Week 25/2013: Added DE menu, candidates begin
Last week we started the Candidate phase for 1.11. I also continued with the new UI by adding a popup menu widget.
As we are now in Candidate phase, we won't be adding any more new major features for 1.11. Naturally work is ongoing to polish what has been added so far, plus we will again start looking at good old bug fixing.
During the week I made one last addition to the new task bar UI: clicking the DE logo will now open a popup menu instead of going straight to the Control Panel. This is the humble beginnings of our new vision for the Doomsday UI, where all the features are directly accessible as an overlay type of UI via the task bar instead of discrete, fullscreen views.
In the next release (1.12), I will be starting the work of recreating the Control Panel's settings in a more accessible/friendly way using new widgets, so that we can ultimately kill the old Panel entirely. The autoupdater UI will also be revised in 1.12 to use Doomsday's own widgets instead of native dialogs.
While Shift-Esc remains the hardcoded key for accessing the task bar, many of us would undoubtedly also use a key of our own choosing to access it and the console. Instead of the old console activation key mechanism that entirely bypassed the bindings system, there is now a way to get the same comfortable behavior using bindings: I've added a default binding for the Tilde key that toggles the task bar & console open/closed. You can get the binding with the "defaultbindings" command or by entering these into the console (a game has to be loaded as bindings are game-specific):
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As we are now in Candidate phase, we won't be adding any more new major features for 1.11. Naturally work is ongoing to polish what has been added so far, plus we will again start looking at good old bug fixing.
During the week I made one last addition to the new task bar UI: clicking the DE logo will now open a popup menu instead of going straight to the Control Panel. This is the humble beginnings of our new vision for the Doomsday UI, where all the features are directly accessible as an overlay type of UI via the task bar instead of discrete, fullscreen views.
In the next release (1.12), I will be starting the work of recreating the Control Panel's settings in a more accessible/friendly way using new widgets, so that we can ultimately kill the old Panel entirely. The autoupdater UI will also be revised in 1.12 to use Doomsday's own widgets instead of native dialogs.
While Shift-Esc remains the hardcoded key for accessing the task bar, many of us would undoubtedly also use a key of our own choosing to access it and the console. Instead of the old console activation key mechanism that entirely bypassed the bindings system, there is now a way to get the same comfortable behavior using bindings: I've added a default binding for the Tilde key that toggles the task bar & console open/closed. You can get the binding with the "defaultbindings" command or by entering these into the console (a game has to be loaded as bindings are game-specific):
bindevent global:key-tilde-down+key-shift-up taskbar
bindevent console:key-tilde-down+key-shift-up taskbar
Comments
I usually run Dday full screen and use to open the old console to check build or version number, rather than switching to windowed mode and reading the window title; force of habit from back when Dday didn't support toggling between windowed and full screen in engine.
I think such would be good for technical support; placing the build number somewhere easily accessible for any user to see (i.e in plain sight on the taskbar).
May I also suggest a slight change to the visuals of the DE button on the taskbar to make it more apparent it's a button; I know it lights up when you put the mouse over it, but the border indicating it's a button is somewhat obscured when the taskbar against certain backdrops (such as your Ultimate Doom title pic image above).
One little thing I've noticed though, is that the new taskbar seems to be duplicating some messages? For instance, when Dday loops the currently playing music, it prints the same lump cache message three times in a row.
Nitpicks aside, the taskbar is of course impressive; it’s stylish and functional.
We will continue making tweaks to the appearance over time. This sort of issues will be addressed as part of the overall visual theme development.
This is partially because the new log widget shows all log output, including debug-level messages, if the user requests enough verbosity. Another reason for this particular message duplication is some inherent redundancies in the old file system ("FS1") implementation. Caching, for instance, is implemented in various places and each of them prints a separate message when the system is looking for a particular resource. The future holds many changes regarding this as we continue to migrate towards libdeng2 and its new unified caching mechanisms (the Banks I've mentioned in earlier posts).
I notice that clicking on the game mode name on the taskbar, is interpreted as an un-highlight command. It will un-highlight the console if you've got it open etc. But clicking on it while nothing in the taskbar is highlighted both closes the taskbar and also performs any game world event bound to the mouse button; given that clicking on any other part of the taskbar, history etc doesn't seem to close the taskbar, this seems like a little bug?
I also notice that the esc key doesn't work when the test menu is open; I was kind of expecting it to close it, as you can close the console and such with esc.
Also a big bug; closing the taskbar while the test menu is open doesn't close the taskbar properly and proceeds to breaks keyboard controls completely (i.e the keyboard becomes completely unresponsive) except for Windows shortcuts (i.e Alt+F4 to close).
EDIT: Further testing seems to indicate it's only broken if the player loads HacX from within Dday; if one starts Dday with HacX as the loaded game, the bug doesn't occur.
EDIT2: Seveeral bugs with bad guys and weapons in HacX when loading it from within Dday.
-The IDBEHOLD cheat is still a little broken in Doomsday. In Vanilla Doom, you could use the IDBEHOLD cheat to remove a powerup that you may have acquired in-game or by cheating. For example, if you picked up a Radiation Suit or used the IDBEHOLDR cheat to acquire a Radiation Suit, you could then type in IDBEHOLDR to remove that Radiation Suit. This is currently not functional in Doomsday.
This is Bug #983 (where I submitted two bugs in one). DaniJ already fixed the first problem listed in this report, but I'd like to see the second part resolved too.
http://sourceforge.net/p/deng/bugs/983/
-Also, the problem of the player arrow on the automap not showing up on PCs with Intel HD video cards (bug #1060 IIRC, also a standing problem on my laptop).
-This is probably unlikely for 1.11, given that we are close to a stable release, but is there any word on when FluidSynth will be implemented into Windows versions of Doomsday? This is so that I can use .sf2 soundfonts in Doomsday without needing to use external measures.
-And since the issue popped into my mind, restoring the map title to the automap.
Fun fact: I cleaned out my email inbox a bit and created a folder for all Doomsday-related issues, so any email that comes from SourceForge that relates to Bugs (ones I have submitted or have commented on) will get sent to that email folder. I'm still waiting to see if it will actually work, lol.
The reason this particular message is produced multiple times is because the lump that contains the music is removed from the cache once loaded. And so next time it is read it is therefore cached again. As the title animation repeats in a loop and the title music is so short this makes it more desirable to keep this data cached. This is however a special case as looping is otherwise implemented at music driver level. It is the title animation that repeatedly stops and then re-starts the current track for mod compatibility reasons. Once in-game there is typically no need to cache the music data as it doesn't change during the map (cache management is presently ignorant that music can be changed mid-map by mods).
Ah yes, Esc should indeed close it. Fixed.
Fixed.
Even within Dday, I can click anywhere on the history window, when, at least as far as I can tell, only clicking on the edges actually does something (being able to stretch the history window is impressive, though I note there's currently no option to stretch it diagonally by clicking the corner; I point that out because I'm not sure whether it's a bug or just something Deng team don't believe nesscerry) and the click isn't interpreted as clicking on the game world.
Yeah this will not make it to 1.11. Personally I would like to see FluidSynth working on Windows, too, but I lack motivation for setting up glib for the Windows build...
Also, what is the driver version for the video card on the MacBook? Mine is 9.17.10.3062, dated 3/8/2013. However, when I tried out an older version of the driver a while back the automap player arrow showed up fine, but I started getting the problem again upon using newer drivers. So if you are using an older driver, try updating if you can and see if the problem appears for you.
This does seem to be an occurrence on Intel HD video cards, as another person who had this problem (seen in the topic link below) was using an Intel HD 4000. I also got this problem on my mom's laptop, which was using an Intel HD 2000 (and my laptop is an Intel HD 3000).
http://www.dengine.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1328
Also, Dday has options for stretching the splash screens, hud weapons and menu's, but not the stbar hud?
Bug 2: if Doom Guy falls on a scenery mobj (possible if Zclip is set to 1 or he has the passmobj flag), he falls through it, instead of landing on top of it. He then becomes stuck and unable to move. If Doom Guy lands on a monster, he doesn’t fall through them.
Heretic seems not to have this bug.
Bug 3: The Dday exclusive 3d movement option (under gameplay menu), which allows flying bad guys to both fly over other mobjs ala Vanilla Heretic and also raise over other mobjs (not something flyers could do in vanilla Heretic) doesn't work right in Doom. In heretic, it appears to work fine
Unrelated note; the various Zclip options are a bit of a mess in Doom:
In Doom, I'd expect setting Zclip to 1, to also affect monsters, but it only affects the player. I have to turn on 3d movement to get Zclip 1 like behaviour for monsters, which also means I have to accept flying monsters also raising over each other.
It would be cool if Zclip 0/1 imitated Vanilla Doom and Vanilla Heretic respectively. The 3D movement feature would then simply allow flying bad guys to raise over each other (call it Zclip 2 if you will)."
I've had it while running around, warping to maps etc.
Also, the FPS counter doesn't seem to work.
Apologies for all the bug reports.
The old counter was removed along with the rest of the old console. I will add an FPS counter to the taskbar soon.
Please do keep 'em coming.
You should submit the zclip bugs into the tracker, I doubt we are able to address them yet in this release.
As it is now, it's not obvious that it's a menu button.
Or maybe you could place it in the bottom left hand corner?
May I also suggest removing the "check for updates" text in the menu for ubuntu,
I would argue that the "Check for updates" is only relevant for Ubuntu as it's the only Linux we're providing binaries for. It's true that it's redundant if the user has configured their apt accordingly...
EDIT: Ok, it seems to be somewhat more narrow than I thought; using the visit cheat to warp from Map01 to Map02 and then using the cheat again to warp to Map05 causes a crash every time.
But using the portal to travel from Map01 to Map02 and then using the visit cheat to warp to Map05 doesn't lead to a crash.
Since the next build won't come until Monday, is the automap title the CWILV graphic that you see on the intermission screen (and on the beginning of the level in Doomsday)? Or is it in the small Doom font as seen in Vanilla?
Thanks.
Since the way it worked in Vanilla, is that the CWILV graphic replaced the map title and the Dehacked patch replaced the automap title. Countless Vanilla mods came with CWILV graphics for replacing the map title and a comparatively tiny fraction came with Dehacked patches for replacing the automap title.
So, now if a mod comes with a CWILV graphic, but not a Dehacked patch, the CWILV will also be used on the automap. But what if there is both a CWILV graphic and a Dehacked patch present, or only a Dehacked patch?
While either DDay ded option should take priority over Dehacked or CWILV, as deds written for Vanilla mods, will always have been written after the mod was made. While the map title should go; Map Info/Patch Replacement, CWILV.
That Dday gives precedence to the CWILV graphic over Map Info/Patch Replacement got in the way of my past attempts to make DDay visual enhancement patches for Hell to Pay and Perdition's Gate; those mods replace the CWILV graphics with story text graphics, which look silly being used as map titles (and now automap titles), in Dday (not to mention the Map titles end up displaying the story text graphic meant for the following map).
I planned to use patch replacement to stop the story screens appearing as map titles and re-create the story text as Infine.
Of course, another possibility is that patch replacement in Dday might not actually be working and need fixing?
Found a little problem with the map title though. In a MOD like AV, the CWILV graphic is actually a little bigger, due to the name of the map author being displayed right under the level name.
Would it be possible to say, have it programmed so the map number appears right below the CWILV graphic, or would that cause other problems?
Though, I have to admit that I personally really would prefer the map title on the automap to appear down the bottom of the screen, as in Vanilla (bottom left in Doom, bottom middle in Heretic and HeXen).
Also, Hell to Pay and Perditions Gate CWILV graphics; the makers of those mods applied a huge offset to the CWILV graphics to make them appear in the middle of the intermission screen; doesn't work so well with Dday's new features:
For what it's worth, I also recall a recently made wad (a tune up of 1994 levels I believe), that replaces the CWILV graphic with a near full screen image.
1. Killing Spider on E2M8 or Cyber on E3M8 doesn't end the map as it does in Vanilla.
2. E1M8 666 Tag compat option only checks for the first boss type to die (Barron, Cyber or Spider), rather than repeating for each boss type (i.e each boss type killed will re-trigger tag666 in pre Ultimate Doom Vanilla).
3. 666 and 667 tags on Doom2 Map07 can only be activated in that order, rather than in either order. Might as well add, that like 2. above, these triggers can be re-triggered multiple times in Vanilla (for instance if an Arch Vile ressurects a boss monster or a Boss Shooter spawns one); though I haven't checked to see if Dday retains this behaviour.
The later two are on Sourceforge (2. noticed by myself and 3. originally noticed by Jimi).
Well, given the extent at which modders have abused and repurposed the CWILV patches it looks to me like there is nothing we can do here. Either users will have to live with the map title looking wonky in some mods, or the majority of maps simply will not have correct titles. This all stems from the fact that id opted to not define the map names as strings. I don't see a way around this.
Note that I'm referring to the actual title of the map and not the URI (e.g., E1M1).
That would handle cases like Sonicmariodoom's example without affecting any mod that uses CWILV graphics properly (i.e like the Iwads?). Given cases like Hell to Pay are already very bad, it probably wouldn't make them any worse.