Do you modify any of the wads you download? And for what reason?

[Ar_e_en]

When you download a wad and the circumstances call for it - do you make any modifications to the wad?

 

Most of the time - if a wad comes with an external .deh file that isn't integrated into the wad itself - I will integrate the .deh patch into the wad myself, because I like to keep all the important bits of a wad into one file and I won't have to fiddle with the "-deh" parameters when loading a wad.
I've also taken the contents of DOOM ZERO's widescreen patch and I placed them into the main wad (replacing the standard definition graphics), because I usually play DOOM in widescreen on a source-port. Funny thing is that even if I set the source-port to 4:3 - the widescreen graphics still load in (they're cut-off and weird, but they don't crash the port)!
I've also slightly renamed some files, usually to replace spaces with underscores so I can find them more easily in the terminal.

 

[Redneckerz]

40 minutes ago, Ar_e_en said:

When you download a wad and the circumstances call for it - do you make any modifications to the wad?

Nope. I may use VULD to make custom executables out of them with deh and pwad merged when Vanilla - but generally, no.

 

Something about using the commandline feels intuitive for me. But its likely because of historic affilation.

 

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Not really, the only thing I've done is extracting the included DEH (If it has) to play for example scythe 2 in DOOM32.EXE

Other than that, nope.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Lol 6

[DarkIceCyclone]

I don't know how to do half the stuff you described, but the answer surprisingly is yes. When it calls for it and I need to show something to a map I've tested then yes otherwise no

[Ar_e_en]

52 minutes ago, Lol 6 said:

Not really, the only thing I've done is extracting the included DEH (If it has) to play for example scythe 2 in DOOM32.EXE

Other than that, nope.

Wait, Scythe2 can work on a limit-removing port? I thought it was a Boom wad all this time.

[Andromeda]

3 minutes ago, Ar_e_en said:

Wait, Scythe2 can work on a limit-removing port? I thought it was a Boom wad all this time.

Well you're half right - the first release of Scythe 2 was for Boom-compatible ports, but for the second release (which added the last three levels) all the Boom actions were replaced by regular ones (except for one in MAP32 which isn't required to complete/max the level), so for all intents and purposes it is indeed a limit-removing wad.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Andromeda

[Arrowhead]

I've added in co-op starts for maps that don't have them.

 

I've also removed all of the custom monsters / custom sounds from Hell 2 Pay before - I wasn't a fan of them.

[7Mahonin]

Yes, but it was mainly to remove replaced sound effects that annoyed me.

[URROVA]

i only modified the first golden souls for adding a coin counter.

[Pokemanic33]

I haven't modified WADs really, but I have done a bit of tinkering with PK3 mods from time to time. I use a custom version of Smooth Doom with brightmaps (made by someone else) and some animations that were removed at some point, for example. I also had to edit a "deep water" mod to remove a slowing effect when walking through slime that the creator said they would remove and didn't. Little things like that. When it comes to traditional WADs, I like to leave things as they are.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Pokemanic33

[Shepardus]

No, I don't modify the WADs I download. If I have a change I want to make, I put that in a separate WAD and load that alongside the main WAD.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

I only modify any PWAD with two levels or more to add a custom TITLEPIC from ONEMANDOOM's WAD reviews.

[forgettable pyromaniac]

I fucking hate this one red texture and it's the only thing I change about any of the iwads.
PWADS? Normally for older ones, I'll throw the dehacked patch inside and call it a day.

[thiccyosh]

Only if there are absolute painful bugs inside the wads that need to be fixed, i.e. bugs like placing the SS_START marker inside the Blockmap marker slot. Though those nice bugs (mostly) happen to be in newbie wads that test literally everything only in GZDoom.

[OpenRift]

Ohohohoh, fucking texture bugs.

 

I play a lot of limit-removing WADs in Doom32, and due to most authors designing their limit-removing stuff for the fancier stuff like Crispy Doom, they don't take any of the old texture bugs into account. Tutti-frutti and medusa affect, to be specific. Usually I have to go into the WAD's TEXTURE lump and either manually tile certain textures so they have a height of 128, or I have to export a texture as a single patch so I don't get medusas. 

 

This has worked pretty well for some WADs that I play (Scythe 2, Arrival, Syringe), but there's unfortunately no one fix to fix them all, as far as I know when it comes to using Doom32. 

 

Of course I could just use Crispy Doom, which is a port I already love, but I wanna make DOSBox sing.

 

 

Aside from that whole mess, sometimes if I'm playing an older WAD, I'll make a dehacked patch to give it proper automap names so it's a more complete experience.

[brick]

I always try not to modify the wad file directly, for some reason I like to keep the original untouched and have whatever modifications I want loaded alongside but in a separate file. I almost always add map names through (U)MAPINFO if they're not already integrated. I also like to put back "cut" maps sometimes, I have a custom "companion" wad that loads alongside av.wad and restores Valley of Echoes into the progression, I've done something similar for other wads too.

[kmxexii]

I modified the rerelease of 2002: A Doom Odyssey to include the original custom skies that were featured in the 2002 release.

 

I’ve had to tinker with a few 2001-2002 ZDoom PWADs because some of the syntax that worked back has been deprecated by subsequent ZDoom development.

[U L T R A B L A C K]

Just with a wad named ''iconboss'' just for put new music with slade

[DaAndroid614]

For most things, no, but I did remove the custom intermission/title music, title screen, and demos from sigil so I could put it in my autoload without interfering with vanilla doom 1

 

[Nikku4211]

Sometimes I do to make them work in Chocolate Doom when the author makes it clear they're supposed to work in vanilla but didn't think to test it in Chocolate.

 

Sometimes I modify WADs to make them work in DOS Boom or ReBoom when they claim to be Boom-compatible. (Yes I know the term has changed to just mean PrBoom+ -cl 9-compatible, but I still find it a bit misleading.)

 

Sometimes I modify WADs that otherwise work perfectly in vanilla in order to make their DeHackEd lumps work in vanilla, even if all they do is change the names of the levels.

 

But most of the time I don't tread on the author's vision.

[brick]

1 hour ago, kmxexii said:

I modified the rerelease of 2002: A Doom Odyssey to include the original custom skies that were featured in the 2002 release.

I have to mention that 2002 was the very first wad I tinkered with to make changes beyond having level names properly display. Reading about the skies on your blog inspired me to do the same with my playthrough and started my tinkering habit. So thank you I guess XD

[Gez]

If that's needed to make them work (there are a few cases where the mod is broken as distributed). Otherwise I'd rather do any change I may want to make in a companion pwad that I just bundle in the zip. And then I load the zip.

[roadworx]

i've only done it a few times, and that was in order to replace sound effects that i found detracted from the experience

[kwc]

I did so in order to get this baby working in The Evil Unleashed

 

[Doomkid]

^ Doomguy would fit right in with the Street Fighter 2 ending scene where Zangief dances with Gorbachev!

 

Before I started mapping, I would load multiple wads at the same time, just to see what would happen. Usually it would feel like a “fresh” way to play an old wad if the textures or sounds were different, at least fresh enough for me as a kid. I’d also use a save game modifier to start the player in a different spot and with more guns and stuff..

 

4 hours ago, OpenRift said:

 

I’ve been through this pain so many times that by now, I only brother fixing it if the tutti frutti stands out like a sore thumb - trying to get every “smaller scale” LR wad running in Doom32 can be hard enough, but I’m basically “callused over” in terms of tutti frutti at this point, lol. (Of course, Medusas have to be fixed..)

[RonLivingston]

Well, I had to Modify Nimrod Project doom by tweaking some maps, adding some hidden secrets inside, and even place in the death sound for the skin nimrod, because it only had the player marine death sound instead

[CherubCorps]

With Plutonia (And its sequels), I change the skyboxes from level 12-32. This is because I can't deal with playing 20 levels in a row with red/pink skyboxes.

[Wavy]

Most I've done is replace the HD sounds from Beautiful Doom with the ones from the Doom Sound Bulb.

[Solmyr]

No because i feel is kind of disrespectful to the autor doing small changes or tweaks in the wad.

 

The only time i modified a downloaded WAD was when i was doing minor tweaks on some maps from the community project E1M1 Multiverse, such as changing ceiling height in some parts so the skybox doesn't look out of place by skewing the perspective of map architecture, or adding midtextures where they were needed, sounds hypocritical but it was needed in order to have a proper release candidate for the project.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Solmyr

[galileo31dos01]

Yeah, the occasional cases in which a wad, particularly old, doesn't include music replacements or something extra (e.g. random status bar, titlepic maybe, skies), so I crank up slade and work on adding those things myself according to the situation, testing this, listening to that for a bit... I started doing it with The Rebirth when, at the time, the midi pack was yet to be completed, later with NDCP as it was really screaming for new midis, and then with other more "crude" wads that are usually just the maps alone like armadosia and world of deth or single maps, it's been a great way to enhance what would otherwise tend to be partially lacking experiences in a few cases, because yea no different music or skies isn't too bad but if you can add your touch then why not, it's not like I am going to open a thread and post else's modified content while claiming credit....