ZDoom

Yes, I'm having trouble loading my custom WAD, yes I've looked on zdoom wiki and the forums, tried all they said and still it gives the message:

"Cannot find a game IWAD (doom.wad, doom2.wad, heretic.wad, etc.).
Did you install ZDoom properly? You can do either of the following:

1. Place one or more of these wads in the same directory as ZDoom.
2. Edit your zdoom-username.ini and add the directories of your iwads
to the list beneath [IWADSearch.Directories]"

And it only seems to work if I rename my WAD doom2.wad or something similar.

This seems to indicate that you haven't "tried all they said" yet - most WAD files require an existing Doom WAD to run the game from, with your custom WAD merely replacing bits of the Doom WAD at run-time.

I suggest you give this another read: [wiki]Installation and execution of ZDoom[/wiki]

Also, I moved your topic to General, as this is not specifically an Editing question.

Hmm, well it's good to know that none of that helped. Thanks anyway.

spratcliffe wrote:Hmm, well it's good to know that none of that helped. Thanks anyway.

Perhaps you could tell us the exact steps you're taking? It's hard to diagnose a problem with as little information as you've given us.

It sounds like you're trying to run your Wad without an IWAD (doom.wad, doom2.wad, etc) in your ZDoom folder.

As long as "doom2.wad" (Usually around 18 Megabytes.) is in the same folder as ZDoom and your custom WAD, and ZDoom is properly unzipped from the zip/rar it came in, just drag the custom WAD onto zdoom.exe and it'll start up. It's what I do. Pretty much all that's required, as far as I know.

But yes, you definitely do need doom2.wad - But there's also Freedoom that you can download as a free substitute. Works the same way as having doom2.wad in there.

That was all explained there:

wildweasel wrote:I suggest you give this another read: [wiki]Installation and execution of ZDoom[/wiki]

And the wiki also gives a full list of valid [wiki]IWAD[/wiki] files and where they can be obtained; which includes the Freedoom ones. It's all on the wiki.

My guess? The OP doesn't understand the difference between IWAD and PWAD, and didn't bother to read the second paragraph of "how to start ZDoom", which explains how to load PWADs. You'll notice how he talked about renaming his custom wad as the IWAD... He's yet another of these guys who think the IWAD selection box is a full-fledged mod launcher. And he prefers to bitch and whine rather than expand the effort of actually reading what he claims to have read, because that way he can try to pretend to save face, rather than acknowledging there was something he didn't understand.