How do I run GZDoom

[An0maly_76]

I was into Doom from the days when it was new around the early 1990s. Got into playing with custom WADs, etc (The Island was one of my faves). Then both my laptop and my desktop nuked themselves late 2018. I wound up getting a newer gaming rig and have not been able to load or play this game since. By the way, the security check to register for this site is near impossible if you haven't played in a long time, or just played it to play it and never got into character names, etc. I know GZDoom is older, but after my experience with Steam, I avoid it at all costs at this point -- I don't care whether they offer better games at lower cost.

 

I've downloaded GZDoom, and extracted it, as well as a test of downloading ISLAND.WAD. Error messages abounds, with a Ryzen 7 1700, 32GB RAM, ASUS TUF Gaming GTX1650 Super 4GB OC, with a 1 TB M.2 SSD as my primary storage. I've updated drivers each time I've attempted to figure out what I'm doing wrong. WTH? This is the error message I get... I've never had to edit any configuration files to make this game run before, also, it generally comes with a standard WAD. So what is the problem? Can anyone help?

 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

GzDOOM doesn't come with a copy of DOOM/2 - you need to provide the proper .iwads.

[An0maly_76]

2 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

GzDOOM doesn't come with a copy of DOOM/2 - you need to provide the proper .iwads.

If memory serves, pk3 is another wad format, so I find it strange that gzdoom came with pk3s, as well as the island wad I received is a pk3, yet apparently gzdoom doesn't support them. *smh* I'm all about improvements, but I hate when people reinvent the wheel.

[7Mahonin]

No, it isn't anything about reinventing the wheel. The pk3 file is the GZDoom data, pk3s can be used as WAD style mod files, but that is not the case for the licenced games. You need a copy of Doom.WAD, Doom2.WAD, TNT.WAD, and PLUTONIA.WAD in order to play these games, or at the very least just one of them that supports the custom WADs you wish to play. They are known as IWADs and are the actual games you have to purchase through GOG or Steam, where GZDoom can autodetect them from your libary and run them without having to move files around (and without having to run steam or GOG galaxy to play) or you can copy and paste from your CD-ROM into the GZDoom folder for it to detect these games.

 

GZDoom is just a source port. It is not a rerelease of any of the games. You still need a way for GZDoom to find your IWADs. It would be illegal for GZDoom to come with any of the offical WADs because that's called piracy.

Edited January 27, 2022 by TelicAx7
typo

[Arrowhead]

What's happening is that the port is looking for an .iwad, but can't find one. This can be doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad, or plutonia.wad.

 

If you don't still have the above files, and don't want to use Steam, you can always buy these Doom games from GOG:

 

https://www.gog.com/game/doom_ii_final_doom

https://www.gog.com/game/the_ultimate_doom

 

They come DRM free, too - and you don't need a GOG account to play them. I often will go here to find cheap games. Often times, these Doom games are on sale, but that doesn't seem to be the case today.

 

So basically, what you do is go into your install folders for whatever game you're wanting to play, (likely Doom2) and find the 'doom2.wad' file. You then drag this into GZDOOM's main directory. It *should* then recognize your .iwad, and you'll be able to play your mods / WADs no problem.

 

Edit: ninja'd

Edited January 27, 2022 by Arrowhead

[ChopBlock223]

Are the GOG ones still censored?

[An0maly_76]

Okay, so I managed to download a standard doom wad that works. So why doesn't the island pack I downloaded before work with this?

[7Mahonin]

@An0maly_76 Are you dragging the mod file into the GZDoom EXE? Also, is it Doom.WAD that you've downloaded, if so, are you seeing 3 or 4 episodes to play when you select "NEW GAME" in the menu? Most mods are made for Doom II, and the ones made for the original Doom usually only support Ultimate Doom.

Edited January 27, 2022 by TelicAx7
clarification

[An0maly_76]

Four Episodes, so I have the full standard WAD. But all I remember doing with Island before was simply installing it into the same directory, maybe. It's been awhile. What do you mean by dragging the mod file into gzdoom.exe?

[7Mahonin]

Single-click the island pk3 you mentioned earlier, and move it with your mouse cursor into GZDoom.exe and let go once it hovers onto it and then run the game and see if the mod then works.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

1 minute ago, An0maly_76 said:

Four Episodes, so I have the full standard WAD. But all I remember doing with Island before was simply installing it into the same directory, maybe. It's been awhile. What do you mean by dragging the mod file into gzdoom.exe?

IIRC, The Island is a DOOM2 wad, so you need DOOM2.

[7Mahonin]

Everyone, Anomaly_76 has messaged me that he's reached his post limit for the day. I will attempt to help him through messages.

[Mr.Rocket]

Ah, was gonna say, if for some reason he isn't able to get Doom2 atm, the wad, if island.wad is the one I'm thinking of, he should be able to still play it with freedoom2.wad as the IWAD. ~ until he gets Doom2.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Mr.Rocket

[Doomkid]

Just a little note, try to make more informative thread titles than "JFC" in future lol. This thread bload up because everyone saw the title and had no idea what to think

[7Mahonin]

Okay, so either I solved his issue and he is now enjoying his island mod through GZDoom and is having too much fun to let me know the issue has been resolved, or he has decided to ride off into the sunset.
 

I hope for the former! 

[rzh]

1 hour ago, ChopBlock223 said:

Are the GOG ones still censored?

They never were? I have the games on GoG only and they're just the old versions running through DOSBox.

All Wolf 3D and medkit sprites included.

1 hour ago, An0maly_76 said:

I was into Doom from the days when it was new around the early 1990s. Got into playing with custom WADs, etc (The Island was one of my faves). Then both my laptop and my desktop nuked themselves late 2018. I wound up getting a newer gaming rig and have not been able to load or play this game since. By the way, the security check to register for this site is near impossible if you haven't played in a long time, or just played it to play it and never got into character names, etc. I know GZDoom is older, but after my experience with Steam, I avoid it at all costs at this point -- I don't care whether they offer better games at lower cost.

 

I've downloaded GZDoom, and extracted it, as well as a test of downloading ISLAND.WAD. Error messages abounds, with a Ryzen 7 1700, 32GB RAM, ASUS TUF Gaming GTX1650 Super 4GB OC, with a 1 TB M.2 SSD as my primary storage. I've updated drivers each time I've attempted to figure out what I'm doing wrong. WTH? This is the error message I get... I've never had to edit any configuration files to make this game run before, also, it generally comes with a standard WAD. So what is the problem? Can anyone help?

 

I don't know man, that error message seems really esoteric.

Why can't it tell you why it fails and what you have to do in plain english? I swear, technology is getting worse and worse.

They have all of these ridiculous requirements, blegh. If only they knew how much I spent on a GOOD computer. A GOOD computer should run GOOD!!!

[Edward850]

6 minutes ago, rzh said:

Why can't it tell you why it fails and what you have to do in plain english? I swear, technology is getting worse and worse.

It tells you exactly why it fails, it can't find any available game .WAD file. Doom games are stored in wads. No wad, no game.
You know, these:

 

The thing is if you buy and install the game from the usual services (Steam, GOG, BNet), GZDoom and most other source ports will automatically find these files anyway. So the user has the game in some way that's actually rather uncommon these days, incidentally requiring a level of knowledge that requires understanding what a filesystem is.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Edward850

[Doomkid]

My sarcasm detector is off the charts

 

Seriously though, thank you @rzh for two deep laughs in the course of like 5 minutes, I needed that today!

[Edward850]

It's tricky to tell with some users. :P

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

1 hour ago, TelicAx7 said:

It would be illegal for GZDoom to come with any of the offical WADs because that's called piracy.

It'd be nice if it came with FreeDoom though. That way you'd have something to play without buying the game

[BG213]

Never knew you could run pwads on Freedoom. Learn something new every day.

 

(PS: Just tried that and it seems mostly normal, though the messages might be a little off. In my test run I died because I "was eaten by a stealth worm (!) = spectre).

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

8 minutes ago, BG213 said:

Never knew you could run pwads on Freedoom. Learn something new every day.

 

(PS: Just tried that and it seems mostly normal, though the messages might be a little off. In my test run I died because I "was eaten by a stealth worm (!) = spectre).

Yeah, FreeDoom changes that, with Dehacked I believe

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

16 minutes ago, BG213 said:

Never knew you could run pwads on Freedoom. Learn something new every day.

That's pretty much the whole point of Freedoom lol.

[Ludi]

You don't run GZDoom, you play it! use prboom+ instead haha lol ecks dee

[Redneckerz]

If the OP read the actual error message, he would not have reached the post limit for a day.

 

[LuciferSam86]

My suggestion is to use a launcher , like the excellent ZDL. No drag and drop, and you can have different profiles for different wads / mods to have your favorite ones one click away. 

https://github.com/qbasicer/qzdl/releases/tag/v3.2.2.2-stable

 

[Master O]

13 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

I was into Doom from the days when it was new around the early 1990s. Got into playing with custom WADs, etc (The Island was one of my faves). Then both my laptop and my desktop nuked themselves late 2018. I wound up getting a newer gaming rig and have not been able to load or play this game since. By the way, the security check to register for this site is near impossible if you haven't played in a long time, or just played it to play it and never got into character names, etc. I know GZDoom is older, but after my experience with Steam, I avoid it at all costs at this point -- I don't care whether they offer better games at lower cost.

 

I've downloaded GZDoom, and extracted it, as well as a test of downloading ISLAND.WAD. Error messages abounds, with a Ryzen 7 1700, 32GB RAM, ASUS TUF Gaming GTX1650 Super 4GB OC, with a 1 TB M.2 SSD as my primary storage. I've updated drivers each time I've attempted to figure out what I'm doing wrong. WTH? This is the error message I get... I've never had to edit any configuration files to make this game run before, also, it generally comes with a standard WAD. So what is the problem? Can anyone help?

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Master O

[Master O]

13 hours ago, ChopBlock223 said:

Are the GOG ones still censored?

 

No, they are not.

 

The GOG releases of Ultimate Doom, and Doom 2 + Final Doom, are unaltered, except for TNT, which fixes that yellow key card bug in Map31: Pharoah.

 

You are thinking of the Doom 2 wad that is included with Doom 3 BFG Edition, which has the Nazi levels (Doom 2's Maps 31 and 32) censored due to having to comply with Germany's Anti-Nazi Propaganda law.

[ChopBlock223]

Ah, right, that was it. Was there also some censorship in the Unity release? I know they made the red crosses on medkits green.

[7Mahonin]

19 minutes ago, ChopBlock223 said:

Ah, right, that was it. Was there also some censorship in the Unity release? I know they made the red crosses on medkits green.

Yes, and other than that the only other things they did was replace the nazi imagery in the secret Doom II maps, but kept the levels and SS guards intact, though with new sound effects. While I personally think censorship like this is silly, it isn’t really their fault. It’s the only way for it to be available in certain regions and it is a much smarter move than to make multiple versions of the same game just to please the people who make and enforce those silly laws. Besides, on the PC port at least, it’s fairly easy to replace the assets back to their originals. 
 

The green crosses are a much more brilliant idea than hearts or pill bottles for health, and while the Red Cross is iconic, it isn’t a huge loss. Green is also a very commonly used color for medical.

Edited January 27, 2022 by TelicAx7