Oblige V5 WIP surfaces

[Reisal]

You can find out more here

Mediafire mirror

Here is a WIP (Work in Progress) package for Oblige, version 5.07, for you guys and girls to have a play with. Note that this is not an official release.

The two biggest changes in here are the new lighting method and the WAD prefab system.

Currently only DOOM 2, FreeDOOM and Final DOOM are supported. Other Doom-like games, such as Heretic, will require a lot of work to be supported again (such as making a set of prefabs) and that won't be happening any time soon. Games such as Quake will require hugely more work -- I cannot even guess when I would start working on that (maybe never).

I think this V5 version is a lot better than the 4.28 version, both in looks and in gameplay, e.g. there are pillars and crates to hide behind. But it is not ready for a full release, there are numerous important things still missing, such as room or floor fabs which can supply new wall shapes, and windows between rooms.

Please try a megawad or two and see what you think. All feedback welcome :)

From the readme..

OBLIGE 5.07 [WIP]
=================

by Andrew Apted. May 2013


** PREFACE **

This package is just a SNAPSHOT or "Work In Progress" of
current Oblige development. This it NOT a proper release and
is only intended for testing or for curiosity.


INTRODUCTION

OBLIGE is a random level generator for various classic FPS
games, such as DOOM II and QUAKE (with more in development).
The goal is to produce good levels which are fun to play.

The planned features are:

* high quality levels, e.g. outdoor areas!
* easy to use GUI interface (no messing with command lines)
* built-in node builder, so the levels are ready to play
* uses the LUA scripting language for easy customisation
* DOOM, Heretic, Hexen and Quake support!


Please visit the web site for complete information:

http://oblige.sourceforge.net/

[jute]

I'm excited to try this. I like generating megawads of small, mostly outdoor maps with scarce monsters, weapons, and health. Each map is like a Doom haiku.

[Phml]

Cool. Thanks for reposting this here, Chris.

I suppose it might be too early to expect such things anyway, but is there any documentation anywhere for the WAD prefab system? I took a look and didn't find anything.

Edit: thanks!

[Reisal]

Phml said:

Cool. Thanks for reposting this here, Chris.

I suppose it might be too early to expect such things anyway, but is there any documentation anywhere for the WAD prefab system? I took a look and didn't find anything.

I am pretty certain that the prefab system is not fully documented and/or finished to allow custom modifications yet.

[Death Egg]

Levels do look better than they used to. The program needs to set lines as upper and lower unpegged more often though.

[BaronOfStuff]

Oh shit. Map design, layout and flow feels far more natural with this release. Only issue I've taken notice of so far is that areas are repeated frequently, although given that this is only a WIP version that's hardly an issue worth complaining about.

[andrewj]

Hmmm I probably should've said that this was not ready for wider exposure, but no worries -- more testers and feedback is good.

@Phml: documentation for the wad prefabs will be available with the proper release (which this isn't) -- sometime before the end of the year. Though you can try editing one of the existing wads, simply save it and OBLIGE will use the new version (no need to build nodes). Adding new prefabs requires some Lua code -- that's where the documentation will be almost essential.

[Reisal]

Have a peek at some Hordes+Crazy..

[odysseyofnoises]

Wow, this version is heaps better than 4.28... The levels in 4.28 didn't have as much detail, just looked sort of blank. But this version's maps are great! One problem I'm having though is that it's not generating any secrets for me =/

[Job]

odysseyofnoises said:

Wow, this version is heaps better than 4.28... The levels in 4.28 didn't have as much detail, just looked sort of blank. But this version's maps are great! One problem I'm having though is that it's not generating any secrets for me =/

Seconded on both counts! Either way, this version of Oblige is great, really enjoying it over previous incarnations. I have a question though, about Oblige in general, not just this version. I would find it more enjoyable if some of the doors weren't remote-switch opened. Unless I'm doing something wrong, all of my Oblige levels exhibit this and it makes the gameplay too predictable IMO. Thanks for all the hard work!

EDIT: I take part of that door complaint back. I just played further into the wad and found my first Oblige non-remote door! It's more of a question regarding frequency, now.

Got an issue with sector vs monster height:

[odysseyofnoises]

Check out this wad generated by Oblige and edited a little by me. One weird thing was that there were these random out-of-place shadows all over the pentagrams, so I had those removed. Additionally I changed some doors a little to allow for glides and fast speedrunning :P

link: http://speedy.sh/xNNUq/diszone.wad

It's called "Disaster Zone"

[andrewj]

Secret closets is one of numerous things which has V5 doesn't do yet.

Height checking (like that cage prefab) is another.

Some levels will have lots of normal doors, and some will have none -- it is random, but you can control it with the Level Control module.

[odysseyofnoises]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPIObXaWuTw

nomonsters speedrun of map03 of a wad I am making from Oblige maps. For now I'll only have 3 maps but when Oblige gets updated I'll add more. (the map I uploaded earlier was map01 but had a bug with the door, which I fixed lol). The maps are so detailed though, and interesting sector lighting.

[sgtcrispy]

Holy balls dude. So much better. d_^_^_b
Looking forward to the finished version.