[FINAL] EVITERNITY II - FINAL VERSION OUT NOW

I don't know if this question has been asked before, but have there been any plans about releasing the custom monsters as a standalone pack for use by community mappers - and if not, would it be something the team would consider?

I personally would love to try my hand at designing combat encounters with the expanded bestiary (and something tells me I'm probably not on the shortlist of possible guest mappers for a [edit: very unlikely] hypothetical Eviternity III), and the text file said to ask, so ask I shall.

I think it’s more likely we’d release the UDB configs so people can make Eviternity II add-ons. But no promises, we’re still tidying up for a final release. 

16 minutes ago, Novaseer said:

hypothetical Eviternity III

On 1/31/2024 at 1:41 AM, Dragonfly said:

Truth be told, I'm not likely to revisit the Eviternity name to be honest.

I beg you and everyone else, please, give it a rest.

1 minute ago, Dragonfly said:

I beg you and everyone else, please, give it a rest.

Hence me saying "hypothetical" - sorry if it came off wrong.

I recently finished my first playthrough of this game. I will be thinking about some of these maps for many years, especially the end game, kudos to all the folks who worked on this. Thanks for making.

19 hours ago, Dragonfly said:

I beg you and everyone else, please, give it a rest.

This is what you get for successfully blindsiding everyone with a surprise amazing sequel. Now no one will believe you when you say you're not making another :p

On a serious note E2 wraps things up very satisfyingly and there's something to be said for ending on a high note. I, for one, won't be bummed out by only two spectacular free megawads.

Just finished map 36 saveless, UVMAX. Goddamn that was beautiful. I loved the overworld and the sense of oppressiveness. All of the fights were interesting and the finale was particularly impressive.

Also, great to see a map this size with that kill count without the BFG.

Now onto Map 30 (finally). Thanks in advance for this prime example of what DOOM can be. 

Dragonfly, you've had like two days off, I think now is really the time to start thinking about Eviternity III through IX. 

:P

On 2/8/2024 at 8:39 AM, Magicana said:

Dragonfly, you've had like two days off, I think now is really the time to start thinking about Eviternity III through IX. 

 

:P

Yeah, if Cyberpunk managed to do 2076 sequels, so you can too!

8 hours ago, Lord Biscuit The Tossable said:

Thanks again for the experience! This is the first time in year's I've posted on any forum and I'm a bit of a boomer, but this fantastic game was the first time in a fair bit I was super excited to game.

As the boomer (or at least eldest) member of the team, thank you! 

On 2/9/2024 at 4:27 PM, Jimmy said:

Everyone needs to stop doing the "next one when" meme already.

Yo Jimmy! Where the f^ck is my episode 3 already?!!! And I'm not just talking about Eviternity! 

Are Adventures of Square jokes funny again? 

9 hours ago, Lord Biscuit The Tossable said:

Perhaps it's because it reminded me of Spyro the Dragon, literally the first game I picked up, it's art reminded me of that game for some reason.

Funnily enough, I loved the Spyro games. I 100% them on PS4. :D

1 hour ago, Bri said:

 

Funnily enough, I loved the Spyro games. I 100% them on PS4. :D

I assume you played the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which seems to be a pretty decent remake. For nostalgia value nothing beats the originals though! 

What MIDI device should i use in the GZDoom sound options?

Seems like there are at least three options here that sound very different from each other.

My default is "Microsoft GS Wavetable synth". Is there a better option for this particular Wad? Is there any option that's better than the others as default or it's WAD dependent? I don't remember anyone ever recommending a different midi option for their wads.

4 hours ago, TasAcri said:

What MIDI device should i use in the GZDoom sound options?

 

Seems like there are at least three options here that sound very different from each other.

 

My default is "Microsoft GS Wavetable synth". Is there a better option for this particular Wad? Is there any option that's better than the others as default or it's WAD dependent? I don't remember anyone ever recommending a different midi option for their wads.

It's really down to personal taste. OPL and libOPN emulate the basic sound of very old sound chips from the era when computers often didn't have a dedicated soundcard, so any MIDI music that played sounded like it was coming off a Sega Genesis. Other options can have fuller, more lush sound. "Microsoft GS Wavetable synth" is pretty much just Windows playing back the MIDI for you and it will almost never sound as good as a proper soundfont.

GZDoom has Timidity++ support with the ability to set your own soundfonts. Create a subfolder called Soundfonts if there isn't one, throw in the .sf2 file of your choice (there are many -- I tend to switch between Arachno and a couple of SC-55 recreations) and set GZDoom to use Timidity++.

There's also WildMIDI, which uses .GUS files, but I've never used it.

Great WAD.

Impressive as always. There is no error when dragonfly in involved.

And can you even fight the Holy Trinity in the end lol
 

2 hours ago, june gloom said:

It's really down to personal taste.

It often is, but personally I like to find out from the composers what they consider the ideal playback device, the way they intended it to sound when they composed it. For example Arrival and Heartland were clearly meant for Microsoft GS Wavetable synth, if you listen to the official soundtrack recordings (I think they were on Bandcamp?) both composers used it for their digital recordings. I forgot which wad I played not too long ago that specified they meant it for Arachno soundfont. If the composers of Eviternity II had a specific playback in mind I for one would love to know and try to hear it as close to intended as possible. And if they didn't, well, personal taste it is then!

3 hours ago, june gloom said:

Create a subfolder called Soundfonts if there isn't one, throw in the .sf2 file of your choice (there are many -- I tend to switch between Arachno and a couple of SC-55 recreations) and set GZDoom to use Timidity++.

Seems like GZdoom already has a gzdoom.sf2 inside that folder by default.

53 minutes ago, brick said:

if you listen to the official soundtrack recordings (I think they were on Bandcamp?)

That's a good idea. I suppose the Youtube OST videos that are already posted in this thread is a good indication of how the songs are supposed to sound?

On 2/9/2024 at 10:27 AM, Jimmy said:

Everyone needs to stop doing the "next one when" meme already.

Since I was the first one to start that meme in the thread, am I exempted from that?

(Joking)

3 hours ago, TasAcri said:

 

Seems like GZdoom already has a gzdoom.sf2 inside that folder by default.

Yup, though there are others.

Here's a big collection of SC-55 soundfonts.

And here's a more recentish version of one such SC-55 soundfont.

(The Doom 1 and 2 soundtracks, as well as Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D, and several others, were all composed with the Roland SC-55 in mind.)

4 hours ago, june gloom said:

 

Yup, though there are others.

 

Here's a big collection of SC-55 soundfonts.

 

And here's a more recentish version of one such SC-55 soundfont.

 

(The Doom 1 and 2 soundtracks, as well as Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D, and several others, were all composed with the Roland SC-55 in mind.)

Yeah but which one?

These are so many different sounding fonts with the SC-55 name. Which are the correct ones the composers intended when they made the soundtracks though?

That's really up to you. Remember that the Roland SC-55 was a whole physical device from 30 years ago by a Japanese synthesizer company, a rather fancy toy at a time when computers often did not come with a "sound card" (these days sound cards are integrated into your motherboard, though you can buy specialty sound cards for specific purposes.) The myriad SC-55 soundfonts are homegrown attempts to emulate it, to varying degrees of success. I personally am always looking for the next "more perfecter" SC-55 .sf2 as the two I'm currently using have different pros and cons.

[ETA] And while a good SC-55 sound font is as close as you're going to get to the intended sound for the default Doom (and Duke3D, etc.) soundtrack, that's not going to be true for the many, many, many modern-day MIDIs we've got floating around. Many of Doomworld's composers target something like Arachno. It may be worth asking the composers for a given wad what their intent was, if you can't find it in the readme or whatever. But even without that information, Arachno and some other soundfonts will do the job just fine.

Regarding midis, Microsoft GS Wavetable / GZDoom.sf2 are the intended listening methods. This is further reinforced by the YouTube uploads of the music being in that soundfont, and how Tristan even went as far as to repair a part of GZDoom.sf2's playback for the drums SFX channel (which was included in a previous GZDoom update) to ensure map21's midi plays back as intended.  👌

Yeah, i compared a few of my favorite WADs to the soundtracks uploaded on Youtube, plus some playthroughs by popular youtubers (who also use different source ports to play them) and they sound the same as i hear them with Microsoft GS Wavetable. Using something like the Arachno sounfont makes them sound very different, not only because of the volume mixing but also because of different instruments, etc.

I suppose using Microsoft GS Wavetable as the default unless a wad readme specifies otherwise is the best way to go.

7 hours ago, june gloom said:

Many of Doomworld's composers target something like Arachno.

We don't.

Hi Eviternity 2 team! Just about everything that can be said has been already, but let me just heap on a little more praise - really outstanding, varied, creative stuff in here, bravo all around. It's a really rare thing to come across a wad that you just want to play again immediately after finishing it.

Got a couple notes to bring to the table (sorry if these were brought up, I did try to search):

-Doing my 2nd playthrough in GZDoom I noticed default GZD invisibility behavior in MAP09, and the ZMAPINFO does indeed have compat_invisibility set to 0. Was wondering if this is a mixup? Since the option proper reads "monsters SEE invisible players", accurate behavior would be having this set to true. Invis orbs are rare enough that it hardly ever makes a difference, but these things stick out to a stickler.

-Also in GZDoom: the 2 teleporting mancubi in MAP27's final fight I guess have their corners stick out just a little too far so they end up stuck in mid-air.

-In MAP32, it's fairly easy (at least I managed to do it twice on accident) to avoid crossing line #16907, thus not raising the revenants around the red key.

-Also MAP32:

On 2/11/2024 at 8:56 AM, ukiro said:

As the boomer (or at least eldest) member of the team, thank you! 

No worries! I have got to say, as a serial non-pistol starter, your map taught me something about myself! XD I still prefer Aggnorsis as a choose your own adventure kind of epic, but Kinosis taught me the how to fight again. That and pretty much many encounters I hadn't seen in many WAD's before.

Oh! Also, I have a bit of a theory. The Heptagram is the seven deadly sins, the Cross with its three encounters is the Trinity (Lord, Son, (un)holy spirit), and the final encounter is the Anti-Christ. The spirit of the Saint in the last eternity still dwells in this sanctum; this place will eternally stand as his monument to his sin, a white and gold cross lain upon a land he had led to waste. That latter part is just me though; I kinda felt that eventually, Heaven in episode 1 would turn into just another hellscape.
 

On 2/11/2024 at 10:46 AM, Bri said:

 

Funnily enough, I loved the Spyro games. I 100% them on PS4. :D

Ahahaha Nice! It might be a stretch, but there was something about that bright, fantasy colour pallet, platforms and that BFG jump that reminded me of those games. I might have to pick them up again, at this point it might be 16 years or so since I've last played them.
 

On 2/11/2024 at 10:29 PM, CINZAS said:

Great WAD.

Impressive as always. There is no error when dragonfly in involved.

And can you even fight the Holy Trinity in the end lol
 

That does look pretty fun. Ahahah!