News

9th November 2008

Version 2.5.0 released.

After almost two years since the last release, the PrBoom Team is proud to announce PrBoom 2.5.0.

Limit the game to one CPU core on a multicore machine [prb+]
Fix crash when out-of-range values are used in fixed point arithmetic [prb+]
Allow the game to build without SDL_mixer, add --without-mixer option to ./configure to force this. Music support will be disabled in this case
Don't set the default game skill from the new game menu. Instead there is an option to set it explicitly in the General menu
Fix the brightness of the player's weapon
Fix linear filtering on flats in software mode
Fix crash when an unknown sprite is used with a non-zero frame number
Restore special case for trivial maps (bug #1837422)
Fix screenshots in high colour screen modes - if libpng is available at build time it will be used, otherwise a BMP will be saved
Don't process mouse input in the menus [prb+]
Always use Doom's main menu order to avoid bugs with Alien Vendetta [prb+]
Remove line of junk graphics below status bar [prb+]
Restore Boom friction and bobbing code [prb+]
Fix crash by testing for null targets in mancubus fire code pointers
Restore last known enemy check in Boom compatibility [prb+]
Animated middle textures with zero index forced [prb+]
Better handling of unrecognised demo formats [prb+]
Fix for hanging decoration disappearing in Batman Doom MAP02 [prb+]
Fix menu description: pain elementals are limited to 21 lost souls
Manual page fixes from Debian
Fix position of netgame player arrows on the automap in rotate mode
Ignore chat key presses in multiplayer demo playback and -solo-net
In deathmatch demo playback always draw player arrows on the automap
In a multiplayer demo, don't reset view to console player on a new map
Fix crash when MP3 music is being used and the player changes back to a piece of music that's already been loaded before
Avoid HOM effect on large maps such as epic.wad 5 [prb+]
Fix sound origins on large levels [prb+]
Handle demos with bad or missing headers [prb+]
Fix the colour of player 4 (red) in multiplayer
Play correct player pickup sounds in multiplayer demos
Don't allow solids to pass through no-clipping objects in Doom [prb+]
Restore Dehacked's ability to set the raisestate of a mobj [prb+]
Handle demos with a missing end marker [prb+]
Ignore switches that reference unknown textures instead of exiting
Fix crash when resetting a menu to defaults [prb+]
Fix crash when trying to play demos from Boom 2.00 [prb+]
Fix crash in multiplayer demos when there are still sounds playing on map changes (e.g. players revving chainsaws) [prb+]
Fix mouse clicks on the intermission screen being ignored
Don't eat screenshot key presses (see sf bug #1843280)
Detect Hexen-format maps and refuse to play them, instead of crashing
Fix crash when loading maps with missing player starts
The backs of switches must be pressable in any demo recorded by Boom 2.01, even those in Boom's "compatibility" mode [prb+]
Force comp_doorstuck=1 in Boom 2.01 compatibility mode [prb+]
comp_dropoff=1 was broken in MBF compatibility mode [prb+]
Restore --disable-dogs but make sure it doesn't break Dehacked
Fix desync if the user presses pause on the intermission screen [prb+]
comp_666 fixed: either cyberdemon or spider can end E2M8 or E3M8; killing a baron on E3M8 won't cause the level to end any more [prb+]
Fix broken string matching in Dehacked [prb+]
Passing --without-net to ./configure will compile the game without network support; this may help if your platform lacks SDL_net
Fix crash when reloading network savegames (bug #1590350)
Fix bug in transparency rendering caused by doing it in two places
Added high color rendering

19th November 2006

Version 2.4.7 is released.

Fixed comp_soul and comp_maskedanim options not actually being optional.
Fixed searching for IWAD/prboom.wad (bugs #1585185, #1585600)
Multiple sound crash fixes (bugs #1577495, #1586800)
Fix for previously introduced HOM error
Fix frame numbering problem in MBF dehacked patches (bug #1576151)

15th October 2006

Version 2.4.6 is released.

Mac OS X: Fixed music volume slider
Implemented patch clipping. This fixes bug #1557501.
Fixed update of compatibility options after use of TNTCOMP cheat
Reenabled padding if short or missing reject lumps. Patch #1570517 by RjY.
Removed unaligned memory access in r_drawflush.inl. This should fix bus errors on architectures where unaligned access is forbidden and should give a slight speedup on other architectures.
Stop right after the quit sound stops, instead of waiting three seconds
Fixed sound origin for switches. This is compatibility optioned. Patch #1533045 by RjY.
Fixed "oof" sound when hitting ground while already dead. Patch #1532700 by RjY.
Ported Eternitys fix to show the "ouch" face when severly hit
Unified drawing functions, this speeds things up a bit and fixes most artifacts on small numbers and fonts in high resolution modes.
Mac OS X: Add resolution and video mode (OpenGL vs software) selection to launcher
Added rendering filters for software mode, they are configurable in a new page in general settings
Emulate some texture composition bugs
Fix more common WAD bugs that can cause crashes
Fixed random crashes caused by use of uninitialized memory
Fix some demo incompatibilities caused by slime trail removal
Fixed crashes with WADs which use newer gl nodes or don't have any nodes
Automatically load gwa files with gl nodes
Fixed integer overrun in automap on large levels (from PrBoom+)

12th August 2006

Version 2.4.5 is released.

fix crash when saving the game in levels with lots of monsters (bug introduced in 2.4.4)
-nodeh option to disable automatic loading of dehacked-in-wad lump
Unified software and opengl engine into one binary
Added video mode selection to menu
fix demo desyncs on E1M5 on x86_64 systems
Fullscreen setting will only take effect after game restart
reduce red palette translation if the menu is up, so the menu can still be read
screenshots now in PNG format on Linux/Unix in GL mode too
Added experimental -checksum option for demo playback comparison
Merged new internal patch (graphics) format from PrBoom 2.3
Mac OS X: Launcher now uses drawers instead of tabs
Mac OS X: Fix some longstanding Wad chooser issues
Mac OS X: Add a console to display text output from PrBoom

30th July 2006

Version 2.4.4 is released.

Don't fail when a texture name can't be looked up
Increased several limits - Thanks to entryway and RjY

Increased number of sidedef limit to 65534
Increased number of vertexes limit to 65535
Fixed crash when crossing sectors with very big height differences

fix crash on E4M8
New command-line options for setting a window (-window) or fullscreen (-nowindow) mode temporarily.
The maximal supported resolution is increased from 1600x1200 to 2048x1536
GLBoom will use the closest supported resolution when running fullscreen
The "RUN" key inverts the autorun state
Live monsters are highlighted in a different colour on the iddt-automap
Fixed OpenGL sky rendering in Requiem and Memento Mori
The "Show coordinates of automap pointer" setting works now
merged many cleanups and fixes from PrBoom 2.3
fix translucency map file handle leak
fix consistency failures in netgames
prevent crashes at 800x600 caused by rounding errors with naive clipping
fixed slowdown at 1024x768 on some systems
ability to play tasdoom demos directly
-solo-net option is a shortcut for one-player network games
emulate spechit overflows for dosdoom and tasdoom compatibility
made several cleanups and fixes

23rd July 2006

Version 2.4.3 is released.

Massive speed improvements in higher resolutions taken from Eternity.
Thanks to SoM and Quasar!!!
fix bugs in gameplay occuring with gcc-4.1
Mac OS X: Add "Show Game Folder" to menus, for easy installation of new game wads
Mac OS X: Disable games in popup menu whose wads cannot be found
fix compilation warnings
tidy up configure script

16th July 2006

Version 2.4.2 is released.

Move gamma correction tables into prboom.wad
Clean up light level calculations for walls & sprites
CheckIWAD uses ANSI C streams for better portability and error handling
Make screen wipe time independent of resolution
Applied various small cleanups and fixes from PrBoom 2.3.1
Fix problems with dehacked substitution of long strings
End of level sound crash fixed
Mac OS X: Added simple launcher which allows to configure the most common settings
Mac OS X: Uses Quicktime for music now to fix crashes (adapted from Jaakko Keränen's work in Doomsday)
Windows: Converted project files to free Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition

8th April 2006

Version 2.4.1 is released.

PrBoom demos are now recorded with high-precision turning (like the "Doom v1.91" hack that is floating around)
when both -nodraw and -nosound are supplied, then no graphics will be initialized and no windows opened
add ultdoom compatibility level, and bring compatibility levels into line with Prboom+
screenshots now use correct palette in software mode
screenshots now in PNG format on Linux/Unix where available
suppress use-supershotgun key in compatibility mode
removed obsolete video related code
fix screenshots on 64bit systems
fix comp_666

2nd April 2006

Version 2.4.0 is released. This is based on 2.2.6 and includes various improvements from 2.3.1 and PrBoom+. Special thanks to Andrey 'e6y' Budko for his bugfixes and his help to add them to PrBoom!

emulate reject overflows and spechit overflows - from prboom-plus
more original doom compatibility options
improve stretched graphics drawing for hires
fix super-shotgun reload on last shot
fix compilation with gcc 4.x
fix some more dehacked support problems (e.g. Hacx)
fix crash if pwad contains zero-length sound lumps
added possibility to use mmap for wad access, this leads to less memory usage
simplified the memory handling
removed old Doom v1.2 lumps from prboom.wad
windows also uses prboom.wad now
add Mac OS X bundle build
removed lumps and tables which are in prboom.wad from source

7th October 2004

Version 2.2.6 is released. This is just another release fixing bugs and making minor improvements:

fix Inferno intermission screen crash
fix lockup for other netgame clients when one client quits
fix memory leak in netgame server
fix SDL_LockScreen crashes on Win32
fix fuzz drawing for hi-res
network games should survive temporary loss of connection
fix dehacked NOSECTOR/NOBLOCKMAP effects
fix player spawn sound

The compiled Windows and Linux versions, and the source code, are now available to download.

25th September 2004

Version 2.3.1 is released. This is still experimental, but should be much more usable then 2.3.0. Please test it thoroughly and give us feedback. The feedback from the last release was very helpful.

disabled vidd support, because currently it's broken
network console variables are exchanged now
waiting for network can be aborted on windows
several keys didn't work in demo playback
fixed levelname and other widgets on automap
load opengl library only once to prevent error on mode switching
fix savegame handling
unavailable IWADs are disabled in the load wad menu
several small fixes to the new software renderer
reimplemented multipatch textures on two sided lines
fixed buffer overflow on intermission texts
filenames with dots beside the one on the extension work better now
fixed texture pegging of upper textures in OpenGL
correctly search prboom.wad
removed hubs and fragglescript as they are too buggy
fixed savegame root directory
fixed several endian problems (for PowerPC and Sparc)
added more options to menus
fixed some default config values
load OpenGL libraries only when needed
autorun available in key bindings menu
live monster counter for HUD
fast forward to given map # in demo playback
fixes for various sound bugs
fix doom2 demos at levels with >10 deathmatch starts
and more compatibility and demo fixes
support higher-turning-resolution demos from v1.91

Version 2.2.5 is released. This is just another release fixing bugs and making minor improvements:

fix crash caused by long messages in HUD
live monster counter on HUD
notify server if client quits during startup wait
improved response file parser
fast forward to given map # in demo playback
fixes for various sound bugs
fix doom2 demos at levels with >10 deathmatch starts
and more compatibility and demo fixes
support higher-turning-resolution demos from v1.91
fix compilation with gcc 3.4.x

The compiled Windows and Linux versions, and the source code, are now available to download.

21th September 2003

Update! The Windows release was missing the stlport_vc645.dll, this is now fixed

Version 2.3.0 released. Note that this release is something of a public beta: it is a work in progress, and so will be rough around the edges. It's not recommended for network games or demo recording. We appreciate any feedback; get on the prboom-users list and let us know what you think.

The following list of changes is probably incomplete:

the OpenGL libs are loaded dynamically
only one executable for software rendering and OpenGL
option for sound compatibility with original Doom
added more compatibility levels (check frontend configurations!)
in game switching between fullscreen and windowed mode
fix super-shotgun reload on last shot
intermission demo sync bug fixed
support for more and less then 8 channels
improved response file parser
replaced use_vsync with use_doublebuffer in cfg file and implemented double buffering
removed old Doom v1.2 lumps from prboom.wad
windows also uses prboom.wad now
removed lumps and tables which are in prboom.wad from source
fix translucency map file handle leak
added a quake like console
new menu code and much more options available through it
reworked software renderer
bilinear filter for software rendering
AdvanceScale2x like filter, but working on individual lines not fullscreen
smooth edges on masked textures and sprites
16bit and 32bit software rendering
sound and video settings changeable while running (Software <-> OpenGL)
VIDD (Version Independant Doom Demo) support

20th September 2003

Version 2.2.4 is released. This is just another release fixing bugs and making minor improvements:

Fixed sky-over-sky HOM.
Add sound compatibility option.
Improve sound volume accuracy.
Shared texture palette isn't the default anymore (glboom).
Better invulnerabilty rendering for non paletted OpenGL.
Network game server can now read config files to set game options.
Fix latency problems in LAN games.
Small compilation fixed for OpenGL on some unix platforms.
Fix for dehacked files which change frames.
Fixed name clash when compiling for some unix platforms.
Flag counted items with different colour on the IDDT automap.
Fixed extra shot sound when chaingun runs out of ammo.
Fix some telefragging related desyncs.
Fixed offsets for flipped sprites.
Hopefully fix problems with network games on big-endian platforms.

The compiled Windows and Linux versions, and the source code, are now available to download.

28. July 2002

Version 2.2.3 released.

improved mouse handling
intermission demo sync bug fixed
framebuffer update fixes (solves flicker on fbcon)
-forceoldbsp allowed in non-GL version, and saved in demos
fix player colours in multiplayer demos
apply workarounds for buggy pwads even during demo playback
fix numpad 5 key
allow compilation on systems where SDL is built without joystick support
fix comp_skymap
using anisotropic filtering when the OpenGL extension is available
using paletted textures when the OpenGL extension is available
added gl_use_paletted_texture option to glboom configuration file
using shared texture palette when the OpenGL extension is available
added gl_use_shared_texture_palette option to glboom configuration file

Some screenshots of the shared texture palette support:
Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 Screenshot 3

14. October 2001

Version 2.2.2 of the merged source for Linux and Windows released.

more demo sync problems for original Doom and Boom fixed
added changeable samplerate for soundmixing
added fullscreen/window toggle in option menu
added double buffering
floor rendering made more accurate
Win32 config file handling fixed
fix endian conversion problem on Linux/PPC

24. June 2001

Version 2.2.1 of the merged source for Linux and Windows released.

improved fix for demo sync problems with lost souls bouncing off floors
fixed bug where loading a -fast or -respawn savegame failed to restore those options properly
fixed demo sync bug with doors also tagged to lift triggers
fix some endianness problems in the OpenGL renderer
hopefully fixed some problems compiling for Linux/ARM
fix multi-level demo time totals to agree with compet-n
linux rpm is now a bit more standardised

6. May 2001

New SDL_mixer_beta.dll which should fix the music looping bug from the version released in PrBoom 2.2.0 for Win32.

2. April 2001

Version 2.2.0 of the merged source for Linux and Windows released.

fix compiling problem on alpha processors (size_t != unsigned long)
fixed stair building (ex. TNT - Evilution MAP30)
fixed OpenGL menu drawing bug
hopefully fixed top sky line bug for some OpenGL drivers
added joystick support through SDL
made a (temporary) fix for the crash at 800x600 when timidity can't find cfg
fixed some key binding problems
fixed linking problems on some UNIX systems

18. February 2001

New SDL_mixer_beta.dll which should have fewer bugs and music change should work.

30. December 2000

Version 2.1.2 of the merged source for Linux and Windows released.

20. November 2000

We still have problems with 3dfx Voodoo support in the OpenGL version. If anyone can help us with it, please contact us.

12. November 2000

Version 2.1.1 of the merged source for Linux and Windows released.

21. September 2000

We have put the wrong sdl_mixer.dll into the distribution. With that one midi-music doesn't work. So everyone who has downloaded the win32 version should download the new sdl_mixer.dll. The new dll will be included in the next release.

17. September 2000

Version 2.1.0 of the merged source for Linux and Windows released.

4. May 2000

Merged with LxDoom and lSDLdoom. LxDoom will be taken as the base and the features of Pr/GlBoom will be added to it.