How do I make zDOOM more like the original?

[ForgottenChaingunner]

I'm currently using Crispy DOOM because it's enough authentic to the original DOS game without going completely overboard with new added effects etc.

I have setup zDOOM to be pretty authentic - disabled decals, disabled freelook etc.

There are two things I have problems with:

1. Walking above monsters
In zDOOM you can walk on monsters, but in original DOOM you can't. This, while not really important most of the time, can break some maps, like Bad Dream from Master Levels. I searched far and wide through the internet to find a way to disable this feature and have the monsters block me even if I'm above them but found nothing. How do I fix this?

2. Autoaim
The vertical autoaim isn't perfect, as it stop working after a certain amount of units. Let's say there is monster 3000 units away from you and it's higher than you. You can't hit it but it can hit you. I would like to know if there is a way to make the autoaim more like it was in the original.

Crispy DOOM is so far doing the job for me fine, but I would like to use some of zDOOMs features, like higher resolutions, MAPINFO and easy modability,

Thanks in advance for answers.

[esselfortium]

For all the vanilla-style compatibility settings, try the "Doom (Strict)" preset in the Compatibility Options menu.

Alternately, if you only want to disable the 3D thing clipping, just set "Actors are infinitely tall" to Yes.

Autoaim has always had an upper limit on distance, btw.

[Vermil]

esselfortium said:

Autoaim has always had an upper limit on distance, btw.

ZDoom quadrupled this distance versus Vanilla doom IIRC, saying it was due to higher screen resolutions making Vanilla's auto aim range look silly. IIRC there is no way to disable this change.

As much as I hate to bad mouth a port, you'd be better off with almost any other port if you want a more Vanilla Doom like experience; Chocolate Doom for instance.

[Danfun64]

If all you want is a faithful experience with a higher resolution than what Crispy Doom allows, check out PrBoom-Plus. If you want more modding capabilities but want something more faithful than ZDoom (even if not as faithful as Crispy Doom and PrBoom-Plus) try out Odamex and the Eternity Engine, as both of them are close enough that they can play back vanilla demos (which ZDoom can't).

Vermil said:

As much as I hate to bad mouth a port, you'd be better off with almost any other port if you want a more Vanilla Doom like experience

Doom Legacy would beg to differ. For one thing, it's compatibility with Vanilla Doom is listed as "Very Low" on Doomwiki xD.

[Graf Zahl]

Vermil said:

ZDoom quadrupled this distance versus Vanilla doom IIRC, saying it was due to higher screen resolutions making Vanilla's auto aim range look silly. IIRC there is no way to disable this change.

It doesn't increase autoaim range at all, that is still the same 1024 as it always was.
What ZDoom increases is the hitscan range, so you can hit targets that are further away, although you have to aim precisely.

[printz]

Graf Zahl said:

It doesn't increase autoaim range at all, that is still the same 1024 as it always was.
What ZDoom increases is the hitscan range, so you can hit targets that are further away, although you have to aim precisely.

Increasing the hitscan range is equally wrong, if not worse. There's no good reason for simplifying the game like that. At least I hope monsters also benefit the same. Do they?

[Graf Zahl]

No, the range of monsters wasn't increased.

The change came because many modders were complaining that their weapons had no reach.
And whether this is 'wrong' or not is entirely up to someone's opinion.

I think all the other ports are way to conservative in such regards.

[printz]

Graf Zahl said:

No, the range of monsters wasn't increased.

The change came because many modders were complaining that their weapons had no reach.
And whether this is 'wrong' or not is entirely up to someone's opinion.

I think all the other ports are way to conservative in such regards.

That's wrong because modders already have (or should have) the liberty to change the hitscan range in their mods, if they so desire. Otherwise there's no reason to make all large maps easier because the player can now snipe everything with the chaingun now, instead of having to run closer, or for cover, or to find better guns such as the plasma rifle. Besides it's pretty intuitive to expect hitscan to lose its effectiveness at long range. I can imagine now that if given a chaingun with 400 ammo I can kill spiderdemons (or chaingunners...) with impunity, whereas in Doom I have to get in their range to do anything.

[Graf Zahl]

printz said:

That's wrong because ...

You know, there's a very simple solution to your "problem": Use another engine! :P

[StalkerZHS]

I wish they'd put in an option to edit all "renderstyle" properties, not just the lost soul translucency...

I always hated how some things like mancubus/rev fireballs were always transparent!

Had to go inside my gzdoom pk3 and edit it from there today and I LOVE it, looks so much more like choco!

[kb1]

printz said:

That's wrong because modders already have (or should have) the liberty to change the hitscan range in their mods, if they so desire. Otherwise there's no reason to make all large maps easier because the player can now snipe everything with the chaingun now, instead of having to run closer, or for cover, or to find better guns such as the plasma rifle. Besides it's pretty intuitive to expect hitscan to lose its effectiveness at long range. I can imagine now that if given a chaingun with 400 ammo I can kill spiderdemons (or chaingunners...) with impunity, whereas in Doom I have to get in their range to do anything.

Give it up, man. Try as you might, it doesn't work, and you might get a(another) snazzy title out of it :)

[Arctangent]

printz said:

stuff

jumping, crouching, freeaim, etc.

Bringing up freeaim, there's no reason to not increase the hitscan range if you have that anyway. It'd just end up looking weird if you aim at a guy across a large chasm and your bullets just disappear in midair.

Especially since ZDoom also allows you to manipulate the FoV, which means players ( not modders, although they have their own ways of manipulating FoV too ) can create their own binds to allow them to zoom in.

Plus now more than ever it should be possible to make a mod that makes ZDoom more vanilla-esque, down to using a predefined PRNG table. Which honestly makes more sense than the default being more vanilla-esque, since you're not just dealing with a Doom source port, but a unified Heretic, Hexen, Strife, etc. one.

[duh]

I created a "mod" once to enforce vanilla looks and sounds in zandronum, aimed at competitive players because I figured they could modify the "unf" sound and add others already set in the default sndinfo file, the SSG animation is like vanilla, player sprites weren't added here for obvious reasons (add the iwad as pwad), RNG can be replaced via ACS I guess but I am not sure if it would be the same.

http://gam.thewaitingroom.org/be_wads/vanillifier.pk3

OS DM
dmflags: 2823172
dmflags2: 135005184
dmflags3: 37
compatflags: 2004773373
compatflags2: 524
sv_aircontrol 0

OS DM 2
dmflags: 2839552
dmflags2: 137102336
dmflags3: 37
compatflags: 2004773373
compatflags2: 524
sv_aircontrol 0

OS COOP
dmflags: 267059204
dmflags2: 135005184
dmflags3: 37
compatflags: 2013161981
compatflags2: 524

Edited March 15, 2017 by duh : table

[riderr3]

Why not use Prboom-Plus.

 

In my opinion this have only one problem - alive monsters falling from edges (or ledges).
As example you can shoot chaingunner on 64x64 crate and he can fall down.
I asked in forums but nobody explains how to turn this off.

[CapnClever]

5 hours ago, riderr3 said:

I asked in forums but nobody explains how to turn this off.

The only way I know to turn that off in prboom-plus is to start the executable at a lower compatibility level, like -complevel 2. This doesn't work for Boom maps, since that's how the Boom engine was designed to work, but it's something.

[RjY]

2 hours ago, CapnClever said:

The only way I know to turn that off in prboom-plus is to start the executable at a lower compatibility level, like -complevel 2. This doesn't work for Boom maps, since that's how the Boom engine was designed to work, but it's something.

You can also use MBF complevel (11) and set comp_dropoff to 1 (this is "some objects never hang over tall ledges" in the Doom Compatibility menu -- set it to "yes")

 

This should work in other complevels above 11, but does not for stupid technical reasons and now AFAIK can't be fixed thanks to the curse of preserving demo sync. Please kill me.