Oblige 4.28 released

[Reisal]

Sourceforge thread

Check it out

Finally, the first non-beta, non-test version has finally come.

The changelog file below..


CHANGES (since 3.57)
====================

* V4 began as an experiment into a completely new way to layout rooms
using prefabs for everything including floors and ceilings. However
this system proved to be unsatisfactory (not flexible enough), so I
scrapped it and went back to the drawing board.

+ Prefab system!

+ Quake lighting!
+ Quake visibility!
+ Quake II works!

+ Hexen works!
+ much improved Hexen themes, thanks to blackjar
+ proper Hub system for Hexen

- support FreeDoom 0.7
- support for Absolution, the Doom64 TC
- support for HacX 1.2 and Harmony
- support for Chex Quest 3
- preliminary work on Hexen II and Half-Life [not usable yet]

- DOOM themes for Episodes 2 and 4, courtesy Mr Chris
- monsters are progressive over a full game in DOOM 2
- more naming goodies, thanks to Mr Chris

- improved progress bar and status messages
- output file is deleted if an error occurs
- backup files now use the .OLD extension
- qsavetex detects and handles Hexen II
- cmdline option to load a config file (for Batch mode)

+ support for "shaped" rooms (L, T, plus, etc)
+ support for teleporters
- secret exits are created again

- fixed Quake collision issues
- new more reliable CSG code
- monster control modules for Heretic, Quake, Quake II
- support for liquids in Quake and Quake II
- support reading and writing PK3 files (not used yet)
- an exporter to .MAP format

+ ability to make multiple paths between rooms
- preliminary work on truely 3D room layouts
- improved infighting logic in the Fight Simulator

- new 'Jumbled Up' theme setting
- new 'Tiny' and 'Extreme' settings for level size
- new 'Alternative Look' option
- moved the Seed setting, and increased to 6 digits
- Seed is automatically bumped after a successful build

+ customised Lua language:
- commas are optional at end of line in data tables
- simpler table traversal with new 'each' syntax
- ternary operator of the form: (X ? Y ; Z)
- continue statement
- alternative inequality operator: !=

- incorporated glBSP source for easier building

[Rizera]

Great!

A lot of new possible configurations, I see.
I'm now going to try my just made 32-map wad :)

[chexwarrior]

Yay! I can't believe it.

[Walter confetti]

Groovy!

[Nevanos]

Today is the day I first discover this. Sweet looking stuff man!

[LakiSoft]

Nevan said:

Today is the day I first discover this. Sweet looking stuff man!

Because it's today released.

[Scypek2]

Hooray, the best level editor still gets better and better!

[Clonehunter]

> Harmony Support

Will download!

[mouldy]

clever stuff. I put all the settings to maximum and got massively killed to death.

[Raptomex]

Awesome.

[hex11]

Cool stuff, I really like the psychedelic theme! One thing I noriced though: this version seems to mostly generate rooms with very high ceilings, which reminds me a lot of Quake II for some reason. Is there an option to adjust that? These are the settings I changed (the rest stayed at default):

Game Settings
- game : Doom
- engine : limite-removing
Level Architecture:
- size : small
- theme : as original
Level Control
- big junctions : none
- big rooms : none

I seem to recall old versions of Oblige (3.x from a couple years ago) would generate smaller areas. I wonder if this is a side-effect of the Quake support in newer versions? Or maybe my memory is playing tricks...

[Avoozl]

Nice to see it has Quake II support, however I wish it would support the expansions since I'm tired of only the basic weapons.

[Reisal]

Avooz, it's possible to add it yourself if you know all the information such as id/name/etc.

LUA is more or less copy/paste/manual edit text so it's not hard to do it

[andrewj]

hex11 said:

One thing I noriced though: this version seems to mostly generate rooms with very high ceilings, which reminds me a lot of Quake II for some reason. Is there an option to adjust that?

Ceiling heights are decided in the Areas_height_realization() function in areas.lua, the following code in particular:

  -- ceilings too
  local ceil_h = max_floor_h + 192

  for v = 9,1,-1 do
    if assign_ceil(v, ceil_h) then
      ceil_h = ceil_h + 128
    end
  end

[Reisal]

Typical map in action*. Recording using Zandronum + Skulltag_data/actors files, Perk's smoother animations and a number of other modifications used in this series (incl. E1M1 & E1M2)

*Results may vary

[40oz]

pretty sweet version! The prefabricated rooms may need to be watered down a little. I've only played one episode but I think I've seen them all and they don't really blend in as well with the generated rooms. Lots of cool stuff though, I'm especially liking the secret rooms and teleports! Can't wait for teleport traps and monster closets!

[TwinBeast]

The caves it generates are pretty cool. Looks like something someone could actually do. If it could also cut the caves with some buildings, so it's not just Room->Door->Cave or something like that.. then it could easily be mistaken for a non generated level.

I've noticed that all the liquids in the caves do the max damage, even if it's just water...

[Retog]

[Reisal]

Optional extra cyberdemon arena map for those who are looking to do minor tinkering to udoom.lua.

[Pottus]

I'm just wondering, how many people use this and actually play through the maps?

[purist]

I sometimes do. When I co-op with my son on Legacy there's a limited amount of levelsets we can do, since they need to be short and easy enough for him plus vanilla compat for Legacy. With Oblige I can just generate a level set within those parameters.

[LakiSoft]

Pottus said:

I'm just wondering, how many people use this and actually play through the maps?

Oblige Hater ;)

I don't have Oblige. It saves your time and work. I use it to make kick-ass megawads. :)

[andrewj]

Pottus said:

I'm just wondering, how many people use this and actually play through the maps?

I don't know myself, I'd guess more than 10, less than 100.

[Solarn]

Pottus said:

I'm just wondering, how many people use this and actually play through the maps?

I do. Usually it only takes me 2-3 tries to get a mapset that's actually fun and cool-looking.

[Retog]

The design of this map surprised me a lot. It is superb.

[Reisal]

The "Boss" maps are premade maps since I think it would be harder for a program to come up with such stuff since you have to have specific tags for floor lowering or rising (in the case of MAP07).

[jute]

Pottus said:

I'm just wondering, how many people use this and actually play through the maps?

I certainly do.

[Reisal]

Pottus said:

I'm just wondering, how many people use this and actually play through the maps?

I have, since discovering the last version of V2 (0.97) in late 2008 or 2009(?)

Hardcore fan of the program and contributor on top of that.

[Phml]

Quite impressed with this latest version.

It's still easy to spot the strings, and it quickly feels like playing the same level over and over, but sometimes genuinely interesting fights or level design (if only over a few rooms) emerge.

Definitely nice to see how it improves as years go by. Makes me want to follow this more closely, if nothing else. :)

[geo]

I just tried it for 3 levels. It gets better and better with every release. There are some nice details indents and photos in the wall. I think it can bennefit from more random supports like those you'd find in mines.

The first and second map felt too much alike. The third map switched it up with teleporters which are a very nice touch.

I liked the fact that some key doors required you to find further key doors and slight backtracking. Instead of quarantined areas that you get blocked by a door and find the switch to open it with very little backtracking. While this is just good map making I felt it was too 100% with no fresh takes on door opening.

The secrets made me feel too overpowered for how easy they were to find.

Throw in some dead bodies with random ammo and lesser weapons. I think timed doors can benefit variety. Like hit a switch and a door opens then you run through. Co-op can use plenty of... 1 person mans a switch and 1 person slips through a door to hit a switch that will permanently keep the door open. If not a full level where 2 people must be individuals and open the door for the other person's path.

Switches that not only open doors in other rooms but release enemies into your room would be nice.

Ever think of doing something in TF2? Different engines of course.