Why did Doom 3 mapping die?

2 minutes ago, Mr.Rocket said:

Ah is it clean out of the box Doom3 or do you have a bunch of mods installed?

I have the Doom 3 redux mod. Do I need to uninstall that?

It's worth a try, back it up in a new folder, you know the drill.

22 minutes ago, Mr.Rocket said:

It's worth a try, back it up in a new folder, you know the drill.

Tried uninstalling Doom 3 and deleted everything. Still get the crash :(

https://imgur.com/a/0afTY

This really blows. Is anyone else able to get DoomEd to work? The actual game itself runs fine. It's only the editor that for some reason crashes.

So, you can run Doom3 as is, and invoke its editor, but not run the editor and doom3 at the same time?

Strange.

I mean, you should be able to drop the console in doom3, ctrl+alt+~

Then type editor and press enter.

hmm, we should probably pm from this point on, don't want to derail the thread more than it has already heh.

Edit:

Try running the batch file yet?

Or, try running in windowed mode first normally, then exit the game to save cfg.

Then run the game again, drop console and type editor, then press enter.

What video card do you have? Ati or NVidia?

Doom 3 supports both techbases and hell, not just the former. But it still is at its best when it’s dark and cramped. Given proper textures, you can do other themes too, but still the same creepy mood.

What I found most daunting about Doom 3 level making was textures. I never felt that the ones provided by id were enough, so I was always looking for new ones on the internet. Unfortunately, modern textures in games like Doom 3 need to be highly sophisticated. They have this diffuse/normal/specular split, which means that any photo taken of some wall is no longer sufficient. No, it has to look flat and unlit (it’s bad if it has shadows!), and you need to have information about its 3D layout (which obviously is not provided with regular photos).

Also the textures provided by id had flaws: lots of them were just missing, and others wouldn’t cast shadows (so I needed to modify them in the mod).

Adding new ambient noise was actually fun, because during that time I was lucky to still have limited free access to a professional sound library.

8 hours ago, hardcore_gamer said:

Isn't Doom 3 based on the Quake engine?

If memory serves, they started building up the Doom 3 (IdTech 4) engine around the Quake 3 engine (which is an iteration of the Quake engine, IdTech 3), but gradually 'peeled' the Quake engine code away as John Carmack wrote all new code to replace the old code.

So technically, it was a new engine.

It takes a lot of time and effort to make levels that look good in Doom 3, and while we were quite well covered for techbase textures, the hell texture set is relatively limited and the lighting system takes a long time to get right.  I spent over a decade working on a mod on and off, but only released one level for it (it was essentially a case of Duke Nukem Forever-esque development hell) and then gave it up and moved over to Doom 1/2 when becoming established in a full-time job.  With limited time on evenings and weekends it just wasn't going to get finished using the D3 engine.

12 hours ago, hardcore_gamer said:

 

Interesting information.

 

One of the biggest reasons I haven't really started making my own Doom 3 levels yet is because there does not seem to be any easy way to do so anymore. The in-game editor is broken on modern operating systems and I have found no way to fix it. It's technically possible to use other editors but I have found it a pain to use them for Doom 3. This is why it would be so awesome if an editor like Trenchbroom got Doom 3 support.

Have you tried Dark Radiant?

4 minutes ago, Arl said:

 

 

Have you tried Dark Radiant?

Yes but I can't seem to be able to figure out how to compile the level. The original Doom 3 editor had a compile tool inside the editor but this one doesn't. If anyone knows how to compile Doom 3 maps made with Dark Radiant that would be awesome.

During my last 2-3 years of mapping for Doom 3 I designed the maps in Dark Radiant and then fired up Doom 3 and compiled the maps from within Doom 3 itself.  You type dmap (mapname).  The main issue is that when there are leaks in the map you then have to keep flipping between D3 and Dark Radiant.  Otherwise I did find Dark Radiant generally superior to the Doomedit that comes with the game.

1 hour ago, ENEMY!!! said:

During my last 2-3 years of mapping for Doom 3 I designed the maps in Dark Radiant and then fired up Doom 3 and compiled the maps from within Doom 3 itself.  You type dmap (mapname).  The main issue is that when there are leaks in the map you then have to keep flipping between D3 and Dark Radiant.  Otherwise I did find Dark Radiant generally superior to the Doomedit that comes with the game.

Holy crap that worked! Thanks for that mate.

50 minutes ago, hardcore_gamer said:

 

Holy crap that worked! Thanks for that mate.

Awesome, sounds like you're back in! Curious to see what map you come up with next.

@hardcore_gamer Do you have antialiasing turned on? The editor doesn't like that one bit.

Doom3Edit runs just fine here and I'm using Windows 10 64bit.

A few tips:

1. Disable antialiasing (as geX mentions)
2. Run the game in windowed mode
3. Patch the game executable to run in x64 (this is mainly just to push the virtual memory ceiling above 2GB though)

As a former Doom 3 mapper I'll chip in. Fact is you can spend weeks working on one room and making it look pretty. This is to say nothing about making a whole level that looks good, and more importantly is fun to play.

For every Phobos and EoC there are umpteen projects that bit the dust, or at best ended up being downscaled, and it's not hard to see why. It's work, and I'll wager most hobbyists just run out of time and/or motivation. Those that remain are extraordinarily committed individuals.

I can't even imagine making levels for a more modern game, albeit with the right tools. E.g. making a Doom '16 level from scratch?! Screw that noise.

23 minutes ago, DoomUK said:

I can't even imagine making levels for a more modern game, albeit with the right tools. E.g. making a Doom '16 level from scratch?! Screw that noise.

Modern engines allow you to build entire levels of Meshes, whether Static or Skeletal, which is easier and faster if you have ever dealt with 3D Modelling softwares.

13 hours ago, dmg_64 said:

Modern engines allow you to build entire levels of Meshes, whether Static or Skeletal, which is easier and faster if you have ever dealt with 3D Modelling softwares.

True. Look at this for example (the video starts at 9:41 where he makes the level):

My mind is just blown away. This looks sooooooooo much easier than traditional bsp mapping ala Quake and Doom 3.

I've heard people complaining that without brushes it's hard to sketch a layout quickly.