In the /idgames archive, what is a "Port"?

[plmgrno]

Hello there. I'm sorry if that's a stupid question but I'm wondering what a Port is in the id games archive. When you access /levels/doom2 there is a section called like that and I can't find amy information on what Ports actually are? When does a wad qualify to be a port? Sorry if that's an extremely stupid question, it could be that I just dont get the point because English is not my mother tongue. No translation of "port" seems to make any sense.

 

Thank you.

Edited March 17, 2017 by plmgrno

[Archvile Hunter]

Wad files listed under the Ports-section are not vanilla compatible and need an advanced source port to play.

[plmgrno]

Thanks! Do you (or anyone) know the maiin reason for wads being not compatible with vanilla doom? Is it mainly mechanical stuff changing gameplay, is it graphics or textures, or anything else? Would be interesting to know.  

[Use]

Typically it's because the wad goes outside the limitations of the original vanilla engine. Or they uses port-specific features from zdoom and boom or others. Port features encompass a fairly large gamut of changes and can be huge to something as minor as a decorate entry. 

[Pure Hellspawn]

Vanilla DOOM has various limitations. There are some huge levels out there that have too many linedefs or things for Vanilla DOOM.

 

Some maps (as you may have noticed) have "scripts" and other objects that you will not see in Vanilla Doom. These includes cameras, conveyors and flowing water, slopes, custom text and more.

 

DECORATE is used to create monsters and weapons. This CAN be done in Vanilla using Dehacked but DECORATE is more advanced and is additive whereas DEHACKED is limited in what it can do. 

[Linguica]

1 hour ago, plmgrno said:

Sorry if that's an extremely stupid question, it could be that I just dont get the point because English is not my mother tongue. No translation of "port" seems to make any sense.

Don't feel bad, it doesn't really make any sense.

 

To "port" software in general means to make it run on a different operating system or hardware platform. Doom had already had a wide variety of ports - from the original DOS version, it was ported to Mac, Windows, Linux, and others, as well as various game consoles.

 

The term "source port" comes from the very early days after the Doom source code was released. The source code was for the Linux version of Doom, which meant that it wasn't very helpful to people not running Linux. Thus the first project for programmers was to "port" the code back from Linux to DOS / Windows / what have you. The resulting program was therefore a "source port" - although of course any port involves the source code, but this was an easy way to refer to a community-driven one using the openly released source code rather than an "official" port. From there, the term just stuck, for lack of a better one.

 

As an additional bit of trivia, I *may* be personally responsible for unleashing the term "source port" on the world, but I have no way of verifying this.

[Arctangent]

2 minutes ago, Linguica said:

As an additional bit of trivia, I *may* be personally responsible for unleashing the term "source port" on the world, but I have no way of verifying this.

hail the dark lord pork linguini, for he is the one who ushered in this age of sanctity and darkness from which we shall never recover

[plmgrno]

Thank all of you for your answers! I'm actually new here, @Linguica, were you involved in creating a source port?

[Jon]

16 minutes ago, plmgrno said:

Thank all of you for your answers! I'm actually new here, @Linguica, were you involved in creating a source port?

 

He wasn't (but now is); but he ran Doomworld back then and so people learned about new Doom developments thanks to him.

[Gez]

Some information if you want to learn more:

Source_port on the Doom Wiki

Limit_removing and the static_limits they remove

New_features added by various ports

Engine_bugs that may be fixed in ports

[Linguica]

3 minutes ago, Jon said:

he ran Doomworld back then and so people learned about new Doom developments thanks to him.

Close, but Doomworld didn't even exist yet when this happened :P This was from the Functional Entropy news page.

[Jon]

13 hours ago, Linguica said:

Close, but Doomworld didn't even exist yet when this happened :P This was from the Functional Entropy news page.

That was a level of detail I felt irrelevant for OP.

[Bauul]

Realistically, how many new idgames submissions don't go into the Ports section?

 

Vanilla limits are so harsh compared to what the map format is actually capable of it feels like a mapper would have to deliberately design for vanilla rather than the other way around.

[Gez]

The directory tree for /idgames was set in stone a looooong time ago, hasn't been changed since, and probably won't be changed ever.

[Guest Unregistered account]

On 18/03/2017 at 1:10 AM, Arctangent said:

hail the dark lord pork linguini, for he is the one who ushered in this age of sanctity and darkness from which we shall never recover

WHY IS THERE A 25-LIKES-PER-DAY SYSTEM IN PLACE

 

I NEED TO LIKE THIS POST NOW

[plmgrno]

  I recently played Back to Saturn X and I just found out it's vanilla compatible (as it's not in the Ports section). I played some other wads from the Ports section that did not nearly have such a great level design, textures and music. This really stunned me.

[RichardDS90]

On 18/03/2017 at 1:06 AM, Linguica said:

As an additional bit of trivia, I *may* be personally responsible for unleashing the term "source port" on the world, but I have no way of verifying this.

According to Wikipedia: "The term was coined after the release of the source code to Doom" It sounds like you were the one that unleashed the term! Way to go!

[Linguica]

6 hours ago, Salahmander2 said:

According to Wikipedia: "The term was coined after the release of the source code to Doom" It sounds like you were the one that unleashed the term! Way to go!

The day I blindly trust Wikipedia is the day I... uh... am a sucker I guess.

[Gez]

That excerpt from Wikipedia says nothing about who coined the term, though.