Editing Questions

Hello, I'm using doom builder and I'm attempting to make a realistic wad. I have a few questions on how to do some things. Firstly, how would one make a door that swung open like a regular house door? Secondly, how would one have messages pop up on the screen? I have seen this done in various wads and I can't figure out how to do that. It shows up in red and in the center of the screen. Thirdly, how would one make it so when the player dies he still advances to the next level?

Thanks alot!
-SlatheDoomer

SlatheDoomer said:

Firstly, how would one make a door that swung open like a regular house door?

You would need to create your map for ZDooM or one of its derivatives (e.g., GZDooM). As far as I know, this feature (known as a polyobject, derived from the HeXen feature) is only available in ZDooM and its derivatives.

Secondly, how would one have messages pop up on the screen?

ZDooM (and other source ports) support customized messages.

Thirdly, how would one make it so when the player dies he still advances to the next level?

I have never actually implemented what you are trying to do, but I imagine it shouldn't be too difficult to do in a script. Again you will need to use a source port such as ZDooM, which supports scripting.

As for using DooM Builder, so long as you have the configuration file for the source port you are using, you should not need anything more.

Regular old-school editing will get you a long way. Iikka Keränen mastered the "door swinging open" trick already in Requiem, map 3. It can also be found in the "Regular Doom Tricks" section. The player dying yet advancing to the next level just requires placing him in an inescapable sector which has a special tag (-10/20% health, end level/game). An implementation of this can be found in E1M8 of Ultimate Doom.

The pop-up messages, though, cannot be done in vanilla Doom AFAIK.

Kristian Ronge said:

The player dying yet advancing to the next level just requires placing him in an inescapable sector which has a special tag (-10/20% health, end level/game).

Though you don't actually die in such a sector. Even if you telefrag a voodoo doll in one of these sectors, you start the next level on 1% health and with the weapons and armour that you had been carrying.

There are several ways you can make sure that the player exits a map dead (and thus has a pistol start on the next level), but how you want to implement it will depend onwhat effect you're trying to achieve. One way (which works even when the player is invulnerable) is to have the player teleport into a voodoo doll and a barrel in an area where they are exit linedefs on the floor. You can have a third voodoo doll nearby just to make really sure.

You can also have it so that the player's death always ends the level (using dehacked), but I imagine that isn't what you want. :p

Another example of a swinging/sliding door is at the start of Equinox map04.

I'm sure theres a texture trick you could use to make messages display and then go away. Maybe an "invisible" sector with the message on one side that instadrops after you cross a certain line (like you got really close to the sector).

And the rest is easily done in vanilla doom.

Grazza said:
Though you don't actually die in such a sector. Even if you telefrag a voodoo doll in one of these sectors, you start the next level on 1% health and with the weapons and armour that you had been carrying.

Crap, you're right. Sorry, remembered incorrectly.