GZDoom Fake Software Mode AKA How to make OpenGL look closer to Software Rendering

[VanaheimRanger]

@Woolie Wool recently posted a few screens showing off his GZDoom settings in the Post Your Doom Picture (Part 2) thread and gave a few tips on how to make yours look that way.

 

Woolie's Settings:

Basically what I'm doing is:
Resolution scale: 640x400, actual resolution 3840x2160 @ 70 Hz
cl_capfps 1
vid_vsync 1
NO anti-aliasing or texture filtering
No mipmaps
Distance fog: vanilla
Software-style banding enabled
Ambient occlusion set to maximum
Tonemap setting: palette

 

It took me a bit to find and decipher some of these settings, as not all of them are clearly obvious where they are found in the menu, and some are misnamed from what they are in my version of GZDoom (3.6)

 

First, you will ask me, why not just use the software renderer?  Answer is simple, the software renderer doesn't render EVERYTHING in modern UDMF maps.  It is great for boom and vanilla and some UDMF stuff, but if a map uses a dynamic skybox or sloped 3d floors things will get weird...

Anyway, I love how it looks, so I have decided to make a full tutorial on how to do this for yourself (and expand on it quite) a bit in GZDoom 3.6 (Some of these settings may not be available in earlier versions)

 

NOTICE: A lot of this is based on my personal taste, so if there is anything that you don't like...don't use it.  If something has (Important) next to it it is pretty necessary for it to resemble Software in any way.  I know my settings don't look EXACTLY like the Software Renderer, and it isn't even a "As close as it gets" kind of thing either.  But I think it looks good, if you don't, that's your preference :p

 

First off, let's load up gzdoom with whatever wad you like, and start a new game (or load a save, whatever, so long as you are in game) Go to SET VIDEO MODE and make sure RENDER MODE is set to OPENGL-ACCELERATED

 

We aren't worrying about resolution scale until the end of the tutorial, so ignore that for now.

 

Now, open the console with ~ then enter these commands:

 

cl_capfps 1

vid_vsync 1

Let's go deal with our textures now (and I suggest doing this whether or not you play with Fake Software Mode, unless you just like things blurry...weirdo)

 

In DISPLAY OPTIONS > OPENGL OPTIONS > TEXTURE OPTIONS use this setting:

 

TEXTURE FILTER MODE - NONE (LINEAR MIPMAP)
ANISOTROPIC FILTER - 16x (Suggested by @Gez to keep distant extreme angled textures from disappearing)

 

(Woolie's settings said "NO MIPMAPS" but LINEAR MIPMAP looks good to me with or without these settings.)

The rest should be left at default.

 

Now let's head back to DISPLAY OPTIONS > OPENGL OPTIONS and make these changes if they aren't already set:

 

SECTOR LIGHT MODE - SOFTWARE
BANDED SW LIGHTMODE - ON (Important)
FOG MODE - STANDARED (Honestly I can't tell the difference between STANDARD and OFF, but RADIAL looks awful to me, and there is not one called VANILLA)
ENHANCED NIGHT VISION MODE - OFF
SMOOTH SPRITE EDGES - OFF
FUZZ STYLE - SOFTWARE
PARTICLE STYLE - SQUARE (Or OFF if you are a purist, but I like to see these effects)

MULTISAMPLE - OFF
TONEMAP MODE - PALETTE (Important)
BLOOM EFFECT - ON (Another personal taste function, makes skies glow really nicely among other things)
AMBIENT OCCLUSION QUALITY - HIGH (Makes banded lighting pop a lot more in dark areas, maybe very necessary, maybe personal taste, depends on your eyes, I suppose)

 

Other settings can be left default.  Now your game should be looking pretty nice.  Let's do a few optional tweaks for those who want this to look more old school in DISPLAY:

 

SCREEN WIPE STYLE - MELT
USE FUZZ EFFECT - FUZZ
CLASSIC TRANSPARENCY - VANILLA (FORCED)
LOST SOULS TRANSLUCENCY - 1.00
ROCKET TRAILS - OFF
BLOOD TYPE - SPRITES
BULLET PUFF TYPE - SPRITES
NUMBER OF PARTICLES - I left mine default for my tastes, but purists might want to turn it all the way down
NUMBER OF DECALS - Same as above option
TELEPORTER ZOOM - OFF
MENU DIM - -0.00

 

Other settings can be left default.

 

In DISPLAY > DYNAMIC LIGHTS You may wish to switch DYNAMIC LIGHTS (OPENGL) to OFF, I have kept mine on because I think it looks freaking awesome!  But you do you.

 

Now in HUD OPTIONS you might turn DEFAULT CROSSHAIR to NONE to stay pure and in the SCALING OPTIONS submenu of HUD OPTIONS make these changes if not already set:

 

USER INTERFACE SCALE - ADAPT TO SCREEN SIZE

MESSAGES - 5
STATUS BAR - 8 
FULLSCREEN HUD - 8
ALTERNATIVE HUD - 8

HUD PRESERVES ASPECT RATON - ON

 

Now you are mostly good, but resolution scale will really set it off and sell it.  And I know everyone uses their own resolutions and aspect ratios so set your real resolution however you like, we are going to downscale it to a more classic looking style.

 

Now, go to SET VIDEO MODE and use these settings:

 

FORCE ASPECT RATIO - OFF
RESOLUTION SCALE - CUSTOM

Click APPLY CHANGES (WINDOWED) if you play in a window. APPLY CHANGES (FULLSCREEN) for fullscreen.

 

Now exit the menus back to the game and open the console once again and use this command:

 

vid_setscale <width> <height>

 

This will put the game into whatever low resolution you want without resizing the window (and if you use fullscreen i assume this will keep your system from forcing the resolution you use on other monitors, but I don't use fullscreen because it acts fucky on my system)

 

I play in a window that is 1792x1008 and I use a resolution scale of 1066x600 so my command would be:

 

vid_setscale 1066 600

 

It looks nice and chunky, I like it, you may want a different resolution and aspect ratio, just play around with it until you find one you like, and don't be afraid to use an online aspect ratio calculator if you need to (I did, lol).

 

ONE FINAL STEP: MAKE A SAVE GAME!  This is important, I cannot stress this enough (and I'm not sure why I forgot to add this originally, it is the whole reason we started this from in-game) GZDoom likes to forget settings if you don't save, I'm no expert, but my theory is that it saves your ini file at the same time it makes a save game.  So make a save and name it like TEST or something, you don't need to ever load this save for settings to be retained though.  I would always make this a habit in GZDoom, if you change any settings, make a game save.

 

This tutorial wouldn't be possible without the help of some really cool people from here on Doomworld who gave me tips in this endeavor to getting my game looking cool, how I like it:

 

@Woolie Wool who originally posted the brief settings on the picture thread.
@Redxone who gave me the vid_setscale console command I despeately needed to top it all off.
@Gez who gave me some settings for the actual software renderer back before I started working on this.

@Tango who suggested using Bloom.  Big thanks there.

 

And enjoy a few screens posted in the first comment block.  (The screenshot function will output an image the same size as the fake resolution you are using, so I am scaling the images up to 1080p in photoshop)

 

EDIT: A new 3.7 version of GZDoom has released with a new "Vanilla" sector light mode.  I won't be able to test out how this looks for a while since I'm at work, but you might try it out and see how it looks with these settings.

Edited January 1, 2019 by guitardz

[VanaheimRanger]

SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

 

 

Edited December 27, 2018 by guitardz

[Teder]

Great thread, I like to play with settings, I'll try it for sure.

[Woolie Wool]

Who knew One Weird Trick I discovered to make a particular GL-only wad look softwarey would have such legs! I never used bloom though, the idea of the sky and other bright things bleeding into the level architecture is un-Doomy to me.

[dpJudas]

Just wanted to add that in GZDoom 3.7.0 (released today) there's a new light mode: Vanilla.

 

The 'software' light mode uses ZDoom's software renderer light math, while 'vanilla' more approximates original Doom (assuming I read the Chocolate Doom source code right). There are still minor differences to the original, but I recommend you give it a try to see which you prefer.

[Woolie Wool]

Will vanilla-style software fading (in software mode itself) ever return to ZDoom? The excessively bright light around the player is something I've noticed in ZDoom for well over a decade.

[dpJudas]

32 minutes ago, Woolie Wool said:

Will vanilla-style software fading (in software mode itself) ever return to ZDoom? The excessively bright light around the player is something I've noticed in ZDoom for well over a decade.

 

That was the original plan. Unfortunately the code that selects the colormap in the ZDoom software renderer is quite scattered, which means it requires some cleanup of that before it will be possible. I don't want to remove the ZDoom light mode entirely as some may prefer it. Randi clearly did or she wouldn't have altered the light in the first place.

[VanaheimRanger]

Lol, of course I make a 3.6 tutorial mere hours before 3.7 drops.  I'm going to check it out later tonight in a separate install and see how I like the new vanilla sector light mode.  Thanks @dpJudas I'll update the OP with it as well.

 

@Woolie Wool I agree that bloom isn't very original Doom.  But I like how it looks.  It's a completely optional setting like most others here, though :)

[Teder]

14 minutes ago, guitardz said:

 

@Woolie Wool I agree that bloom isn't very original Doom.  But I like how it looks.  It's a completely optional setting like most others here, though :)

Exactly, but is fun to play with all this like with photo mode in Doom 2016, but here, in gzdoom are more options to play. Time to start new play, only need to download new gzdoom.

[VanaheimRanger]

11 minutes ago, Teder said:

Exactly, but is fun to play with all this like with photo mode in Doom 2016

Oh wait, Doom 2016 got a photo mode?  I only played through it when it fort released, I'm guessing they added it in a later update?

[Teder]

Yes, You can watch my tons of old gpu screenshots here https://imgur.com/a/msaYHia

or just look here:

 

EDIT: oh and You can use centered weapons like in classic DOOM (HELL YEAH).

[VanaheimRanger]

3 minutes ago, Teder said:

EDIT: oh and You can use centered weapons like in classic DOOM (HELL YEAH).

CENTERED WEAPONS?!  Holy shit I need to load that game up again!

[VanaheimRanger]

Added a VERY IMPORTANT final step to the tutorial I'm not sure why I forgot.

 

After doing your settings SAVE!

[Teder]

Sorry for offtop, but You must see centered double shotgun in DOOM16 :)

[VanaheimRanger]

@Teder THIS IS AMAZING!  Does it also have vertical auto-aim like classic Doom?  I would play it like this exclusively.

[Teder]

13 minutes ago, guitardz said:

@Teder THIS IS AMAZING!  Does it also have vertical auto-aim like classic Doom?  I would play it like this exclusively.

No, it hasn't.

 

EDIT:

One thing we need in gzdoom is DOF and we got perfect photo mode :)

Ok, here are my "arts":

 

Edited December 27, 2018 by Teder

[Dark Pulse]

They look perfectly like badly compressed 8-bit screengrabs. :P

[wolfmcbeard]

Looks very good, unfortunately Windows updated and killed the settings, so I'll have to try again later when I have some free time.

[whirledtsar]

19 hours ago, guitardz said:

SCREENSHOTS

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

What is this wad?

[VanaheimRanger]

5 minutes ago, whirledtsar said:

What is this wad?

That is MAP01 of Eviternity.  All the screens below that one are from Eviternity as well.

[Teder]

Bloom, tonemap, and fullbrights:

 

[holaareola]

Excellent, thanks for the translation guitardz (and cheers Woolie for original pics). I generally think Doom looks bad with modern graphics effects because of the sprites and vertically primitive architecture but this lowers the fidelity enough to shape it into a cohesive style.

 

The Engoo software-with-benefits engine offers a similar look for Quake: http://leileilol.mancubus.net/engoo/

 

//edit: also, I just realised you can type writeini <filename>.ini into the console if you want to dump these settings out but not use them for everything.

Edited December 29, 2018 by holaareola

[VanaheimRanger]

7 hours ago, holaareola said:

 also, I just realised you can type writeini <filename>.ini into the console if you want to dump these settings out but not use them for everything.

Oh, that's a great tip.  I've personally been using multiple installations but this works better.

[Teder]

1 hour ago, guitardz said:

Oh, that's a great tip.  I've personally been using multiple installations but this works better.

For now I clean up my DOOM folders, I got only Zandronum, 3 versions of Gzdoom and in the other disk some other zandronums and skulltag. Maybe about 10 gigs only for classic DOOM :D

EDIT: there was a day when I got 6 DOOM 3 versions, about 25 gigs together :D

[KVELLER]

On 12/27/2018 at 8:46 AM, guitardz said:

AMBIENT OCCLUSION QUALITY - HIGH (Important)

 

Uh, why is it important? I'm pretty sure the original software renderer had nothing that looked even remotely close like AO.

 

Also, where's that fake contrast? :P

[VanaheimRanger]

7 hours ago, KVELLER said:

Uh, why is it important?

Without it it looks...odd, shall we say.  When I saw that in Woolie's settings I asked the same question, but the difference is pretty night and day to my eyes.

7 hours ago, KVELLER said:

Also, where's that fake contrast? :P

This hasn't been suggested, it could be worth a look.

[esselfortium]

On 12/27/2018 at 12:58 PM, dpJudas said:

 

That was the original plan. Unfortunately the code that selects the colormap in the ZDoom software renderer is quite scattered, which means it requires some cleanup of that before it will be possible. I don't want to remove the ZDoom light mode entirely as some may prefer it. Randi clearly did or she wouldn't have altered the light in the first place.

I’ve always assumed it was just a bug. Vanilla’s light behavior matches ZDoom’s if its view size is set to the smallest one (which I assume is also a bug...)

[KVELLER]

1 hour ago, guitardz said:

Without it it looks...odd, shall we say.  When I saw that in Woolie's settings I asked the same question, but the difference is pretty night and day to my eyes.

 

I won't deny that it looks great, I love the setting myself, but what I'm getting at is that it isn't "pretty necessary for it to resemble Software in any way", as you put it. It should be in the same classification as bloom.

[VanaheimRanger]

8 hours ago, KVELLER said:

 

I won't deny that it looks great, I love the setting myself, but what I'm getting at is that it isn't "pretty necessary for it to resemble Software in any way", as you put it. It should be in the same classification as bloom.

After more sleep, I seem to recall it making the banded light mode stand out quite a bit more, especially in dark areas.  I may alter that bit from important to very cool looking.

[Gez]

Personally I'd recommend keeping the anisotropic filter on because when off it can make textures simply disappear in the distance. Here's an example of what I mean. It's "MAP12: Dark Side of the Moon" from the first Doom: The Golden Souls mod.

 

With anisotropic filtering 16x:

 

Without anisotropic filtering:

As you can see, without anisotropic filtering, the texture just becomes fully transparent when it's at a strong angle and far enough.

 

Oh, and if you're wondering: here's how it looks in software. Sorry, the viewpoint isn't exactly the same because I forgot to take this screenshot along with the two others; but I hope it's convincing nonetheless:

Fence texture doesn't turn invisible in the distance. Anisotropic filtering is therefore necessary (Important) to make OpenGL rendering closer to software.