Portals.WAD(?) - Marnetmar Needs Some Help

[Marnetmar]

let's assume doomguy said:

All I wanted to do was play a few games and have a few beers with my buddies. That's all I wanted. As our group Colony 3, took our turns having a break, we had fun, played boardgames and did some slight gambling. Our buddies on Earth see us as these heroic muscular badasses with guns, but the truth is we're all kids at heart. We had a shitload of games in the base's little bar, some of them nostalgic games like Crysis and Metro 2033, other ones as old as Monopoly. When I pulled a game out of the closet, I had no idea what the fuck it was supposed to be.

It was a Ouija board.

Hello Doomworld. I'm new here and I would just like to say hello. I'm working on my first WAD and I'm pretty sure I did my homework, but I still don't know much about mapping so what looks good to me might look like absolute shit to anyone else, but I'm pretty sure I did my homework. And if I didn't, I'm here to learn, right?

This WAD is in the very early stages of WIP so of course there will be changes in the near future.

The first thing you're probably gonna notice is my (terrible) attempt at drawing a pentagram:



And a few more pictures to go with that:







So, tell me what you think and feel free to yell at me if I did something extremely stupid.

[Jodwin]

You're cutting into those green bricks and the OpenGL effects in the last screen shot look horrible.

But that OpenGL thing might be just me.

[Marnetmar]

Jodwin said:

You're cutting into those green bricks and the OpenGL effects in the last screen shot look horrible.

But that OpenGL thing might be just me.

I think I see what you mean when you say I'm cutting into the green bricks (texture alignment?) but I don't know what you mean exactly by the OpenGL effects in the last screenie, care to explain?

[Phml]

The lightning is all weird and bright - not sure of the word in english, faded ? It looks tacky. Could be just the port you use to take screenshots and nothing you did yourself.

By the way and sort of related, ideally you'll want to mention which port are you mapping for. Vanilla (plain Doom2.exe), limit-removing, Boom, ZDoom...

[Marnetmar]

Phml said:

The lightning is all weird and bright - not sure of the word in english, faded ? It looks tacky. Could be just the port you use to take screenshots and nothing you did yourself.

By the way and sort of related, ideally you'll want to mention which port are you mapping for. Vanilla (plain Doom2.exe), limit-removing, Boom, ZDoom...

I see. Do you have any suggestions for what I can do to improve this?

Also if I understand that correctly I'm just mapping for Vanilla. The map configuration in DB2 is simply for Doom 2 and what I just said is probably extremely stupid due to my own ignorance.

[printz]

Jodwin said:

You're cutting into those green bricks

Again with that nitpick.

[esselfortium]

printz said:

Again with that nitpick.

It's a misalignment.

[Phml]

Also if I understand that correctly I'm just mapping for Vanilla. The map configuration in DB2 is simply for Doom 2 and what I just said is probably extremely stupid due to my own ignorance.

One way to do that is to try running your wad with Chocolate Doom and see if everything works fine without errors or crashing. If there's any problems, then most likely you're over a limit of some kind and your wad is for limit removing ports.

There's also port specific behavior that might eventually matter. If you're not sure which ports will handle your wad correctly, you could just mention the port you're using yourself to test and play it.

[Marnetmar]

Ah I see. I am currently using Skulltag but I'll try other ports and see what happens.

I'll also fix the problem with the bricks, thanks guys!

Edit:

Fixed

[printz]

esselfortium said:

It's a misalignment.

That looked fine anyway, in a cut-edge game like Doom. It's not the same type of auto-alignment abuse one encounters at computers or synthetic wall panels. Bricks can be less regular, especially fantastic hell bricks, and it doesn't need explanation that they could be cut off for no reason. Other textures like STONE2 are already designed cut off.

[Jodwin]

printz said:

That looked fine anyway, in a cut-edge game like Doom. It's not the same type of auto-alignment abuse one encounters at computers or synthetic wall panels. Bricks can be less regular, especially fantastic hell bricks, and it doesn't need explanation that they could be cut off for no reason. Other textures like STONE2 are already designed cut off.

Sure sure, but it looks better when properly aligned.

[darkreaver]

Some good looking areas there mate. Som real clash of texture themes though, but I dont care :P

[Marnetmar]

I'm glad you like it.

[fullmetalvaran33]

This doesn't look half bad so far. It kinda has an ancient hellish temple feel to it, which is pretty cool. Looks original and creativie, and the texture usage is solid. As for the last screen shot, I think I know what Jodwin was talking about. There is something off about the lighting, although, I can't specifically say what. Try experimenting with different effects and go for something a little more dramatic and realistic (but don't push yourself too hard--this is your first WAD afterall). Try to capture the kind of atmosphere you want players to experience when playing the map(s) with lighting effects. I know that's pretty...general, but I can't really give you any specific instructions. Just keep working and you'll find what works best soon enough. So far, though, this has some promise :).

[Clonehunter]

From the shots, this looks like it could be really good. I'll have to play it though.

[Walter confetti]

doesn't look bad....

[Marnetmar]

I'm glad you guys like the looks of it so far!

Semi-unrelated to the subject at hand I have been fucking around in DB for about 15 minutes and I got this:



Thoughts?

[Use]

I don't care for OpenGL but your texture choices are interesting, they go well together to me. I think you may have gone way over vanilla's limits however.

[fullmetalvaran33]

Marnetmar said:

I'm glad you guys like the looks of it so far!

Semi-unrelated to the subject at hand I have been fucking around in DB for about 15 minutes and I got this:



Thoughts?

This looks pretty darn cool! I think the lighting here is pretty dramatic and gives off a fairly strong atmosphere. You're going in the right direction!

[Marnetmar]

fullmetalvaran33 said:

This looks pretty darn cool! I think the lighting here is pretty dramatic and gives off a fairly strong atmosphere. You're going in the right direction!

Thanks!

[darkreaver]

That looks might interessting. I could never have come up with those texture choices :P Too "illogical" haha, but very nice!

There has to be something weird with your openGL though. Everything looks so...weird. Especially in this one and the last of the previous ones. Almost looks like a tweaked Quake-cfg :P

[pavera]

This looks excellent for a first wad. You sir have a lot of potential.

With that said, the marble face in your latest screenshot isn't centered and it looks kinda off.

[Marnetmar]

Krispavera said:

With that said, the marble face in your latest screenshot isn't centered and it looks kinda off.

Oops, thanks for pointing that out.

[darkreaver]

Looks pretty centered to me? See the shadows on both sides...but I may ofc be wrong

edit: oh, you mean on the wall, not the texture itselv...I seeeee

[magicsofa]

Jodwin said:

Sure sure, but it looks better when properly aligned.

Although, in real life I see cut off bricks all the time and I'm like "hey what's with that"

I mean, the map looks cool. You mash styles well :D

[Marnetmar]

Special Delivery, a new screenie!

I was actually quite disappointed with how this hallway turned out so far, but before I change it I suppose I should ask you guys what you think:

[StoneFrog]

That's pretty nice! I like your varied use of textures - many first WADs try to play it safe and just stick within the realm of the usual techbase stuff. I'm not so sure about the brown ceiling flat under the vines texture, but the actual hallway is nice. It gives off an Evilution vibe.

[darkreaver]

I peronally dont like the ceiling bars, but hey, it isnt MY map :P

Not too shure about the grey ceiling texture either though.

[Xaser]

If this really is your first wad, I can't wait to see what sorts of cool stuff you'll produce once you get some more experience under your belt. Keep this up. :)

[Marnetmar]