Favorite Source Port? (Multiple Choice Poll)

[scorpion]

Recently, in this order:

GZDoom
Skulltag
Vanilla DooM (yeah.)
Legacy

GZDoom has also been set as Testing Engine in Doom Builder (although at school it's Legacy).

[Pirx]

mostly gzdoom as it's stable, supports most types of maps and also has enhanced graphics. perhaps jdoom / risen3d (former favorite) are better for eye candy, but less compatible.

[GreyGhost]

Until recently I would have said Legacy (great mouse handling - hope the next release is more tolerant of map errors) though I'm now favouring PrBoom-plus.

I'm in the process of giving Chocolade Doom a trial run as a replacement for Doom95 - which hasn't run properly since the "upgrade" to XP Home.

[Csonicgo]

Legacy has a nostalgia charm to it. I remember waiting for the 1.28 release, with awesome dev-water effects and looking up and down, then 1.30 came out with "splats" that let you see blood on the walls, years before ZDoom had anything like that. I went directly from doom.exe to Legacy, and the first impressions of "holy shit, 800x600 mode!" still stick in my mind.

However, Legacy hasn't changed much since. I know it's being rewritten, but damn, I remember hearing about the rewrite when I was in Grammar school, and I'm in Uni now.


Nowadays I've been using Eternity, which still has that "old school" feel yet lets me have new enhancements like mouselook, and other things. It recently obtained jumping, and one day it might have splats. maybe.


I used to use GZDoom but the little annoying freeze whilst playing music for 50 seconds then play as normal really burns my biscuits.

[deathbringer]

Olden days: Legacy, for everything, it became less and less stable with each new computer and now barely works at all

These days: Zdoom for Playing, EDGE for making.
Occasionally i'll run a "normal" wad in EDGE just for pretty lights, i even tried Spire 2 in it and in ran decently enough.

[Kira]

Now I use PrBoom+ for playing in singleplayer and still IDE for multiplayer.

[ReFracture]

GreyGhost said:

Until recently I would have said Legacy (great mouse handling - hope the next release is more tolerant of map errors) though I'm now favouring PrBoom-plus.

I'm in the process of giving Chocolade Doom a trial run as a replacement for Doom95 - which hasn't run properly since the "upgrade" to XP Home.

Oh man, I haven't used Doom95 in years, lol. That engine sucked so much. Chocolate doom should do a pretty good job replacing that.

[myk]

Mike.Reiner said:
That engine sucked so much.

Other than a couple of glitches (with workarounds) and a couple of enhancements, it was pretty much the same as the regular engine. Personally I never liked it much because I like to stick to the original, but not because I found anything really wrong with it. Its bigger issues came with more modern versions of Windows and newer hardware. It worked better than source based engines in many ways, till some of these these started to get more solid. From what I remember both things started to happen around the turn of the century.

[Colusio]

Prboom plus

[ReFracture]

myk said:

Other than a couple of glitches (with workarounds) and a couple of enhancements, it was pretty much the same as the regular engine. Personally I never liked it much because I like to stick to the original, but not because I found anything really wrong with it. Its bigger issues came with more modern versions of Windows and newer hardware. It worked better than source based engines in many ways, till some of these these started to get more solid. From what I remember both things started to happen around the turn of the century.

I just remember it had bad sound, and the midi didn't play properly. I still had windows 98se back at that time, so I just kept using Doom2.exe. ZDoom 1.22 was the first source port I ever used.

My preference has recently switched to PrBoom+. Thanks to belial, I've started to really notice how the gameplay is affected by playing in ZDoom.. uhg. Just uhg.

I'm only using ZDoom for coop and zdoom-only wads from now on.


Heh i bought the ID Super pack on steam, and edited the batch files they use to launch in chocolate doom instead. For being a 'doom2.exe for windows xp and vista' it's pretty damn nice. Props to fraggle. I love the setup program.

[SuperSlammer2]

zdooom

has good graphics compared to regular doom

[GreyGhost]

Mike.Reiner said:

I just remember it had bad sound, and the midi didn't play properly.

I didn't start running into sound and midi problems until the forced retirement of my Soundblaster16 ISA card :(

Damn!... I've wandered off-topic... Sorry.

[Ultimablah]

I mean, Boom, Zdoom, GZdoom, Chocolate Doom, Skulltag...

Why can't we have one universal port that runs all mods for all ports? I'm sick of having to switch between ports every time I want to play a different mod. How did we get so many ports anyway, and why?

[myk]

Ultimablah said:
I'm sick of having to switch between ports every time I want to play a different mod.

TOUGH LUCK, BIAAATCH!

PWNED BY TEH PORTS!

[Kira]

Hmm PrBoom+ can emulate Doom2.exe, UDoom 1.9, final doom 1.9, boom, MBF, etc... using the complevel line parameter.
GZDoom have his own pwads but can run the majority of ZDoom pwads I think.
After, Legacy, Edge,... have their own pwads wich can't be launched with others sourceports...

I dunno why so many sourceports, maybe differents point of view between the developpers.

I look forward for others versions of Eternity (I dunno if it use the complevel parameter like prboom but it allow to use Decorate as ZDoom).

Personnaly I have all my ports and wads in a subfolder and use batch files to launch my games.

[zap610]

Ultimablah said:

Why can't we have one universal port that runs all mods for all ports? I'm sick of having to switch between ports every time I want to play a different mod. How did we get so many ports anyway, and why?

lol

[GreyGhost]

I've got a better idea - a utility that strips port-specific features from wads so they can be played with vanilla exe's! Is that a stroke of genius or what! :-)

Variety is the spice of life - get used to it.

[deathbringer]

"Why don't they all get together and say "Right, the playstation can play playstation games, but if a kid wants to play a nintendo game, it will also play that, it'd be so much easier"" - A mother, yesterday (well, several years ago really... if there's one thing mothers of the generation of the average DW forumer knows nothing about, it's videogames)

[fraggle]

Because different developers are interested in different things, and those things are sometimes mutually exclusive. It would probably be impossible to have all the features of ZDoom, while maintaining demo compatibility, for example.

Because developers have their own ideas about how to implement things and would rather do things in different ways. As an analogy, your question is kind of like asking "Why do we have to have two political parties? Can't we just have one so we don't have the hassle of deciding which one to vote for?". As an extreme example, jval has translated the entire Doom source into Delphi for his DelphiDoom port because he likes that language. Fair enough, but you'll never convince all of the other source port programmers to accept that!

Because different developers have different opinions on licensing: some are die-hard GPL-only, while others, like the ZDoom guys, are more lax and willing to incorporate non-free code. The GPL camp would never accept non-free code, while the "ZDoom camp" would never accept the licensing bureaucracy.

Because it would actually be more effort to develop and maintain this hypothetical "one port" than to simply develop multiple ports in parallel. You have to take into account the logistical challenges of maintaining a large team, and the communications between team members.

Because programmers are assholes, we all have enormous egos and would never accept having to deal with each others' bullshit.

[Jim Rainer]

K!r4 said:

GZDoom have his own pwads but can run the majority of ZDoom pwads I think.

I believe GZDoom can run all of ZDoom's pwads. GZDoom is basically just ZDoom with open GL rendering and support for open GL features, such as dynamic lights and 3d models.

[Kira]

Jim Rainer said:

I believe GZDoom can run all of ZDoom's pwads. GZDoom is basically just ZDoom with open GL rendering and support for open GL features, such as dynamic lights and 3d models.

Not for Super Sonic Doom or RTC-3057Hub (not sure for the title sorry).
Edit : without bugs I mean.

[Grazza]

I presume what he meant is that it will run Zdoom pwads as successfully as the current/equivalent version of Zdoom will.

After all, there is no single version of Zdoom itself that will successfully run all wads ever designed for any version of Zdoom.

Though the characterization of GZDoom as "Zdoom with GL features" is not accurate: the support for fragglescript and Legacy's 3D floors are non-trivial features too.

[printz]

Why are there so many source ports?

There's no such thing as an Internet Doom dictatorship created to enforce a port.

Everyone's free to make their thing, it's freedom.

[EarthQuake]

Someone should make a port that plays any wad created by man (or machine). Gogogogogo!!!

[Graf Zahl]

K!r4 said:

Not for Super Sonic Doom or RTC-3057Hub (not sure for the title sorry).
Edit : without bugs I mean.

Yes, SSD doesn't work well. It uses too many brute force hacks that just bring down the performance in GL. If you disable skyboxes you may be able to play it but the windows which use skyboxes (badly, if I might add) will look weird.

RTC-3057 runs fine after fixing the pistol definition (which is also a problem in ZDoom 2.1.0 and higher.) It has one minor glitch but you have to look for it to see it.

[deathbringer]

RTC hasn't been re-uploaded with that trivial pistol/Pistol thing fixed yet?

HEH.

[(sniper) 109]

which is the best looking source port?

[alien8]

The answer to that is pretty subjective, isn't it? After all, depending on the wad being played, sometimes the blocky vanilla-isms of Chocolate Doom look best. Other times, maybe the dynamic lights, high-res textures, and 3D models of Doomsday look better.

It's all going to boil down to the following:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Which do you like best?

[Csonicgo]

(sniper) 109 said:

which is the best looking source port?

Chocolate Doom. It's Doom for everyone!

[esselfortium]

There's not really a definitive answer to that question.

For playing the maps in Doom.wad and Doom2.wad, I'd recommend using Doomsday Engine with the "detail textures" addon. Note that detail textures differ from hi-res texture replacements; these are overlays of grunge and texture that are applied on top of the original graphics to make them appear more detailed. I'm not a fan of the hi-res textures (way too much inconsistency, stuff doesn't match that's supposed to, etc.) or the 3D models, though.

For PWAD maps, I think your best bet is just to play the best-looking maps for whichever source port you use. There are Boom maps that look absolutely beautiful, and GZDoom maps that look like total crap (and the opposite as well, of course).