News
ECWolf 1.4.2 2025-09-14 20:28:22
The bug fix release ECWolf 1.4.2 is available for download. Notable fixes include a fix for the screen fades breaking when using the load/save shortcuts without waiting for them to clear, and the long standing issue where save files on Windows were not portable between systems is addressed. See the full list of changes for other minor issues addressed.
Inspired by discussions around a relatively recent move by GZDoom's Windows version to move to writing log messages to the terminal/command prompt, and the troubles users have faced due to unfamiliarity with the command line on Windows, ECWolf 1.4.2 also includes a new ecwolf-console.exe which is a simple launcher program to run ECWolf with a log window. More or less a glorified batch file, but should more reliably work as a drop in replacement for running the game directly. For those who were already successfully running ECWolf from the terminal, this program may still prove useful as previously, while ECWolf would attach to the terminal window, it would not wait for ECWolf to exit leading to a confusing situation where it would appear that the prompt didn't return after the game exited (and stuff like terminating with ctrl+c didn't work). This program scans the directory it resides in for a known game engine executable so it can be used with GZDoom as well.
Jose Valecillos has contributed some changes necessary for submission to FlatHub. It is thus expected that a Flatpak should be available soon for Linux users where that's the most convenient packaging format. Particularly those running atomic distros.
ECWolf 1.4.1 2023-02-03 04:44:28
ECWolf 1.4.1 is available for download which fixes a critical bug in 1.4.0 where by under certain conditions picking up the Chaingun can crash the game.
It also addresses some transcription errors with the Fake Hitler actors, most notably they no longer can open doors like in vanilla. Loading of gray scale PNGs is fixed, and 32:9 video modes are now supported as well.
ECWolf 1.4.0 and WolfstoneExtract 1.2 2023-01-18 07:48:57
ECWolf 1.4.0 is now available for download! The full list of changes is available on the wiki.
The big highlight feature is of course rudimentary LAN multiplayer. At this stage it's kind of a technical preview as the community will need to develop assets for a proper user experience since Wolf3D for example doesn't have a player sprite. For those interested in this feature read the multiplayer notes. Expect a fairly raw minimum viable product experience, but should there be interest in the feature this should improve over time.
This release also supports the Wolfstone 3D game data from Wolfenstein II and Wolfenstein Youngblood. Version 1.2 of the extraction tool is also available which most notably sets the pushwall movement distance to 3 tiles for these games as the Elite Hans levels and some of the modifications to the Wolfenstein 3D levels were made with the 3 tile movement glitch in mind. It also now automatically find the GOG Wolfenstein II data if installed.
Steam and GOG support has been updated to support the new releases of Wolfenstein 3D. The Steam detection code on Windows is also aware of any additional Steam libraries that may have been setup beyond the default. This change also applies to WolfstoneExtract.
As one might expect from the version bump, this release comes with a bunch of new modding features which mod authors have already been taking advantage of over the past few years. Some highlights include visual z-heights and parallax skies. Billboarded "3D sprites" common in Wolf4SDL mods are also now supported.
The MIDI to OPL code from vanilla Super 3D Noah's Ark is also integrated (thanks to NY00123) with a fix for playing back at the correct tempo (according to the MIDI files). This process is fairly limited in capabilities so really only useful for playing back the Super 3D Noah's Ark music as it would be heard in DOS. Other MIDIs may produce hilarious results.
This release is mostly backwards compatible with 1.3 mods, but there are a few that have broken due to conflicts with the partial/hidden Blake Stone and Mac Wolfenstein support. Most notable break is Operation Serpent. It is trivial to fix by renaming the problematic actor in the DECORATE code, and hopefully the author of these mods will release an update.
Starting with this release ARM binaries are being provided for Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu. The macOS binary is thus now a four way universal binary supporting Apple Silicon, Intel 64 and 32-bit, and 32-bit PowerPC. The Android binary has been updated to use latest SDL2 and work on current devices. You may be prompted about the app being built for an old version of Android, which is due to some dependencies on legacy permissions but this has been tested to work on Android 12 at least. The signing key for Android has changed so the old version may need to be uninstalled before the new one can be loaded. Although given that 1.3.3 was broken on the last few versions of Android this probably won't affect many.
Looking towards ECWolf 1.5, as I've mentioned here before, the code base will finally be migrating to modern C++. At the moment the plan is to target C++17. It is not believed that any platforms are on the chopping block at this time since C++17 tool chains exist for all of them. (However official 32-bit Linux binaries may come to a close as Ubuntu 18.04 is due to go end of life soon taking 32-bit support with it.) In order to try to prevent a multi-year release drought, I'm setting the goals for 1.5 fairly small and primarily want to look at the LZWolf feature set and see how much can be accepted back and close the delta (which in turn I hope will allow Linuxwolf to refork from the latest code). This should lay the foundation for getting back to more interesting features in 1.6 and beyond.
For real, ECWolf 1.4 is almost here 2022-07-18 03:19:23
For those who don't hang out in the Matrix room, I quit my job with Fortinet and having reclaimed 8 hours a day I set a goal for myself to have ECWolf 1.4 feature complete during the interim between jobs. The good news is that goal was a success and I'm proud to announce that ECWolf 1.4 has been feature complete since June 30th with just some refinements and bug hunting to go. That means multiplayer is working in the development builds! I'm still working through a few bugs so it's not time for release just yet, but it's exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
For those interested in testing, I have written some notes about the multiplayer feature.