PWad compatibility / "limit-removing"

edited 2016 Jan 1 in Heretic
I've been searching around for new PWads to use with DE and obviously the first issue is what port of Doom/Heretic the PWad was created for or is compatible with. I've noticed that many PWads are surprisingly old but some still work even though they don't mention DE by name.

One common phrase I've seen often is:
Advanced engine needed : Limit-Removing Port

Q1: Can someone explain to me what a "Limit-Removing Port" is? and am I correct guessing that DE qualifies as one?

Q2: I was a bit surprised at the number of ports there are (or rather have been, no idea how many are left and active).
Can anyone tell me if DE is compatible to any degree with other ports, in terms of running a typical PWad? (I do understand that some PWads may use advanced features and may not work while others might, I'm just looking for a wide-angle guess!)

and Q3: Can anyone say how many are still active today? (referring to Heretic not only the Doom engine alone)

Many thanks for any information in advance!

Comments

  • maps that say limit removing ports refer to ports that do not have a limit on map size if you tried to play a map that was made for a limit removing port in the vanilla games they would crash. from what i know there is only about 4 active sourceports for all the base game that DE supports.
  • Q1: Can someone explain to me what a "Limit-Removing Port" is? and am I correct guessing that DE qualifies as one?
    Yeah, Doomsday removes many of the limits of the vanilla engine. This affects things like the maximum complexity and size of the maps, number of objects, etc.
    Q2: I was a bit surprised at the number of ports there are (or rather have been, no idea how many are left and active).
    Can anyone tell me if DE is compatible to any degree with other ports, in terms of running a typical PWad? (I do understand that some PWads may use advanced features and may not work while others might, I'm just looking for a wide-angle guess!)
    I recall that Vermil provided a nice summary of the source port landscape back in May. Let me quote/summarize the more active ones:
    • "ZDoom, GZdoom and Zandronum, all built off the same codebase (ZDoom itself) between them are and cover and control almost every facet of the Doom engine games community (modding, visuals and multiplayer respectively). While they are three separate ports with their own development teams, they should really be considered one single entity with one large development team split into seveal teams each focusing on a specific area."
    • "Chocolate Doom/Heretic/HeXen/Strife and PrBoom+ are Vanilla accuracy and demos respectively. Though both these ports have perhaps achieved their goals and currently seem to be receiving very little development as a result." (As an aside, id Software's official "DOOM Classic" for iOS was based on prBoom.)
    • Other multiplayer focused ports: ZDeamon, Odamex.
    When it comes to compatibility between ports, Doomsday and its game plugins are based on the vanilla source code (as released by id/Raven), so it is not really compatible with either ZDoom or prBoom based ports — i.e., other ports have defined their own additional features for creating maps and mods, and Doomsday does not support these custom enhancements. Instead, over the years we've created some of our own modding features in Doomsday, but ZDoom-based modding is vastly more popular in the community.


    The vanilla (limit-removed) feature set remains the common denominator for compatibility between ports.
  • skyjake wrote:
    Yeah, Doomsday removes many of the limits of the vanilla engine. This affects things like the maximum complexity and size of the maps, number of objects, etc.

    I've come across a limit with a couple of PWads that DE reports as
    "Too many ambient sound sequences".

    My first instinct was to get a wad editor (DoomBuilder seems common) and try to decrease the number of sound sequences. I have some experience with Adobe Audition so I figured I should be able to do it! Well wow do I have a lot to learn about wad development! ;)

    Do you think this approach is feasible?
    Is this limit something that DE might eliminate at some point?
    Might there be any other way around the issue?
  • skyjake wrote:
    Yeah, Doomsday removes many of the limits of the vanilla engine. This affects things like the maximum complexity and size of the maps, number of objects, etc.

    I've come across a limit with a couple of PWads that DE reports as
    "Too many ambient sound sequences".

    My first instinct was to get a wad editor (DoomBuilder seems common) and try to decrease the number of sound sequences. I have some experience with Adobe Audition so I figured I should be able to do it! Well wow do I have a lot to learn about wad development! ;)

    Do you think this approach is feasible?
    Is this limit something that DE might eliminate at some point?
    Might there be any other way around the issue?

    Vanilla Heretic had some limits on how many of certain mobj types one could be place on a map. You could have up to 8 global ambient sound mobjs (most of heretic's ambient sounds are global, but the waterfall and wind ones are local), 8 D'sparil teleport spots and 8 Firemace spawn spots, per map.

    Dday only removes the later two.
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