Start up DEU from your DOOM directory by typing DEU and hitting ENTER.
The version number, names of the authors, and default video mode will
be displayed, followed by the main menu prompt -
[? for help]>
Entering a question mark will show a list of menu choices. These are
explained in your DEU documentation file. For now, type
C 1 1
and hit ENTER. This means "Create a new map for Episode 1, Level 1".
The screen will go into graphics mode, with a mouse pointer in the
middle, a menu bar across the top, and an info box in the lower left
corner. The info box tells you to "use the cursor to select a thing".
This lets you know you are in "thing" mode, where you can add, delete,
move, and modify "things" on the map. "Things" are weapons, barrels,
enemies, starting locations, decorations, etc. There are no things
on the map to start with, so you can't select any now.
Let's start by adding some Vertices to the map. A Vertex is simply
a point that anchors one or more lines. Think of Vertices as the
"two by fours" that hold up your walls. To get into "Vertex mode"
use the pull down Options menu to select Vertexes, or simply hit
the "V" key. Now the info box will say "No Vertex Selected".
Move the mouse somewhere on the screen (anywhere will do, but when
you get the mouse near the edge of the screen, the screen scrolls,
so move carefully). Hit the "Insert" key to place a Vertex on
the map. Notice that the info box now says "Selected Vertex (#0)"
and shows the x and y coordinates of your Vertex. Hit the plus sign
on your keyboard to zoom in on the Vertex. Hit it about eight times
to really zoom in tight on that little Vertex. If it goes off the edge
of your screen when you zoom, move the mouse cursor to that edge to
scroll the Vertex back to the center of your screen. The Vertex itself
is the green "X", the yellow box around it means that it is "selected".
Click the left mouse button, and the yellow box changes to red. This
means that the Vertex is now "marked". Click again to "unmark" it.
Move the cursor a little bit away from the Vertex and click the right
mouse button. The Vertex jumps to the location of the cursor.
Hold down the right mouse button and you can drag the Vertex around
the screen. Hit the "Delete" key to get rid of the Vertex. Answer
"Y" to the warning box to go ahead and delete this Vertex, leaving you
with nothing on the map. Now insert two Vertices on your screen about
three inches apart. Notice that one of them has a yellow box and one
doesn't. Move the cursor oVer the center of the one that doesn't,
and the yellow box jumps to that Vertex! This is how you "select" a
Vertex. Click the left button to "mark" the Vertex, then move the
cursor oVer and "select" the other Vertex. Notice that the "marked"
Vertex now has a green box, and the "selected" Vertex has a yellow
box. So, there are four types of Vertices:
No box - not selected or marked
Yellow box - selected
Green box - marked
Red box - marked and selected
Make sure both Vertices are marked (one will be red, one green) and
click the right mouse button. Both Vertices jump to the new position!
Dragging the right mouse button drags both Vertices. Also, hitting
the "Delete" key will delete ALL marked Vertices, but DON'T do that now.
With both Vertices marked (one red, one green) hit the "Insert" key.
Wow, big change to the screen! You are now in "Line" mode. You will
see a red arrow with a line sticking out of the middle of it. There
are now three info boxes at the bottom of the screen, "Linedef",
"first SideDef", and "second SideDef". Don't worry about that stuff
for now. Use the mouse buttons to "mark" and "unmark" the Line and
drag it around, just like you did with the Vertices. The colors for
Lines are:
White - not selected or marked
Yellow - selected
Green - marked
Red - marked and selected
A "Line" is simply the line between two Vertices. Lines are like the
walls between the two by four posts in your house, only they do a lot
more than just block the sunlight! Lines can be assigned textures,
and can be used to trigger events, like elevators, teleporters, and
exiting the level.
Delete your Line now by hitting the "Delete" key. Get into Vertex
mode by hitting the "V" key. Notice that your Vertices are still there!
Deleting a Line DOES NOT delete it's Vertices. This is important to
remember. Delete all the Vertices left on your screen so we can start
with a blank map.
Now add six Vertices to the screen, in a circular shape, like this:
x
x x
x x
x
Mark all six of the Vertices, either by selecting then clicking each
one, or you can drag a bounding box around all the Vertices by holding
the shift key and left mouse buttons together. Drag this box around
all the Vertices, and release the mouse button. If you select them one
at a time, select them in a clockwise fashion. Once you select all six
hit the "Insert" key. Voila! You now should have five Lines on the map
and be in Line mode. Hit "V" to get back to Vertex mode, mark the
two Vertices that aren't connected, and hit "Insert" to add a Line
between them. You should now be in Line mode with a hexagon shaped
set of Lines on your map.
Mark all of the Lines by moving the cursor over each one to select it,
then left-click to mark it. When all the Lines are marked (five are
green, one is red) hit the "Insert" key. Presto! You have just created
a "Sector"! You should see a yellow outline of your Lines, and the info
box will read "Selected Sector (#0)". A Sector is like a room in your
house, but it can do a lot more than just hold your furniture - in fact
a sector can BE your furniture. Sectors can be used to make obtacles,
stairs, lifts, falling ceilings, doors, the list goes on and on, limited
mainly by your imagination. Sector colors are like Vertices and Lines,
white is not selected or marked, yellow is selected, green is marked,
and red is marked and selected. For now, don't worry about changing
any of the Sector definitions.
Hit the "L" key to go back to Line mode. You'll notice that all of the
Lines now have information showing in the "first SideDef" info box.
Each Line has been assigned to Sector #0, given "STARTAN3" as a normal texture, and been made impassable (the Im flag in LineDef). We are almost
ready to add some "Things" to our new level! There is one thing left to
do with our Lines. Notice that each Line is an arrow with a shorter line
sticking out from it at a 90 degree angle. We'll call this shorter line a
"Vector". If we think of each Line as being a wall in our room, then each wall has an inside and an outside. The side of our wall with a Vector corresponds to the "first SideDef", the other side to the "second SideDef".
What this means right now is that we want all of those Vectors to
be pointing to the "inside" of our room. This way, anyone inside the room
can see the "STARTAN3" texture on the walls. This is kind of a tricky
concept to grasp, but doing it wrong can make the walls appear very strange
or even lock up your computer. So, if you have a wall that has a Vector
pointing OUTSIDE the room, Select that Line, hit the "ENTER" key to
modify it, then choose option 1 "Edit the LineDef". Make note of the
Current Starting Vertex and the Current Ending Vertex. Use options 4
and 5 to swap the Starting and Ending Vertices with each other, in effect
flipping the wall around to the other side. Once you have all six Vectors
pointing inside the room, we'll add some "Things".
Hit the "T" key to activate Thing mode. Place the cursor in the middle
of your room and hit the "Insert" key to drop a "Thing" on the map.
You should now have a red cross-hair circle in a yellow box, and the
info box should read "Selected Thing (#0)" with info about the coords,
type, angle, and appearance of the Thing. Your first Thing will be
a "Trooper" (Where? Fire!) Add a couple of more Troopers. Notice
the color scheme: yellow box is selected, green box is marked, red box
is marked and selected. Same as Vertices, Lines, and Sectors.
Unmark all the Troopers, and select one of them. Hit the "Enter" key
to modify the Trooper. Choose option 1 - Change Type. Select Class
1 - Player. Select Start Position Type 1 - Player 1 Start. This
changes the Trooper to the starting location for your player when you
begin DOOM. Every level MUST have a starting location! Multi-player
games MUST have starting locations for every player!
Before we continue you may want to delete a few of the Troopers, or at
least change one of the Troopers to a Shotgun and drag it over next to
the starting location. So, you've got the walls up, a starting location,
and some enemies to waste, what more do ya need? Oh yeah... how to exit
the level and go on to greater glory!
Get into Line mode by hitting "L", and select one of the walls (any wall
will do, but make sure ONLY one is selected). Hit ENTER to modify the
Line and choose 1 - Edit the LineDef. Choose 2 - Change Type. Choose
6 - Special. Choose 2 - S - End level, go to next level. This makes
that one Line into a switch to exit the level (you would walk up to
the wall and hit the spacebar to activate the switch).
As long as you're here in Line mode, let's modify the texture on our
"End level" wall so it will be easier to find. Select the Line and
hit ENTER to modify it. Choose 2 - Edit the 1st SideDef. Choose
1 - Change Normal Texture. Scroll through the list of texture sprites
using the up and down arrows, the End, Home, Page Up, and Page Dn keys.
Several of the textures have switches, but it really doesn't matter
which one you choose, and long as it's different than STARTAN3.
Once you have picked a texture you are ready to save the map and try it
out! Hit the "Q" key to quit the map builder. A requester box pops up
asking for a filename. Type in "NEWE1M1.WAD" and hit "Enter".
The main menu will return to your screen. If you would like to go back
in and add an Imp or two (or maybe a BFG9000!), you can edit your map
by typing "E 1 1" to "Edit Episode 1 level 1". To exit DEU, type Q
and hit "Enter".
To load your new level into DOOM, start up the game like this:
DOOM -FILE NEWE1M1.WAD
DOOM will start, and a Warning will appear telling you that the game
has been modified (Really?). Hit "Enter" to get past this warning
and away you go!
Next Time: Part 2 - Doors, LineDefs and SideDefs!
Written by Blackfist
a.k.a. Rich Dersheimer
CIS 75123,1521
DOOM is copyright (c) 1993 byid Software, Inc. and DOOM is their trademark.
