Obhack 007.3 Released (Doom Random Map Generator)

Obhack is a random map generator for Doom, Doom2, Heretic and Hexen.

As the current maintainer of Obhack, I will try to answer all questions and comments here on this post.

Download - http://samiam.org/slump/



Reconfigured GUI to three columns for better compability for 800x600.

New parameter: Hallways, to control the amount of hallways.

Added: Red and Green torches to outdoor fences.

Added: Chaingun and Dragon Claw to start weapons.

Adjusted: Texture alignment on multiple Arches.

Added: Two themes from mrChris.

And a few other minor fixes.

I think you left in my personal edits of the rooms by mistake that make the arch-vile never appear, which was just my preferences ( vile=0.0) in x_doom1.lua since I edited it for BrutalDoom also (clip shows 20 bullets not 10)

Thanks, I'll look into it.

Nice to see another release. I find this to be the best random generator. Thanks.

I realise it's a totally different engine but do you think it would be possible add Doom 64 EX support some time in the future? Or maybe a specific D64 version?

Average said:

I realise it's a totally different engine but do you think it would be possible add Doom 64 EX support some time in the future? Or maybe a specific D64 version?

I second this however I have a feeling it will be some time until something like that will ever be created and they'd have to find some way to generate Doom 64's coloured light gradients which might not at all be possible or a little too difficult to impliment so it might have to be skipped.

One would need to find out all the texture and floor/ceiling names but also make prefabs for the D64 style maps before supporting Doom64 EX also.

I second this however I have a feeling it will be some time until something like that will ever be created and they'd have to find some way to generate Doom 64's coloured light gradients which might not at all be possible or a little too difficult to impliment so it might have to be skipped.

No this will not be implemented, it would be just too difficult at this time.

Have you considered some hallway/small room sectors have blinking light sector specials if they are bordering a sector with a lower light level?

Awesome shit, really :)

Question on my theme..if it is essentially an enhancement of the "standard" Doom 1 theme, why not use it as a replacement?

Tormentor667 said:

Awesome shit, really :)

Maybe you guys could work together to allow the use of R667 textures, weapons, sounds and beastiary? That could allow for some seriously random fun!

Average said:

Maybe you guys could work together to allow the use of R667 textures, weapons, sounds and beastiary? That could allow for some seriously random fun!

I've done that before and it's just crazy.

Hey again... just fetched 007.3 to play with and made a couple mapsets. Some good new options, with the gigantic maps and Infested as a midpoint between Swarms and Insane.

I did run into a problem, tho. This is on a lowly P4-1.8GHz/1.3GB RAM, WinXP-SP3. I was watching it with Task Mangler, just curious, and here's what I saw:

I set it to make an 11-map set of Gigantic, Swarms, and otherwise mostly Random settings.

Obhack cranked away through the mapbuilding process all right, but when it switched to nodebuilding it got hung up. It had pegged the CPU at 100% all along (kinda to be expected) but when the nodebuilder started it also cranked "kernel times" up to around 75%, which I've never seen before. And there it stayed, until after 10 minutes or so I got bored and aborted it; it was still joggling the CPU but memory use had not changed in a bit so I think it was hung.

I can't tell for sure if it built the nodes or not, but it did write a WADfile, of about 15mb (not unusual for size). BSP built (or rebuilt) nodes with no problems, so at least the mapstuff must be good. (DeeP thought it was okay too, but DeeP isn't real accurate about such stuff. They do look like they'll be fun to play, tho!!)

[I tried again with merely "Huge" and that built 100% no problems.]

ANYWAY... this gave me an idea for a setting that would be useful on machines that for whatever reason can't cope with the switch to the nodebuilder for Gigantic maps -- simply add a "BUILD NODES: YES/NO" option, which would fit conveniently up in the top section, defaulted to "YES". Maybe name the resulting file "whatever.bsp" (instead of "whatever.wad") so the user is cued that "hey stupid, you still gotta build the nodes yourself", if they forget.

The other thing I'd *really* like to have is an option for more light. The current "Room Lighting: High" is still quite dark on my monitor, to the point that I have to use a Brightness WAD to see perhaps half the areas (otherwise, it hurts my eyes). I know other folks have remarked on this too. A setting about halfway between the current "High" and the DOOM maximum would probably be about right, or maybe two such settings, Bright and Brighter.

Now I've got to go kill some hellspawn... I've been deprived for four months and I'm starting to have the most hideous withdrawal symptoms. I think I'm growing horns, hooves, claws, and spikes, and my palms are glowing. :D

Hi all, sorry about no posts lately, I've been moving and it's been a slow process. I have been working on the next version, but not as much as I wanted too.

Hey Rez,
As I stated in the readme file "Added: 'Gigantic' setting to level size parameter.(For upper-end machines)"

I created the Gigantic setting on a 3.2Gh and now I use a four-core 2.6Gh with no build issues.
I have tested it on a 1.8 & a 2.0Gh machines and they do sometimes take awhile to build and also hang with Gigantic setting, esp. with longer Quest lengths. Also they tend to stutter a bit with these slower processors. But are fun as hell with faster machines...

As far as stopping the build process before the nodes, I didn't write any of that code, so probably not. I wish I could.

As far as the lighting, Have you made any mapsets with lighting set to "None"?, which will bacically turn off my lighting settings, lighting would go back to default. That should actually be darker than my High setting.

I believe max lighting is around 255, I have the high between 125 to 185, so we can bring that up if we need to or add a Brighter setting.
The low lighting in rooms somtimes hurts my eyes too, but it sure is fun to be ambushed from the dark...LOL.

Any neat additions you wanna tell us about the next Obhack version, just to whet the tongues?

Not just yet Mr.Chris, I've just been adjusting some internal routines so far. But will let you know.
I have added a brighter lighting setting to help with the dark issue.

I don't know what the issue was with my first attempt at a "gigantic" episode (and I forgot to save the logfile, but the seed was 0000 and otherwise same settings as below). I've tried it again for single and episode and those all built without problems.

I did find another that failed, here's the info from the log:
=========
ammo = normal
enclosure = false
game = doom2
hallways = random
health = normal
iweapon = hardcore
keytype = both
length = single
lighting = bright
maxsize = huge
mode = sp
mons = swarms
outdoors = lots
port = nolimit
questlength = normal
roomsize = random
seed = 0102
size = huge
steep = random
switches = both
traps = more

Could not find place for SWITCH: SWITCH_FLOOR3_BEAM 2x1
Trying harder...Failed.

FATAL ERROR...Could NOT find place for switch!...Map Unplayable!!!

Problem occurred while making level:
...mes\DOOM\Obhack\Obhack-win-007.3/scripts/builder.lua:7514: Could not find place for switch!
=========
First time I've seen that!

I'm presently playing one that's "gigantic" and "infested" -- looks like Infested hits a sweet spot, with more smallfry and fewer tough monsters, but more viles and cybes. Good setting for lots of wild fights. :)

(More, you ask? got a map with 30 Viles -- EEEEK!!!)

Not too thrilled with the new switched doors, some don't have a good visual correspondence and they tend to blend into the walls. Preferred the previous look there.

Anyway, back to death and destruction, and thanks for adding a brighter setting!

I think you should put in a way to control what monsters are in the maps by percentages. Like :: Arachnotrons: 10%
Arch Viles : 2%
Baron of Hell: 5%
Cacodemon : 18%
Etc.....

Also, maybe if you could do this per room would be cool too.

Hey Rez,
I have built the level with your settings multiple times and it has built sucessfully all times. I'm a bit confused why your's would not. I played the map and it's ok.

I have seen and know about that issue, it happens when the Roomsize setting is on Random and the generator creates a small roomsize then can't fit the switch in there.
I adjusted the minimum size in ver 7.3 and haven't seen it since, but this is not to say it won't happen again. It just happens so rarely, I kinda left it alone.

As far as the new switch doors, I know they do blend in sometimes but when you create a Huge or Gigantic map, you really need more switches & doors to make it interesting. I do have plans to adjust some of them.

General Rainbow Bacon,
I have tried the monster thing but with no success. It's just too difficult to implement it into V2 code...Srry.
I know Andrew has it in his Oblige V3, if you need it.