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It's a bit unusual for a game that's graphics based somewhere between 1998 and 2000 but Phantom Fury which looks like Half-Life 1.5 does it and it looks very crisp. Isn't it just a GL_NEAREST instead of GL_LINEAR when creating a texture? Actually you should combine it with glShadeModel(GL_FLAT) otherwise it looks really odd... but that might destroy the lighting on the walls, ok I see it's not so easy. So, please add that option in "Zortch 2" 😉

Sorry for my harsh comment before... just wanted to help

You're making it too easy for yourself. You want the dev to go through all the changes from the last few weeks and guess why one of them is slower for you and not for him?  This won't work, please see which is the first version you're having trouble with. It should be easy, going through the patches.

There are more render settings, you should try them (fps, uncap, vsync)

Try iddqd and idkfa

Great work, I think this can be productive used by any user!  it was a good idea to handle the triggers as buttons and not as axis. I am not the right person to tell you the best (most common) defaults but it seems to work very well.

In my opinion the assignable actions are complete but maybe someone could wish quicksave/load
D-Pad diagonal does nothing, doing both would be better at least if you move with it
I would call the "nubs" left and right stick

To name the buttons 1-12 is safe but which controllers for Windows really exist which have a complete other button layout than XBox? For me it would be nice to call them what they are: X, Y, A, B, shoulder, menu, start,...

I searched for my "gamepad mouse" code for cursor movement in the menu, it's in a very odd Basic dialect but should be readable as pseudo code.

Proc Joy_StickMouse
  parameters device&, axis1&, axis2&
  declare newx&,newy&,dist&
 
  'bring rest position from 32767 to 0
  joy_x_raw! = Joy(device&, axis1&) - 32767
  joy_y_raw! = Joy(device&, axis2&) - 32767

  '6,25% deadzone
  if (abs(joy_x_raw!) < 2048)
    joy_x_raw! = 0
  endif

  if (abs(joy_y_raw!) < 2048)
    joy_y_raw!= 0
  endif

  if (joy_x_raw! <> 0) OR  (joy_y_raw! <> 0)

    'set new cursor position
    newx& = %mousex + min(24,(joy_x_raw! * 0.0005 * (1 + joy_mouseacc!)))
    newy& = %mousey + min(24,(joy_y_raw! * 0.0005 * (1 + joy_mouseacc!)))
    SetCursorPos(newx&,newy&)

    'calculate acceleration based on "distance" last input
    joy_mouseacc! = joy_mouseacc! + sqrt(abs(int(joy_x_raw!)*int(joy_x_raw!)) + abs(int(joy_y_raw!)*int(joy_y_raw!))) * 0.0000025
  else

    'no input? reset acceleation to stop movement immediately
    joy_mouseacc! = 0

  endif
EndProc

Did you ever code a game with OpenGL or software renderer? Did you read the small3d lib docs? It's is never tested on Windows 

• TODO:
  • Android
  • Windows
  • emscripten (web browser, JavaScript transpile)

It is interesting  and nice, too if you have your game structured for multiple renderer but I would always prefer OpenGL. Since 1998 with the Voodoo Banshee this is how you do it. If you manage to find that Windows industry device which has no OpenGL support then there are drivers like MESA which can software render OpenGL on every GPU, I read even Windows has software drivers for at least OpenGL 1.1. 

OpenGL a bloat??? It's around since Windows 3.1 in the mid 90s and runs  on  every CPU integrated  graphics of the last 15 years. It is multiplatform compatible and much faster than software renderer. The problem is more that it's outdated and may be dropped first by Apple, I guess.

Isn't it a bit to early to ask for the engine to get open source? Maybe it has no negative effect to the sales but it's very unusual for a new game with no  team and intention like a system port.

If it helps you, you've already written a piece of video game history that will live on. Next milestone: 500 reviews on steam to archive

"overwhelmingly positive"

I'm sure these are minor problems to solve but maybe there is some fine tuning needed after that for response, dead zone handling etc and people would appreciate if the can use the menu with gamepad. So you have no keyboard input for the menu but a gamepad mouse-cursor control would do it.

I tested gamepad support in 1892. I'm not a gamepad player but I can give you some feedback for that. I'm sure you are making many couch players very happy with that functionality.

For the moment I still see some work to do. It's not always picking the right controller.

I'm using (newest gen) XBox Controller and have two paired, but only one was connected ("switched on")  and I had NO working gamepad in the game. Second try I connected both controllers and the other which was switched off before worked. Next time I started the game, the other one worked.

I think it is complety ok to automatically pick one controller if more than one is connected but you seem to pick just "controller 0" if it is connected or not.  I'm not sure how a connection is detected but the axis should have valued around 32k when on and 0 if off.

Another problem is with looking, it is splitted between the wrong axis on the right stick and the trigger buttons:

right stick up looks to the left
right stick down looks to the right
left trigger looks down
right trigger looks up

So for the moment I cannot test how it really feels in the gameplay but I will do that, when the axis are fixed.

It looks good, couldn't break it anymore!

It's getting worse but maybe the way it does helps you figure it out. I played the same map E2M3 at the same spot. This time I just saved 2 or 3 times until the game crashes. Now this is interesting, the quicksave from 1890 crashes 1890 but works in 1878. So it is somehow corrupted but you only stopped the uncontrolled growth. https://bytes.one/upload/e2m3_quicksave.zip

It's no big deal for me but this could be one of the more serious bugs which affects at least some people.

Can you confirm the crash with my savegame in 1890 on your computer?

Now I opened the Windows Explorer to see the filesize and hammered F6 (sometimes F9)  in the gameplay and it is inconspicuous until I come to the dump in E2M3, here for example after some time the save file seems to double its size every time or at least grow faster every time.

Here it is.

https://bytes.one/upload/slot0.zip

Then document them instead of fixing them, thats fine

You don't have to fix it immediately or have to fix it at all, but why is this trouble? You can collect these and fix them at once.

Some overlapping polygones at E3M1

When quicksaving often, the saving process seems to slow down with every save until the game crashes. I now have a quicksave file which I can load but not save again from that point. It's the slot0.sav and it is 17194 KB big. It's from E2M3 but I think it can happen in every map.

Thanks! It seems that even the kick over dedicated Q-key isn't always responding in that situation: running and sliding crouched in that shaft and than trying to kick the grid. Run & shot would also help in some situations.

I wanted to get below 1 minute for E1M1 so I played the game bit different than before and recognized this:

I have run toggled on, then after falling in E1M1 I crouch into the ventilation shaft. When I'm into it I cannot kick with fire-key, I see the crosshair wobbling but nothing happens, only the kick key Q works. Behind the shaft, when standing, the kick works again with fire-key or Q.

Talking about the overpowered shield?  Not only that not a single shot hits me, the boss kills himself when he comes to close. https://vimeo.com/835370915?share=copy

Your game is much more balanced, stable and polished (and fun) than every AAA title released this year. People (including me) have ideas and suggestions because they love the game, otherwise they wouldn't care. Also, I don't think any point of it is really relevant.

Nobody expects to change the level design now. Optional changes are always cool. I can imagine that 60fps on a 144Hz monitor looks worse than on a 60Hz monitor because it doesn't quite add up. This is a very exhausting topic to juggle game ticks, control timing and optional vsync.

I still have a list of things I would change but I have a feeling you take it as criticism. I will keep spreading the word. I've already "spammed" my subscribed Discord channels. So let's celebrate the Steam release and the positive reactions! 🥳 

You have to have seen the entire level at least once in order to orientate yourself. I myself usually need several passes from different directions for a good orientation.  A medium complexity ensures a good game depth without frustrate the player. I think Zortch does that very well. I only had one moment of frustration, I think it was E1M3, it took me 30 minutes to understand that I have to blast a wall - it was definitely my fault. I like it when there are shortcuts in the level or when you find a key and you are guided to the right door on a different path, I had a lot of such moments in Zortch. At the end of the day, this type of game is a kind of "open world" and the player doesn't always follow the tracks that the level designer intended. For me it was a solid gaming experience.

It's going pretty well so far, looking at the reviews and ratings on Steam. I hope it turns out really big.

Yes, Hrot is released. I'm looking forward to your Steam release!

Does anyone here think the game isn't getting the attention it deserves? I may not be the best advisor because I haven't done much on itch.io myself. Getting the Steam version ready might help. I get emails about new versions but no entries in "My feed". Extra posts could help here and asking players for a positive rating would be ok.

For me, Zortch is better than Hrot and this is getting a lot of attention on Steam right now... ok, it's been there for 2.5 years in early access too.

I love old computers, so I tried the game on some older hardware. It works great on a 2007 notebook with 4 GB of RAM and a core2duo CPU. On a ~2000 XP (originally Win98) Notebook with Pentium III 500GHz, 256 GB RAM it nearly works I think... I have all 3 loading screens and music (loading., loading models, loading..), then it crashes with  "Zortch.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close.". The RAM is fine, maybe it is the vram (4MB) or the OpenGL feature set. This really show, how optimized the engine is 👍

No, thanks, I can beat him without the lightning gun 😈 Why should generations of players have a piece of code in the game that fixes a savegame from build 1820 to 1821?

Lightning gun (9) has still no effect on the end boss in 1821. Is it the build or my old savegame which includes the old boss armor?

Thanks, should we test all weapons on the other bosses?

You're the boss, leave it as it is!

Thanks for Build 1820! Now I know why I struggled so hard at the final boss. Lightning gun has no effect (as well as the flamethrower). Is this ìntentional?

I use old notebooks for nostalgia reasons 😉 I have to try one with Windows XP. You see it everyday what happens, whens developers only test with their best hardware and those are AAA with a budget of millions.... Cyberpunk, Jedi: Survivor, Hogwarts Legacy, The Last of Us all with big performance issues when released.

1. you should fix this 😜  (two areas must be passed in correct sequence like checkpoints or the direction must not point against gravity direction)

2. Yes, it's always hard to give up power, but it would help balance. Another way to make it weaker would be to only make it work with weapon  "2".

You want some more? 😄I can't say enough about how well and flawlessly the game runs. It's just things for the backlog or to think about.

1. It's difficult to shoot a ball in a basket when the ball is in front of me. He could be a bit further away and slightly off center.
2. I think the shield of weapon no. 2 is a little overpowered. It blocks engery and physical weapons and even explosions AND it lets all my guns pass AND it never breaks AND it doesn't cost any ammo. Sure, the player should understand what happens but an ammo cost and a time limit (10-20 seconds) should be fair.

If not mentioned before, a bosses progress bar would be really nice! That way you could better see weapon strength and make strategic decisions about whether it's better to attack or look for a medkit.

Yes, all are absolutely uncritical. Only the first and third are minor errors at all, 2 and 4 are a matter of taste.

Sorry for the false alarm, antivirus and firewalls can be annoying. It's probably not best practice to run an application on the desktop, but most of the time it works. But I wonder if it gets better under c:/programs/, save games should actually be stored under AppData\Roaming\... or AppData\Local\..., sometimes also in the documents folder.

Can I post a link here to the zipped save files? There are no DM on itch.io.

Update: I fixed it by deactivating Avast Antivirus, in windowed mode I could read the message. It didn't like the game writing in a desktop folder and asked for permission. Strange thing was, the save files were also written before but with a crash after.

I'm not using the itch.io app, I have a folder on my desktop. There is a screenshot and there is no tempsave.sav. It started in episode 3 but I havye savegames from episode 4 and 5 where the bug is reproducable (at least for me). Just load a corrupted save files (this works) and then save again (quick or normal) and then it crashes after saving.

I played it through and it was very smooth. The level design was extremely creative and never unfair and well balanced. I never got stuck in the walls or anything like that, the controls are very precise. What I found is hardly worth mentioning...

In E1M3 I saw a gap under a path, looking out of a chamber that was blocked by a stone:

In E5M3 you walk at the top of the glass roof where the red key is against the invisible level wall. It was probably intentional, but a high fence would be better and the direct view of the entire skybox is not advantageous either:

Also in E5M3 there were two floating boxes outside the water (there is water on the right, not in screen):

For stairs, it would be nicer if the pattern matched the height of the steps so that each step looks the same. It's close but usually doesn't quite fit: