What are your preferred setups for running the game?

Right, as I noted in one of my replies to this post, it might be nice to see the various methods people use to run this obscure little game... :-)

I already posted a couple of fairly techie and long guides for windows and ubuntu describing how I do it nowadays, but of course there are many other ways of doing it and I think it might be a useful resource to collect as many as possible together, and possibly indicate source port (if method is specific to a particular one), whether suitable for newbies, is a launcher, specific to OS etc, as well.

I just recall that I spent ages with google searches and many different resources, so it may also be useful to collect any reference links here too.

It's just drag the file and drop into shortcut, change the shortcut's parameters manually as needed. Of course, I did it on Windows, so it might not work with other OS.

I run Windows, so I use either Doomsday w/ Snowberry or Risen3D w/ R3DLauncher GUI. Or I launch DOSBox which has a mirror of my original DOS/Win98 computer from the late 90s / early 2000s, and there I play either Vanilla or MBF.

I just drag the wad file onto ZDoom and fun times are had.

as above, I just drag+drop the WAD into GZDoom and start ripping and tearing

I use the ZDL launcher to run PWADs - I've set up the launcher so that all my source ports are in there, even though I play with GZDoom 99% of the time. I find it to be the most efficient choice, especially in regards to managing the load order.

I just use one of the many versions of ZDL and have been doing so since atleast 2012. Despite it's name you can really use it to play any sourceport. I even have Chocolate doom hooked up to it.

Just making a shortcut of the .exe and using command line parameters. Never had any use for those fancy launchers.

ZDL. It just makes everything so much easier, especially for running multiple mods at once.

53 minutes ago, seed said:

Just making a shortcut of the .exe and using command line parameters. Never had any use for those fancy launchers.

Pretty much the same here. I make a batch (.bat) file for the command parameters and load order of files. Never used any launcher.

I'm using IDE to launch source ports, wads, servers, and even IRC chats. It's kind of like ZDL, except with online stuff too.

When playing single player, I use whatever the wad requires, if it can run vanilla, I'll try vanilla, same with ZDoom, though my PC has a lot of trouble running GZDoom because it's old.

When playing multiplayer, I use Zandronum or Zdaemon (Odamex if any servers are on).

I just have all my wads in the same directory as my GZDoom executable and drop and drop them manually 

Manually drag and drop.

Doom? Obscure?

I've set ZDoom as the default program to start a .wad file. So I simply double click on it.

If for some reason I have to use another port I drag and drop the wad.

10 hours ago, Simomarchi said:

I've set ZDoom as the default program to start a .wad file. So I simply double click on it.

If for some reason I have to use another port I drag and drop the wad.

I've done exactly the same as well.

Drag and drop isn't a thing on Linux or Wine, so for a while I was messing with command lines and that grew old fast.

Then I found out about this thing called DxWnd (for other games) and I'm basically using it as a centralized launcher for all games that I have installed here, instead of having to browse to each directory every time or pollute my desktop with endless shortcuts, it's very convenient.

And after that I found out about Prboom which has this even easier built-in launcher, you just have to select all mods you want to load with CTRL and press OK, it's insanely convenient. This is one of the current weaknesses in Chocolate/Crispy, but they are steadily heading towards improvements already.

And a 3rd update was literally hours ago when someone in the forums mentioned this thing called RussianHexen (a variant of CrispyHexen)

Not only this thing comes with a built-in launcher but it has buttons for launching all expansions, including Darkknights of the Citadel and Plutonia/TNT

I really hope Crispy/Chocolate adopts this quality-of-life improvement at some point in the future. This russian guy clearly put a lot of love into this. Screenshots and download links here.

Screenshots:

On 4/9/2020 at 1:45 PM, dr_st said:

so I use either Doomsday w/ Snowberry or Risen3D w/ R3DLauncher GUI.

that's so interesting, I always heard about Risen but never tried it... would you care ZIP'ing your entire Risen folder and uploading it somewhere? so it already comes configured with all settings, etc... (delete the WAD files of course)

I was going to try Doomsday but apparently it doesn't run on Wine/Linux. Would you happen to have older jHexen versions too?

First one here to say that I use Doom Launcher.

Doom Explorer, it's just very convenient.

I use GZDoom, with the Doomie frontend launcher I've been trying out lately which is pretty good. I use Vulkan because that does in my experience wring out some extra performance and avoids slight framerate hiccups I got in Heretic. Unfortunately, I find mods like Eviternity even when put down to 720p get too much, I know PRboom+ might have less performance issues but doesn't have native xinput controller support which is really the main reason I go with GZdoom (lots of other features are nice). 

I use GZDoom on Linux Mint.

I have all my .wads in a folder on the desktop. I double click what .wad I want to play, and GZDoom opens a prompt that asks what IWAD I want to use it with (Doom, Doom 2, Plutonia, TNT, Freedoom, or Freedoom 2). I select it and then it boots.

I play with no jumping, no crouching, and one of these controllers:

D-pad to move

L and R to strafe

B to shoot

Y to run

A to open/use

X for automap

ZL and ZR to scroll through weapons

start for pause

select to select menu options

3 hours ago, sluggard said:

Doom Explorer

thanks for this, I think this was the thing I used back in the day to connect to servers, but I couldn't find anymore... if this is the same thing my memory is saying it is, then yes it's insanely convenient

2 hours ago, hybridial said:

slight framerate hiccups I got in Heretic. Unfortunately, I find mods like Eviternity even when put down to 720p get too much

do you get slowdowns in plain stock Heretic or using mods with it? it's incredibly upsetting to get slowdowns in such tiny small maps like that, makes no sense

16 minutes ago, DwarfCleric said:

do you get slowdowns in plain stock Heretic or using mods with it? it's incredibly upsetting to get slowdowns in such tiny small maps like that, makes no sense

It was on one of the original maps, I think the boss maps at the end of episode 4 was the worst, and I think it really was just down to issues with the processor I had then (granted I upgraded it since) and limitations with opengl, Vulkan seemed like a straight fix for it. But Eviternity's last episode when I tested it tanks really badly, rather too much going on in that particular map pack I think, Doom Eternal ran better (at least for a while). 

nah, these maps were designed to run in 486 processors back in 1994... but thanks for reporting either way

From a couch, on a big TV with a controller.

Computer

I use .bat files

Computer usually or Xbox 360 when Im really bored