Honestly I'd forgotten that Mark V does that... hmm.

For almost any episode-ish thing that has a start or hub map, they use start.bsp for that purpose. On the other hand if it's just an unconnected collection of maps then I always just select the map I want explicitly through the levels menu or a launcher or whatever.

It's true that there are some older id1/vanilla maps that have a startmap+othermap combo for selecting skill, and since they expect you to place it in id1 they call their startmap something other than start.bsp. Like Adamantine Cruelty having an acstart.bsp map. If you put that in its own mod folder then it could be useful to have Start New Game infer that it is a start map, but since I'd forgotten about that behavior I always just explicitly pick the map in those cases too.

Sorry, no real opinions. I'm not sure in what situations the "guessing" behavior would be worse than not-guessing, since the worst case either way is that you end up launching the wrong map. 

I suppose one way in which it could be worse is if it guesses wrong but you don't realize for a while that you are in the wrong map. (Because you haven't played those maps before.)

Out of curiosity, do you remember an example of it guessing wrong? 

I believe that the guessing feature doesn't activate when everything is running from id1 (so it becomes useless when maps are installed in id1, as I assume a lot of custom maps packs are).

Issues I have run into include (more detailed info was upthread):

( #1251 )
Having a modified DM6 map included in my mod, and since that is the only map, Mark V assumes it should be run when I go to start a single player game. This is completely wrong....

Or, if I want to install extra maps in my mod folder (FvF can be used with custom maps, as can some other mods), then one of them will get guessed and selected when I want to start a new single player game, and it will always be the same map, either going alphabetically or looking for cues in the map name (like with your "acSTART.bsp" -- that would be selected). But that's almost never going to be what I want when I have many maps installed and I go through the menu to start a default single player game.

Baker's intent is to make it easy to launch single-player map/mod releases by using the menu; see #1253 (and you could read 2 posts later where I examined the map packs that had been mentioned to see how useful it would be in practice -- maybe 50% useful).

But I think the Levels menu is already the ideal solution for that. And it could still show the maps near the top of the list that it guesses are most likely the intended starting maps....

So to me it just seems that a feature which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and sometimes causes problem -- that's a feature that should not be activated by default with no way to disable it.

And it sounds like people may not even be using it anyway.... I'd assume that most people, like me (and you, it seems), would just assume that default of starting a new single player game in the menu will behave as Quake always did, and start the default game, and if we want to start a custom map we'll use that wonderful Levels menu. 

LOL at the whole "mobile gaming is the future and I'm the next Steve Jobs" nonsense. Sober up, Baker. 

Well, we can allow him a few rambling rants when he's on a few beers, as long as he becomes reasonable and rational at some point afterwards ;) 

As long as Baker doesn't turn Mark V into a mobile exclusive port, he may rant as much as he wants. 

Larger update than the norm for Mark V. 46 modifications plus some major revisions.

Download: Windows - Direct X | WinQuake (Direct X is fast!!)

Alternate Builds:
1. WinQuake GL (killpixel)
2. SDL "zero dlls" build with mp3 sound track + all controllers support

In this version:

1) Xbox Controller Support. PS4 + Steam Controller will happen later. (based on ericw help in the implementation in Quakespasm)
2) Perfect "install" unpacking for non-traditional zips (johnnylaw)
3) r_shadows 3 issue with higher vert models fixed (NightFright)
4) Big Sepulcher Support (pulsar, killpixel, qmaster reminders/nudges)
5) Multiplayer save game menu integration (qmaster)
6) Possible fix for input lag (killpixel, dabblingsquidward). Verification needed.
7) Alternate "joy_" prefixed game controller names (conversation amongst Spike, gunter, ericw)
8) DirectX 9 hipnotic decal workaround per mh (dabblingsquidward)
9) Dynamic scaling for scr_showfps 1 and friends (gunter)

10) And 36 other small or moderate enhancements including things like 64-bit killer buttons fix via ericw, small Linux enhancements and implementing tweaks from comments from many different users.

----
Next Version: Split-screen support!! (video

Now ... here's the catch ... will it be 2 weeks or next winter?

I'm a winter coder and we had a frigid April in Ohio/USA. I tend to vanish for months in warm weather. And I'm a bit burnt out.

But if there is enough user feedback, I also kind of feel like doing this sooner rather than later. I need a bit of convincing there are actually people who are actually going to use the split-screen with 2 people or more playing on the same screen sitting on the same couch. 

@iriyap - It's supposed to be funny as self-deprecating comedy through going the opposite direction. / Anyways the start of Cinco de Mayo is serious business. No time for beer rants! Peace out! 

Coolness.

Can you shed a bit more light on the functional difference between mark_v.exe and the SDL build? 

Also a heads-up... I tried "install mapjam6" as a test just now, and it went a little haywire. It put bsp files and lits directly into id1, and also discarded various other things from the .zip.

"install qump" went a bit better, but it still put the maps into id1\maps (rather than qump\maps) even though a start.bsp is among them.

Haven't tested other installs yet. 

Mark_V.exe has mh DirectX 9 uber-speed.

The SDL build serves 3 purposes:

1) Any game controller support instead of just Microsoft Xbox compatible. I don't have a PS4 controller to available to do the kind of coding/test for pure native Windows API at the moment. (I made phone calls and it was Xbox, Xbox, Xbox, Xbox. "Ok what about your friends? Xbox? Really?" What kind of luck is that? Especially since PS4 selling extremely well ...)

(Short version: Mark_V.exe all the way)

2) To see if gunter's foobared Windows XP machine can play mp3s with that because I use an entirely different direct Windows API method. I still hope he spills coffee on it, but it has been great for testing -- especially the extreme compatibility mh has offered with the Direct X 9 version (mh is simply incredible).

3) Poke Quakespasm a bit to go "no dlls". The same way Spike sometimes pokes at me about X, Y or Z (or how sometimes I poke at Spike a bit) or the same way mh occasionally pokes at me about X, Y, Z. Friendly developer "Aw come on dude!" peer pressure and all that.

Let me know how it goes with the install capabilities. I felt like I couldn't do a release without getting it right so I rewrote half of it to be very precise. 

Well .. I'll test those examples tomorrow and do a version 1.98b.

I took a diverse pool of zips with many different configurations, but apparently a different have a diverse enough set in the pool.

Perfect is the goal. So ... perfect it shall be. And perfect is what I demand it must be be ...

Tomorrow. 

Hah, perfect isn't required. :-) I will just be doing a test run through the examples I listed earlier. 

Actually, when the next build is up, I'll go through all of the 50+ installs that the SP starter pack currently supports. Not sure it will happen this weekend because of family stuff, but as soon as possible. 

Alright ... qump (what an incredible start map!) and mapjam6 now unpack ok.

1.98 updated

Only that binary has been updated while I kick tires on a couple things that don't affect the windows operating system. 

Hm, the mouse speed seems dramatically lower in the new build. I've always used a "sensitivity 10" setting, but now I need to set it to 20 to have the same feel (and the slider only goes to 11).

The SDL version seems... weird.... Text and other colors are off, and the sound it tinny. But it has the same freeze-up delay of around 5 seconds when I enable the music, as it loads track04.mp3 (and this was after encoding it in various ways to get that delay down from the original 14 seconds). but if I use an ogg renamed as an MP3, the delay is less than 1 second....

I don't remember all the testing we did in the past (it's all on the oldpage), but I think FTE and Quakespasm had no delay at all for loading MP3s for me....


Question: would the split-screen players be able to connect to an online server? 

1) Mouse now uses DirectInput so sensitivity is a bit different.

According to the research I've done, Windows updates in recent years introduced some behaviors that could cause "frame lagging" with the "ancient way" that Quake did mouse input (which involved recentering the mouse cursor every frame), hence the change to DirectInput which I believe will eliminate the frame lag some users say they experience when using, for instance, a high refresh rate.

Aside from having to tweak the sensitivity.

2) The SDL build uses 44100 as a forced sound frequency because of some sort of SDL2 oddness. Hence the much more crispier sound. I prefer the way that Quake traditional sounds myself but Mark V has a sndspeed cvar that can be set to 11025, 22050 or 44100 and is read on launch. (Has no affect in that SDL2 build, 44100 must be forced).

3) Too bad the mp3 has a delay on your old Win XP computer even for the build that uses a completely different Windows mechanism. I had hoped that on your machine that it would resolve the issue. I tried. I know reformatting that Win XP isn't an option.

4) Split-screen connecting to an online server ...

Well ... I wasn't planning on that.

If I did have it do that, would you be able to test it?

But here is a big question: I am planning to target exclusively the Direct X 9 for that feature. I have to really abuse Windows API to do split screen and SDL2 serves as middleware and isn't going to let me use the abusive Windows API evil that I do for split-screen. 

Ah yes, I remember back in the day I would use the -dinput switch, and that would have a similar effect of requiring me to ramp up my sensitivity. I think this does make my trackpad movement look very slightly smoother too. But you might consider allowing the Sensitivity slider to go up to 22 or so, since this will likely have a similar effect on other people.


Yeah, the XP MP3 issue is weird. On my other (even older) XP laptop, I recall I did't have the issue. But I also remember seeing a post on Quakeone where Dutch said Mark V has "a difficult time playing external MP3" on his WinXP computer.... I don't think he ever gave additional details about that, but I'd very likely assume it was the same issue.


Oh, I would certainly give it a test if split-screen could connect to an online server. Hm. But there are all kinds of issues around that, like if someone wanted to chat on the keyboard, which player's guy would speak? I'm guessing there would only be one "master" player which was attached to the keyboard, and others would be limited to a certain gamepad? 

Adjust slider range to reflect? Excellent idea, gunter! 

I'm guessing there would only be one "master" player which was attached to the keyboard.

That is correct. Only one player can keyboard.

I once considered that I think Spike said RawInput can provide access to 2 keyboards. And perhaps someday I'll consider that route. But I don't feel like coding for such a situation right now.

Multiple keyboard support is probably very low priority. 

Revisiting found the comprehensive list that iriyap wrote up that had some ideas/suggestions for improvement (self note it is post #1805 -- I keep losing track of it)

In particular, I have my eye on the few seconds of lag issue on video restart that affects some machines.

I know how this was introduced. I was actually trying to stop a sound jutter, and while fixing it on some machines indirectly caused this to happen on others. 

Install testing is looking pretty good -- I got about halfway through, might be able to finish it off tomorrow or Monday.

A minor feature request for your consideration: an optional argument to the install command to indicate "please put this in its own mod directory" (regardless of whether it could work in id1). Like, if I'm installing terra and I want to make sure it ends up in its own "terra" folder. 

Small interesting thing when installing func_mapjam5: there's a zerstörer.wad inside the zipfile, but it gets extracted as zerstörer.wad (let's see if that ends up showing correctly in the post here).

That's just in the "source" directory though so it doesn't matter functionally. Something to keep an eye out for though I guess. 

I can add an argument to allow you to do that. Maybe even one to force a folder (like a Quoth set). 

Cool. FYI the install tests all look good now. :thumbsupemoji: