Which is the best Doom source port?

[draft]

I'm quite a newbie in this world of new Doom source ports. *smirk*

I noticed that there are many different ports of Doom available. I'm looking for a one which has good TCP/IP based network playing option and spectacular graphics.

I just want to play Doom II and especially the first level. It's a classic. *giddy*

Can anyone comment on these that which I should look in to?

Which source ports Doom clans use most? Doom Connector program (http://www.codeimp.com/connector_info.php) seems to support: csDoom, ZDaemon, Skull Tag, Doom Legacy, JDoom, ZDoom and ZDoomGL.

So I guess the ones I should look in to are:

- ZDaemon: http://www.zdaemon.org/
- Skull Tag http://www.doomworld.com/skulltag/
- Doom Legacy (http://legacy.newdoom.com/
- jDoom (uses Doomsday Engine http://www.doomsdayhq.com/
- ZDoom http://zdoom.org/

- csDoom http://csdoom.sourceforge.net/
^ this seems like it isn't updated anymore so I guess it can be forgotten

If I'll use ZDoom I guess I should try OpenGL versrion of it because of better graphics, right?

- Toni

[Lord Kaizen]

jDoom and Legacy are the best me thinks.

jDoom has the finest graphics. Really high quallity 3d models are in the works.

Legacy is the best for modding.

[iori]

No. http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30461

[hawkwind2]

No

LMAO ... Ah well, more info. the better I guess. *roflmao*

[Lord Kaizen]

No. http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30461

Ain't workin', 'least not for me anyway. What's that link all about?

Edit: Nevermind. Didn't work when I copied and pasted it.... Heh Was I not supposed to make it so plain to see? *wacky*

[Tiealk]

You listed very specific needs. I'm sorry to tell that those ports with good network support don't have the prettiest graphics and vice versa.

If you want to play via internet you are logically limited to those ports which have servers online and that is mostly ZDaemon.

For single player it depends on your preferences:

-Do you want to play classic Doom levels with improved graphics? JDoom
-Do you also want to play some enhanced levels with improved graphics? Risen3D
-Do you like levels with more complex features like dialogue or more complex missions? ZDoom (there are others which have the features to offer but unfortunately not sufficient content.)

[primus1236]

I say get them all. *giddy*

Risen3D is a modified version of jDoom that supports BooM, it's not worked on as much as jDoom and it doesn't have as many mods for it, but it's still very nice, and I've seen some nice stuff at wadsinprogress for it.

If you want to play on the internet, then ZDaemon and Skulltag are the best, although personally I prefer ZDaemon because skulltag's default deathmatch map has got some cheap stuff like speed increasing and armor increasing (beyond normal levels) stuff.

Legacy also plays online, but it's not used as much.

Zdoom is the best for scripting and cool mods, it's also got advanced features like sloped floors, although sometimes this makes it not feel like DooM IMO. :(

My personal favorite is JDoom, when you get everything all setup, which can take quite a great deal of time, especially if you're on dial-up, then it looks great, and in some times it looks as good as D3. :D

The only problem I see with jDoom is it's not-that-good network support, here (http://forums.newdoom.com/showthread.php?t=26247) is a page showing some bugs in it's network code. Some people are working on CTF code for jDoom, and they're improving the network code. I don't know when that will be out, and if all of the bugs will be fixed, but hopefully it'll fix most of the bugs.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Now it really all depends on your tastes and wants/needs.

Legacy is a good source port for n00bs who always seem to love looks but want plenty new features that are easily added with minimal to no scripting including 3D floors.

Doomsday is good if you like that up-to-date feel with 3D models, fancy lighting effects and generally all the good looking things. The Doom 64 TC is a great example of it's potential.

ZDaemon is for online play. It's uses older versions of ZDoom.

ZDoom. This one tends to be better suited for veteran mappers mainly due to being able to give mappers, with lots of imagination, greater flexibility adn the fact that beginners have a hard time getting around it all. It's packed with shitloads of great features to enchance the gameplay experience and create one heck of an immersive atmosphere. Ambient sounds, warped textures and flats, slopes, particles, thunder storms and custom monsters & items. Quite simply the best port out there. Though n00bs bash a lot because it looks like oldschool Doom. Big deal. If you ever make a wad for this port, it's one heck of a commitment.

If I'll use ZDoom I guess I should try OpenGL versrion of it because of better graphics, right?
Oh and by the way, great graphics don't make a great experience on their own. You'll learn this later.

[Catsy]

Oh and by the way, great graphics don't make a great experience on their own. You'll learn this later.

No, but they are a factor. Personally, I find the pixellation of Zdoom so unsightly that it really impacts my enjoyment of it for casual gameplay. Once in a while I've come across a Zdoom level that was just so well done that I had to play it, but the map has to be really fantastic for me to tolerate the pixellation and blockiness that persists even at 1280x1024.

Other people don't have a problem with this. And that's totally okay--if they enjoy it, more power to them, because Zdoom has some of the most powerful and mind-blowing map editing features of any Doom port.

What gets me is the people who try to defend Zdoom and the author's refusal to work on OGL support with the attitude that there's something inherently noble about outdated, low-resolution graphics--and, conversely, that people who think modern graphics actually matter to some degree are somehow shallow or unenlightened. I'm not accusing you specifically of this attitude, but there is a lot of it going around, particularly among Zdoom enthusiasts, and it always seems to crop up when someone puts up the seasonal "which source port" post.

[Tiealk]

What gets me is the people who try to defend Zdoom and the author's refusal to work on OGL support with the attitude that there's something inherently noble about outdated, low-resolution graphics--and, conversely, that people who think modern graphics actually matter to some degree are somehow shallow or unenlightened. I'm not accusing you specifically of this attitude, but there is a lot of it going around, particularly among Zdoom enthusiasts, and it always seems to crop up when someone puts up the seasonal "which source port" post.


Actually there are lots of users who don't like OpenGL and won't use it. So you can't simply dump the software renderer. ZDoom's focus is gameplay, not looks and I think it should stay that way because otherwise the things that make ZDoom what it is had to be stopped because creating an OpenGL renderer is much too time consuming. That's why ZDoomGL is in the works. It's a separate project but it's still in a stage where it is hard to classify it as stable. But it will definitely improve. And don't forget that due to its large list of features an OpenGL renderer for ZDoom is a little more complex than Doomsday for example, which doesn't have to bother with advanced features. Furthermore, some of ZDoom's features were created with a software renderer in mind and are not that easy to replicate with hardware acceleration.

[deepteam]

ZDOOM is sort of like extending the original vector ASTEROIDS with more "editing features" yet still stick to vectors :)

I think it's not that users don't like OpenGl, it's more like their hardware can't support it. You can't have anything less than a GF video card and at least a PIII450 and 256MB (512MB+ preferred). A lot of (Z)DOOM users do not satisfy that requirement.

I also know that most ZDOOM users want 32bit color, models, etc. Just go look in the zdoom forum. There's a thread going on about that at this moment about what they would like to see in ZDOOM.

The biggest mistake JDOOM made was in not supporting BOOM and refusing to do so. And then it had an awkward texture system (compared to the simplicity of the original DOOM setup - not that they agree with me :) ) which also made modding much harder. NIH (not invented here) is the biggest obstacle to both of these ports.

[DaniJ]

As you know Deep, I agree with pretty much everything you've just said.

BTW could you send me over the changes you made to the texture system in Risen3D? I'd like to have to have a look at them to see what I'd need to do in Doomsday.

[Tiealk]

ZDOOM is sort of like extending the original vector ASTEROIDS with more "editing features" yet still stick to vectors :)


Even coming from someone like you this is just not nice! Yes, software rendering is certainly far from optimal but the quality of the available WADs far outweighs that.


I think it's not that users don't like OpenGl, it's more like their hardware can't support it. You can't have anything less than a GF video card and at least a PIII450 and 256MB (512MB+ preferred). A lot of (Z)DOOM users do not satisfy that requirement.

I also know that most ZDOOM users want 32bit color, models, etc. Just go look in the zdoom forum. There's a thread going on about that at this moment about what they would like to see in ZDOOM.


I won't debate that because I am among them. But there are still some who don't.


The biggest mistake JDOOM made was in not supporting BOOM and refusing to do so.


Here I have to agree fully.


NIH (not invented here) is the biggest obstacle to both of these ports.

Do you mean ZDoom and JDoom? That's strange. Last time I checked one of the biggest new features ZDoom got recently was done by somebody else... (I'm speaking about custom monsters here.) It appears to me that Randy is quite open to outside ideas when they make sense.

[{TTr}Uber_soldat]

go legacy!

[FATAL]

Not that I really even think that somebody cares, but I think that people should just use the source port they find the best for themselves. I like jDooM best of them all, but that's no reason for me to say that all of the others are just bullshit. Some people like them, and I'll let them to like them, not try to change their opinions.


Seriously...
jDooM rules, all the other ports are total shit!! Get Doomsday now!

[hawkwind2]

Risen3D ... it's not worked on as much as jDoom

You couldn't be further from the truth.

The Risen3D team put in a lot of time into this port, which is still very much in progress.

I don't know of any other port that, on average, puts out a new release once a week. *whatever*

[DaniJ]

I don't know of any other port that, on average, puts out a new release once a week.
How come I don't know about it!?

Seriously WHY is there no announcements? I know there is that "whats new" text file but how many people know to go looking at that for new version annoucments? And besides it doesn't say whether the version it cites in the text file is actually available...

Judging by that file a lot of time is spent on it but people need to know about it. Surely it only takes 2 mins to update a web page when a new version is released *idea*

[hawkwind2]

How come I don't know about it!?

Seriously WHY is there no announcements? I know there is that "whats new" text file but how many people know to go looking at that for new version annoucments? And besides it doesn't say whether the version it cites in the text file is actually available...

Judging by that file a lot of time is spent on it but people need to know about it. Surely it only takes 2 mins to update a web page when a new version is released *idea*

MAJOR announcements are placed on the main homepage.

The Whatsnew.txt file does state the release date so hence it is inferred that the revision mentioned is the one currently available - and it takes less than 2 minutes to do this. ;)

Anyone is welcome to Email Abbs with any ideas for improvements since he is the Webpage Maintainer.

[primus1236]

Heh, I didn't mean to start a fight. What I mean is, Risen3D isn't updated with jDoom, so things that users are creating for jDoom, such as the shiny surfaces stuff, is only for jDoom. I'm sure Abbs does plenty of work on it, but because of jDoom's popularity it gets more attention.

[timmie]

You couldn't be further from the truth.

The Risen3D team put in a lot of time into this port, which is still very much in progress.

I don't know of any other port that, on average, puts out a new release once a week. *whatever*

And by "team" you mean "Graham Jackson" :)

[MR_ROCKET]

heh this sorta makes you wonder when the last time somebody ran good ol Doom2.exe?

Its really hard to judge, I like them all.
Zdoomgl, Legacy, Jdoom, Vavoom, Prboom are the most graphically enhanced if that's what your after?
out of the 5, from what I can tell legacy is the easiest to get going in a net game.
although its current netcode is based on lan, you need to have really low pings for a smooth netgame of it. jdooms pretty easy also, I think its netcode just needs tweaked out a bit. zdoom and zdoomgl work fine also, it just requires all clients to connect at the same time.

but if your not after graphics and want to play online this moment, zdeamon,skulltag and csdoom have those features.- with nifty team play mods built in.
its sorta weird playing ctf in doom and the same time watching it grow up, seems how we all know ctf got its start from doom2 deathtag :P and then moving up the ladder from it to all the quakes and other games back to doom. :o

of course theirs other sourceports like edge which no one ever seems to talk much about, I've seen some nice maps for it but I donno, maybe people feel that its to quakeish. good stuff though cause edge started awhile back and I find it well off for its time.

But about the topic ,seems sorta havoc forming doesn't it?
I don't think they should be so quickly judged, all the ports have been or are currently in development mostly open development and free. and based off the same thing.
DooM. *flip*

[FATAL]

Hey, that was an awfully good post.

[Ebola]

No one mentioned Vavoom yet, it used to be pretty shitty, but the latest version I tried was very stable and good. Not to mention that it's one of the most powerful ports around, if not THE most powerful port, but at the same time the one that requires most skill to edit in, (like actual programming skills if you want to do new monsters and what not) I may be wrong about that last statement though.

[ChupaReaper]

I know this topic is about 3 years old, but I got bored, so I typed "Best Doom Port" into google and this was at the top. I read it and thought, meh it's quite wrong know but it's old, then I thought about new doomers who are looking for a doom port of their choice, if they were to search for the best doom port, they would find this first and by the state the engines are at 2008, they would be very misleaded by this topic. So anyway, out of 'rainy day' boredom, here's what I think is best, for what:

For pure looks with Doom, Heretic and Hexen, Doomsday's jDoom, jHeretic and jHexen and an answer, however GZDoom is catching up. Doomsday supports opengl, models and hi res textures, but editing it is very limited with going into the engines code.

For editing, ZDoom is the best, I used to use Legacy, but it's so out of date know, ZDoom's decorate and many other scripts make it very easy to edit. Then there's GZDoom, which adds legacy's 3d floors and fragglescript, 3d models and hi-res texture for opengl, it is almost as capable as Doomsday, but not quite as good in quality yet, however, it is very easy to edit and constantly pushing the limits.

For online play, SkullTag is very good, it is also compatible with almost everything GZDoom can do, though falls behind at times, it catches up. The model codes used by GZDoom came from SkullTag.

The only other port I've tried is Legacy, it was the first port I used and I made 2 full mods on it with good results, but GZDoom out does this now. There is Doom Legacy 2.0, but that's been under production for ages now.

There are other ports which I haven't used, so they could be better depending on what you want, but the top 3 are very good.

Yet again, I know this topic is 3 years old, just bored!

[Torr Samaho]

but it's a good topic and a good post.

in a nutshell, what the best port is depends on what you want to do with it. i used jdoom to see classic wads with enhanced graphics, then risen3d for boom compatibility, as jdoom didn't work with many wads, now mostly gzdoom as it caught up in the graphics department, but combines it with zdoom features which are largely used by mappers.

prboom+ is the reference for recording and playing back demos. i'd say skulltag is it for internet play.

[Aliotroph?]

Nobody mentioned psDooM (http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/). ;)

[Mystic]

Ive only ever tried Legacy, zdoom, gzdoom and skulltag.

Of those Legacy is still my favourite for editing and everyday use, probably because I have a huge backlog of unreleased, unfinished legacy projects I am still working on. They were put on hold back when it looked like legacy 2 was due for a release but that was years ago and its still not ready so Im finishing them off now.

Even though Legacy is my favourite I dont deny that GZDoom is the better port right now because it will run both zdoom and legacy wads so for those new to the community GZDoom is the ideal port to get started with.

For multi-player I will go along with the majority and say skulltag but only because I dunno how to multiplay with Legacy. Zdeamon is fun but its scabby looking lo-res and has too many cheaters playing.

Ive never really liked zdoom, couldnt get used to the 'feel' of it which is annoying because a lot of good mappers design for it.

There is no reason for not having all of the ports, they are all free, best to keep them in separate folders though.

[andrewwan1980]

(just copied SOME BITS but not all, from my other post)

I just found this website and it does a good technical comparison of some source ports regarding online play. (it's a bit out-dated but useful to base ideas on).

http://www.doom2.net/doom2/online.html

Doomsday has built-in master server browser. Heretic/Hexen supported.
Odamex has outside master server browser. Doom only (since it was based of csDoom 0.7 which was based off ZDoom 1.22).
Skulltag has outside master server browser. Heretic/Hexen supported.
Vavoom has NO bulit-in master server browser. Heretic/Hexen/Strife supported.
ZDaemon has outside master server browser. Heretic/Hexen supported.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_source_port

[MR_ROCKET]

Here's the current link to Doom Connector : http://home.comcast.net/~mrrocket/dcsite_finals/doomconnector.htm
As official domain name redirect: http://doomconnector.co.nr/