How you play DOOM

[Super Mighty G]

So GZDoom is probably the most used source port right now. Something I notice very often which I personally find extremely annoying is how the game looks in screenshots or videos people make using GZDoom. It almost always looks like this:

Sprites looks like garbage due to being scaled up and smoothed. They also clip through the floor. Lighting is wrong. Textures look like mud.

 

It should look like this:

 

This is probably all just me, but I prefer to have my game look as unfiltered as possible but still have all the nice options GZDoom offers. So that got me thinking, does this kind of thing bother anyone else? How do you prefer to play Doom?

[Maximum Matt]

Chocolate Doom.

[LadyVader1138]

8 minutes ago, Maximum Matt said:

Chocolate Doom.

THIS.

[Super Mighty G]

13 minutes ago, Maximum Matt said:

Chocolate Doom.

Also good.

[Novaseer]

As a regular GZDoom user I've only just realised how annoying that blur that you mention is. Note to self: find a way to disable it.

[unerxai]

Choco Doom or Crispy Doom (with brightmaps)

[leodoom85]

Quote

How you play Doom?

With a keyboard and a mouse, of course...

 

Serious answer, I have no trouble playing any sourceport to be honest. About that couple of shots, if using GZDoom, just need to set the texture filtering with "none" and it's solved. I can play it with both none and trilinear filter though...although, I set other options like bloom at minimum or being disabled because I have a laptop that kinda sucks. 

 

Heck, I started using Doom95 first no problem. Doomsday and Risen 3D? bring it on!!!. I used those ports enough to discover nice megawads...Doom Legacy or ZDoom? go ahead, no issues so far. Pr/GLBoom? good port too. Eternity? had no problem with the options. 3DGE? good too (I barely used it though). And not gonna post more comments with Zandronum and GZDoom because I use them the most now.

[Misty]

I mostly use eternity engine and for testing glboom+. Gzdoom and zandronum a bit less I used to.

[Gerardo194]

Dosbox or Doom95

[Loud Silence]

Choco Doom and Eternity Engine (definitely the best ports). With Yamaha S-YXG50 WDM SoftSynthesizer. Doom looks best on Software Renderer. Even not filtered OpenGL can't replicate SW renderer's look 100% (same for Duke 3D and Quake).

[Count651]

zDoom software rendering 640 x 480 resolution with smooth doom

[GamingMarine]

38 minutes ago, Novaseer said:

As a regular GZDoom user I've only just realised how annoying that blur that you mention is. Note to self: find a way to disable it.

That can be disabled by going to Options, then Display Options, Texture Options, and setting Texture Filter mode to "None".

[Bites!]

i play Doom with GZDoom, Zandronum, Chocolate Doom, PrBoom and Doom Retro

[Magicana]

I've always preferred playing through Zdoom - It just hits the spot for me (Or maybe I've got the settings just right and I can't be bothered replicating it).

 

 

Comes out looking like this.

[Danlex]

GlBoom+ is the one I use most of the time.

[Nymbus_Hustle]

I play with Zandronum, GZDoom, Chocolate Doom, and PrBoom+. sometimes Doomsday. My favorite is GZDoom tho

[Doomkid]

My biggest gripe with OpenGL ports back in the day was the blurriness. I’m glad it’s standard to be able to change the texture filtering and lighting options and whatnot.

 

I use many ports but like the OP I try to get my textures and lighting as close to the original as possible.

 

Another thing that’s a default setting which I don’t like is the sprite billboarding. In software, if you look down at an object, it doesn’t look flat as paper, but the world around it looks a bit distorted. In OpenGL, the default is usually to have billboarding on the X axis only iirc, which makes objects appear flat as paper. If you switch it to X/Y axis, it doesn’t look quite so paper flat. It still looks kind of weird, just less so imo.

[seed]

It depends.

 

Usually PrBoom+ in OpenGL when playing bigger/complex maps with many monsters, its Software renderer, or Eternity (I definitely agree that it's probably the most underrated port right now). GZDoom too if the wad requires it, with or without brightmaps and dynamic lights.  All running in 1080p. Also I reject most if not all "Doom is meant to play this way or that way" BS. I play Doom however I want.

 

Other times Crispy Doom and Chocolate Doom, especially for vanilla. Texture filtering and sprite scaling always disabled in GL ports, they make the game look like garbage. No gameplay/visual/sound mods, and with the recommended settings provided in the readme. Never bothered to check MP ports as I don't play MP.

Edited June 23, 2019 by seed

[xvertigox]

By moving my head to dodge projectiles.

 

Also, it depends entirely on the wad and what sort of buzz I wanna get on. 99.999% of the time it's without mlook.

 

• glboom+
• crispy doom
• chocolate doom
• gzdoom
• gzdoom with vanilla essence
• zandronum
• zdaemon
• odamex

I now see this list is redundant, it's basically a list of the most common ports. I should try out EE sometime..

[Doom Marine]

PrBoom+

 

... if I'm forced off it due to compatibility: GZDoom.

[Roofi]

Prboom and Dosbox when I feel like an old fart.

 

Gzdoom when wads are made exclusively for gzdoom.

[Scorpius]

I've used several ports in the past like Skulltag, Crispy Doom, ZDoom and DOSBox. Nowadays, I use either PrBoom+ or GZDoom, both run great on my computer. It depends on the mood I'm in and possibly the WAD I'm playing too. If I want the classic look and feel, I would use the first option. My only real complaint about PrBoom+ is the music, it sounds generally awful most of the time. I would pick the latter for the smoothness, compatibility and visual treat.

 

I use smooth weapons and HD sounds in GZDoom which adds to it I'd say. I NEVER use mouselook, jump, crouch, etc (the ONLY exception is Brutal Doom). I always play DOOM with mouse and keyboard, usually on HMP or UV.

[dr_st]

MBF in DOS/DOSBox (for authenticity combined with slightly better looks due to high-res), Doomsday/Risen3D in Windows (for eyecandy / proper freelook).

 

I know that ZDoom/GZDoom are the thing, I just never got hooked on them. They have so much in them that it doesn't seem like DOOM to me.

[Zeskofp]

I personally like the linear texture filtering on GZDoom, it makes the images look blurry and appear as if it's a 144p video, It kinda feels like Call of Duty 2/Half-Life 2 on lowest setting, plain beauty. The sky texture also looks blurry like the one I used to see in Half-Life 1.

[DecoyZulu]

I've been using GZDoom, but I've got PrBoom to use for speedruns as soon as I can figure out how to record demos properly.

[Fizanko]

I play with Zandronum the majority of the time, mostly because it has noticably better performance than GZDoom on maps involving insane amount of enemies. I rarely now play with GZDoom only for using gameplay mods that are coded to only work on GZDoom.

 

On a few maps included in the Sunder megawad that even Zandronum has some trouble running at full speed, i switch to PrBoom+ that deal with them without a problem.

I also always disable the filtering/smoothing, i never could enjoy those blurry sprites, the pixelated original display looks a lot better.

But i found myself to play more and more with the doom software render in zandronum, i don't know if it's nostalgia driving me there, but i have a special liking to this kind of display during my doom play time

Edited June 23, 2019 by Fizanko

[MFG38]

Primarily GZDoom, Standard lighting mode, texture filtering turned off, no bloom/SSAO/etc. (unless I'm testing performance on a map).

[DynamiteKaitorn]

GZ Just for simplicity sakes but I do use Choco DooM. For GZ though I try to remove any of the fancy filters on sprites and textures as it looks ugly. Also I usually have to crank the lighting up since for some reason default GZ is really dark for my PC/TV screen. :l

[wolfmcbeard]

GZDoom because I do like most of what it does to give some modern touches, but I agree about the muddy textures and sprite clipping being not great.
Choco for the classic feel.

I can't stand trying to use DOSBox, maybe it's because I didn't mess around with computers at all until the late life of Vista and therefore don't understand DOS.

[xvertigox]

25 minutes ago, wolfmcbeard said:

I can't stand trying to use DOSBox, maybe it's because I didn't mess around with computers at all until the late life of Vista and therefore don't understand DOS.

 

No point in using DOSBox over Chocolate Doom. It is cool to have you dos dir mounted as C: and browse via DOSBox but gameplay-wise fuck it.