Looking for my ideal source port.

[Moazoom]

heres the features i need (or rather, want):

• freelook, adjustable fov
• high resolutions and framerates
• finite height
• crosshairs
• Boom compatability

and no, GZDOOM isnt cutting it for me, please read below.
I started out playing Doom on the unity source port last year. Since then ive daily driven GZDOOM, PRBoom-plus and now DSDA Doom. Ive also looked into many other source ports, but none seem to have all of my criteria, except ZDOOM and its derivatived, but the only problem is that I play on a really underpowered computer, and any time i spent with GZDOOM was with low resolutions, low framrates, and just not fun for me (and yes, I was using OpenGL ES). PRBoom-plus was great, only missing the feature to walk under monsters, but recently it got shut down, so I decided to reach out to the community, in case I had missed a source port which ticked all my boxes. Thanks for reading.

[DRON12261]

2 hours ago, Moazoom said:

heres the features i need (or rather, want):

• freelook, adjustable fov
• high resolutions and framerates
• finite height
• crosshairs
• Boom compatability

and no, GZDOOM isnt cutting it for me, please read below.
I started out playing Doom on the unity source port last year. Since then ive daily driven GZDOOM, PRBoom-plus and now DSDA Doom. Ive also looked into many other source ports, but none seem to have all of my criteria, except ZDOOM and its derivatived, but the only problem is that I play on a really underpowered computer, and any time i spent with GZDOOM was with low resolutions, low framrates, and just not fun for me (and yes, I was using OpenGL ES). PRBoom-plus was great, only missing the feature to walk under monsters, but recently it got shut down, so I decided to reach out to the community, in case I had missed a source port which ticked all my boxes. Thanks for reading.

Nugget Doom and Doom Retro. +They themselves feel like the most balanced between the "new features" and the "original".

The only thing is that all these ports work on a software renderer (i.e. as in the original Doom). If you use the mouselook, keep this in mind (I mean, when you look up and down, the picture will rotate a bit unaccustomed). But there are some things that may not work correctly in a hardware renderer, so for full compatibility and authenticity ports with software renderer are the best.

UPD: And also when using vertical aiming in doom, keep in mind that you can break some maps this way, because in doom itself such a thing is not provided and often not taken into account, many maps are built with the fact that you can not look up and down. So try to shoot at different gunfire buttons without using vertical aiming.

Edited July 7, 2023 by DRON12261

[Moazoom]

I had tried woof and doom retro before, but nugget doom was new. Sadly, software rendering is a deal breaker for me, as 1) hardware rendering = more FPS and 2) the vertical lines skewing is headache inducing. While its true, that doom wasnt really designed with freelook in mind, I have rarely if ever broken a map by shooting something that should be out of my vertical reach. I mainly use freelook to to avoid autoaim, and also to be able to view the in game world better.
I'm contemplating just forking dsda doom and adding finite height, demo compatability isnt really important to me. 

[Doomy__Doom]

2 minutes ago, Moazoom said:

I'm contemplating just forking dsda doom and adding finite height, demo compatability isnt really important to me. 

Dsda-doom appears to be working on adding finite height already in upstream, although it appears to be specific to UDMF at this point. I'd suggest asking whether it's planned for other formats first.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Eternity fits the bill. Think of the best of GZDoom and PRBoom combined into one little port.

[Moazoom]

1 minute ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

Eternity fits the bill. Think of the best of GZDoom and PRBoom combined into one little port.

tried eternity before, again the software rendering (emulation?) is a deal breaker

 

[Moazoom]

30 minutes ago, Doomy__Doom said:

Dsda-doom appears to be working on adding finite height already in upstream, although it appears to be specific to UDMF at this point. I'd suggest asking whether it's planned for other formats first.

well this is interesting, ill have to keep my eye on this. Thanks!

[Insaneprophet]

Did you try lzdoom? It offers most gzdoom options but runs on my old ass desktop with no problems.

[Moazoom]

3 minutes ago, Insaneprophet said:

Did you try lzdoom? It offers most gzdoom options but runs on my old ass desktop with no problems.

tried it, performance was much better but still lacking a bit. Its a potential option though, if i'm willing to go dwn to 720p

[Redneckerz]

4 minutes ago, Moazoom said:

tried it, performance was much better but still lacking a bit. Its a potential option though, if i'm willing to go dwn to 720p

Helion?

[tomas7777]

Zandronum? It's based on an ancient version of GZDoom (so I assume it still has the OpenGL 1.x renderer?), and IIRC these old versions ran smoothly even on my crappy netbook, atleast without crazy mods.

[DRON12261]

1 hour ago, Moazoom said:

I had tried woof and doom retro before, but nugget doom was new. Sadly, software rendering is a deal breaker for me, as 1) hardware rendering = more FPS and 2) the vertical lines skewing is headache inducing. While its true, that doom wasnt really designed with freelook in mind, I have rarely if ever broken a map by shooting something that should be out of my vertical reach. I mainly use freelook to to avoid autoaim, and also to be able to view the in game world better.
I'm contemplating just forking dsda doom and adding finite height, demo compatability isnt really important to me. 

By the way, if you're not interested in MBF21 and some modern features like UMAPINFO etc. and you're more interested in old Vanilla/Limit-Removing/Boom and possibly Doom-in-Hexen wads, and many modern wads that just don't use all those modern standards, then Skulltag would be a great solution. It has very good performance and as far as I remember it has a hardware renderer. I myself sometimes like to run some wads on it today.

At the very least, it's a good option just to give it a try.

[Moazoom]

1 hour ago, Redneckerz said:

Helion?

tried this out, seems promising but something about it feels off. maybe the lack of palettisation? different lighting code? idk

[Moazoom]

1 hour ago, tomas7777 said:

Zandronum? It's based on an ancient version of GZDoom (so I assume it still has the OpenGL 1.x renderer?), and IIRC these old versions ran smoothly even on my crappy netbook, atleast without crazy mods.

might try it out, i just hope its still being updated.

 

46 minutes ago, DRON12261 said:

By the way, if you're not interested in MBF21 and some modern features like UMAPINFO etc. and you're more interested in old Vanilla/Limit-Removing/Boom and possibly Doom-in-Hexen wads, and many modern wads that just don't use all those modern standards, then Skulltag would be a great solution. It has very good performance and as far as I remember it has a hardware renderer. I myself sometimes like to run some wads on it today.

At the very least, it's a good option just to give it a try.

Isnt this eternitys ancestor? Ill give it a try, but it seems to not have been updated.

 

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, by the way! I'm really greatful.

[DRON12261]

5 minutes ago, Moazoom said:

might try it out, i just hope its still being updated.

 

Isnt this eternitys ancestor? Ill give it a try, but it seems to not have been updated.

 

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, by the way! I'm really greatful.

In fact, both ports are now generally quite dated, but if you consider separately multiplayer ports with a client/server architecture, Zandronum would be more fancy. But Skulltag is definitely more optimised and stable.

Edited July 7, 2023 by DRON12261

[Redneckerz]

13 minutes ago, Moazoom said:

tried this out, seems promising but something about it feels off. maybe the lack of palettisation? different lighting code? idk

It isn't a source port, but a reimplementation. But if only something about it feels off is your complaint, it means everything else you requested it does well?

10 minutes ago, Moazoom said:

might try it out, i just hope its still being updated.

Zandronum is still updated, as is Q-Zandronum (Adds Quake movement code)

 

Skulltag is the predecessor of Zandronum and its not based off Eternity.

 

[Metal_Slayer]

Well, at this point none of the well known and constantly updated ports seem to fit your needs. So you should look for 3DGE, K8Vavoom, Risen3D and Doomsday. They are all focused on advanced graphics, but if you turn them off they should run better than GZDoom at least.

[s4f3s3x]

If you liked PrBoom+ maybe you can try  DSDA-Doom up until v.0.24, it had hardware rendering without the software banding/palette and other features you might be interested in

[liPillON]

if you're ruling out gzdoom for performance reasons, maybe you should also share with us what kind of hw specs you're dealing with and what do you mean when you refer to "low framerates"

 

gzdoom+gles2+720p should be enough to reach 60fps with most map/mod combination

 

[Moazoom]

16 hours ago, DRON12261 said:

In fact, both ports are now generally quite dated, but if you consider separately multiplayer ports with a client/server architecture, Zandronum would be more fancy. But Skulltag is definitely more optimised and stable.

tested both ports using nuts3 and ancient aliens map 29, zandronum was giving me more frames so ill stick with that.

 

16 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

It isn't a source port, but a reimplementation. But if only something about it feels off is your complaint, it means everything else you requested it does well?

well, it doesnt seem to have an options menu lol. ill try to configure it by hand, but itll take alot of time. also, its written in c#, so if I want to do any moification down the line im screwed because i really dont like c# and .net in general, just a personal thing.

 

12 hours ago, Metal_Slayer said:

Well, at this point none of the well known and constantly updated ports seem to fit your needs. So you should look for 3DGE, K8Vavoom, Risen3D and Doomsday. They are all focused on advanced graphics, but if you turn them off they should run better than GZDoom at least.

thanks for the recommendations, will look into them for sure, altough zandronum seems to fit my bill, atleast for now.

 

12 hours ago, s4f3s3x said:

If you liked PrBoom+ maybe you can try  DSDA-Doom up until v.0.24, it had hardware rendering without the software banding/palette and other features you might be interested in

my current daily driver was dsda actually, altough the latest version. i hope they add an option to turn off palettisation.

 

11 hours ago, liPillON said:

if you're ruling out gzdoom for performance reasons, maybe you should also share with us what kind of hw specs you're dealing with and what do you mean when you refer to "low framerates"

 

gzdoom+gles2+720p should be enough to reach 60fps with most map/mod combination

 

that combination runs well in vanilla doom, but any sort of slaughtermap or heavy mod can lag below 60fps. while the framerates are generally pretty good, id like to not have to compromise as much.

 

thanks to everyone who replied, but i seem to have found what i was looking for. zandronum was not really a potential option for me, since i always took it as a multiplayer only port like zdaemon, but it actually matches dsdas performance on most maps in my testing, and seems to be activley develloped, so ill be rolling with that :) thanks again to everyone! every time i make a post it amazes me that a 30 year old game still has such a nice and helpful community.