prboom - Man Page

PrBoom, a version of Doom for Unix, Linux and Windows systems

Synopsis

prboom [ -complevel lvl ] [ -width w ] [ -height h ] [ -viewangle n ] [ -vidmode gl ] [ -[no]fullscreen ] [ -[no]window ] [ -iwad iwadname ] [ -file wad1 ... ] [ -deh deh_file ] [ -noload ] [ -loadgame {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7} ] [ -warp { map | epis level } -skill {1,2,3,4,5} ] [ {-fastdemo,-timedemo,-playdemo} demofile [ -ffmap num ] ] [ -record demofile ] [ -solonet ] [ -net hostname[:port] ] [ -deathmatch [ -altdeath ] ] [ { -timer mins | -avg }] ] [ -nosound ] [ -nosfx ] [ -nomusic] [ -nojoy ] [ -nomouse ] [ -noaccel ] [ -nodraw ] [ -config myconf ] [ -save savedir ] [ -bexout bexdbg ] [ -debugfile debug_file ] [ -devparm ] [ -noblit ] [ -nodrawers ]

PrBoom is a version of the 3D shoot'em'up Doom, originally by iD software. It is based on Boom, a version of Doom adapted by TeamTNT (http://www.teamtnt.com/) for DOS. PrBoom uses the SDL library, meaning it can run on a variety of different systems, including Windows, X11, Linux/SVGALib.

Options

-complevel lvl: This sets the compatibility mode that PrBoom runs in. If you need to change this, see README.compat.

Video Options

-width w: Specifies the width of the PrBoom window, in pixels. Default is 320, the width must be greater than 320..
-height h: Specifies the height of the PrBoom window, in pixels. Default is 200, the height must be greater than 200.
-viewangle n: Causes the player view to be rotated by a given offset (specified in 45degree increments, in the range 0..7) from the way the player is facing.
-vidmode gl: Use the OpenGL video mode. The default is to use the software video mode.
-fullscreen, -nofullscreen: These options toggle fullscreen mode. The default is fullscreen.
-window, -nowindow: This pair of options also toggle fullscreen mode. They only take effect for this prboom session and do not alter your configuration file.

WAD Options

-iwad iwadname: Specifies the location of the IWAD file, typically doom.wad or doom2.wad (or doom2f.wad). This tells prboom where the main .wad file that came with the version of Doom that you own is.
-file wad1 ...: Specifies a list of PWAD files to load in addition to the IWAD file. PWAD files modify the existing Doom game, by adding levels or new sounds or graphics. PWAD files are widely available for download; try ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames for starters.
-deh deh_file: Tells PrBoom to load the dehacked patch deh_file.

Game Options

-loadgame {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7}: Instructs PrBoom to load the specified saved game immediately.
-warp { map | epis level }: Tells PrBoom to begin a new game immediately. For Doom 1 or Ultimate Doom, you must specify the episode and level number to begin at (epis is 1 for Knee-Deep in the Dead, 2 for Shores of Hell, 3 for Inferno, 4 for Ultimate Doom; level is between 1 and 9). For Doom ][ or Final Doom, you must specify the map to begin at, which is between 1 and 2 (0 for German Doom ][).
-skill n: Tells PrBoom to begin the game at skill level n (1 for ITYTD, 2 for Not Too Rough, 3 for Hurt Me Plenty, 4 for Ultraviolent, 5 for Nightmare).
-respawn: Tells PrBoom that monsters that die should respawn (come back to life) after a while. Not for the inexperienced.
-fast: Tells PrBoom to make all the monsters move react faster. Not for the inexperienced.
-nomonsters: Tells PrBoom to include no monsters in the game.

Multiplayer Options

-net hostname[:port]: Specifies that a TCP/IP network game is to be started. hostname is the name of the machine on which the network game server is running (prboom-game-server). For more information about this, see prboom-game-server(6) and the README that came with prboom. port is the port number on the remote machine to which to connect; if not specified, the default of 5030 (which is the default for prboom-game-server(6) ) is assumed. The server will configure your PrBoom settings, so that all the players have the same game settings (skill, map etc).

Also, the server may specify additional PWAD files to play with; if you do not have the required .WAD file, PrBoom will ask the server for a download path, and attempt to use wget(1) and if necessary unzip(1) to download and extract the required WAD.

-port portnum: Specifies the local port to use to communicate with the server in a netgame.
-deathmatch: No longer used. Tells PrBoom to begin a deathmatch game, but this is overridden by the server's settings. Only works for single play (!).
-altdeath: Similar to -deathmatch, but implies a different set of rules for the deathmatch game. No longer used (specified by the server).
-timer mins: No longer used. Specifies that levels will end after mins minutes of play if the level is still being played, but is overridden by the server in a netgame. Not really useful for single play.
-avg: Equivalent to -timer 20
-solo-net: Used to run a single-player network game, without a network game server. This enables network game items & options for an otherwise single-player game; some demos are recorded like this.

Demo (LMP) Options

-record demofile: Instructs PrBoom to begin recording a demo, to be stored in demofile.lmp. You should specify game options to specify which level and skill to record at.
-playdemo demofile: Play the recorded demo demofile.lmp
-timedemo demofile: Play the recorded demo demofile.lmp, reporting information about the length of the demo (in gametics) afterwards.
-fastdemo demofile: Play the recorded demo demofile.lmp as fast as possible. Useful for benchmarking PrBoom, as compared to other versions of Doom.
-ffmap num: Fast forward the demo (play at max speed) until reaching map num (note that this takes just a number, not a map name, so so -ffmap 7 to go fast until MAP07 or ExM7).

I/O Options

-nosound: Disables all sound effects and in-game music. This prevents the sound server loading, which lets the game run a little faster.
-nosfx: Disables sound effects during the game. This does not stop the sound server loading, however, so for best performance use -nosound.
-nomusic: Disables playing of music in the game.
-nojoy: Disables joystick support.
-nomouse: Prevents the mouse being grabbed by the prboom window.
-noaccel: For prboom, this prevents it using the MITShm server extension for passing the screen data to the X server. This option may be required if the X server is not local. For lsdoom, this tells lsdoom not to use the accelerated graphics functions that SVGALib provides even when they are supported for your video card (normally this is autodetected).
-1, -2, -3: Specifies the scale factor by which to enlarge the window. The default, -1, displays the normal 320x200 pixel Doom screen (or whatever size is specified by the -width and -height parameters or in the config file for prboom). If this window is too small, try using -2 or -3 to enlarge the window. -nodraw Suppress all graphical display. Only for debugging & demo testing.

Configuration

-config myconf: Loads an alternative configuration file, named myconf. The default is boom.cfg(5), taken from the same directory as PrBoom was run from, except when running with OpenGL, then the default is glboom.cfg(5).
-save savedir: Causes prboom to save games in the directory specified by savedir instead of ~/.prboom/.

Debugging/Profiling Options

-devparm: Development mode. Mostly redundant these days, but it does force non-lazy generation of texture lookups which can be useful for level authors debugging PWADs.
-debugfile debug_file: Causes some debugging information, mainly network info I believe, to be written to the named file as prboom runs.
-nodrawers: Causes no rendering to be done. The only conceivable use of this is (a) a multiplayer server (b) to test the speed of the other routines in the program, when combined with -timedemo.
-noblit: Causes no copying to the screen from the rendering buffer to be performed. The only conceivable use of this is (a) a multiplayer server (b) to test the speed of the other routines in the program, when combined with -timedemo.
-bexout bexdbg: Causes diagnostics related to bex and dehacked file processing to be written to the names file.