Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Rain1290

Doomsday Engine questions - desperate for assistance!

Recommended Posts

Good day,

First, let me say that it is an honor to have become a member of these forums and have the opportunity to converse with so many fellow enthusiasts in the Doom community. Having played Doom for over nearly 19 years, it is more than a pleasure to be a part of these forums!

In any case, and I do apologize if this has been a previous inquiry, but I recently installed "Doomsday Engine" and was successful in being able to load and play all of my favorite Doom games. That said, I am unable to use previous settings from my previous loading options. For example, I would like to use the "Fast monsters" option, as well as having the ability to manually choose levels, like I previously used to do. Would this still be possible using the engine?

***Note that I have tried to type "game-fastmonsters 0/1" in the command line within the engine (using the taskbar option), and though the command was accepted, the monsters were still reacting so slowly (and monster projectiles moving slowly).

Personally, I would more than love to play the games using the original .exe files, but whenever I do, just before the game could launch, I am faced with this error message:

"Doom95 was unable to access the video card - check your DirectX installation! ( Error 100 )"

Is there any way around this error? I have looked desperately online for a solution, but I cannot find anything too specific, unfortunately. I was able to successfully play Doom using Windows 7 ( I am now using Windows 8).

Any assistance on this would be greatly appreciated. :)

Many thanks, again. I look forward to meeting many of you, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Cheers,

~Trav.~

Share this post


Link to post

Doom95's launcher uniquely had a field to select ones starting level; this isn't a feature shared by other ports launchers. but it Basically just invoked the '-warp xx' command line option. As a Dos Doom command line option, it is retained by all ports. If you launch Doomsday using Snowberry, you can stick it on the 'custom options' field.

You can also use the IDCLEVxx level cheat in game, or in Doomsday's case the 'warp xx' taskbar/console command (other ports will have their own console commands, if they have consoles).

Rain1290 said:

***Note that I have tried to type "game-fastmonsters 0/1" in the command line within the engine (using the taskbar option), and though the command was accepted, the monsters were still reacting so slowly (and monster projectiles moving slowly).


You are correct that 'game-fastmonsters' doesn't appear to be functioning. I have reported this to the Doomsday developers. The '-fast' commandline option does function though. Unlike Dos Doom and Doom95, one doesn't need to warp straight into a map for it to have effect.

For the most faithful, non Doom95 port, you might want to look into Chocolate Doom: http://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Chocolate_Doom

Share this post


Link to post

Hi Vermil,

Thank you very much for your response - I really appreciate it!

At your suggestion, I just installed "Chocolate Doom" and have had success in being able to launch and play Doom using my existing .wad Doom files. I am just playing around with resolution settings, since the screen appears "grainy" in texture by default. That said, I cannot seem to locate options for fast monsters or level warping on single player (I see these options for multi-player, however). Are the options available for single player, as well?

****EDIT: I just figured it out, Vermil - it works fine (please ignore the above paragraph)! I just now have a problem with resolution, as even under the highest resolution setting, the screen still appears to be grainy/murky in appearance. Is there a general preferred setting in order to avoid having the screen pixelated?

Thanks again,

~Trav.~

Share this post


Link to post

Chocolate Doom also intentionally emulates the 320x200 resolution of the original game.

If you want 'Dos Doom with higher resolutions', you'll have to use another port and, potentially, disable all the visual features it adds (if it adds any).

Doomsday for instance comes with several built in 'renderer profiles' (though you can also make your own) that you can select from on the renderer taskbar menu; one of these is called 'Vanilla', which emulates the look of Dos Doom/Doom95 with the exception of distance shading and an up scaling filter applied to text and the numbers on the hud. Those oversights will be dealt with in future though.

Share this post


Link to post

Hi Vermil,

Thank you, once again, for your response.

Given the resolution constraints associated with Chocolate Doom, are you familiar with a program that allows players to benefit from high (or sufficient) resolution, while withholding the fast monsters and level warping options?

Thanks

Share this post


Link to post

There are many, many ports that have been developed since 1998. You're already familiar with Doomsday and Chocolate Doom. As noted, Chocolate Doom strives to look and feel as close as possible to the original executable, including limits, low resolution, and bugs. Doomsday on the other hand strives to provide the most pleasant rendering possible, and it does not share the original limits and bugs.

If you want more options, you can take a look at this wiki page, it's mostly accurate.

For level warping and fast monsters -- normally, all ports retain such features, though the method to get them will usually be from the command line. (Well, you can warp in-game with idclev, of course, but not toggle fast monsters this way.) Some ports feature a console or an exhaustive option menu that let you toggle fast monster during a game as well.

Share this post


Link to post

Hi Vermil and Gez,

I just experimented with ZDoom and have witnessed nice resolution while having access enabling fast monsters. However, I cannot seem to find an option for level warping. Is the level warping feature available on ZDoom? Perhaps I am merely overlooking it?

I sincerely hope that the option is available, as ZDoom appears to perform everything that I need, so far. :)

Thanks,

Share this post


Link to post

There's no menu system for that, but you can call the console and type

map lumpname
For example to warp to map E2M8:
map E2M8
And to warp to map MAP32:
map MAP32
And of course you can still use the idclev cheat code like in any other Doom port.

Share this post


Link to post

Hi Gez,

Thank you very, very much, and I just noticed your editing information in your previous posting, so thank you for that, too! Indeed, I just had success warping using the command example that you had kindly specified!

****EDIT: I just noticed the last line of your instructions (i.e. MAP MAP32), and it worked!

Many thanks, again (to you, as well, Vermil),

Sincerely,

~Trav.~

Share this post


Link to post
Rain1290 said:

"Doom95 was unable to access the video card - check your DirectX installation! ( Error 100 )" . . .

. . . I was able to successfully play Doom using Windows 7 ( I am now using Windows 8).

Looks like another case of old software breaking on Win 8. If you're happy with ZDoom but missing the added functionality of Doom95's launcher, try using one of these. Some will cheerfully work with other source ports as well.

Share this post


Link to post

Hi GreyGhost,

Thank you very much for your suggestions, and another thank you to everyone for their contributions on this thread!

Indeed, I have absolutely no idea as to how to go around that error associated with Windows 8. On Windows 7, Doom launches just fine - however the color scheme is distorted. One useful method, though, to restore the original coloring of Doom on Windows 7 is to simply open a screen resolution window (by selecting it at the bottom of the right-click menu on the desktop screen) and then launching Doom normally while that screen resolution window is open. On Windows 8, I cannot launch the game at all using conventional means, so I am deeply grateful to all of you for your support and good advice.

As long as I have been playing Doom, I was completely unfamiliar with the progress and developments being made over the years that were specifically designed to maintain the Doom experience as we use different operating systems. Kudos to all of those developers!

Cheers,

-Trav.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×