Are you ready to die?
BERNEWFIE is a quick and dirty and source port of Hexen 1996 PC game by Raven Software from WATCOM to GCC that combines original source with functions taken from MBF 2.04 maintenance release by Gerwin. DJGPP environment and Allegro library headers and binaries are a prerequisite to build it. Original SETUP.EXE from Hexen is used to configure game keyboard and mouse bindings (HEXEN.CFG) and HSETUP.EXE (derived from MBF 2.04 setup tool) is used to configure sound and music (SETUP.CFG).
What's been added
- 640x400 resolution activated with
-hirescommand line argument
(pillarboxed 640x480 will be activated if 640x400 is not supported by the installed video card) - mouse look and alternative flight controls activated with
-mlookcommand line argument
(when flying hold mouse jump button and move mouse vertically to fly up and down) -novertcommand line argument- up to 128 sound channels activated with
-maxsoundcommand line argument
(SETUP.EXE limits this to 8, so HEXEN.CFG needs to be edited by hand for values between 8 and 128) - twice more visplanes
- more fluid experience with quicksave/quickload with
-quickcommand line argument: quickloading instead of respawning, less prompts and end game/suicide buttons switched off - 10 more savegame slots available with
-hirescommand line argument
(new slots have filenames like hexa*., hexb.* etc in HEXNDATA) - additional command line arguments to fine-tune Gerwin's VESA code (see readme for details):
-show_fps-use_vsync-page_flip-safe-asmp6-nolfb-nopm - support for WAV sound effect lumps and 16-bit samples
(in case a SoundBulb-like mod for Hexen arrives some day) -extracommand line argument for a second way to provide PWADs to be loaded to the engine
(e.g. toHEXENDK.EXE -extra PWADS\BERNEW.WAD)-noorbcommand line to spend as few time as possible in the start screen and jump to the title screen instead- work in progress conversion to C of Hexen Unofficial Update v1.2 @Boondorl written originally by in ZScript activate by -DPATCH12 during compile time
BERNEWFIE in action
Original Deathkings Mage demo running
Deathkings as Warropr in in high resolution
Automap in high resolution
Additional savegame slots
What's removed
- Graphical startup (although Bernewfie tries to mimic it a little bit, if you find that too awkward, use
-noorbcommand line argument to skip) - CD Audio support (including track changing cheat code)
- External driver support for "exotic" input devices
- No idea if multiplayer works
Code changes
Most of the code in BERNEWFIE is untouched Hexen code, except for:
- improved VESA and Allegro system routines by Gerwin
- zone memory management, some math and column drawing assembly code by Lee Killough
Also changes were made to:
- game startup to incorporate allegedly more Windows NT friendly MBF 2.04 code
- sound handing to avoid crashes in main menu and to accomodate for MBF sound caching
- fullscreen HUD drawing to "scale" to higher resolutions
- menu, status bar, intermission and finale layout and messages to center in higher resolutions
- info, title, intermission and finale drawing procs to show correctly in higher resolutions
- automap to work correctly in higher resolutions
- screen refresh and screen border logic to accomodate for status bar only taking
a portion of the lower screen part in higher resolution - visplanes structure to extened height from 8 to 16 bits for higher resolution screens
- sky scaling code to work correctly in higher resolutions and with mouse look
- player weapon sprites scaing code to show correctly in higher resolutions
- game subsystems startup order to accomodate for changes to graphic mode initialization
Articles
A special version of "Unofficial Patch 1.2" Bernewfie build (the one with rebalancing, bugfixes and auto-map tweaks, originally created by Boondorl for GZDoom) is now available.
Unlike previous versions which followed @gerwin's MBF 2.04 way of choosing the resolution (which is favoring 640x400 but falling back to 640x480 in case of trouble), the new version allows explicit selection of screen resolution at startup (up to 1280x1024, hence the name). Thus the -hires command line argument no longer has any effect with one of the below argument replacing it:
-400p for 640x400
-480p for 640x480
-600p for 800x600
-768p for 1024x768
-1024p for 1280x1024
Comparison of supported screen resolution options.
As with all recent uploads the build includes music playback fidelity improvements for those running an Adlib, SoundBlaster or other OPL3-based sound cards. Moreover an add-on is provided which replaces original music tracks with those specifically tailored for FM-playback - the tracks coming from the game composer Kevin Schielder himself.
Starting Hexen with the addon is as simple as: BERNEW -file fmmus.wad
For Deathkings LOCATION.STR needs to be edited to point to the right executable. For example:
DRIVE=C
DIR=\HEXEN
EXE=HEX1024.EXE
Then the game can be started with e.g:
HEXENDK -extra fmmus.wad -768p -mlook
Deathkings of the Dark Citadel in high resolution
Some more technical changes included in the build are:
* bump of MAXVISPLANES to 960
* bump of MAXVISSPRITE to 256
* max number of game engine sound channels reverted to a more reasonable 32
* screen buffer blitting tweak for modes where video memory lines do not align by screen width (e.g. for Intel)
At the moment the version is still somewhat experimental. If that puts you off, and you'd rather wait for the changes to the Hexen port to stabilize, let me suggest another fine first person experience for DOS: Bernewfie's sister port Tartar, which boasts Sigil and SIGIL II support as of the December release.
New testing build comes earlier than anticipated
NewsNew testing build for Tartar to address crashes, December plans shifted.
Are you ready to die?
NewsBernewfie - Hexen source port for DOS - is ready for download and special balance fixes build is up for testing.
Tartar October testing build
NewsDevelopment is going on for this Doom source port for DOS, assets have been reorganized in the process.
Files
HEX1024.EXE
Full VersionExperimental build with Unofficial Hexen Update 1.2 features and commonplace resolutions support.
FMMUS
MusicHexen music addon that contains tunes versions adjusted for FM playback, coming from Kevin Schilder's source material published earlier this year.
BERNEW-DIST.ZIP
Full VersionRecommended files of the binary distribution MINUS the EXE file itself.
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