Modern source ports recommendation?

[SirJuicyLemon]

Hello community,

when I was a kid I discovered ZDoom and my life changed since then. After that, ZDaemon came and made it better to play online with other people. After that came the best combination of both worlds: Skulltag. Sadly Skulltag project was abandoned and reborn as Zandronum, so just for convention I moved into Zandronum.

 

But you guys always speak about PrBoom which I never heard of it. I used to know that there were like Doom Legacy (which I tried several years ago and found it weird), GZDoom which I think it's good for 3D graphics and such, Doomsday/Vavoom/Risen3D which had like 3D models that were cool at the time (at least for me as a kid in older times, nowadays I don't like them at all).

 

So I gotta ask you, which one do you consider it's the best and why?

I have the feeling I'll have to change from Zandronum to PrBoom or GZDoom.

[Empyre]

• Zandronum has most of the features of GZDoom, but it lags behind a few years, but nowhere near as many years behind as ZDaemon.
• GZDoom has all the features of Zandronum and ore, except no client-server multiplayer.
• PRBoom has much fewer fancy features, but it is (mostly) demo compatible with vanilla, supports Boom format (it's in the name), and when you are playing a map with hordes of monsters, it won't get bogged down anywhere near as much as Zandronum or GZDoom.
• Chocolate Doom tries to exactly copy the behaviour of the original Doome2.exe, including the bugs, but without requiring DosBox.
• As I understand it, Crispy Doom tries to be close to vanilla, but it allows higher resolutions, and I think it is limit-removing.  I have never tried Chocolate Doom or Crispy Doom myself, so I am no expert on those.

[Kira]

It depends on what you are looking for.

 

If you are used to ZDoom behavior, anything closer to vanilla (PrBoom+, Crispy Doom, etc) might be strange for a bit. I'm the opposite so I'm less likely to play using ZDoom derivatives, but hey they say it's good for the brain to adapt :P

 

Then you have rendering. I like software rendering the most, and if you are like me, you'll want to fiddle a bit with something like GZDoom. But you can achieve the look you prefer fairly easily anyway. Just be aware this is a thing.

 

Now we have gameplay matters. If you ever feel tempted by Sunder and the likes, then I highly recommend playing with PrBoom+, because it handles that kind of map really well. A while ago, this is where I could play Deus Vult map05 on a complete toaster just fine. It's also where the speedrunning scene is at nowadays due to the convenience and compatibility. A third of my PrBoom+ usage is watching sick demos :)

 

I'd say there isn't a one-stop solution for everything. You probably want to have a few sourceports all set up to cover all your Dooming needs. I'm myself on the look out from time to time, especially regarding Eternity Engine. Maybe we should make more maps for this one.

[kaleb.]

heres what i use

 

• For vanilla-compatible either Chocolate Doom (for the classic feel), or Crispy Doom (for classic feel but with a few improvements)
• For Boom-compatible WADs i use PrBoom+ (or GLBoom+ for a WAD thats hard to run, it runs the best out of any port ive used), Eternity (my go-to usually) or GZDoom just mainly for the fact you get infinite save slots.
• For limit-removing WADs I just use whatever, most likely GZDoom just because it's easy to drag and drop a wad onto the icon on my desktop

[ketmar]

12 hours ago, SirJuicyLemon said:

which one do you consider it's the best

k8vavoom.

 

12 hours ago, SirJuicyLemon said:

and why?

i am its author.

[SirJuicyLemon]

6 minutes ago, ketmar said:

k8vavoom.

 

i am its author.

Fair enough.

[seed]

15 hours ago, SirJuicyLemon said:

So I gotta ask you, which one do you consider it's the best and why?

 

I don't think there's any fair way to pick one as the best, since they all offer different things and are good at something else.

 

My favorites are PrBoom+, Eternity, ZDoom, Crispy, and GZDoom. No I can't, and won't choose one over the other. Most of the stuff I play is usually either limit-removing or Boom-compatible, so I find myself using PrBoom+ and Eternity most of the time. After Eternity will get Heretic/Hexen support (which PrBoom+ does not have) and complevel support it will be like PrBoom+ on steroids :D.

 

There's also Doom Retro, which is basically Crispy but Boom-compatible and has a few more features.