Favorite Source Port? (Multiple Choice Poll)

Grazza said:

In case you really don't get it:
Stating your preferences and your reasons for them: OK
Proclaiming something as objectively "best" without further comment, when it is a matter of personal preference and priorities: Not OK

By all means allow me to explain why I see JDoom as the best source port.

1) The JDoom Resource Pack with its intricately detailed models vastly improves the Doom experience.

2) If not for JDoom there would be no Doom 64 TC: Absolution.

3) Other source ports all seem the same, they don't seem to have any significant qualities. Sure they have 3D floors but that seems like all they have. The gameplay gets old too fast.

You see, in that last statement you said "why I see Jdoom as the best port" but in your previous post, you said "Jdoom is the best port."

Well as you pointed out it is my opinion...

Mindless Rambler said:

The gameplay gets old too fast.

Doomsday doesn't change the gameplay at all so I don't see why you bothered mentioning this :P

chaoscorp said:

And you think that "-mb" is a great implemented parameter???? Look at the code in visual c++ and you will see----> nothing----> that means that the Legacy just didn´t put that parameter for some reasons jet.
Nice

    if( M_CheckParm ("-mb") )
    {
        if( M_IsNextParm() )
            mb_used = atoi (M_GetNextParm());
        else
            I_Error("usage : -mb <numbers of megabyte for the heap>");
    }
    else
    {
        free = I_GetFreeMem(&total)>>20;
        CONS_Printf("system memory %dMb free %dMb\n",total>>20,free);
        // we assume that systeme use a lot of memory for disk cache
        if( free<6 )
            free=total>>21;
        mb_used = min(max(free, mb_used), 20); // min 6Mb max 20Mb
    }
    CONS_Printf ("%d megabytes requested for Z_Init.\n", mb_used);
    size = mb_used<<20;
    mainzone = (memzone_t *)malloc(size);

SlayeR said:

Doomsday doesn't change the gameplay at all so I don't see why you bothered mentioning this :P

Well 3D models, along with the Texture Pack, User Interface, and Enviroment Pack in addition to it make the gameplay much more exciting... every other port just seems to be Doom with mouselook and 3D floors which doesnt interest me too much.

Thats eye-candy, not gameplay

well it makes the GAME more fun when I PLAY it so it improves GAMEPLAY

It's eye candy. Gameplay changes ould involve things like making the shotgun more powerfukl, making the Rocket Launcher do more splash and less direct damage, etc. etc.

the gameplay

Can also mean "playing the game".
\|/\|/\|/
Well 3D models, along with the Texture Pack, User Interface, and Enviroment Pack in addition to it make playing the game much more exciting... every other port just seems to be Doom with mouselook and 3D floors which doesnt interest me too much.

Mindless Rambler said:

Well 3D models, along with the Texture Pack, User Interface, and Enviroment Pack in addition to it make the gameplay much more exciting... every other port just seems to be Doom with mouselook and 3D floors which doesnt interest me too much.

KuriKai said:

Can also mean "playing the game".
\|/\|/\|/
Well 3D models, along with the Texture Pack, User Interface, and Enviroment Pack in addition to it make playing the game much more exciting... every other port just seems to be Doom with mouselook and 3D floors which doesnt interest me too much.

SNAP!

And the fact you think all the other ports are about 3d floors and mouse reveals how little you know about source ports

I'll close this before it really turns to junk.

Wow, I haven't posted on the Doomworld forums since, like, 2003.

What Doom source port is everyone playing these days? Back when I stopped playing the classic Doom games, I was using ZDoom.

ZDoom for zdoom maps.
GZDoom for some Legacy maps. (I can't use it instead of ZDoom for some reasons)
PRBoom+ in all other cases.
DoomsDay for the Heretic and Hexen.

My default port is prboom+ (normally using the glboom.exe), which I use for any wads that it is capable of playing (i.e. vanilla, limit-removing or Boom-compatible). For wads that require the specific features of a particular port, I'll use that port (kind of obvious?).

As for which are most popular overall, I'd guess Zdoom, Legacy and Doomsday.

GZDoom for all ZDoom maps, Legacy maps, and Doom2.exe/limit removing/Boom maps that I feel I can finish in one sitting.

Risen3D for Doom2.exe/limit removing/Boom megawads, and maps that I feel I can't finish in one sitting.

PrBoom+ to watch demos and to mess around in sometimes.

That's pretty much it. If the rare map calls for another port that I can run, I'll use it; that's the only time I ever run anything other than the source ports mentioned above.

Nuxius said:

GZDoom for all ZDoom maps, Legacy maps, and Doom2.exe/limit removing/Boom maps that I feel I can finish in one sitting.

Risen3D for Doom2.exe/limit removing/Boom megawads, and maps that I feel I can't finish in one sitting.

Is there any reason for such a distinction?

Thanks for all the responses, guys. Doomsday = jDoom?

I downloaded jDoom and the 3D models, jacked up the resolution and played through most of episode one in one sitting for old time's sake. Even after years of not playing, I still remember where every enemy is, and it feels nice :) But it's not the Doom I remember. The frame rate seems far too high, I remember jerky movements and being able to watch spot individual monster sprite frames :p

I'll be sure to try Prboom+, unless anyone else has some good vanilla suggestions.

jDoom... isn't Doom.

Judecca said:
I'll be sure to try Prboom+, unless anyone else has some good vanilla suggestions.

That should be a good choice for classic stuff in general without having to worry about limits of any sort (such as VPOs, Medusa effects, etc.) that plagued a few old wads, and giving you numerous options to tweak stuff without fundamnetally changing the game; to complement it you might want to try Chocolate Doom, that aims to emulate Doom at its most basic level on Windows XP and Linux.

A page with most, if not all source ports can be found here.

If you want (near) perfect Vanilla Doom action on newer OSes i'd suggest you try Chocolate Doom as it says on the page above, it aims to emulate the original DOS executable behavior as closely as possible. I'm also a fan of the Eternity source port, so i suggest you give that a go :P.

EDIT: myk smells :(

Will do. Much appreciated guys!

EDIT: I tried Chocolate Doom. There's a graphical error, the top part of the screen (just a little bit, the message area mostly) is at the bottom of my screen, and it doesn't look like there's a whole lot I can do about it.

I had the same problem with Prboom+, although when I changed my screen resolution to anything above the default of 320x200, the problem disappears. I also noticed a lack of a sound bias modification in Prboom+... I needed it because the music seems to be exclusively coming out of my left speaker (my speakers are functioning fine). Although sound FX come out normally, in terms of positional bias.

ZDoom works. I think it's gonna be my vanilla-ish port of choice.

PrBoom first because it has a Debian package and I like it (it has the vintage feelings), then ZDoom because it’s cool and compiles in Debian.

PrBoom/PrBoom+ for most everything else thats not here.
ZDoom for wads that require it and its excellent netcode.
GZDoom for Legacy wads and as your general GL port.
Chocolate Doom for the truest Vanilla feel not using Vanilla.

Judecca said:

I also noticed a lack of a sound bias modification in Prboom+... I needed it because the music seems to be exclusively coming out of my left speaker (my speakers are functioning fine).

That's an old sdl bug that has been fixed. The current versions of the relevant sdl diles are included in the prboom+ package. Extract them from there and overwrite the old versions.

Joe said:

If you want (near) perfect Vanilla Doom action on newer OSes i'd suggest you try Chocolate Doom as it says on the page above, it aims to emulate the original DOS executable behavior as closely as possible.

Actually, the current prboom+ is a bit closer to vanilla in terms of behavioral compatibility, as it fixes some dehacked issues and can attempt to emulate some of Doom2.exe's memory overflows. In terms of visual and sound behaviour, Chocolate is closer of course (it's designed to be), and prboom+ is more tolerant towards bugs and mapping errors.

I've never had PRBoom+ installed on this computer before... the only .dll files there are are the ones from the zip from the latest version (I believe it's the latest - it's 2.3.1).

What about ZDoom or other ports? I have the same problem with music on them too.

Judecca said:

I've never had PRBoom+ installed on this computer before... the only .dll files there are are the ones from the zip from the latest version (I believe it's the latest - it's 2.3.1).

Argh! No, that's the latest version of the experimental branch of the regular prboom. It's actually a lot older than prboom+.

prboom+ is here, and the current version is 2.2.6.25.

Hmm, maybe the change in branding from "prboom-plus" to "prboom+" wasn't such a good idea...

Oh. My bad, thanks :)

How can I solve the problem in other ports, though?


EDIT: I tried the version of PRBoom+ in the link you posted. The sound bug is fixed, but now there's a much more severe one... every time I get shot, or I pick up an item, the game freezes for about a second...

Check your sound volume control ("play control" or whatever it is called in your OS version), and put the "balance" for midi in the centre. Then it should be OK again (this was the thing that the old dll was screwing about with; the current version won't).

Edit (in response to your edit): no idea; I've never had anything remotely like that. There might be something else running on your system that doesn't agree with it. Or try using glboom.exe rather than prboom.exe (same basic program, different renderer). And if you use prboom.exe, try a variety of different resolutions. Another thing you can try is "Alt Mouse Handling" (Options - Setup - Status Barr/HUD - 3rd page of options). Or disable some of the prboom+'s visual enhancements, such as smooth movement. (Or in glboom.exe, detail textures and multisampling, if they are turned on.)

Hey, might as well while I'm here...

Where can I find some highly rated wads, possibly reviewed wad sites? I remember back in the day I used to play the Vanguard wad... something like that :)