GZDoom demos not compatible between versions of GZdoom...?

additup · Post by **additup** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 20:09

Seriously man, wtf. 1.0.22 is updated to 1.0.24 and now none of the demos I recorded with 1.0.22 will work if I want to upgrade to fix little bugs and crap. It's pretty damn pathetic. I put time and effort into this stuff, and who is really going to keep around old versions of the execuable or dredge them up just to see my little level-demos??? It's extremely frustrating and utterly uncool.

Has anyone ever thought about trying to design a converter to transcode demos between different ports? I'm sure it would be hellishly complex but the person who pulled it off would be a god amongst doomers.

...Please ? ! ? There is no way I am going to go record more demos with this new version only to have this happen again.

Post by **Enjay** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 20:13

Sorry, it will happen any time something significant changes with the code. It's been that way since doom.exe was the only option and id were releasing updated versions.

additup · Post by **additup** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 20:27

I've dealt with it for as long as I've been foraging for demos online, years now, and fortunately most of the databases that I've stumbled across in that time have either included versions of the exe used to record the original or else included txt files telling what version was used. Likewise, throughout that time it has bothered me that there isn't just some central utility that is updated from time to time to support the new ports that are released. Is there just not very much public interest in doom demos anymore?

Post by **Enjay** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 20:35

There is, quite a lot of interest in the demo scene. Most of the people who are into demos use ports specifically catering for them and which try to maintain as much vanilla demo compatibility as possible. I think prboom is a popular one, maybe eternity as well?

The Doomworld demos forum might be a good place to go looking

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/forumdispla ... forumid=37

additup · Post by **additup** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 21:37

Thanks for the link. Do you know if mapinfo files work for vanilla or prboom like they do for zdoom, or is that a zdoom-only feature?

Post by **Enjay** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 21:57

Vanilla, definitely not. PRBoom, I don't know.

I think some other ports have a MAPINFO feature but all the commands of the Zdoom MAPINFO format will not be supported. Whether such ports will just ignore the entries it doesn't understand, or fail to run I don't know. I suspect, however, if a map is using a Zdoom specific MAPINFO that there will be other things about the map that mean non-zdoom ports won't be able to play it anyway.

additup · Post by **additup** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:24

No, the level I am building now just uses the mapinfo to rename the level and clear episodes. I suppose that when I record the final demo for the level I am building now I will just use of those other ports then.

Mike.Reiner · Post by **Mike.Reiner** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 20:46

Yeah, if your levels are Boom compatible, use PRBoom. That thing can still playback the original ID-Created demos for doom and doom2 perfectly.

It is bar-none THE best demo recording port. Updates never break demo recording.