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Pleasure Elemental

Where to start with fan-made levels?

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Hi all

I recently rediscovered Doom - hadn't played it for years. Played the original games again, and Final Doom, and now I'm hungry for more!

Where do I go to play/download good fan-made levels, and which ones would you recommend?

I know it's a Noob question, so apologies but I'm new to this, so if someone could point me in the right direction that would be great

cheers

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Hey Pleasure Elemental, I'd look on the /idgames archive for levels, as for recommendations, have a look at the Top 100 WADs of Doomworld and the Cacowards, hope this helps.

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Do you know what engine you're using to play Doom? Are you playing it in DOSBox/via Steam? Are you using Doom95? Perhaps some other source port, like ZDoom or PrBoom+?

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Pleasure Elemental said:

I'm playing it on Steam

I think that uses DOSBox. Hm. That makes things a little trickier. You can certainly run mods with Doom in DOSBox, but it's harder than using a more advanced Doom engine, like the aforementioned ZDoom/GZDoom.

You can download ZDoom here.

You can download GZDoom here.

ZDoom and GZDoom are largely the same, but GZDoom has more graphics features, and I think ZDoom might be marginally more compatible with more add-on levels. I can't say for sure. But it's mostly personal preference.

So, unpack ZDoom/GZDoom into whatever folder you want, then do a search on your hard drive for DOOM.WAD and DOOM2.WAD. Once you find them, copy them to the folder you unpacked ZDoom/GZDoom into. Then put SERENITY.WAD (or whatever add-on level you want to play) into that same folder. Then simply click and drag SERENITY.WAD (or, again, whatever WAD you want to play) into ZDOOM.EXE/GZDOOM.EXE. This should automatically load the add-on for you. Then select what game you want to play (you'd select Ultimate Doom if you're playing Serenity), and you're ready to go!

If you have any more questions, let us know.

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Pleasure Elemental said:

is GZdoom a program to make the graphics better?

There's various texture packs out there which up the resolution of the textures and detail them more or less, you need source ports to use them of course, GZDoom is one of them.

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The idgames database contains thousands of wads ranging from singleplayer/co-op to Capture The Flag and Deathmatch. However, your best bet to find really decent wads is to go to: http://www.doomwadstation.net/

http://www.paulcorfiatis.com/doomwads.html

Some of my favorite single player/Co-op wads are:

Alien Vendetta
Hell Revealed
Hell Revealed 2
UAC Labs
Bio War
Revenge Of The 90's
Doom 2 Extreme
Southern Cross

Here is also a list of some of my personal favorite Deathmatch wads:

Gothic99
DWANGO5
British 10
GreenWar
ZMatch 2013
Doomkid's Deathmatch


You can find just about all of them on the idgames database and anywhere else on the internet.

If you are into Deathmatching, you should check out the 35 level megawad I am managing. You might like it. It's cross compatible with Zandronum, Zdaemon, & Odamex: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/66475-deathmatch-revival-project-under-new-management-by-dg93/

Oh and I HIGHLY recommend you download Zandronum as a source port. let me know if you need the DOOM2 IWAD.

-DG93

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Megamur said:

I think that uses DOSBox. Hm. That makes things a little trickier. You can certainly run mods with Doom in DOSBox, but it's harder than using a more advanced Doom engine, like the aforementioned ZDoom/GZDoom.

You can download ZDoom here.

You can download GZDoom here.

ZDoom and GZDoom are largely the same, but GZDoom has more graphics features, and I think ZDoom might be marginally more compatible with more add-on levels. I can't say for sure. But it's mostly personal preference.

So, unpack ZDoom/GZDoom into whatever folder you want, then do a search on your hard drive for DOOM.WAD and DOOM2.WAD. Once you find them, copy them to the folder you unpacked ZDoom/GZDoom into. Then put SERENITY.WAD (or whatever add-on level you want to play) into that same folder. Then simply click and drag SERENITY.WAD (or, again, whatever WAD you want to play) into ZDOOM.EXE/GZDOOM.EXE. This should automatically load the add-on for you. Then select what game you want to play (you'd select Ultimate Doom if you're playing Serenity), and you're ready to go!

If you have any more questions, let us know.



Many thanks Megamur. I downloaded GZdoom OK - it even found the games automatically.

I can't seem to get it to open the Serenity file though- where should I drag it?:

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You need the IWAD "DOOM2.wad" Without it, your GZDoom source port won't work at all.

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doomguy93 said:

You need the IWAD "DOOM2.wad" Without it, your GZDoom source port won't work at all.

If you own Doom on Steam, GZDoom will automatically look for it in the default place Steam puts it, so you don't need to find it and move it anywhere.

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doomguy93 said:

You need the IWAD "DOOM2.wad" Without it, your GZDoom source port won't work at all.

That's not true. It will run with DOOM.WAD, DOOM2.WAD, TNT.WAD, PLUTONIA.WAD, HERETIC.WAD, HEXEN.WAD, and perhaps some other things. (FreeDoom? Strife?) DOOM2.WAD is required for most add-on levels, however.

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@esselfortium: I didn't realize that GZDoom will automatically look for the IWAD in the default place Steam puts has it. I stand corrected.

@Megamur: I am aware that there are other IWADS other than DOOM2.wad. DOOM.wad and DOOM2.wad are the most common ones. FreeDoom.wad is a load of crap. I never recommend that IWAD to anyone.

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doomguy93 said:

Here, download Zandronum, and unzip it and put the directory in your C drive. This is a copy of mine that I use in my C drive. It is preset with the IWAD and all you got to do is make a shortcut of the Zandronum application to your desktop: http://www.mediafire.com/download/34s78t4t4n394j7/Zandronum.zip

Don't use GZDoom, it really isn't all that great of a source port in my opinion.

Just drag the Serenity.wad into Zandronum and it should work (unless the wad isn't compatible with it)

Zandronum is a several-years-old version of GZDoom, with some added multiplayer-related functionality.

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esselfortium said:

Zandronum is a several-years-old version of GZDoom, with some added multiplayer-related functionality.


Yeah so? There are so many people hosting servers on Zandronum. It is one of the most popular source ports for Doom.

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Pleasure Elemental said:

is GZdoom a program to make the graphics better?

That was actaully another question I was going to ask - I don't want to play it with the old shitty graphics any more

Basically, GZDoom is ZDoom, but supports OpenGL.

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doomguy93 said:

Here, download Zandronum, and unzip it and put the directory in your C drive. This is a copy of mine that I use in my C drive. It is preset with the IWAD and all you got to do is make a shortcut of the Zandronum application to your desktop:

It might be a good idea to remove your link/archive - you're effectively distributing the DOOM2 IWAD - unwise, I suspect.

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durian said:

It might be a good idea to remove your link/archive - you're effectively distributing the DOOM2 IWAD - unwise, I suspect.


I just removed the link. I should have realized that before I provided the it. Thanks for the heads up durian.

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Pleasure Elemental said:

no that didn't work


How about right clicking SERENITY.WAD, clicking 'open with' and browsing for GZDoom. If you check 'always open with this program' you should be able to play any .WAD file with GZDoom just by double clicking it.

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purist said:

How about right clicking SERENITY.WAD, clicking 'open with' and browsing for GZDoom. If you check 'always open with this program' you should be able to play any .WAD file with GZDoom just by double clicking it.



tried that but it still opens the original Doom game, not Serenity

I just downloaded another WAD (Doom the way ID did it) and that does open fine, so I don't know why Serenity doesn't.

having fun playing DTWID though!

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Pleasure Elemental said:

I just downloaded another WAD (Doom the way ID did it) and that does open fine, so I don't know why Serenity doesn't.


The Serenity wad might be corrupted or it might not run with GZdoom. I've corrupted a few of my custom wad files when using editors like XWE.

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@Pleasure Elemental: Serenity runs on Episode 3 (Inferno) - are you selecting that when you go through the New Game menu?

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Nice to see someone asking for helping, getting it and being grateful for it. Welcome to the community PE!

Personally, I use this launcher a lot. I think it might be worth for you to check out. It might help you get a better overview here in the beginning when dealing with different sourceports and wads etc. and it's super easy to use.

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