dsda-launcher [v1.3] + dsda-doom for MacOS

This is the thread for the dsda-doom source port for MacOS + Cross platform dsda-launcher

For those who don't know, I am making a cross-platform launcher for the dsda-doom source port, named dsda-launcher.

Binaries for both MacOS and Windows are available

https://github.com/Pedro-Beirao/dsda-launcher/releases

On MacOS, dsda-doom  is included  inside the launcher.

You can also install dsda-doom (without the launcher) using brew:

brew install dsda-doom

Big thanks to JustANormie who has been crucial for this development

Any questions, I am happy to help

Here I will post images about the launcher, as well as its current and upcoming features

Features:

- Choose IWAD / Complevel

- Warp to Episode/Level

- Choose difficulty

- Various gameplay modifying parameters (You can easily customise them)

- Change fullscreen/resolution

- Any other parameter you might like

- Load PWADs

- Record and Playback demos. To playback, you can drag your .lmp file unto the dada-launcher window, this will select the demo, as well as selecting the correct IWAD, PWADs and complevel)

- You can check out who has the WR for a certain level in a certain wad in a certain category, without leaving the launcher

- .state files save all the parameters selected on the launcher, and lets you load them again whenever you need. This will be very useful to those who like having a million .bat files for each run they make

Features / TODO list: https://github.com/Pedro-Beirao/dsda-launcher/projects/1

On 4/1/2021 at 1:19 AM, PBeGood4 said:

Compiled for M1 Macs.

dsda-doom-mac.zip

On 4/1/2021 at 3:18 AM, PBeGood4 said:

Compiled using Rosetta. It now works for both M1 and Intel Macs.

dsda-doom-mac.zip

Both do not work for me on my Mac Mini (2020) with M1 SoC. The launcher shows me the iwads and a purely white console window. Hitting "Launch" does nothing (I can see). The console window just stays white. Alexey's old PrBoom builds work for me using Rosetta 2. Tried deleting all the old data from these builds but this did not help either. Choosing OpenGL or the Software Renderer also does not make a difference.

Edit: Just read the provided pdf. Contrary to what it states. Prboom does not create a folder named ".dsda-doom" in my home dir. So I created it myself and followed the instructions. Still no luck. Prboom itself does not start.

Why do I have to copy the files to ".dsda-doom" in the first place?

I hope you can fix this. I really do appreciate your effort!

On 4/5/2021 at 12:52 PM, Warrex said:

 

 

Both do not work for me on my Mac Mini (2020) with M1 SoC. The launcher shows me the iwads and a purely white console window. Hitting "Launch" does nothing (I can see). The console window just stays white. Alexey's old PrBoom builds work for me using Rosetta 2. Tried deleting all the old data from these builds but this did not help either. Choosing OpenGL or the Software Renderer also does not make a difference.

 

Edit: Just read the provided pdf. Contrary to what it states. Prboom does not create a folder named ".dsda-doom" in my home dir. So I created it myself and followed the instructions. Still no luck. Prboom itself does not start.

 

Why do I have to copy the files to ".dsda-doom" in the first place?

 

I hope you can fix this. I really do appreciate your effort!

THIS COMMENT IS NO LONGER RELEVANT

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The .dsda-doom folder is hidden (see screenshot).                   cmd + shift + .              to be able to see hidden folders. The .dsda-doom folder is on your user dir. Make sure both dsda-doom files are on the .dsda-doom folder(see screenshot)

As stated in the pdf, one folder is used to find the iwads, the other to run them. I don't know why, but it works.

I tested with a MacBook Pro only, but it should work on a Mac mini.

Let me know if it works

EDIT: If it still doesn't work, you can try running it from the terminal: Create a folder (Anywhere) with both dsda-doom files (the ones on the screenshot) and the iwads. Open a terminal window. 'Drag the exec dsda-doom file to the terminal' -iwad 'Drag the iwad you want to load to the terminal' (if you want to add a pwad: -file 'Drag the pwad to the terminal'). It should look something like:

/Users/pedro/.dsda-doom/dsda-doom -iwad /Users/Pedro/.dsda-doom/doom2.wad -file /Users/Pedro/desktop/wads/stardate20x6.wad

-

I'm actually having the same problems as Warrex. When I load in the WADs, the PrBoom+ console is simply blank and doesn't show anything. I also don't see a .dsda-doom folder even when I use CMD + SHift + . to see hidden folders. I tried loading it in Terminal as PBeGood4 said, and still no luck. Is there anything I can do?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This post is no longer relevant. Everything comes packaged with the DSDA-Launcher, so you don't have to do anything else. 

On 5/4/2021 at 6:25 PM, JustANormie said:

I'm actually having the same problems as Warrex. When I load in the WADs, the PrBoom+ console is simply blank and doesn't show anything. I also don't see a .dsda-doom folder even when I use CMD + SHift + . to see hidden folders. I tried loading it in Terminal as PBeGood4 said, and still no luck. Is there anything I can do?

 

Hmm, maybe there is another file I needed to include.

To make sure it works this time, in this zip file I included all the build files.

Delete the previous folder

Download this .zip

Extract it

Open the terminal

Type:

cd path_to_folder

make install/strip

The path_to_folder should be something like ~/downloads/dsda-doom-mac/

Now open the Launcher (.app)

Press cmd + o (This will open/create .dsda-doom)

Drag you IWADs to that folder

I hope this works

Also, tell me if the audio is working. On my m1 it is fine, but on my intel it is broken.

(This is 0.18.0 btw)

dsda-doom-mac.zip

Strange, the PrBoom+ console still shows a simple blank screen. I now have the .dsda-doom file, and I have my IWADs in there, but yeah it's just not loading in. Do I also put the dsda-doom exec and WAD in the .dsda-doom file too? I've tried it and it doesn't seem to work either. I'll provide pictures:  

@JustANormie

So the problem is the sdl2.

I already have it installed, but you don't

There should be a way to include it in the build, but I dont have the time right now to try.

If you want to play, you will need to install sdl2

Open the Terminal and run:

1. xcode-select --install

2. /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

3. brew install sdl2

DSDA-doom should work now

So PBeGood4 has managed to help me get DSDA-Doom running(Huge thanks to him for staying with me throughout the whole process, it must have been slightly frustrating)

So if your console isn't loading up anything, then you might not have SDL2 installed in your system. To fix this, install SDL2 manually through this link:

http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-2.0.14.dmg

After you open the .dmg, you want to drag out the SDL2.framework folder and then drag it into your own Frameworks folder. You can access this my pressing CMD + Shift + G and then typing in the following: /Library/Frameworks

This should pop up:

You want to drag the SDL2 folder into this folder(I already have it in there)

DSDA-Doom should load up perfectly now. If your console pops up with this image:

Then you forgot to drag the dsda-doom exec and the dsda-doom.wad files into .dsda-doom. After doing that, DSDA-Doom should work perfectly. Customize it to your liking, and start playing Doomers :)

Do this if you want to use "brew"

______________________________________

Another thing go add to ^^^ post.

You need to install SDL2 manually like JustANormie said.

But you will also need:

- sdl2_net

- sdl2_mixer

- pcre

These are pretty easy to install

Open the Terminal

xcode-select --install

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

git -C $(brew --repo homebrew/core) checkout master

brew install sdl2 sdl2_net sdl2_mixer pcre

DSDA-doom should work now

@PBeGood4 I asked dew to split this off so it has its own space, and I linked it from the op in the dsda-doom thread, so you can post updates here and it will be easy for people to see the latest builds.

Ok thanks

I just updated the OP with the instructions on how to run this port.

Hm, so I tried updating to the new 0.19.2 version but I can't seem to transfer my saves properly. Any idea how to do that?

Also 1280x800 on 0.18.0 was smaller than 1280x800 on 0.19.2, why is that?

1 hour ago, JustANormie said:

Hm, so I tried updating to the new 0.19.2 version but I can't seem to transfer my saves properly. Any idea how to do that?

 

Also 1280x800 on 0.18.0 was smaller than 1280x800 on 0.19.2, why is that?

The directory structure for saves has changed in 0.19 if you have the new "organize saves" feature enabled (which by default it is) - it'll store your saves in a data directory with separate directories for different wads. The easiest way to explain the structure would be to create some new saves and look in your .dsda-doom directory to see where they're stored.

1280x800 is a 16:10 aspect ratio, so it's affected by this issue.

Hey peeps, just an update:

PBeGood4 has been working on a DSDA-Doom Launcher and we've both been testing it for bugs and such(I have an Intel, he has an M1 Chip so we can test for bugs that appear on different versions) and we've got a pretty stable release as of so far. We're ready to share the MEGA file link to it probably tomorrow, so here's a peek at it:

Includes an IWAD and Complevel selection screen, as well as a warp level and difficulty selection on the launcher. You can input additional parameters like -shorttics, and can activate fast monsters and such by checking the desired boxes. 

You can also drag an drop demos, and it will automatically select the IWAD needed to run the demo(Unfortunately it does not autoselect the complevel yet, PBeGood4 says that he may work on that in the future)

Unfortunately, this launcher only works on Macs to date. Anyone who knows how to use Qt you can compile a Windows version using the source code on GitHub:

https://github.com/Pedro-Beirao/dsda-launcher

The top post has been updated.

It's strange that I can't play demo with this launcher. Every time I select the LMP file and click "launch" , the dsda-doom window would appear for a second, and then it just exits automatically. But apart from this, this launcher is really good and easy to use. Good job! :^)

Hey @liveincity !

Are you using Windows or MacOS? Both were tested and should work

Are you able to play the demo using the command line?

If you hover the mouse over the Launch button it will show you the command line parameters it is about to run. Do you see any parameter that might cause this?

1 hour ago, PBeGood4 said:

Hey @liveincity !

Are you using Windows or MacOS? Both were tested and should work

Are you able to play the demo using the command line?

 

If you hover the mouse over the Launch button it will show you the command line parameters it is about to run. Do you see any parameter that might cause this?

Windows. 

I'm not sure if I can play the demo using the command line, but I always use this launcher and it could play the demo.

Here is the command line parameters it shows.

Could you post the demo file?

16 minutes ago, PBeGood4 said:

Could you post the demo file?

I posted it here.

The demo plays fine for me. I even tried loading the pwad from a different drive like you did and it worked.

If its not much trouble, could you try running the following in the command line?

"C:\path\to\dsda-doom.exe" -iwad "C:\path\to\doom2.wad" -complevel 2 -skill 4 -warp 27 -file "E:\games\doom\1k3rc3.wad" -geom 2560x1600f -playdemo "C:/Users/lenovo/Desktop/1k327o108.lmp" -shorttics

8 hours ago, PBeGood4 said:

try running the following in the command line

I tried just now, and it doens't work. Same crash happened. So probably something is wrong with my dsda-doom(I'm using dsda-doom v0.22.4). Then I tried it with v0.21.3, and the demo can be played.

dsda-doom v0.22 is still experimental and is known to have some bugs. You can if report it in the dsda-doom thread if you want

Could you make a launcher like this for the From Doom with Love fork?

I am planning on making a fork of this launcher that will work for every source port. It will still have all the same features except some speedrunning ones like viddumping, checking the WR of a run, ghosts, etc

I don't think that the FDWL fork is relevant enough to make a fork for it, atleast for now.

What I can do for now is let people change the name of the executable it is going to launch. So, in the launcher's settings, you could change the name of the executable from "dsda-doom.exe" to "fdwl.exe"

The only problem with this approach is that some hard coded references to dsda-doom would not change (like checking for updates, the name "dsda-launcher", etc)

It seems simple enough so expect it for v1.1

On 12/25/2021 at 8:35 PM, liveincity said:

It's strange that I can't play demo with this launcher.

On 12/26/2021 at 7:41 AM, liveincity said:

Here is the command line parameters it shows.

You don't need any command lines or frontends to play back most of the demos recorded in the past ten years with prb+ or DSDA-D. The demo footer, by default appended to the end of the demo when the recording is done, provides for automatic playback with a mere double-click.

To associate LMP files with DSDA-D in Windows run

dsda-doom.exe -launcher

and pick the Associate the current EXE ... with DOOM demos (-auto mode) option from the Commands listbox.

Here are the ASCII contents of the demo footer of the demo in question:

So the quoted command line is grossly redundant:

• -iwad, -file and -complevel values are in the demo footer.
• -skill and -warp values are in the demo header. -warp can be used with multi-map demos to skip to a specific map, but that doesn't apply here.
• -geom is used to set a display resolution for a single session (i.e. it doesn't get saved in the .cfg file)
• -shorttics allows you to play with reduced turning resolution without having to record, and thus is useless with demos. Vanilla-format demos are recorded with "shorttics" by default, so you don't need -shorttics while recording or for playback. "longtics" demos are auto-detected from the values in the header; attempts to override it with -shorttics should either be ignored or result in instant desyncs (I forget which).

Note that in order for DSDA-D to be able to find your PWADs you need the %DOOMWADPATH% set on your system, e.g.

SET DOOMWADPATH=C:\DOOM\WADS;C:\DOOM\OTHERWADS;D:\YETMOREWADS

This page details how to set the var permanently. It uses %PATH% as the example, just replace it with %DOOMWADPATH%. You can also set %DOOMWADDIR% to point to a single folder/dir with IWADs.

TL;DR: all you need is "dsda-doom.exe -playdemo demoname -auto" or a double-click.

@PBeGood4: you may want to consider the above for the next version of your launcher. The sensible approach would be to play back demos with -auto by default, with an option of using a command line for demos without the demo footer.

The problem liveincity had with playing back demos was with the -warp 27 parameter, and it was already fixed in dsda-doom.

I know about the -auto parameter, but the problem with it is that the PWADS need to be stored in the DOOMWADPATH, which is something I and probably many other people don't do.

So I though it was better for the launcher to read the demo footer:

• It reads and sets the correct IWAD
• It reads and sets the correct Complevel
• It reads the needed pwads and tries to find them in the "PWADs folders" (folders you can add in the launchers settings)

This feels like a more user friendly approach than having them mess with Terminal commands.

But having DOOMWADPATH as the default location(s) seems like a good idea, so for the next version it will be automatically added to the "PWADs folders".

The other parameters that might have conflicts with playbacking demos fall under the "user error" and I try to mitigate them, but at the same time, give the user the ability to run whatever combination of parameters they want. In the latest version for example, it is not possible to set a skill level, if you don't have any level set to warp to. This was because someone reported that the game was warping to the first level without -warp being set, but the skill level was set to 4.