Articles - DOOM CE mod for Doom II

FAQ

Do you need the GZDoom binaries bundled with the mod?

No. I only bundled it for convenience, its source code has not been modified.

What is the difference between this and Retribution or the PSX TC?

A lot of the internals are different and work much closer to the original games. Instead of being an approximation based on what the author felt right, a lot has been adapted from reverse engineered source code into ZScript.

Maps that come from Retribution and the PSX TC have been modified to better match the originals, for example correcting sector colors and light specials. Things such as editor numbers and unique textures have been carried over, so custom maps designed for them should also be compatible. The Retribution version of the Doomsday Levels and Redemption Denied were used instead of making new conversions from scratch because they contain small quality of life improvements that are almost unanimously preferred.

How can I make the game look more like the original versions?

Go to the Features menu, and change the preset to Faithful. Play the Lite version of the game (or remove all addon pk3s) so that upscales, extra music and other optional stuff doesn't get loaded.

If you want to take it even further, enable the Low Resolution Shader in the Features menu, then enable GZDoom's Full Options Menu, go to Set Video Mode, disable Rendering Interpolation, change Force Aspect Ratio to 4:3 and set Forced Ratio Style to Letterbox.

Which rendering API should I use?

Ideally only Vulkan or OpenGL should be used. OpenGL ES is only partially supported because it disables shader based effects which this mod relies heavily upon, even on its most faithful settings. It should only be used as a compromise if your hardware has problems running on the other backends.

There's too many settings in the Features menu, what does each one mean?

I suggest you choose one of the existing presets and go from there if you want additional tweaks.

Why am I not seeing any changes in-game after changing settings in the Features menu?

Most require reloading the level to take effect. You'll need to complete the current level or restart the game.

The levels are too dark, how can I increase brightness?

There is an Overall Brightness slider in the Features menu. I recommend you use this instead of GZDoom's gamma settings because it preserves the colors better.

How can I increase the UI size?

GZDoom sets the default UI scale to match your current resolution. If you wish to enlarge it, go to Options > Scaling Options and change the User Interface Scale.

Why does the HUD looks stretched vertically?

GZDoom has an option called HUD preserves aspect ratio, make sure it is disabled. That option is only intended for PC Doom and will make the HUD scale incorrectly with these mods.

The wrong music is playing. How can I change it?

In the Features menu, go to Audio Features and change the Music Type.

• Choosing Computer will only play action based tracks (PC style).
• Choosing Console will only play dark ambient tracks (the original soundtrack).
• If Play Both Music Styles is enabled, the Computer track will play for Minimum Seconds Playing Before Music Changes and then fade to the Console track.

What are the differences between the two new difficulties?

• Nightmare/Hardcore is just Ultra-Violence/Watch Me Die with fast monsters and 50% more ammo.
• Ultra-Nightmare/Doomslayer is a reworked version of the Doomslayer difficulty introduced in DOOM 64: Retribution. This difficulty applies the following modifiers:
  • Monster health is reduced by 20%.
  • Player damage taken is increased by 20%.
  • Ammo pickups are downgraded to their lowest tier (e.g box of shells to a single shell).
  • Ammo is worth 300%.
  • Monsters have a chance to change the frame rate of their next animation, making them faster and more unpredictable.
  • Monsters have a high chance to stop being stunned by pain and may counter attack if they get into a pain state.
  • Monsters that shoot projectiles have 33% chance to fire one that has higher speed.
  • Monsters are more aggressive.

Can I play this with Voxel Doom?

Voxel Doom II is compatible with PSX DOOM, but you must make a small edit to its file. You must open cheello_voxels_v2_1.pk3 (make a backup copy first), and rename the directory filter/doom.id to filter/doom.ce. Then you can load it on top of CE, but you must disable Smooth Monsters for it to work properly. A caveat is that monsters will revert back to their Doom II timings and behavior instead of how they are in Psx Doom.

Can I play this with <x> mod?

Since the mod runs on the latest GZDoom (4.10+, currently), that means that it is compatible with other mods. It's been tested with Corruption Cards, Project Brutality, QC:DE, Death Foretold, Embers of Armageddon, Guncaster, Trailblazer, GMOTA, Russian Overkill, Complex Doom, Legendoom Lite, Pandemonia, and many others. NOTE: Support is more limited in Doom 64 because most mods assume Doom 2 textures and actor heights.

Can I play this in Delta Touch or GZDoom VR?

Yes, as long as their upstream GZDoom version is compatible with this mod (4.10+). Though I haven't tested them personally, many others have reported playing in mobile or VR without problems.

Is this multiplayer compatible?

Yes, but using GZDoom's peer-to-peer support (Wiki). PSX maps are coop-friendly. DOOM 64 does not support coop, but if you download the Retribution maps addon there is partial support (there may be softlocks since they haven't been thoroughly tested).

What happened to the Upscaled Textures and Arranged Soundtrack addons?

I removed them from the Full download because I wasn't satisfied with how they were. You can still download them separately from the Addons tab.

Why were the SIGIL levels removed?

They were just placeholders and not true efforts to make them in the same style as the other PSX maps. I hope to include them again after GEC Master Edition leaves beta, since that mod includes proper conversions.

How can I access the DOOM 64 "Fun" maps?

You need to beat the secret level Hectic to unlock the Bonus Maps episode.

What do the red and green artifacts DOOM 64's Outcast levels do?

The Red Artifact consumes player health to slow down all enemies for a short period of time. The Green Artifact is used to spawn platforms that slowly levitate upwards.

What is the meaning of CE in the title?

There is no specific meaning, but I've seen it called Custom Edition, Complete Edition, Console Edition, Compilation Edition, Console Enhanced, etc.

New maps available in the Addons tab

Beta 64, a 31 level megawad by Antnee has been ported to DOOM 64 CE and is available for download in the Addons tab.

By now there are a few ported map sets available for DOOM CE that may have been overlooked, so here is a quick preview of what is available for download...

Beta 64

Maps by Antnee
Ported by molecicco

Quoting the author's original Doomworld post: "I tried to follow a sort of "Doom 64 the way 'Mid did" philosophy in terms of design, looks, and gameplay, but I've increased the difficulty a bit from the original". This ported megawad also contains some elements that are not present in the original, such as an original story by Immorpher, and the four bonus maps are now included in a new episode titled "Altars of Tech" that will be unlocked in the main menu after beating the main levels.

Episode 1 for DOOM 64 (Knee Deep In The Dead)

Maps by z0k
Ported by molecicco

Doom 1's shareware episode, adapted for Doom 64. It is not a direct copy, however. The levels have been remade to add extra details and make use of Doom 64's unique effects.

Playstation DOOM Reloaded

Maps by RHG45 and Yikesdude754
Ported by styd051

Currently a work in progress and only the first episode (33 maps!) is available. This megawad inspired by PSX DOOM contains many surprises, such as a deadlier revenant and a new weapon.

Fall of Triton

Maps by RHG45
Ported by styd051

Contains Fall of Triton and The Vortex Catastrophe, two PSX DOOM-style megawads by released in 2018 by RHG45. This port contains some improvements over the original such as demon placement and texture fixes.

Plutonia 2 & Plutonia Community Revisited Project

Maps by various designers, follow the Doomworld link inside for a complete list
Originally ported to the PSX DOOM TC by Cryo
Ported by molecicco

In 2020, Cryo ported the legendary Plutonia 2 and PCRP megawads to the Playstation Doom total conversion (which DOOM CE is based on), redesigning their levels in PSX DOOM style, with colored sector lighting, simplified geometry and tweaked monster placement.

Finally, here are the installation instructions once again, for convenience:

Running the main mod (DOOM CE)

Previous versions of the mod used to run out of the box, just by opening gzdoom. This has changed on the latest versions and there are now prerequisites in place:

• PSX DOOM CE and PSX FINAL DOOM CE require DOOM2.WAD to run, much like other DOOM mods.
• DOOM 64 CE now requires DOOM 64 (Steam/2020 rerelease) to run.

PSX DOOM Instructions

Just place DOOM2.WAD in the same directory as gzdoom.exe or in its [IWADSearch.Directories] (configured inside gzdoom.ini).

If you have DOOM 2 installed in Steam, open its installation folder and copy the DOOM2.WAD from the base folder (not rerelease) into gzdoom's directory.

Finally, extract all the files included in the main mod download (full or lite) into the same directory as gzdoom.exe or in one of its [FileSearch.Directories].

If everything went well, you should see this when opening gzdoom.exe:

DOOM 64 Instructions

The Steam DOOM64.WAD will not be recognized by gzdoom by default, so it has to be patched. Included with the mod is an automatic patcher (doom64-install.bat). Just run it and after it completes the mod will be ready to play. Special thanks to phredreeke for the idea and initial implementation.

The auto-patcher will try to find your Steam installation of DOOM 64 and automatically patch and create all necessary files to play. If for any reason the Steam installation is not found, you can copy DOOM64.WAD to the same folder as the .bat file and it will use that instead.

Finally, extract the main mod files (full or lite) into the same directory as gzdoom.exe or in one of its [FileSearch.Directories] (configured inside gzdoom.ini).

If everything went well, you should see this when opening gzdoom.exe:

Do not run the entry that says (Steam/Unsupported), because it is not compatible with gzdoom.

Running optional addons included with the download

Bundled with the mod are two pk3 files that are not auto-loaded, AspectRatio.pk3 to use the horizontally-stretched aspect ratio of the PlayStation versions, and 3PointFilter.pk3 to apply the Nintendo 64's 3-Point filtering to textures. They are compatible with any CE mod, which means you can play PSX DOOM with Nintendo 64's filtering, or DOOM 64 with the stretched aspect ratio.

To load them, drag and drop the pk3 to gzdoom.exe, or use the command line or your favorite mod loader.

3PointFilter.pk3 preview:

AspectRatio.pk3 preview:

Running map sets from the Addons tab

Each download comes with a .bat file that will run the map set as well as all of its included addons. It will run if you extracted every file in the same directory as gzdoom.exe

If you use a different directory layout, you can take a look at the .bat file (opening it as a text file) and use the load order in your favorite mod loader, like ZDL.

If you use the Lite version of DOOM CE or have removed some addons, you can remove the respective pk3s labeled "addon" from these sets too so they don't get loaded.

Mod structure

To keep the download size small, I am now providing a "Lite" version of the mod. It contains no addons except from brightmaps, so it should be ideal for players who don't care about extras such as the PBR materials, upscales or soundtrack. If at any time you want to upgrade it to the full version, you only need to download the respective mod's full version and replace any existing files you already have.

Final Doom

From this version onward, PSX FINAL DOOM is now an addon of PSX DOOM to reduce duplicated resources and help save space. It is still an IWAD, and works in a similar way to how Deathkings of the Dark Citadel is an IWAD and also an addon to Hexen. To run it, you now need to place all files into an existing directory with PSX DOOM CE. The pk3 files should be placed in the same location as the PSX DOOM CE ones, and the soundfonts should be placed inside GZDoom's soundfonts folder.

Optional addons

Bundled with the mod are two pk3 files that are not autoloaded, AspectRatio.pk3 to use the horizontally-stretched aspect ratio of the PlayStation versions, and 3PointFilter.pk3 to apply the Nintendo 64's 3-Point filtering to textures. They are compatible with any CE mod, which means you can play PSX DOOM with Nintendo 64's filtering, or DOOM 64 with the stretched aspect ratio. To load them, drag and drop the pk3 to gzdoom.exe, use the command line or your favorite mod loader.

Accuracy changes

A big change in this version that may not be immediately evident is that I have rewritten all the actor code to make it more faithful to the original versions. There are subtle changes in how monsters behave and how fast they are. Some parts are still not 100% accurate to the originals due to limitations with GZDoom, but the experience is much closer to the originals now.

Configurable speed

Since the console versions run at a slower frame rate than PC DOOM (30 instead of 35), I am now offering the option to change player, monster and weapon speeds inside Features > Gameplay Options. I recommend to keep the defaults as they are more balanced, but you can play around with them if you want to make the game easier, more challenging or more controller-friendly. Keep in mind that in order for them to take effect you need to complete the current level or start a new game.

Finally, it is possible that bugs may have slipped with so many changes. If you find any, please report them so I can fix them.

Video montage

First of all, I'd like to feature this video montage made by Wedgeridoo. It is very well made and I feel that it is also a great showcase of this mod:

Important: the mod is no longer standalone

Previous versions of the mod used to run out of the box, just by opening gzdoom. This has changed on the latest versions and there are now prerequisites in place:

• PSX DOOM CE and PSX FINAL DOOM CE now require DOOM2.WAD to run, much like other DOOM mods.
• DOOM 64 CE now requires DOOM 64 (Steam/2020 rerelease) to run.

While this might look discouraging at first, it is not as complicated as it seems.

PSX DOOM Instructions

Just place DOOM2.WAD in the same directory as gzdoom or in its [IWADSearch.Directories].

If you have DOOM 2 installed in Steam, open its installation folder and copy the DOOM2.WAD from the base folder (not rerelease) into gzdoom's directory.

If everything went well, you should see this when opening gzdoom.exe:

DOOM 64 Instructions

The Steam DOOM64.WAD will not be recognized by gzdoom by default, so it has to be patched. Included with the mod is an automatic patcher (doom64-install.bat). Just run it and after it completes the mod will be ready to play. Special thanks to phredreeke for the idea and initial implementation.

The auto-patcher will try to find your Steam installation of DOOM 64 and automatically patch and create all necessary files to play. If for any reason the Steam installation is not found, you can copy DOOM64.WAD to the same folder as the .bat file and it will use that instead.

If everything went well, you should see this when opening gzdoom.exe:

Do not run the entry that says (Steam/Unsupported), because it is not compatible with gzdoom.

If for any reason the auto-patcher fails and you'd rather do it manually check out this video tutorial prepared by Crob4r, who streams DOOM 64 on Fridays and has been streaming this mod for several weeks now:

Sneak peek

Finally, here's a sneak peek of Beta 64, a DOOM 64 megawad I am porting to work with this mod, coming soon. Crob4r has also been playing an alpha version of it his Twitch for the past couple of weeks, so you can check out his channel as well:

The UnMaking

The UnMaking, a 40 map megawad for DOOM 64 has been ported to DOOM 64 CE! This is a very unique and fun map set made by scwiba (aka Ryath) who has also collaborated with testing and feedback. The maps included here are a mix of the EX and the 2020 Remaster version of this megawad, selected according to his preference.

New, more faithful brightness model for gradients

The way brightness gets applied to the DOOM 64 gradient colors (and PSX DOOM, if enabled there) has been revamped and is now much more faithful to the original. Previously colors would look washed out when the gradient brightness was too high, but now look as intended.

(Left: DOOM 64 EX, Right: DOOM 64 CE)

NOTE: The above comparison was made with the Lite version and using the Vanilla preset. The PBR and Upscale addons and the Intensify Sector Colors option (which is enabled by default) make the colors appear slightly different. This is also not available for GZDoom's GLES renderer because it depends on custom shaders which are unsupported by it. It will continue to use the old brightness model instead.

The Features menu now has two brightness sliders that can be changed at any time without needing to restart the map. The Overall Brightness slider is a better alternative to GZDoom's gamma correction slider that doesn't overbright the whole screen.

Bug fixes

Finally, this release contains more bug fixes than I could fit in the change log, so I recommend upgrading. Older saved games are not compatible, but you can somewhat carry over your progress if you copy your gzdoom.ini from the previous installation and use the Level Select option in the Features menu.

Sneak peek

A preview of what might come in the future, using the upcoming GZDoom 4.8.0 support for lightmaps...