Why Not Make Levels For GZDoom?

Relatively recently, a conversation was had in the Discord server known as Pacifist Paradise about a hypothetical new standard for Doom engine features called MBF25. For context, this is largely being championed by mapper Bofu, and would be a successor to the previous standard, MBF21, which was championed and reference-implemented by Ryan "kraflab" Krafnick, who retired from Doom source port development in November 2024. Bofu has indicated that he is coordinating this effort with other source port developers, but discussions in this regard have not taken place in the open.

During this conversation, some speculation took place that Bofu is pushing MBF25 in part because he intends to use it for a sequel to his level pack "Dominus Diabolicus". Mapper and speedrunner Ravendesk pointed out that - if this is true - a better path for Bofu would be to use GZDoom, which has sufficiently advanced features as to outmode anything currently proposed for MBF25.

Ravendesk is correct that GZDoom could server as a stand-in for Bofu's ideal feature set. What he misses with this comment, however, are the reasons to avoid targeting GZDoom exclusively, even if it means going to great lengths to get support implemented in other ports. Given that Ravendesk is inactive in the official ZDoom Discord server as well as the Secreta Lounge - a Discord server which is home to many prominent (G)ZDoom mod authors - and that he does not actively follow new developments in GZDoom (I'm guessing), this is understandable; it's insufficient to scratch the surface.

If you frequent a certain orange website, you may have heard of the concept of "drive-by open source contribution". That is, the act of submitting a patch to an open source software project, seeing to it that it gets merged, and then making little to no further contribution to that project, regardless of the consequences of that patch. To me the finest example of this practice in recent memory is the addition of an isometric camera mode to the GZDoom trunk in January 2024. This is a feature which has nothing in common with:

• the mission statement in GZDoom's GitHub description
• the summary on the front page of the ZDoom website

It was not added because it benefits the median GZDoom-using Doom player.