Deadwood update; ObHack minor update

On Friday, I silently updated the MaraDNS web page to point to the latest releases of MaraDNS which I uploaded two weeks ago. I haven't uploaded the latest release to Sourceforge, but will probably do so this week sometime.

On Saturday, I drove my neighbor to work. I then did some errands, and picked her up after work. She made me some "Russian salad" and we spent the afternoon eating and talking.

On Sunday, my neighbor was busy so I ended up having some time to geek out. I ended up updating Deadwood to remove a couple of Cygwin-only compile-time warnings, and getting "resurrections" to work when Deadwood is unable to connect to the upstream DNS server.

"resurrections" is the ability to pull expired records from the DNS cache when there is no other way to get a DNS record. Basically, it's a DNS record of last resort. If, for whatever reason, it's impossible to get a current DNS record, it's probably better to give the user a possibly outdated DNS record than no record at all. This is called "resurrections" in Deadwood. And yes, if you feel this someone violates the DNS spec or whatever, it can be disabled.

Anyway, resurrections now work either when there's a timeout trying to connect to an upstream DNS provider, or if it's impossible to send a packet upstream. Each case uses different code; I may also eventually add code to use resurrections in the case of being able to connect to the upstream DNS provider, but upstream gives Deadwood a DNS error instead of the reply (the code may actually already do this; I will have to check).

I also have the version number of Deadwood appear when it's started.

In addition, I have made a minor update to ObHack. This backports Andrew's bugfix for monsters or items on crates. The fix doesn't seem to be perfect, but does seem to reduce the number of times monsters or items are inaccessible because they're on top of a crate.

This will probably be my last update to ObHack for a while; to be honest, I currently don't enjoy playing first person shooters so have little motivation to work on this code. I may end up releasing ObHack 004a and declaring it stable. We'll see.

Adding support for reading and writing the cache to disk

This week, I have been working on adding the ability to write the Deadwood-2 cache to a file, and read the Deadwood-2 cache from a file. Support for writing the file is complete. The file is very simple, and has the following format: For each element in the cache, write the key string to the file, followed by the value string object, followed by a 64-bit timestamp of when this record expires. Put less important (more likely to be deleted) elements at the beginning of the file and more commonly accessed cache elements at the end of the file (The reason for this is, when adding elements to the cache, more recently added elements are considered more important).

The string object has a very simple format in the file: A 32-bit big-endian length value, which must be a positive signed number (negative signed numbers mean the string has a length of 0), followed by the binary string. The timestamp is a representation of the 64-bit timestamp used by Deadwood, whose epoch is when the episode "Gambit" of the Blake's 7 television programme was first broadcast. Each second has 256 "ticks".

I have also fixed a bug in the hash used by the cache (it took me a couple of hours of fiddling around with Deadwood to find and get rid of it).

---

I'm also playing around with Doom Builder, an open-source Windows-only (Why doesn't Linux have a decent Pascal compiler?) program for editing maps. It's very easy to learn and use; I'm using it to make changes to a 9-map megawad generated by Oblige (for Heretic) in to one suitable for single player, deathmatch, and coop play.

I'm having a lot of fun with it; I just wish I had some buddies down here in Mexico to deathmatch with.

- Sam

Deadwood-2 hash core finished; ObHack update

I have finished the core hash that will be the Deadwood-2 cache this weekend. This is a data structure that is optimized for making a DNS cache. It's like the cache MaraDNS currently uses, but a much simpler, clener codebase with some features MaraDNS' current cache does not have. This code can now be expanded to make a caching forwarding DNS server.

The one feature I want to add to the core hash first, however, is the ability to write the cache to a file, and read the cache from a file.

The updated snapshot can be downloaded here

---

I also have an update to ObHack, fixing some critical bugs, and adding one "feature":

• Critical fix: Door statues are now less likely to make it impossible to finish a level w/o the "noclip" (OK, "kitty") cheat code.
• Critical fix: Being unable to find a door fab no longer causes ObHack to crash and burn (we just try with a different level)
• Critical fix: Now there's a high recursion depth limit when retrying to plan a level; this way, the program does not freeze in an infinite loop if it's impossible to find a plan that meets the requirements.
• Critical fix: An assert when making small deathmatch maps sometimes failed. Fixed; assert removed.
• Feature added: Heretic "full game" megawads now make E6M1-3, with E6M3 not having an exit (neither in single player nor deathmatch)

ObHack can be downloaded here

MaraDNS, ObHack, and font updates

I have updates for not one, not two, but three different projects of mine today.

---

My MaraDNS update has one change to the mainline code: l.root-servers.net IP has been updated. I am also working on the hash-generation code again for the "Deadwood-2" code, which will become a simple non-recursive caching DNS server. This is available here.

---

ObHack, my hacks to the excellent OBLIGE Doom random map generator, has a very minor update: Single player maps now have deathmatch starts. I added this feature since the small levels are small enough to be playable as 1-on-1 deathmatch maps with Heretic, and as 3-way or 4-way Doom/Doom2 deathmatch maps (all of those Doom fabs give players more little hidey holes). Also, Heretic (but only Heretic, alas) single player maps now have a couple of coop starts. In addition, I now have a Linux tarball, in addition to the Windows zipfile and a source tarball.

ObHack 002a (I'm not giving this a new number since the maps are identical to 002 maps, with only deathmatch and coop starts added) is available as a Windows zipfile here, as a Linux binary tarball here, and as a source code tarball here. An example megawad for Heretic is available here

---

I have made a minor update to my "Sandals" font, an attempt to make a readable screen font. This font can be downloaded here. I also have a version of this font that includes the bitmap version of a famous font made by a major software company here (I'm using an American server owned by an American since, while American law clearly states you can't copyright the bitmap version of a font, European laws are not clear on this matter).

- Sam

ObHack update

I have just uploaded a minor update to ObHack, my hack of Oblige. This is a bugfix only release; the bugs fixed are:

• There was a bug that would sometimes stop megawads of small episodes being created. Fixed.
• It was possible to have only one exit (either the secret exit or an exit going to the non-secret level) on a small map. Fixed; any map that should has a secret exit will now always have both a normal and secret exit
• In Heretic, at "Smite-Meister" (Heretic's name for "Ultra-Violence") diffculty, it is sometimes nay to impossible to get through the legion of golems and gargoyles to get at the cross bow. Workaround: There is now, at this difficulty level, always the gauntlets and the Chaos device at the beginning of the level; this makes it easier for the player to rush to the crossbow without unbalancing things too much
• Random numbers generated tweaked to make completely different maps than yesterday's ObHack release

The Windows binary is here and the source code here

My hacks to Oblige (a new Doom random map generator)

For a while now, I have been working on some FreeDoom-specific hacks to SLIGE called SLUMP. Indeed, I released an update to this program in late October.

Just this Monday, I disocovered a new (for 2007) Doom random map generator called OBLIGE (alternate link). I feel this map generator is a good deal more advanced than SLIGE and SLUMP. Unlike SLIGE/SLUMP, it supports:

• Real outdoor areas
• Balconies
• More detailed rooms
• No "null" quests: If you go somewhere and fight monsters, you will get some prize for your bother (such as a good weapon or a power-up)
• Heretic and Hexen support, in addition to real FreeDoom and Plutonia/Evilution support
• Real deathmatch and coop support
• A GUI interface

SLIGE only has a couple of features not supported by OBLIGE, such as variable-sized rooms, boss arenas (which I broke in SLUMP), and teleporters.

Unlike SLIGE, which codes everything in C, OBLIGE uses a scripting language called Lua for the map building core. The code is larger than SLIGE--my Windows zipfile of SLUMP, complete with node-builder is only 100k in size; OBLIGE is about six times larger. It's also slower; I can make a 32-level small megawad in SLUMP/SLIGE (complete with the nodes being built with BSP) in about a second; a megawad with the same size takes between 30 seconds and a minute to make in OBLIGE.

The nice thing about the Lua core is that it is far easier to customize the map generator. Indeed, I have done exactly that, and have made the following updates to OBLIGE:

• Smaller levels, especially when making deathmatch maps and when selecting a "small" level size.
• Allowing smaller levels caused some bugs to pop up, which I have addressed.
• It is now possible to finish an episode in Doom 1 or Heretic; E#M8 is now a normal level with a normal exit (no boss arenas though)
• Heretic fixes: No more doors that you can't open; you can now go to the secret level
• Build fix: If a level is unable to place a staircase, instead of crashing and burning, the generator will discard the level and try again.

I call my hacked version of OBLIGE "ObHack" (an expression used in a now-dead once great Usenet newsgroup called alt.hackers); the Windows binary can be downloaded here; the source code (nothing that compiled has been changed, however; only the Lua scripts) is here.

---

Some MaraDNS support issues: An automatically generated Debian bug saying it's hard to automate getting a new version of MaraDNS; one of the root servers has changed. Now that I've had fun making my ObHack fork of OBLIGE, I will work on these this afternoon.