I deal with this entirely differently, in a way that doesn't muddy my Doom installation.

Basically, I made a DIR with ZDoom/GZDoom and *all* the Doom iWads in it (doom2.wad, doom.wad, tnt.wad, plutonia.wad, etc) and then make a subDIR under it titled "Pwads". Then, under that I make respective DIRs for each Doom engine : Doom, Doom2, Heretic.

The structure looks like this (See picture attached) :
- ZDoom \
|
+ Pwads \
|
+ Doom \
| |
| + Brutal20 \
|
+ Doom2 \
|
+ Heretic \

Under the ZDoom\Pwads\Doom DIR, I put Brutal Doom in its own DIR : "Brutal20" as above. Then I just make batch files in the main Zdoom DIR like this. For those that don't know, a batch file (.bat extension) is just a series of commands that Windows runs in a combined file. It's purely text.

You just open up the Zdoom DIR in Explorer, make a new text file, rename as "BrutalDoom.bat", Right-click->Edit, and add the following :

-- SNIP HERE --
gzdoom -file .\Pwads\Doom\Brutal20\brutalv20.pk3 .\Pwads\Doom\Brutal20\DoomMetalVol4.wad
-- SNIP HERE --

Then, when you want to run it, just double-click that .bat file and it'll include Brutal Doom's files.

~

The reason I do this is :
1. - I run Doom various different ways. Sometimes vanilla, sometimes with Brutal Doom, sometimes with 3rd-party pwads. I can keep everything in the same place and selectively have Zdoom use only what I tell it to WHEN I tell it to.
2. - This keeps the vast amount of Doom files, pwads, ports, and mods well-organized and makes it easy to both find and run whatever I want at will.

(Technically I also put all the iWads in an iWad DIR and point Zdoom to that in the .ini, but that's beyond the scope of what I'm explaining here)

Old thread is old but still good to hear from people. Hey thanks for that picture because I would have never pictured from the text. I like what you've done there. But how to you launch all the different versions of Doom. Is that what you use the batch file for. Can you do it without a batch file.

There's 2 ways to launch the IWAD you want :
1 - In the command in the .bat file, you can specify an iwad parameter like this :
gzdoom -iwad doom2.wad -file <other files here>

This will make it automatically use the specified Doom wad : Doom2.wad, etc.

2 - If you don't specify the IWAD as above, ZDoom/GZDoom will bring up a menu asking you which IWAD you want, like in the attached image.

So, the answer to your second question is yes, assuming you're not running more than a vanilla (within the bounds of how vanilla ZDoom gets) Doom game. If you want PWADs or any mods (such as Brutal Doom), then a .bat file is required.

If you want to run just ZDoom without any PWADs or mods, you just double-click zdoom.exe and the menu will come up. Then you get just plain ZDoom with whatever respective IWAD you selected.

Just for fun, here's another example of how I use the .bat files with "Doom 2 the Way id Did" with "Brutal Doom" :

zdoom -iwad doom2.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\Brutal20\brutalv20.pk3 .\Pwads\Doom\Brutal19\DoomMetalVol4.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom2\D2TWID\D2TWID.wad -deh .\Pwads\Doom2\D2TWID\D2TWID.deh

(EDIT : Fixed the command reordering. Copy and paste error.)

~~~

For IWADs, you need to edit the ZDoom .ini file in your ZDoom DIR and make sure the following section looks like this :

[IWADSearch.Directories]
Path=.
Path=./IWADS
Path=$DOOMWADDIR
Path=$HOME
Path=$PROGDIR

Then, you can add the IWADs DIR as shown in picture and move all your Doom IWADs there, leaving the ZDoom DIR to just have ZDoom itself and whatever .bat files for launching various versions of Doom. (See zdoom_dir.jpg)

EDIT : Highlighted pertinent line.

Sounds similar to how I run my GZDoom installation with batch files, though I also specify individual config files and save folders so that each game and mod has its own settings and own save folder.

I haven't found having individual save DIRs and config files to be useful.

For the config files, there's not going to be multiple ways I play the game anyways, so especially there. I keep the same key config, resolution, etc for any Doom wad/game I play, so there's no need to complicate my setup.

For the saves, it'd be nice to keep them encapsulated per PWAD, but I don't find it to be too much of a bear to just have them all be in a single DIR ("Saves" -> In the pic from the original post of mine). Then I just name the saves meaningfully in the game with the name of the PWAD, the level, and an incrementing number (if there's more than one save per level) and that suffices to keep things organized without going overboard.

The ZDoom ports will also show what saves can be loaded from the current IWAD/PWAD combo through the color that they're listed in the Load menu. Only the white ones are for the current WAD. Blue are a different ZDoom version, and Orange is for a different PWAD/IWAD.
Ehh,, It's not. Not if you're referring to your OP. This is ONLY for the IWADs to keep them in their own DIR to keep the main ZDoom DIR clean. I don't have ZDoom load anything internally the way you do, which increases load and doesn't allow you to easily configure what ZDoom loads should you decide to play different levels and selectively with mods. What ZDoom loads is purely handled through the .bat files, which further allows me to keep the entire DIR structure clean and tidy, as I mentioned in the first post.

There's a distinct difference in what I'm talking about and how you go about this and what you think I'm talking about.

Also, should I want to, I can copy just the ZDoom DIR, put it on a flash drive, and bring it to another computer extremely easily. And then the .bat files still work as they're setup with relative paths. With all the DIRs all over the place and not encapsulated, this becomes a bunch more work. I can configure it all one time and it's done forever. I haven't needed to reconfigure ZDoom across 4 machines since I did it originally.

Well for config files, some mods are designed with crouching and jumping intended, others aren't. So for the original Doom games I don't have crouch and jump mapped in the config being used, but for other mods where they are intended to be used their config has them turned on.

As for saves, the autosaves that GZDoom creates will overwrite those from another mod if you use the same folder, as autosaves always use the same filenames regardless of the IWAD and PWAD being used. That's why I choose to keep a Save folder with subfolders for each IWAD and PWAD.

I just never use jumping or crouching as a matter of course, because Doom never had those natively. That is, until I find a section in a PWAD that doesn't allow me to pass in any other way and it becomes obvious. I do have the keys mapped, but I'm just vigilant to not use them until I absolutely have to.

I also never use autosaves, so... I always save myself using F2. Problem averted! Autosaves are just a recent backup anyways as I see it.

Old reply I know. Have you tried ZDL. It's old news I know but I just discovered it.

Ahh, who cares about the age of the post. Low turnover rate here, so we've got to reply to what we can, when we can.

I know ZDL. The reason I don't use that is that it makes for more work in the longrun. Each time I want to say run a certain PWAD with a certain mod, I need to retype all that in. Using the Batch file approach I use, that only needs to be done a single time.

Then, if I want to modify it or change the PWAD, I can copy the batch file and edit away! You may notice in my picture that I have multiple Brutal Doom batch files. I make one for each PWAD, that way I can run whatever PWAD easily. It makes for a much more solid approach in continuing to play some Megawad where I don't beat it in a single session (actually, I rarely play Doom for more than an hour at a time). Next time I play, I just run the batch file, and reload my save.

Basically, I'm putting all my thinking and work upfront. And then enjoying the fruits of it from then on.

I thought so. Hey I sent you a friend request. Hit me up on the chat some time.

Oh hey could I please see some of the code you wrote in your batch files?

Yup, I mention between the parts labeled "SNIP HERE" in my original post. I wouldn't really call batch files 'code', but this is hair-splitting.

But, basically the file contains only the following text :

rem BrutalDoom20_GZ.bat
gzdoom -file .\Pwads\Doom\Brutal20\brutalv20.pk3 .\Pwads\Doom\Brutal20\DoomMetalVol4.wad

Here's a few other examples. Each starts with a rem line followed by gzdoom or zdoom. The 'rem' command stand for 'Remark'. It's just a comment. The command processor ignores lines beginning with it. I'm only adding them here so you can see what I name the files. It's entirely optional :

rem BrutalHeretic.bat
gzdoom -iwad heretic.wad -file .\Pwads\Mods\Heretic\BrutalHereticRPG_V1.pk3 .\Pwads\Mods\Heretic\heretic-textures.pk3

rem BrutalWolf3D.bat
gzdoom -iwad doom2.wad -file .\Pwads\Mods\Wolfenstein\BW-V4.5.pk3 .\Pwads\Mods\Wolfenstein\BW-MusicPack.wad .\Pwads\Mods\Wolfenstein\BW-HUDPATCH.pk3

rem DTWID.bat
zdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID.wad

rem DTWID_LE.bat
zdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID\DTWID-LE.wad

rem DTWID_LE_BrutalDoom v20.bat
zdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID\DTWID-LE.wad .\Pwads\Mods\Brutal20\brutalv20.pk3 .\Pwads\Mods\Brutal19\DoomMetalVol4.wad

rem DTWID_LE_BrutalDoom v20_GZ.bat
gzdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID\DTWID-LE.wad .\Pwads\Mods\Brutal20\brutalv20.pk3 .\Pwads\Mods\Brutal19\DoomMetalVol4.wad

rem Ghoul3.bat
zdoom -file "C:\Games\Windows\ZDoom\Pwads\Doom 2\ghoul3\ghoul3.wad"

I'll see if I can attach them here.

Edit. Ok, I did. Just rename the extension from .jpg to .zip and you can see pretty much every batch files I have in that DIR.

Note that this technique (but not necessarily my organizational approach for my ZDoom DIR) is covered on the ZDoom wiki.

To make the files in the ZDoom DIR, I right-click, New->Text File, and then I just rename it to what I want with a .bat extension. Also note that you'll need to make sure Windows shows the file extensions to rename text files to .bat.

Thanks those are some complex set ups. So I take it that once you set everything up you simply keep scripts and just install and unpack everything in the same place on new installations of windows to run everything.

They're not that complicated really.

For new installations of the OS (Windows) itself, it doesn't matter if the base path is the same, so long as all the DIRs under it remain the same. Notice each of the batch files has a '.\' for the start of the path. This means relative paths. In Windows (and DOS before that) the '.' means the current DIR. So, it starts at the current DIR (ZDoom) and works on paths that are from there. Refer to the original pic to see the paths relative to that one.

Yup, exactly. I just keep the DIRs consistent (part of the key to organization) and then the work is pretty minimal.

EG - If I want to set up a Doom wad, I simply download it/unzip it to the PWADS\Doom DIR and then copy one of my batch files that I know uses Doom, and rename and alter it. Case-in-point :

rem DTWID.bat
zdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID.wad

to ->

rem DTWID_LE.bat
zdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID\DTWID-LE.wad

The only real change is a grand total of 9 characters. The extra DIR of "DTWID\" and the "-LE" in the file name.

Then if I want to add Brutal Doom to that it goes like this :

rem DTWID_LE_BrutalDoom v20.bat
zdoom -iwad doomu.wad -file .\Pwads\Doom\DTWID\DTWID-LE.wad .\Pwads\Mods\Brutal20\brutalv20.pk3 .\Pwads\Mods\Brutal19\DoomMetalVol4.wad

I just add the extra files for Brutal Doom (which I have in a ton of other batch files) which takes a copy and paste, and, voila! Done and ready to play. Forever!

That's why it's useful to organize my PWADS by the IWAD they use; Doom, Doom2, Heretic, etc. Then, playing another PWAD becomes a minor alteration of one I've already set up.