What are the limits of Freedoom?

[Havok]

The Readme for Freedoom says the following 2 paragraphs that seem to contradict each other regarding limits:

 

Quote

 

All levels for Freedoom must be vanilla-compatible, requiring an expanded-limits or limit-removing engine is not permissible. This means you may not exceed the limits of the original Doom engine, and do not depend on additional mapping features.

 

While unrestricted by limits, do not make excessively complicated scenes.

 

 

Will a map with thousands of enemies work in Freedom or is that beyond vanilla Doom II's limits? What other limits are there for maps I make for use with Freedoom?

[Shepardus]

I'm not sure from reading your post whether you're making a PWAD intended to be used with Freedoom as the IWAD (i.e. like many of the custom WADs shared on Doomworld, but loaded alongside Freedoom instead of Doom), or whether you're making a map to be contributed to and included as part of Freedoom itself.

 

If the former, you can ignore those paragraphs, as they're guidelines for Freedoom contributors. You can break whatever limits and use whatever mapping features you like, as long as they're supported by the source port(s) you intend the wad to be run in, same as if you were making a map for Doom.

 

If the latter, then you'll need to stick to the vanilla map format and the original executable's static limits. I'm no expert on these limits, but you can start with the Doom Wiki page on static limits, particularly the part about visplane overflow. If you put too many things (including enemies) in your map, you'll run into the save game buffer overflow, which will cause the original executable to crash when saving (though the map would still be playable without saving assuming you don't hit other limits).

Edited February 11, 2021 by Shepardus

[Havok]

Makes sense, thanks. I'm just using Freedoom so I can play Doom II user made maps with Doom II graphics. So if I do that the maps won't have any limits, is that correct?

 

Can Freedoom play the main Doom II game in it's original graphics instead of Freedoom graphics or can it only do that when playing user made wads, etc?

 

Also that static limits link that you mentioned, does that mention all the limits in Doom II as I don't see it mentioning the enemy count limits?

[Shepardus]

Freedoom is an IWAD replacement substituting Doom II's content, including graphics, sounds, and levels, with its own free-license content. What limits you're subject to depends on the source port (e.g. GZDoom, Chocolate Doom, etc.), not the IWAD. There isn't an explicit "enemy count limit," but having a ton of enemies in a map will likely run into other static limits in the original executable, such as the save game buffer limit (if you try to save the game) or the visible sprites limit (if you try to look at many monsters at once). These won't be an issue in pretty much any modern source port except Chocolate Doom.

 

If you want Doom II's graphics you should use Doom II and not Freedoom. Freedoom's purpose is to provide free substitutes for those graphics and other content, since unlike the engine which was open-sourced, the Doom II data (i.e. doom2.wad) is still a commercial product. Some user-made wads may contain modified versions of Doom II sprites, which will still appear when playing them with Freedoom, but Freedoom itself does not provide Doom II's original graphics.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Shepardus