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Doom 64

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 15:28, 22 August 2021 by AmethystViper (talk | contribs)

This page is for the official port from 2020. For the fan-made port from 2011, see Doom 64 EX.

Doom 64
Doom 64 cover
Developers
Original game Midway Games
id Software
Windows Nightdive Studios
Publishers
Bethesda Softworks
Engines
Kex Engine
Release dates
Windows March 20, 2020
Reception
OpenCritic 76
Taxonomy
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Shooter
Themes Horror, Sci-fi
Series Doom
Doom 64 on HowLongToBeat
Doom 64 on IGDB
Doom 64 guide on StrategyWiki
Doom 64 on MobyGames
Doom 64 on Wikipedia
Doom (1993) 1993
Doom II: Hell on Earth 1994
Final Doom 1996
DRL (unofficial game) 2002
Doom 3 2004
Doom 64 EX (unofficial port) 2008
Doom 3: BFG Edition 2012
Doom (2016) 2016
Doom VFR 2017
Doom I Enhanced 2020
Doom II Enhanced 2020
Doom Eternal 2020
Doom 64 2020

Doom 64 is a sci-fi first-person shooter game developed by Midway Games, id Software, and Nightdive Studios, and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was the Nintendo 64 exclusive sequel to Doom II: Hell on Earth from 1997 in the Doom series, and was ported using the KEX Engine.

The game was originally released on March 31, 1997 for the Nintendo 64, using a modified, hardware-accelerated version of the id Tech 1 engine based on Doom's PlayStation port, and introduced new features to the engine such as animated sky textures, colored lighting, fog effects, smoother liquid texture animations, among other features while taking advantage of the console's unique 3-point filtering algorithm for its new higher resolution sprites.[1] It was, however, often mistaken for another port of the 1993 Doom during its initial release despite being an entirely new game in the Doom series due to its title (the original working title was The Absolution, referenced in its final level) at a time where most of its ports struggled to bring the PC version's experience to a console, while competing with the likes of GoldenEye 007 and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter with their advanced 3D graphics on the Nintendo 64.

For many years, Doom 64 did not see a release on other platforms, and with Midway Games filing for bankruptcy in 2009, the chances of the game being re-release elsewhere seemed uncertain, however, there were efforts by Doom modder Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal to port Doom 64 to PC unofficially, starting with his Doom 64: Absolution project, a total conversion of Doom II: Hell on Earth, followed by Doom 64 EX, a port that runs off data extracted from the original Nintendo 64 cartridge. Samuel along with fellow Doom modders Edward "Edward850" Richardson and James "Quasar" Haley went onto to work for Nightdive Studios and developed an official port of Doom 64 with a partnership with Bethesda.[2] It was initially announced for the Nintendo Switch to accompany the then-upcoming Doom Eternal, originally slated for a November 22, 2019 release until they was delayed to March 20, 2020 but announced versions of Doom 64 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game was released on the planned release date (through Bethesda.net and Steam for PC), and features many quality-of-life improvements such as support for higher framerates, widescreen resolutions, an updated HUD message system, as well as a new set of levels that ties the storyline of the classic Doom games with the modern Doom (2016) reboot.[3] The official re-release of Doom 64 also features haptic controller feedback on all versions, a first for the KEX Engine.

Bethesda sought to end their partnership with Nightdive Studios after Doom 64 was finally released, thus preventing any further updates or fixing overlooked issues such pixel-scaling distortion caused by the PC version's stock DirectX 11 shaders and inability to remap key bindings on non-QWERTY keyboard layouts. Samuel has provided players ways to address issues with the DirectX 11 shaders and Suicide machine has provided a configuration tool and hack to remedy other inconveniences with the PC version. A small number of mods, community tweaks, and an unofficial compatibility patch for Doom 64 EX are also available.

General information

Steam Community Discussions
Official list of differences from Doom 64 EX

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Bethesda.net Launcher
Windows
Bethesda.net
Bethesda.net Launcher
Windows
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Play Anywhere
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Bethesda.net account creation can be skipped. DRM-free when Steam is not installed or by creating a steam_appid.txt file containing its Steam App ID number 1148590 in <path-to-game>.[4]
Windows
Granted to pre-orders of Doom Eternal.
The game's Official Soundtrack and 20th Anniversary Extended Edition Soundtrack are available for purchase or streaming via the composer's Bandcamp page.

Version differences

Background music on Level 20: Breakdown (Track name "The Rotted Foul" according to Doom 64 Official Soundtrack listing) plays differently in comparison to the Nintendo 64 equivalent, with some samples playing too fast or at too high a pitch. Level 21: Pitfalls background music (Perfect Hate) also has minor differences starting around the 0:30 mark.[5]

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

The copyright screen and photosensitive warning will still be displayed.
Use -skipmovies command line argument[6]
Set the value of seta g_showintromovie in kexengine.cfg to 0 (see configuration file(s) location)[7]
Rename/move/delete the movies folder from <path-to-game>[7]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Microsoft Store %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\kexengine.cfg
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1148590/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Microsoft Store %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\BethesdaSoftworks.Doom641997_3275kfvn8vcwc\SystemAppData\wgs\
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\saves\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1148590/pfx/[Note 1]
10 save slots available.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.
Display settings.
Display settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Min. seems to be 74° (vertical) and max. 140°. Screen change is Hor+. Values outside of that range can be set using r_fov X console command.[6]
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Filtering option toggles between nearest-neighbor and N64-style 3-point bilinear texture filtering.[8][6] The 3-point bilinear filtering, while not anisotropic, does not suffer from blurry distant oblique textures in the way that is typical of isotopic filtering.[9][10]
Anti-aliasing (AA)
SMAA, FXAA and FXAA-Fast
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Multiple options for FPS cap in addition to uncapped (labelled as Max). Make sure to leave Interpolation enabled for the game to scale from original internal 30fps.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Mouse settings.
Mouse settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Rebinding always uses QWERTY layout, even if other keyboard layouts are in system. Gameplay itself also uses systems layout! Left arrow and right arrow are permanently bound to look left and look right.
Mouse acceleration
Slider for acceleration and few options for mouse smoothing are available.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Game doesn't allow for looking up and down.[6]
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Despite the Steam page stating partial controller support, it seems like every aspect of the game can be fully navigated using gamepad (menus / gameplay).[6]
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts
Light bar support
Blue light.
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes

Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Only for XInput controllers.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection

Audio

Sound settings.
Sound settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
[11]
Subtitles
No voices to show subtitles for.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Always disabled.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Spanish

Issues fixed

Kex Assertion Failure/Black screen on startup (with sounds playing)

Change the renderer in config files[12]
  1. Navigate to %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\
  2. Edit kexengine.cfg with text editor.
  3. Find a line seta r_rhirenderfamily "vulkan".
  4. Set it to either seta r_rhirenderfamily "d3d11" or seta r_rhirenderfamily "opengl".
  5. If the config file is missing, download this config and place it in %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\.

Sprites are rendered 0.5px off when using DirectX 11

The game's stock DirectX 11 shaders are outdated and bugged and need to be recompiled.
Use either Vulkan or OpenGL 3.2 rendering[13]
Recompile the DirectX 11 shaders[13]
  1. Navigate to %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\ and open kexengine.cfg with text editor.
  2. Find the following lines and modify them:
    • Set seta d3d11_compileShaders "0" to "1".
    • Set seta developer "0" to "1".
  3. Launch the game, then press ~ to open the developer console.
  4. Type buildDX11ShaderArchive in the developer console and press Enter to recompile the new shaders, and then exit the game.
  5. Create a back-up of the Doom64.kpf found in <path-to-game>, then open Doom64.kpf with an archiving tool (e.g. WinRAR, 7zip) and go inside its contents to find the progs directory.
  6. Copy the new dxShaders.bin file found in the <path-to-game>\progs folder and insert this file into Doom64.kpf\progs using your desired archiving tool, replacing the original file.

Notes:

This requires d3dcompiler.dll.
Use Symmetrical Weapons mod[14]
  1. Download the mod here.
  2. Launch the game with the -file sweapons.wad command line argument.

Notes:

Corrects other offset errors with the stock weapon sprites such as the chaingun's sprite clipping off the game's screen while firing.
Does not fix the rest of the game's sprites being rendered 0.5px off, and this method also disables achievements as this game finds loading WADs as a cheat. Use Sui's Hack to workaround the achievement issue or export the mod's weapon sprites and insert into the game's DOOM64.WAD file via SLADE if you wish to have the corrected weapon sprites offsets.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11 Sprites are incorrectly rendered, see Sprites are rendered 0.5px off when using DirectX 11.
OpenGL 3.2
Vulkan
Shader Model support 5
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio FMOD
Input SDL2

Command line arguments

Parameter Description
-window Sets the game to run in windowed mode
-fullscreen Sets the game to run in fullscreen
-width X Sets game window's width
-height Y Sets game window's height
-skipmovies Skips intro movies / company logos
-warp X Warps to level ID, where first level is 1
-skill X Sets difficulty to X, where "Be Gentle!" is 1, "Bring It On!" is 2 etc. Use in combination with -warp X command.
-nomonsters Disables monsters. Sets cheat flag, disabling achievements.
-fast Enables fast monsters
-file *.wad Loads additional wad file. Sets cheat flag, disabling achievements.
-basepath <path> Sets the base path from which to load files.

SuicideMachine's Unofficial Configuration Tool

Written by wiki user Suicide machine, unofficial configuration tool was developed with intention of simplifying key rebinding process, especially on non QWERTY keyboards. Tool also features access to basic graphics options, helpful when scaling basic issues with the game. Can be downloaded here.

Mods

Sui's Hack

A hack written by Suicide Machine that is an attempt to restore some form of mouse look. Do note, that mouse look at the moment doesn't affect aiming itself.
Install Sui's hack.[15]
  1. Download the hack and extract it.
  2. Move all the files to game's directory.

Notes:

To configure the hack, edit Scripts\Doom64Hack.ini with text editor.
To configure vertical aim sensitivty, use cl_msensitivityy console command.

Doom 64 EX Compatibility Patch

The Doom 64 EX Compatibility Patch is a patch that converts the game files of Doom 64 into a format that the fan-made port from 2008, Doom 64 EX, can recognize and play. This allows owners of Doom 64 to make use of the added features of the fan-made port, such as enabling mouse look, disabling auto-aim, etc.
Install the compatibility patch (Windows only)[16]
  1. Download the compatibility patch from the Steam thread and extract it to a temporary folder.
  2. Browse to <path-to-game> of the official 2020 port of Doom 64.
  3. Copy the files DOOM64.WAD and DOOMSND.DLS over to the temporary folder of the compatibility patch.
  4. Browse to the temporary folder of the compatibility patch, launch run.cmd, and press Enter.
  5. A new folder called output was created that contains the patched Doom 64 EX compatible files.
  6. The compatible files can now be moved into the base installation folder of Doom 64 EX and played using the fan-made port.

Notes

Do not overwrite the original files within <path-to-game> of Doom 64 with the patched files as they have been made incompatible with the official port!

Restoring red medical crosses

The red cross symbols on recovery items were altered in this re-release.
Use uncensored.wad for Doom 64
  1. Download Restore Red Crosses and extract uncensored.wad into the DOOM 64 folder.
  2. Launch the game with the -file uncensored.wad command line argument.

Notes

This method disables achievements as it finds loading the WAD as a cheat. This issue can be bypassed by using Sui's Hack and enabling FileDoesntSetCheatFlag.
Restore the red crosses via SLADE[17]
  1. Download the original uncut files here, and then extract its contents to its own folder within a convenient location on your computer.
  2. Download the latest stable binaries of SLADE that matches your operating system here.
  3. Run SLADE, and go to EditPreferencesAdvanced, then uncheck iwad_lock and click Apply.
  4. Open the DOOM64.WAD found in <path-to-game> with SLADE, and then search for the following files by using the search box: MEDIA0, PSTRA0, and STIMA0.
  5. Right-click each of these files, click Import, and then replace these files with their uncensored counterparts that you have downloaded earlier.
  6. Go to File and click Save to save the changes. You should now see the original red crosses on recovery items. A back-up of the original WAD file is also created automatically.

Notes

This method does not disable achievements as you are not loading WAD files into the game, therefore does not count as a cheat.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5-750
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
AMD Radeon R7 240
Intel HD Graphics 530
A 64-bit operating system is required.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1148590/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1148590) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Doom 64 - The Doom Wiki at DoomWiki.org - last accessed on 2020-10-28
  2. DF Retro EX: Doom 64 - Remaking an N64 Classic For PS4, Xbox One, Switch + PC! - YouTube - last accessed on 2020-10-28
  3. Doom 64 (2020 version) - The Doom Wiki at DoomWiki.org - last accessed on 2020-10-28
  4. Steam games you can play without the Steam client :: GOG.com Community Discussions
  5. Doom64: Nintendo 64 and 2020 Re-release BGM differences - last accessed on 2020-03-31
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Verified by User:Suicide machine on 2020-03-19)
  7. 7.0 7.1 Skip Intro Videos - Steam Community Guides - last accessed on 2020-04-10
  8. Maxime Lebled on Twitter: "The new PC version of Doom 64 by @NightdiveStudio is replicating the N64 3-point texture filtering! That attention to detail is awesome to see! 😮
  9. Verified by User:SirYodaJedi on 2020-03-19
    Eyeballed. I've complimented 3-point filtering before.
  10. DF Retro EX: Doom 64 - Remaking an N64 Classic For PS4, Xbox One, Switch + PC! - YouTube - last accessed on 2020-04-05
    "The only downside to [doing texture filtering manually as a shader] is that it's-it's basically impossible to do, like mipmapping, or any other sort of filtering through this method."
  11. Verified by User:KainXVIII on 2020-07-08
    Tested with Special K
  12. black screen with sounds but no video - last accessed on 2020-03-21
  13. 13.0 13.1 Gun looks busted in DX11? - last accessed on 2020-03-21
  14. Verified by User:AmethystViper on 2020-10-28
  15. Verified by User:Suicide machine on 2020-05-19
  16. Verified by User:Aemony on 2020-03-23
  17. Uncensoring Doom 64 and You aka Red Cross Restore Guide - Steam Community Guides - last accessed on 2020-04-06