PrBoom compatibility options
============================

Some of this is a bit dry. You might want to skip to the bottom and read the
examples.

Internally, PrBoom maintains a "compatibility level" which it uses to
determine how to behave in various circumstances. The supported levels are
currently:

Number	Name			Description
0	doom_12_compatibility	Emulate Doom v1.2 game details where possible
1	doom_1666_compatibility	Behave like Doom v1.666 as far as possible
2	doom2_19_compatibility	As compatible as possible for playing original
				Doom demos
3	ultdoom_compatibility	Ultimate Doom made a few changes
4	finaldoom_compatibility	Compatible with Final Doom & Doom95 - needed
				for some demos recorded with Final Doom doom2.exe
5 	dosdoom_compatibility	Emulate early dosdoom versions
				(some TASdoom demos work with this)
6	tasdoom_compatibility	unused
7 	boom_compatibility_compatibility	Emulates Boom's compatibility mode
8	boom_201_compatibility	Emulates Boom v2.01
9	boom_202_compatibility	Emulates Boom v2.02
10	lxdoom_1_compatibility	Emulates LxDoom v1.4.x
11	mbf_compatibility	Emulates MBF
12	prboom_1_compatibility	Emulates PrBoom v2.03beta
13	prboom_2_compatibility	PrBoom v2.1.0
14	prboom_3_compatibility	PrBoom v2.1.1-2.2.6
15	prboom_4_compatibility	PrBoom v2.3.x
16	prboom_5_compatibility	PrBoom v2.4.0
17	prboom_6_compatibility	Current PrBoom

You can cycle through the compatibility levels in the game using the TNTCOMP
cheat. There's also the default_compatibility_level config file option, and
the -complevel command line parameter.

The numbers are subject to change between versions, so if you're doing
elaborate stuff with these things you're advised to check this file each
time you upgrade. Most people should just leave default_compatibility_level
set to -1 in the config file, which means "use most recent" which has most
features, most bug fixes, etc.

But some people want to test the behaviour of levels with older versions, and
will find it helpful to not have to load a dozen games to do so. Some people
like me play a lot of old levels, so need to be able to enable compatibility
with some old bugs. And some people may want to record demos for older game
versions.

When you play a demo, PrBoom sets the compatibility level and settings
automatically. When you load a savegame, the settings are restored.

When you start a new game, the compatibility level is got from (in order of
preference):
- -complevel parameter
- default_compatibility_level config file param if not -1
- set to the most recent otherwise

If the compatibility level is MBF or better, the detailed compatibility
settings are read from the comp_* config file options, as in MBF. Otherwise,
the settings are put to the defaults for that game version.

You can adjust the compatibility settings during play from the menus
(Options->Setup->Doom Compatibility).

The sort of people interested in these things will already know the MBF
options, so I'll just list the changes:
- comp_floors now also causes the original Doom behaviour of objects stuck in
a ceiling preventing the floor below lowering.
- new option comp_moveblock enables the old movement clipping bug which
allows things to go through walls sometimes (mancubus shots, and key
grabbing tricks)

PrBoom can also record old demos with some success (demo players see the
comp_moveblock note above):

prboom -complevel 2 -record test

records a doom v1.9 compatible demo

prboom -complevel 9 -record whatever

records a Boom (v2.02) demo

prboom -complevel 11 -record blah

records an MBF demo.

Of course, demo recording is no more reliable than demo playback; original
Doom demos will usually but not always work. MBF support should be perfect.

- Colin <cph@moria.org.uk>

PrBoom demo support
===================

PrBoom has lots of demo options compared to most Doom ports, so I decided to
write a brief document outlining the features. If you're thinking of
recording demos, you're strongly advised to read this.

To play demos, you of course use "prboom -playdemo demoname" (the .lmp is
optional). To the best of my knowledge, PrBoom should play all MBF and new
PrBoom demos perfectly. It also plays most Doom v1.9 demos (significantly more
than Boom or MBF); almost all demos recorded with ultimate doom or doom2.exe
version v1.9 should work (please let me know if you find ones that don't), but
there are still problems with doom95 and final doom though. It should play most
Boom v2.01 and v2.02 demos, although I don't know of that many to test with. It
will also try to play older Doom demos, LxDoom demos, and Boom v2.00 demos.

Recording demos is done with "prboom -record demoname". **IMPORTANT** PrBoom
will record to a number of demo formats, namely Doom v1.9, Boom v2.02, MBF,
and PrBoom - which format it records is determined by your current
compatibility level, see README.compat. The purpose of this feature is so
people like me that won't let DOS anywhere near their computers can record
demos compatible with other engines.

PrBoom supports the -recordfrom parameter, which starts recording a demo
from a given savegame. "-recordfrom demoname n" is a synonym for "-record
demoname -loadgame n", which records a demo from savegame number n.

People doing speedrun demos may be interested in the comp_moveblock option,
see README.compat.

PrBoom supports loading and saving games during demo recording and playback
(but only for new PrBoom demos, not for older demo formats, obviously).
Don't worry, saves in demo playback are written with different names, they
don't overwrite your own saves. Saves when recording, do. You can load games
during recording, but they'd better be games saved during the same
recording, otherwise it won't play back.

PrBoom supports continuation of recorded demos. This is the scenario this
feature is designed for: say you're beta testing a level for someone, and
you want to send them a *complete* demo of how the level went (saves, deaths
and reloads and all). You start with "prboom test.wad -record test", play
for half an hour, save and exit. Next day, you go to play again, with
"prboom test.wad -record test" again. PrBoom will scan the existing
test.lmp, find the savegame command, and insert a loadgame command to reload
that game; it will reload the game and continue recording of the demo. This
is an experimental feature, but hopefully it works :-).

**IMPORTANT** The observant will have noticed from the above that PrBoom
won't overwrite existing demos anymore. If you want to record over a demo,
delete it first.

I think that's all for now.

- Colin <doom@cph.demon.co.uk>