News - DOOM CE mod for Doom II

Rumble Pak

A selection of 20 maps made by the community from 2012 to 2020 has been added as part of the Rumble Pak, a new addon level set for DOOM 64 CE. Over half of the maps were previously released as part of a project called Community Chest 64, while the rest were standalone releases.

Improved mod compatibility

This release should be much more compatible with other mods. It's been tested with mods such as Project Brutality, QC:DE, Death Foretold, Embers of Armageddon, Guncaster, Trailblazer, GMOTA, Russian Overkill, Complex Doom, Legendoom Lite, Pandemonia, and many others and they appear to be working fine (NOTE: Support is more limited in Doom 64 because some mods depend on Doom 2 textures and Doom 2's default player height).

Corruption Cards deserves a special mention because this mod now has built-in support for it. Story text maps will skip the card selection dialog, and monsters exclusive to the PSX and D64 were included as monster groups. It adds tremendous replay value to these campaigns, so it strongly recommended if you are planning on playing them again and want to spice up the gameplay a little.

This release also includes sprites and AI for missing monsters in Doom 64 such as the Revenant and Spider Mastermind, so mods that require them are now compatible. All Doom 2 things have replacement counterparts now.

Note: upgrading from previous versions

Because of various internal changes on the mod, any map packs from this page's addon section needs to be redownloaded to use their latest version. For DOOM 64, it is necessary to delete DOOM64.IWAD and DOOM64.CE.LostLevels.pk3 and run the installer again. After upgrading, it is safe to delete the files named *.Base.pk3, since they are no longer used in this version.

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...

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.

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:

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.