would someone be interested in hosting a packaged release?

[picklebro]

Hey guys an' gals,

I'm a bit of a computer buff and a huge Doom-Engine-Game fan recently come DoomsDay Engine fan.

Anyways, recently I decided to revisit the doomsday engine and I've created a pak that has all the enhancements I could find for the different games (while maintaining the feel of the original game) and I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in hosting it to make it easier on newbies that would like to start playing....all they would have to do is just add the wads and start. Client.ID has even been pre-deleted.

I would be willing to remove the .wad files to make it legal but here's what's in the pak currently:

_=====___=====__=====
-+Engine+-
Doomsday Engine 1.8.6

-+Wads+-
DoomShareware Wad
Doom1/Ultimate Doom Wad (one wad just patched)
Doom2 Wad
Plutonia Wad
Heretic Serpent Riders Wad (one wad includes original Heretic and is patched for Serpent Riders)
Hexen Wad
Hexen Death Knights Wad

-+Textures+-
jDoom UI pack
Doom1 Intermission Pack
jDoom Environment Pack
jDEP Final Doom Extension
jHeretic UI pack
Heretic Retexturing Project Textures
Detail Texture Pack (for Doom1)
Doom II Retexturing Project Textures
Chris Bogstad's Hexen Texture Pack

-+Models+-
jDoom Resource Pack
jHexen Resource Pack
jHeretic Resource Pack

-+Patches+-
Special TNT patch applied to tnt.wad that fixes Yellow Key problem
Audio support for A3d audio via .dll file
hexdd.wad patched to prevent sound issues
_=====___=====__=====

Most of the files are directly from doomsdayhq.com, the UI and DEP packs are from http://slide.newdoom.com/ of course. and I found the special patch for TNT.WAD on the web here: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/len.pitre/bin/tntfix.zip when I stumbled
onto it completely by accident while looking for something else! The Doom1 intermission pack was obtained from: http://www.jdql.tk/

Removing the .wad files would prolly result in about 300mb file compressed. I would make it a self-extracting .rar file. The problem is I have no webspace.

Is anyone interested in hosting this pak? If you are, I'd even be willing to mail you a cd with the file on it.

Regards,
PiCKleBro

[Harry]

You would have to remove all the .wad files to make it legal, anyway, just anyone could get all that by going to www.jfiles.org

All that would come up to around a gigabyte (mines 2GB!!!), and I doubt that anyone would want to host it, I suggest buying one yourself

[picklebro]

I'm offering the pak to make it easier on new players - it wasn't hard to find the files, but it would seem complicated to a new user to implement them. I would of course be removing the .wad files, and the current pak is, as I said, about 300Mb with the wads removed.

I saved several hundred Mb by not adding in the music.

Currently I have no need for a webpage - if I release this pak myself I'll do so on a P2P network, probably the gnutella network through LimeWire.

[sirsinalot]

deleted*********

[picklebro]

well, updated with all the UIs I could find etc to make it as high-quality as I could while maintaining the feel of the original game - I also included JDEP. final file-size would likely still be 300mb if anyone is interested in hosting it.

[Chilvence]

*thud**thud**thud*

Sorry I was just banging my head against the table.

[sirsinalot]

picklebro: Have you bothered to ask the creators of these packs permission? Also, what you are doing has already been done, it was called the "Doom Remake," and it created quite a stir, since it was just kinda released one day, with no ones permission.... No need to bang your head, Chiv.

[lord-noctrun]

Originally Posted by picklebro

-+Wads+-
DoomShareware Wad
Doom1/Ultimate Doom Wad (one wad just patched)
Doom2 Wad
Plutonia Wad
Heretic Serpent Riders Wad (one wad includes original Heretic and is patched for Serpent Riders)
Hexen Wad
Hexen Death Knights Wad

picklebro no personal offence but including the games (registered wad files) in such a package is illegal

the only wads that might be included in such a package are the shareware and demo wads and even for those you are required to ask id software/raven for permission to repackage thier work, the same way you'll have to ask for permission from the original author for any art you put in your pack, and if you don't you'll propperly get the same reaction that the "doom remake" has received

Originally Posted by sirsinalot

No need to bang your head, Chiv.

what!? chiv has all right to be banging his head, this is someone offering warez and asking for somebody/a place that would hosts these warez for him

[sirsinalot]

what!? chiv has all right to be banging his head, this is someone offering warez and asking for somebody/a place that would hosts these warez for him

i figured i would have helped chiv from "banging his head," if i explained the problem of hosting such a package. nvm, i must have misinterperted his meaning of saying that.

[picklebro]

Noooooooo....peepliez don't be all offended, I was unaware that a pack would raise anyone's hackles.

I see the errors of my ways, but first let me make something clear. I AM NOT TRYING TO OFFER WAREZ. I WOULD BE REMOVING THE .WADS.....I don't think I said that clearly enough in my original note, but I am VERY aware that releasing the .WADS is illegal. I *never* intended to release the .WADS! EVER. EVER. EVER. I quote

I would be willing to remove the .wad files to make it legal but here's what's in the pak currently:

I guess I should have said I WILL BE REMOVING THE .WADS ....I was actually copying and pasting a small segment of the readme is why the .wads were listed in there and why I felt neccessary to say I would be removing the wads.

Now that that is out of the way, no I did not ask permission to bundle the packs, but I did create a readme to be included that listed every pack that i used and where I got it from, which I thought would give the credit every author clearly would want and deserve. (apparently someone else butchered this up so explicit permission would actually be needed this time - I was unaware of that)

I'm new to Doomsday forums, but I'm not new to computers, nor am I unaware that everyone who works on something deserves credit for the effort they do. I am also aware that it took me, someone who is very computer literate, an entire day with broadband to download and configure everything I have - someone with less ambition or less computer know-how simply wouldn't have and each person who finds the project too daunting (say what you will) and gives up is one less person to contribute to our community.

Again, I'm not going to push this, and I didn't come in here to make a mess of things. One more time here at the end... I *never* intended to release the wads - ever.

Now, let me RE-ask the question:
With the WADS removed, AAAAND if I got permission to include all the artwork I've found would anyone be interested in hosting the aforementioned pak? I'm guessing the answer is no - but if anyone is, email me or drop a line here and I'll diligently pursue getting permissions for the artwork.

[primus1236]

Though the problem of giving credit to whom it's due is an issue, this is an interesting point that needs to be addressed.

jDoom is a popular sourceport because of it's new and enhanced graphics and sound effects that make it look more modern. In order to get these effects working, a newbie has to go through a lot of trouble, going across several sites. Though jfiles fixes this, friends I introduce to jDoom still ask me how they're supposed to install all the stuff they get.

It'd certianly help make jDoom more popular if it were a tad easier to get to a level of 100% eyecandy and 'cool pictures'.

As I stated earlier, since jfiles, it's gotten easier. Now people don't have to go to slidespace, then D2RTP, then the modelyard, etc. Still though, jDoom can be complex at times, newbies, especially newbies to computing in general often find it hard to work with jDoom's directory structure.

I had considered making a pack like this before, but I wasn't quite sure how I could give credit where it was due. My current idea is to have several pages that a user would have to click through, acknowledging that it was someone else who made whatever that particular page was for, and that they deserve credit. I had planned to ask each of the pack makers for permission including only what I had permission for, and excluding the actual executables for Doomsday, which whoever was getting the pack would have to get from the sourceforge page. This way, they would see that it was Skyjake who made jDoom, and they would get the newest version.

From what's been said in this post, it seems like most of the developers of the jpacks oppose the idea of a "megapack" so I guess I'll not be doing it, but I hope you all understand what I mean. Having so many packs to install in so many directories makes using jDoom a bit complicated at times, and we'd certianly be able to attract more members if we could consolidate all of them into one single large pack.
*hopes for no more arguing *

[picklebro]

I'm with you Primus and I agree completely - jfiles has made it a lot easier. I think a lot of people affiliated with open-source communities, not just this one, have forgotten how frustrating it was to do even the most mundane file-management task when they were first getting started in computers.

Combine that with the fact that, while we try to be helpful, your answer may go unanswered for a few days there are 'newbs' that simply throw up their hands and leave our community - that is never good for any community. I think someone posted an idea about what may be the next best thing to creating a megapack, DOCUMENTATION!!!! A step-by-step tutorial guide to help new people install, configure, setup, and troubleshoot their doomsday install. I'm all for it, but currently I'm tapped out trying to keep up with my on-going projects here. I really do like the idea of some extremely simple and easy-to-understand docs to help new people get into the game.

The one challenge to this kind of documentation project is that it will need people to maintain it because things will change as versions of DoomsDay are updated and new packs are created. Additionally links will have to be updated as old sites go down and new ones come up.

[primus1236]

I think I'll actually add a step by step screenshot based tutorial for setting up doomsday to my site. It should help a lot of people.

[picklebro]

that would be freaking awesome - you should create a linkbase too, showing where to get this pack, that pack, and so on and give your opinion about each one - too - you would be the Guardian Saint of the Newb!

[DaniJ]

I really don't see the need. Doomsday has a very nice installer now that works automatically straight out of the box. Then you just download any addons you want to your desktop and use Snowberry to add them.

I can't see how it could be any easier.

[Yagisan]

Originally Posted by picklebro

that would be freaking awesome - you should create a linkbase too, showing where to get this pack, that pack, and so on and give your opinion about each one - too - you would be the Guardian Saint of the Newb!

I actually like the idea of a linkbase. I'm happy to help contribute descriptions and opinions as I already do something like that for the Debian/Ubuntu packages.

Picklebro and Primus1236, Personally I prefer the packs to remain seperate. It allows for easier updating and maintainence of the pack. When JDRP 1.1 is out, I will actualy seperate my existing JDRP 1.01 pack into several smaller packs to allow individual updating or disabling of groups such as enemies, decor etc.

Documentation is a good idea. If you need help with it, give me a PM. I can help with Debian/Ubuntu specific issues, and linux in general. I even worked out how to get doomsday running with nvidia drivers in an i386 chroot on an amd64 system so you don't get the texture mess that happens when doomsday doesn't like your opengl drivers.

[Ffabbia]

I'm aware of the issue of author credits, but feel that if willingness to co-operate existed, this could be made to work. I personally think that a Megapack would be a good idea in principle; simply in relation to the fact that many new users are completely unaware of most of the additions, packs, eye candy-enhancements and other elements that make the sourceports what they are....the fact that so many people put so much time and effort into them should be rewarded, and their work enjoyed by as many people as possible; and this will not occur if the only method of fnding out about them involves trawling through lots of forum threads.

Sure, we have JFiles.org now, and it's a Godsend! but that site is not advertised anywhere on the Doomsay home page as far as I can tell. I believe that most newcomers will simply download the Doomsday binaries, the few working models etc. under the 'Downloads' section on the home page...and that's about it. Never realising that a world of additional material exists within the Community which can radically enhance their gaming experience. The fact remains that of all the persons hitting the home page, only a fraction of those take the time to thoroughly browse the forums. Many do not visit the boards at all!

The 'difficulty' faced by some novices of installing and executing some of the enhancements has already been discussed further up the thread.

I personally have my own 'mega pack' that I compiled myself, and it sits on my slave drive (and no I'm not considering distributing or hosting it). It contains every Doomsday pack or enhancement I have been able to get my hands on (and that's a lot), and is being constantly updated.

Each element is contained within it's own self extracting WinRAR archive, with the correct path(s) for installation already set; from the big texture and resource packs, to the small ded files for teleporter particles and lights etc. Each in it's own clearly titled sub-folder, catagorised by game and what it does. In this manner I can set up my entire Doomsday install from scratch in around 10 minutes flat!

I have often thought that it would be great if novice users had access to something like this.

Just a thought that's all. I'm sure that many of you will continue to state very clear reasons for avoiding such a pack.

[primus1236]

I really like the idea of Linux documentation. Getting doomsday working on Slackware, contrary to what I thought, is different than getting it working on other distros of Linux. It would have helped to know this. I'm sure there are all sorts of little things particular to different distros that can really help people. I think I would like help making a step by step tutorial for new linux users.

But first I need to get my new radeon working. *sigh* I'll take whatever everybody else's got for now.