Odamex

* The Release * (for experimental 32bpp client, see below)

While coding away at version 0.7, the team agreed that many great changes have been made to the main source that should get out to the public. Most of the 0.6.2 server hosts had updated their server builds to revisions that had numerous code fixes to the physics and co-op behavior. 0.6.3 is a release to get every server up to par with with these enhancements. The most notable of these features are:


You can view the full list of changes here and you can grab Odamex for your system today!


* The Experimental Client *
We had initially decided to include the client with the windows distribution, but later thought it would be better to include it here on the message boards for people to grab at their leisure.  There is a download available for Windows users, and for other platforms you can build the rend32 svn branch.

Download along with more information and instructions

It is with both sadness and excitement that I write to you today about Odamex Nitro and it's future plans. Don't worry, Nitro will still continue as it has since it began some 78 weeks ago, on August 20th, 2011. No, today is a sad day for Hex and myself as we've decided to move on from running Nitro every week. We are both really happy about the way Nitro has managed to form a community within a community. It's been extremely gratifying to see many Doomworld players pop in from time to time, and we have especially enjoyed working in tandem with the 32in24 team on two of their best releases. However, as with most things, there is a time to step aside to give other people a chance, and that time is now.

We'd like to thank the Odamex developers and staff for their continued support, as well as everyone who took an interest in joining these little sessions.

Taking over for us will be Decay, Hypnotoad, and Hendrick who have plenty of ideas of their own. We feel these guys are more than capable of keeping this going, and hopefully you show them as much respect as you showed us. Here is to the future, good luck guys!

Odamex now natively supports widescreen field of vision on widescreen resolutions.  Remove the blinders, and take advantage of that nice LCD monitor you have.
     
     
Of course, there are times where you might prefer to keep a narrower field of view.  Odamex not only allows you to use the stretched widescreen like in prior versions, there is an option to use a zoomed in view that has a correct perspective but still limits you to the original field of view, cutting off the top and bottom of the screen.  And although it is off by default, servers can enforce the lack of widescreen, allowing players to fallback to whichever type of limited field of view they prefer.
     
Anyone who had played Doom for a significant amount of time knows this situation.  You have your opponent in your sites, you're just about to pull the trigger...but just at that moment your gun disappears and you're helplessly sawing the air while your gleeful opponent takes advantage of your misstep to put buckshot straight at your mug.
     
     
No more.  Odamex now features a more comprehensive implementation of Player Weapon Order that allows you to have two weapons with the same priority.  And now it has a dedicated menu...no more guesswork.
     
Odamex now supports resetting the map to its original state without reloading it.  This opens a world of possibilities, and the first of those to be realized is Warmup Mode.
     
     
When you join a server in warmup mode, you can run around and shoot other players all you like.  However, frags and scores do not count, and the game is not allowed to proceed until all players have signaled that they are ready.  Once they are, a countdown begins and the map resets to its original state, ready for play.  There are several other possibilities that this warmup mode allows as well...you can elect to start the game as soon as the map loads, but with a countdown that allows players time to connect.
     
Of course, this isn't the only thing that map resetting allows.  The 'callvote restart' command has been overhauled to take advantage of this feature as well.

Odamex now supports the new official versions of the game data packaged with Doom 3: BFG Edition. Odamex will automatically detect the BFG Edition version of the game and add support for the Doom 2 expansion episode, "No Rest for the Living".
     
     
Cooperative play has gotten some much-needed attention with this release.  The primary source of monster desyncs has been found and fixed, meaning that you and your buddies can finally team against the forces of hell without the demons of the internet grabbing at your ankles.
     
     
Of course, we couldn't just leave you with that.  In addition to a long-overdue addition that allows players to keep obtained keys after being killed, Odamex now features built-in monster health scaling and monster damage scaling.  Watch your step...that puny little former human might hurt a lot more next time.

Along with these additions to Odamex, there have been a numerous amount of bug fixes and improvements to the engine's networking and rendering systems. You can grab the proper download for your system at the top of the main page.

I don't know how many/if any of you keep up with DoomWorld, so I figured it might be worth mentioning here that Shaikoten has announced that 32in24-12 has started. The 32in24 Series is a collaboration of maps designed by mappers in a period of 24 hours, then refined over a few days. Its a fun community event that lots of Doomers like to take part in. I mention this because Odamex happens to be involved! 32in24-11 was previously a double feature for Odamex Nitro, first to test the maps one Saturday then play the finished product the next. It was pretty sweet! We are doing the same this upcoming week to celebrate a year since the launch of Odamex Nitro.

32in24-12 will be CTF this time around, the maps being in Boom format. If you would like to get involved, be sure to check out the official DoomWorld thread regarding the subject.