Toolkit for DOOM/DOOMTOOL.ISO/editors/de260tut.zip/DMRTAD.TXT

Text File | 1994-06-24 | 19KB | 323 lines

             DoomED-The Real Thing Tutorial
                 Addendum 1
               by David Bruni
               CIS 74353,357

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INDEX

I. Introduction
II. Windows
III. Eves and Overhangs
IV. Sectors Within Sectors
V. Textures and the Tiling Effect
VI. Outside Areas
VII. Columns
VIII. Acknowledgments

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            I. Introduction

    Hello again DOOM fans. This Addendum is intended to address some
things that were inadvertently left out of DMRETU.ZIP. Such as how to make
windows, columns, outside areas, eves and overhangs, a more complete
explanation of how wall textures tile and things to watch out for when making
Sectors within Sectors. I'd like to thank SCOTT and all the other people, who
after reading the first tutorial, still had questions. After using DoomED
myself for over a month, I had forgotten that I had the same problems and
questions as everyone else in these areas. This Addendum is not intended as
a stand alone file. If you're not familiar with DoomED and how everything
works, you should read the first tutorial, DMRETU.ZIP.

            II. Windows

    Windows in DoomED are easy to make. Windows are nothing more than
Sectors connected to other Sectors, only they have different floor/ceiling
heights. So, to make a simple window, switch to SEC mode by clicking the SEC
button on the toolbar. Insert a Sector with a floor/ceiling height of 0, 128.
This will be the room that you'll look out the window from. Insert another
Sector next to the first Sector. This will be the window. Make the
floor/ceiling height 25, 100. Keep in mind that the lowest floor that you can
cross is 24. So, you won't be able to go through this window.

    Switch to VTX mode by clicking the VTX button on the toolbar. Connect
the 2 Sectors together by dragging 2 of the vertices on top of each other.
Remember not to collapse either of the Sectors or connect across Sectors.
This, if you read the first tutorial, will cause problems and crash the
program.

    Insert another Sector close to the other 2 Sectors but not
overlapping. Make the floor/ceiling heights 0, 128. Switch back to VTX mode by
clicking the VTX button on the toolbar. Connect the new Sector to the window
Sector by dragging the vertices on top of each other. You should now have a
window. Save your map for play and test it.

    About the only thing you need to watch out for is, try to decide on
your floor/ceiling heights prior to inserting the Sectors. This way DoomED
will automatically set the correct SideDefs. Otherwise, you may have to change
the SideDefs manually to achieve the desired results. This will also minimize
the chances of getting the Hall of Mirrors effect (HOM).

    You can make windows any width that you want by dragging the vertices
around. A good width for windows is 16 or 24. This is up to your own
discretion. If everything goes correctly, the SideDefs will be marked as 2
sided. It's important that you DO NOT remove this Attribute. Doing so will
cause the HOM effect.

    You can, however, assign a see through texture to 2 sided lines. I've
found 12 textures that can be used as see through textures. You would assign
these textures to the "MAIN" part of the line. These textures are: BRNBIGC,
BRNBIGL, BRNBIGR, BRNSMAL1, BRNSMAL2, BRNSMALC, BRNSMALL, BRNSMALR, these
textures are the ones that were used on the Military Base for the imp cage in
the center of the open area. The rest of the see through textures are:
MIDBRN1, MIDGRATE, these are the cage bar textures, MIDVINE1 & MIDVINE2, are
vine textures. All these textures can be used in corridors or in open areas,
provided you don't use the "Nothing can cross" Attribute. This way you can
walk straight through them.

    You can use these textures anywhere you have a 2 sided line. Be it on
windows or hallways. You can't, however, use these textures on walls that have
the Attribute "Nothing can cross". You also can't use regular wall textures on
2 sided lines. Only see through textures can be used on 2 sided lines.

            III. Eves and Overhangs

    Eves and overhangs are other things that are easily created with
DoomED. Bear in mind that anytime you have a change in floor/ceiling heights,
you'll have another Sector. With that in mind, let's make an overhang. In all
these examples, the textures assigned to the walls, ceilings and floors, are
really not important. These are just practice WADs to illustrate how to setup
the particular structures.

    Insert a Sector with a floor/ceiling height of 0, 128. This will act
as our main room. Off to the side of this Sector, insert another Sector. Make
it's floor/ceiling heights 0, 72. Switch to VTX mode by clicking the VTX
button on the toolbar. Connect both Sectors together by dragging the vertices
on top of one another. Remember to be careful and make sure that the vertices
land on top of each other and not off to the side. If you make a mistake, you
can drag the misplaced vertex on top of one of the adjacent vertices to
eliminate it. This will minimize the chances of getting a "Sector not closed"
error. Usually if I have to do this, I'll immediately "Save the map for play".
This way if there's a problem, you'll find out right away and not spend a lot
of time adding to your map only to have it crash. My normal procedure is to
save the map and test play it after I add any kind of structure. Most WAD
files that I've made, I must have played 50 or 60 times, before deciding that
everything was OK. If you get into the habit of doing this, it will save you
time and grief later on.

    You can add and connect as many overhang Sectors to the main room
Sector as you like. If you set all your floor/ceiling heights prior to
inserting the Sectors and stick to them, DoomED will automatically set the
correct SideDefs. Once you connect Sectors with different floor/ceiling
heights, DoomED decides which SideDefs to set for the different parts of the
wall that can be seen. This is one of DoomED's strong points, use it to your
advantage. It will not only save you time, but also minimizes the chance of
errors.

    Not everything you build will look right. Eventually, you'll have to
edit the SideDefs manually. This is why you need to understand SideDefs and
how they work. Remember that lines in DOOM are really planes. These planes are
90 degrees to the floor or your line of sight as you play the game. And lines
have 3 parts. For example, if you have a corridor that leads out of a room and
the corridor has a step and a lower ceiling than the room it's going away
from, then the 1st SideDef of the line needs to have a texture assigned to the
step and the part of the wall above the opening. The open part of the
corridor, which is the "Main" part in the SideDef dialog box, doesn't need a
texture. This is assuming that the 1st SideDef is pointing into the larger
room. The 2nd SideDef would have no texture defined for any part of the wall.
This is because the "Main" part is transparent and you can walk through it.
The above and below textures don't need to be assigned a texture because the
2nd SideDef is pointing away from the larger room and down the corridor and
you can't see either parts of the walls looking from this direction. I know
that this can be hard to visualize.

    Try drawing your Sectors on a piece of paper as if you where looking
at them from the side. This might help you to visualize which parts of the
wall need to have a texture assigned to them. SideDefs are one of those things
that you either understand completely or not at all. There's not much middle
ground when it comes to SideDefs. Having DoomED set the SideDefs automatically
should help you see which part of the wall needs to have a texture. So, make
some connected Sectors with different floor/ceiling heights, then look at the
SideDefs for the lines. This helped me get the hang of them. Play around with
the SideDefs on practice WADs until you have a good feel for them. It takes
practice to get good at setting them correctly by hand. One day you'll be
using DoomED and it will hit, "So, that's how they work". Keep at it and it
will come to you. It just takes a little time.

            IV. Sectors Within Sectors

    When working with Sectors within Sectors you have to be careful. It's
not hard to do something you shouldn't and crash the program. I know, I did
it. One thing you shouldn't do is try to connect a Sector within a Sector to
another Sector. This will cause problems. If you want connected Sectors within
Sectors, you'll have to use the same procedure as you do to make stairs within
Sectors. And that is to "wrap" the existing Sectors around the stair Sector.
Like I said in the first tutorial, this is tricky and takes a few tries to get
it right.

    One thing that you can do is make multiple Sectors within Sectors.
This is how you make structures that look like fountains with short walls and
nukage inside of them. One thing that you need to watch out for when working
with Sectors within Sectors is to make sure that the individual Sector lines
don't cross each other. They should look like squares, or whatever shape
you're using, inside of squares with no crossing lines.

    You can achieve different looks by using Sectors within Sectors. Each
Sector can have different floor/ceiling heights. You can have one Sector with
the same floor height but with different ceiling heights. They can each have
different lighting. All sorts of things.

    After the Sector within a Sector dialog box comes up and you've picked
one of the options for either flush, raised or lowered, DoomED will use 8
units for the amount that it will set the elevations to. This is in spite of
the fact that you may have changed the floor/ceiling heights in the Style
dialog box. So, if you want different elevations you'll have to change them
manually in the Style dialog box after inserting the Sectors. I would also
suggest that you keep the orientation the same when changing elevations.
What I mean is whether they're raised or lowered. This way you won't have to
change the SideDefs.

        V. Textures and the Tiling Effect

    When designing floors, you have to pay particular attention to which
textures you're using and where they are going. The most obvious places are
doors and switches. You might not want 2 switches tiled on top of each other.
And having 2 bigdoors tiled on top of each other just doesn't look right to
me.

    To get around this, you have to setup your floor/ceiling heights to
match the size of the textures that you want to use. For example, if you want
to use the texture SW1COMM, but don't want 2 switches on top of each other,
then make your Sector 64 wide by 72 high. This is the same size as the texture
itself. If you want to use this switch in a room with a ceiling height of 128
or higher, then what you need to do is make another separate Sector off to the
side with the correct floor/ceiling heights and connect it to the room with
the higher ceiling. This way you won't get the tiling effect. What you end up
with is a "pocket" in the wall where the switch is.

    This is the same way that you make doors with lower ceilings open into
rooms with higher ceilings. In this case, though, you need to make a "dummy"
Sector. What I mean is the corridor with the lower ceiling will need to have
at least 3 connected Sectors with the same floor/ceiling heights before it
opens into the room with the higher ceiling. The corridor Sector that connects
to the higher ceiling room would be the "dummy" Sector. The next Sector in
line would be the door. Then on the "dummy" Sector, you could make it look
like a key door or something by changing the door jambs to the key door
textures.

    Some wall textures also don't look right when tiled. Others, the
tiling effect doesn't make much difference. You'll just have to experiment and
judge for yourself whether they look good or not.

    The wall textures not only tile on top of each other but also side by
side. For example, if you have a wall who's floor/ceiling heights are 0, 128
and is 512 long, and you want to use the texture SP_DUDE1, which is a guy
hanging on the wall, but you don't want a whole wall of them. What you can do
is break the line of the wall in 2 or more places so you have 3 or more
separate lines. Now, adjust the vertices to change the length of the lines to
fit the texture which is 128 wide. You can look through the VIEWER to find out
how big the wall textures are.

    One other thing that has to do with textures but not the tiling
effect, is having the textures scroll horizontally. To get the walls to scroll
you'll have to switch to LIN mode. Pick the line that you want to animate. In
the LineDef dialog box, under ACTION, click the arrow in the top scrolling
dialog box. This shows you all the Line Specials that DOOM can do. Pick the
first one under NORMAL. The one that says "Animated wall- scrolls
horizontally". That 's the only thing you have to do. Keep in mind that if you
animate large areas with tall walls, the game can slow down.

            VI. Outside Areas

    Outside areas are easy to create. You make them just like inside
areas. The only difference being, you use the sky texture. The sky textures
are really cleverly tiled ceiling patterns. It only appears to be the sky.
It's sort of like an optical illusion. You can see this by making a room with
2 separate Sectors. Make one Sector with the sky texture and the other Sector
with any ceiling pattern. Now, save the map for play and play it.

    One of the things that you need to consider when making outside areas
is the corridor that opens into the outside. I'll usually make this corridor
lower than the outside so I can have a door header above the door. Or in
others words, a part of the wall to assign a texture to. Otherwise, it will
look strange.

    Normally, I make the ceiling height for an outside area at 128. This
way, the walls are not too tall and you can see more of the sky pattern. Try
different ceiling heights for your outside areas and you can see what I mean.

    Sky patterns don't have to be used only outside. You can use them for
skylights or partial open roofs in rooms. There are sky patterns listed with
the wall textures. You can assign them to walls. I wouldn't recommend using
them for a whole wall, though. They'll tile like any other wall pattern. This
can produce undesirable results. So, if you decide to use them for the walls,
I would only use them for one wall panel. I've played WAD files where this
looked good.

    Another thing about sky patterns that you need to know is that there
are 3 sky patterns. Even though there is only one listed in the ceiling
patterns. There's one for each episode. DOOM will automatically assign the
correct sky patterns for the separate missions. Episode 1 uses white sky and
white mountains. Episode 2 uses red sky and white mountains. Episode 3 uses
red sky and red mountains. So, to have a red sky and red mountains, you'll
have to save the map as "E3M1" or any mission on episode 3.

    By using the sky patterns around a Sector within a Sector, you can
make it appear that a structure is free floating in the air and not connected
to anything. This, of course is another optical illusion. The Sector within
the Sector is really connected to the ceiling which is the sky pattern. But
you can't tell by looking at it.

    To achieve this effect, insert a Sector with a floor/ceiling height
of 0, 128. Assign the sky pattern to the ceiling. Now, insert a Sector within
this Sector. Under the options make the ceiling lowered for the Sector within
the Sector. You can make the floor raised if you like. Assign the ceiling of
the Sector within the Sector to any texture except the sky texture. When you
play the level, the Sector within the Sector should appear to be floating in
midair.

            VII. Columns

    To make a column you can do this. Make a Sector with a floor/ceiling
height of 0, 384. Make a Sector within this Sector. Make the floor/ceiling
heights of this Sector 384, 512. This way, you create a "pocket" in the
ceiling to put some kind of monster, like a Baron of Hell or an Eyeball. You
have to make the "pocket" in the ceiling tall enough for the monster to fit.
Otherwise, things might not work right. Now, you can assign the Platform that
lowers the column when you cross a certain line.

    You can create columns that don't go into the ceiling the same way.
Only adjust the floor/ceiling heights of the Sector within the Sector to a
lower height. Then you can put whatever monster on top of the column you
want. Provided that you leave enough room for him to stand. You can also
assign the Attribute "Enemies can't cross" to the lines around the column.
I've read where monsters will walk of the edge of columns and higher floor
areas. But I've never assigned this Attribute in these areas, and haven't
had a problem with this. In fact, I like being able to shoot the monsters and
have them fall off the edge down to the floor. This looks way cool. Here
again, it's up to you.

            VIII. Acknowledgments

    I'd like to thank my wife, Kathy. She took the kids to the movies, so I
could do this addendum. I'd also like to thank Scott, 74221,620, for making
me realize that the tutorial wasn't complete, and that I needed to add a few
more things. Most of which are included here. Thanks to id for making DOOM.
I'd like to thank Geoff Allan, creator and author of DoomED-The Real Thing.
In fact, everyone who is reading this and using DoomED should thank him by
registering DoomED. This will help insure updates to the program. After all,
if we didn't have DoomED, we'd all probably be using DEU and DOS, instead
of DoomED and Windows.

    You may do what you want with this file, except change my name for
yours and say you wrote it. Other than that, feel free to excerpt any parts,
copy it and distribute it to your friends, or whatever you wish.

Again, if anyone finds any mistakes or omissions, please let me know.
If anyone has suggestions or comments, let me know, also.

David Bruni
CIS 74353,357
6/20/94