Boom
From DoomWiki.org
| Boom | |
| |
| Codebase | Final Doom v1.9 |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Jim Flynn, Stan Gula, Ty Halderman, Lee Killough, Rand Phares |
| Initial release | 2.00 (1998-04-17, 26 years ago) |
| Latest release | 2.02 (1999-10-09, 25 years ago) |
| Development status | Discontinued |
| Written in | C |
| Target platform | DOS |
| License | Doom Source License, GPLv2+ |
Boom is a source port created by TeamTNT. The design goals of the Boom project were to create a source port of professional quality, fix bugs and remove limitations of vanilla Doom, and add extra editing features, while keeping the same "feel" and "spirit" of the original Doom engine. The final version of Boom was released on October 22, 1998. The source code for Boom was released in October 1999.
Boom itself only ran under DOS and was developed using DJGPP, the DOS port of GCC. The code was later ported to other operating systems.
Boom can be viewed as a much more conservative source port than some others because of its strong emphasis on maintaining the original feel of the Doom engine. While many contemporary source ports concentrated on adding Quake-like features (such as a console, restructuring menus, or adding impressive new graphical features), Boom behaves very similarly to the original Doom executable. Many of the changes made in Boom are not immediately visible, such as the removal of limits (e.g. the visplane limit error) and the addition of editing features which, while immensely useful to level designers, may not be obvious to the player.
A large number of WAD files have been developed which require Boom to run. Because of the attractive editing features provided by Boom, many popular source ports have adopted support for these features. This has led to the term "Boom-compatible engine": such WADs may run on many different source ports provided that the source port used supports the Boom editing extensions.
Features[edit]
- Removal of engine limits and bugs. This includes the visplane limit, the tutti-frutti and medusa effects, the savegame size limit, the venetian blind crash, and many others.
- Optimizations to the engine.
- New editing features. These include:
- Configurable animated and switch textures.
- Deep water effects.
- Scrolling walls, floors, and ceilings, including support for conveyor belts.
- Translucent walls and sprites.
- Friction effects, such as mud and ice.
- Custom colormaps (which can provide, for example an underwater blue "tint").
- Silent teleporters, which can be useful for fake "room over room" effects.
- Elevators which move the floor and ceiling of a sector together.
- Generic linedef types - a particular linedef behaviour can be "calculated" using a separate linedef calculator program called TRIGCALC.EXE.
- A DeHackEd extension standard, BEX.
Authors[edit]
The primary authors of Boom were:
Derived source ports[edit]
After the Boom project ended, several source ports arose which were derived from the Boom source code. These include:
- LxDoom, which later merged with PrBoom, a portable version of Boom.
- MBF, Lee Killough's continuation of his work on the Doom engine. Later having the MBF21 standard based on it.
- Steve Boom, initially meant as a learning experience, it became a port of its own, based on Boom 2.01.
- PrjDoom, the successor of Steve Boom, based on Boom 2.02.
- ReBoom, Adam Bilbrough (Gibbon)'s continuation of the Boom engine to modern systems.
- DOOM + DOOM II, the version released for Steam in 2024 developed by Nightdive Studios (the same people who made Strife: Veteran Edition and Doom 64 (2020 version)) replacing the Doom Classic Unity ports, is based on ID24, a complevel with Boom and MBF21 compatibility. It has official modding support, too.
External links[edit]
- TeamTNT's Boom website (archived 🗺)
- Download Boom at Doomworld/idgames
- Download Boom source code at Doomworld/idgames
- Interactive HTML version of the Boom reference guide
| Source code genealogy | ||
|---|---|---|
| Based on | Name | Base for |
| Final Doom v1.9 | Boom | LinBoom |
| LxDoom | ||
| MBF | ||
| PrBoom | ||
| DOSDoom 0.2 | PrjDoom | |
| Risen3D | ||
| RORDoom | ||
| Steve Boom | ||
| ReBoom | ||
| Boom | Boom documentation | RNR24 standard |
| Rum and Raisin Doom | ||
| Official source ports | ||
| Based on | Name | Base for |
| Boom documentation | RNR24 standard | ID24 standard |
| Rum and Raisin Doom | Doom + Doom II | |
