Open source mapping

Lately I've been toying around with the idea of "open source mapping" where in progress Doom maps can be played and edited while they are still in the process of development. Decisions regarding the evolution and expansion of the map could be made via some sort of committee like process where contributors to the project debate the implementation of particular aspects of the map.

I wonder if software like Subversion or CollabNet could be used to help implement this idea.

There's a number of problems that would have to be solved though. Different components of the map might need to be saved in seperate files and inserted into the actual map later on, or maybe saved as prefabs or something. There's also the problem of what happens when more than one person starts mapping out an area at the same time. Maybe it would be a case of natural selection, but then again you can always cut that part out and put it somewhere else or something.

I think the coolest thing in the universe would be Multiplayer Doom Builder 2, where you can see the edits and effects other people are making on a map real time. You could even test it and see the other players running around in it or something.

Just some ideas I'm throwing out there.

From what I know about Second Life or Minecraft, many different people can leave their mark on an area ( I think). It would be interesting to see this in a megawad, where many edits and tweaks are preserved without everyone knowing who did what, and with some anonymous contributors, but with an overall goal (ouijii-board style?). And a record of the changes to the trunk wad so everyone can follow the history, or maybe do branches with different focuses.

Like phi said, minecraft multiplayer megaprojects are basically what you're looking for, just not doom. The closest you could get is maybe someone livestreaming a map and doing a lot of it in DB's 3d mode, with people commenting on what could be done, added. Maybe have two mappers working on separate sides of the map, starting with a common room (not necessarily the start) and their map cannot go over a line cutting through that room, splitting the map in half? Quadruple threat kind of did that, minus the livestream bit.

As you point out, a real-time "multi-user Doombuilder" would be the ideal solution. In practise I'd imagine it's probably quite difficult to implement, though.

In practise you could probably get away with something like excorpse.wad, planning the high level details of the map in advance and dividing up the work into separate sections for different people to work on. However, with excorpse, the whole point seems to have been to get people working independently and uncoordinated, for an actual map you'd want the opposite. To get a decent, coherent map, you would want to closely coordinate the work and make sure that the different mappers are in regular communication with each other (forums, IM, IRC, etc).

One idea might be to set up some kind of continuous integration process: you'd want a program that could automatically merge the separate sections into a complete map, so you could always see the current status of the finished product. That way the mappers can adjust their work as they go along.

Super Jamie and I mapped most of UAC Ultra that way. Usually one of us would start a map until we couldn't think of what else to add, then the other will take off from there and attempt to make an addition to it or complete it. Worked pretty well, our mapping styles kinda coincided with each other and it's difficult to detect which is mine and which is his.

I collaborated with Jodwin and I definitely had fun sending the WAD back and forth via PM, tho it would have been better if I was in realtime communication via IM while doing the work with him.

Fun times.