[continied]
So let me just go through this checklist:
Mark V:
1. Failed at correctly installing with the "install" command (and overwrote one of my lit files), and I couldn't find in-game help info to tell me how to do it correctly. So I had to install manually by just extracting the zip file, as usual.
2. The "map guessing" feature failed to help whatsoever, because in the first situation the start.bsp was installed to the id1 folder, and Mark V gives preference to the pak files (yeah, that's the Quake default, but it shouldn't be, because if someone has copied new files, like this new start.bsp, that should obviously take priority -- I guess that's issue 2.5). Then, once I installed qump correctly, the "map guessing" feature was pointless because the map pack correctly has its own start.bsp... and even if it didnt, I could have used the Levels menu to select a map.
3. Mark V does not play the background track because it's in OGG format, even though (on my system) Mark V can easily play OGG -- it's just hard-coded to only see MP3 files.
4. If I had set up my own cfg files in the Qump directory with any special configurations I want for Qump, Mark V would not run those for me when I switch to the Qump game folder....
Compare this to DirectQ, which is old and no longer being developed:
1. No difference in the first step -- I have to install the qump folder mahually. But since I know I have to do this, I wouldn't have to go through that annoying experience I had trying to use Mark V's install command!
2.5 Even if I had installed incorrectly into the id1 folder, DirectQ would have handled it correctly because it gives preference to unpacked files!
3. DirectQ automatically plays the background music because it hasn't been hard-coded to ignore OGG files.
4. DirectQ automatically runs the autoexec.cfg file in the qump folder when I switch to that gamedir (just the autoexec, not quake.rc), so any settings I want to use for qump will be automatically applied, as they should be.
Now, I'm not actually considering switching to DirectQ, but damn, it did EVERYTHING better in this example!! And each of these issues are things I have strongly argued for in Mark V. And ironically, every one of these things are things that mh has argued with me about, taking the opposite position! Well, not specifically on the "map guessing" feature -- I don't think he's said anything about that, but DirectQ also has a map selecting menu like Mark V does (which is the most correct option for starting custom maps).
mh may suggest that he made mistakes by including those features in DirectQ (he's done that before: #1640 ), but I'm serious here: mh, don't sell yourself short -- these features I've just encountered were great additions to DirectQ, because they "just work" and make things easier for the user without getting in the way or causing problems.
Now, back to the only point I was trying to make when I began this ordeal: some single-player map packs at Quadiccted contain the soundtracks in OGG format (as that was a pretty commonly-used soundtrack format for Quake engines), and Mark V, even though it could easily play them (though not on every platform, I understand), will not do so because you basically won't allow it to look for OGG files.... So... Mark V is (intentionally, in this case) not compatible with maps packs like the following, which contain OGG soundtracks, ranging from 1, 4, up to 11 songs:
https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/rotcs.html
https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/quck_demo.html
https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/func_mapjam9_2.html
These are just the ones I found when specifically looking.... Are there more? I would expect so.
You've said compatibility with single-player releases from Quaddicted if one of the main goals of Mark V, so why deny compatibility to the platforms (like Windows) which are easily capable of playing OGG if you would simply allow it to do so?
And oh yeah, all those other issues which I have argued for in the past, which just happened to come up when I was testing this example:
- No "map guessing" -- it causes me problems in addition to not working or not being needed.
- Unpacked file preference -- if a user installs unpacked files, those are obviously what he wants to use rather than the defaults stored in a pak.
- Exec autoexec.cfg when changing game dir -- if a user has an autoexec in a game dir, he obviously wants it to auto... exec it for that game.
Well, that was fun! XD