RELEASE_NOTES.md

3.1.0 (2024-08-01)

General

• Drag and drop loading of WAD, Dehacked and demo files is now supported on Windows - simply drag the files onto chocolate-doom.exe (thanks Fabian).
• WAD file autoloading was added - WAD and DEH files can be copied into an autoload folder to be automatically included on every game start.
• Music pack configuration has been significantly simplified. By simply copying .flac/.ogg music files into a folder they will be automatically detected by filename and used.
• Music packs can now be used with OPL as a fallback, and music pack config files can have any name ending in '.cfg'.
• MP3 music packs are now supported.
• Network synchronization now uses a PID controller by default, which makes games more smooth and more stable, especially for Internet play.
• UDP hole punching is now used to make servers behind NAT gateways automatically accessible to the Internet.
• OPL emulation now uses Nuked OPL3 v1.8 (thanks nukeykt)
• Allow simultaneous PC speaker emulation and OPL emulation (thanks Michael Day).
• The setup tool now uses "Romero Blue" as a background (see the wiki: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Romero_Blue for more info).
• The 0 and 5 keys on the number pad can now be bound independently of any other keyboard key (thanks BlooD2ool).
• With aspect ratio correction disabled, the game can scale to any arbitrary size and remove all black borders in full screen mode. (thanks chungy)
• The executable's location is now checked when looking for IWADs.
• The IWAD files installed by Steam-on-Linux are now detected (thanks chungy).
• It's now possible to use -response to load response files.
• Default savegame name now includes the WAD filename (thanks Fabian).
• Mouse movement is no longer read when the game window is inactive (thanks Julia Nechaevskaya).
• Chocolate Doom now by default generates a "pet name" for the user to respect privacy (thanks Jon!)
• The Freedoom single-player IWAD files are now officially supported, since recent versions changed all levels to be vanilla compatible.
• Add native support for the FluidSynth midi synthesizer.
• Add a fsynth_gain config key to fine tune the FluidSynth output level (thanks Fabian).
• Redesign of native MIDI support in Windows (thanks ceski and Roman Fomin):
  • Emulates DMX MPU-401 feature set by default, change with winmm_complevel.
  • MIDI device reset between songs using "GM System On", change with winmm_reset_type.
  • Configurable delay after reset for legacy MIDI hardware (e.g. Roland SC-55), change with winmm_reset_delay.
• Add improved gamepad support via the SDL_GameController interface. This includes support for analog triggers, modern dual-stick default bindings (based on Unity Doom), descriptive button names for common controller types and configurable dead zones for stick axes. (Michael Day).
• All games now have shiny new icons!
• The -display parameter was added to specify the display number on which to show the screen (thanks Robin Emeršič).

Build systems

• SDL2_mixer and SDL2_net can now be optionally disabled to increase portability to systems that might not support audio or networking (thanks turol).
• Travis CI was replaced with GitHub Actions (thanks Michael Francis).
• mingw CI was added for automatic Windows-building (thanks turol).
• A cpp-linter CI was added to improve the quality and formatting of code (thanks turol).
• The --disable-zpool autoconf argument for disabling memory pooling was added to make debugging easier (thanks turol).
• Python 2 has been deprecated and Python 3 is now used exclusively (thanks Fabian).

Refactorings

• CMake project files have been added, replacing the Microsoft Visual Studio and Code::Blocks files. CMake maintains support for multiple IDEs and versions thereof, and reduces developer overhead when updating Chocolate Doom (huge thanks to AlexMax for this work).
• Source code has been retrofitted to fix many compiler warnings and add const annotations to many variables (thanks turol).
• Several functions have been hardened against incomplete reads and error conditions, and made safer (thanks turol).
• Man page generation has been reworked to use autoconf macro substitution, making it eaiser for downstream forks to change the project name (thanks Jon).
• We now print a meaningful error message when a savegame cannot be loaded (thanks Zodomaniac, chungy).
• There's now a log file feature for the network code to aid in tracking down multiplayer bugs.
• AppData files were updated to the AppStream standard (thanks Mike).
• Many abuses of the extern keyword have been cleaned up to prevent undefined behavior (thanks turol).
• Install of bash completion scripts was fixed (thanks Mike Swanson).

Bug fixes

• Fixed an exception thrown by the Windows kernel when debugging with GDB (thanks AXDOOMER).
• Loop metadata now works properly with music packs on Windows.
• Mouse movement is ignored when the game window isn't active (thanks Julia Nechaevskaya).
• A bug was fixed where music would not play after pausing on an intermission screen (thanks Julia Nechaevskaya).
• Timeouts when connecting to a network server were fixed (thanks @bradc6).
• A long-standing bug where some visplane overflows caused crashes was fixed (thanks Michael Francis).
• A multiplayer deadlock bug where clients would stop sending tics after missing tics from the server was fixed. There are both client- and server- side fixes to fix the problem when playing with older versions (thanks MadDog and Mortrixs for help tracking this down).
• The macOS launcher now quits automatically when all windows are closed.
• The mouse speed calibration thermometer was fixed.
• Some improvements have been made to PC speaker emulation to better match Vanilla (thanks NY00123).
• Filenames and paths with non-latin characters now work on Windows (thanks Roman Fomin).
• Properly handle orphan carriage returns when parsing deh files (thanks Michael Day).

Doom

• Doom 1.2 demo support was added (thanks James Canete!)
• Map33 intermission screen and map33-map35 automap names are emulated (thanks CapnClever).
• We now exit gracefully when player starts are missing (thanks Michael Francis).
• We now exit gracefully on levels with a boss brain and no boss spitter things (thanks Jason Benaim).
• It's now possible to play multiplayer with gameversion=1.2.
• When the game hits the limit for the number of wall scrollers, a count of the number of scrollers is now displayed (thanks Jon).
• Sector special 17 (random light flicker) is now accurately emulated to only appear in gameversion > 1.2 (thanks tpoppins).
• Fixed mouse events causing unwanted key presses (thanks Michael Day).
• French Doom II files doom2f.wad and french.deh are now automatically detected (thanks Acts19quiz).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to run (thanks Archenoth).
• The "Sky never changes in Doom II" bug is now accurately emulated (thanks Michael Francis).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to turn left/right (thanks Fabian).
• Fix possible undefined behavior and accurately emulate vanilla when -skill parameter is given a negative value (thanks Henrique Jorge).

Heretic

• P_FindNextHighestFloor was changed to match vanilla behavior (thanks AXDOOMER).
• WAD hash table is now generated for speed (thanks Michael Francis).
• HHE level name replacements now apply on the intermission screen (thanks ETTiNGRiNDER).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to scroll through inventory and "use artifact" (thanks Michael Day).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to run (thanks Archenoth).
• Multiplayer demo playback was fixed (thanks Ryan Krafnick).
• The GOG.com release is now detected (thanks Mike Swanson).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to turn left/right (thanks Fabian).
• Fix NULL backsector crash (thanks kitchen-ace and Julia Nechaevskaya).

Hexen

• ACS code has been hardened against potential security vulnerabilities.
• WAD hash table is now generated for speed (thanks AXDOOMER).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to scroll through inventory and "use artifact" (thanks Michael Day).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to run (thanks Archenoth).
• Multiplayer demo playback was fixed (thanks Ryan Krafnick).
• The GOG.com release is now detected (thanks Mike Swanson).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to turn left/right (thanks Fabian).
• Fixed demo desyncs in P_LookForPlayers (thanks Michael Day)
• Add support for two different v1.1 variants through -gameversion argument (thank NY00123).

Strife

• Sehacked replacements of the "empty slot" string now work.
• VOICES.WAD is now found in a case-insensitive way (thanks Michael Francis).
• PC speaker sound effects are now supported (thanks ceski).
• Mouse buttons are now bindable to turn left/right (thanks Fabian).
• Fixed demo desyncs in P_LookForPlayers (thanks Michael Day)
• Fix possible undefined behavior and accurately emulate vanilla when -skill parameter is given a negative value (thanks Henrique Jorge).