Map crashes game

I've been working on a map, which I've been able to load just fine via Doomsday, until I got to the point where:

1. I was satisfied with the layout and added monsters and other things, and
2. I made some missing texture corrections based on what the analysis function in DB2 spit out at this point.

At this point, my map crashed the game.

Here's the error output: http://audiodef.com/doom/doomsday.out.txt

Here's the map: http://audiodef.com/doom/Reason.wad

The first thing I did was to backtrack the "corrections" the analysis said I should make, which didn't make this error go away. I thought of removing all the things I just added (since before that, the map worked fine), but of course, without the monsters it's just not DOOM.

I'd appreciate any help!

I ran this fine with Zdoom 2.41. But I get these errors in the console:

Unknown top texture '-1' on second side of linedef 803
Unknown middle texture '--' on first side of linedef 807
Unknown top texture '-1' on second side of lindef 820
Unknown top texture '-1' on second side of lindef 887
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of lindef 921

Just fix these and try again, Are you running it with prboom? Please reply when you fix these and tell me how you went. And what source port you are developing for.

neubejiita said:

I ran this fine with Zdoom 2.41. But I get these errors in the console:

Unknown top texture '-1' on second side of linedef 803
Unknown middle texture '--' on first side of linedef 807
Unknown top texture '-1' on second side of lindef 820
Unknown top texture '-1' on second side of lindef 887
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of lindef 921

Just fix these and try again, Are you running it with prboom? Please reply when you fix these and tell me how you went. And what source port you are developing for.

I'm guessing he's running it in Doomsday, considering that's where he got the error log from. I've used Doomsday in the past, it can be pretty picky about WADs. Stuff that other source ports have no problem with will crash Doomsday. It's not the best port for mapping.

I've just tried your map in Doomsday 1.9.0-Beta6.9 and it worked just fine for me.

@subatomic You were likely using a much old version of Doomsday in that case. Newer versions are much more tolerant of map/mod errors and will only shutdown when it can't resolve a problem.

DaniJ said:

@subatomic You were likely using a much old version of Doomsday in that case. Newer versions are much more tolerant of map/mod errors and will only shutdown when it can't resolve a problem.

The last version I mapped with was 1.8.6. I've played with the latest beta, but not any custom WADs. So you're probably right.

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I tested my wad in Chocolate (crashed, don't know why), Legacy, Edge and Zdoom. Seems to work OK with those, although some of them played the wad REALLY dark. Is this my fault or the fault of the engine?

I downloaded the latest Doomsday and it plays - it just takes a minute to load. Does this wad border on "too big" at all?

I fixed the texture errors. I wasn't really writing it for a specific port - should I?

I've uploaded the wad again. I still have to add monsters for the medium and hard levels, but I'm done with the layout. I'd appreciate any constructive criticism. Too many/not enough monsters for the difficulty level, too much/not enough health, ammo, etc. I've tried to make it tricky and interesting.

(Actually, the too many/not enough monsters may not apply until I've added more, but I could use some hints on that point.)

Also, I know the music level is low. The music is mine, a MIDI export of "Bullet In My Brain". I just need to bring the levels up and re-insert it when I'm ready to say "that's a wrap".

That link again, for convenience, is http://audiodef.com/doom/Reason.wad

Well the latest version of the level works fine for me in Dday 1.8.6, which loads the map in a fraction of a second.

Dday 1.9's new map converter (and general play performance) is probably lacking optimization at this point, hence the speed which the map loads in the 1.9 beta's shouldn't be taken as meaning too much, to a user.

Bare in mind that Chocolate Doom imtentionally imitates alot of Vanailla Doom's limit's. It's likely that you are hitting such a limit (the map is very large and very open for instance).

Thanks, Vermil. I appreciate your feedback.

Maybe I'll just get rid of Chocolate. I knew it was supposed to be a "true to the original" port. It shouldn't surprise if my wad doesn't work with it, when I think about it.

audiodef said:

Seems to work OK with those, although some of them played the wad REALLY dark. Is this my fault or the fault of the engine?

Some ports obviously render lightning levels differently, depending on multiple factors. Sometimes it's just the port's own renderer code, sometimes different display settings can have great effect. For example, if you use prboom+ the color mode you're using can affect whether the game uses your display driver's video settings or its own settings (for example, on my desktop prboom+ on 8bit renders much brighter than ZDoom does, while prboom+ on 16bit or higher looks the same as ZDoom - the difference was that 8bit used my gfx gamma setting).

This being said, your map is actually at fault here. The lightning levels you have used are really low. Based on my own experience the ZDoom software renderer would serve as a pretty good "lightning standard" for testing.

Thanks, Jodwin! That's very good to know. I will check and adjust my lighting according to how it looks in ZDoom before releasing the final version.

One thing I just noticed: heights are different between ZDoom and DD. In my map, when you go into the small chambers off the start room, the pedestals holding the ammo display the way I want them to in DD, but are WAY too low in ZD. Why does this happen and how should I address it?

Some comparison screenshots would help here I think.

However, I will take a stab at an answer: Perhaps you are using a widescreen monitor and yet you have configured ZDoom to display a 4:3 resolution at a 16:9/10 pixel asspect? This would account for them looking different as Doomsday will automatically adjust the aspect ratio to suit. But that would mean everything else would look "squished" in ZDoom too.

Probably not the reason, but I haven't the time to install ZDoom and compare results with different configurations myself.

No widescreen, but I'll post screen shots when I get a chance.