Lost and confused

[Koko Ricky]

I've been playing doom probably for about 11 years now, but I was never a strong citizen of the online DooM community. I'm just now getting to the point where I'm downloading add-ons for Doom (mostly in the form of TC's and Zdoom levels), but I find there are a great deal of things I don't know about or don't understand. So, just to get a few things out of the way so I can start getting a grip on things:

1. What are Pwads, iwads and hubs? What are the differences between them?

2. Why is it the Zdoom engine doesn't appear to support "true" multiple floors such as bridges or catwalks (Doom 64 could using a glitch, I don't see why Zdoom can't)?

3. What editor can be recommended for a visual user with no experience in the field of FPS editing?

[lerner]

1. Pwads are patch wads, the kind you use with -file. Iwads are internal wads, and contain the main data for doom and doom2. Examples are doom.wad and doom2.wad. Hub is a term used to describe certain levels that usually are interconnected in a way similar to Hexen's levels and have puzzles you must solve. Could also be used for the "central" map in a wad in that style.

2. Bug Randy about it if you want, but it's not really required to have interesting architecture and level designs. Besides, you could always fake it using TeleportToLine.

3. Doom Builder, hands down. 3d editing mode rocks.

[Graf Zahl]

GoatLord said:

2. Why is it the Zdoom engine doesn't appear to support "true" multiple floors such as bridges or catwalks (Doom 64 could using a glitch, I don't see why Zdoom can't)?

It's hard to do with a software renderer. Doom64 doesn't count because it massively cheated with rendering glitches that heavily depend on the engine being used and instantly moving floors.

[andrewj]

2. Other source ports have support for real multiple floors: EDGE, Legacy, and Eternity.

[impClaw]

http://zdoom.org/zdkb/kk1.html
http://zdoom.org/zdkb/twostory.html