Doom on Raspberry Pi Anyone? Need Advise

[DoomerNL]

Hey all,

 

I have this idea of buying a raspberry pi and making a doom project out of it..

My question is what are the best source ports to use and which port gives the best performance?

Im not really into weapon mods but i do want to play different wads...

So anyone here play doom on the pi and what port you use the most?

Also does it play really well no frame drops?

Thanks guys!

[Dark Pulse]

There's plenty of lightweight ports that should run well on a Pi. PrBoom is part of Retroarch, I believe.

 

Where you will probably run into trouble are more advanced mods or maps that require ZDoom. QZDoom is probably your best bet if you want to try to tackle those; I doubt the Pi could run GZDoom. There's also the possibility of old ZDoom but anything that's come out in the last couple of years or depends on ZScript won't run with it.

 

That said, getting those ports may require you to compile them yourself, or find out if someone has compiled them for the Pi.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Dark Pulse

[AL-97]

There was another thread with this very same question some time ago that might have some answers for you:

 

 

[Spie812]

In my experience, PrBoom and Chocolate Doom run very well on the Pi and both are easily obtainable from a simple apt-get. Crispy Doom also works great, but I think you have to build from source. GzDoom does not run well at all, only getting around 15fps with the lowest possible settings when I tried it.

 

I'd go for PrBoom if you want to maximize the number of maps you can play.

[DoomerNL]

I heard prboom plus works on the pi but i got no idea how to get it..

I installed retropie and i see zdoom there but the guy above says zdoom wont run at full speed or as good as prboom? So i like to skip that one then and go for prboom plus any ideas how i can do this??? I tried googling but its talking about prboom not plus

 

[Dark Pulse]

  On 4/20/2019 at 10:55 AM, DoomerNL said:

I heard prboom plus works on the pi but i got no idea how to get it..

I installed retropie and i see zdoom there but the guy above says zdoom wont run at full speed or as good as prboom? So i like to skip that one then and go for prboom plus any ideas how i can do this??? I tried googling but its talking about prboom not plus

 

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ZDoom isn't in RetroArch, that's PrBoom I believe. Or at least, if ZDoom is being included, that's definitely news to me.

[Spie812]

  On 4/20/2019 at 10:55 AM, DoomerNL said:

I heard prboom plus works on the pi but i got no idea how to get it..

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It's a simple matter of running the command "sudo apt-get install prboom-plus" in a terminal.

Wads are then placed in the "/home/[username]/.prboom-plus" directory. The folder is hidden so you may have to show hidden folders.

You can run the game from a terminal with "prboom-plus -iwad [doom.wad or doom2.wad usually] -file [mod1.wad mod2.wad etc.]"

 

It's been a while since I touched Linux in general so someone let me know if I fucked up the process here.

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Spie812

[DoomerNL]

  On 4/20/2019 at 8:04 PM, Spie812 said:

It's a simple matter of running the command "sudo apt-get install prboom-plus" in a terminal.

Wads are then placed in the "/home/[username]/.prboom-plus" directory. The folder is hidden so you may have to show hidden folders.

You can run the game from a terminal with "prboom-plus -iwad [doom.wad or doom2.wad usually] -file [mod1.wad mod2.wad etc.]"

 

It's been a while since I touched Linux in general so someone let me know if I fucked up the process here.

 

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Woa thanks brother i will try this tomorrow and let you know..

What if i wanted to play other wads that uses the doom 2 file whats the command for that??

Edit: also i like to play with controller is it possible to launch without typing commands or is a keyboard a must to boot it up?

Edited April 21, 2019 by DoomerNL

[DoomerNL]

  On 4/20/2019 at 2:46 PM, Dark Pulse said:

ZDoom isn't in RetroArch, that's PrBoom I believe. Or at least, if ZDoom is being included, that's definitely news to me.

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Yes i see zdoom there it uses the latest zdoom you find it on retropie if you go to optional packages its right there in the list..

But zdoom is more resource heavy i think than prboom plus and its much older thats why i want to use a diff port thats a bit faster it does run great but not on all custom megawads i thnk prboom plus or crispy/chocolate would be better for me maybe zandronum if it works

[DoomerNL]

Im curious does anyone play on the pi? If so whats your port of choice?

[Bucket]

Do any of these ports support splitscreen?

[Jalapen0]

Have a Raspberry Pi 3...would like to know too.

[DoomerNL]

  On 4/22/2019 at 3:07 PM, Jalapen0 said:

Have a Raspberry Pi 3...would like to know too.

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So far i found zdoom and prboom the best but they are outdated and no longer being updated...

Im trying to get prboom-plus working not having much luck

Chocolate doom runs at vanilla fps which is 35fps i kind of find it slow im looking for a 60fps experience..

Which zdoom does it great im even getting over 100fps with the sdl2 drivers but like i said old engine :(

my quest to find the best port continues

[DoomerNL]

I want to make my project just for doom/hexen/heretic/quake/duke etc..

Still kinda confused if i should go Retropie or Raspbian what you all think?

 

[Dark Pulse]

  On 4/22/2019 at 5:49 PM, DoomerNL said:

 

So far i found zdoom and prboom the best but they are outdated and no longer being updated...

Im trying to get prboom-plus working not having much luck

Chocolate doom runs at vanilla fps which is 35fps i kind of find it slow im looking for a 60fps experience..

Which zdoom does it great im even getting over 100fps with the sdl2 drivers but like i said old engine :(

my quest to find the best port continues

 

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Chocolate Doom simulates the original executable as closely as possible, and that includes the 35 FPS limit - since that's what the original game capped at.

[DoomerNL]

  On 4/22/2019 at 7:15 PM, Dark Pulse said:

Chocolate Doom simulates the original executable as closely as possible, and that includes the 35 FPS limit - since that's what the original game capped at.

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Yeah exactly but ive been used to 60fps or above for years now cause of gzdoom and zandronum so id like to keep it at that..

I think zdoom might be my best bet but its outdated am i rly the only one who wants a dedicated source port for the pi and that is regularly updated??cause prboom and zdoom both that are in retropie are rly old..

Maybe i should go raspbian if that makes difference so i can get other ports maybe?

[Dark Pulse]

  On 4/23/2019 at 8:41 AM, DoomerNL said:

 

Yeah exactly but ive been used to 60fps or above for years now cause of gzdoom and zandronum so id like to keep it at that..

I think zdoom might be my best bet but its outdated am i rly the only one who wants a dedicated source port for the pi and that is regularly updated??cause prboom and zdoom both that are in retropie are rly old..

Maybe i should go raspbian if that makes difference so i can get other ports maybe?

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You're probably not going to get a dedicated and regularly updated port for the Pi, because the Pi is a comparatively small demographic to target and the general belief in the open-source community is that someone who wants something badly enough has the source - they can port it.

 

So I'd presume most people are fine with PrBoom for their Doom needs on Pi. I mean, yeah, it won't run ZDoom mods, but if the Pi doesn't have the grunt to handle ZDoom well, that becomes moot.

[DoomerNL]

  On 4/23/2019 at 2:03 PM, Dark Pulse said:

You're probably not going to get a dedicated and regularly updated port for the Pi, because the Pi is a comparatively small demographic to target and the general belief in the open-source community is that someone who wants something badly enough has the source - they can port it.

 

So I'd presume most people are fine with PrBoom for their Doom needs on Pi. I mean, yeah, it won't run ZDoom mods, but if the Pi doesn't have the grunt to handle ZDoom well, that becomes moot.

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True im not really looking for mods but i do want to play level wads that people have created i also like my gameplay vanilla style but doesnt updated ports give better performance?? I mean prboom is 9 years old..

If it was updated it could run even better but no one seems to care for pi at least..

I guess ill just keep it prboom and zdoom because i dont knowexchange how to compile from source im a linux noob and prboom and zdoom are both easily to install by just click of a button..

Unless someone tells me step by step how to compile prboom plus or zandronum or gzdoom or something :p

[Dark Pulse]

Well, thing is, again, you are kind of contrasting two different things.

 

Vanilla-style also implies vanilla limits, or at the least, expanded Boom limits (i.e; PrBoom). That does mean that they try to stick to accuracy, so that's why you'll get stuff like 35 FPS and whatnot. There's some tweaks and so on you can do, but one of PrBoom's goals was to maintain demo compatability, and that means it will stick very, very closely to Vanilla limits.

 

ZDoom focuses on more extensive alterations to the gameplay. The framerate can go higher, but there are tricks behind it (namely, interpretation); the core game logic still runs at 35 Hz and so much stuff is dependent on that rate that you can't simply turn it to 60 FPS without messing up all sorts of other stuff, like random number generation (key for flickering lights, determining damage, etc.), door open/close times (these are literally defined by "140 ticks have passed, so close the door" for example), and so on. So basically while it will run higher, the core logic is still actually running at 35 FPS - it's simply interpolated to be smoother at higher framerates, but in practice it's still only getting polled 35 times a second, because that means you don't have to go and rewrite lots of the code - just interpolate between the actual polled frames.

 

You sound like you want a port that can remove a bunch of limits, yet still "remain" close to vanilla, and that's literally impossible with a game as old as Doom. So much is tied to that tickrate that changing it will fundamentally change the game's mechanics.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Dark Pulse

[DoomerNL]

  On 4/23/2019 at 3:44 PM, Dark Pulse said:

Well, thing is, again, you are kind of contrasting two different things.

 

Vanilla-style also implies vanilla limits, or at the least, expanded Boom limits (i.e; PrBoom). That does mean that they try to stick to accuracy, so that's why you'll get stuff like 35 FPS and whatnot. There's some tweaks and so on you can do, but one of PrBoom's goals was to maintain demo compatability, and that means it will stick very, very closely to Vanilla limits.

 

ZDoom focuses on more extensive alterations to the gameplay. The framerate can go higher, but there are tricks behind it (namely, interpretation); the core game logic still runs at 35 Hz and so much stuff is dependent on that rate that you can't simply turn it to 60 FPS without messing up all sorts of other stuff, like random number generation (key for flickering lights, determining damage, etc.), door open/close times (these are literally defined by "140 ticks have passed, so close the door" for example), and so on. So basically while it will run higher, the core logic is still actually running at 35 FPS - it's simply interpolated to be smoother at higher framerates, but in practice it's still only getting polled 35 times a second, because that means you don't have to go and rewrite lots of the code - just interpolate between the actual polled frames.

 

You sound like you want a port that can remove a bunch of limits, yet still "remain" close to vanilla, and that's literally impossible with a game as old as Doom. So much is tied to that tickrate that changing it will fundamentally change the game's mechanics.

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No not at all im not a diffecult person i just want a port that plays as smooth as zdoom aka 60fps and that is updated and not 10years old port...

Ports like chocolate doom just hurts my eyes i no longer can stand the sluggish feel of that..

I dont care what the ports do to the maps..

But i do want to play the classics like hell revealed etc..

Edited April 23, 2019 by DoomerNL

[Dark Pulse]

Yeah, and the problem is that none of those ports are on the Pi, which is basically your major limiting factor - that and the Pi doesn't exactly have tons of horsepower. :P

 

So your choices are kind of limited. You can either stick with 35 FPS but get that pretty rock-solid on either of those ports (ZDoom might be a bit harder), or you can try for higher framerate but it might not be all that stable/consistent.

 

That said, also helps to know what generation of the Pi hardware you're running, as well. ZDoom Wiki says that performance on a Pi 2 would be roughly equivalent to how ZDoom performs on a Pentium III CPU.

 

That said, note ZDoom itself had its last stable release 3 years ago, so while it will definitely play more stuff, it also won't take into account stuff developed since then. QZDoom or GZDoom are more recent (and regularly updated), but GZDoom will likely make the Pi cry if not rendered via software, while QZDoom is a more experimental branch (but currently, is older than GZDoom).

Edited April 23, 2019 by Dark Pulse

[VGA]

Just use the outdated ZDoom libretro core since it runs fast enough for most wads.

 

I know you say you want a more up to date version of ZDoom but if it is updated then ... it won't run fast enough any more.

Edited April 24, 2019 by VGA

[Danfun64]

 

 

 

  On 4/24/2019 at 2:05 AM, VGA said:

ZDoom libretro core

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Wut?

I personally find the PrBoom libretro core to be garbage. You know how some people stretch 4:3 "fullscreen" images to fit on their 16:9 "widescreen" TVs? Libretro PrBoom is pretty much the same thing in regards to the frame rate of the game world. Instead of running at an internal 35 frames per second, it's run at 60 frames per second with no interpolation whatsoever. I'm pretty sure somebody could explain that better than I can, but it means that it desyncs every normally prboom compatible demo recording. Also, the sound is lower pitched, and there's no music.

Really, you'd be better suited with a native Raspberry Pi port. If you're using Raspian and don't want to compile anything, you could install chocolate-doom using apt. Chocolate-Doom has native GLES2 support (which PrBoom-Plus AFAIK does not). If you are willing to compile things then Crispy Doom and certain forks of (G)ZDoom become available to you.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Danfun64

[Dark Pulse]

  On 4/24/2019 at 5:13 AM, Danfun64 said:

Really, you'd be better suited with a native Raspberry Pi port. If you're using Raspian and don't want to compile anything, you could install chocolate-doom using apt. Chocolate-Doom has native GLES2 support (which PrBoom-Plus AFAIK does not). If you are willing to compile things then Crispy Doom and certain forks of (G)ZDoom become available to you.

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He wants 60 FPS if possible, so disregard Chocolate. Chocolate will run only at the native 35.

[Triple_sSs]

I have a Raspberry Pi 3 that I've messed around with, and PrBoom & Choco Doom are the ports that work best for me. If you want an uncapped framerate for the latter however, you'll need to compile Crispy Doom instead.

That said, it seems like the RPi doesn't have quite enough processing power to run at 60fps at high resolutions. I've tried experimenting with some settings on Crispy Doom and what I've found using this port is: in windowed mode running at lower resolutions, you could get an FPS at or near 60 with an uncapped framerate in "crispy" mode. But if you run it in full screen at HD resolutions, it's only going to run closer to (or slightly above) the native 35fps of the engine, although I think you can get to 60 if you turn off the HD crispy mode and run the game at it's original resolution.

So in the end, you'll need to find a balance between FPS and resolution, and see which looks best to you when running Doom on the RPi. One might see some better performance with the newer, upgraded 3 B+ model, but I don't have that one right now so I couldn't say for sure.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Triple_sSs

[Marisa the Magician]

Oh I can confirm it does run pretty well in the B+, especially if you also have a fully hardware accelerated desktop (there's an option for that in raspi-config). I also picked up this GZDoom fork for the Pi, but I haven't yet checked how it runs.

[Dark Pulse]

  On 4/26/2019 at 7:57 AM, Marisa Kirisame said:

Oh I can confirm it does run pretty well in the B+, especially if you also have a fully hardware accelerated desktop (there's an option for that in raspi-config). I also picked up this GZDoom fork for the Pi, but I haven't yet checked how it runs.

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Looked at that link and was both immediately amused and saddened to see some Russian dude (or at least someone who knows Russian) saying to rename the port because it was vaguely kinda sorta similar to some Russian curses, and the author complied.

 

Like, it's not even Russian software, come on...

[DoomerNL]

Zdoom runs great im getting over 100 fps with latest sdl and playing thru retropie..

Id like to try gzdoom in soft render but i have no idea how to compile,

im very new at this