Do you use hardware renderer or software renderer when you use GZDoom?

[Ozcar]

Obviously im using handware renderer for performance, but i use vanilla essence to make gzdoom looking like software renderer.

[indigotyrian]

I don't use GZDoom. When I'm forced to use it I use a software renderer.

[Nikku4211]

I use software as much as I can with GZDoom. I don't like how flat sprites end up looking in the hardware renderer whenever you look up or down, and I'll take Y-shearing over that any day.

 

It's just a shame GZDoom no longer supports polygonal models in the software renderer...

[DuckReconMajor]

If i'm already in GZDoom, might as well turn on all the fancy brightmaps and whatnot, so hardware for me. I've still yet to pick a favorite lighting mode.

I used to hate the look of hardware lighting and such but i've grown nostalgic for it. I thought GLBoom's renderer/light mode was good and I even turn on texture filtering at times. Fight me

[prfunky]

I use software renderer in Zandronum and LzDoom. Last time I gave a

rip about OpenGL was when it was new feature in DoomLegacy. If someone

releases a wad and posts about it on DoomWorld's Wad Releases & D-stuff

and says it requires GzDoom ver. pick-a-number, I don't touch it with a ten

mile pole. Using software renderer for designing maps myself results in less

variables to keep track of. Anyone else can Gz-hardware specific all they

want with whatever I release and I don't care ~ that's them. Personally, all

of my many PCs are ancient hardware but they all run Doom just fine for

me and many of the units I got for free; either as kickdowns from someone

I know or scavenged from garbage piles found on side of road.

 

[MameXLIII]

1 hour ago, Nikku4211 said:

I use software as much as I can with GZDoom. I don't like how flat sprites end up looking in the hardware renderer whenever you look up or down, and I'll take Y-shearing over that any day.

 

It's just a shame GZDoom no longer supports polygonal models in the software renderer...

Turn on XY Bilboarding in GL options

[LoatharMDPhD]

// I'm using a 13 year old potato with 5.6 GB ram, some kind of microprocessor, some outputs, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.... i use software rendering because im using Intel Russet chipsets when i need Nvidia Yukon gold to get away with a decent FPS.... ache ja.... so la la...

[LoatharMDPhD]

Just now, LoatharMDPhD said:

// I'm using a 13 year old potato with 5.6 GB ram, some kind of microprocessor, some outputs, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.... i use software rendering because im using Intel Russet chipsets when i need Nvidia Yukon gold to get away with a decent FPS.... ache ja.... so la la...

// ...Explains some of my questionable design mechanics....

[Professor Hastig]

I use the hardware renderer, this was what attracted me to GZDoom in the first place. It's really a shame that many of Doom's sprites have such weird offsets. These days I cannot un-see the oddness of the health bonus bleeding into the ground, looking like it floats, when playing with software rendering.

 

I guess you have to choose your battles. Both renderers have their ugly artifacts and in the end it's a trade-off for what looks better or worse.

[Fernito]

On 5/30/2023 at 4:40 AM, Bauul said:

Given that you can set the hardware renderer to look essentially indistinguishable from the software renderer with the right Display settings, and that for most people the hardware renderer will perform significantly better (especially in Vulkan mode), there's little reason not to use it.

 

Sorry for going a little bit off-topic, would you mind sharing these settings with me? I remember you mentioned the same some time ago in a thread of a wad of mine. Back then I tried several different combinations of lightmodes and other settings, but none of them was even close to being indistinguishable from the software renderer. The differences were pretty noticeable, especially when it comes to very dark sectors (below 96 or so), so I'm wondering if I was just not able to find the right settings.

 

 

[liPillON]

2 hours ago, Fernito said:

 

Sorry for going a little bit off-topic, would you mind sharing these settings with me? 

 

 

not him but the following should be the bare minimum for getting the closest to the sw-renderer look

Spoiler

gl_fogmode 1
gl_lightmode 8
gl_texture_filter 0
gl_tonemap 5
r_fakecontrast 1
r_vanillatrans 3
vid_aspect 0
vid_cropaspect false
vid_preferbackend 0
vid_rendermode 4
vid_scale_customheight 480
vid_scale_customwidth 640
vid_scalemode 5
 

 

the palette emulation (gl_tonemap 5) is implemented as a shader, so vid_preferbackend must be set to either 0 (opengl) or  1 (vulkan)

the opengles backend has limited/simplified shaders support, so the palette emulation would not work

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by liPillON

[boris]

Hardware renderer with texture filtering, dynamic lights, and high-res PBR textures. It's just the most faithful to doom.exe.

[nrofl]

I am an absolute neanderthal with settings or really anything technology so I just use software rendering.

[Fernito]

5 hours ago, liPillON said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

gl_fogmode 1
gl_lightmode 8
gl_texture_filter 0
gl_tonemap 5
r_fakecontrast 1
r_vanillatrans 3
vid_aspect 0
vid_cropaspect false
vid_preferbackend 0
vid_rendermode 4
vid_scale_customheight 480
vid_scale_customwidth 640
vid_scalemode 5
 

 

Thanks, I tried this combination and it's actually not bad! Looks a lot better than anything I had achieved so far. But it's still not 100% faithful, it's noticeable at low brightness level (examples in spoiler). 

 

Spoiler

Same area, brightness 0. First one is Crispy Doom, Second one is GZDoom with the settings you provided. The wall can be seen in the second screenshot.

 

[Nikku4211]

18 hours ago, MameXLIII said:

Turn on XY Bilboarding in GL options

 

When I do that, sprites look even more wrong when I look up and down.

[Devalaous]

As long as vaseline filters arent applied, Doom looks like Doom to me, so I just play on Vulkan with the vanilla or software lighting mode. Brains says its Doom, so im happy.

[Eon Toad]

I've never once messed with the default settings in GZDoom

[lucius]

On 5/30/2023 at 12:54 PM, Edward850 said:

It's been done, Strife:VE and Doom64 both have there own ways of doing it (Strife draws on a second buffer, 64 has no Z buffer). Graf Zahl has stated before that he thinks it either can't be done in GZ or would be too slow.

The TFE hardware renderer also handles sprites vs floors/ceilings, using the z-buffer and without using an extra buffer or stencil buffer with very good performance (with support for looking up and down with proper perspective). But it was part of the core design of the renderer and would be difficult to shoe-horn into something like GZDoom without serious compatibility and performance issues since it relies on the way sectors are rendered in Jedi (such as the way walls a clipped and sorted).

[AbeAwesome]

12 hours ago, Eon Toad said:

I've never once messed with the default settings in GZDoom

That's legit perverse. You really play DOOM with filtered, blurry textures?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I'm in the "will only use Geezy if a mod forces me to" camp, and generally prefer software rendering unless there's something in the mod that makes GL a requirement.

[DeafPixel]

the only settings i usually change in GZDoom are texture filtering, mouselook and compatability.
I used DSDADoom recently for some WADs that broke in GZDoom though, and I must say, software rendering can look pretty nice!

[nolongeramnion]

Software rendering just because I like the old build engine feel

[DuckReconMajor]

11 hours ago, AbeAwesome said:

That's legit perverse. You really play DOOM with filtered, blurry textures?

 

 

Perverts: we're out there

[MameXLIII]

On 5/31/2023 at 5:56 PM, Nikku4211 said:

 

When I do that, sprites look even more wrong when I look up and down.

Probably because GL has no vertical aiming limit, so that's just going to happen. Honestly it all comes down to preference, I've just never met someone who has actually not minded the extreme distortion of SW.

[banjiepixel]

Hardware renderer for better performance and because some visual effects in gameplay mods often need it.  i do also have different source port for more classic software rendered gameplay experience so GZDoom (or mainly Zandronum in my case) can always remain as hardware rendered.

[Captain Ventris]

Hardware. If I’m running GZDoom, I want all the bells and whistles!

[treulosetomate]

I used to play in hardware mode mainly for the anti-aliasing because I hate those flickering edges (in any game). I changed my mind when I was playing the Wormwood series. There are a few maps with effects that don't show in hardware mode. I believe it was some fullbright textures that are pitch black in hardware mode but look really cool in software. I also prefer the software palette to the simulated one. They aren't quite the same.

In order to get at least some AA in software mode, I just render the game in 4k now. Funny thing is, I'm getting the same performance in software as in hardware mode with stable 120 fps, unless the map gets too big. This is one of the reasons why I still prefer GZDoom to DSDA, even though GZDoom's unique compatibility quirks annoy me more and more...

[TheHambourgeois]

software whenever i can. give me chunky pixels or give me death

e:this mf said "if whenever"

[houston]

Only reason I ever have ZDoom open is to play mods specifically designed for it, and those mods generally expect you to use freelook.

Freelook in software-rendered/non-polygonal FPSes is absolutely nauseating without using measures such as a dedicated freelook key (like in Duke3D), but this is also absolutely a thing ZDoom mappers don't expect you to use, so I just stick with the gl/vulkan rendering.

[Professor Hastig]

37 minutes ago, houston said:

without using measures such as a dedicated freelook key (like in Duke3D),

 

That dedicated freelook key was the worst feature ever. This alone killed all the fun in Build games for me until ports fixed it and started offering proper mouselook as the default option. It never actually bothered me in the software renderer.