Best way to play Hexen in 2021?

[ReaperAA]

1 minute ago, Gibbon said:

Then it wouldn't be Vanilla anymore would it ;)

 

Depends on what the definition of vanilla is. If you are the type of person who is okay with novert in chocolate Doom, then hopefully this should be fine to implement in chocolate Heretic/Hexen/Strife as well.

[Gibbon]

Just now, Dusty_Rhodes said:

That's why Russian Hexen exists! Perfect for wanting it to be vanilla, but having mouslook and a feel qol features. It's more like Crispy Hexen.

I'm old school (and biased) so I just use Sprinkled Hexen :P

[Lippeth]

33 minutes ago, Lol 6 said:

Sorry for the double post, but, I remember fabian saying that renaming the exe to "crispy-hexen-setup.exe" works for HeXen, although it doesn't have the crispness menu, but with that you can rebind the keys, change the music, etc.

Hey, that works, thanks! I have to say, one of the best things about Crispy and Russian Hexen is that the pause screen (not the menu screen) keeps the music playing. I think the only downside is the inability to bind [use artifact] to the mouse.

[Dweller Dark]

1 hour ago, Baroneu said:

no, it does not have a setup exe file, it's just a .rar file that you have to extract to your hexen/heretic folder 

 

I realize that I didn't really get really specific with my question, but what I was asking about was the setup exe that comes with a few sourceports like Crispy or Russian Doom. Russian Heretic (x64) doesn't seem to have one for whatever reason, but Russian Hexen does.

[Matthias]

Chocolate-Hexen is ok I guess.

Gzdoom too.

Russian HeXen? I have never tried but it looked broken in Civvie's video

Edited November 9, 2021 by LiquidDoom

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

4 minutes ago, LiquidDoom said:

Russian HeXen? I have never tried but it looked broken in Civvie's video

Civvie himself said that the issue was already patched

Spoiler

 

 

[rzh]

Personally I would recommend either Chocolate Hexen or Hexen-plus if you want a demo-accurate version.

Unfortunately there's no pre-compiled "up-to-date" (because it's not actively developed, just sort of maintained) version of Crispy Hexen for 32-bit machines, so if you're like me, stuck with a relic these are your best bets.
Although it seems that Hexen-plus has a weird issue (at least it does for me) in which I am unable to change the key bindings, since it uses a different executable to change those, which either fails to remove the default bindings or update them (I am also unable to hack the regular executable with anything other than keybinds).

So Chocolate Hexen it is, though due to it's nature there is quite an annoying crash that might happen in a particularly loaded area of the expansion (Hub 3: Nave).

Otherwise use GZDoom, since if you're breaking demo compatibility you might as well go all-in.

[Giomancer]

• Chocolate-Hexen
  • Vanilla analog
• Chocolate-Hexen-Plus-Plus
  • Raised limits
• Crispy-Hexen (works but is not 'crispified')
  • Limit removing
• Doomsday
  • Fancy things!
• DSDA-Doom
  • Supports Hexen, but I believe the fancy stuff is mostly Doom-side.
• k8Vavoom
  • Not recommended for 'vanilla' experience. Might kill your dog. (<3 ketmar)
• Vavoom
  • Fancy things!

 

EDIT: Don't forget to make sure your Hexen IWAD is properly patched to version 1.1.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Giomancer

[GoneAway]

17 hours ago, skeptikalklown said:

Once this gets addressed it should work great

This should be fixed in v0.22 (some time this month)

[Gibbon]

22 minutes ago, rzh said:

Personally I would recommend either Chocolate Hexen or Hexen-plus if you want a demo-accurate version.

Unfortunately there's no pre-compiled "up-to-date" (because it's not actively developed, just sort of maintained) version of Crispy Hexen for 32-bit machines, so if you're like me, stuck with a relic these are your best bets.
Although it seems that Hexen-plus has a weird issue (at least it does for me) in which I am unable to change the key bindings, since it uses a different executable to change those, which either fails to remove the default bindings or update them (I am also unable to hack the regular executable with anything other than keybinds).

So Chocolate Hexen it is, though due to it's nature there is quite an annoying crash that might happen in a particularly loaded area of the expansion (Hub 3: Nave).

Otherwise use GZDoom, since if you're breaking demo compatibility you might as well go all-in.

Why not raise an issue so I can look into your Hexen-Plus problem?  I won't know if these are never reported.

 

Or do you mean the original old Doom-plus version?

Edited November 9, 2021 by Gibbon

[Dusty_Rhodes]

1 hour ago, LiquidDoom said:

Chocolate-Hexen is ok I guess.

Gzdoom too.

Russian HeXen? I have never tried but it looked broken in Civvie's video

It got patched. And that was weird freak bug, I'd never had it happen to me.

[idbeholdME]

14 hours ago, magicsofa said:

 

With a walkthrough. Don't ruin your experience trying to figure out the insane puzzles the "honest" way. Others have endured the pain so you could enjoy the rest of it.

The only really bad one is the first hub. On my first playthrough back then, I got stuck there for a couple of hours before stumbling on how to proceed. But the hubs after that are not that bad.

[Master O]

20 hours ago, Arbiter said:

Hate to admit, but I never completed Hexen in the DOS era (unlike Heretic). What is the best way to play it nowadays? Which source port, any graphics mods? I want the experience to be close to vanilla on my first play-through, so no Brutal Hexen for now.

 

Download Chocolate Hexen from Chocolate Doom's site:

 

https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Downloads

 

https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection/running_hexen_deathkings_of_the_dark_citadel_in_chocolate_hexen

 

If you want more source ports, take a look at https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection/heretic_and_hexen_1_sourceports

 

GZdoom will be for mods.

 

If you're looking for a good version of Dosbox, try Dosbox Staging: https://dosbox-staging.github.io/

 

(Of course, you will need to know how to mount folders in Dosbox to use Staging).

 

[Lippeth]

25 minutes ago, idbeholdME said:

The only really bad one is the first hub. On my first playthrough back then, I got stuck there for a couple of hours before stumbling on how to proceed. But the hubs after that are not that bad. 

From my experience, The Guardian of Steel puzzle was what initially stopped me in my tracks when trying to get into Hexen, and I feel like that's where the journey ends for many players. Even in Kevin Schilder's playthrough, that's where they ended it after getting lost. Unlocking the secret level makes the first hub seem even more confusing until you learn which switches progress the game, and which ones open the secret.

Other than that one snag, the second hub is what I always had the most difficult time with. It took so many playthroughs to really know where to go next and what to look for.

[rzh]

2 hours ago, Gibbon said:

Why not raise an issue so I can look into your Hexen-Plus problem?  I won't know if these are never reported.

 

Or do you mean the original old Doom-plus version?

I mean the DOS version by entryway, not your updated one, don't worry about it.

3 minutes ago, Lippeth said:

From my experience, The Guardian of Steel puzzle was what initially stopped me in my tracks when trying to get into Hexen, and I feel like that's where the journey ends for many players. Even in Kevin Schilder's playthrough, that's where they ended it after getting lost. Unlocking the secret level makes the first hub seem even more confusing until you learn which switches progress the game, and which ones open the secret.

Other than that one snag, the second hub is what I always had the most difficult time with. It took so many playthroughs to really know where to go next and what to look for.

I felt that was a really clever and obvious puzzle actually, once you realize that the switches change the walls downstairs. Hidden in plain sight.

[ApprihensivSoul]

One question on this, I've heard KMod has done some work reimagining some of the hub layouts lately. Does anyone have any opinions on that? I imagine that they did something that works well in other sourceports that could be something to be considered.

[Arbiter]

Thank you for all your responses, I can finally respond as my post limit was reset after 24 hours since registration.

 

By "close to vanilla" I mean no gameplay changes (hence no Brutal Hexen). Mouselook and GPU rendering are a must.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Arbiter
Spelling

[Nikku4211]

19 hours ago, BoxY said:

Isn't that completely outside the scope of a chocolate style port? The goal by definition is for the port to try to represent the way the game ran under DOS with no major feature additions.

 

13 hours ago, Gibbon said:

Then it wouldn't be Vanilla anymore would it ;)

 

There is a DOS application that allows vanilla DOS Hexen and Heretic to use mouselook.

 

Plus it seems Fraggle plans adding this into Chocolate Heretic and Hexen, as Chocolate already has key mappings that Vanilla doesn't have.

[Gibbon]

Indeed there is, but it wasn't in the original.  Choco hasn't been truly vanilla since the 2.x series.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Gibbon

[ReaperAA]

7 hours ago, Arbiter said:

By "close to vanilla" I mean no gameplay changes (hence no Brutal Hexen). Mouselook and GPU rendering are a must.

 

In that case, GZDoom is your best bet. None of the other Hexen source ports (other than Doomsday, which is even less vanilla-ish than GZDoom and harder to set up) have mouselook and Hardware rendering.

[sbw37]

On 11/8/2021 at 5:53 PM, Arbiter said:

Hate to admit, but I never completed Hexen in the DOS era (unlike Heretic). What is the best way to play it nowadays? Which source port, any graphics mods? I want the experience to be close to vanilla on my first play-through, so no Brutal Hexen for now.

try the doomsday engine. dengine.net  is the site. youll might have to tinker with the graphic settings the game keep close to as vanilla as possible. of course youll need the .wad file to run it.

[magicsofa]

On 11/9/2021 at 1:46 PM, idbeholdME said:

The only really bad one is the first hub. On my first playthrough back then, I got stuck there for a couple of hours before stumbling on how to proceed. But the hubs after that are not that bad.

I dunno man, Shadow Wood is rather annoying to navigate with all the caves, then you have Castle of Grief with a switch in every nook (tedious and easy to just miss one even though you were looking right at it), Heresiarch's chamber with NINE freaking segments to the puzzle, and all those damn gems... It's one of my favorite games but wandering around for hours looking for a stupidly hidden switch in a tiny crack is not enjoyable to me. The puzzles are what puts most people off about the game so I recommend trying it the honest way only as long as you are having fun. But when you inevitably get to that point where you've killed everything and feel like you have looked in every corner twice, just look at the walkthrough and get on with your life.

[Arbiter]

GZDoom it is.

 

Three questions:

- are teleporting enemies scripted to appear as the puzzles are solved or simply spawned randomly or by a timer?

- do I remember correctly that DOS Hexen run in a resolution slightly higher than Doom's 320x200 (VGA)?

- do you recommend any graphics mods?

[Lippeth]

4 minutes ago, Arbiter said:

- are teleporting enemies scripted to appear as the puzzles are solved or simply spawned randomly or by a timer?

Some will spawn in after activating a switch, and others will spawn throughout a map periodically.

5 minutes ago, Arbiter said:

- do I remember correctly that DOS Hexen run in a resolution slightly higher than Doom's 320x200 (VGA)?

As far as I know, it's the same resolution. It looks identical to me, as well as when I set GZDoom's resolution to 320x200 with a pixel ratio of 1.2

7 minutes ago, Arbiter said:

- do you recommend any graphics mods?

I personally recommend against graphic mods for Hexen, the existing sprites and textures are so good looking on their own. GZDoom's lights.pk3 does add a nice ambience to the light sources if you are set on changing the look. There's the Neural Texture Pack and HD 2020 which are popular, but the simpler map geometry of Hexen makes high resolution textures look very flat, though HD 2020 looks like it uses normal mapping for more definition. I can't say I recommend them for a first time play through, but they're there.

[Arbiter]

Is it normal that Hexen does not have official secrets in maps (aside from a secret level per hub) or is it a GZDoom oddity?

[Master O]

11 minutes ago, Arbiter said:

Is it normal that Hexen does not have official secrets in maps (aside from a secret level per hub) or is it a GZDoom oddity?

 

You can also enable GZDoom's Alternative HUD and it will show number of secrets in Hexen.

 

Options --> HUD Options --> Alternative HUD --> Enable Alternative HUD

 

Then while in-game, press the = key on your keyboard (to the left of the Backspace key) several times and you will get the alternative HUD, which will show secrets.  To return to the original HUD, press the - key (to the left of the = key) several times.

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Master O

[Lippeth]

Hexen has no tagged secrets. There are plenty of secrets and well hidden items, but nothing is tagged which helps to sell that famous cryptic and mysterious feeling.

If you enable the alternate hud (or bring up the automap) in GZDoom, the secret counter will always display 0/0.

[rzh]

17 hours ago, Arbiter said:

GZDoom it is.

 

Three questions:

- are teleporting enemies scripted to appear as the puzzles are solved or simply spawned randomly or by a timer?

- do I remember correctly that DOS Hexen run in a resolution slightly higher than Doom's 320x200 (VGA)?

- do you recommend any graphics mods?

1. Ettins (the mace-wielding double headed dogman) are set to spawn in every few minutes.

There are also triggers that spawn enemies when certain actions are performed.

In Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, several other enemies (map-specific I believe) are also set to spawn alongside Ettins at random intervals.

2. Nope, but you might be thinking of Hexen 95, which IIRC had 640x480 as a max resolution

3. Nope, not that many and they mostly ruin what I consider to be a gorgeous art style

[Arbiter]

The Wastelands level in the second hub seems to have inspired the Outlands map in Quake 2.

[Arbiter]

BTW, why did Raven change the name from Heretic to Hexen? Is it true that the third game in the series was supposed to have yet another name?