
DOOMARENA
------------

DoomArena is a waiting room for DOOM games.  People everywhere on the net can run DoomArena and then start doom games with other people waiting to play.  It is a great way to help you waste more time playing doom.  This is good, because playing doom is very therapeutic and will make the time you do spend working much more productive.  DoomArena is written in Tcl/Tk.

DoomArena Mailing List ---->  echo subscribe | mail doomarena-request@bds.eng


+ Some things to be aware of about DOOM +
 
DOOM does not work under Solaris 2.3.  Upgrade to Solaris 2.4 or better to play DOOM.

You cannot join DOOM games already in progress.  All players in a game must startup at the same time.  Players may quit at any time, however.  

If you do not quit out of the DOOM in the normal fashion (Hit "escape" and then move the skull to the "Quit" line and hit return") the game will often hang or crash for all other players.  Therefore, if you are playing with other players, please do not kill the window by using "quit" in your window manager (from the window title bar menu).
 
The output from a doom session is written to /tmp/doom.out.  If you can't figure out why DOOM isn't running, you could try looking at /tmp/doom.out to see the doom output.


+ Nifty additional features for DOOM itself +

o  Mouse Support - The original version of Sun DOOM does not support the mouse, but DoomArena does!  The "ScrollLock" key is used to toggle the mouse grab.  See the "Doom Mouse" help page for more details.

o  Frag matrix! - With DoomArena the statistics from your DOOM game are always visible in the frag matrix.  You can also get statistics from other games by clicking on a game in players list.

o  Pause - If you are playing in single player mode, the pause key can be used to pause the game.  When the game is paused in this manner, DOOM's CPU usage drops to zero.  Pause is disabled for multi-player games.

o  Speed toggle - Normally, to run fast you need to hold down the shift key.  With DoomArena, you can use either CapsLock or NumLock to turn speed on and off.  Much easier on the pinkie finger!

o  Audio keys - When you are playing doom, the Sun audio keys can be used to control the global audio levels.  Mute, raise volume, and lower volume are all enabled.  Mute is really useful if someone important who doesn't like DOOM walks in your office.


+ Toggles and menus and buttons - oh my! +

These controls are distributed (unless you are in Solo mode):

o  Wad	Set the wad you want to play
o  Skill	Set the skill level
o  Level	Set the wad level
o  Sublevel	Set the wad sublevel (only useful for original doom wads)
o  Turbo	Makes you run faster, but can really make you sick.

o  altdeath	Alternate (aka real) deathmatch: objects reappear after about 30 seconds
o  deathmatch	Normal (boring) deathmatch.

NOTE:  If neither deathmatch nor altdeath is set, then you will end up playing in wimpy cooperative mode (you'll end up shooting the other guys anyways, so what's the point?).

o  nomonsters	Starts you out with no monsters.  Wimp.
o  respawn	Monsters come back to life (just like you do!).  Very equitable to the monsters.

o  Start DOOM	Start a doom game.  This is the point.
o  WAKEUP!	Annoy the suspended people into playing with you.

These controls are not distributed:

o  Suspend	Being suspended is bad, because no one can play with you.
o  Mute	Mute those silly sounds.  But you can't mute the WAKEUP sound!
o  Solo Play	Let's you play by yourself.  Anti-social.
o  Alt Layout	Switch the messages and waiting lists.


+ Properties +

The properties panel allows you to configure stuff.  Anything you configure in the props panel is automatically saved in your $HOME/.doomarenarc file.

The "Screen Size" option controls the size of the DOOM window when you start a game.  The sizes are self explanatory.  Don't use the "Huge" size unless you want DOOM to go slow.  Also, you must have a high resolution display or your "Huge" window won't fit.  The "Small" or "Tiny" sizes should be used if you are on an SS2 or worse (otherwise everyone will get mad at you because the lag is so extreme).

The "Doom Display" option controls which display the DOOM window will map to when a game is started.  This isn't of any use if you only have one display.  But if you are lucky and have more than one display, you can run DoomArena on a different display than DOOM, and then you get a better view of the frag matrix.

The audio controls work the same as the controls for audiocontrol.  "Mute" will disable all audio on your machine.  The volume control and balance affect all sounds played on your machine.  The volumes levels for the DoomArena sounds are scaled according to the main volume setting.  The audio configuration shows which devices are enabled for audio output.  The DOOM audio configuration lets you choose which devices will be enabled while a DOOM game is in progress.  This way you can have the audio switch to the headphones automatically when a game is started.

The volume levels for each category of DoomArena sound effects can be adjusted in the properties panel.  The displayed number is a percentage of maximum.  A value of 0 will turn off the sound entirely.  A value of 100 plays the sound at twice the value of the main volume.  A value of 50 plays the sound at the same level as the main volume.  The button next to the slider will play a sample sound at the currently adjusted level.

+ Doom Setup +

The Doom Setup panel allows you to configure the keyboard and mouse setup that is used by DOOM.  Also, the chat macros used to send cute messages between players is a networked game can be edited in this panel.

+ Contribute Wad +

Use this panel to add a custom wad file to the wads menu.  The "submit" operation copies the new wad over to the server and adds an entry for the wad to the "contrib" submenu.  The "contrib" submenu will update dynamically as soon as the submit operation has completed.

+ Audio patch +

If you are running Solaris 2.4 on an SS4 machine, you will need to apply a patch in order to get audio to work.  This patch can be found in doomarena/src/102125.tar.Z.

+ Bugs/Comments +

Having a problem?  Send us your bugs and comments.  These messages are sent to the original authors of DoomArena, so contact your local DoomArena administrator with the problem before sending it to us.



+ Advanced Features +

o  Command line interface

DOOM can be run from the command line.  Just run the script /tmp/doomarena/bin/doom (or doom2).  The script creates a directory in your home directory for DOOM save games.  This directory is named .doomsave or .doom2save, depending on the version of DOOM you are playing.

o  Demo record/playback

Demo games can be recorded using the "doom" script with the "-record filename" option.  To end the recording, press the 'Q' key.  DO NOT exit from the game the normal way, or the demo will not be saved.  To play back the demo, use the "-playdemo filename" option.  Demo games are saved in ~/.doomsave or ~/.doom2save.

o  Audio/Framebuffer permissions

Playing DOOM as a different user than the one logged in on the console requires some extra effort.  The following commands will give all users access to the audio and framebuffer devices:

% su
# chmod 666 /dev/sound/*
# chmod 666 /dev/fbs/*

To make these permissions permanent, edit your /etc/logindevperm file.
