News — dengine Forums

The Switchover – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 19:49:39 +0000

The Switchover – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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Doomsday 2.3.1 released – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 07:29:04 +0000

Doomsday 2.3.1 released – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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Wonders and Mysteries of the M1 – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 07:58:55 +0000

Wonders and Mysteries of the M1 – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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Doomsday 2.3 released – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 10:07:22 +0000

Doomsday 2.3 released – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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Build 3649 — almost final stable 2.3

skyjake — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 12:10:51 +0000

As luck would have it, after changing the release type to stable I still noticed that deep water in TNT MAP02 is broken again. I'll fix it and make another build tomorrow. So build 3650 should be the final stable 2.3 release.

Otherwise build 3649 seems fine, though.

A lighthouse in the storm – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 20:53:17 +0000

A lighthouse in the storm – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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Doomsday 2.2 released – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 14:30:52 +0000

Doomsday 2.2 released – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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What’s new in 2.2 – Doomsday Blog

dengine.net — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 02:53:07 +0000

What’s new in 2.2 – Doomsday Blog

Doomsday Blog

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Doomsday 2.1 released

dengine.net — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 05:44:28 +0000

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. Whil…

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What’s new in 2.1

dengine.net — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 14:16:43 +0000

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 20…

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Focus adjustments

skyjake — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 08:05:29 +0000

This is a blog excerpt. http://dengine.net/blog/2016/04/focus-adjustments/"; target="_blank">Read Full Article

I took a good look at the project roadmap in the Tracker and decided it was time to do some spring cleaning.
I've now updated the plan for the 2.x releases so that each version has a specific focus. For instance, the 2.0 release will focus on the Home UI and basic package management, and the 2.1 release will focus on multiplayer improvements.
While the roadmap is just a plan and plans may always change, defining a clear focus area for each version will help in pushing things forward. Not doing this would mean that each release has the risk of ballooning ...

2.1 Unstable [#2769] for Windows?

wyland — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 14:27:11 +0000

Why is there no Windows version?

Further rendering explorations – Part 3

dengine.net — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 06:12:13 +0000

Further rendering explorations – Part 3

This is the final installment of a short series of posts detailing what I’ve learned while exploring the possible directions that a redesigned Doomsday renderer could take. This post is about…

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Further rendering explorations – Part 2

dengine.net — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 23:37:09 +0000

Further rendering explorations – Part 2

During the spring I’ve been exploring the possibilities and potential directions that a completely redesigned renderer could take. Continuing from part one, this post contains more of the res…

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Further rendering explorations – Part 1

dengine.net — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 05:05:47 +0000

Further rendering explorations – Part 1

When it comes to graphics, things sure have changed since the beginning of the project. Back in the day — almost 20 (!) years ago — GPUs were relatively slow, you had a few MBs of VRAM, and screen …

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Doomsday 2.0 RC2

dengine.net — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 20:35:03 +0000

Doomsday 2.0 RC2

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 …

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Welcome to Doomsday Engine Talk — forums migrated

skyjake — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 06:03:18 +0000

The dengine.net discussion forums have been migrated to a new platform. The old one, phpBB, was starting to really show its age and complexity so I made the decision to move to a better and faster one. This should improve your experience here significantly:

Pages load faster and many operations, like posting a new message, happen without page reloads.
When writing posts and comments, drafts get autosaved so you don't ever lose your message (this actually happened to me several times with phpBB).
There are a lot of nice design touches like autoexpanding text entry boxes.
It is officially supported by the web hosting company, so I don't have to waste my time manually applying security updates, etc.

All of the old posts and user accounts have been migrated from the old forums. You may need to upload a new avatar image, though. Any URLs pointing to the old forums were redirected to the corresponding place in the new ones.

Over the coming days I will still be doing some fine-tuning. For instance, the mobile theme hasn't been customized yet with an appropriate color palette for the site. Let me know if you find anything that looks broken or illegible!

Doomsday 2.0 RC1

skyjake — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 11:17:19 +0000

This is a blog excerpt. http://dengine.net/blog/2017/03/doomsday-2-0-rc1/"; target="_blank">Read Full Article

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 ...

Consolidation

skyjake — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 21:34:58 +0000

This is a blog excerpt. http://www.dengine.net/blog/2015/11/consolidation/"; target="_blank">Read Full Article

You may recall that last year, I http://dengine.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1799#topic">decided to move my developer blog posts from the forums onto a separate blog. A number of other Doomsday web resources have also been sprouting outside dengine.net (like the http://tracker.dengine.net">bug tracker and http://source.dengine.net/codex">commit tag index). When it came time to renew hosting of the website, I came to realize that it was time to sort out this situation and commit to the idea of a consolidated web presence for Doomsday — this was the motivation for moving to a domain of our own in the first place.

Upcoming server move

skyjake — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 14:56:56 +0000

Update: The move has been completed.

The dengine.net website will be moving to another server sometime before the end of this month, i.e., within the next two weeks. The website will be down for a couple of days during this time. We will be using Twitter (@dengteam) to give status reports during the downtime.

The project's SourceForge page (where we currently host file downloads) and the bug tracker are unaffected by the move. While the built-in autoupdater will not work during the downtime, the latest builds will be available directly from the Autobuilder.

Doomsday 1.15 Released

skyjake — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 10:35:32 +0000

The stable version 1.15 (build #1616) is now available.

Highlights of this release:

Custom episodes. Episode (DED) definitions specify the structure of game episodes (including hubs) enabling entirely new episodes and modifying the originals.
MAPINFO support. MAPINFO (Hexen) definitions are now supported in Doom and Heretic, too. Note that presently only the Hexen dialect of MAPINFO is supported (ZDoom uses it's own MAPINFO dialect).
Improved BSP builder. Better performance and more robust interpretation of Doom map hacks.
Adjustable pixel density. If your GPU is on the slower side, you can improve performance by reducing game view resolution. The rest of the UI remains sharp since the display mode isn't changed. As a bonus, you can also achieve a nice nostalgic aesthetic similar to the original Doom on a VGA display.
UI improvements. Refinement of the Doomsday UI continues: the tutorial has been made a little nicer, savegames can be deleted via the Home/taskbar savegame selection menu, alert notifications are hidden automatically after a couple of minutes (so you don't have to keep looking at the yellow triangle icon all the time), and a dialog has been added where you can specify the MIDI soundfont file conveniently. On OS X, there is now support for retina (HiDPI) displays.
Set IWAD folder in the Home screen. Allows starting Doomsday without the front-end or any command line options. We are not ready to remove the frontend altogether, since you still can't select add-ons or resource packs via the GUI, but this is significant progress toward an independent Doomsday.
Bug fixes. Many bugs have been fixed, for example Hexen savegame problems. See the Detailed notes to see a summary of the fixes.
Dependencies. Many of the libraries Doomsday is built on have been updated. Qt 5, SDL 2, and C++11 provide new and improved functionality that runs better on modern operating systems.

See the release notes for screenshots and more information about what has changed since the previous stable release. There's plenty that has changed under the hood, too.

When you encounter bugs please submit them to the Doomsday Engine Tracker. Downloads and other links are available on the dengine.net front page.

- Deng Team

1.15 Release Candidate 2

skyjake — Tue, 26 May 2015 12:50:05 +0000

We discovered a couple of issues with 1.15 RC1, so here is a new release candidate: 1.15 RC2 (build 1606)

Changes in RC2:

Fixed a possible (rare) crash when exiting a map.
Fixed a possible crash in the 64-bit version (OS X and Linux) when binding input controls in the game menu.
Hexen: Death Wyvern no longer gets stuck in the central pillar of its cave.
Hexen: Death Wyvern's fire now appears more glowing and less solid.
Hexen: Added a subtle light source on an important secret door.
No longer shut down the engine when an XG plane mover related error occurs.
Windows: The obsolete wadmapconverter.dll is removed by the installer.

Please report bugs in the Tracker. When reporting bugs, don't forget to mention "1.15 RC2" in the description. Depending on the urgency of discovered issues, we'll evaluate if they will get fixed in new RCs or later patch builds.

You can read more about Doomsday 1.15 (and RC1) in the previous news post.

1.15 Release Candidate 1

skyjake — Mon, 18 May 2015 20:13:53 +0000

We have now finished all the work planned for version 1.15. The headline features for this release will be customizable episode structure for games, Hexen-style MAPINFO support for Doom and Heretic, improvements in the BSP builder, adjustable pixel density in the renderer, various UI improvements (including OS X retina support), and plenty of bug fixes.

1.15 RC1 (build 1598) is now available for downloading. We're still putting together the full release notes, however you may already find them here: Release notes for 1.15.0.

You may recall that during past years we've had a "Candidate phase" during which we've tried to focus on bug fixes. We're changing things up this time, and have decided to go with a more traditional Release Candidate model. In other words, we've already been through a couple months of bug fixing, and the first release candidate is roughly equivalent to the past Stable .0 releases.

If serious game-breaking issues (for example crashes or savegame problems) are discovered in RC1, we will put together further RC builds. Otherwise there will no further RCs, and we will just make a new build designated Stable (with any minor finishing touches as needed).

So please go play the RC and report bugs in the Tracker! When reporting bugs, don't forget to mention "1.15 RC1" in the description. Depending on the urgency of discovered issues, we'll evaluate if they will get fixed in new RCs or later patch builds.

Moving forward

Finally, a few words about the next steps for the project. Work will continue on two major branches:

The plan is to begin making automated (although infrequent) builds from the "stable" branch to produce patches for 1.15. The goal for these patches is to improve stability and fix any incorrect behavior. No new features will be added.
The real focus will be on the "master" branch, which will continue forward with new unstable builds. The version number for these will be 2.0. The biggest reason for incrementing the major version number is that the Snowberry frontend will be retired, and the engine will gain basic add-on management functionality in the Home screen.

Once the 2.0 unstable builds really get underway we can share more details about the transition to a standalone app. However, be prepared that some add-on functionality will be unavailable in upcoming unstable builds.

Dry Spell

skyjake — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 17:29:14 +0000

Work continues to ship the stable version of 1.15.

Last week I wrote a blog post that explores some of the reasons behind the recent lack of new stable releases and patches. Summarizing, during the three-month stable release cycles there was always a certain amount of pressure on us to deliver the planned set of features. With Doomsday being a hobby project, eventually this generated enough negative energy that we had to reconsider some of our practices.

In plain language, we can't promise to deliver features on a specific date when there is no guarantee that time or energy is available for working on the project. While implicitly this has always been the intention, our release process didn't fully support it.

Thus we've hit the reset button and are reconsidering how releases will be made in the future. The appropriate model should be such that we can work on things that motivate us — this keeps the project moving forward — while bug fixes and other patches still get released regularly.

In practice, we are planning to use the autobuilder to make monthly patch builds for the stable version (when fixes are available). The increased granularity of stable versions also allows releasing code in smaller chunks, so that the stable branch isn't compromised by huge amounts of new code at once. Finally, further automating the stable releasing will improve our motivation to put effort into bug fixing since patches will be made available effortlessly — making patches is somewhat of a chore after the stable branch has had time to diverge from the latest work.

After 1.15.0 has been dealt with, expect us to make fewer promises about what will be included in the next release. New features will be released when they're done. However, there will be a larger number of small stable (patch) releases.

Doomsday 1.14.5 Released

skyjake — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 16:53:57 +0000

A new patch for 1.14 was released today. This one fixes an autosave related bug in Hexen and a minor issue in Doom.

Download: build1265 | Release notes for 1.14.5

Doomsday 1.14.4 Released

skyjake — Sat, 24 May 2014 21:28:40 +0000

We've released another patch for 1.14. This one addresses a couple of regressions in Hexen that potentially prevent one from completing the game. Updating is recommended especially if you play Hexen.

Download: build1239 | Release notes for 1.14.4

Doomsday 1.14.3 Released

skyjake — Thu, 15 May 2014 10:10:12 +0000

Another small patch for 1.14 is now available. Version 1.14.3 fixes a game saving error where one would sometimes get a message about a file that "already exists". This was caused by a bug in a previously unused part of code in the Doomsday file system.

Download: build1230 | Release notes for 1.14.3

Doomsday 1.14.2 Released

skyjake — Wed, 07 May 2014 14:59:38 +0000

We have released version 1.14.2 with a couple of important bug fixes:

Hexen: Saving the game causes the maps in the hub to reset, resulting in invalid game world state
Doom 2: Crash playing sci2.wad MAP13
Better compatibility with vanilla Doom renderer: dynamic map-hacks dependent on non-neighbor planes
Doomsday crashes after starting install of update (although installer is still run)
OS X: Warning message about failure to load example plugin

Download: build1222 | Release notes for 1.14.2

Doomsday 1.14.1 Released

skyjake — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 11:03:20 +0000

We have released version 1.14.1 that improves stability and fixes several bugs in the renderer, UI, multiplayer, and games:

Particles shut off shortly after level start
Flickering light decoration on moving platform
Letterboxed/pillarboxed drawing of the game is broken
Heretic ghost mummies' floating spirits not disappearing after death
Gracefully abort if OpenGL version isn't sufficient
Shift key state not recognized by bindings when typing in console
Invalid time shown in Updater settings dialog
Multiplayer weapons aren't remaining in play
Error when running doomsday-host
Doom: Invulnerability effect not cleared between maps
Hexen Deathkings: New game crash while viewing ending
Crash at startup when log level is set to verbose or extra verbose
Snowberry: Obsolete log verbosity options
Renderer optimization: Line side surface decoration updating following plane move

Download: build1212 | Release notes for 1.14.1

Doomsday 1.14 Released

skyjake — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 22:01:44 +0000

The stable version 1.14 (build #1201) is now available.

In this release we've focused on several UI improvements, particularly related to client-side multiplayer UI. We have also improved the management of savegames so that you can access them at any time — even from the Home screen when no game is loaded. See the release notes for screenshots and more information about what has changed since the previous stable release.

When you encounter bugs please submit them to the Doomsday Engine Tracker.
Downloads and other links are available on the dengine.net front page.

- Deng Team