Par time

From DoomWiki.org

Each level in Doom has an associated par time. After completing a level, the par time is displayed on the intermission screen next to the time that the player took to complete the level. This allows the player to gauge their skill by comparing their time.

The par times are encoded into the Doom executable in the file g_game.c. John Romero generated the par times by completing each level as fast as possible, rounding off the resulting time and adding 30 seconds.

The concept of par times also occurs in Doom Resurrection as a throwback to the classic series.

Par times[edit]

The following are the par times from the Doom source code:

Doom[edit]

* Par times for episode 4 are not present in the original versions of The Ultimate Doom; they were added in Doom Classic.

† Par times for E1M8, E2M8, and E3M8 were added in a patch for the Doom Classic Unity port.

Doom II[edit]

It should be noted that both halves of Final Doom (TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment), as well as the Master Levels for Doom II, lack actual par times. Instead, the par time of the respective map of Doom II with the same map slot will show up in the intermission screen. For example, in completing MAP27: Mount Pain (TNT: Evilution), the actual par time of MAP27: Monster Condo (Doom II) itself will show up.

The bonus maps E1M10: Sewers and MAP33: Betray present in the Xbox versions of Doom and Doom II had erroneous par times of ":00" and "SUCKS" respectively, caused by reading the array of par times out of bounds. The value of "SUCKS" is caused by reading a value greater than one hour in duration, a display normally meant to appear in the "Time" field on the intermission screen.

Doom Resurrection[edit]

User made maps[edit]

Due to the times being hardcoded into the executable, in the past it was often disregarded in custom PWADs. Until the advent of BEX, there was no way to set a time relating to the new levels that had been created (barring supplying a modified game binary). Advanced source ports allow the author to specify a par time using BEX or MAPINFO for this, so par times in custom levels are more common now.

If a PWAD contains par times in both DEHACKED and MAPINFO lumps, the times in DEHACKED take precedence.

References[edit]