Forum newcomer needs help running .wads!

Before I ask my question you should know two things about me right off the bat (how's this for a first impression).
1. I have attention defecit disorder.
2. I am prone to mild anxiety/panic attacks.

With these two things in mind I've had to keep my nose out of the Doom editing community. I simply couldn't handle trying to run various mods and cluttering up my Doom folder, and whatnot. I come back hoping to learn things I may have forgotten or could never figure out. I mentioned the two above disorders because I would prefer it if whatever help you provide be simplified, in lamens terms. Thank you and I apologize for essentially asking for things to spelled out for me.

1. How do I run a .wad using zdoom? I looked in the Commands text file and could not find a command to run mods. I would use DOS except Windows XP doesn't have stable have support for it.

2. How do I keep mods, wads and other projects from cluttering my Doom folder? It's very disorienting to have a folder full of different mods. Is there a way I can have them in their own seperate folders but still run them?

3. What is the best user-friendly tool for multiplayer, specifically coop? A friend and I are anxious to try this.

Thanks again!

There is a Zdoom launcher that does most of what you want. Try googling it or maybe looking on Zdoom's website.

Don't really know about your organizational problem though...
I'll try to find a link to that launcher.

To run stuff off a command line you'll have to use 'Run' on the start menu...but that's rather long-winded because you have to type the full directory name in.

With zdoom. you can drag and drop the wads directly onto zdoom.exe. This way, they dont even have to be in the same directory. I wouldnt recommend using the zdoom launcher with the newer versions of zdoom. There seem to be some incompatabilities (maybe it was just my machine though).

GoatLord said:

2. How do I keep mods, wads and other projects from cluttering my Doom folder? It's very disorienting to have a folder full of different mods. Is there a way I can have them in their own seperate folders but still run them?

Just like you, I don't like having every little addon or anything DOOM-related in my DOOM directory (we hardcores call it directory, not folder :D)

My DOOM/DOOM2/FinalDOOM directories have nothing except the original DOOM games - meaning the original EXE (now most commonly referred to as Vanilla DOOM), the original WAD, Setup program and any useless documentation which happened to be there when I installed.

You can keep every source port (like ZDoom) in a folder of its own. All you need is to specify the location of the original DOOM IWADs, so that the program knows where they are. Sometimes there's a launcher and a simple setup program to do it (like in JDoom), and you can always edit the configuration files manually, if you know what to change and where to look for it.

You can keep all the custom .WAD files (which contain new levels, new music, graphics, etc) anywhere you want them. I keep all my WADs in a separate directory. Again, no problem with that. As long as you specify the exact location of the WAD, it will load and work fine. Launchers and front-ends make it super-easy, but even from the command-line it can be done.

WAS THIS POST SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY?

And speaking of front ends...

my super ESL front end for various source ports, go get it in my sig ;)