glDoom Help

This document is an effort to reduce the amount of time I have to spend repeating the same answers to the same questions. I have answered some of these questions hundreds of times. If this keeps up, I will never get any more work done on the program. In future, I will not respond to e-mails asking questions which are answered on this page. Not even to point you to this page. I just don't have the time for it.

BEFORE contacting me for support make sure you:

1. have read the glDoom.doc. Half of the questions I get are answered in there.
2. are using the LATEST version of gldoom. Each new revision has bug fixes and modifications. The latest revision is always clearly stated on the main glDoom web page.
3. have checked the daily news on the glDoom site. Many of these issues are also addressed, there.
4. have read the relnotes.txt in the glDoom directory. This also has valuable information.
5. have made sure that your Doom WAD files are Version 1.9. Don't just think they are. Run the original DOS program and note the version to be sure. glDoom absolutely will not work right with older versions of the Doom WAD's.
6. are not using a PWAD. I don't and can't support patch WAD's. I will try to accomodate them but can guarantee nothing.
7. have the latest OpenGL drivers for your 3D card. Many problems are caused by old drivers.
8. have not moved glDoom after the first time you run it. If you have, you need to update the gldoom entry in the win.ini file to point to wherever you moved the program. It is also better to use the uninstall program to remove glDoom (your glDoom.ini file and saved games will not be removed) and reinstall it in the new location. You will still need to update the win.ini file with the new glDoom location. (this is until I think of a better method for doing this)
9. are not trying to run glDoom from a full-screen DOS prompt. glDoom can't switch to graphics mode to get the graphics support routines to work at that point so the program won't work. I am working on this but haven't had much time to spend on it.

• I get an error from Glide2x.dll on my 3Dfx card.
• I can't get my 3Dfx card to work.
• I get an error when the program is loading widgets.
• The demos won't run.
• I can't get mlook to work.
• Why aren't there any dark areas in the game?.
• gl_fog doesn't do anything.
• The program blows up on me when try to get a screenshot.
• I get thrown out of the program when I press a mouse button.
• I have to keep pressing enter to get the game to proceed.
• I get a message saying, "OpenGL Driver is not accelerated.".
• glDoom blows up on MAP02 of Doom2 when I try to go past the bars on the left.
• Why don't you put your e-mail address in the glDoom.doc file?
• Why don't you put links to the right drivers for me on you download page?
• I get a message saying, "The video resolution you have requested is not available."

I get an error from Glide2x.dll on my 3Dfx card.

If you get this error, then you are probably trying to use the 3Dfx minigl drivers written for the Quake or Quake II engine. This will not work. You MUST use the 3Dfx Beta OpenGL drivers for glDoom until they finish them. Then you MUST use their full ICD. NOT the Quake I/II minigl drivers.

I can't get my 3Dfx card to work.

1. Make SURE you have opengl32.dll and glu32.dll in your Windows system directory. You may have to change your file settings to let you see ALL files. (in View/Options) If you don't have these, then you need to download the Microsoft SOFTWARE Opengl drivers from here.
   Extract these two files by running this program then copy them to your Windows system directory. If they are already there, THEN SKIP THIS STEP!
2. Download the 3Dfx Beta OpenGL drivers from here.
3. Run the program you just downloaded to install the drivers.
4. Go to the directory where you told the program to install the 3Dfx opengl drivers and rename the 3dfxopengl.dll to opengl32.dll
5. Copy the opengl32.dll from where you installed the 3Dfx opengl drivers and into the directory where you installed glDoom.

I get an error when the program is loading widgets.

Every time I have gotten this error reported, so far, it has been because the Doom WAD version was not 1.9. You MUST make sure your Doom WAD's are version 1.9. Other versions will not work.

The demos won't run.

Every time I have gotten this error reported, so far, it has been because the Doom WAD version isn't 1.9 or the external demo lump being run wasn't created by a version 1.9 program.

I can't get mlook to work.

That's because mlook has been disabled until I get the geometry and culling code into the shape I want it. It doesn't work right a lot of the time right now and there are other features I want to support with it so a different set of culling code that doesn't support mlook is currently active. This will be reactivated when I get the other code "fixed".

Why aren't there any dark areas in the game?.

You probably have your gamma set too high. Even if it doesn't look "washed out" it's probably still too high. If you're using a 3Dfx card, the recommended gamma setting is about 1.3 (not the 1.7 default) I keep mine set to 1.3 but since the glfog code doesn't work in the 3Dfx drivers yet, a lower value like 1.2 or 1.1 might look better.

gl_fog doesn't do anything.

If gl_fog doesn't have any effect then your driver doesn't support the glFog command. I can't fix that because it's a driver issue.

The program blows up on me when try to get a screenshot.

If the program blows up when you try to take a screen-shot, your OpenGL driver doesn't support the glReadPixels command properly (or at all) and is causing the program to die. 3Dfx cards currently cannot take screen shots because 3Dfx's driver doesn't support glReadPixels yet. I know the Quake minigl drivers do but you can't use those drivers.

I get thrown out of the program when I press a mouse button.

Check to make sure you aren't running the Office 97 "shortcut" bar or the mswheel program for the Microsoft IntelliMouse or have the Start Menu bar (task bar) in "autohide" mode. I don't know why this happens, yet or why it doesn't affect other programs but I'll figure it out eventually. When I was using DirectX 5's DirectInput this was not a problem but seems to have surfaced since I moved back to DirectX 3.

I have to keep pressing enter to get the game to proceed.

See the item above.

I get a message saying "OpenGL driver is not accelerated".

You only have Microsoft's SOFTWARE opengl drivers installed or that's all the program can find. Download and install the OpenGL drivers for your 3D card.

glDoom blows up on MAP02 of Doom2 when I try to go past the bars on the left.

You don't have version 1.9 of Doom2. Download the update(s) to version 1.9 and apply them. glDoom will then work fine on MAP02 in Doom2.

Why don't you put your e-mail address in the glDoom.doc file?

Because I want people to have to look for it. If they look for it, they might find the answer on my web site and not have to bother me about it.

Why don't you put links to the right drivers for me on your download page?

Because I don't have time to create and maintain an OpenGL drivers clearinghouse.

I get a message saying, "The video resolution you have requested is not available."

You are probably trying to run glDoom in a full-screen DOS box which won't work. I'm working on fixing this but haven't, yet. Either switch to a "windowed" DOS box or run glDoom from a short-cut or menu option (the preferred method) until I get this fixed.