Problem viewing a run

[DM48 (Guest)]

Hey, just stumbled across this site earlier today and I have a problem.

ftp://competn.doom2.net:8002/pub/compet ... ns5600.zip

I was watching that run (Drew DeVore's Nightmare 100% secrets run) from Doom95 and it was going fine up until Tricks and Traps. He gets most of the way round the level but then something goes wrong and he ends up blasting the wall with his shotgun repeatedly before being killed by a nearby Baron. Then subsequently he wanders around seemingly aimlessly which makes me think something's corrupted or gone wrong somewhere. Anyone got any ideas on what the problem is? It looks like it might be a compatability problem or something but I'm not sure, any advice would be appreciated. If you need more details on the problem then let me know.

[DM48 (Guest)]

Actually, I just tried watching a different Doom2 Nightmare run and it screwed up at almost exactly the same point which makes me believe that it's more a problem with something on my system and the way it's handling that particular level. =/

[Grazza]

The problem is that you're trying to watch it with Doom95. That won't work. You need to use Doom2.exe (i.e. the original DOS executable for Doom2). The game behaviour in Doom95 is fairly similar to Doom2.exe, but there are some small differences (notably with the way lost souls move) that cause desyncs with many demos.

If you don't have Doom2.exe (e.g. because you bought Doom Collectors Edition and don't have one of the older releases), then you can get it from myk's site or use the exe from the shareware release (which, surprisingly enough, is identical to Doom2.exe).

[DM48 (Guest)]

Thanks for that. I have another problem though. I put the Doom2 exe in my Doom 2 folder (which is what I presume you're supposed to do) then when I try and start Doom 2 up normally, it never gets the DOS part of the loading screen. any idea why that is? =/

[Grazza]

The iwad (that is, doom2.wad) needs to be in your Doom2 folder as well.

Otherwise, I don't know what the problem might be. Note that you may need to disable sound effects in order to get Doom2.exe to run in a tolerable way (this depends on your operating system).

If your operating system simply won't allow Doom2.exe to run (I don't know which might do that - possibly XP Pro?), then your best option may be to use one of a number of source ports that retain demo compatibility with Doom2.exe. The main ones are:
Prboom
Prboom-plus (my default port)
Eternity
Chocolate-Doom (new; still a beta, but looking promising)
In each case, the port takes the place of Doom2.exe. It still needs to find Doom2.wad.

[DM48 (Guest)]

No, it's XP Home I'm using. I still couldn't get it to work so I actually downloaded Prboom shortly after my last post and was able to get it to work. Thanks for the help. The graphical quality seems slightly lower in Prboom, is that normal?

[Grazza]

I'd imagine that's because you're using the default resolution of 320x200. You can set the resolution via the command line (e.g. -width 1600 -height 1200) or by editing the cfg file. If you're using the software renderer (prboom.exe), I'd recommend -width 640 -height 480 (it seems more stable then). If you're using the OpenGL renderer (glboom.exe), then use whatever you like that your machine can handle.

BTW, as well as adding a variety of features, prboom-plus corrects a graphical glitch or two, and gives you the option of bump-mapping and uncapped framerate, if you like those things.

[DM48 (Guest)]

Well I'm viewing it full screen, but I used glboom.exe and the graphics were much clearer. Thanks for your help.