Wolfenstein 3D - Port Status News

[Zack]

Time for an update. No new release this time though (sorry it's just not ready yet). Just wanted to post this to update you all and release any fears of this project being dead.

What has changed since V4.8?

The below changes are 100% complete :

- Crashing bug fixed. (for good?)
- Fixed Menu bug where the text "off" would be printed below the "quit" text.
- Removed Border around in-game.
- Re-enabled Demo Mode & Fixed Random Crashing bug attributed with it.
- Properly Cantered Message Dialogue boxes.
- Fixed bug where message box displayed corrupted and in the wrong position.
- Reduced "ghosting" further and made movement slightly slower (it makes it a lot more responsive now)
- Finally made the game fill the full capacity of the screen. So yeah its full screen now
- Fixed screen fadeout after returning to the game via the menu. No longer shrinks the screen then expands it. Just fades out.
- Improved Menu controls (x = confirm/enter, /\ = back/no
- Improved cheat code activation, start key is no longer used, and keys used are easier to press (uses 3 keys as opposed to 4 now)
- Huge code clean up. 1500 Lines gone (roughly)

The following are Work in progress :

- New Audio system implemented. Sound & Music are now 100% Perfect. (Uses Wav's for sounds, and Mp3's for music, Mp3's play on ME processor) - This is done but not finished as of yet. Roughly 45% complete.

- Fix original sound system.
- Fix save/load slowness & corruption.
- Fix other minor bugs.
- ???

What is this new Audio System?

Sound Effects :
Basically it uses wav files extracted from the Wolfenstein audio data files and plays them back at a very high quality rate. It sounds stunning.

Music :
This plays back mp3's which are obtained by extracting the raw music data from the audio data files, converting it to midi, then to mp3. This may appear to be a bad idea, but it sounds awesome.

If this new audio system is so great why bother fixing the old one?

Well I am doing this for a few reasons. Around 50% of the Wolfenstein sound effects and music are available for me to distribute without breaking any copyright laws. (the ones from the shareware versions). The sound files from the full versions are a different story though.

I have contacted ID who referred me to there department that deals with questions regarding the Wolf3D source code. Once I recieve and answer back from them saying I either can or cannot distribute the sound and music files from the full versions of Wolf3D and Spear Of Destiny, my hands are tied.

So as a backup plan I am also fixing the old sound code.

Didn't you try that before?

I never stopped working on it, although briefly. Today I made an interesting discovery. I decided to port fmopl (opl emulator) from mame to wolfenstein 3d, that before this used v3.7. I always presumed that the opl emulator was outdated and thus was causing all the issues with the sound. However I was wrong.

After getting it working (about 30 minutes later) the sound was just the same as it was before. So this means that the problem lies in the implementation of the sound initialization code. It is probably something simple, like a timer being slightly off, although it could be just plain wrong.

So later today (going to bed now) I am going to start investigating this and see how it goes. I will post if I manage to work it out today.

To Summarize :

The next release will be out when one (or both) of the sound systems are complete (perfect), and the saving and loading is fast and stable.

This could either be tomorrow or in 1-2 weeks time, I can't really say.

Bear with me and your patience will be rewarded

Give feedback via comments

[Safari Al]

Great work man, this is really making a lot of progress very quickly

[da1writer]

Nicely written, love the progress you made so far! Hopefully ID contacts you soon so you can move on with the wav/mp3 idea, otherwise fixing the old sound code would be the only option left ? Remember Zack, I got ya back !

[anteopimp]

good job Zack, we love you and all the women want to bear your child.

Is that good enough motivation

[Mr. Shizzy]

Great work. Glad to hear your still going with it.

[offtopic]Drop me a PM sometime old buddy [/offtopic]

[bah]

I really appreciate your persistence with working out the bugs and polishing this port Zack

[JKKDARK]

Great job, Zion. You're working hard on it

[ashamanmiller]

yea, sweet job man! keep up the good work!

[Zack]

Here are screen shots of the new full screen mode vs the old one:

New full screen mode :


Old full screen mode

[elliott_nally]

Very nice work! Can't wait for the next release! Keep up the good work.