Old News
02/02/2004
Just a quick note to say things are still going on at Slidespace - Specifically I'm thinking of releasing an interim version of the new jDUI while I finish the new graphics for various special screens within the Doom games.
As for the various other projects that I have ongoing, I've handed my work on the Alien TC over to modelling king Cain to see what he can make of it; and my various other projects have slowly been making progress but I'm not saying what, where and when yet as I don't know yet when stuff will be presentable. Anyway that's enough for now.
10-01-04
Those who have been asking for a while now will be glad toknow that the optional jDEP no fog patch is now available for download - this patch enables you to (by default) disable the fog settings that come with the pack. The jDEP fog has always been a love/hate thing with users but hopefully those in the latter camp will be happy. Important - a side effect of the No Fog pack is to duplicate the patch for people with problems running the jDEP - therefore if you need the patch and want no fog ONLY use the no fog patch not both.
I'm also hoping that a resolution to the minor issue of lights (from light decoration packs) glowing very brightly when fog is enabled, could be at hand - more on that when I get it.
It's been a busy few days for me and it looks like it's not gonna get quieter anytime soon but I've added a new link on the page Fano++64K/Hexagon's new site for the Doom ReTeXture Utility - a remarkable program that using the hx2/3/4 filters to resample graphics to a higher quality - good stuff worth a look.
Minor news - My textures for jDoom have been uploaded -here- They include the Archvile wall image that was based on a drawing by Chiv. These were part of the jDTP but since that doesn't have a permanent home anymore, I thought I'd put them up separately. I've also added a new link to the related sites section; that of Doom: the Resurrection, I don't normally involve myself with mod projects (Zero Tolerance TC being the exception to the rule) but they've linked to me so it would be churlish not return the favour.
6/01/2004:
Other tidbits of news include psuedo confirmation that the new release of Doomsday (with radiosity) will be from the new 1.8 codebase rather than 1.7.15 as was implied previously by the DHQ homepage. Also there are rumblings of changes at New Doom, but for now that's all I'm going to say - I don't want to steal anyone's thunder.
In other news I'm now archiving news posts on a separate page - as I've had complaints- I mean... suggestions that people keep missing things because older news items are just deleted - the archive is incomplete as I never really thought to retain copies of old posts. Click the 'Old News' link below the news section to see the old news stories that before would have been deleted.
Last Update: 02/01/2004
Another addition to the site for the New Year, Darmuss has put together a Doom 64 Resource Pack based on the work done by the Doom 64 Total Conversion Team. The download comes contains high resolution sprites & sounds with an installer and is about 7mb big. This release uses Kickstart (the Doomsday launcher) to activate the pack - if there is call for it I may modify the pack into a simple jDRP style pk3 to offer as an alternate download.
The file is -here- and is also in the downloads section; here are some screens 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
I've also updated the downloads section with filesizes - I working on rejigging the downloads as part of the site redesign so I may make further alterations soon.
Last Update: 28/12/2003
Small update: The downloads are back up again now - the problem with the FTP server has been fixed.
Last Update: 26/12/2003
Well I hope you all had a good Christmas - and while the tinsel settles here's a post party present for all you Heretic fans out there:
THE jHUI 2.0 HAS BEEN RELEASED!
The jHUI as you may or may not know is the jHeretic User Interface pack and contains hi res graphic replacements for the interface of Heretic; while retaining the classic Heretic style. Unlike the old pack no resampled graphics are used, all images are 100% original works go check out the jHUI section for some more information and some screenies.
You can also contact me about this new release and other issues via the new Contact option from the top navigation bar.
Last Update: 24/12/2003
The wining skybox, from my xmas wallpaper poll was Doom 2 Sky 1 and the desktop is available -here- (as a Windows bitmap in a zip file). I'll be putting up a gallery in the new year which will become a more permanent home for this image and others in the future. Skyjake announced some new additions to Doomsday for the coming year on DoomsdayHQ I won't steal his thunder here though go check it out.
The update to the 'Abbs Alternative Weapons' pack is going well almost all the models I plan to redo are now done, and if you search the NewDoom forums you'll find some are already available (as beta's).
The new jHUI is now complete - I'd like to test it a bit more before releasing it though (especially given the recent problems with the jDUI - which to reiterate is now fixed).
Last Update: 18/12/2003
It's been a while since an update - but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything. The new jDEP is now mature and stable with no further problems detected I'll try and get a no fog patch out soonish. The new jHUI has been delayed because I decided to completely redo the patches for the game - once the new jHUI is released all the graphics (bar the map screens) should be brand new original works. I've also been doing lots of work on the jDUI which is going to get a major revamp with lots of new and updated graphics. Finally the steady work on the updating of the Abbs pack continues with a few new weapons recently being finished; I've decided that the replacement weapons (magnum and elephant gun) won't be included - nor will those items that are now part of the jDRP.
As to the site I've been working on a new layout and structure which I'm still ironing the kinks out of but when finished should really make Slidespace a great looking site (all in validated XHTML and CSS too). I'm also working with Pheobus on a few other additions to slidespace over the long term which will be very interesting if they come to fruition.
Last Update: 27/11/2003
Okay it's a major update to all the packs and the site itself.
I've done a new Doomsday Guide (DD Guide) which pulls together alot of documentation for the novice and expert Doomsday use it's available here as HTML and here as a zipped word file. It's now version 1.03 so check out the changes in the new Guide section.
I had put on hold plans for any more hexen/heretic stuff but now I've been persuaded to continue so an update to the jHUI available and more may follow.
The jDEP 2.0 is released! features include: new Doomsday 1.7.14 no compression settings (no more banding problems with texture compression), new skies for Final Doom (Evilution and Plutonia), enhanced sky 2 for Doom 2, new sky for Ultimate Doom. Unfortunately animated skies won't feature in this release as the file sizes and frame rate hit were far bigger than anticipated
To complete the set the jDUI got a minor update as well.
One last note - as you have probably noticed - I've had to accept advertising on this site due to the bandwidth the site was using - they are easily closed (click close at the base of the advert), currently there is nothing I can do about this.
In other news the jDEP is almost complete (I need to improve the sky 3's and Doom 2 sky 2 but thats all: I'm just waiting for the fog to be finished), the jDUI is now (hopefully) stable and it's contents won't change until the new jDEP is out. Also I notice that this page, made the NewDoom front page so welcome to any new visitors; and if you've never seen the power of jDoom before prepare to be impressed
17-10-03: I was thinking that it seemed silly nobody had got round to making a UI patch rollup pack. So rather than complain I did it myself. Below is the readme file and the download - as it says PM me on the Doomsday forums (username: Slide) if i've incorrectly credited something of yours. Please note I have individually contacted everyone whose stuff is in the pack already and so far everyone is happy with their files being used.
Remember this pack is mostly for people who want a quick and easy good looking doom game that's fairly close to the original in look.
JDUI Readme | jDUI Direct Download
In other news to make space for the patch pack I've removed the skybox preview, sorry. Work on the new jDEP continues.
13-10-03: Been experimenting again
13-10-03: Well the new Doomsday 1.7.14 is now out, so I could start rolling out Hexen skies (using the new lightning effects), but to be quite honest there seems to be far more interest in the Doom skies - specifically finishing the existing skies, adding EP4 (Ultimate Doom), Evilution (TNT) and Plutonia to the jDEP so I may put Hexen on the backburner until the Doom skyboxes are at a satisfactory level (and I can find my copy of Hexen which is still AWOL).
On another note, I'm still not happy with skybox cloud effects - I never liked the Quake style rolling texture skies - and while I can do better than that it is still not good enough for my liking. I feel it detracts rather than adds to the scene. The best I've come up with so far is with multiple cloud layers (with alpha channels) all rotating at different rates in the same direction with a few animations (to fake billowing) on each box; so there is a pseudo random element to the clouds. Used sparingly its an alright effect (ie a few clouds moving slowly at slightly different speeds fairly spaced out). Unfortunately the affect on frame rate can still be heavy and I wouldn't say the end result is all that realistic anyway.
10-10-03: A new low res version of the jDEP has been released -this may useful for those with less powerful systems - you can use exactly the same DED files with this new release as with the original jDEP, please note the low res version currently has some severe banding on some skies if there is a call for this new low res version I will fix this.
I have begun work on new Hexen skies - these will take some time to be useful as I am doing a lot of experimentation on them (not to mention replaying Hexen). Currently I am aiming to do the demo levels, then Hexen and then maybe Heretic. I'm hopeful that some of the techniques here can be applied to the Doom skies.
I not going to rush the Hexen stuff as I want to get another version of the jDEP out first - plus some features needed for it are only in 1.7.14 (and the work in progress snapshot but I don't want people to have to have that to use the environments).
