Favorite Source Port? (Multiple Choice Poll)

maxrebo6 said:

Does any of them have a front end for selecting custom wads or are they all drag and drop.

Why bother?
;)

Another best port thread? I just need to make a text file ready for threads like this.

My port of choice is GZDoom, which has amazing editing features and almost infinite customization. Tends to run most Boom and ZDoom mods very well.

Chocolate Doom is great, I use it for all my vanilla projects.

I personally use Chocolate for vanilla wads, PrBoom+ for limit-removing/Boom-compatible wads, and GZDoom for ZDoom-compatible and GZDoom wads.

A bit off-topic: I know GZDoom can run Legacy wads, but to what extent?

mammajamma said:

A bit off-topic: I know GZDoom can run Legacy wads, but to what extent?

It mostly depends on the quality of the FraggleScript being used. Code that doesn't depend too much on Legacy's bugs works fine but if that's not the case the scripts may break.

WADs that work fine are Icerial 2, Nimrod and Hi-Tech Hell 2. A WAD that doesn't work is Phobia.

"runcommand", "consolecmd" and MP3 support aren't bugs in Legacy. They are features. Not necessarily pretty features. But features nonetheless.

Phobia DO have circumvents for bugs in Legacy though. But there's no reason why those circumvents shouldn't work in GZDoom alike.

I tried GZDoom and loved it I will try jodwins idea for a front end.

I love your front end jodwin,thanks for the help.:)That was the best front end I have ever tried.

kristus said:

"runcommand", "consolecmd" and MP3 support aren't bugs in Legacy. They are features. Not necessarily pretty features. But features nonetheless.

These are not what I meant and are supported to the degree I got to until I stumbled over some show-stoppers in the code. After that I didn't really try because without the lights Phobia loses a lot of its appeal and some of the light effects again depend on Legacy weirdness (like the lighting of untextured lines, for example.)

Phobia DO have circumvents for bugs in Legacy though. But there's no reason why those circumvents shouldn't work in GZDoom alike.

I'll have to find such problems first. And that's harder than one might think if you can't run the engine this was designed for without risking corruption to the system config. Legacy and my computer don't like each other so I refuse to start it at all.

There's nothing special about them really. Just some extra script code so Legacy would "jump" whatever it was that decided to make it crash.

Like this script here, at first it was just one script. But after I had added monsters to the map, it started to crash the game when script 112 was ran. I figured out that it only crashed if it was the linespecial that triggered that particular script (iirc). So I made an extra script to run the other script. Really silly stuff, but it worked.

script 112
{
	if(notmyst == 1)
			{
			
			objtarget(104, 115);
			objtarget(105, 115);
			objtarget(106, 115);
			objtarget(107, 115);
			objtarget(108, 115);
			objtarget(109, 115);
			objtarget(110, 115);
			objtarget(111, 115);
			objtarget(112, 115);
			objtarget(113, 115);
			objtarget(114, 115);
			}
}

script 114
{	
	if (action == 0)
	{
		action = 1;
		startscript(112);
	}
}

I find this question a bit silly. Best way to run WAD/MODs ? Most of them are specifically designed for one port, so that choice has pretty much been made for you already.

For WADs that don't require a specific port, I tend to go for a port that has the least amount of deviation from the original engine.

I was just wondering, which source port is the best to get, its more a matter of opinion but I'd like you're feedback...

Doom95

There is no "best" because different sourceports excel in different areas that matter more or less to different people. A lot of people will tell you ZDoom or GZDoom, many demo recorders will tell you PrBoom or PrBoom-Plus, some vanilla purists might tell you Chocolate Doom, some people who prefer to enhance the visuals of the original maps might recommend Doomsday Engine, Risen3D, or Vavoom, and some people will tell you something totally different. Personally I use Eternity for nearly all of my playing, and prefer mapping/modding for it.

What I am looking for is a source port that's easy to use, mod and play online with so my post should have probably included that information

Then you want Skulltag.

For a newbie to the wonderful world of Doom ports, I'd recommend GZDoom. It's a powerful port, that can play all Doom engine games, with good controls, it is easy to use and configure, and it has a nice wiki which is about as clear, concise and complete as Doom wikis go. You can use either the software or the hardware renderer. It can play nearly all the mods available on /idgames. And if you want to play online with a client-server system, you can use Skulltag and be right at home since it's based on ZDoom/GZDoom.

About the only thing you cannot do with GZDoom is playing demos. For that you'll need PrBoom+ which is devoted to it. You can actually play and record demo with GZDoom, but they can usually only be played with the same version they were recorded with, there's no backward compatibility for playing old demos. Whereas PrBoom+ can play and record demos for about all versions of Doom and Boom there ever was.

Then once you're a bit more familiar with how Doom ports are used and have a clearer idea of what you want in a port, you can look into other ports mentioned earlier. Chocolate Doom for absolute accuracy (including the 320x200 resolution and all the original bugs and crashes!), PrBoom+/GLBoom+ for playing and recording demos, Doomsday or Risen3D for the fanciest effects, etc.

Gez said:

+100500

Well, using source ports is not just about the ports themselves. People play to play and have fun, not to examine engines. Thus, for people new to the game or returning to it, I'd point first of all to IDE with (at least) ZDaemon and Skulltag. Perhaps getting into coop games first, to avoid getting kicked around too harshly in deathmatch or other head to head action while one warms up to the game, unless one already has experience playing FPS games online.

Multiplayer is probably the biggest attraction for DOOM and the most lively and direct aspect of the game because it lets you share play with others or compete, and online oriented engines are particularly good for this because finding playing buddies around one is not as easy with DOOM as it is with newer games that people are currently buying by the bucket load.

Other ports come after that, especially if one wants to specialize in modding or speed running, and to check more PWADs at home.

Depends on your liking and usage - for me its ChocolateDoom...

Depends on the forum where you post.

well I tried skulltag, and I like it so... I got my answer


and by the way, I used to play doom in zDoom but I would likt to try multiplayer more often

None. I still play in DOS.

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

None. I still play in DOS.

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

No DECORATE support? Then, it fails IMO.

Dude, that's called sarcasm. Relax! =D

That'd be a sarcasm detector failure! :P

There is no "best" source port, they all have different uses and abilities.

The most common is probably ZDoom though.

I'd disagree there. ZDoom's modding features are the most widely supported certainly (wheter they are the "best" is of course open to debate). But I don't think ZDoom it'self is as commonly used.

Here's the breakdown:

Chocolate Doom is best if you're looking for a classic experience.
PrBoom is Best if you're one of those speedrun/demo/TAS wierdos.
GZDoom/ZDoom is best if you're looking for lots of easy to use features.
Skulltag is the best if you want the feature rich and easy editing features of ZDoom plus easy to use multiplayer.
Eternity is best if you're planning on releasing a project 20 years from now. I'm putting money on Eternity being better than ZDoom someday.
JDoom/Doomsday/Risen3D is best if you hate the phrase 'easy and intutive.' Also if you like fancy visual effects.

I personally recommend GZDoom/ZDoom because that's what I use.

EDIT: Gez said it too, GZDoom will run all Doom games. Harmony FTW!

So really, it all boils down to what you want to do.

Modding - ZDoom/GZDoom/Skulltag.

Multiplayer - ZDaemon/Skulltag/Odamex

Graphics - Doomsday/Risen3D/Vavoom

Demos - Boom/PrBoom/Eternity (?)

"Purity" - Chocolate Doom/Just play vanilla Doom in DOSBox (or on four old DOS machines linked to each other for old-school LAN co-op).

Other - Doom Legacy to play split-screen (also on XBox)

Masochism - Doom95 :P

Patrick said:

GZDoom/ZDoom[/b] is best if you're looking for lots of easy to use features.

Or if you want to play other games than Doom. Such as Heretic, Hexen, or Strife. (You can play Chex Quest with any decent Doom port through the DeHackEd patch Fraggle made.) Or some of the ZDoom exclusive games (CQ3, AD2, Harmony).

Eternity will eventually support Heretic, Hexen and Strife, but isn't there yet. Doomsday supports Heretic and Hexen as well, but they're separate ports, rather than unified like ZDoom.

G/ZDoom is pretty simple to install and use. Just extract the zip, place some IWADs in the same folder, and double-click the exe. There you go.

Sure, there are plenty of modding features, and a lot of mods which use them, but the ability to play any Doom engine game with a single executable is the strongest point in favor of ZDoom or GZDoom for a newbie. Mods, demos, multiplayer, all these things come later once you've played a bit through the games to familiarize yourself with them. Once you've decided you like the game enough to dip in its community, then you can hunt for mods, demos, or online servers.