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Thermal Lance

Which sourceport do you use the most and why?

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5 hours ago, :[Lol 6]: said:

By the way, why do some people dislike and even hate Gzdoom? sure it's not the most purist port, but, as it has the widest mod support, you can run a lot of comunnity-made mods if your source port of choice is not compatible. In my opinion, playing through Gzdoom, Lzdoom or even the original zdoom and it's derived ports is the best way to increase the comunity interactions. If the source code was released, it was released so fans could implement any changes they want, and GZDoom is one of the best options for this.

 

I think the main reason is that people who hate GZDoom blame it on certain poor practices in mapping that they associate with GZDoom.  A feature-rich port like GZDoom allows a whole lot of creative freedom, and nearly limitless possibilities, but it also allows a mapper to bury a poor, unbalanced, boring map under heaps of custom monsters, scripts and visual gimmicks.  And of course sometimes the custom monsters and scripts and gimmicks can be the worst part, where if they're not used right they break up the flow of gameplay and make the whole level a confused tedious mess.  Obviously it's unfair to blame a really cool sourceport for the most disappointing maps made for it, and there's a long history of fantastic ZDoom maps out there, but there's a school of thought (which I don't entirely disagree with) that says mappers should cut their teeth making regular Doom maps, learning the fundamentals of gameplay flow and balance, before building on that with everything GZDoom has to offer.

 

The other thing is what therealdrgray said where GZDoom doesn't play quite like Doom, which I'm personally able to overlook but is still periodically distracting (rocket blasts are SO much more satisfying in vanilla); and Noiser's thing about people used to GZDoom being like "ur map is brokem" because they had jumping and freelook enabled while playing somebody's vanilla map.

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I had been personally using zandronum and then zdoom as my main source ports for a good amount of years when I first got into the game and discovered there are other ways to play other than doom95 (I looked up "doom multiplayer" :P)

Pretty good source ports that I still use from time to time, but I have mostly replaced zdoom with lzdoom, now (gzdoom hates my graphics card and takes ages to load, aside from having lag spikes all the time. Still a good feature-rich port, will probably get fixed). I still use zdoom to make sure my maps run on it.

These days I mostly use prboom+ because it acts like a swish knife of a source port for me, while keeping vanilla things intact, if you want. It is very compatible in general and very optimized, as it hardly lags my old af rig.

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38 minutes ago, StupidBunny said:

 

I think the main reason is that people who hate GZDoom blame it on certain poor practices in mapping that they associate with GZDoom.  A feature-rich port like GZDoom allows a whole lot of creative freedom, and nearly limitless possibilities, but it also allows a mapper to bury a poor, unbalanced, boring map under heaps of custom monsters, scripts and visual gimmicks.

[...]

Also, this post perfectly expresses all my gripes with most of the mods for this port. The port itself gives so many possibilities for things to be done in this engine it's unreal... heh

I personally remember myself looking forward to what all those crazy, creative people will come up next with this thing and I was consistently blown away, even by theoretically simple things, like good usage of coloured lighting, like hurt.wad encompasses. This is just too much for newbies, because they tend to miss the point of what makes this game fun, mainly because of lack of experience.

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I use GZDoom for casual play, although I like to keep things vanilla related to gameplay wherever I can (no vertical mouse-look, no texture filtering, normal hud, etc) but I love to keep the game looking beautiful and fancy.

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Currently I play on GZDoom because it's the port I'm most comfortable with, and is the most customizable. The scaling of the HUD is REALLY nice, for example. Like Percy, I keep the gameplay as vanilla as possible with no mouselook, no dynamic lights, etc. Unless it's required in a certain WAD, of course. I played the IWADs for the first time on DoomRetro and was then recommended GZDoom, as it also accepts nearly anything you put in a WAD such as custom textures. It's easier to work with on some aspects, basically.

I also like GZDoom for its alternative HUD, allowing me to actively watch the monster, item, and secret counts on top of my health, armor, and ammo without pressing TAB. PrBoom does have that, too, but it's a bit hard to read and not as customizable.

 

GZDoom also runs pretty damn well on my computer, for some reason. I play Sunlust MAP28 and MAP30 with NO framedrops.

 

Once I find a way to turn off infinitely tall monsters in PrBoom+ and GLBoom+ (I just set up the ports a little while ago and really tried to find out), I'll be using those ports regularly.

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1 minute ago, Dunn & Dunn said:

Once I find a way to turn off infinitely tall monsters in PrBoom+ and GLBoom+ (I just set up the ports a little while ago and really tried to find out), I'll be using those ports regularly.

Don't think you can do that, unless there's some option I'm not aware of. They stick a lot closer to the original codebase than GZDoom does.

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21 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

Don't think you can do that, unless there's some option I'm not aware of. They stick a lot closer to the original codebase than GZDoom does.

 

Well, that's rather craptastic. :/

 

I found out about the infinite height when playing a couple of Sunlust maps with GLBoom+ (just testing the port out for the first time) and man, is it annoying. That's probably the only thing that I will refuse to have on when playing classic doom.

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On 12/14/2020 at 7:31 AM, AtticTelephone said:

PRBoom+, good in every way, also because I HATE GZDoom, because instead of motivating experimenting with the limitations of vanilla, limit-removing and even Boom, it just goes "do whatever you want". Pointless detailing with bad gameplay, terrywads, and lots of other things come from GZDoom and ZDoom, and they aren't good at all.

Looks like someone still thinks it's 2005...

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Yeah for the most part it’s amazing how seamless the vanilla experience can still be when playing any limit-removed map, no matter how sophisticated it may be. But the infinitely tall actors is a glaring exception to that. I hate bumbling around a seemingly wide open empty floor trying to dodge cacodemons floating 2000 feet above me where I can’t see them, and getting bit by the fuckers to boot. The maps I’m making now are theoretically designed to be vanilla-limit-removed-compatible but at a certain point I refuse to even try designing around the infinitely tall actor problem.

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2 minutes ago, StupidBunny said:

But the infinitely tall actors is a glaring exception to that. I hate bumbling around a seemingly wide open empty floor trying to dodge cacodemons floating 2000 feet above me where I can’t see them, and getting bit by the fuckers to boot. The maps I’m making now are theoretically designed to be vanilla-limit-removed-compatible but at a certain point I refuse to even try designing around the infinitely tall actor problem.

This is why I use Crispy Doom. I know there was a good reason for it back in the day, but the fact that it has stuck around and remains mandatory in PrBoom+ for demo-compatibility reasons is quite irksome. Personally, I try to take infinite height into account when designing maps, since I want to accommodate as many ports as possible, but it is not my first priority when designing encounters.

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Eternity is my usual go to. It just feels the most right to me, without having to be strictly vanilla. Sometimes I'll use Crispy or PrBoom+ if I'm in the mood. Rarely use GZDoom unless a wad requires it.

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GZDoom.

 

I've used it for years and have had no reason to change. I'm lazy I guess - I just haven't checked out other sourceports at all really. I'm not a purist for low rez and original doom.exe behaviour; and I like the visual and other enhancements that I get with GZDoom (though I tend to refrain from jumping and crouching even if it has not been disabled).

 

I've got my desktop shortcuts all set up for PWAD drag and drop, with various gameplay mods autoloaded as well via gzdoom config files, so that's all good. 

 

Must admit, I don't have the time to check out the whole gamut of available engines any more - Real Lifetm tends to get in the way...

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GZDOOM.

I like to play my Doom moded, and many launchers adapt very well with Gzdoom, also until the Unity port, it's was the one with the resolutions options that's work better in my end.  That's mostly the reason, and if ofthers sourceports would have that level of add ons, maybe i'll try others.

And for classic doom, im bettwn RetroDoom and Doom Re-released, because of how "modern" feel and still being the same Vainilla old Doom.

 

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3 hours ago, Omniarch said:

This is why I use Crispy Doom. I know there was a good reason for it back in the day, but the fact that it has stuck around and remains mandatory in PrBoom+ for demo-compatibility reasons is quite irksome. Personally, I try to take infinite height into account when designing maps, since I want to accommodate as many ports as possible, but it is not my first priority when designing encounters.


That’s very charitable of you :p

 

I think I would too if I was going the extra mile of doing properly vanilla maps, with limits and all...the added design constraint would make a nice challenge. With this particular project I didn’t want to be that constrained so I’m kind of assuming either that infinite actors is off, or that the player can tolerate them being occasionally in the way. Also I like the hanging corpses so I just made them all non-blocking in the .deh for my own convenience. 

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1: Zdoom. Unlike other ports except Chocolate Doom, its startup is almost instant and the gameplay is most smooth and comfy to me

2: Eternity. It looks and plays like vanilla Doom which is estetically good to me

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20 minutes ago, StupidBunny said:


That’s very charitable of you :p

 

I think I would too if I was going the extra mile of doing properly vanilla maps, with limits and all...the added design constraint would make a nice challenge. With this particular project I didn’t want to be that constrained so I’m kind of assuming either that infinite actors is off, or that the player can tolerate them being occasionally in the way. Also I like the hanging corpses so I just made them all non-blocking in the .deh for my own convenience. 

Since I prefer to map for limit-removing ports, I simply have to acknowledge that a portion of the intended audience likes to keep infinite height on for whatever reason. Also, since the style I'm trying to develop falls into the free-wheeling run n' gun camp, giving the player many options for maneuver is an inherent part of the experience, which mitigates the issue on its own. I can easily see why one would not want to let one's vision be constrained by an annoying and outdated mechanic, but for my own projects it just so happens that one of the solutions to the problem is an inherent part of the vision.

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PrBoom cause it runs well on my laptop. Zdoom for the mods. Chocalate for Heretic and Hexen.

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GZDoom. Not sure why really. I'm not that picky when it comes to being "truthful to vanilla*" or whatever you would call it, and GZDoom seems to have a pretty solid vision as well as a team working on it regularly.

I do, however, use PRBoom(+) when I feel like recording demos. I don't remember why, but I did some research back in the day and PrBoom(+) seems to be a solid choice for that.

*I play with SmoothDoom even (burn the heretic!).

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Depends. If I am recording, then GZDooM (for whatever reason my rec. software does not like PrBoom+ or GlBooM+). If I am rehearsing the map or just playing then PrBoom+, although lately I have been giving GlBoom+ some love as well.

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I to use ZDoom and GZDoom. But the ports I've been using are Crispy and Woof!. Occasionally Chocolate. But recently been using Crispy Doom for the most part.

Why do I use Crispy Doom the most? Because... Its crispy. It has everything I want in a doom port. high resolution, removes limits. entirely config file, save, demo compatible, etc. with the original. (aka: Vanilla-ish.) And that's what I want in a port.  Just personal preference. I have respect for all ports. They all have their differences but are all here for the same purpose. Playing Doom. Something we all love and cherish.

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On 12/14/2020 at 11:07 PM, seed said:

and when the ZDoom RNG makes my head spin.

Can you explain? I recently swapped to GZDoom from ZDoom after a long break. What is the difference in RNG between the two?

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19 hours ago, idbeholdME said:

Can you explain? I recently swapped to GZDoom from ZDoom after a long break. What is the difference in RNG between the two?

 

None, it's the same. It differs from vanilla/BOOM - enemies seem to take less damage and the player also takes less.

Edited by seed

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I used to use GZDoom because my friend used it, and he's the one that got me into Doom. 
Recently, I made the switch to PRBoom+, for the more vanilla experience. After some fiddling, I think that I found my new sourceport of choice. 
However, GZDoom is still a great sourceport, especially with mods. It's pretty fun to get a really hard wad, use Russian Overkill or something, and watch everything get blown to smithereens. 
Though I might not like freelook, jumping/crouching, dynamic lights, etc, you can't deny how versatile GZDoom is.

Edited by LudicrousFPS

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