DOOM Retro is intentionally minimalist in its approach, and so it does a few things differently
 if compared with other modern DOOM source ports. Open the ¥ DOOM Retro Wiki for details.

DOOM Retro v6.3 is now available to download as a 64-bit Windows app. Here’s a list of what’s changed since the last version:

• DOOM Retro is now built using v18.8.2 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2026.
• Several changes have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Minor changes have been made to DOOM Retro’s splash screen.
• Minor changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• These changes have been made when the smoothtransitions CVAR is on:
  • The highlight effect when selecting items in the menu now slightly fades in and out when the menuhighlight CVAR is also on.
  • The status bar now quickly slides up from and off of the bottom of the screen when toggling the widescreen HUD using the + and – keys.
  • The widescreen HUD now fades in and out when toggled using the + and – keys, and when changing the r_althud CVAR from the console.
  • The screen now fades back to the desktop when quitting DOOM Retro if the vid_fullscreen and vid_borderlesswindow CVARs are also on.
  • Pressing the F2, F3, F4 or F6 keys a second time to cancel their respective actions will now fade the screen back to the game.
• When the smoothtransitions CVAR is off, the opening and closing of the console is now instantaneous rather than it sliding down from and up to the top of the screen.
• DOOM Retro now supports Discord Rich Presence. This can be disabled using the new discordpresence CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• These improvements have been made to ID24 compatibility:
  • ID24 bits, Min respawn tics, Respawn dice, Pickup ammo type, Pickup ammo category, Pickup weapon type, Pickup item type, Pickup bonus count, Pickup sound, Pickup message and Translation are now supported in thing definitions in DEHACKED lumps.
  • Tranmap is now supported in state definitions in DEHACKED lumps.
  • Support has been added for TRAKINFO lumps.
• These changes have been made to taking screenshots by pressing the PRINTSCREEN key:
  • Screenshots are now saved in subfolders of the screenshots folder named after the current WAD.
  • Clean screenshots can now be taken by enabling the new cleanscreenshots CVAR, which is off by default and when vanilla mode is enabled. While this CVAR is on, any extraneous elements on the screen, such as player messages, the widescreen HUD, or the crosshair, won’t be captured.
  • Screenshots can now be taken when the console is open over the menu.
• A bug is fixed whereby text in the menu would be misaligned for certain PWADs.
• The BIGDOOR1 texture is now always vertically aligned as intended.
• Weapons that cause a high amount of damage now have a limit on how many blood splats they can spawn per tic.
• The incorrect intermission screen no longer appears once completing E2M7: Brink at the end of Legacy Of Rust.
• The swirling effect applied to the player’s view in BOOM-compatible deep water when the r_liquid_swirl CVAR is on now freezes when freeze mode is enabled using the freeze CCMD.
• The time and par time are now always positioned correctly on the intermission screen.
• The background no longer glitches when pressing the + or – keys to toggle widescreen while on the intermission screen.
• God and buddha modes are no longer turned off if the player uses the IDBEHOLDV or IDCHOPPERS cheats.
• The correct music now always plays when using the IDMUS cheat.
• Per-column lighting is now also applied to pickups when the r_percolumnlighting CVAR is on.
• The diminished lighting on the floor and ceiling surrounding the player is now radial rather than linear. This can be disabled using the new r_radiallighting CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The sky projection is now cylindrical rather than planar. This can be disabled using the new r_skyprojection CVAR, which can be either vanilla, linear or cylindrical, is cylindrical by default, and is vanilla when vanilla mode is enabled.
• The r_linearskies CVAR has been deprecated. The new r_skyprojection CVAR can be set to linear instead to achieve the same effect.
• A bug is fixed whereby the sky wouldn’t be stretched correctly when the r_screensize CVAR was 8 and the freelook CVAR was on.
• You may now click anywhere to the right of DOOM Retro's logo on the console’s edge and drag upwards to close the console.
• The crosshair no longer snaps to spectres, or any target in full darkness, when the snapcrosshair CVAR is on.
• The colors used in the automap can be stopped from being forced to use the default DOOM palette by disabling the new am_forcepalette CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• A bug is fixed whereby if the console was open over the menu and the s_lowermenumusic CVAR was on, closing the console would restore the music to full volume even though the menu was still open.
• The fake contrast applied to walls can now be changed using the new r_fakecontrast CVAR, which can be set to none, smooth or vanilla. This CVAR is smooth by default and vanilla when vanilla mode is enabled.
• When the confirmation message is displayed when deleting a savegame from the save or load game menus, or when ending a game from the options menu or pressing the F7 key, if the m_pointer CVAR is on and the mouse has been moved to show the pointer, YES and NO buttons that can be selected with the mouse are now displayed instead of the usual text.
• When ending a game by pressing the F7 key, canceling the confirmation message no longer opens the options menu.
• When toggling messages off either from the options menu or pressing the F8 key, the message “Messages OFF” is now displayed.
• The mouse pointer no longer moves when selecting “CONSOLE” from the options menu while the m_pointer CVAR is on.
• Minor improvements have been made to the support of Chex Quest and Chex Quest 2.

DOOM Retro v6.2 is now available to download as a 64-bit Windows app. Here’s a list of what’s changed since the last version:

• DOOM Retro is now built using v18.7.3 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2026.
• Minor changes have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• sdl2_image.dll is no longer included with DOOM Retro. It was causing false positives in some antivirus software, and now isn’t required for taking screenshots.
• The desktop now fades to black when starting DOOM Retro if the vid_fullscreen, vid_borderlesswindow and smoothtransitions CVARs are on.
• Minor changes have been made to DOOM Retro’s splash screen.
• Minor changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• The console now appears over the menu if opened while the menu is open, rather than the menu closing first.
• While not playing a game and if the m_pointer CVAR is on, moving the mouse pointer towards the top of the screen now displays the bottom edge of the console. You may then click on it (or click and drag downwards) to open the console.
• You may now also click and drag the console’s edge upwards to close it.
• A bug is fixed whereby obituaries weren’t being displayed in the console when the obituaries CVAR was on.
• The effect when the player has an invulnerability power-up can now be changed using the new r_invulnerabilityeffect CVAR, which can be set to invertedgrayscale (the default) or grayscale.
• ENTERANIM is now parsed correctly in MAPINFO lumps.
• Retro bits = FLOATBOB used in DEHACKED lumps is now allowed for shootable things.
• A bug is fixed whereby a monster sometimes wouldn’t play a sound effect if it was already playing one.
• A crash no longer occurs when pressing the F1 key to open the help screen from the title screen.
• The crosshair displayed using the crosshair CVAR can now snap to your current target by enabling the new snapcrosshair CVAR, which is off by default and when vanilla mode is enabled.
• If extras.wad is autoloaded, Andrew Hulshult’s IDKFA soundtrack can be disabled using the new s_remix CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• Savegames are now compressed to save disk space. This can be disabled using the new compresssavegames CVAR, which is on by default and off when vanilla mode is enabled.
• Screenshots are now saved as smaller 8-bit PNG images rather than 32-bit.
• The swirling effect applied to the player’s view in BOOM-compatible deep water when the r_liquid_swirl CVAR is on has improved.
• The mapstats CCMD now displays the length of the current map’s music lump.

DOOM Retro v6.1.1 is now available to download as a 64-bit Windows app. Here’s a list of what’s changed since the last version:

• DOOM Retro is now built using v18.7.0 of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2026.
• Minor changes have been made to further improve the overall performance and stability of DOOM Retro.
• Minor changes have been made to DOOM Retro’s splash screen.
• Minor changes have been made to text that is output to the console.
• A bug is fixed whereby the player’s view would spin as the screen faded to black when quitting using the quit CCMD in the console.
• The very top line of the console now displays correctly.
• The correct sprite for the strength symbiote power-up is now displayed when playing Freedoom: Phase 1 or Freedoom: Phase 2.
• Music is now heard again when playing DOOM’s fourth episode, Thy Flesh Consumed.
• Several improvements have been made to the support of the Master Levels.
• The correct map names are now used when playing Final DOOM: The Plutonia Experiment and TNT – Evilution.
• The value of the alwaysrun CVAR is now retained when entering resurrect player in the console.
• Pressing the END key in the console now moves the text caret to the end of the input first, before scrolling to the bottom of the console.
• Dithered lighting when the r_ditheredlighting CVAR is on now appears correctly when the r_detail CVAR is low and the r_lowpixelsize CVAR is not its default of 2×2.