Which source port best fits my needs?

So i am basically looking for a source port that handles lighting and 3d correctly.
The reason for this is that, in mods especially, in zdoom that i was using, dark lighting and contrast make it very hard to see and different wall textures are harder to make out (for secrets etc).

I tried GZDoom but there are problems there - i cannot get the fuzzy style spectres to work on my x1950 pro. For some reason, only transparent style works.

Does lighting mode "standard" in actually provide a brighter experience than the original doom? I found that "dark" seemed more "normal", although it was a bit too dark compared to the original in places. Or am i incorrect?

The other problem is to do with skyboxes. I would like to be able to set it so that i can have "classic" skies when an enhanced sky is not specified.
The reason for this is that it seems to distort and change the size / top of the sky texture, where as with zdoom i can turn off stretched skies and it looks good.
It seems it almost does it well, in that it tries to render it at almost the right size but it still seems a bit bigger. If it did that and then filled above it with a solid colour it would work well - it seems this is almost what it does, but i guess it would need some tweaking to look more correct (the mountains have red bleeding into them in the second sky texture of doom 1 for example).

I tried setting gl_noskyboxes to true in the console but it didn't appear to do anything. Nor did r_skyboxes . (see http://zdoom.org/wiki/CVARs:Display )

I find that disabling look up/down, and just using the mouse for l/r provides a more "true" playing experience. Although maybe some mods are really designed for mouselook?
Certainly, some of the more "platform" sections of even the original game help a lot if you can look down to see what you are walking on - so I bind mouselook to the rmb, but only use it in those cases.



Another issue (that is actually also with zdoom too) is to do with rendering resolution.
My monitor is 1680*1050, so i would have assumed i could set a 1400*1050 4:3 resolution, but it will not let me!
Ironically, on a 1920*1080 monitor, it will allow you to set a 1400*1050 4:3 resolution, but not a 1440*1080 4:3 resolution!

ChocolateDoom seems to do resolution the best, in that you can just set it to your monitors native resolution and it will then display as a 4:3 aspect corrected box, with black bars top and bottom.
This looks by far the best and sharpest - although (sadly but understandably) being based on chocolate doom, the actual rendering resolution is limited to 320*200.
If another port followed this way of doing things, or at least provided it as an option it would be really nice!



Lastly, i would like a slightly modified hud. I like the "minimal hud" option so that i can see the full weapon sprite animations, and still see my health / armour etc, but one thing i miss from that view is the face of the marine itself!
It would be good if there was an option somewhere (or at least the ability to mod in a hud) so that the face sprite could be put off to the side / right of this more minimal hud - not in the way of the weapon, but still visible :)


I guess certain mods can only be played with zdoom and gzdoom? At least i don't know how to load .pk3 files with any other sourceport?

Thanks for your time!

notindeed said:

I tried GZDoom but there are problems there - i cannot get the fuzzy style spectres to work on my x1950 pro. For some reason, only transparent style works.

Your drivers must not support shaders, then.
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Fuzz

notindeed said:

Does lighting mode "standard" in actually provide a brighter experience than the original doom? I found that "dark" seemed more "normal", although it was a bit too dark compared to the original in places. Or am i incorrect?

Standard is an OpenGL standard, not a Doom-specific standard. Dark is the closest approximation GZDoom offers when you do not have shaders available.
http://zdoom.org/wiki/OpenGL_preferences#gl_lightmode

notindeed said:

The other problem is to do with skyboxes. I would like to be able to set it so that i can have "classic" skies when an enhanced sky is not specified.
The reason for this is that it seems to distort and change the size / top of the sky texture, where as with zdoom i can turn off stretched skies and it looks good.
It seems it almost does it well, in that it tries to render it at almost the right size but it still seems a bit bigger. If it did that and then filled above it with a solid colour it would work well - it seems this is almost what it does, but i guess it would need some tweaking to look more correct (the mountains have red bleeding into them in the second sky texture of doom 1 for example).

I tried setting gl_noskyboxes to true in the console but it didn't appear to do anything. Nor did r_skyboxes . (see http://zdoom.org/wiki/CVARs:Display )

I get the feeling you're not using the term "skybox" in the same way ZDoom uses it. In ZDoom, a skybox is a special construct made of map geometry and in which a special camera is placed.
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Skybox
For normal projected textures, GZDoom uses twin hemispherical projection using an algorithm originally borrowed from Doomsday.
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Sky
http://zdoom.org/wiki/Sky_stretching

notindeed said:

I find that disabling look up/down, and just using the mouse for l/r provides a more "true" playing experience. Although maybe some mods are really designed for mouselook?

Some definitely are. Just one example on the top of my head, there's a secret in Scalliano's Threshold of Pain that can only be reached by shooting a switch hidden near the ceiling. There is no way for the player to be at the same height as that switch, so you cannot shoot it horizontally.

notindeed said:

My monitor is 1680*1050, so i would have assumed i could set a 1400*1050 4:3 resolution, but it will not let me!
Ironically, on a 1920*1080 monitor, it will allow you to set a 1400*1050 4:3 resolution, but not a 1440*1080 4:3 resolution!

Windowed or full-screen?
Windowed might not offer you your full vertical resolution because you'll need additional pixels for the title bar and window border. Full screen might not offer you that specific resolution if it doesn't detect that your hardware would support it. (1400 stretched to 1680 would look horrible on an LCD.)

notindeed said:

Lastly, i would like a slightly modified hud. I like the "minimal hud" option so that i can see the full weapon sprite animations, and still see my health / armour etc, but one thing i miss from that view is the face of the marine itself!
It would be good if there was an option somewhere (or at least the ability to mod in a hud) so that the face sprite could be put off to the side / right of this more minimal hud - not in the way of the weapon, but still visible :)

There are plenty of SBARINFO mods that should be to your liking then. Look a bit on the ZDoom forums.
A few examples:
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35105
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33079
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=29342
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33397
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35433
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=35146
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=28033
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=16545

notindeed said:

I guess certain mods can only be played with zdoom and gzdoom? At least i don't know how to load .pk3 files with any other sourceport?

PK3 is just a zip file with a changed extension. While some other ports are able to load zip files too (Doomsday, Vavoom, and since recently Eternity), most of the pk3 mods for Doom are for ZDoom specifically and will not work with other ports, because the differences go beyond the archive format. (The oldest might work with Vavoom; but that's a "might".)

Re sector light modes: have you tried the "software" mode? It's still GL, but it attempts to look like 'the original Doom.' Re resolution: I don't believe GZDoom can do true custom resolutions, but it still has a tonne of them. Have you tried the CCMD "vid_listmodes"? Maybe there's an alternative that suits your needs on there.

schwerpunk said:

Re sector light modes: have you tried the "software" mode? It's still GL, but it attempts to look like 'the original Doom.'

That requires shaders support, which the OP seems not to have.

Blue Shadow said:

That requires shaders support, which the OP seems not to have.

No, indeed not. The graphics card supports shaders but is too old to handle all engine features.

You might want to try doomsday. Think it's supported 3D graphics longer than any other source port and it's probably got less issues with ATI drivers. Believe it's been around a lot longer than gzdoom and gzdoom was initially supporting Nvidia drivers only (ran faster on nvidia hardware vs ati); don't know how gzdoom has changed over the years but there are also many mods that may only support gzdoom and not doomsday. Doomsday may also support older video cards better without shader requirements (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Graf Zahl said:

No, indeed not. The graphics card supports shaders but is too old to handle all engine features.

Ah, I see...

I would try EDGE/3DGE as the 3D support there is very solid, and very compatible. Those features should work on nearly ANY 3D card. HUDs can be defined via COAL scripting to do what you want, and the Skyboxes are standard Half-Life/Quake2 style (N,S,E,W,T,B) dome projection. Those engines also host a variety of features to make it look like software mode (eliminate dynamic lighting, smoothing/mipmapping/etc). Short of supporting ultra high framerates, it's one of the most stable OpenGL experiences DOOM source ports can offer. Try it out. Link in my sig.

Holering said:

and it's probably got less issues with ATI drivers.

The particular issues here have nothing to do with ATI. The x1 series is just one generation too old for having GZDoom run completely on shaders. This means that some shader features can be toggled via the menu but there's others that just don't work with the limited shader functionality of these older cards. NVidia's Geforce 7 series and older have the same issues.

DoomLegacy 1.44 Alpha4
- No sky boxes
- DoomLegacy does NOT play ZDoom wads.
- DoomLegacy handles BEX and DEH
- 3D floors on DoomLegacy are different than ZDoom
- "handles lighting and 3d correctly".
Has 4 choices of gamma controls, with fine steps (-12 .. +12).
Enhanced level controls (gamma, bright, and black level) allow adjusting the lighting to your monitor (CRT or LCD).
- Have a "native" 32 bit draw (fast), and OpenGL draw.