What DOOM map editor do you use?

[smeghammer]

Just now, Gwarl said:

Slade3 just straight up reads the DECORATE lumps in the wad you're working with and any resource wads you specify and automatically populates your thing list.

 

 

Hey, that's neat - it even reads an exploded .PK3 structure - my custom monsters were there with (almost) correct icons too! 

 

 

[Hitboi]

I use GZDB instead of UDB (which I want to use), but my mediocre laptop couldn't handle the power of UDB :(

[out_of_service]

DoomCad

[jerk-o]

Eureka because installing that in Debian automatically also installs freedoom and prboom+

[spineapple tea]

Doom Builder 2 feels more comfortable than UDB or GZDB because I love weird old clunk over new weird clunk.

[Bridgeburner56]

UltimateUberMegaChadBuilder (UDB)

[VanaheimRanger]

I mainly use UDB (when I map, which is rare), but I'd like to try DBX

[Doominick]

Me too 

[SilentD00mer]

I use Eureka and Slade 3, on Debian, because they are the main options for Linux, and they run without problems here.

[roadworx]

udb, i don't wanna try dbx cuz i'm stubborn and i don't like changing my method of doing things unless it's easy to switch and requires little effort

[Doom-X-Machina]

UDB

[TheHoodieGuy02]

Ultimate Doom Builder is my go to for anything Doom mapping, really. It's more versatile than GZDB, and has a ton of quality of life improvements.

[Pezl]

I use "Doom Builder 1" i tried other editors but i prefer this old one.

[Final Verdict]

 

Ultimate Doom Builder and Slade 3.

 

Been playing Doom since the beginning and always wanted to make maps but until last year I never had a chance or the time. Made 8 maps and then had to quit due to real life shenanigans. I'll get back to it some day but I can't even play any games at the moment so it'll have to wait.

[TuomasGaming]

15 hours ago, StupidBunny said:

Also a little odd that the poll includes neither UDB or DBX.  It's a bit like asking "What's your favorite IWAD?" and providing  "Strife", "Chex Quest 2" and "Other" as the only options

Basically, I've never heard of them until now.

[Lizardcommando]

For the longest time, I was actually using WadAuthor. Recently I switched to Doom Builder.

[Lobo]

Doombuilder.X

[NeilForshaw]

UDB compiled for Linux (we'll from what I can understand it's a Linux native though using Mono but I might be wrong).

[LexiMax]

Ultimate Doom Builder.  Some time with WADED and DCK aside, Doom Builder was the first editor I ever got serious into, and by now my muscle memory is pretty much mapped to it, to the point where trying to use other editors is just kind of a pain.

That said, I don't think it's perfect, and the only reason I use UDB over DB2 and DBX is that it seems to be actively maintained.  The interface massively suffers from "toolbar-icon-itis" which might be okay if you already know what many of the icons do, but when you don't it's just...frustrating.  I've been using DB since the 1.x era and I don't know what half of this stuff does anymore, and to make matters worse the toolbar next to the menu is context sensitive.

 

 

On top of that, there is yet another toolbar down the left side and a pop-out thing on the right side....it's too much.  I would love to see a floating palette or a ribbon interface condense this icon sprawl into something you can actually tell what they do.

 

 

Doom Builder could massively benefit from being able to put tools in a palette like a paint program, or a ribbon like in Microsoft Word.  Or....my personal favorite, a "start typing in what you want to do and it'll pick the right tool" fuzzy find feature, like in the Start Menu or Sublime Text.

 

[ReX]

WadAuthor. Why use a lathe when you can manually fashion cylindrical objects? Heh.

 

I await the flurry of "You've got to be f*ckin' kidding me"s

 

 

[Szymanski]

I'm using an old GZDoom builder bugfix build, I've found it very stable. There's features I'd like from Deepsea (mirroring, viewing the map from the file open menu) and a tool to find seg hotspots like the current visplane explorer tool; however stability is the most important feature.

[Lizardcommando]

1 hour ago, ReX said:

WadAuthor. Why use a lathe when you can manually fashion cylindrical objects? Heh.

 

I await the flurry of "You've got to be f*ckin' kidding me"s

 

 

Compared to something like Deep or DeepSea or whatever else was available at the time, WadAuthor felt way more easier to use. I remember the "Make a Door" prefab button they had incorporated into WadAuthor felt like such a godsend to me.

[Bridgeburner56]

3 hours ago, AlexMax said:

Stuff

The tool bars are fairly crowded but I barely use them. Hot keys remove the need for 95% of the tool bar buttons. I only use a couple of them like switching merge options or gradation type (linear, ease in sin etc).
If you mouse over the icons it tells you what they do (iirc). I also have a tutorial covering every single function in the UDB config (reading that is the easiest way to learn what everything does). You gotta keep in mind that UDB is an amazingly powerful and complex piece of kit these days. You will need to put some energy in if you want to learn what every function does. The tool bars don't even begin to capture everything.

[MattFright]

4 hours ago, AlexMax said:

Ultimate Doom Builder.  Some time with WADED and DCK aside, Doom Builder was the first editor I ever got serious into, and by now my muscle memory is pretty much mapped to it, to the point where trying to use other editors is just kind of a pain.

That said, I don't think it's perfect, and the only reason I use UDB over DB2 and DBX is that it seems to be actively maintained.  The interface massively suffers from "toolbar-icon-itis" which might be okay if you already know what many of the icons do, but when you don't it's just...frustrating.  I've been using DB since the 1.x era and I don't know what half of this stuff does anymore, and to make matters worse the toolbar next to the menu is context sensitive.

 

 

On top of that, there is yet another toolbar down the left side and a pop-out thing on the right side....it's too much.  I would love to see a floating palette or a ribbon interface condense this icon sprawl into something you can actually tell what they do.

 

 

Doom Builder could massively benefit from being able to put tools in a palette like a paint program, or a ribbon like in Microsoft Word.  Or....my personal favorite, a "start typing in what you want to do and it'll pick the right tool" fuzzy find feature, like in the Start Menu or Sublime Text.

 

 

I don't think any of this is bad in the slightest, much in the contrary actually. There's a reason most modern software after the 90s started experimenting with this sort of user interface rather than lots and lots and lots of lists and menus obscurely hiding tools/functions away from the user, it's because they simply make the experience much easier to learn since you have access to everything without having to look up a spreadsheet of keybinds (do you prefer to be overwhelmed by easy-to-ignore small icons, or a million keybinds?), without mentioning that you can always just ignore most of it, like with most other software.

 

When i went back to try DBX the minimalistic user interface actually made it much harder for me to adapt and was much more intimidating than UDB (off-topic but the blurry icons in DBX also look hideous), for all of the reasons i just explained.

[LexiMax]

I think you're responding to an argument that I wasn't really making.  Shoving your program functionality into menus is a bad idea, but shoving your program into a glut of toolbar buttons isn't much better.  It's fine if it works for you, but I think it could be done better.

 

Let me go into a little more detail on the suggestions I outlined above:

 

1. Put the toolbar icons into a tool palette where they could perhaps be grouped, organized, or at the very least displayed in an x by x grid instead of single-row across the side of the screen.

 

 

2. Try introducing a ribbon interface, which - if done well, it's possible to do it badly - gives you that same sort of organization, but in a place where the old toolbar was.

 

 

3. Having a fuzzy finder search for commands.  Visual Studio Code has an enormous amount of functionality, but this fuzzy finder allows you to find a specific piece of functionality near instantly, even if you have no idea which widget to click on or menu to pull down.  I already posted a picture of a fuzzy finder above, and personally I think this would be the sweet spot of lowest effort, highest reward.

Edited April 18, 2021 by AlexMax

[MattFright]

27 minutes ago, AlexMax said:

I think you're responding to an argument that I wasn't really making.

 

It seems like you might've just misunderstood my point. I wasn't implying that it's perfect, moreso that it's better than the alternatives. I'm not saying that it can't be improved upon (it very much can), but it's still much more user friendly than DB2, DBX or similar editors. Admittedly i could've narrowed down the quote to make that clearer, that part was totally my fault.

[LexiMax]

Just now, MattFright said:

It seems like you might've just misunderstood my point. I wasn't implying that it's perfect, moreso that it's better than the alternatives.

 

Ah gotcha.  I don't really use SLADE's map editor or Eureka or a DB fork, and I jumped ship from DB2 not because of the interface but because of unresolved undo-related crashes.  I was more comparing UDB's interface against other programs that I use, where I just feel like it could do a lot better.

[Doomkid]

Pre-2001: Using save game editors, drawing maps in MSpaint wishing I could play them..

2001-2004: WadAuthor

2005-2016: Doom Builder 1

2017-Present: GZDoom Builder

 

I'll upgrade again some time when it's necessary!

 

EDIT: I decided to make an updated version of this with more choices, I hope you don't mind:

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Doomkid

[Telemassacre]

Slade3.

[GratefulName]

UDB