Making one "room" on top of another (help)

I've seen this done in custom maps before...but I can't think of any way to do it.

I am using Doombuilder 2. Is that the problem? I've heard mixed reviews about DB2 and would really just like to be able to make true multiple story building, not just the illusion of one with stairs and elevated adjacent sectors.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

In vanilla, you need to rely on tricks with self-referencing sectors, instant lowering / raising floors and purposefully missing textures.

In Boom, there's linedef action "242: Create Fake Ceiling and Floor", which only affects the renderer to draw an additional floor and ceiling plane to the sector, particularly to a height specified by a control sector. Then you need to combine it with vanilla tricks.

In ZDoom (Hexen/UDMF format), there's nothing easier than using 3D floors (best to be used as a linedef action on a line in a control sector, works in ACS too).

Your map editor totally doesn't matter when we're talking about game features, forget that misconception.

scifista42 said:

In vanilla, you need to rely on tricks with self-referencing sectors, instant lowering / raising floors and purposefully missing textures.

In Boom, there's linedef action "242: Create Fake Ceiling and Floor", which only affects the renderer to draw an additional floor and ceiling plane to the sector, particularly to a height specified by a control sector. Then you need to combine it with vanilla tricks.

In ZDoom (Hexen/UDMF format), there's nothing easier than using 3D floors (best to be used as a linedef action on a line in a control sector, works in ACS too).

Your map editor totally doesn't matter when we're talking about game features, forget that misconception.

Okay, I am definitely a newbie when it comes to editing...so some I don't understand what you mean by self referencing sector. Would you be willing to elaborate on that for me?

Read this and linked articles:
http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Room-over-room

Damn, I just cannot wrap my head around this.

TraceOfSpades said:

Damn, I just cannot wrap my head around this.

I wish Jaxxoon R made this.

It's not really that difficult.
Take a look at my example of a multi-story building. The only tedious job is to keep the distances straight,
especially for the windows. Just a lot of control sectors.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ju1xfakqaf811cd/staircase3b2.wad

You should probably abandon hope of making rooms over rooms. Doom looks like its 3 dimensional when you're playing it, but the reality of it is that everything is drawn on a flat surface, so when you draw sectors on top of each other, they become one with the flat surface, not layered on top of each other.

The best you can do is to do whatever you can to give the illusion that the player is going from one floor to the next. There are triggers that let you change the heights of the floor and the ceiling, so you could maybe have the player walk up a stairwell made of walkover triggers that move the floor and ceiling up, giving the illusion that you are above another room that is essentially the same room, but you'll need to keep it simple because the more complex the architecture is in your room, the more difficult it will be to create the effect. In the end you'll probably have a technically impressive feature in an otherwise uninspired looking map.

There are better ways to demonstrate the feeling of being high up or low on the ground.

TraceOfSpades said:

I don't understand what you mean by self referencing sector.

Self-referencing sectors are an old vanilla trick for creating invisible sectors, which can be used for various special effects.

For true multi-floor buildings you should to learn to use 3D floors and slopes, I'd also suggest switching to GZDoomBuilder since its 3D editing mode supports those features.

I'd also suggest getting your building's floor plan sorted out before going above the first floor, since adding in or altering structural details afterwards can be tedious, as I found when re-creating this derelict building.

wtf 40oz :D
never heard of zdoom?

Like everyone said here, ZDoom-Doom Legacy and every source port supporting 3D Floors should help you to do it ..

It would really help if you told us what engine version you are targetting.

If the answer is 'not ZDoom', I'm afraid, the only thing to tell you is to better not try it at all, if you have difficulty understanding the concepts.

Fake 3D stuff in Doom is a highly complicated undertaking which to pull off well requires quite a bit of knowledge about how the engine works, otherwise you'll probably just end up with a broken map. Even the simple things like self referencing sectors can easily break down if not carefully assembled.

For ZDoom and a few other ports which support 3D floors it's easier, but you still should study some maps doing it. And don't forget to read the docs. They are not the most extensive but defining a 3D floor isn't too hard:

http://zdoom.org/wiki/Sector_Set3dFloor

yeah if you're willing to use (G)ZDoom, I would get yourself GZDoom Builder and install boris' 3D Floors plugin. should be findable if you search google for "gzdoom builder 3d floors plugin boris" or something

"or something" worked for me. ;)

Portals in ZDoom?