I was looking at the Doom64 TC port code the other day and I was thinking about what would be involved in porting it. The biggest issue is that it uses OpenGL which is really needed to produce the lighting that was added to the Doom engine for Doom64. IMO that lighting is very important to Doom64 and is one of the main things that makes Doom64 unique. So while porting most of the engine wouldn't be too bad, and most of it has been ported before along with the SDL which is easy, the OpenGL stuff would have to be converted to DirectX and that is the part that would take time. For much of what would be required someone could take the work I have done on Odamex for the Xbox port and use it to bring Doom64tc a lot of the way. I don't think the conversion work is really worth it when you consider that Doom64 in Surreal really works great. The only way I would see it being worth it is if someone was willing to invest the time to produce split-screen and system link play.
As for wad selection in Odamex. In the settings dialog you are able to add directories which will be read to produce the wad list. Here is what the non-console version of that dialog looks like:
(IMG:
http://www.huntsvegas.org/screenshots/Odamex/agodalaunch-config1.png)
The console version will be slightly different as the Odamex path selector will be removed since we will know where to find Odamex. The search will not be recursive so any wad containing directories must be added. Adding a directory is simple with a directory selector popping up for you to navigate through:
(IMG:
http://www.huntsvegas.org/screenshots/Odamex/agodalaunch-config2.png)
When you join an online game the wads will be handled automatically. When you want to play offline you will select the button for launching an offline game and the offline dialog will pop up. There you will have your iwads on the left and all of the pwads are on the right:
(IMG:
http://www.huntsvegas.org/screenshots/Odamex/agodalaunch-solo1.png)
You must make a selection in the iwad list before you can hit launch. You are not required to select a pwad. The pwad list allows multiple selections so you can load multiple wads like all the parts of the AliensTC or GoldenEyeTC or you could select a levels wad + skin wad, etc. This list includes dehacked patches. Currently wads are simply added to the list in the order they are read from the directory. They are unsorted and are not categorized. I would like to implement them into a tree list and sort them into alphabetized collapsible categories. That may be for the next version though For now you could easily add or remove wad directories in the settings dialog as you see fit so that your list doesn't contain too many at one time.
Right now the launcher is completely usable so my next goal is to get it to the Xbox and get the few things that are left before a release could possibly be made which includes saving to the proper TDATA directory. The things that I do not consider critical to release are rumble support, 1080i (which I intend to disable in the SDL library before building the release), and virtual keyboard support. I have been focused on the things that have to be done. That may not necessarily translate into SVN commits that you guys might be following as I have been working heavily with the Agar developers to get needed improvements and additions there as well as providing patches and new functionality to them. I think the list of things that will be supported for the release are impressive just to name some:
- Full joystick support
- HD resolutions up to 720p
- Fully functional game launcher/server browser
- 100% compatibility with all other platforms for seamless online play with any server reported to the official master list.
- Support for different iwads including Shareware Doom, Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom (Plutonia & TNT), Freedoom, and Chex Quest
- Dashboard integration meaning the game is built with an icon, a unique id, save manager support (including from the original MS dashboard) also with icons
- 100% GPL SOURCE CODE! Use it. Just adhere to the GPL and you can do as you please with it. The launcher is 100% open-source and I have/am releasing any library built to support it including Agar. Adapt the launcher code/query protocol to an XBMC plugin so the servers can be browsed or a game kicked off right from your XBMC dash! Use the launcher code as an example to make a game interface of your own using Agar or make a full-featured graphical web browser (please)!
There will be things to look forward to in the following versions of Odamex mostly being any improvements made to Odamex itself, additions to the launcher, 1080i, virtual keyboard, and rumble. But I feel pretty good about what is going to be in the first version. Any feature that you get on the PC is in there.
This is what I would recommend to people though. Get a usb adapter for the Xbox. They can be obtained on ebay or amazon for a couple bucks and they are very handy to have. With that you can plug a USB keyboard in and use it for changing your player name (which is going to require editing the config file otherwise until the virtual keyboard support is in) and chat in online games (though generally there is more playing than chatting.) By all means use the joystick to play. I worked hard on it and I think the joystick feels great though the option to use a keyboard and mouse is still there. But it will be very beneficial to plug a keyboard in for the reasons mentioned for the first release.
This post has been edited by Hyper_Eye: Aug 17 2010, 02:31 AM
