Reasons for/against doom.exe

Okay, I can understand why people would want to use the original .exe's for playing (demo recording and the like).

However, I've been wracking my brains trying to think of any reason someone would want to make levels for them and I can't think of anything. Yet there are still plenty of levels that are made for it.

Why? Even if you were against all the new features, or thought that ZDoom/Edge/Legacy were too Quake like (a couple of guys on the ZDoom forums even insist that ZDoom _IS_ the Quake engine), you can just take advantage of the fact that nearly all source ports remove or seriously raise the Visplane limit.

After all, I'm sure that there's no one person in the community who refuses to use any port at all. And if there is, f**k 'em (unless that person is you of course), make your level for yourself primarily and secondarily for the masses, not niche markets. And doom.exe players are, I'm afraid, except for the afore-mentioned demo recorders, a niche market these days.

Even ID software (well, John Carmack at least) endorses Boom as the natural successor to the original .exe's...

Now the subject of this post is reasons for/against doom.exe. As I said, I can't think of any reasons to make levels for the original .exe's, but maybe someone else can (and don't give me that "it increases the skill needed", someone with the neccessary skill could make a far better level without having to worry about VPO or HOM.

Come on, someone, somewhere...?

Alls I know is Iikka Keranen was all set to make a 10 Sectors level until he saw it Boom and not doom2.exe. Oh well, he wouldn't have won anyway :)

Huh? What do you mean, why does anybody still make levels for doom.exe? I mean, the thing is, there is nothing specific you do to make it work with doom.exe, just don't use new features, and so if a person doesn't have any use for extra features, or are too lazy to go learn how to use them, they just make levels for doom.exe. What's wrong with not wanting to put extra features in a level? Besides, when you do put extra stuff in a level, you shouldn't do it just because you can, there should be a real reason, or else it won't make any sense. Also, what's wrong with playing Doom with doom.exe? I still play levels using plain old vanilla Doom when a source port isn't needed. I just like the feel of the original engine (yeah, that probably sounds crazy, doesn't it, considering most people would say that the gameplay is exactly the same in all sourceports, but then again, I think there are right and left socks.) OK, so I do use source ports when necessary, but stop trying to get people to stop using the original doom.exe.

I get the feeling you don't understand my post. What I'm saying is, why limit what your doing by making levels that will run with doom2.exe? i.e. the number of sectors and and sidedefs visible at any one time.

As I said a couple of times, there's nothing wrong with PLAYING the original .exe's, I'm talking about EDITING for it.

My guess is for compatability. If your level works with
Doom(2).exe, chances are it will work in ALL ports, so everyone can enjoy it, not just those who play just zdoom or just legacy, or just edge, etc.
Or maybe I'm wrong?

Linguica said:

Alls I know is Iikka Keranen was all set to make a 10 Sectors level until he saw it Boom and not doom2.exe. Oh well, he wouldn't have won anyway :)

Erm... wouldn't a Doom2.exe level work just fine in Boom?

Linguica said:

Alls I know is Iikka Keranen was all set to make a 10 Sectors level until he saw it Boom and not doom2.exe. Oh well, he wouldn't have won anyway :)

That doesn't make any sense.

Sir Fragsalot said:

Erm... wouldn't a Doom2.exe level work just fine in Boom?

dunno about you folks, but I am dead against using anything other than an early version of Boom and the original Doom.exe (or Doom2, as the case may be). I absolutely despise ZDoom, JDoom, and all of those other freaky ports that I forgot what they're called. They can all burn.

c-d-w said:

My guess is for compatability. If your level works with
Doom(2).exe, chances are it will work in ALL ports, so everyone can enjoy it, not just those who play just zdoom or just legacy, or just edge, etc.
Or maybe I'm wrong?

I'm not talking about Boom/ZDoom/Legacy/Edge only affects, I'm simply talking about adding more detail than the original .exe's will allow.

All ports that are still updated, and even pretty much all of those that aren't, support removed/seriously raised limits on detail.

Compatibilty. I edit for Doom2.exe, but I like to think that people would play my levels in WHATEVER source port they wish. I wouldn't use ZDoom fatures, because a Legacy user would not be able to play my levels, etc.

But, the 'sad' reality is nobody plays them :)

Aiylyn said:

dunno about you folks, but I am dead against using anything other than an early version of Boom and the original Doom.exe (or Doom2, as the case may be). I absolutely despise ZDoom, JDoom, and all of those other freaky ports that I forgot what they're called. They can all burn.

Uhmmm... I think its the source ports that keep DooM alive (mostly)!

I know Nick's just playing the Devil's Advocate here,
but this must be the first Doomworld Forum I've ever
read where everyone's right ;)

Jayextee said:

Compatibilty. I edit for Doom2.exe, but I like to think that people would play my levels in WHATEVER source port they wish. I wouldn't use ZDoom fatures, because a Legacy user would not be able to play my levels, etc.

But, the 'sad' reality is nobody plays them :)

Look, can you people PLEASE read my post more carefully? I'll repeat it one last time. I am not talking about adding Legacy/ZDoom/Edge/etc only features, I'm talking about adding more detail than the original .exe's allow.

Such a WAD would work fine in nearly all ports except of course the original .e.xe's

Hey Nick,
now you're having trouble making yourself understood ;)
Maybe your initial post should have been shorter and straight to the point. Most of what people are saying is true, but you're right, they're not addressing your main point.

A lot of wads ARE actually coming out with notes in the header like:
"use ANY port which removes the limits of doom2.exe"
or "will not work with 'Plain Vanilla' Doom2 due to visplane overflow"
etc.