How much of a DOOM purist are you?

[Biodegradable]

22 hours ago, nocisum said:

I see I can download from this forum, where would be a good place to download original doom...or just buy a disc and set file appropriately?

 

You can get all the original games cheap off Steam or GOG.

[Spectre01]

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On a scale of one to ten, how purist are you when it comes to your preferred way of playing classic DOOM?

3/10 I guess. - I enjoy well-made total and partial conversions. Doesn't matter if they are not Doom as long as they are fun to play.

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-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

It depends. I'll use autoaim most of the time in PRBoom+ and mouselook if playing with mods or on maps with significant verticality, i.e. Hellbound.

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-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

Not at all.

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-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

Sometimes. I strongly dislike that Realm667 Lion Warrior with the shield and never want to see him in a Doom wad. He looks silly and does not fit alongside the Doom bestiary. I have similar thoughts on sprites/enemies from other games. In particular, Heretic/Hexen's fantasy-style enemies do not fit my idea of what a demon in the Doom universe should look like. Likewise, when the final boss(es) of Ultimate Torment and Torture used the Cycloid Emperor sprite from Duke3D, that took away from the experience. Now if it's a total conversion with a theme completely different from Doom, I don't mind.

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-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

I don't hold the Doom arsenal and bestiary to be the Holy Grail of game design, so anything that improves that aspect is welcome.

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-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

Any music format is fine as long as it fits. Some genres don't translate to midi that well either.

[Dark Pulse]

1. I like jumping, I like crouching, and I'm often playing Russian Overkill with Pickup/Powerup respawn, or was playing the DoomRPG Mod back before that got discontinued.

 

That's not to say I can't enjoy classic gameplay, or am adverse to it, but usually Doom is about blowing off some steam for me.

[ax34]

I play on GZDoom when possible (if wad is compatible with it) else PRBoom+

I use mouse look

I use autoaiming in Build engine games but i don't in Doom engine ones

I use jumping/crouching only in wads designed for it

I use texture upscaler (xBRZ)

I make maps for recent versions of GZDoom (maybe i'll make Boom one some day)

I usually play with my own little mod (i don't want to upload it anymore because of negative feedback)

I have "Actors are infinitely tall" disabled so i could jump/run over them (hello Nuts series)

Sometimes i play old wads with 8bit software renderer, with autoaiming, without upscaler and with using mouselook to only shoot monsters but not switches.

[QuaketallicA]

It depends on the mod and the mapset.

 

I'd say I lean more towards a classic/authentic look, i.e. 320x200 resolution with linear scaling in software renderer, no freelook or jump/crouch.

However, this is obviously not a good idea for mods like Brutal Doom or Complex Doom which change weapons and enemy sprites. In these more modern mods, I go for my native 1080p resolution in OpenGL with linear texture filtering, bloom, anti-aliasing, maybe ambient occlusion and fxaa. 

 

In vanilla Doom I pretty much always use mouse controls (i.e. right click to strafe and mouse to move forward/back, rather than wsad keys). In custom wads, it depends on the level of difficulty of the map. If I can strafe using the mouse, I might do that, but if the map is too challenging and wasd feels more natural, than I'll go with that more modern control scheme. And obviously wasd is a must for gameplay-changing mods like the ones mentioned above.

 

I avoid jumping and crouching generally, especially if a map was designed to be played vanilla. I don't have a problem in theory with a wad that does require jumping and crouching, but I just generally don't play many of those types of wads. They feel less like Doom and more like Quake or Heretic. I find mouselook to be more permissible than jumping/crouching.

 

MIDI vs CD? I don't know. Most maps are usually midi--I use FluidSynth, OPL, and Adlib the most, in descending order. In the case of Sigil which had both, I play with the Midi and listen to the Buckethead album on Spotify by itself. CD quality can vary. I'm not a fan of the "Doom Metal Soundtrack Vol. ___ ", but IDKFA is the goto soundtrack for Brutal Doom/Project Brutality (I'm aware they overlap a bit). I also enjoy the PSX/Doom 64 theme and the 3DO music.

 

Edit: Oh and if we're talking pure vanilla, then DOSBox is the optimal way for me. Source ports are a necessity to do what DOSBox can't, not my preferred method.

[SupremeBioVizier]

On 11/15/2020 at 11:15 PM, Biodegradable said:

 

You can get all the original games cheap off Steam or GOG.

Thank you much!

[j0lt]

I'd put myself at a solid 7.

 

I use GZDoom with modern controls. If I could change one thing about classic doom it would be to have limited ammo in the weapon and reloads.

 

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

Mouselook for sure.

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

I don't mind.

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

I think the aesthetic of classic Doom just works, scaled sprites change that and it doesn't always look better.

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

Only if they're not well done.

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

I prefer MIDI

[adamastor]

Minus 1.

[TasAcri]

I don't like jumping and looking up/down so i never use those or play maps that require them.

 

I play with a dual analog controller from the comfort of my couch. I know KB/M is better but it requires me being stranded on a chair, with a certain posture, using my whole hands and wrists. Plus, dual analog allows for full analog movement instead of just walk/run speeds.

 

I absolutely enjoy playing @ 240fps on my fast gsync monitor. Can't go back to 30/35 or even 60fps.

 

Mods that add smoother animations is a must. I especially like the smoother shotgun reload animations.

 

I prefer the original music/sfx and textures/monsters.

 

I never use texture filtering. Sharp pixels is the only way to go.

 

GZDOOM with graphics settings as close to vanilla as possible (in HD though). Sometimes i even use palette emulation.

 

GZDoom's new monster shadows looks nice. It grounds the enemies visually.

 

 

 

...So, dunno, 6?

 

[gwain]

no freelook but I do use mouse 

mostly just play boom/vanilla stuff

I love custom stuff

prefer midi but anything works works

 

probably a 3

[rzh]

A very unusual 9, I would say.

On 11/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Scorpinax said:

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

Autoaim, unless it's GZDoom, which means I'm playing stuff like Ashes, in which case, yeah, mouselook.

On 11/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Scorpinax said:

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

Yes, because I'm not used to it in a Doom map. TCs, no, in fact I expect it and I welcome it.

On 11/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Scorpinax said:

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

Depends. Music? No. Textures? Maybe, only if they're poor in quality/ jarring. Enemies/ weapons? Kind of. They need to be tongue-in-cheek (the author knows they don't fit, that's why they're using them).

On 11/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Scorpinax said:

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

Yes.

On 11/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Scorpinax said:

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

I like them more often than not. Helps the .wad stand out more, if executed neatly.

On 11/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Scorpinax said:

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

Nope, the one thing I hate about MIDI is how different it can sound and I can't guess which soundfont/ hardware the composer used when writing the soundtrack.

Sometimes OPL3 sounds like absolute ass (many modern .wads), general MIDI sometimes sounds grating (title track for Eternal Doom really annoys me)

So I ended up using general Windows for most .wads, OPL3 for Plutonia MIDI Pack (because Jade Empire and Always Watching sound amazing), Heretic and Hexen (both of which have soundtracks that simply don't sound right to me in general MIDI). In other words, if the port supports it, and the music comes as .ogg or .mp3, that's great, it means that I can always listen to the soundtrack the way it was intended to sound, and I can also carry it on my phone if I like it enough.

 

Note that this is only in regards to Doom/ DeHacked stuff (aka no GZDoom TCs or partial converstions). I mostly play using Crispy Doom/ Heretic / Hexen, and I use Woof for complevels 9, 11 and MBF21. Now let's talk about settings, specifically in Crispy. I play with capped framerate, 4:3 aspect ratio, no vsync, no smooth scaling, no smooth diminishing light and no translucency, but I do play with higher res, coloured blood & hud elements, brightmaps, etc. No gameplay elements are changed and I disable map stats by default. The automap does have extended colours and the level time displayed though. Esentially, my game looks like this:

Spoiler

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by rzh

[PsychEyeball]

Most likely a 5/10 over here. I find myself in a weird position where I use mouselook, but only to look around and not to aim. This is why I especially enjoy DSDA-Doom because it allows you to freely look vertically without compromising the original aiming system. Helps to just soak in the scenery better.

 

I like playing in widescreen hi-resolution without all of those nasty scaling effects at uncapped FPS. I can no longer stand playing in 320x200 because it makes the game look like a bad eye exam and while 640x400 does look better, it still feels a bit too low for me today.

 

I'm pretty old fashionned when it comes to gameplay and I like to keep it as unmodded and simple as possible. I'm not a fan of crouch and jump in Doom and keep them off unless the WAD makes you have to do it. I will play WADs using their intended complevels or the appropriate Strict profile when playing in GZDoom. If there are custom enemies and weapons in a WAD, it's cool if they were done well.

 

No real preferences when it comes to music, I'll take either MIDI or custom formats. 

[ImproversGaming]

Probably an 8/10 for now. In the future I might branch out but I love wads like the originals and shill shiver when I think of mouse-look or jumping...

It is great that Doom can provide so many different varieties.

[Kute]

I'm perfectly ok with the Doom weapons and bestiary. Since any addition to either wouldn't really be an improvement, just different, I don't see the shallow positives outweighing the convenience of running the game how its meant to be run. While Doom is as far from a competitive game as you can get, I find getting better at games to be one of the marvels of playing them, and once you start changing the game, who knows what's going on. I don't miss freelook when I play older dooms. So I keep things pretty rigid. UV Pistol starts, I'll save when I'm figuring out a map but if I can't beat the map without saving then I haven't beaten it. Getting better at games will feel better in the longrun than loading up Brutal Doom and blowing up the entire screen in one grenade or whatever

[maxmanium]

- I always use autoaim, never freelook

- Yes, I don't like jumping or crouching in Doom

- I like both low and high resolutions in source ports, but I don't like the cheesy hi-res textures\sprites\whatever.

- I love custom content, but pretty much exclusively dehacked-type stuff that is still close to the original in spirit

- Yes, I've grown to love MIDIs.

 

I've studied the engine enough (though not in the programming sense) that I know a lot about differences between source ports. I've gotta play at the right complevel or else it just feels wrong. I do wish I could just chill out and use GZDoom so I don't have to worry about that, but there's a lot of minor things added up that just change too much for me.

[Aaron Blain]

I would give myself a 10, but I'll occasionally spend time with some gzdoom stuff. I don't tend to stick with it, though.

 

I use Chocolate if at all possible. When I have to use something more powerful, I always tweak it to get it as close to Vanilla as I can. Low resolution, no interpolation, etc.

 

That said -- who else gasped the first time they watched a John Romero video and he was playing jDoom? I figure if HE's not such a purist, I can chill out a little.

[RHhe82]

I'm somewhat close to a purist. I use DSDA and Crispy as my ports (lately exclusively DSDA), and while I use higher resolutions (and hardware rendering, but that's because my laptop isn't a gaming one), I don't really like "graphical enhancements" of GZDoom and other graphically advanced source ports. I don't use jumping and freelook, I don't like "3D floors", I don't like my Doom sounding and looking like Quake or Duke Nukem or some modern shooter. I like my Doom soundtrack to be midis. If I wanted recorded and compressed music to play on background, I'll put on Spotify or my CD player.

 

I'm not against partial/total conversions, or even GZDoom stuff, but I find I really prefer vanilla/limit-removing/Boom/MBF -stuff. I guess I think that if I wanted Duke Nukem 3D- or Quake-like play, I'd just play Duke Nukem 3D or Quake.

 

So... 8/10? 7/10?

[Thelokk]

High tolerance when it comes to ports / gzdoom stuff, very low when it comes to modding. Still have to see a single custom weapon / enemy that legitimately made me say 'it fits Doom'.

[heliumlamb]

been primarily but absolutely not exclusively using chocolate doom since 2008. these days its usually choco/crispy, woof or eternity engine. always autoaim. no mouselook, only mouseturn, sometimes keyboard only. 35 fps. doom at 60fps or greater is one of the 2 games that has ever made made me motion sick. never more than 640*4x0 if at all possible. if i'm playing something in an enhanced port that requires use of an engine side jump or crouch function, i will go and bind it in order to use it. i cannot get upset in the slightest about gameplay mods as nobody is forcing me play them, and when i do, i am fully aware of what i may be getting into. sometimes i may be curious but as a player i tend to gravitate to partial or total conversions with its own maps designed with the modifications in mind, rather than just replacing weapons and things and going through the id maps.

on a side note, for what may require it, and remains compatible with its final release, i have always preferred zdoom to gzdoom. even with gzdoom's relatively recent software rendering options, it does not seem to feel right, and is the only instance i have ever seen doom in either a hardware or software renderer drop fps on the id maps on any computer built since like 2000.

i always go for an opl3 emulation. them carrier waves bring nice gurgles to my ears, and i will never get enough of them. if something includes its own music in a different format, i'll listen.

with this considered i would say probably a 7 or 8. if i see someone jump on a map that was not designed with that in mind i will get slightly miffed, and if they're playing in front of me and doing that, i cannot remain silent on the matter.

Edited March 4, 2022 by heliumlamb

[Gibbon]

I play exactly as I did in 1994.

 

No mouse look

No jumping

No super high res (other than to record videos)

No stupidly high framerates (other than to record 1080p60 on youtube)

 

Doom is perfectly fine the way it was.

[Old-Doomguy]

I cannot scale myself, lol, but I enjoy playing with GZDoom because it's easy and most all wads work - I have a very limited play-time so I don't wanna spend anymore time that what it takes to download the wad and then drag n drop it to gzdoom. I prefer limit removing but I generally avoid mouselook and jumping. I tend to not enjoy gameplay mods or TCs much though.

[DavitW]

I try not to come across as a purist or pretentious in anyway, but those "Smooth Doom" animations that some mods use make me irrationally angry. Certainly nothing wrong with using them, but they're not for me.

[blackthorn]

I suppose I'm a moderate purist in that I like to play things fairly faithfully (no mouselook, jumping etc.), and generally prefer vanilla or simple limit-removing type WADs that don't stray too far from the classic gameplay. I use DSDA-Doom pretty much exclusively at the moment, and stick to software rendering unless I'm playing a particularly detailed map filled with hundreds of enemies, in which case I'll switch to OpenGL with shader lighting. I do however like to play in an enhanced widescreen resolution (usually 1280x720) as I prefer the clarity and these days find gaming in 4:3 a bit limiting, especially for FPS games.

 

I keep GZDoom installed as I don't mind using it (and all of its enhancements) to play things specifically designed for it, especially full-blown TCs. I'm not a fan of playing regular Doom content with crazy gameplay mods, though.

[Roofi]

I am a certified old fart. Dosbox is the best way to play Doom for me.

 

I like limit-removing and boom format too but I love vanilla limitations.

[RHhe82]

50 minutes ago, Old-Doomguy said:

I don't wanna spend anymore time that what it takes to download the wad and then drag n drop it to gzdoom.

I use DoomLauncher by Hobomaster. It has an interface to iDGames repository, so when I wanna test some wad, I do a couple of double-clicks and I’m already playing. With DSDA I need to specify complevel just in case, but GZDoom wouldn’t need that either, I assume.

[CoolerDoomeR]

On 11/2/2020 at 8:34 AM, Scorpinax said:

On a scale of one to ten, how purist are you when it comes to your preferred way of playing classic DOOM? 

1- will play anything with the doom engine

10- absolute purist, classic controls only, no extra enemies/weapons/mechanics

 

Some things to consider:

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

 

I'm curious because I've seen it both ways here.

1- I will play antything with the doom engine.

I use mouselook

[Thelokk]

Frankly, I have (almost) every single port and will play whatever the map requires. Port 'preferences' are sectarian and self-limiting. 

[Zaxxon]

When it comes to controls:

 

I use:

- Mouse look - I've played my fair share of Doom with no mouse look, and i don't think i can go back to it now. It's a product of its time of which i'm not too fond of. It might make things easier in certain situations, but i don't care, not even slightly.

- No autoaim - Autoaim is another product of the early days of PC shooters, and i don't like it. In certain situations it fucks with your ability to prioritize targets, and from certain distances you can't even aim at a target, even though Imps, Barons, Arachnotrons, you name it, can target you perfectly from a mile away.

- Crosshair - with the two above, that one is absolutely needed

 

I don't use:

- Jump - It can break maps and secrets

- Crouch - It is useless

 

 

When it comes to visuals and gameplay:

 

I like:

- Classic looking map style. Maps should be of reasonable size, monster count, and also, on the light side when it comes to complexity

- I like custom textures and visuals, as long as they look or feel like they belong in a Doom game. For example, Back to Saturn X, Alien Vendetta, Requiem and others of similar look.

- I like the pixelated look of the game, but i don't like texture flickering, that's why i set the rendering to "none (trilinear)" for a more stable look.

- I like Ultra-Violence - Not because i think i'm good (quite the opposite), but because i can't bring myself to miss any monster spawns. I like to see the full idea behind the design and enemy placement. That sometimes might be a bit frustrating when i stumble upon a very hard wad, but still, i just can't lower the difficulty.

- I use saves, but i don't reload a save unless i die. That way it feels less like scumming and i had many maps when i was on low health, thinking i'm as good as dead, but i was able to push through and beat the map with no deaths and reloads. Also, i never save on low health, if i'm below 50% and no armor, i never save. 

 

I don't like or downright hate:

- I don't like maps that stray too far away from the classic Doom design philosophy. I don't like huge, oversized mazes, where finding every single key is an "adventure" of its own. I hate slaughter maps!

- I don't like textures and visuals that look or feel like they don't belong in a Doom game. For example, Sunder, Ancient Aliens and other of similar look. I hate wads that make you feel like you're on the inside of a disco ball.

- I hate custom monsters, no matter how well they are made. For me, they're always out of place. I play wads because i want to play more Doom, i don't want to play someone else's fan fiction interpretation of Doom. That being said, i'm willing to try some total conversions, but that will be more in the sense of trying a new non-Doom game.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Zaxxon

[Somniac]

I used pretty much exclusively ZDoom and GzDoom for a long time, just out of habit. I'm used to mouse look but might turn it off if I want a more old school experience. Actually preferring Crispy Doom a lot more now. 

 

I went through a period of only ever playing Doom with Brutal Doom and eventually got bored of that, but occasionally I'll fire up Supercharge or Beautiful Doom for the visual enhancements and added punch for weapons.

 

I typically map in UDMF but really only for the small (but vital) QOL improvements, like being able to align ceilings and floors is such a godsend and breaks you free of the grid constraint, though I don't really use any advanced features. A slope or 3d floor here and there, for effect.

[Valboom]

7/10 Purist:

-No mouse look

-No Jumping 

-Uncapped frame rate 

-Mininal HUD 

-Widescreen 

-640x400 resolution 

-Crispy Doom and Woof they are my favorite souceports