Most Doom WADs NOT Working on Mac, help!

[rubberduckdebugger]

So I've sifted through a few existing threads about making Doom WADS compatible for Mac but for some reason it still doesn't make any sense to me. I am a Doom newb so any and all help is appreciated, apologies if I am asking something that has already been answered more thoroughly somewhere else.

 

I use a 2020 Macbook Pro on version 10.15 Catalina. I already have GZDoom and have done a full playthrough of Ultimate Doom on that format without a hitch. While some select WADs do work when I open them, the vast majority of them will simply open up with the new, custom WAD menu art and only give me the option of playing Ultimate Doom levels without any changes. Less frequently, some WADs will sort of work but many of the map textures are incomplete and just show up with pixelated squares.

 

Initially, I thought that having a Doom II WAD might solve my problem. But after Torrenting one (Doom II on Steam is only compatible on Windows), it again only opened with a Doom II menu and the gave me the option of only playing Ultimate Doom levels.

 

I am totally down to pay for a legit copy of Doom and/or Doom II that is Mac compatible if that would solve my WAD woes. But since this does not seem plausible (I did see an official iPad compatible version of Doom I think but that's it), what else can I do?

[dmdr]

it sounds like you're trying to run doom 2 wads with the ultimate doom set as IWAD, aka the main data file from which everything else follows, so the maps aren't loading properly. If you do that some graphics will be replaced (which is why you see the Doom 2 menu) but the maps will be the same -- when running Doom 1 the maps are called eg. E1M1 but Doom 2 maps are named eg. MAP01 -- so if you start Doom 1 as the IWAD only maps called E-whatever will be loaded. This can happen if you drag-n-drop doom2.wad onto the gzdoom executable when it has doom.wad set as the default IWAD.

 

I would suggest running a launcher but it doesn't seem like there's any for mac which is pretty dumb (or maybe there is but I couldn't find it and so I'm the one who is pretty dumb). I'd suggest trying the terminal, which isn't a very elegant or user-friendly solution but it's better than not playing Doom at all tbh.

Now, I don't have a Mac but according to the internet you should be able to drag-n-drop stuff onto the terminal screen in order to save yourself some typing. Try the following (this is based mostly on how shit's done on Linux):

 

drag-n-drop the gzdoom executable onto the terminal window

type '-iwad'

drag-n-drop doom2.wad onto the terminal window

 

IN THEORY you'll end up with something like this on the command line:

/Applications/GZDoom.app/Contents/MacOS/gzdoom -iwad ~/Library/Application Support/gzdoom/doom2.wad

(depending on where you've put your files and assuming the following guides are broadly correct:

https://godmodeuser.com/p/21

https://macissues.com/2015/02/06/how-to-launch-os-x-apps-via-the-terminal/ )

 

if that works properly, ie. when you press enter you're playing Doom 2 properly, you can play custom wads by appending

-file

to the command line and dragging-n-dropping the custom wad there. So if you wanted to play objectively the best wad ever (DBP25) you'll have a command line like:

 

/Applications/GZDoom.app/Contents/MacOS/gzdoom -iwad ~/Library/Application Support/gzdoom/doom2.wad -file ~/Library/Application Support/gzdoom/dbp25-dead_but_dreaming.wad

 

If it doesn't, well then I dunno lol. Here's the ZDoom forums thread for Macs, you could ask there instead:

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19321&start=420

you can also look right down the bottom here:

https://zdoom.org/wiki/Installation_and_execution_of_ZDoom#Mac_OS_X_Instructions

 

good luck! Oh and pay for Doom on steam, you don't need the application just the doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad and plutonia.wad files to have a good time.

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by dmdr

[rubberduckdebugger]

On 7/11/2021 at 5:39 AM, dmdr said:

it sounds like you're trying to run doom 2 wads with the ultimate doom set as IWAD, aka the main data file from which everything else follows, so the maps aren't loading properly. If you do that some graphics will be replaced (which is why you see the Doom 2 menu) but the maps will be the same -- when running Doom 1 the maps are called eg. E1M1 but Doom 2 maps are named eg. MAP01 -- so if you start Doom 1 as the IWAD only maps called E-whatever will be loaded. This can happen if you drag-n-drop doom2.wad onto the gzdoom executable when it has doom.wad set as the default IWAD.

 

I would suggest running a launcher but it doesn't seem like there's any for mac which is pretty dumb (or maybe there is but I couldn't find it and so I'm the one who is pretty dumb). I'd suggest trying the terminal, which isn't a very elegant or user-friendly solution but it's better than not playing Doom at all tbh.

Now, I don't have a Mac but according to the internet you should be able to drag-n-drop stuff onto the terminal screen in order to save yourself some typing. Try the following (this is based mostly on how shit's done on Linux):

 

drag-n-drop the gzdoom executable onto the terminal window

type '-iwad'

drag-n-drop doom2.wad onto the terminal window

 

IN THEORY you'll end up with something like this on the command line:

/Applications/GZDoom.app/Contents/MacOS/gzdoom -iwad ~/Library/Application Support/gzdoom/doom2.wad

(depending on where you've put your files and assuming the following guides are broadly correct:

https://godmodeuser.com/p/21

https://macissues.com/2015/02/06/how-to-launch-os-x-apps-via-the-terminal/ )

 

if that works properly, ie. when you press enter you're playing Doom 2 properly, you can play custom wads by appending

-file

to the command line and dragging-n-dropping the custom wad there. So if you wanted to play objectively the best wad ever (DBP25) you'll have a command line like:

 

/Applications/GZDoom.app/Contents/MacOS/gzdoom -iwad ~/Library/Application Support/gzdoom/doom2.wad -file ~/Library/Application Support/gzdoom/dbp25-dead_but_dreaming.wad

 

If it doesn't, well then I dunno lol. Here's the ZDoom forums thread for Macs, you could ask there instead:

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19321&start=420

you can also look right down the bottom here:

https://zdoom.org/wiki/Installation_and_execution_of_ZDoom#Mac_OS_X_Instructions

 

good luck! Oh and pay for Doom on steam, you don't need the application just the doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad and plutonia.wad files to have a good time.

 

Yup, this did the trick. Thanks for the incredibly detailed response, I was scratching my damn head for weeks trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Edited July 19, 2021 by rubberduckdebugger

[dmdr]

great to hear -- have fun!

 

I suspect that your problem was related to where you've stored your files. As I said I'm not a Mac user but GZDoom generally expects you to put your IWADs in one folder, I presume that Library/Application Support/gzdoom one. If you've got doom2.wad somewhere else maybe move it in there and see if you can start things normally then? If you've already done that then ignore me and keep using the terminal.