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.

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:

DOOM Eternal’s long-awaited 6.66 patch brings many improvements and extra content to the game, including the much-hyped horde mode. Whilst you gear up for some demon and/or monster slaughter, here’s five mods to whet your appetite!

DOOM CE

By molecicco

DOOM CE follows in the footsteps of many other great DOOM mods over the years with a wide range of additions, featuring a healthy mix of graphical improvement and gameplay additions hoping to bridge the gap between the decades. Of particular note is DOOM CE’s focus on DOOM 64 content, which doesn’t see as much attention as the base games. The mod comes with a number of presets to enable players to customise their experience, meaning whether you like it old school or want the fullest DOOM CE playthrough, your needs will be catered to!

Rivensin

By Revility

DOOM 3, not quite as moddable as its predecessors, is nonetheless home to a lot of mods that completely change up the gameplay. Rivensin takes the tense first-person horror of DOOM 3 and turns it into a third person slasher built within a dark fantasy world. It’s got that iconic quality that identifies its lineage right away, but mixed with the immaculate creativity of a mod team determined to push the boundaries of what’s possible. You’ll still be slaying denizens of the underworld - just not like how you’re used to!

ALIENS: Eradication TC

By Payload4367

Few things are more commonly associated with DOOM games than the classic total conversion mod experience - and ALIENS: Eradication ticks this box nicely. DOOM’s chest-thumping demon-slaying action fits handily into ALIENS’ universe when you have some ammunition to spare, though the mod’s not afraid to up the tension and leave you in difficult situations, too!

Dragon Sector: The Remake

By BarefootMapMaker

Produced by a long-time modder of DOOM, Dragon Sector: The Remake demonstrates the creator’s knowledge of DOOM inside and out, with great enemy and environment design and a special emphasis on ambience and visual fidelity. The goal of Dragon Sector is to bring players into about as immersive an environment as possible within GZDoom, and being built upon Project Brutality brings just that extra bit of flair to the mod.

DOOM 3: Hard Corps

By Revility

You could be forgiven for not knowing this mod was on DOOM 3 at all just by looking at it, for it turns the usual first-person perspective on its head and produces solid side-scrolling gameplay that wears its Contra inspirations on its sleeve. DOOM 3 mods are a little harder to come by, but this mod team was determined to build their own framework for more 2.5D mods and even built their own documentation from the ground up. I’ll always throw massive kudos the way of any mod team that produces their own modding guides!

DOOMed

DOOM Eternal is the second in Id Software’s reboot franchise, and released last year to substantial critical acclaim. Notorious for its exceptional difficulty and also its supremely engaging gameplay loop, it has enjoyed a lot of post-launch support in the form of two substantial DLC packs and a lot of cosmetics earnable by players through in-game achievements. This post launch support mostly has followed a roadmap set out since the start of Eternal’s launch cycle.

Lockdown Disengaged

The newest addition and the most hotly anticipated in the upcoming 6.66 patch will be a horde mode, something modders have gotten working a while ago, but an official release will carry new bonuses and challenges with it. The update will also benefit from some new master levels, and a rework to the game’s asymmetrical PvP offering, Battle Mode.

Whilst Eternal’s main storyline has wrapped up with The Ancient Gods Part 2, it seems Id is intent on giving fans more reason to hold on just a little while longer. TAG 2 supposedly delivered an end to the story started in DOOM 2016, but Eternal’s sheer commercial and critical success is likely to still lead to some kind of follow-up from Id, whatever form it might take.

Hello everyone! To wrap up our count-downs for 2021, we’ve the Top 5 New Mods for Classic Games. To explain why this is our last count-down of the year - As we gear up to Mod and Indie of the Year, we will also be producing videos this year to commemorate the occasion. The countdowns as a result are going on pause until the awards are concluded. Don’t worry, though! There will be plenty to keep you busy until the New Year.

Having touched upon Mortal Night in the last video, I became aware of other quality Resident Evil 2 mods released more recently and revisited one of these for you today - Marvin’s Mod, also known as Desperate Times. The mod wears its name on its sleeve and hopes to fill in some more of the wider details surrounding Resident Evil 2’s story, putting you in the shoes of police officer Marvin Branagh before his demise. As you work through a way to help your fellow PD survivors, you’ll navigate the familiar hallways and streets of Raccoon City alongside a companion. Boss fights are included, as well as additional items, revised balance, and changes to both layout and puzzles that give old locales a fresh sheen. Lastly, graphical tweaks change up some of the visuals overall, and running standalone, there’s not a lot stopping anyone from picking up the mod and giving it a go. Marvin’s Mod doesn’t reinvent the wheel and instead aims to provide players with something familiar but new in its own ways. Seasoned Resident Evil 2 fans will still find a lot to chew on with the mod and new versions still in development will continue to add to the chaos erupting in Raccoon City.

Half-Life 2 mods are synonymous with modding itself, that particular franchise of games being well-regarded for their support of user generated content. There’s no shortage of active engagement from the Half-Life modding scene, but one of the finer sleeper-hits to emerge over the last year is What Remains - a mod that, on the surface, appears to stick closely to the formula provided by Episode 2, and whilst the locales and scenery are generally reminiscent of Valve’s own work (a compliment in of itself, given all the levels look excellent), there’s a lot more going on under the hood. Having Alyx alongside you for almost the entire mod, What Remains leverages the community made Mapbase overhaul for the Source Engine, bringing many new technical features that allow Alyx to navigate and keep up with the player like never before. More tools are provided by this overhaul that the mod creator utilises admirably, including enhanced lighting and map logic which both enhance the technical scope of individual levels and puzzles. This mod doesn’t simply rehash Episode 2’s design - it intelligently mirrors the best parts, and then brings even more to the table. Vanilla-like Half-Life 2 mods are beginning to lose prevalence these days, but What Remains is a great example of how much can be done with the foundation laid all those years ago.

It almost feels like sacrilege to not mention a DOOM mod on each of these lists, and this time I couldn’t resist either. DOOM 64 was its own little phenomenon of a game, a very unique outing for the franchise on the N64 that, for a long time, was not easily accessible on PC. When DOOM Eternal shipped last year, Bethesda outsourced porting DOOM 64 over to Nightdive Studios, whose efforts in making old games like new again are well-known. It was a great little bonus, but its compatibility with much of the same systems and tools used by the community for years was even better, and it wasn’t long before mods with a focus on DOOM 64’s content began to appear. DOOM CE not only tackles DOOM 64 but also the PSX editions of DOOM with the intention of bringing up all of them. New graphical features, like PBR materials and AI-upscaled textures, are joined by many other extras like more levels and more difficulties to put yourself through for an added challenge. Customizability is the word of the day for DOOM CE, which makes many of its additions, extras, and features optional and changeable with a few presets to help you quickly get started. Crack open a drink and get ready for some ass-kicking - DOOM CE’ll keep you plenty busy.

For these lists you’ll generally just be taking my word for how good a mod is, but this time I’m going to keep it short and sweet and really suggest you check out the YouTube video and mod page to let the mod do the talking. Deus Ex was originally planned to have female options for the protagonist, but this option later had to be cut. With its emphasis on player choice, this mod team decided to add one substantial extra choice to the mix and make a female JC Denton a reality again. Featuring thousands of lines of re-recorded dialogue as well as lots of competent sentence mixing and a few extra scenarios to smooth the transition, this mod is a great way to revisit Deus Ex like new again. It’s so comprehensive and impressive in scope we’ve got to give it a special mention - so go check out the video above and on the mod page, and hear some classic JC Denton like you’ve never heard it before.

Conclusion

That’s all the mods we have for you today! As we stated before, this is our last formal countdown video/article combo of 2021, but don’t worry - lots of videos will still be coming out around Mod and Indie of the year! We’ll see you for the annual award events! Stay tuned!