Favorite Source Port? (Multiple Choice Poll)

[VGA]

Doomsday isn't Boom compatible. Doomsday and Risen3d have very annoying defaults that make Doom gfx lame IMO. I prefer the bells and whistles to be opt-in, like in GzDoom.

[DaniJ]

Sandstormer said:

Doomsday, but it kept crashing and glitching on me

Please do report the issues so they stand a chance of being fixed. Typically, though, most "stability" issues turn out to be the result of trying to load an unsupported mod (e.g., expecting Boom or ZDoom compatibility).

[Sandstormer]

Thanks, DaniJ. Some days it will run just fine, other days it will just terminate for no reason at all. I've checked all of the files, registry, etc. but there is nothing indicating an error. A dialogue box with an error message will not even come up - the program will just close by itself. It's weird and random.

Sometimes it will read my Doom2.Wad, other times it will say that Doom 2 is missing resources (LibDoom.PK3 present, but missing Doom2.Wad) even though it is a new and unaltered Doom 2 IWAD purchased and downloaded directly from ID Software's website. I've uninstalled the source port then reinstalled it, which seemed to help, but it still likes to act out from time to time.

[DaniJ]

Hmm, that sounds very odd indeed. Intermittent stability issues as you describe can certainly be difficult to diagnose. Going into detail about your issues here, in a neutral thread concerned with subjective user experience in general would be wrong... So if it happens again then please do take a copy of your log and config files and post about it on the user forums.

[schwerpunk]

For the iWADs, 100% Chocolate Doom, follow by ZDoom where required by other WADs. Still haven't got a version of Boom running to my satisfaction, or I'd probably like it, too.

[VGA]

schwerpunk said:

For the iWADs, 100% Chocolate Doom, follow by ZDoom where required by other WADs. Still haven't got a version of Boom running to my satisfaction, or I'd probably like it, too.

Vanilla resolutions are so low I can hardly make out the gfx, why not one of the forks of Choco, like Crispy Doom or Doom Retro? Chocolate Doom also has preserved the vanilla bugs and limits which makes it more of a testing tool and a preservation effort imo.

About Boom, what's wrong with Eternity? It's derived from the Boom codebase.

[Sandstormer]

DaniJ said:

Hmm, that sounds very odd indeed. Intermittent stability issues as you describe can certainly be difficult to diagnose. Going into detail about your issues here, in a neutral thread concerned with subjective user experience in general would be wrong... So if it happens again then please do take a copy of your log and config files and post about it on the user forums.

Gotcha! Will do!

[Sandstormer]

Sorry to bring this thread back up, but I felt the need to give an update on the issue that I was having with Doomsday. Turns out, it wasn't a Doomsday bug/glitch after all. It must have been my computer specifically because I cleaned out my hard drive, uninstalled several programs that I no longer use, uninstalled Doomsday, then did a fresh install of Doomsday and it runs perfectly now. So, Doomsday is back to being my favorite source port because I can play it without any crashes. This makes me very happy because I love this source port the most.

[TendaMonsta]

Prboom-Plus for iWADS, and limit removing wads.

[theleo_ua]

Doom1/Doom2/Heretic/Hexen:

"Vanilla" maps/wads: Doomsday 1.8.6 (plan to switch to the latest version, but too lazy for now)

"Decorate" wads: GZDoom 1.5.6.1104

Demos: DosBox+Vanilla or PRBoom+


Strife (English): GZDoom 1.5.6.1104

Strife (Russian): unofficial 1.5.6.1198 (I participated in translation of Strife to Russian, so we even patched source code/executable of ZDoom/GZdoom (and even some strings in INI-files) for correct working of some phrases)

We had a long discussion about "how it's better to translate Strife to Russian and which port we should use", and decided to use (G)ZDoom for it.

[Yuki Senmatsu]

I know it's outdated but, Skulltag.

Well, Zandronum's not cutting it for me, even with the Skulltag_Actors and Skulltag_Data. That's just me.

I prefer to kick it oldschool. I also prefer GZDoom. OpenGL's my thing.

[raymoohawk]

i really enjoy using as many ports as i can :) but my favortes are chocolate doom and gzdoom

[Velvetic]

I personally play with prboom, gzdoom or eternity.

[StoneMason]

Prboom-plus is my usual choice, as I like to stick with playing vanilla/limit-removing/boom compatible maps when playing Doom. I like having the built-in demo's intact, too.

I sometimes use GZDoom, too, if I'm in the mood.

[VGA]

Isn't Eternity as boom compatible as prboom but with a better renderer? I don't understand the popularity of prboom (outside speed running/demo support)

[Marnetmar]

I'm not too particular. Zdoom/Doom Retro for general stuff, GZdoom for when it's required, and chocolate doom if I have to make a map within vanilla limits or if I'm just messing around with it.

[Vermil]

VGA said:

Isn't Eternity as boom compatible as prboom but with a better renderer? I don't understand the popularity of prboom (outside speed running/demo support)

You've sort of answered your own question :)

Eternity and PRBoom both offer high Boom support, therefore they both appeal to Boom players. Group one.

PRBoom also offers a high level of demo support, therefore, unlike Eternity, it also appeals to demo watchers/recorders, a second group of people.

Theoretically, that means PRBoom should have a larger user base.

Obviously, I am underselling both ports as both offer more than those two particular features. But for the purposes of this post, it isn't needed to detail them.

[Graf Zahl]

VGA said:

Isn't Eternity as boom compatible as prboom but with a better renderer? I don't understand the popularity of prboom (outside speed running/demo support)

It sure is but it somewhat suffers from the chicken/egg problem:

Due to lack of good original maps it won't really gain popularity and due to lack of popularity it's suffering from a lack of original maps.

So, for many users PrBoom+ is just 'good enough', especially since it has a hardware accelerated renderer - unlike Eternity which is strictly software.

And sorry to say that: A name like 'Eternity Engine' which has no reference to 'Doom' is certainly not encouraging for the uninitiated user.

[DaniJ]

The single biggest issue I can see with the Eternity Engine is that the project has no current homepage. What is there hasn't been updated in years and this poses a significant discoverability and usability issue to would-be users.

Eternity is an interesting port with a lot going for it, however the lack of a current homepage is a serious issue IMO.

[Tritnew]

My favorite Is Skulltag (for current WADs and some playing), Second Is Chocolate DOOM, Third Is ZDOOM, and fourth Is Zandronum.

[SavageCorona]

But Skulltag has been discontinued for 5 years and superseded by Zandronum.

[Tritnew]

SavageCorona said:

But Skulltag has been discontinued for 5 years and superseded by Zandronum.

Ah, Yes I do know that. I still use It for SOME WADs though, and maybe for the Weapons. I play Zandronum once and a while for Mulitplayer.

[Doomkid]

Holy fudgecakes what a necropost.

My preference hasn't changed over the last 15 months (Still the "big 3" online ports + doom2.exe mainly) though my use of Doom Legacy splitscreen has gone down a lot as I no longer live near other Doomers :(

[Tritnew]

Doomkid said:

Holy fudgecakes what a necropost.

My preference hasn't changed over the last 15 months (Still the "big 3" online ports + doom2.exe mainly) though my use of Doom Legacy splitscreen has gone down a lot as I no longer live near other Doomers :(

Maybe You should move onto Zandronum or something, In this case If I were living near You I would 100% Possibly play Local DOOM with Ya. xD;

[volumetricsteve]

Piggy backing on what was discussed here :
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/source-ports/85209-chocolate-doom-et-alia/

More precisely, now I'm wondering about peoples' preferences.

I've been working on some maps lately and I've been testing exclusively in gzdoom because that's what I'm familiar with....but for someone who's trying to make a good, lengthy single player experience (and possibly coop later on) is there a different engine I should be modeling around?

I've been reading up on GLboom+/PrBoom, neither of which I've used, but I guess what I'm saying is, if I'm going to make all these maps, I want them to work well on whichever source port it is people tend to rely on most for single player for modern/complex WADs.

[scifista42]

For all I know: Speedrunners and demo-recorders generally prefer PrBoom-plus or GlBoom-plus. People who like playing Doom with gameplay mods (+ newbies to Doom) generally prefer ZDoom or GZDoom. The rest of people use all sorts of ports, from vanilla / Chocolate Doom / Crispy Doom, over PrBoom-plus / Doom Retro / Eternity / 3DGE, to Doomsday / Risen3D / Zandronum / ZDoom / GZDoom.

[Altazimuth]

I've lauded it time after time because I'm pretty damn biased, but Eternity Engine has been making huge strides recently, which make it a far more viable candidate than it used to be for a fully-fledged single player experience. It does still have many of its previous caveats (EDF still having not made progress in a while), but with the continual improvement of linked portals, the possibility of making more interesting maps has increased exponentially.
Though the Eternity forum isn't abuzz with people developing projects, people are fairly active in communications of their projects in the #noteternityenginerelated channel on the OFTC IRC network.

[volumetricsteve]

Eternity interests me....Dumb question but if I keep mapping in doom builder 2 the way I have, hand in hand with gzdoom, will my wad be compatible enough to work in eternity or is it still really fidgety? I recall there being a lot of weird issues with eternity back in the day.

[scifista42]

Depends on which map format, editing configuration and (mainly) actual features you're using. Surely there are lots of ZDoom-specific features not supported by Eternity. Eternity also supports some features not supported by (G)ZDoom.

[snapshot]

I Prefer Zandronum, easy to use and combines everything i want from a Sourceport, OpenGL Enhancements, Multiplayer, Customizability, Supports my favorite mods ... etc, i even map for it usually (in fact, Most of my mods have been made for it) .

I Mostly play on Zandronum servers, but i may sometimes play ZDaemon's servers .

I'm not interested too much in modding, nor i'm i interested in Speedrunning .