The /newstuff Chronicles #344

Heh, another alando guns. More over used rippy goodness.

Haven't seen a wad that's interested me in a long time now. :(

Bloodshedder said:

UDMFORIG.zip - Chris Freund
UDMF Compatible - Solo Play - 2123 bytes - (img)
Reviewed by: Wills
For those of you who don't know about origwad, it was the first custom PWAD ever created for Doom. The author had to create the nodes structures/etc. by hand, which is quite a feat, but that meant the level couldn't be more complex than two rooms joined by a door. This is that map translated into UDMF format, which specifies everything in a map - vertices, linedefs, sectors, etc. - via text format.

One thing I did notice is that this origwad in UDMF is a little more than four times as large as origwad.wad (5.62 kb as opposed to 1.35 kb). Does this mean maps in UDMF format will be much larger than if they were in .wad format?

You are correct with that observation. Due to the text format UDMF maps will always be considerably larger than the binary map format if they are stored uncompressed in a WAD.

However, you should not forget that this isn't an issue with distribution. There, UDMF is only 20-30% larger than the same map in binary format. It's also not a major factor if distributed as a PK3 file for ZDoom.

Quite honestly I'm not sure how UDMF format is advantageous besides being a universal format for all editors, but the fact that a map has been made with UDMF (to my knowledge, this is the only one I've seen so far that has) seems like a step forward. A very small step forward.

Have you ever read any of the UDMF_related threads? The point of UDMF is:

- unlimited extensibility. Each port can add as many new features as ot needs.
- proper definition of things that can only be achieved indirectly with the old format (e.g. setting line IDs which in Hexen format maps can only be done with setting a special for the line.)
- removal of all format related limits. The binary format has a hard limit of 65534 sidedefs and several large ZDoom maps got compromised by this limit already.


That said, this particular WAD is more or less pointless. It would have value if no UDMF capable editor was available but that isn't the case.

Provided the port handles it, UDMF allows stuff like setting different X and Y offsets for each part of a sidedef (try that with a binary map), more than 3 skill filters for things (base UDMF allows a different filter for each of the five skill levels, ZDoom which lets you define custom skills gives you eight different filters) and likewise for class filters (in a Hexen-like game with different character classes), X and Y offsets for floors and ceilings, and so on.

It also allows arguments greater than 255, contrarily to Hexen.

There aren't many UDMF maps available right now because most projects that need UDMF are ambitious things that'll take a long time to be completed; and the only editor that supports it for the moment, DB2, hasn't been available for very long yet.

(Another asset of UDMF is that it's much easier than the binary to generate with common scripting tools. BHS over on the ZDoom forum created Zokoban using a PHP script to make the levels...)

Graf Zahl said:

It's also not a major factor if distributed as a PK3 file for ZDoom.

Or if you use either a port that can use wads stored in zips, or if you use a frontend that can handle throwing zips at ports that can't extract zips on their own. ;)

In a week where the best compliment a wad gets is "average," isn't that wad above average?

I'm just sick of that word anyway. Let's not ever use it in any review ever again.

I understand this isn't an advertising campaign but it makes me cry when people only take screenshots of the errors in my maps :(

Creaphis said:

In a week where the best compliment a wad gets is "average," isn't that wad above average?

It depends on whether or not its excellence is below super average.

lol @ Alandoguns and Avoid.

Hooray for a somewhat positive review on my own map.

JohnnyRancid said:

I understand this isn't an advertising campaign but it makes me cry when people only take screenshots of the errors in my maps :(

Submit it to someone else beforehand, for checking?

My Alando Guns review was accepted?! Wow.

Bloodshedder said:

• Voodoo Veyor - Scrapped Portion - TheeXile
  Boom Compatible - Solo Play - 16016 bytes - (img)
  Reviewed by: Wills
  You're trapped at the junction of four conveyor belts which spit monsters, ammo, etc. at you, and you have to survive. An interesting idea, but it's not very hard, and the surroundings get old since you're stuck in a 128x128 room. Also, you're apparently not supposed to jump onto the other conveyors, as you can get stuck in a weird, ashy hallway. Not very much substance here.
  

Yeah generally you don't do much jumping in Boom maps. Nice screenshot. :P

Oh well. At least I managed to get some feedback. Though I think threads are a better approach for that purpose from now on.

Wills said:

For those of you who don't know about origwad, it was the first custom PWAD ever created for Doom. The author had to create the nodes structures/etc. by hand, which is quite a feat, but that meant the level couldn't be more complex than two rooms joined by a door. This is that map translated into UDMF format, which specifies everything in a map - vertices, linedefs, sectors, etc. - via text format.

Great job of plagiarizing my idgames review text.

What the hell are you talking about? When you're talking about a map that is made of two rooms connected by a door, of course some reviews will be very similar. Stop flattering yourself.

chips19 - I didn't realize chip's challenge had already been converted to doom, got links? The walls were lowered so you can see over them since it's weird not being 2D overhead, and I thought seeing over the walls might help a bit (also try with chasecam). The force floors probably could've been done better but I couldn't think of a better way to do them at the time. None of the levels are impossible. For nuts&bolts you gotta hold strafe and back on the force floors (there's a speed demo in the zip that goes through all the levels in one sitting in under 21 minutes). So yeah, chips19 is by far my biggest doom achievement in terms of amount of work done in a short period of time.

loink - sorry that you had to reinstall zdoom 220 for the demos. I guess I should've uploaded the wad to /idgames when it was done (zdoom 220 was the new version at that time) instead of waiting. And I forgot to mention that gggmork recorded his demos without rocket jumping, without freelook, and only using the keyboard - pretty cool considering this wad was designed for rocket jumping, freelook, and mouse+keys.

@Minesweeper
Back in the holy days of the BBS i had a little programm that could create a Minesweeper map that runs without any scripting in vanilla Doom.
Maybe someone remembers that one too and remembers the name of said tool so that i can find and use it again. :)

Bastet Furry said:

@Minesweeper
Back in the holy days of the BBS i had a little programm that could create a Minesweeper map that runs without any scripting in vanilla Doom.
Maybe someone remembers that one too and remembers the name of said tool so that i can find and use it again. :)

It was packaged with Eternal Doom 3 I believe. It did just that.

Edit: Jim Flynn made it, appropriately. That guy was the best!

@TheeXile:
Thanks!
Needs no scripting to play minesweeper in my doom! :D ;)