TASMBF

TASMBF was a source port and fork based on MBF 2.03, made specifically for TAS demos. Released a month after TASDoom, it carries significant improvements through the use of the MBF codebase, but can also record entire levels at once.

History
TASMBF followed up on TASDoom, released a month earlier. After the MBF source was released on January 3, 1999, TASMBF's sole release followed on January 10, 1999. Its killer feature was multi-level recording, the ability to record entire levels at once and then mix them together. This feature alone would prove to be influential for later ports with recording capabilities. As the years progressed, TASMBF was slowly replaced by new ports that could run under multiple operating systems, such as PrBoom.

Limitations
Ironically, use of the MBF codebase brings limitations compared to demo-recording in vanilla. Because TASMBF records in its own format, certain tricks possible in vanilla will not work in TASMBF. It also makes it possible to wallrun in additional directions.

Features

 * All features from MBF 2.03:
 * TRANMAP support
 * All the features from Boom 2.02
 * Friendly monsters, including single-player helper dogs
 * Bug fixes, such as a fix for the blockmap limit (MBF includes an internal blockmap builder)
 * A "beta" mode, in which MBF simulates the behaviour of press release beta version of Doom. This includes the version of the BFG9000 included in the beta.
 * Higher-resolution 640x400 screen mode
 * A means to change the level's sky texture (linedef action 271)
 * Several new DeHackEd thing flags (TOUCHY, BOUNCES, FRIEND) and action functions with parameters (e.g. Spawn, PlaySound, RandomJump)
 * Multi-level recording support: Players can record a entire map at once and then combine different demos together
 * Ability to record in slow-motion
 * Can record, play and switch between multiple speed modes in game

MBFLMPC
Included in the TASMBF package is a Windows program called MBFLMPC, short for MBF LMP Center. It is a utility that can be used to convert an MBF lmp file to a text file and vice versa. MBFLMPC only exists because LMPC (Little Movie Processing Center) doesn't support MBF lmp format. Only singleplayer lmps are supported. MBFLMPC was created by Esko Koskimaa. A file,, is provided that highlights how to use TASMBF and MBFLMPC together: Tutorial for using TASMBF and MBFLMPC - In case you can't figure out on your own how to use TASMBF with MBFLMPC, here is a simple example of recording doom2 level 1 in two parts:

1) Start recording: tasmbf -warp 1 -skill 4 -record part1 Quit the recording (press "q") when you want to stop this session and continue with the next one.

2) Convert the demo to text: Run MBFLMPC. Select "convert LMP to text" and select part1.lmp.

3) Edit the text file: Open the text file part1.txt in any text editor. At the end of the file, after the last tic, add a savegame tic. This means that when you play the demo back, MBFLMPC will generate a savegame for you and you can continue recording using that savegame. To do that, find the last gametic in the text file and after it add a new line and type in it "SG5". This means the game will be saved in slot 5. If you want to use another slot (you can use 0-7) just type "SG3" or whatever you want.

4) Convert the text file back to LMP: Run MBFLMPC and select "convert text to LMP". Choose part1.txt.

5) Play back the modified demo: tasmbf -playdemo part1 (if you want to do it quickly, use -fastdemo instead of -playdemo).

6) Continue recording using the savegame: tasmbf -loadgame 5 -record part2

7) Convert the second part to text: Run MBFLMPC, choose "convert LMP to text" and choose part2.lmp. Then edit part1.txt, replace the "SG5" tic you've added to "WT" and paste all the gametics from part2.txt to the end of it. If you want to have more sessions, you can add another "SG5" tic at the end and go back to step 4. When you're done, just don't add another savegame tic and convert the text back to LMP, and you're finished.