Favorite Source Port? (Multiple Choice Poll)

Abyssalstudios1 said:

Also, a pro tip: if this thread has not scared you off already, DO NOT bring up zDoom. Just don't.

Meh - what with the thread hijacking and large quantities of vitriol subsequently spat back and forth over what most would consider a recreational pastime, the OP may well be questioning our collective sanity.

Quasar said:

I can set d_uncappedfps to true or to false, and it makes no visible or noticeable difference in the way that EE runs on my machine. I am either missing something obvious, or there is going to be more to it than this.

There is more to it.

Most important thing is predicting or interpolating the player's position in between tics. (Someone who's actually done it please to explain the details).

Then you crawl down the rabbit hole of all other stuff to predict or interpolate: lift positions, missile positions, etc etc...

andrewj said:

There is more to it.

Most important thing is predicting or interpolating the player's position in between tics. (Someone who's actually done it please to explain the details).

Then you crawl down the rabbit hole of all other stuff to predict or interpolate: lift positions, missile positions, etc etc...

Right but I already knew that. I just figured the game would at least feel different somehow than it already had been for me.

I had to, in fact, add the ability previously to cap the drawn framerate, which is what the d_fastrefresh variable is doing in TryRunTics, because people were complaining that EE used too much CPU.

Personally I cannot run EE with a capped framerate because, for some reason, Windows 7 cannot refresh the window at 35 fps, and the game ends up only attaining about 25 at most. This makes it horribly choppy. Oddly the problem doesn't seem to happen on XP or Linux.

A nice blend of this is prBoom(with assorted plus signs). It supports mouse movement, but you can't look up and down.

You can (in PrBoom+) ; however autoaim can't be turned off AFAIK.

There is no "best", just what is better for what you want to do. Each source port makes improvements to support some need.

See DoomWiki site:

Check out: DoomLegacy (new alpha release), ZDoom, GZDoom, (other flavors of zdoom), Eternity engine, ReMooD, Skulltag, PrBoom+, PrBoom, Vavoom, etc..
(I bet I forgot someone !!).

Older versions: Vanilla Doom, Chocolate Doom, Boom202, MBF.

And I agree with fraggle, we do not need nasty opinions, all the source ports are good. I have many of them. I have my favorites and can tell you why, but dumping opinions is just aggravating and seems to have hurting someone as its only purpose.

CAUSE FIGHTS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

What is everyone's preferred source ports for Dooming and why?

I like G/ZDoom engine (what a surprise) but I often play on Skulltag primarily for convenience and mod loading through the Skins folder (instead of drag-n-drop like with G/ZDoom) because it combines both renderers in one, and it can run (most) a lot of G/ZDoom content. G/ZDoom has the advantage of displaying monster/secret count in the lower left hand corner of the screen though and can run more advanced mods properly. This is the most stable port for me and user friendly, both playability, modding, and multiplayer.

Otherwise, for graphics, I prefer Doomsday/JDoom, even though it's the slowest (or one of the slowest) hardware accelerated ports and isn't Boom-compatible (nor can it utilize DECORATE). It's got some odd glitches as well like getting stuck on monsters. But the fake radiosity, glowmaps, lens flare and smoke/explosion/particle effects are well done and not too over the top. Combined with the PK_weapons and HRP it has a very nice look and feel overall. But I mainly use this port for vanilla-compatible PWADs. Supposedly Doomsday is getting a rewrite of the code so hopefully in the future it can run smoother and support more content.

GLBoom+ for 99.99% of my dooming.

I load up GZDoom every once in a while for a wad/mod that requires ZDoom, but it's rare for a ZDoom project to interest me. That was true even when 100% of my playing was using GZDoom and I couldn't stand PrBoom+.

... Cue in "waaah you complain because it's ZDoom", which I'll preemptively address : no, I enjoyed DOP2 and to a lesser extent some other ZDoom wads, I just happen to not like the same things in Doom that most people releasing ZDoom projects seem to do.

Now there's a topic that is at the same time

1. Original.
   
2. Leading to new and exciting conclusions.
   
3. Certain to be carried out through a civil and moderated exchange of opinions and ideas, with argumentation based on solid facts and mutual respect without the slightest hint of zeal, bigotry or personal issues.
   

That's not the point, it's the kind of ports you like playing with, not about what port is the best one to use. I already saw that thread, and frankly it was the most depressing, yet hilarious thing I've read in the Doom community in some time. But that's not the place for this. If people are civil enough (heh, OK maybe not) then this shouldn't turn into a flame fest. If it does then I will have it locked, it'll be your loss if that's the case.

This thread will probably end like any other about this subject matter. I have no hope that it'll stay sane (not that it still is with that disturbing picture... :D )

Well, I mostly use GZDoom for the same reasons as the OP. I will use any port if there's a specific mod that I want to play. I'm not religious about ports it's just that the middle ground that GZDoom strikes suits me most of the time... :)

Yeah, for example, Doomsday may not be perfect, hell my friend thinks it sucks compared to ZDoom, but that's fine, everybody has their own cup of tea. I may use Doomsday for certain things I want and then ZDoom for general functionality with most mods. I was very fond of Boom in the day and preferred it over ZDoom because it felt too "techy" compared to Boom's more simplified nature, it was essentially Doom just without all the annoying bugs/limits and it could make greater maps (take KBoom series by Kurt Kesler). But since ZDoom can run Boom-compatible PWADs it made Boom (for me) obsolete. Unless something absolutely positively has to work with Boom, I haven't found anything yet.

I now use Eternity for playing every vanilla or Boom map I encounter, because I don't like how the other ports bar ZDoom deal with the Windows 7 problem.

I use GZDoom for the ZDoom-compatible wads. Also for vanilla non-Doom, for now.

Ive been in the exact same transition as phml, I used gzdoom exclusively until a few months ago and now glboom+ almost always. To me prboom+ feels like the way doom and boom compatible wads are meant to be played. I only use gzdoom for zdoom exclusives but I like pretty much no zdoom exclusives so thats not a lot :P.

.

At the risk of ruining my "fan of oldschool" reputation, the only source ports I have installed on my primary gaming PC at this moment are Skulltag and Odamex, and Skulltag by far gets most of my attention. I could lie and say that I have prBoom+ and Eternity installed and waiting in the wings for single player maps, but eh.

GZDoom and Skulltag for the most part, though I usually fire up Chocolate Doom for the original IWADs(and if I could get the cmd line thing to work, I'd do vanilla wads there as well). I prefer GL ports at the very least for the added color depth, 8-bit color kind of annoys me at this point and makes it difficult to distinguish Hell Knight from Baron at distances(sounds aside). I generally set GZDoom compatibility to vanilla doom standards for vanilla-style PWADs to try to keep things more standard, though.

I do occasionally fire up Risen3D(albeit only for TNT and Plutonia because it errors and yells at me for the other IWADs) if I feel like Quake II-ing Doom for a bit.

I almost always use ZDoom and variants for playing PWADs. When playing the original WADs, I run vanilla Doom through DosBox. I will periodically play in GLBoom, but not very often.

I think PRBoom+ has slowly taken over as my default source port of choice ahead of ZDoom. It feels back to basics and fuss free but with the annoying limits removed. I occasionally use Legacy for the split screen and rarest of all Chocolate Doom, which I use only to check vanilla compatability.

Vaporizer said:
Batman Doom comes to mind.

In what way?

Xeros612 said:
(and if I could get the cmd line thing to work, I'd do vanilla wads there as well).

What happens to it?

.

myk said:

In what way?

It was a reply to this:

BurningCadavre said:

But since ZDoom can run Boom-compatible PWADs it made Boom (for me) obsolete. Unless something absolutely positively has to work with Boom, I haven't found anything yet.

Last time I made a test run-through, there were about four levels from Batman Doom that were completely broken in ZDoom and required console cheating to continue. The most obvious problem is the final fight of course, unless you use infinite ammo, but there are other problems in a few other levels, harder to diagnose.

Vaporizer said:

It only works on Boom? Actually not sure about vanilla and other ports...

It's a vanilla + DeHackEd mod.

Gez said:

[Batman Doom is] a vanilla + DeHackEd mod.

Actually, there is even a problem there with the wad as released, due to a Dehacked bug. I spotted this some years back, and fraggle identified the problem and released a fix for it (and made Chocolate-Doom emulate the Dehacked bug, bless him :p).

But more generally, with any wad that makes extensive use of Dehacked for major changes to the in-game behaviour (especially if it uses some of the rarer dehacked features), you can expect problems with some ports. This is particularly so with those that don't prioritize precise emulation of the original game's behaviour, or that haven't been tested specifically with the wad in question.

Fortunately, most Dehacked wads only use the more basic options, and so work in most ports, or if they do use rarer features, it affects only cosmetic stuff.

All ports are my favorites. I only play on the exact port the wad needs starting with pr+. I check txt files for exe version or date of wad to determine -complevel. I use exact zdoom exe versions or date with zdoom wads and only use gzdoom if needed.

I may add that I do initial map runs in Eternity. Once I get a route Ill demo it up in pr+ with correct complevels.

BurningCadavre said:

another question that has been asked a million times already..

Would it kill you to use the fucking search function? I know you're new and all, but come on..

BurningCadavre said:

That's not the point, it's the kind of ports you like playing with, not about what port is the best one to use. I already saw that thread, and frankly it was the most depressing, yet hilarious thing I've read in the Doom community in some time. But that's not the place for this. If people are civil enough (heh, OK maybe not) then this shouldn't turn into a flame fest. If it does then I will have it locked, it'll be your loss if that's the case.

Keep searching, because that is only one of a shit ton of other threads on this same topic.

Way back here (as a scrubby newb) I was drifting from Legacy to PrBoom+, since then I've settled on G/ZDoom, PrBoom+ and Chocolate as my most used ports.

Mike, I thought people hated it when others bump threads especially considering the last post to that one was 2008 and the OP was banned. My humble apologies.

I didn't know that about Batman Doom, I been meaning to play it for a long time but never got around to it yet, still busy with other WADs.

BurningCadavre said:
Mike, I thought people hated it when others bump threads especially considering the last post to that one was 2008 and the OP was banned. My humble apologies.

Yeah, I think he just meant "you'll find what people prefer there." Making a new thread of this sort once in a while isn't necessarily bad if it's made with care, but don't expect many of the regulars to answer, as they've already done so various times and possibly have nothing to add.

I like Zdoom because it has a 'Z' in front of it