Things to consider when mapping for Doom3

Well, here's just a little list of things you might want to take into consideration to produce a nice Doom3 with acceptable performance:

Lights
Try to stay very conservative with Lightsources. The way the engine works it doesn't like too many overlapping lightsources at all. Try conventional set ups as found in the offline rendering world: KeyLight, Spotlight, Fill Light (which of course requires more preplanning due to the absence of radiosity effects).
Light emitting textures like in Quake3 do not exist - so when you use textures looking like a lightsource, you want to place a light there.
There are various light types available, so you can toy around to get the desired effects.
I can't give you any limits or suggestions on how many lights to use, but try to cut it down to as little as possible.
You can also break lights, switch them on and off and such - so your phantasy is the limit.

Visibility blocking
This is doen via visportals which get placed manually in the map. Much better control than hintbrushes in Quake3.

Surfaces
Doom3 handles an ungodly amount of image maps compared to Quake3. For every surface you have at least two image maps (.tga), ranging up to blending materials with 6 or more image maps. Resolutions are available up to 2048*, but you may want to stick to more conventional resolutions until computers catch up with your imagination.
While the Doom3 engine has no problem handling a quarter million polys, it doesn't like too many different surfaces in view. Can't tell you a good limit, but I'm sure you all will toy around much yourself :)

Map geometry vs. Model geometry
Modelling skills are prerequisite for Doom3 mapping, preferably with LightWave. The engine can read the native .lwo format but also .ase
If you're serious about mapping for Doom3, you'll want to learn to model.
Quake3 mappers will feel at home fast.

Scripting, Particle effects, Camera animations and whatnot
The Doom3 engine allows very very neat effects - you can script almost anything and everything. Move stuff around, remove lights form the scene, let something explode after clicking on an ingame GUI - whatever.
The scripting syntax for these things appears to be pretty accessible and easy to learn, yet it's still a language which needs to get learned.
Those with a little programming experience will pick it up quite fast tho, while the others should have a weekend of fun with some good tutorials.
But you'll sure love it.

Physics
You can place physics objects in your map, you all know that. worth to mention is, that every physics object rests or should rest in a simplified clip model to make collision calcualtions faster.
You'll have fun with that too.

Sounds
As surfaces sounds are controlled via shaders too. There are various variables you can toy around with. Mind you that the sounds are higher quality than in Quake3, so they might eat up a lot of ram, not sure about that.
But you can set volumes and stuff, very neat!

I'm sure I have forgotten a lot of things, but I just wanted to put something a little informative here.

Enjoy!

Very cool list, was a good idea to make it. I agree entirely with the list. Something you might want to include is a rule that goes for the classic Doom games when editing but even more so for Doom 3.

Monster Usage
The amount of monsters in Doom 3 isn't supposed to be huge massive quantities. It's probably best to use monsters and place them accordingly to make intense situations and traps to scare your opponent. Obviously if you use too many monsters it will probably slow things down a bit, how much being based on the kind of rig you're using. You can always make intense, frightening situations without using alot of monsters. It's a matter of using the right monsters in the right spots, and so that you'll run into them at the right time. There's going to be a ton of things to factor with monsters, including the physics of the environment that the player will be in, and also you must consider things from the monster's point of view as well, even if it is computer AI. The placement of objects around the room or hazards or anything that could affect an attack from a monster and the difficulty intended must be taken into careful consideration, otherwise you'll be left with less than desirable outcomes. Also, as already said, with scripting anything is possible. Use monsters well, they will make a great deal of the game to come and any mods that will be made for it.

Thanks for your additon!

I haven't commented on things I can't or which are non-technical.

Based on alpha experience and by maintaining the easily biggest doom3 editing forum during alpha times there are a few things I know and more I don't.

One thing's for sure - the engine is very flexible and allows you so many options that making a map fully utilizing the engine is quite a task.

This sounds a lot like UT's engine...
With static meshes and scripting.. Karma actors (the barrels that you can kick around and what not.) same with the lighting..
we shall see..

My god.....

We will walk into the Doom 3 editor seeing thousands of downloadable space colonies and more PLUS our own contraptions...

We will walk out 20 hours later with nothing but a room and a static light to show for our work....

Well if we're diving into the non-technical aspect of editing.. THEME! i cannot stand levels with absolutely no theme, or multiple themes that make no sense.. create a level with realsitic atmosphere, and you've created a good level.

Uh, where does it say that there aren't luminescent textures? I would think that the light hanging off the ceiling flopping around on the cable would be a fair indication of a texture-based lightsource, unless they can add keyframes to the non-game entities...

Anyways, my blurb about that first post aside, I guess I'll toss in a few contributions:

Don't be afraid to use repetitive textures this time around. The main reason being the combination of the bumpmapping, and specular lighting in conjunction with the standard diffuse maps. Thanks to the lack of pre-rendered lightmaps in Doom 3 the textures will not seem to be as dull and boring, and the bumpmapping adds a great amount of detail as well. That doesn't mean you should put all your faith into the miracle that is DOT3 and not put any static meshes into your maps, but use a more even balance and you also don't have to build 50 million elbow joints into every bezier patch to create a pipe now either.

Monsters - I know it was mentioned above but I feel that it is worth elaborating on that you CAN probably put 15 or 20 monsters in one room and have it run like greased cow shit on your rig, but that doesn't mean poor Joe Blow with his Ti4600 and 512 megs of DDR266 will be able to play it at even low quality. I'd say try to keep monsters from amalgamating into one huge blob like the things from those Critters movies, unless you're really a sadistic fucker and you like the physics interactions between the bodies. Basically, try to keep your maps fun and playable to a wide variety of audiences. This doesn't mean go underkill and place only 15 monsters total in a map and seperate them with NPC Clip brushes, but try to compromise a way to keep them from all clustering together in one room. Maybe scripting an area that is impassable until the monsters are killed is a good way, or making geometry that certain monsters cannot traverse to seperate different areas would help too.

Linearity! Big one! Try to keep the player interested in pursuing alternative goals or objectives in your maps. This applies to DM as much as single player. I cannot stress how much the linearity of E1M1 bothered me, even with the secret opening wall to the courtyard. However, as a rule of thumb, don't put an extremely powerful weapon somewhere where it can only be accessed by one spot, like the chaingun in E1M1 of the Ultimate Doom was. And I don't want to hate on E1M1, it was a fun map, but GOD DAMMIT that annoyed me getting mowed down by a chaingun (and Doom95 has crap for mouse support which is what me and my friend still LAN on) when I had a rocket launcher and berserk pack. Don't allow your DM opponents to go into a room with a plasma rifle that has a billion plasma cells (if that's what they are in Doom 3) and 4 medkits or a berserker pack and only one way in and out. Put a more discrete entrance into the area where the player can be whacked for camping and whoring/hogging a power weapon. I'd say a grate or hidden door or maybe even the good old illusionary wall trick (I loved that in E1M1 above all though, being able to hide up in that little alcove with a one-way visible wall).

"The flow" of the map: Wolfenstein 3D has come and gone, man. We can use architecture that isn't entirely comprised of long, boring hallways and 90 degree angles. Get used to rotating your prefabricated objects to fit flush with a hallway at an odd angle which cuts into a central chamber at the corners. There are mathematical computations and algorithms you can (mentally) calculate and apply to make yours fit flush in a rotated hallway.

Playability: Please take extra care and be observant of your geometry and brush work when you make your maps. Nobody wants a 96 unit wide hallway to run down when being pursued by an irate group of fatsos unless it ties in to the environment and adds more the adrenaline rush factor thanks to the spooky aspect of the new game. PLAYTEST YOUR MAPS DOWN TO THE LAST CLIP BRUSH AND COLLISION BEFORE YOU RELEASE THEM!

Custom textures and models: I can only say this: Learn how to do specular and bump mapping techniques on textures for skins and architecture, unless you want to have those bland looking textures fit combine with the bumpmapped specular surfaces (which would look kind of gay, quite frankly).

Light sources: This isn't Quake 3 and the light sources are dynamic and cast stencil shadows. There will be NO COMPILING OF LIGHTMAPS IN DOOM 3 SO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE REAL TIME PREVIEWS YOU GET TO TWEAK YOUR LIGHT SOURCES! Thankfully, the light sources will be a little more aesthetically pleasing and easy to fix, but make sure to do some exception control and place them in a rational fashion.

Themes and objectives: Don't create a map with 500 billion mile-long hallways and monsters scattered randomly about. Make a map that at least looks like there's a point to playing it besides murdering things (even though it's the pinnacle of Id's new game). A good example of this would be TeamTNT's Daedalus. That mod for ZDoom is probably the BEST I've ever played for a Doom source port and it has a lot of story and theme to it. I'd suggest playing it if you're unsure what guidelines to follow for theming a map.

That's all I can think of. Good luck guys!

Also, don't forget to read the post I made for Linux users if you are running Linux and want to map for Doom 3.

Nice, but seeing as how nobody (legally) has a clue to the program, I think its just productive brainstorming....

id may give us a programmers-editor, requiring MUCH patience and some skills in code, advanced scripting, 3-d environment drawing, and programming; basically like other vid-game level makers but 10,000% HARDER for the Doom3-Effect...

OR

id may give us an easy-to-use editor, complete with more prefabs than some men dream of, and even an easy-to-script cinematics menu.

Prefabs have their problems too, they're prefabs for one thing!!

But at least amateurs and impatient folks (me) wont have to wait 13 days worth of mapping to see just the bare beta of our work, let alone play it...

This is just supposing id makes an EASY editor....

Either way, I hope there's at least SOME prefab menus, and especially an automatic outside terrain / cave maker so we dont have to CAD polygons till were 80 years old!!!

I dont want to fully program, map, and script GOOD DoomIII levels from scratch, THATS FOR SURE!!!

-The General

Chances are there will be plugins for the map scripting, but it probably wouldn't go beyond the scope of your basic boolean algebra and math skills.

im an engineering student, i have extensive experience with modeling programs such as Pro/Engineer and AutoCad and surfCAM. i also know quite a bit about programming. this having been saidi would like to point out that i did not teach these skills to myself. i would really, really, love to see a very thorough comprehensive guide to mapping in doom3. something that should include walkthroughs for making sever levels (from say a 2 room level to something more complicated) with full explenations of all the shaders, lighting effects/placement etc. something akin to a textbook. i know this would take a lot of time and a lot of effort, but it would go a long ways to getting more mappers out there. it would also hopefully show prospective mappers just how hard making a doom3 map will be and how much time it will take- thus hopefully thinning out the ranks of useless maps (ala wow.wad)

Laguna said:

Uh, where does it say that there aren't luminescent textures? I would think that the light hanging off the ceiling flopping around on the cable would be a fair indication of a texture-based lightsource, unless they can add keyframes to the non-game entities...

As far as I know there aren't texture based lightsources (like the light shaders in q3).

This swinglights require a light entity bound to them.

I don't know what you mean by adding keyframes to non-game entities, but you can basically animate / script control almost all and everything Doom3.

I am still wondering how you are so positive of this. And also, if textures cannot carry their own luminosity settings, how come the fluorescent light bulbs stay illuminated on all faces? I mean, I don't think there's a light entity that can target a specific face and illuminate it.

Laguna said:

I am still wondering how you are so positive of this. And also, if textures cannot carry their own luminosity settings, how come the fluorescent light bulbs stay illuminated on all faces? I mean, I don't think there's a light entity that can target a specific face and illuminate it.

You can set it in the shader using the "nowshadows" parameter. The surface then wont be affected by shadowing.

Click my link the day after Doom3 will be available in stores - I'll provide a proper documentation with the most neccessary shader parameters then.

Laguna said:

I am still wondering how you are so positive of this. And also, if textures cannot carry their own luminosity settings, how come the fluorescent light bulbs stay illuminated on all faces? I mean, I don't think there's a light entity that can target a specific face and illuminate it.

With shaders.

Something for people planning to do MP maps for doom3 and actually want them to get playtime:

http://www.promode.org/maps/guide/

decent gameplay theory/design guide from the quake3 CPMA community.

Well I can't model, nor can I texture, but I've managed to make due with the stock stuff in every game I've made a map for, so with any luck, maybe I can do it with this...Oh and thanks TwiNCannoN for that link, I for one learned a couple things from it.