Open Outdoor Areas

Just out of curiosity, how do most of the people here go about making outdoor areas?

All of my levels so far have been techbases, and if I have an outdoor area I usually just draw a semi-random shape, give it a a few borders and height differences + some grass textures and trees and call it a day.

So now, I'm starting an outdoor level with a lot of large open areas, and I can't get it to look right. So far I've just been drawing a giant room and filling it with detail. I draw borders around the room and add stone textures to make it look a little more natural, but this just make the room get smaller and more cluttered until I realize that the level is going nowhere and start over. I'm out of inspiration.

Are you mapping for any source port, or is it vanilla DooM/limit-removing source port.

For vanilla DooM, the most "natural" looking environments are probably flat, grassy areas with rocky clusters, and water/nukage pools. The surrounding "walls" are probably best textured using brick or stone textures, with supports to provide some contrast.

For ports that support slopes, create sloped pits or mounds. If deep water is supported, create nukage/water pools.

I think he's referring more to making his outdoor areas seem varied and colorful, not cramming detail into them.

I'm having trouble with this too - one idea would be to, wherever it doesn't adversely affect gameplay, integrate some degree of manmade structures with the landscape. Embed some wooden steps winding down a plateau, or add support struts around the edges of some cliff. Try to add visual interest that's abstract and deviates a bit from the norm - Doom doesn't really work too well when you're relying solely on the contours of natural terrain.

sl4ium made some posts on doomworld concerning terrain/outside areas, which may be helpful. For me, I am working with GZDoom mostly, outside terrain can be nicely manipulated with vertex height things. Otherwise, include some building structures, quarries or somesuch. If the perimeter is to be left open, use Line_Horizon with some trees, vegetation for demarcation. Maybe include some lakes for interest sake or natural traps.

I think the key in vanilla mapping is to use lots of height variation and angle variation to lessen the corners inherent in doom maps. It requires that you draw lots and lots of sectors :D

Also, make sure to have various "materials" (textures) to combat monotony. Most of the outdoor textures have at least one counterpart.

I agree with StoneFrog....it's better to be creative and make something visually appealing than to get hung up on realism. Besides, why can't Hell mess with the very earth itself ?? ? ? ?? ?

I kinda found this little method to work pretty good for outdoor areas. Just kinda draw your outdoor rooms like flames. Have the walls flare out into spikes.



It can make two sectors look like a lot of sectors and makes doom's lack of slopes less noticeable. It's usually smart to keep those flares out of the play area to keep players from aimlessly checking every one of those dead ends. I usually use it for mountainous landscape scenes that you can see through out of a window of a building.

That's just the basic structure though. You would definitely need more texture variation, maybe some water/slime falls, some extra sectors for more height variation, etc. Speed of Doom features a ton of outdoor areas.

Don't map in a box unless the rest of the map surrounds this box. And even then, try to get the surrounding map to bend to the outdoors instead of the other way around. For example, you want the base to be on a plateau overlooking a canyon? draw the canyon and plateau first, then build the base off of that.

Outlining makes mapping outdoor areas much easier; make large pancake-like plateaus then cut them up with height variation. And turning off snap-to-grid and pushing vertices can be tedious, but makes sectors look much better, though can be very sidedef intensive if you're mapping vanilla.

I'd say look at the Phocas Island series but those maps are ugly now. They both feature lots of outdoor areas, but no techbases.

chopkinsca said:

I'd say look at the Phocas Island series but those maps are ugly now.

Okay, you're full of poop!

Use3D said:

Okay, you're full of poop!

Compared to how I revamped most areas in Phocas2.5, my statement is true.

Maybe this level may help: http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/MAP03_Thel2.zip

I'm trying to make outside areas of my mapas as "consistents" as this guy has made here, 'cause I think its very good at this point.

ReX said:

Are you mapping for any source port, or is it vanilla DooM/limit-removing source port.

I should have mentioned this in the beginning, I'm mapping for a Hexen (zdoom) mod. Its a level that takes place in a forest, with a field and a large fortress/castle.

bgraybr said:

I'm a level that takes place in a forest

I'm a porno that takes place in Earth orbit.

bgraybr said:

... forest...

I love forests in doom. I want to see how you pull it off.

Ceiling height variation is also important. Having "drop ceilings" around your borders so that your architecture rises above the horizon gives a great illusion of space.

Absolutely. Simple use of F_SKY1 alone will not grant the illusion of playing outside of boxrooms. Really like 40oz's approach too.

My own recommendation, if you don't want to or feel unable to go for a more detailed approach, would be to fall back on a more minimalist theme such as desert. That's not to say that it should ever wind up looking like a '94 map, but that less can be more in some cases.

I usually make a BIG square and then proceed to fill it up with whatever gameplay I want the place to hold (bridges, canyons, temples, whatever) then I do the surroundings/walls. It works fine for me, because then I dont have to plan the general look of the area before I start mapping.

Also: I just made a huge outdoor area with a big lava canyon, nice bridge and some structures...I did not save (because I was in 3d-mode). When I exited 3d-mode...DB crashed. FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I find that lately I'm better at making "natural" outdoor areas than good looking indoor areas. It's just a matter of drawing the right shapes with "snap to grid" turned off and using grassy textures and putting "trees" in spots where they can't get in the way, and maybe putting a pool somewhere to break up the grass if there's too much green.

Sorry to hear about that crash, Darkreaver. :(

square square 45 degrees line-square 90 degrees square square square CIRCLE!!1!11! square square square.



thats how I do it. to the 99%'s