XDRE

XDRE is a cool tool for making frame-by-frame TASes in Doom. Here’s what comes up when I launch it:


_Input window_


_Game window_

The input window is where you add and delete inputs, which are shown in the tall box in the top left. These are then input into the game, and the resulting motion is shown in the game window. ‘almostmatt1’ from Doomworld (of Sunlust map 29 UV-Speed in 8.83s fame!) did a very helpful, in-depth introduction on managing inputs in XDRE, as well as performing glides quickly via brute-forcing.

XDRE isn’t the only frame-by-frame TAS tool out there. Asides from being a jack-of-all-trades source port, DSDA-Doom also has a neat feature called ‘Build Mode’, which allows inputs to be made on the keyboard in basically the same way you would play the game normally: pressing ‘W’ for the input MF50 (running forwards at speed 50), ‘Q’ for MB50 (running backwards at speed 50), ‘W’ and ‘D’ together for MF50 SR40 (strafe-running at SR40), etc. Alternatively, inputs can be made into the console, using the commands in this man page.

DSDA-Doom manages to do with one window what XDRE needs two, but from first impressions I’m a bigger fan of the latter. I feel more comfortable typing in inputs rather than making them myself in normal gameplay for a TAS, and XDRE’s input list reads easier than DSDA’s ‘Command Display’ widget.

DSDA, however, does have an option to skip to a specific tic, which I can’t seem to find on the other application. This does make it annoying when 100 tics or so after I’ve made a turn, I realise I need to make it tighter, so I have to scroll all the way up to the tic with the turn, change the turn angle, and scroll all the way down.

Here’s a NoMo run of E1M1 I did in 8.94s. Granted, it’s not amazing, given that the non-TAS record is 8.80s by ‘aconfusedhuman’, but it’s a start.