Merging/joining sectors breaks the map

Sometimes when I merge/join sectors, ZDBSP crashes when I try to save the map afterwards. If I then save the map, close Doom Builder, and reload it, it looks like a bunch lines sticking in random directions with every sector in the map being fubar'ed. I've somehow fixed these maps before: Doom Builder deletes an unused sector or something then the map is fine again. But this time it didn't work for some reason and now my map is completed messed up and I have no way to fix it. Anyone know how to solve this problem or avoid it in the future?

What you're describing sounds like what happens when you open a map in a format other than what it was created in. You should make certain your map is being loaded with the correct format. If you saved it like this with the random lines, then it's stuck as is. My best suggestion is to use any backups of the file if you've made any, or to start making backups in the future if you don't already.

Also, to avoid confusing the nodebuilder when joining/merging sectors, only merge/join two sectors at a time. It doesn't like trying to figure out the operations it would need to merge/join numerous sectors simultaneously.

Okay I'll join sectors two at a time instead of 3-4 from now on. Thanks for the tip! Didn't know that that was what I was doing wrong.

Luckily Doom Builder did make a backup, looking in my folder now, which opens fine. :P I guess I can rely on its backups, heh.

I did change the format to Boom from Skulltag in Hexen in Edit|Map Options (F2), but it still opened fine after I changed all the linedef/sector types, and I've had this problem before even with maps that I didn't change the format of.

I have discovered that merging and joining sectors can easily screw up Doom Builder. I have made entire maps in one format and still had the node builder freak out after merging sectors sometimes. As a result, I don't merge sectors unless it's somehow necessary to the map's functioning, and when I do I always make sure to be able to undo the merging in case the node builder fails.

I have found out that you can simply save and reload; DB will then tell you it has deleted the unused sectors, and afterwards nodebuilding works.

StupidBunny said:

I have discovered that merging and joining sectors can easily screw up Doom Builder. I have made entire maps in one format and still had the node builder freak out after merging sectors sometimes. As a result, I don't merge sectors unless it's somehow necessary to the map's functioning, and when I do I always make sure to be able to undo the merging in case the node builder fails.

Hmm, ok...

Gez said:

I have found out that you can simply save and reload; DB will then tell you it has deleted the unused sectors, and afterwards nodebuilding works.

Yeah that's how I fixed it last time but this time I saved, reloaded, and it was screwed up. I'm thinking it's possible to fix by manually editing the sector numbers of the linedefs without closing DB (if you close and re-open and it's all jumbled up then that won't help anymore...); I just noticed this sector reassigning thing today. :P

That's what you get for trying to use a computer :P

Computers are idiots, because if they get one instruction they can't understand perfectly then they freeze up. And if the instructions aren't completely explicit then the computer will do something you totally didn't want it to do.

They don't hate people, as is commonly believed. They're just too dumb to know better.

I get this problem a lot too doing a technique I've done for years called "sector saving". Basically, if you have created multiple sectors with the same information.. (heights/textures/light levels etc), It makes more sense that they are 'grouped' together as 1 sector rather than 3-4 sectors. "Sector Saving" makes making minor changes much quicker, and I believe it is less strenuous on doom's rendering engine.

As people have stated above, in the current version of Doom Builder, I simply have to save/quit/reload DB and DB will automatically delete 'unused sectors' at start-up. It's a shame I can't find a feature in Doom Builder's error checker to do the same thing, I'm hoping DB2 will have such a feature or possibly even allow grouping to make this task less redundant so we can save more time than tagging a ton of lines to change sidedef information.