And they called it DOOM + DOOM II. Together at last.

Since they also updated the IWADs, that means I have to update Omniscient again. Actually by the time I’m writing this I already have updated it, but I have no idea what to call the new IWADs. The previous re-release (the Unity port)’s IWADs were called “Unity port” versions, but this re-release is on Kex now, not Unity. For now I’m just calling them “Unity/now Kex port v1.5”, since they’re close enough to the Unity versions. The extras.wad has ballooned to over 500 MB in this re-release, so that’ll have to be omitted from Omniscient, as I think a 650 MB executable is a bit too excessive. (The exe is now about 47 MB and I think even that’s a lot.)

This re-release has only multiplayer, and allegedly it requires a Bethesda account to play. I haven’t confirmed this, and I don’t really care enough to. But if true, it means my ToddDRM mod for Zandronum is relevant again, almost exactly five years after I first made it:

Thanks, Todd.

Also the multiplayer allegedly sucks as well. If you’re after an online Doom experience with modern features and good netcode, where authentication is an optional feature used for some cool persistent storage things, check out Zandronum 🙂

Although, this new re-release does have MBF21 support, so that’s one thing it has over Zandronum, even if it’s mostly things Zandronum can already do by other means. While I still think DEHACKED should’ve died in 1996 when the Doom source was released, people have unfortunately insisted on using it long since then…

Off the back of this I also spent last night hacking together a basic tool to compare WAD files. In doing so I spent a while fixing a weird memory bug where setting the namespace of map-related lumps was overwriting the actual lump data… that was annoying. Anyway, here’s what it outputs for Doom v1.9 compared to the re-release version:

Alfa file:  C:\Users\Sean\Dev\omniscient\srcwads\doom_u19.wad
Bravo file: D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Ultimate Doom\rerelease\doom.wad
alfa  is IWAD with 2306 lumps
bravo is IWAD with 2308 lumps
namespace Other:
        HELP1 differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        CREDIT differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        VICTORY2 differs:
                ALFA:  66888 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        TITLEPIC differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        PFUB1 differs:
                ALFA:  66888 bytes
                BRAVO: 68168 bytes
        PFUB2 differs:
                ALFA:  66888 bytes
                BRAVO: 119288 bytes
        ENDPIC differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        STBAR differs:
                ALFA:  13128 bytes
                BRAVO: 17474 bytes
        WIMAP0 differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        WIMAP1 differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        WIMAP2 differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        INTERPIC differs:
                ALFA:  68168 bytes
                BRAVO: 90746 bytes
        GAMECONF differs:
                does not exist in alfa.
                BRAVO: 343 bytes
        DMENUPIC differs:
                does not exist in alfa.
                BRAVO: 66888 bytes
namespace Maps:
        E1M4 differs:
                SECTORS differs:
                        ALFA:  3614 bytes, 139 sectors
                        BRAVO: 3614 bytes, 139 sectors
        E2M4 differs:
                LINEDEFS differs:
                        ALFA:  15638 bytes, 1117 lines
                        BRAVO: 15638 bytes, 1117 lines
        E4M1 differs:
                LINEDEFS differs:
                        ALFA:  6594 bytes, 471 lines
                        BRAVO: 6258 bytes, 447 lines
                SIDEDEFS differs:
                        ALFA:  19260 bytes, 642 sides
                        BRAVO: 17820 bytes, 594 sides
                VERTEXES differs:
                        ALFA:  1756 bytes, 439 vertices
                        BRAVO: 1608 bytes, 402 vertices
                SEGS differs:
                        ALFA:  8340 bytes, 834 segs
                        BRAVO: 7596 bytes, 759 segs
                SSECTORS differs:
                        ALFA:  784 bytes, 196 subsectors
                        BRAVO: 672 bytes, 168 subsectors
                NODES differs:
                        ALFA:  5460 bytes, 195 nodes
                        BRAVO: 4676 bytes, 167 nodes
                SECTORS differs:
                        ALFA:  2106 bytes, 81 sectors
                        BRAVO: 2028 bytes, 78 sectors
                REJECT differs:
                        ALFA:  821 bytes
                        BRAVO: 761 bytes
        E4M7 differs:
                THINGS differs:
                        ALFA:  2580 bytes, 258 things
                        BRAVO: 2580 bytes, 258 things
namespace Textures:
namespace Patches:
namespace Flats:
namespace Sprites:
        STIMA0 differs:
                ALFA:  340 bytes
                BRAVO: 338 bytes
        MEDIA0 differs:
                ALFA:  780 bytes
                BRAVO: 780 bytes
        PSTRA0 differs:
                ALFA:  780 bytes
                BRAVO: 780 bytes

Mostly it’s just higher-res/widescreen graphics, war crime reduction, and commiting heresy by removing an easter egg from E4M1. I’m not sure what the other map changes are.

Doom 2 is much the same - hi-res graphics and a couple map changes that I don’t know the details of. A notable difference in Doom 2 is that the Wolfenstein textures have been modified to replace the swastikas and other references to Nazism.

Adolf Hitler, meet Legally Distinct Dictator

Also, the SS Nazi’s see sound has been replaced. To quote the Doom wiki,

The sounds have also been re-recorded for Doom. In the 2019 Unity port, their wake-up sound has been changed to “Schutzkämpfer!” (“protection warrior”) so as to avoid directly referencing Nazi Germany.

1.9
Re-release

Though to me, it sounds like he’s having a stroke instead…

Most of these IWAD changes were done in the earlier Unity versions I believe, but I hadn’t looked into them before now.