Help With Building?

[Enderkevin13]

Anyone Have Any Tips On How To Add Detailing?
I Noticed People Were Saying That My Maps Are
Not Exactly Very Detailed, So I Wanna Fix That.

So Anyone? Also, I Use DB2 And Slade3, But Mainly For Lump Editing.

[Fonze]

My tip for detailing involves a couple things.

First, people don't like the abstract look of a Doom 1-style level, unless it's done just right.

You need height variation, think of the first level of Doom. Even though there isn't much in the realm of, say, furniture to go with the base, it was designed in such a way that the walls themselves, as basic as they are, became the detailing. Start with the first room, you have a few pillars that look cool, as well as the lowered floor in front of you. Not much else is needed there. So you look to the right, and see an open window overlooking a rather bare outside area. But there is more going on there, there is also an interesting secret displayed and a window across the way, as well as the clue for the entrance. So you turn to face left of start and there's an awesome staircase, with a thing of armor raised up in the light and a couple interesting-looking pillars. Behind the armor are windows to the outside and you can see the sky. I won't go on any more, but you see where I'm going with it.
Detailing starts with the general layout and the solid obstacles (walls, crates, anything formed by lines) in your way.
This is your main detailing tool.

There's also, of course, obstacles and decorations. Best to not over-use, but you can rely on them to put that little bit of icing on a sweet piece of cake, or to spice up a small, slightly bare region. Be careful with certain obstacles in certain spots, (such as far away from the wall, but just close enough to where you can run in between them) as it is frustrating for players to get stuck on stuff. And placing obstacles close together can sometimes lead to a, "what the f***!" type of situation, quickly.

Third, we are not in '93 any more. We are not limited to these two main methods of detailing. We can now make pieces of furniture much easier than was possible in '93 because of the advancements in mapping software. Learn to make furniture, it can be basic, most of us have an imagination. When I say furniture, I'm talking about anything you form through lines that is only a minor detail. Furniture can be used similarly to decorations and obstacles, but has that extra speciality because it must be custom made.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, is the texturing you use. You must switch things up. Few situations can use only a couple textures that all look similar. Try and throw in textures of different base colors to spice things up. Also, be careful making rooms that form a complete border, as without proper measuring, you may wind up with a situation where two textures will never line up quite right. This can be circumvented, and add more detail to your map, with some object cut in the wall through lines. It could be something as simple as a rock that has covered up part of the wall (of course make sure it's not a straight line). If you are a stickler for texture alignment, which everyone should be, you can use this example, or a similar alternative, to not only make texture alignment easier on you, but to also add some spice into an otherwise empty-seeming room.

The main problem I saw in the pics was the seeming emptiness of the rooms, brought on by a lack of detail.

I hope all this helps you, ask again if you have more questions and I'll try and help

*Edit*
I touched on it with the part about the armor, but forgot to really mention brightness levels! Make sure and have different ones. Try to make them as dynamic-seeming as posible.

Again for spell check >.<

[pavera]

Please don't start drawing couches and toilets in your maps. There is nothing attractive about Doom furniture.

[scifista42]

Merely adding detail to your rooms will not necessarily improve them. The art is about making interesting architecture that avoids eye-unpleasant appearance. There is no exact definition of either. But, interesting generally means: Varied (in height levels, light levels, types of structures), serving a purpose (preferably gameplay-related purpose, or just making sense as a semi-realistic location), featuring some unusual idea or something uncommon looking, etc. And the eye-unpleasant appearance (which you should avoid) include: Monochromatic texturing, grainy texturing, misaligned textures, randomly clashing colors, randomly clashing shapes and materials and patterns, uniform light level, flat ground and flat ceiling everywhere, repetitiveness / not enough variety of any kind, etc. Hope it gives you a direction at least.

[Dylan Jarvis]

I like to add a fair amount of lighting, and height variation to make a map look interesting.