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MajorRawne

Updating 1994 Wad - Help!!

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MAP: RAWNWOOD.WAD
Title: Woodhalls 2010
Status: 10% complete

Hi everyone, I am updating the 1994 "classic" Woodhalls 2 and calling the new version Woodhalls 2010. I'm having a crapload of problems with texturing and sectors... I might need someone to walk me through a few things if you can spare the time?

What is going on with these wall textures? I'm trying to make a window and align the textures manually, since Autoalign doesn't seem to want to touch them. But every time I adjust the upper or lower texture, it drags both the upper AND lower halves of the window, so I cannot align things as I would like:



In this shot, I have literally got no idea how to build an entranceway that doesn't have a door disappearing into the sky, or a vertically stretched door texture that repeats itself upwards:



Finally, I was trying to build an outdoor area to break up the constant monotony of indoors and wood, IMO the only real failings of this map, but because certain areas such as the main hallway of this map are so tall, I've had to basically build mountains so that the taller sectors of the map aren't invisible from the outside. Instead of being refreshing and open my outdoor box has become oppressive:



EDIT: I realise these large torches are also clipping through the base of their stands. I notice this kind of thing seems to happen when you add decorations at the player's eye level. Is there any way I can get around this?



Can anyone give me some tips, I know these are noobish errors but I need walking through the solution?

EDIT: I managed to add new music without any problems and I'm trying to download DosBox so I can use Dehacked... it's never-ending :)

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MajorRawne said:

What is going on with these wall textures? I'm trying to make a window and align the textures manually, since Autoalign doesn't seem to want to touch them. But every time I adjust the upper or lower texture, it drags both the upper AND lower halves of the window, so I cannot align things as I would like:

Have you tried upper/lower pegging the textures?

I have literally got no idea how to build an entranceway that doesn't have a door disappearing into the sky, or a vertically stretched door texture that repeats itself upwards:

Recess the outside door into a door frame, that way it'll have clearly defined dimensions.

Finally, I was trying to build an outdoor area to break up the constant monotony of indoors and wood, IMO the only real failings of this map, but because certain areas such as the main hallway of this map are so tall, I've had to basically build mountains so that the taller sectors of the map aren't invisible from the outside. Instead of being refreshing and open my outdoor box has become oppressive:

If you're after something like the courtyard in E1M1, spend some time studying the map. You can learn a lot of tricks that way.

I realise these large torches are also clipping through the base of their stands. I notice this kind of thing seems to happen when you add decorations at the player's eye level. Is there any way I can get around this?

The clipping's more pronounced with some ports than others. Raise one stand, lower another and decide which looks best.

I'm trying to download DosBox so I can use Dehacked.

Have you tried WhackEd?

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THANK YOU for the advice!! I'm going to put it to good use and I'll report back later. I'm downloading WhackEd now.

If I add custom music, monsters and a sky texture to this map, then when I send it to Snaboo and he compiles it with all the other maps from this project, will my map screw things up? Or will it work normally alongside other maps which do not have these amendments?

EDIT: Got the map name changed. Yaay!

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Music shouldn't be a problem so long as it's in Midi or Mus format, only standard Doom/Doom2 monsters are allowed and a new sky texture might or might not be accepted. Don't know what the situation is with dehacked patches, better check with Snarboo.

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I'm pretty sure new sky textures are allowed. I'm pretty certain I made one for one of the maps I made. No Dehacked patches though.

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Thanks lads. I have found a really good track which suits the flow of the level. I haven't changed the sky or added new monsters in; is it possible to have new skies for every level or are we stuck with three split over episodes? I always felt the concept of "episodes" was pointless in Doom 2, all that *really* seems to change is the sky texture, I never felt that the episodes were that different from one another.

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According to the rules your map is supposed to be in Boom format. Boom has a line tag that transfers whatever the upper texture of that line to the sky. You can use any doom texture you want really. But it's reccomended you include a new sky texture with your wad, or use a preexisting doom 2 sky texture.

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40oz said:
Boom has a line tag that transfers whatever the upper texture of that line to the sky.

Nah, that's an MBF feature :p

Although PrBoom does allow it in Boom compatibility mode, so you can freely say it's a "PrBoom Boom compatibility feature." Using the feature doesn't affect an engine that is faithful to Boom; it just has no effect. The regular episode sky texture is used.

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myk said:

Nah, that's an MBF feature :p

Although PrBoom does allow it in Boom compatibility mode, so you can freely say it's a "PrBoom Boom compatibility feature".

And to specify, using sky transfers won't make the map incompatible with Boom. Instead Boom will just render the normal Doom 2 sky meant for that map number.

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In case anyone wonders why Jodwin is saying what I already said, I edited my post as he was posting ;)

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Thanks chaps. I was actually editing it for vanilla Doom. The only port I use these days is ZDoom although I used to use Legacy to get the smoother graphics and pretty light effects. I don't think I've ever played a map in Boom before.

Work on the Woodhalls map is slowed at the mo due to real life commitments but hopefully it should hit the deadline.

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Ok mate, will do :)

This map won't be finished by Sat -- can I cheat and submit a half-finished map, then upload the finished version next week?

EDIT: And would anyone care to have a look at it and see if they suggest ways to improve my work? I've only really done the entryway and main hall, a garden outside the entryway, added some monsters to the first couple of map sections, and added a small secret area.

EDIT2: How can I transfer this into PrBoom compatibility without cutting and pasting stuff? Or is there a way to cut and paste a map in Doom Builder without losing formatting?

Here are shots of "before" and an early "after":

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That's a pretty good start. I'd suggest brightening the skylight sector, using the ceiling brightness transfer to get rid of the bright squares from the torches, and making a tiny sector so that the banners don't repeat vertically.

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Thanks, those are good ideas. Can brightness transfer be used when editing in vanilla Doom? I also don't understand the tiny sector part - sorry I really am brand new to this.

Also, I just spotted a darkened sector by the blue demon face which needs to be matched to the brightness of the rest of the room. The blue nice was originally going to be a dark and horror filled death hole, but it lacked the impact of a demon face.

So is this new version of the map looking ok then?

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Brightness transfers are a Boom feature. To switch from editing Vanilla to Boom, just go to Edit -> Map Options and switch the game configuration to Boom. You also get the same prompt any time you open your map. If you want to keep it vanilla compatible you could try following this tutorial, but using the Boom transfers is simpler if you plan on submitting this for the tune-up challenge.

For the small sector, all I mean is something really thin (like one unit) that won't really be noticeable in-game, but will let you cover up the repeated banner. And yeah, I think it's looking pretty good so far. I'm not really a fan of that wood texture, but that's just me, nothing wrong with how you're using it there. You might want to try making some details on the ceilings too, but I think they're all right how they are now.

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Thanks mate, I'll try what you suggested. The wood texture, well, it's ok, but it is heavily over-used by the original author. You should see the rest of the map. I was going to vary it and add some colours which you can already see in the shot of the main hallway, and I'm adding some rooms with outside views, cos there is a maze section which is pretty monotonous. But if I got rid of the overall wood theme it wouldn't be called Woodhalls any more :)

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