Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Eponasoft

You know you've been mapping too much when...

Recommended Posts

...you're at a mall and you start thinking of how features of the building could be put into a DOOM map.

It's weird where inspiration can come from. Today I was at the Mayaguez Mall with my two daughters and my sister-in-law. We were at the little fountain thing they have there which has a recess into the floor. And that's when it hit me...I thought "Hey, how easy would this be to map?". But then I noticed I was doing that for everything...pretty much the mall itself became a "can I map this in yadex?" kind of quest. And that's when I realized that I've been working on my megawad a little too much lately. :) Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else?

Share this post


Link to post

I don't know if this is weird, but I can only map via thoughts in my head. I can't draw my ideas down, but I can visualise them in my head or take inspirations from objects or places I've seen before :). I've done similar things that you've listed in your post Eponasoft, such as wondering how easy a shopping centre would be to map :P.

Share this post


Link to post

I haven't touched DB2 for a while, but I still do that. I've been tossing ideas around about recreating several buildings from my area.

Share this post


Link to post
Eponasoft said:

...you're at a mall and you start thinking of how features of the building could be put into a DOOM map.

I just did that yesterday... I was walked past one store on a corner and was thinking, "Hey, that's a clever use of angles. And the entrance even curves in a little. I wonder if I could do that."

Actually, maybe it's just me, but I have a feeling it's a problem with most people who've put a lot of time into mapping for Doom -- it's not just an occasional thing. It's hard to think of a time when I wasn't in some part of my brain digesting all the structures around me as if they were a Doom WAD. Without even thinking, I'll usually be on the lookout for interesting architecture, and often have to whip out a notebook or scrap of paper to take a note or quickly sketch something to include later in a map.

Share this post


Link to post
esselfortium said:

Oh, heh, I've judged structures based on their ability to be reproduced in the Doom engine for years. Doesn't everyone?


This. Usually the first thought I have when I see a bit of interesting architecture is how it might be reproduced in Doom, or in some cases Half-Life especially since that's actually the first thing I started mapping for.

Share this post


Link to post

Yea, I do the same thing all of the time. I even do it with textures and stuff...thinking how awesome some brick wall or floor would look as a texture :P. I've actually been meaning to invest in a decent camera so I can start stockpiling photos for inspiration and ideas.

Share this post


Link to post

I was once turning my clothes inside out before throwing them in the washing machine and then found out they already were inside out. For a split second I thought "Undo!" and actually felt like it would be possible. Then to realize that it's not possible and I had been working on the computer for too long that day.

Share this post


Link to post

For a period of time when I was on a mapping spree with Motornerve, I could see all flat surfaces as visplanes and visualize all corners as vertices.

It's hard to gain inspiration from real life areas. As dumb as it sounds, real life ain't all that detailed.

Share this post


Link to post

Happens to me with a lot of games I play/make stuff in. I just start walking around and noticing things. In Doom's case I find myself walking around and just noticing how things move around me as I walk, seeing things come in and out of view, walking through buildings and other structures and thinking how the space of the area makes me "feel". I start to appreciate little things like how turning a corner feels, like opening a wrapped box, even if I've turned that corner a hundred times before.

Also, some stuff from playing Doom I can't get out of my head. Like when I see a column, just standing by itself not supporting anything, or some other structure with a flat top I can't see over, I assume there's actually a ceiling there and I'm just seeing some far away texture over and behind it.

40oz said:

As dumb as it sounds, real life ain't all that detailed.

I'm the opposite. I see stuff where I'd need 3d floors and get discouraged because I'm really not ready to do stuff for GZDoom, I've barely done anything for vanilla.

Share this post


Link to post
Kyka said:

Visiplane overflow anyone...?


geez ... more like the hundred year project :P Getting every single spar would take a loooooong time.

On topic I've done that a lot since I started mapping for things like the 1994 project and my Area42 maps, not so much before since I didn't really make much. There's this bell tower I pass before after every class at my college, which when lit at night would look pretty cool in a game. Otherwise I see landscapes more than buildings.

Share this post


Link to post

This used to happen to me much more in the past. These days, I find level appreciation more self-referencing.

Kyka said:
I want to make a Doom level that looks like this.

Pft, Chris Lutz already beat you to it a while back!

Share this post


Link to post

Oh.

Thanks for the heads-up myk.

Would you mind posting a link to the level if possible? I would love to check it out.

Share this post


Link to post

PAR is well known, it doesn't need a link :p

I'll disappoint you by stating you won't find that many cranes, although there is one that I was reminded of when I saw that pic.

Share this post


Link to post

Ever seen a pinpression?
http://www.evolvingthought.com/blog/uploaded_images/pinart-779829.jpg

To think of what's architectually possible in a doom map, just mentally picture a pinpression above (ceiling) and below (floor) you. That's your medium in doom, due to its weird 2.5d architecture; infinitely tall floors and ceilings with only a single air gap between (never 2 air gaps above eachother, just as in the pinpressions idea.. unless you do weird fake bridges/visual tricks or advanced port stuff or something I guess).

This was triggered by previous responses about converting things seen in the real world to doom if it seems off topic.

Share this post


Link to post

... When you spend some days in the countryside and want to blank out the SNDINFO entry for a rooster's crow. (It's a myth that they crow at dawn. They actually crow non-stop from dawn to dusk.)

Share this post


Link to post

Gez said:
(It's a myth that they crow at dawn. They actually crow non-stop from dawn to dusk.)

Yeah, but they rather consistently start around dawn and it's a quiet moment, so it stands out. It think they might feel encouraged by the quietness. Perhaps it's an adaptation to busier domestic environments, where their call may become pointless if humans make enough noise.

Share this post


Link to post
esselfortium said:

Oh, heh, I've judged structures based on their ability to be reproduced in the Doom engine for years. Doesn't everyone?


I remember when I worked a summer at a meat processing plant. And how I went through in detail in my head how I was gonna be able to reproduce the machines inside Doom. I never got around to actually doing it though.

But like with Myk. I don't do that anymore.

Share this post


Link to post
CodeImp said:

I was once turning my clothes inside out before throwing them in the washing machine and then found out they already were inside out. For a split second I thought "Undo!" and actually felt like it would be possible. Then to realize that it's not possible and I had been working on the computer for too long that day.


Sounds like what goes through my head when I'm half awake in the morning.

Share this post


Link to post

hm. I more imagine rooms (unrelated to where I am) in my mind or ideas for a project as a method of escaping. Used to do this alot at school or work.

Share this post


Link to post

I don't really try to imagine real locations in Doom, but I do tend to imagine what kind of gameplay scenarios and map locations could be designed around different pieces of music. As a matter of fact, I've done a few maps that have been inspired by various songs.

Share this post


Link to post
Kyka said:

I want to make a Doom level that looks like this./B]


That looks more like a Half-Life 2 map. :D

I used to imagine areas as game maps all the time. I tend to upgrade it to whatever engine is on my mind at the time. There's a building at the university here that reminds me of DOOM. Well, there are a couple. It's because of that funny style of concrete building that emerged in the 60s -- the ones that look top heavy because the higher floors are wider, with columns holding them up. That type of thing is easy to build in a 2.5D game. Now I'm frustrated because I can't find a pic.

What I also do is mistake situations in meatspace for maps in games. I've thought my bathroom was a Half-life map and I often wonder why the grass and trees outside don't make my vision lag.

Share this post


Link to post

Aliotroph? said:
There's a building at the university here that reminds me of DOOM. Well, there are a couple. It's because of that funny style of concrete building that emerged in the 60s -- the ones that look top heavy because the higher floors are wider, with columns holding them up. That type of thing is easy to build in a 2.5D game. Now I'm frustrated because I can't find a pic.

That sounds like brutalist architecture.

Share this post


Link to post

Heh, yeah, I saw that happen to one of the Plutonia 2 designers.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×