A list of enhancement mods for Doom (and any id tech games) (Including Vanilla/Limit-removing/ZDoom-specific)

[TheNoob_Gamer]

In celebration of a new year (or new decade I should say), (and because I'm bored honestly), I decided to create a list of enhancement mods (or minimods) for Doom, mostly inspired from an article from Chocolate Doom wiki. If anyone know some, please comment!

 

Here are some notes:

 

• The purpose of this post is to make said topic easier to search. This post will of course, assumed that you have experienced quite a while in Doom modding and knows how to loading mods.
• This list is intended for beginners/ vetaran Doomers and whoever seek for a better Dooming experience while not altering too much on gameplay (aka semi-purists).
• Thus, this list will only focus on mods that aesthetically enhanced (and subtly enhanced gameplay - which is a special case). Gameplay mods like Trailblazer, Russian Overkill, D4V and so on will not be included. Popular skin packs may be included.
• As indicated in the title, this list will be split into parts/categories to make it more organised and cleaner for newcomers.
• Each mod will have its own and shortened description.
• Here is an example of what a part/catagory will look like:

Spoiler

• Category Z

        + Vanilla-compatible

           - Mod A (Description here)

           - Mod B (Description here)

        + Limit-removing

           - Mod X (Description here)

and so on.....

• For an explanation of what Limit-removing/ZDoom-specific means to the following mods, click on the spoiler below.

Spoiler

1. Vanilla-compatible - Those mods work properly on all source ports. Additional tweaks might required.
2. Limit-removing (can't think of a better name honestly) - Those mods work on most source ports, except for some like Chocolate Doom and base DOS game. It might be possible to run those mods on DOS, but additional tweaks and a DOS-specific source port are required.
3. ZDoom-specific - Those mods only run on ZDoom and its deratives (e.g GZDoom, QZDoom). May work on everything else but need heavy modification into their files.

Have fun!

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Sound enhancements - The following mods enhance the sounds/music for Doom. This is a kind of special category and may or may not be vanilla-compatible. For best results, use those in ZDoom and its deratives.

 

                     + Perkristan's HD sounds (pk_doom_sfx.zip) - Make Doom's SFX much clearer and more suitable with modern standards. Many sounds have been altered and changed due to this, but staying as close as possible to their vanilla counterparts. Go to the link for explanations on all (hopefully) altered SFX.

                     + Doom Sound Bulb (Doom_Sound_Bulb_v2.zip / SeanTheBermanator) - A spiritual successor to the above enhancement, making the sounds EVEN clearer, more suitable with modern standards while staying closer to their original counterparts. 

                     + Jimmy's Jukebox (There are 3 files, just check the forum thread) - "Allows you to generate a playlist of music, out of 843 tracks from various games and megawads (including all of Jimmy's and Forty-Two's original material), and will then play it throughout the entirety of any megawad desired. Be sure to bind your keys."

 

 

(I may as well also recommend PS Doom/Doom 64's SFX, but I won't link them here due to how lazy I am. You probably have already known though)

 

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Graphical enhancements - Most of this post will revolve around this part.

 

• Vanilla-compatible

 

                    + The Minor Sprite Fixing Project - (sprfix19.zip /Marphy Black - Revenant100) id created a perfect game - or so most people thought. They accidentally left some (actually, many) error sprites during Doom 1/2's development, and this mod (series) seeks to fix all of them and other quirks that have existed in Doom throughout the years. Some example can be seen in the forum post or in the video. A Heretic/SIGIL version is also available.

                    + Vanilla Doom Smooth Weapons (vsmooth.zip / Simon Howard - fraggle) - Perkristan's Smooth Weapons in Vanilla Doom. Also demo-compatible - you can record and playback demo with this mod with no desync.

                    + "Doom Powerup/Pain Pallette Nerf" (can't think of a better name, sorry) (see_easy.wad / Unknown author, probably Doomkid for uploading) - Reduce the effects on some palette, such as the aggressive white color you got when in god mode and the red screen when you got pwned too much at once. 

                    + Doom 64 Graphics Pack (d64-gfx.zip - Doomkid/Various) - An attempt of porting Doom 64's sprites and SFX to Vanilla Doom, with reimagined sprites for cut Doom 64 monsters (archviles, commandos). Demo-compatible. 

 

• Limit-removing

 

                   + Smooth Doom Monsters (Smoothed.wad / VGA) -  An attempt of porting Smooth Doom monsters into Doom. Compatible with Doom Retro and Crispy Doom only currently.

                   + Smooth Doom Weapons / Black Gloves Edition (BlackOps.wad / VGA) - Eh, the title says it all. Nothing too different from Vanilla Doom Smooth Weapons, except for the better-looking pistol and the plasma rifle. Compatible with most source ports. (excluding Chocolate Doom. Playable with DOS through MBF - SMMU)

                   + Dehacked Doom 64 (S64Arsenal_Rrborn_1.1.1.rar / me) - Another attempt of porting Doom 64 stuff to PC, this time with smooth weapons and recreated enemy behaviors to better matched their Doom 64 counterparts. Not demo compatible and is based on the mod above.

 

• ZDoom-specific

                 

                   + Smooth Doom (SmoothDoom.pk3 / Gifty) - Perkristan's Smooth Weapons extended to the whole Doom, ranging from simple weapon animations to enemies' movement. Include other goodies like gore, bullet casings and other weapon packs (Black Gloves/D64) which are available in the above category. Currently meant for GZDoom only.

                   + Beautiful Doom (Beautiful-Doom-20190611.zip / Jekyll Grim Payne et al) - Smooth Doom plus a shitload of gameplay (a new weapon set) and graphical features (animated gore, Light effects, halos, fire, smoke, physically accurate gibs).

                   + EVP - Enhanced Vanilla Project (EVP.zip - A_D_M_E_R_A_L) - Aims to give vanilla Doom "a fresh coat of paint, while maintaining vanilla gameplay". GZDoom 3.7+ only.

                   + Widescreen Status Bars (zdoom_wide1808.zip / NightFright) -  Designed for compatible source ports that support widescreen resolutions. In addition to removing the brick patterns that appear on the side of the bar when upscaling it, it also helps prevent graphical glitches that sometimes occurs from the upscaling process. Including fixes for some PWADs and all IWADS. DOS and other source ports may be compatible.

                   + The Neural Upscale 2X Project (NeuralUpscale2x_v1.0.pk3 /  hidfan et al) - Using Nvidia's technologies, this project aims to make textures and sprites look better by upscaling them to 8X and redownscale to 2X. A smooth weapon pack is included.

                   + Vanilla Essence -  Hate how GZDoom looks on your system? With just a simple click, you can play Doom the way it was in the 90s, complete with the blurry 200p and authentic 35fps! Also featuring a bunch of options allowing you to modify things as you wish.

 

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Gameplay enhancements - This part featuring mods that subtly enhanced gameplay and not altering it too much. GZDoom only, sorry!

 

• ZMovement (ZMovement 3.1.pk3 / Ivory Duke) - Allows you to BHop like Quake and CS pros. Includes a menu that allows you to tweak movement values (crouching speed, walking speed) in great detail. GZDoom 3.8+ required.
• Lean (lean.pk3 / Josh771 - SidDoyle - Gives you the ability to lean, with a menu that allows you to tweak how great you can lean. GZDoom 3.7+ required.
• Tilt++ (TiltPlusPlus v1.65.pk3 / Nash Muhandes) -  Quake-like strafe tilting, movement tilting, turn/look tilting, underwater tilting and death tilting. GZDoom 4.1.3+ required.
• Weapon Sway (WeaponSway v1.0.pk3 / Nash Muhandes) - Adds weapon sway to Doom. GZDoom 3.7+ required.
• M8F's toolbox (A collection of minimods by the same author.)

 

1. Hellscape Navigator (hellscape-navigator-0.15.pk3) - A collection of tools designed to help navigation in complex maps, like creating signs, footnotes and markers, compasses. Great for playing huge maps like Eternal Doom maps.

2. Target Spy: Health Bars++ (target-spy-1.12.pk3) - A enemy health bar mod for Doom. Allows you to customize health bars and so on.

3. Weapon Menu + (weapon-menu-3.8.pk3) -  GoldSrc/Source engine-style weapon swapping. Featuring a shitload of keybindings.

4. IDCLEver Starter (idclever-starter-1.0.pk3) - Universal mod for forced pistol starts.

5. Armament Tuning (armament-tuning-0.3.1.pk3) - Contains some extra options for weapon tweaking.

6. Laser Sight (laser-sight-0.5.4.pk3) - Provides standalone configurable Laser Sight for GZDoom.

 

That's all for now. I hope you enjoy!

 

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by TheNoob_Gamer

[m8f]

Some of things in the same vein (all GZDoom-specific):

Brightmaps Plus: brightmaps that are compatible with Minor Sprite Fixing Project.

Smooth Fluids: it smooths the animation for fluid textures, and adds a warp to them.

Splashes: liquid splashes.

Dead Marine: weapons/gore/HUD/general enhancement mod for GZDoom which aims to add atmosphere, visual pizzazz, and modern punch to Doom without changing any of the gameplay or mechanics.

[dmslr]

All GZDoom-specific.

 

Graphical:

Blood fixer: 'Proper' blood colors for some monsters (blue for cacos, green for hell knights, etc.). I attached the verions for BTSX and Ancient Aliens by m8f (AA stealth alien gibbing fix by SiFi270).

Doom Wadsnip Hi-Res v1.0: Neural upscale (2x, 4x, 8x) + Smooth Doom.

 

Gameplay:

Responsive Weapons + Faster Weapon Switching: pistol, shotgun and SSG fire instantly; faster weapon switching

I suggest to add the hud/status bar category where I'd put:

Transparent Vanilla HUD: vanilla status bar without the 'concrete' background.

Fullscreen Statusbar Mod: vanilla status bar without borders in widescreen resolutions with some optional enhancements.
JP's HUD mod: 'emphasizes readability while conserving screen space'.

Edited January 1, 2020 by dmslr : Added Responsive Weapons mod

[TheNoob_Gamer]

10 hours ago, dmslr said:

I suggest to add the hud/status bar category where I'd put:

I thought of adding this part in the first place but ended up scrapping it - I'd have added 20 something HUD mods. I'll think of it again, thanks.

[Boomslang]

i'm using the Neural upscale pack, is there any smooth animation mods that are compatible with it?

[TheNoob_Gamer]

2 minutes ago, Boomslang said:

is there any smooth animation mods that are compatible with it?

Any smooth animation mods (that don't affect enemies) will be fine.

[Boomslang]

Just now, TheNoob_Gamer said:

Any smooth animation mods (which don't affect enemies) will be fine.

i'm gonna try out that wadsnip hi-rez mod