Doom on XFire Setup Guide

Greetings everyone!

It's been quite a while since my last post here on Doomworld (let alone on any forum in the community). Not sure if anyone remembers me, but I was an avid mapper and member of the multiplayer community during 2001 - 2005 (back when I was in high school and actually had free time). I released quite a few projects back in the day known as 'The Last Strike' series including TLSDM, TLSD2003, TLSD2004, TLSXCTF1 and it's revision, and a few maps with the team that inspired the TLS series (Unidoom) for UDM2.

Anyways, I am here today in hopes of producing a guide for users within the community on how to setup XFire to detect D00M source ports. After taking the time to figure out how to get it working (and it took a while), I figured I might as well share the knowledge here (and that there had to be somebody who would find the information useful). The idea was originally conceived to set up a way that XFire would automatically detect and record D00M activity and allow members on your friends list to see that you are in game and come looking for you to join in (if you so desire). If you enjoy tinkering around with things (like I do), you may even want to try this for the hell of it.

The entire process is a bit complex, but the end results are well worth it.

NOTE: If you have steam installed (and to make things even better, have D00M purchased on steam), this process becomes much easier. You can use this guide to set up any source port you choose. In this example, we will be setting up The Ultimate D00M using GZdoom.

I. Creating the necessary files

The key here is knowing what files XFire actually looks for when you attempt to add D00M manually in the games menu:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/Options1.jpg

XFire will look for:

<your drive>:\<your path>\steam.exe
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\ultimate.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\ultimatem.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\dosbox.exe

Since we can't change the way XFire works, we're going to create a workaround.

First, download your preferred source port (.zip) and extract the files to any directory you desire with the end path being "<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\" (I'll be using the path "D:\doom" for demonstration, so in my case it will look like "D:\doom\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\").

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/base1.jpg

Next, open notepad and create a new text file with the name "ultimate.conf" and save it to "<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\". You can put anything you want in this text file (it really doesn't matter, its only a placeholder to fool XFire).

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/ultimateconf.jpg

Make another copy of this file and name it "ultimatem.conf" and save it to the same directory. Next, copy your Ultimate D00M iwad to "<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\". Now, rename your source port executable to "dosbox.exe". Your directory should look something like this:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/base2.jpg

For the last step, copy (don't cut) your source port executable to the root directory ("<your drive>:\<your path>\"). In my case, "D:\doom\". Rename the executable to "steam.exe" (only a placeholder). This is to fool XFire into thinking that you have steam installed. The end result should look something like this:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/root.jpg

Now its time to set up XFire and a personal launcher.

II. Setting up XFire and a D00M front end launcher

Lets open back up XFire again. At the top, go to "Tools" and select "Options". This will bring up the options menu. Click the "Games" tab. XFire will attempt to detect any games you have (annoying, but its quick enough so just let it go). When it brings up the game list, scroll down and expand the "Not Installed" list. Look for "Ultimate Doom" near the bottom, and select it.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/options2.jpg

Select "Manual Setup" in the right pane. This will allow you to select your own path for the game's location. Put the root directory that you have created in the "Game Path" box ("<your drive>:\<your path>\"). In my case, "D:\doom\". Click "Apply". XFire should then have detected "Ultimate Doom" and moved it into your "Installed Games" list. Congradulations!

NOTE: You CANNOT launch the game directly through XFire unless you actually have steam installed AND have The Ultimate D00M purchased over steam (see part III).

The next step is setting up a front end launcher. A launcher is the preferred method if you wish to run addons and pwads. The advantage is that regardless of what addons/pwads you use for The Ultimate D00M, XFire will still detect the activity. Pretty sweet, huh?

In this example, we'll be using ZDL (http://zdoom.org/wiki/ZDL). Download and extract your preferred launcher to wherever you desire, and set it up. When selecting the executable that will run the game, use the renamed "dosbox.exe" from "<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\ultimate doom\base\". When you're done setting up the launcher, give it a test run. When in game, alt-tab back to your desktop (or if you're running the game in a window, bring down the console to free up the mouse) and check your XFire status. If you've done everything correctly, it should look something like this:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/jhshelton45/XFire%20doom%20guide/success.jpg

Success!

This guide can be used to setup D00M II and Final D00M in the same manner. the files that XFire looks for specifically for each games is:

D00M II
<your drive>:\<your path>\steam.exe
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\doom 2\base\doom2.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\doom 2\base\doom2m.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\doom 2\base\dosbox.exe

Final D00M
<your drive>:\<your path>\steam.exe
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\final doom\base\plutonia.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\final doom\base\plutoniam.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\final doom\base\tnt.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\final doom\base\tntm.conf
<your drive>:\<your path>\SteamApps\common\final doom\base\dosbox.exe

The next section consists of steps necessary for those who have D00M purchased on steam.

III. Setting up D00M on steam

In general, all of the steps mentioned above will work for steam users (simply substitute the path name with your root steam directory).

However, steam uses batch files (.bat) to launch D00M on steam. Be sure to look in the root directories for D00M on steam (<Path>\SteamApps\common\<doom version>) and edit the contents of each batch file. They can be opened with notepad. The only line that the batch files require is:

".\base\dosbox -iwad .\base\<game iwad>.wad"

Well, that's it. I hope this guide helps somebody. If you have any other questions, let me know.

You should crosspost this to the Xfire forums also, if you have not done that yet.

Mr. Chris said:

You should crosspost this to the Xfire forums also, if you have not done that yet.

You know, I have thought about that, as well as posting it on Steam's forums. They already have an extensive support community for Quake over on steam and have done some pretty impressive things (like recreating the original CD audio for Quake I and II plus expansions with mp3s and creating an ISO image with them, pretty nifty stuff), so throwing this info up on the D00M board might not be a bad idea. I'll be sure to get around to it when I get back from my base in about a week or so.

Also, requesting a sticky on this thread (so that the info is available to everyone).