an optional authentic dos-preset configuration

[Guest]

Many people who will play with this sourceport will be nostalgia seekers(i think), and will probably appreciate a simple way of configuring the port to be as close as possible to the original dos version.

I propose a setting under options, that loads a pre-configured config-file that makes the whole game(graphic,sound,controls, etc...) match a freshly installed dos version as closely as technically possible.


For example: In GZDoom, you need to fiddle with many sub-menus(and a few console commands) that are hidden under some rather technical terms, in order to get close to choclatedoom in look and feel.
I think making a simple easy-to-find option that does all this at once in Raze (and warns the user it will wipe the current config-file), will be much appreciated.

Each game will obviously have its own unigue preset, for duke3d it could scale the output to look like an 800*600 resolution(black bars at the sides on widescreen), a setting that emulates the old 256-color look,"nearest"-texture filtering, etc... choose a soundfont to something that people had back then(the 1mgm awe32-rom-soundfont or the roland sc-55, or just opl).

If you make such an option very easy to find, then I don't think people will complain much about the default settings.

[Caligari87]

This has been suggested and rejected multiple times for an in-engine feature. The defaults are a contentious subject because everyone has their own "best idea", and presets are subject to nearly-infinite bikeshedding, so I would not expect this to change anytime soon. GZDoom's main draw is it's modernity, while there are plenty of other ports to play Doom "authentically".

That said, it's easy to get an authentic retro look at the press of a button with the Vanilla Essence mod.

[Graf Zahl]

As an in-engine feature this makes little sense - but what can be done of course is for someone to set all games up to be as close to DOS as possible and offer such a preset configuration as an optional download.
But like Caligari said, opinions differ about what these settings need to be. For some DOS meant 320x200 with OPL sound, for others it meant 800x600 with a Gravis Ultrasound, for some it's keyboard only, others were already playing with the mouse. Some consider the original sound mixer defective by design, others cannot accept the game without it - and so on, and so on. Ask 100 people and you get 50 opinions about how such a preset should look.