Fluidsysnth

Zdoom, and thereby GZdoom, now support midi playback using fluidsynth. If you want to try this feature, you will need to get a copy of fluidsynth.dll compiled by Randy Heit.

To use the feature, unpack the above linked file into the same directory as you put your Zdoom and/or GZdoom SVN binaries. Then, start the game and go to the sound options menu and change the midi device option. There should be a listing for fluidsysnth. Select it and restart the sound.

With some sound cards (eg Creative cards) this should work "out of the box" with the cards' built-in sound font. However, other users may have to download and/or initialise a soundfont before using fluidsynth. The fluidsynth website has links to a few soundfonts which may be useful.

If you experience difficulties/need more help or wish to comment on fluidsynth support in some other way, the Zdoom forum would be the appropriate place.

Doomseeker

Zalewa joined the SVN team to provide builds of Doomseeker! They can be found here. Doomseeker is a server browser for client/server Doom ports, such as Skulltag, Odamex, Vavoom and others.

SLADE3

Slade 3 is the latest addition to the family of ports and utilities finding its development builds hosted by DRD Team. You can find it along with Doom Builder 2 and ACC under the "Editors" header, or here.

In addition, the latest official version of Slade 3's predecessor Slumped can be found in the same directory, where it will remain until the Slumped homepage is back up. Slumped is back up on its homepage.

Vavoom engine advanced renderer test

Hi! I've just uploaded a new revision of Vavoom engine, which contains the test for the advanced renderer, this updated version of the renderer has new lightning features (real time shadows, new lightning mode for models, among other nice looking stuff...), we would like to know if it works fine for each of you, please download it and test, also note that this new features are only available in OpenGL rendering mode, using Direct3d might not work properly as of now.

The engine has code that will select the new renderer automatically for you if your hardware supports it, the main requirements for the advanced renderer is that your video hardware supports shaders, video cards from 2 or 3 years ago will not have problems with this AFAIK. You can get the test version from the usual spot at: http://svn.drdteam.org/vavoom/

If you don't see the new renderer, chances are your hardware doesn't supports shaders, if you think your hardware does support renderer and want to test the new features, you can type the following BEFORE starting the game: . If starting the game with this option produces incorrect graphics or a crash, then your hardware can't run the new renderer, you can return to the normal renderer bu typing at the console:

Please post your experience with the new renderer on this thread, if you find any bugs, please report them on the usual way, Enjoy!

Doom Builder 2 back online!

Since the official Doom Builder website is currently not available, we are hosting a copy of the latest DB2 installer. Remember that our SVN builds for DB2 are meant to overwrite an existing installation; you need to have an installed DB2 in the first place before you can use them. So if you do not have DB2 already installed, and you want to try one of our SVN builds, use this installer first.

This is a temporary solution; once doombuilder.com is back online this file will be removed from our server.

Update: As of 18-Mar-2010, the DB2 website and its forums appear to be back online.

7zip archives [Poll]

There is currently some discussion about moving to 7zip archives for our (G)ZDoom builds.

There are pro's and con's to this issue, and I think every person should have their own say. Please be aware, that like all of my polls, I will be paying much more attention to the replies and discussion in this thread than the poll itself - and I will be basing my final decision on what I feel is best for the community.

1) Pro's
- 7zip archives are, in fact, smaller. And in every revision, G&ZDoom both only get bigger.
- 7zip is free. http://www.7-zip.org/ - 7zip archivers typically do not require purchase or registration, are open source, and pretty much free of BS.
- 7zip is a "solid" archiver - i.e. the entire archive is compressed, not every file individually.
- Zip is obsolete.

2) Con's
- Not supported by WinZip.
- Not supported by some of the other popular commercial archivers.
- Zip is widely supported because it has been around far longer.

I honestly think transitioning to 7zip is the best move - it is a space saver, and while it's not a drastically huge difference, it's enough of a difference that it matters.

To respond to this poll, please click here.

ZDoom on the Macintosh!

As you may have noticed, ZDoom 2.4.1 has been uploaded on the site for the Macintosh. This is the first step in our efforts to offer Macintosh builds for ZDoom.

This is special thanks to our newest SVN Team member, Blzut3! He has offered to help maintain the Mac builds for our site, and we graciously appreciate it! (Because we DO know there are some of you Mac Doomers out there!)

Thank you, Blzut3!

GZdoom SVN builds have resumed

Well, a new official version of GZdoom is out but already Graf has addressed a few minor issues and, after seeking Graf's permission, as of revision 652 SVN builds of GZdoom have been reinstated. Get them from the usual place.

GZDoom 1.3 betas!

The upload of new GZDoom SVN builds is temporarily suspended. Instead, people are advised to get the latest beta builds. GZDoom SVN builds resume once the 1.3 version is officially released.

This does not affect builds of ACC, Doom Builder 2, Eternity, Vavoom or ZDoom.
Normal SVN build service has resumed. The GZDoom code is now finalized and waiting for a ZDoom sound bug to be fixed before an official release can be made.

...and, as of 29 November 2009, SVN builds have been stopped again due to an official version of GZDoom being released and to help Graf keep track of any bug reports that come in for that. To aid this, all older builds have been taken down. Please go to the GZDoom download page to get the latest version.

SVN builds for GZDoom will return as and when it is appropriate. Other builds are not affected by this pause.

New skin

You've probably already noticed that this site now has a new skin. This skin is based on Stronghold - a mod that many in the DRD community are actively developing and helping with.

We hope to have it released before Doom's anniversary this year, so stay tuned!

Special thanks goes to Morpheus for the design of this skin.

More info on Stronghold here!