Is there a "For Dummies" guide to pimping out every Doom game on PC?

Hi folks, Steam has a ridiculously good sale on the ID Pack...every Doom game + quake + Hexen for $23. I just grabbed it. This will be my first time playing on PC and would like to pimp out the game files with the best graphics/resolution patches available and the best sound files (the PS1 soundtracks for Doom + Final Doom).

I have all of the games installed by Steam and I've downloaded the 48mb PS1 soundtrack from DoomDepot.. I'm now at a complete loss for what to do. Is there a "for noobs" guide that explains how to get the audio working with Steam, as well as to enable the "up/down" mouse look feature and to patch every game with high resolution textures?

I'd like to get the best possible experience on my first playthrough of Doom. Please help a noob out. :)

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/18077-read-this-doom-on-windows-steam/

This can probably help you. For more advanced Doom features (looking up and down, better-looking textures, and so on), go download Skulltag or gzDoom.

Oddly enough, the first time I ever ran doom with any sort of Anti-aliasing or visual smoothing, was also the last time.
It just didn't look right...

For eye candy, try one of those:
GZDoom: http://grafzahl.drdteam.org/
JDoom: http://dengine.net/
Risen3D: http://risen3d.drdteam.org/
Vavoom: http://www.vavoom-engine.com/
GLBoom+: http://sourceforge.net/projects/prboom-plus/
EDGE: http://edge.sourceforge.net/

I like the implication that you're a dummy if you want to "pimp out" your Doom games, and I think it's somewhat true. If you want a good first playthrough, I suggest you play it as it was intended - not necessarily with vanilla or even Chocolate Doom, but with a port that uses software rendering, no models, with the original music, sound, graphics, etc. You may find that you don't want any stuff "pimped out" at all.

Thanks for the advice so far guys..and bloodshedder, you must admit the original music is quite pathetic. I first played Doom on the Playstation and was blown away by the creepiness of the ambient soundtrack.. Hearing the PC version later, it was very underwhelming. The PS1 soundtrack made the atmosphere of the game seem darker and much more unsettling. The classic graphics are probably ok to keep as they are. They got the job done..but I do think the Risen3D mod posted by Gez looks incresdible and I will definitely be trying it out..



As for looking up and down with the mouse...We might not have missed the ability 15 years ago..but after 10 years+ of free up/down mouse movement, it's quite hard to play without it.

Capitalizt said:

you must admit the original music is quite pathetic.

Nah.

Nah.

E1M8 will never be pathetic, nor will Map07 or Map10.

Capitalizt said:

As for looking up and down with the mouse...We might not have missed the ability 15 years ago..but after 10 years+ of free up/down mouse movement, it's quite hard to play without it.

Try it! I play almost constantly with "modern" FPS games (Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, CoD games, etc) and still can't play Doom with mouselook on. It just plays so much differently and it feels clumsy usually.

Capitalizt said:

and bloodshedder, you must admit the original music is quite pathetic. I first played Doom on the Playstation and was blown away by the creepiness of the ambient soundtrack.. Hearing the PC version later, it was very underwhelming. The PS1 soundtrack made the atmosphere of the game seem darker and much more unsettling.

I have to admit no such thing. What I've heard of the PS1 "music" is just boring ambient fare. I suppose if you want to play the PC version with it, that's your prerogative, but I still think you should give the originals a chance.

D_E1M5

'nuff said. ;)

Capitalizt said:

you must admit the original music is quite pathetic.

How is it pathetic? Because it was MIDI? You must be about 6 to not be able to appreciate a good MIDI tune. The music for Doom is iconic.

Capitalizt said:

The classic graphics are probably ok to keep as they are. They got the job done..but I do think the Risen3D mod posted by Gez looks incresdible and I will definitely be trying it out..

I like GZDoom myself. It is capable of near-vanilla graphics if I'm in the mood for it, and has a nice clean OpenGL accelerated renderer as well which is capable of displaying high-res graphics and sprites if the situation calls for it.

That said, I've always hated Doomsday (and probably likely by extension Risen3d since it's a branch off Doomsday). It just doesn't feel right. And the models available are fucking ugly. I don't see how you can think those look good.

Capitalizt said:

As for looking up and down with the mouse...We might not have missed the ability 15 years ago..but after 10 years+ of free up/down mouse movement, it's quite hard to play without it.

Well, it's hard to play without mouselook if you're not used to playing without mouselook. I'm willing to bet the pros from the older days would crush you without needing mouselook.

[opinion disclaimer]

Though I've said it before in other threads and KuriKai will probably yell at me, it's on-topic for here so I'll say it again.

My complaint with the hi-res texture replacement packs is that there's a ton of inconsistency in style and quality. Many textures that are supposed to have parts that match each other identically look completely different from each other, and sometimes quite a bit different than how the original textures looked. As a result you have a lot of stuff that often looks great by itself, but like a jumbled mishmash ingame.

The problem is exacerbated if you try loading it with any of the custom map packs that include their own textures (there are lots of these!), as many commonly-used custom textures were created from editing and rearranging parts of the original ones. So then you've got hi-res replacements mixed in with low-res edits of what the hi-res replacements were based on, and etc etc, it's...eh. For playing some of the original maps it might work alright, but I wouldn't recommend it beyond that.

With that said, I think Doomsday is by far the best-looking OpenGL port of Doom for playing the original levels with; I just don't think it needs any addons or replacements to earn that title.

esselfortium said:

[opinion disclaimer]

I think that's probably an opinion that a lot if not most people here share, actually. I agree that the quality is definitely inconsistent from that high-res texture pack. And it's definitely a problem when you load up maps with custom textures.

I've always thought that the models available were really ugly too, but then again most of them were made probably bordering on 10 years ago if not more. There is, at least, a really nice set of item models that I've seen, but I think sprites are definitely preferable to the monster models available.

Enjay said:

D_E1M5

'nuff said. ;)

Amen bro. Probably the best original level with the best original Doom music.

I love all of Doom 1 music. D_E1M3 is kinda tacky but its creepy too. Same with D_E1M8. D_E1M2 is awesome in the beginning but it gets kinda corny in the later parts of it.

But anyway i prefer to keep my doom as unpimped as possible.

esselfortium said:

[opinion disclaimer]

Though I've said it before in other threads and KuriKai will probably yell at me, it's on-topic for here so I'll say it again.

My complaint with the hi-res texture replacement packs is that there's a ton of inconsistency in style and quality. Many textures that are supposed to have parts that match each other identically look completely different from each other, and sometimes quite a bit different than how the original textures looked. As a result you have a lot of stuff that often looks great by itself, but like a jumbled mishmash ingame.

At least it is now better looking and more consistent than it was before I took over.

Nomad said:

I've always thought that the models available were really ugly too, but then again most of them were made probably bordering on 10 years ago if not more. There is, at least, a really nice set of item models that I've seen, but I think sprites are definitely preferable to the monster models available.

One of the reasons I started making 3dmodels

Capitalizt said:

Thanks for the advice so far guys..and bloodshedder, you must admit the original music is quite pathetic.

Hell.

Fucking.

No.

I remember when I picked up Doom again after several years of not playing it, and found out there was ports with dynamic lighting, mouselook, MP3`s and you name it! I was like, WHOOAAAH!!!

Then after a while, I started disliking it more and more, and started enjoying the "old school" more and more.

Now I dread mouselook and dynamic lighting and fog and bla bla bla

I do play GLBoom+ though. But thats as far as I stretch.

Wow, some people have a hard time respecting the fact that not everyone has to agree with you.

If you prefer the MIDIs, that's up to you. If you prefer the ambiance, that's up to you too. I personally like both, just depends what I'm in the mood for.

PSX MAP21.

'Nuff said.

BTW @Nomad: I'm 31, I first played Doom on the 32X which had reasonable versions of the original music and original SFX (the port itself wasn't up to much) and I still prefer the PSX audio ;)

Still not too fussed on texture filtering or models though.

esselfortium said:

[opinion disclaimer]
ETC

That. And I've yet to see any high res resources that are better looking, or even rivaling the quality of the original low res resources. In particular with regards to models. New or old alike.

eargosedown said:

Oddly enough, the first time I ever ran doom with any sort of Anti-aliasing or visual smoothing, was also the last time.
It just didn't look right...

I also prefer the mosaic look...

Airman266 said:
Wow, some people have a hard time respecting the fact that not everyone has to agree with you.

No, I'm pretty sure that anyone who plays Doom but doesn't like the original PC soundtrack has no opinion worth respecting.

scalliano said:

...Doom on the 32X which had reasonable versions of the original music...

LOL.

PROTIP: When comparing anything that involves sound, be sure to unmute the volume.

@Nuxius & CODOR: Your sarcasm is so hilarious I completely forgot to laugh. >_>

kristus said:

That. And I've yet to see any high res resources that are better looking, or even rivaling the quality of the original low res resources. In particular with regards to models. New or old alike.

you can't be serious with this post. there are many textures in the dhtp that are on par or even better than the originals.

have you also seen the doom intermission maps?

also have you tried my recently made doom models?
granted they are not perfect cause I just started making models for doom, but they are not too far off the originals

KuriKai said:

have you also seen the doom intermission maps?

Where these at? I just tried the pack for the first time (for GZDoom) and I saw not intermission screen.

The Doom Midis are quite charming IMO, but to each his own I suppose. You can download an alternative moody ambient soundtrack by the same guy who did the PSX soundtrack here. Should work with Risen3D.

Also if you're looking for a cool Doom game, check out Doom 64. It's my favorite Doom game and I consider it the 'real' Doom 3.

You can get a fancy port here

KuriKai said:

you can't be serious with this post. there are many textures in the dhtp that are on par or even better than the originals.

Got any link to these textures you speak of?

KuriKai said:

have you also seen the doom intermission maps?

No

KuriKai said:

also have you tried my recently made doom models?
granted they are not perfect cause I just started making models for doom, but they are not too far off the originals

I'm sorry, not meaning to offend you. But I've seen your models. I have no desire to try them in game.

Almost every doom model I've seen is horrible. When you compare them to the quake models, despite some of the doom ones having more polygons/higher res textures/all of that they look horrible compared to them (the zombies in particular barely look like they are holding their gun properly)

and I have to direct your attention to this

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/File:99129766.png

Am I the only one who thinks that looks like a green haired, gun bearing, kelvar vest wearing gorilla rather than a zombie? Other than that it shows all of the faults I was talking about (hands barely look like they are holding the gun properly.)

InsanityBringer said:

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/File:99129766.png

Look like it was modeled by someone who had forgotten all about aspect ratio correction. Or, if not forgotten, applied it the wrong way around.