Running total conversion WADs from command line

[pragmasaurus]

I've been using a portable USB frontend of dosbox (called "Dosbox Distro") that comes with a built in version of zdoom. The version is "ZDoom v2.6.999 - SVN revision 4023M - SDL version compiled on Jan 10 2013"

I've been having trouble running total conversion WADs- the one's I've been trying to use are Adventures of Square (square1.pk3) and Hocus Doom (Hocus.pk3).
From the documentation I was under the impression that I should be using "zdoom -iwad <name>.pk3". For hocus.pk3, zdoom tries to load the wad, but I get

Code: Select all

Script error, "HOCUS.PK3:editornums.txt" line 1:
DoomEdNums: Unknown top level keyword

After some searching, it seems like this may be an indicator my zdoom.pk3 file is out of date. If this is the case, will replacing that file with the newest version work, or would I have to install a whole new version of zdoom?

For square1.pk3, zdoom seems to ignore it completely and bring me to the WAD selection menu (and square1.pk3 is not automatically detected for the WAD selection menu).
EDIT: Looking at the requirements for these WADs, most of them recommend zdoom 4 or higher, so I suppose that's probably the main problem. I was hoping since 2.6 was able to run other modern WADs that it would be able to run these too.

[wildweasel]

Hocus Doom needs a newer version of GZDoom than you have. That feature wasn't added until many years after the 2.7 revisions.

[Redneckerz]

I can see why you would want to use a portable frontend that packages a built-in ZDoom version alongside with it - But it clearly also generates several issues, as your earlier thread also revolved around this frontend and it turned out to call a batch file.

After some searching, it seems like this may be an indicator my zdoom.pk3 file is out of date. If this is the case, will replacing that file with the newest version work, or would I have to install a whole new version of zdoom?

You need to install the latest ZDoom if they so require (Often found at /idgames it is described with which version the released WAD is ought to work). The latest ZDoom is 2.8.1.

However, ZDoom as a port is discontinued, and main development focuses on GZDoom and to a lesser degree LZDoom (For older hardware). Most current wads are built on GZDoom 4.x (ZDoom 4.x does not exist). For those WADs, usually it is described in their readme files which version of GZDoom it relies upon.

So yes - you need to install the latest GZDoom.

I was hoping since 2.6 was able to run other modern WADs that it would be able to run these too.

In order to retain the portable frontend, i assume. Unfortunately, ZDoom 2.6.0 is not even the latest regular ZDoom version - which has been discontinued - and is approaching 7 years of age. 7 years is a long time and around 2015-2017 a lot of refactoring was implemented, so it is understandable that a SVN build of ZDoom from 2013 cannot run every new thing anymore.

[Guest]

Thanks for taking the time to explain the differences between zdoom and gzdoom which should have been obvious to me. Now that I know, it should be a lot easier to check for compatibility. Ultimately, I'm satisfied with what zdoom 2.6 can offer, which is all of the base games, and most map wads (and surprisingly, even brutal doom).

[Redneckerz]

Thanks for taking the time to explain the differences between zdoom and gzdoom which should have been obvious to me. Now that I know, it should be a lot easier to check for compatibility.

Do note that in more recent releases you will find that ZDoom is phased out in favor of GZDoom. if a wad can run in ZDoom, it usually will mention it in the readme.

With that said:

Ultimately, I'm satisfied with what zdoom 2.6 can offer, which is all of the base games, and most map wads

If you do wish to stick to an outdated build that is unsupported and remains in a fixed dormant state, please upgrade to ZDoom 2.8.1. It is the last official ZDoom release, and because of its status, it is likely to become a baseline version in the soon future, as it already is targeted by certain WADS as the minimum version.

Alternatives that are still updated are ZDoom LE, ZDoom32 and ZDoom CL. ZDoom LE is preferred because it builds upon the 2.8.1 release.

The DOSBox distro built-in ZDoom version will have more issues as time progresses because of its fixed state based on a SVN build.

This is also true for its Brutal Doom support. Inevitably that mod will move beyond the featureset ZDoom 2.6 offers.