the first focus area being multiplayer improvements. Under the hood, there is still lots to do with updating remaining old OpenGL rendering code so we can take full advantage of shaders in future releases.

Doomsday 2.0 RC3

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