17 Apr 2000



SMMU and all

My A-Levels are coming up soon which means that I'll probably be reducing the amount of time I spend with SMMU to get in some much- needed revision. Anyway I've been doing loads and loads of stuff to it recently. The networking engine is more or less finished I think, all I need to do is include movement prediction and it should really kick ass.

And for all those of you that didnt believe me before, heres what I said I'd do in my original list and how far I've got: I mentioned before that players will not be able to 'jump in' to running netgames like in Quake. I have now 'loosened' this up a bit. You can join servers that are running but cannot enter the game until a change of level. Players that are waiting are able to chat in a 'waiting room' while they wait for the level to change. Also, when you first start the game you can talk to other waiting players while you wait for everyone to join.

Not bad, huh? I've also been adding the new Key Bindings system which a few people were moaning about and that is basically finished as well. The linux version is also now fully functional except for the sound, which I hope to add now I have sound working in Linux on my computer. In any case, the future looks bright!

Any comments? email me

19 Mar 2000



More Progress

The SMMU networking is coming along very nicely. It has already had its first few tests over the internet against a few people. There were some issues with Windows 98 and Winsock2 (as there was/is(?) in DOS Legacy originally) but I have found a solution to this now. Heres some of the stuff done so far: As I already mentioned, dynamic joining, "quake-style" will not be possible but what I hoping to implement is a system where players can join and will enter the game upon a change of level. Waiting players will hopefully be able to talk with each other in a kind of "waiting room" while they wait to enter the game. It's not as great as the networking you get with Quake but if you consider the other benefits that I will be bringing I think its a small price to play. Bear in mind that open-game joining is something that Doom was simply never designed to do.

It seems I made a mistake in the previous update about NetDoom, and ResDe will be joining me after all, although he will continue working on NetDoom. I have no experience with windows programming, so ResDe should be helping me by developing a windows version of SMMU.

Any comments can be directed here

3 Mar 2000



Progress

I'm a little frustrated with the lack of response to my posting, i noticed that no-one posted any comments in the doomworld comments thread. I'm also angry that Afterglow, who I considered a friend and who in the past has always been very supportive of SMMU (he made the SMMU start map) doubts my abilities to code these new features to the extent that he compares my port to some lamer's over-optimistic TC. In any case, SMMU Networking is coming along extremely promisingly.

I noticed ResDe's announcement that he is to start work on NetDoom, and suggested to him that maybe we could combine our efforts. ResDe is aiming for a true quake-like networking system which I think is rather too much work (I wouldnt expect it to be at this level for quite a while). In any case we both seem to be too unwilling to leave our own ports so the proposed merger unfortunately seems unlikely.

BTW, check out this picture which is taken from a netgame running the new SMMU networking code:

Pretty interesting huh? ;)

21 Feb 2000



SMMU Networking

Networking is what I'm currently working on in SMMU, as you may have gathered. Anyway, I've started on a complete re-write of the networking engine. Here are some of the features of the system I'm playing with: I do not plan to implement open joinable-games ala quake as I think that there are too many issues to resolve to get doom to network in this way. However, the final server structure (as I envision it) may allow someone else to set up such a structure.

Clearly these are exciting prospects. However, I want you to bear in mind that I have not yet written the code for this. It is possible that I may not be able to get this network structure to work at all, or that the end system will be very different to the one outlined. On the other hand, I have already had some encouraging success with what I have so far written.

14 Feb 2000



smmuserv?

Yeah, smmuserv, you heard. smmuserv will be the central server for smmu internet players who will be able to register their new servers or search for existing servers. Anyway, basically I've written the program (which runs under linux, of course :). I've been trying it out on Mystican's box over the past week or so, in fact it might even still be running, try here. All I have to do now is the actual multiplayer in SMMU and this should really rock.

10 Feb 2000



Suck my fucken cock asshole!

I haven't done much work on SMMU recently... mostly been doing other stuff like playing Opposing Force, although I have been doing some network-related coding (not smmu network coding tho :). Anyway I've managed to get a simple server-related program working which I've been testing on myst's box. Speaking of which, remember to check out basrad.


23 Jan 2000



Wait for it..

Well, the time for the next release is getting closer. It should be here in less than a week hopefully. Anyway, here are some new things to dribble over: Of course, once I release this version I'll be going on to other cool stuff, namely multiplayer. It will rock, say no more :)

5 Jan 2000



Features, anyone?

I'm planning on doing another small release in a week or so, seeing as FraggleScript dumbly seems to be missing some pretty basic stuff (opening doors springs to mind :). Anyway as well as that it should have some bug fixes from the previous version. Basically what I'm asking for is if anyone wants any _little_ features for me to put in (ie. FraggleScript functions etc) then email me so I can try and fit them into the next release.

25 Dec 99



Santa fraggle

Hi, it's santa fraggle here bringing you a little stocking-filler for you to enjoy.. a new version of SMMU with a new menu and hubs support! Get the DOS binaries here or alternatively if you want to play with the sources or compile the linux version, get the sources here . Merry Christmas!

12 Dec 99



SMMj00

I thought I'd post a screenshot of my computer. An exclusive screenshot of SMMU under development.. or something. Heh is that pic schizophrenic. And before you ask, no, I'm not on crack.

9 Dec 99



mmm.. hubs

Well, hubs are almost done now, as is the menu. And I have to point out that the menu is going to be a bit different from the 'traditional' menu. Featurewise, rather than in appearance, that is. Here are some of the interesting (or not) features of the new menu:

So you can see, it has some interesting new options. This version of SMMU is almost finished, I think. I'll 'polish' it and then get round to releasing it in the not-too-distant future.

27 Nov 99



Linux port

I don't think I mentioned, but I'm doing a linux port of SMMU. Although my linux skills are hardly good, I've already got a working svgalib version. I'm currently using 'borrowed' code from cph's lxdoom. The difference will be that instead of having 2 executables (which is how all linux ports seem to have gone about the problem of having the two display libraries of Xlib and svgalib) the linux port will have only one.

Other SMMU stuff

Among other SMMU news (well, no one comes here for anything else :) there is the news that I have started on hubs and have also got a significant way into rewriting the menu. I'm still waiting for Satori to do me the SMMU graphics but Dave Kiddell has sent me a new title for the text file.

14 Nov 99



Stuff

Don't those banners just make you feel crushed? Well go there and buy whatever they want or something, i dunno. Anyway due to popular demand I have for you this automatic program to load FraggleScript into wads, go check.

11 Nov 99



Doomnation

Well, I finally decided to move to a real website hosting rather than that old xoomcrap. So here I am in my new home of doomnation. Thanks to ZyFly and Cyb for setting this up for me.

26 Oct 99



Hmm?

Well, what a great response to my release of SMMU. I haven't had ONE email about it since its release. However, it must have gained some attention as there are now two sites devoted to it and FraggleScript. I've also heard that Quasar is adding FraggleScript to his port eternity which will no doubt go somewhere toward increasing FraggleScript's popularity. The two tutorial sites are:

Other pointless SMMU stuff

I have started working on the SMMU menu. I have abandoned the idea I previously mentioned (see previous update). I am instead adopting a more boom-style look. However the code is very generalised so it should be easy to change the look if neccesary. I am, however, reorganising the menu, especially the options menu which has been split into several categories (it may be possible to have a 'classic option' to restore this if there is enough demand)

Other pointless non-SMMU stuff

Check this page which my brother made for his adventure game 'Shuttle'

18 Oct 99



SMMU woo!

If you've been attentive over the past few weeks you'll probably have noticed rumours of SMMU and FraggleScript floating around, not least of which was prower's claim that it "owns his llama ass". Hmm. Anyway, I decided this is probably just about stable enough to release right now, so you can get it here (or the sources of course).
This version contains already quite extensive FraggleScript ability already, although there are a few things i still need to do (doors for example :). Suffice to say it'll all be coming soon.
I want as much feedback as possible! The only bug that I currently know of is that the idbeholda cheat isn't work. Other than that, let me know!

Whats with the menu?

If you download the above beta, you should probably notice that the menus are quite behind the rest of the game. The only way to set some options is by the console. I am planning a major menu re-write: I have an idea for a quite radical menu re-think although one that I think could be rather cool. There is a text file describing the proposed change here. I originally designed the file for Satori to describe the new graphics i wanted but when I took another look at what I'd thought up, I reckoned it was probably a good idea to see what other people thought first. Anyway, let me know if my idea is great(in which case I'll use it) or if it sucks(in which case I'll choose a more 'traditional' style).

18 Sep 99



Clean slate

I've archived all the old news: Notepad was running out of memory on the news file =). Anyway the most important thing I have to say is FRAGGLESCRIPT! Yes, I have started adding FraggleScript into SMMU and its almost finished I have to say. I just have a few minor things to add to the language itself and then add all the functions to it. Anyway I'm not going to release the actual version of SMMU containing it for a week or so, but you can download the Level file for the testbed level I'm using to develop and test it. I'm sure you'll agree it can already do some quite impressive stuff =).

WADPTR stuff

btw i forgot to mention Andreas' Dehmel's website where he's got versions of wadptr for sun, RISC-OS, etc. He's also done a bit more work on the source to make it faster, although I tested it under dos and it didnt work properly. I'll release the new sources and binaries once its stable again.