Doombuilder editing problems

Latest version of Doombuilder
Windows 7 ultimate
I know that post title was too generic but I couldn't come up with one that would fit.

[1] I downloaded and installed Doombuilder but couldn't find the iWad, without which you can't build new games. I scrambled around and found 2 that said they were for Doom2. I create my first sector populated it with a player character and an imp, Ctrl W to View it but though there is a floor but no ceiling, or maybe its a ceiling but no floor.

[2] When I press the black triangle to test the map a window opens briefly and disappears and that's all. The window, from the brief glimpse I get of it, appears to resemble the Cmd window of windows.

Could someone help me?
Thanks,
Paul

I'd love to (try to) help, but without a screenshot or anything, I don't know how. Maybe send a download link?


It could have something to do with unclosed sectors but as I assume there's only one, I'm pretty sure that's impossible. It may have something to do with all the technical stuff, like seg drawing and node building but I can't help you with that either at all. :/


As for the two Doom II files, one is probably the program and the other the Pwad (doom2.wad). You need to use this in the add resources screen, and the actual program as the test file.
(Forgive me if you already know this and I'm sounding patronising or whatever)



Also, unless you're using the original for specific reasons, I recommend Doom Builder 2, or GZDoom Builder.

Thanks for replying!

I'll try to upload a screen shot. Oops! I guess I'm too new for the forum to allow attachments :( Anyway where the floor should be it's just empty (black) space. I think I may have a problem with the exe that shows the dungeon I searched around the files that were installed and came up with Program Files (x86)\Doom Builder 2\Compilers\ZDoom\acc.exe This might be wrong. If so could you point me to the right one?

I downloaded Doombuilder 2.1.2.1553 and for the game config I chose Doom 2
Thanks

p3aul said:

[1] I downloaded and installed Doombuilder but couldn't find the iWad, without which you can't build new games. I scrambled around and found 2 that said they were for Doom2. I create my first sector populated it with a player character and an imp, Ctrl W to View it but though there is a floor but no ceiling, or maybe its a ceiling but no floor.

[2] When I press the black triangle to test the map a window opens briefly and disappears and that's all. The window, from the brief glimpse I get of it, appears to resemble the Cmd window of windows.

[1] If you haven't purchased a copy of Doom, I'd suggest you start with Freedoom as your IWAD and set it up as the base resource for the Game Configurations you're using, that should fix your floor & ceiling problems. You should also consider purchasing the Doom Classic Collection, which will probably be heavily discounted during QuakeCon.

[2] You'll also need at least one source port installed to test your maps with, there's a truckload to choose from here with the more recent ports in the top group. A good starting selection would be Chocolate for standard maps (what we refer to as "vanilla" mapping), Eternity for maps using Boom features and GZDoom for maps using more advanced features. I'd also suggest installing your editors and ports outside the "Program Files" folder so you don't run into access rights issues, maybe create a Doom folder in Documents and put them there. Once installed, open "Game Configurations" in Doom Builder and set them up in the "Testing" tab.

Purchase? I thought this was all open source and I didn't have to buy anything. It used to be back in the mid-ninties when I first played with the thing. I remember creating games with it with no problems whatsoever.

The game engine is open source, but not the Doom IWADs. The only free ones are Shareware Doom and Freedoom (a community project), and that's unlikely to change any time soon no matter how hard we pray.

The Doom games, as old as they are, aren't abandonware, but don't worry, they are ridiculously cheap. If you don't have a couple of bucks at hand, use Freedoom, as GreyGhost said, and you shouldn't have any problems.

EDIT: Damn, I'm too slow.

I'll probably mark my birthday with another game giveaway. Mightn't be as many copies of Doom this time since it looks like I was deliberately roadblocked by the Steam store (they don't seem to like people bulk buying and gifting), but I can make up the shortfall with some GOG games.

p3aul said:

I scrambled around and found 2 that said they were for Doom2.

Like others have said, I don't know where you "found" Doom 2 IWADs, but go find someone who's selling it legally. It's not abandonware (not that that's legal anyway) as not only does the company that made it still exist, but you can even still buy it from them directly (or could, if their online store didn't redirect to the Doom 4 trailer - marketing fail).

p3aul said:

I create my first sector populated it with a player character and an imp, Ctrl W to View it but though there is a floor but no ceiling, or maybe its a ceiling but no floor.

You're outside the sector (possibly underneath it). Look towards it (with the mouse), then press E to move into it.

Foxpup said:

Like others have said, I don't know where you "found" Doom 2 IWADs, but go find someone who's selling it legally. It's not abandonware (not that that's legal anyway) as not only does the company that made it still exist, but you can even still buy it from them directly (or could, if their online store didn't redirect to the Doom 4 trailer - marketing fail).


You're outside the sector (possibly underneath it). Look towards it (with the mouse), then press E to move into it.

No I'm not outside the sector. I can movearound withe walls around me and the ceiling above me, just no floor. I am using Freedoom now, thought it would make a difference but it doesn't. Graphics are horrible. I know my computer is capable of drawing better graphics then that! In Google Earth I can see the individual parking lanes of a lot near my house; shows up beautifully. I am using GZdoom to view my map. The floor AND ceiling show up just fine when I test the map with GZdoom.exe but the graphics are still terrible.

p3aul said:

No I'm not outside the sector. I can movearound withe walls around me and the ceiling above me, just no floor. I am using Freedoom now, thought it would make a difference but it doesn't.

In that case, it might be an unclosed sector. Try running Map Analysis (F4 key) in Doom Builder and see what it reports. If all else fails, upload your map to a hosting site and post a link here.

p3aul said:

Graphics are horrible. I know my computer is capable of drawing better graphics then that! In Google Earth I can see the individual parking lanes of a lot near my house; shows up beautifully.

Okay, I'll bite: how is Google Earth related to graphics in a game from the 90s?

Besides which, FreeDoom is a fan project. That's still in development. Of course some stuff is gonna look rough, but yeah, some of the graphics look like crap.

Keep in mind quite a few of 'em are just placeholders. Some are pretty much just the original textures with a few pixel rearrangements.


But before this turns into a FreeDoom discussion, here you go.



Oh, and, returning to the original discussion, how many sectors do you have? Like, two? Three? Because, as previously mentioned, I'm pretty sure a single sector can't be unclosed.


Unless you screw around with the Linedef sector references.

Wish you joy on your 13th Joe667! I'll be turning 72 in October myself. I didn't have a happy childhood, but I sure am having a long one!

No, it's just one sector and it's definitely closed. I knew Doom hadn't changed much from the 90's, but I figured since the graphics were still VGA that everything would be in the public domain by now. Like, would you still pay $200 dollars for a copy of MS Word 2.0? However I see that Doom still has it's die-hearted fans so I will pass on from criticizing it's graphics to the real problem, which is no floor in the Visual Mode.
BTW has anyone else had my no-floor problem before?
Thanks
Paul

You need more than one sector to play the map. Minimum two sectors

darkreaver, I have placed a player and an antagonist in the one sector. Yes it IS possible to "Play" the game with one sector. Why wouldn't it?

He means one subsector. You need at least two subsectors for a working map. However, the nodebuilder will automatically split a single sector map into two (or more, depending on the shape) subsectors, so you never need to worry about it. I don't know why darkreaver even brought it up, as it's completely unrelated to your problem (which I have run out of ideas as to the cause).

I think there was a time when Visual Mode in Doom Builder wouldn't work with only one sector.

p3aul said:

Wish you joy on your 13th Joe667! I'll be turning 72 in October myself.

No, it's just one sector and it's definitely closed. I knew Doom hadn't changed much from the 90's, but I figured since the graphics were still VGA that everything would be in the public domain by now. Like, would you still pay $200 dollars for a copy of MS Word 2.0?

Another geriatric in the forums! My 60th isn't far away.

If it's not missing flats or unclosed sectors, the most likely suspects remaining are a video driver glitch or the Visual Mode's viewpoint being above/below the sector.

Very little commercial software seems to find its way into the public domain, or I'm just looking in the wrong places. I've noticed a tendency for old games to reappear on mobile phones and other handheld devices, so corporations have presumably hung on to the copyrights in the hope of finding some emergent technology to market them on.


Happy Birthday Joe667.

You know in thinking about it, Visual mode is not that big a deal anyway. I think I remember something from the video tutorial on the DB site about being able to raise and lower walls using the mouse wheel. That could come in handy but I guess I could just use trial and error in the dialog boxes to do the same thing. In any case, I've got a lot here to keep me occupied.
Thanks,
Paul

Well, Doom Builder has many other advantages, such as detecting HOMs, unclosed sectors etc. and other mapping errors (just press F4).

On top of that, there are many plugins available for Doom Builder 2, such as the Visplane Explorer package, which adds another button to your tools bar.

Clicking it shows you how many visplanes (different surfaces, e.g. raised floors, differently or even same textured floors/ceilings etc.) can be viewed from certain angles.
The reason this is so helpful is that in the original Doom .exes, if you could see more than 128 visplanes, the game would crash.


So... yeah.



And thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! :D