Threshold Of Pain

This is my first proper wad. It attempts to recreate the look and feel of Midway's PSX port of Doom whilst maintaining a level of difficulty that PC players would come to expect. This means that it has lots of coloured lighting, PSX sounds and music and the nightmare class monsters from all of the Midway ports (D64 included). However, it is NOT a PSX TC, so while it has a number of features recognizable from the console games, there are a number of GZDoom enhancements thrown in there too, including new enemies, weapons and items.

THE STORY

After saving humanity from the threat of extinction more times than you could remember and establishing yourself as the only one to call upon when the UAC screwed things up again, it was only a matter of time before things got personal.

The UAC's newest and best-equipped facility, stationed in a secluded mountain range on Triton, Neptune's primary satellite, had only gone operational six months ago. The new UAC bigwigs had declared that all security issues had been addressed so that the dimensional portal research could be recommenced, and that nothing would go wrong this time. The facility was only accessible from the air and was heavily guarded by marines with the heaviest artillery the UAC could provide, so they could at least give the impression that they had it all under control.

Last night all transmissions from Triton ceased.

The breifing was all too familiar to you now. The final few broadcasts were of the sounds you'd become accustomed to; screams, growls, tearing of flesh, gunfire, more screams, and so on.

Only this time, there was something else. Just before the end of the last broadcast, there was a voice. It did not sound human, but you could hear it clearly.

It was calling your name.

Seems like they want you dead. As if you didn't know that already. And you're not the type to back down from a challenge ...

Marine Command has sent you up there to clear out the facility. You're being dropped into the surrounding mountains to secure the perimeter and get inside. Once inside ... you know the rest .

UPDATE: Download:
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/P_GwxhZinX/scl-top.zip
Lite version:
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/WONA_hP-hm/toplite.zip

Hope you enjoy playing this as much as I did making it. Have fun!

ZDOOM.ORG forum link:
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=23333
Skulltag forum link:
http://www.skulltag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26140&p=327258#p327258
WIP entry:
http://www.wadsinprogress.info/index.php?a=listwads&wad=1299

Here are a few screens:

Cool :D I like the pentagram cybie battle shot. I'll try this.

MAP01 the switch that opens the left door in the yellow key room can be easily pressed through the pillars.

edit: finished. I like it. The areas are big, but I know that's what you were going for. However, the areas are a bit similar, and I found myself grudging a bit opening the door just to see another huge area.

been watching this project for a WHILE!! Now that i can get a chance to play it is splendid! How did you manage to get those Final Doom SuperShotgun sprites?

@DuckReconMajor: Thanks for the feedback, switch is now fixed for the final version. Good stuff!

This looks pretty cool. Reminds me of Doom 64. I shall download this when I get back home tonight.

Cool stuff.

Not bad, got up to MAP02 before dying in that big curved area with two Revenants and no cover. Consider putting a pillar or two there maybe?

I'd suggest scripting the outside key doors in MAP01, the two thin doors to enter the building looks a bit silly. The battle in the blue pillar room is way too easy, maybe use different monster placement and deaf monsters so you have to enter the room then use the pillars for cover.

Alot of the other battles are just circlestrafing, though perhaps this gets better, I'll keep playing. The jumping parts were used sparingly enough that they're not annoying, and it's good there's no ridiculous 8-wide ledges you need to land on. The height variation is good enough to be challenging but not annoying when played in software with no vertical mouselook, so well done there.

I couldn't select the chaingun after picking it up then cycling away from it. I'm using perkristian's smoother sprites, might need to look into that. Also you can see the lower part of a repeated switch texture on the exit to MAP01.

@Jamie: Thanks for the feedback. I'm aware of the switch texture issues you mentioned. They show up fine in GZDoom though I'm not sure how to correct them, save using the actual PSX switch textures which are 128 units tall (might do that, come to think of it). Whilst I recommend GL rendering I don't want to break compatibility with regular ZDoom, so I'll look into that.

As for the chaingun, no issues this end. It may well be something to do with the smoothed sprites you mentioned. Try running the wad without any external files, see if that helps.

@VoltDriver: The Final Doom shotgun sprites are by Raz. You can get them here:
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14899&start=105

You could inset the switch and use SHAWN on the lower part. You could also make the switch a separate sector, make the floor and ceiling the same height, and use the switch texture on the Upper Linedef facing the player and SHAWN on the Lower Linedef.

It was perkristian's weapons breaking the chaingun. The part I mentioned with the Revenants is alot easier with an automatic weapon. It's actually quite fun to have to concentrate on keeping one in pain chance with all the other monsters around, and they're spread far enough apart that you're not fighting both at once (which would be a bit unfair).

The more I play this the more I love it, you've really created a consistent atmosphere here and stayed true to your source material. I think if the PSX Doom team made their game for PC, this would be it.

I am not really much of a PSX/ZDoom/Skulltag player so playing with these new enemies is fun, I'm not sure how tough they are (just tougher than their originals) so there's an element of the unknown. I assume a Doomsphere is akin to Quake's Quad Damage, that's a rad inclusion. The battle at the end of MAP02 was awesome.

Some more small errors: Check the alignment of the switch texture in MAP01's Red key room. Solid windows would help atmosphere alot, you can currently shoot through the transparent "glass". You may also wish to block off some inset detailing, it seems weird in places for Doomguy to hop up onto the ledge of a computer terminal.

And I found a sequence break, it's possible to jumpcrouch up to the Yellow Key on MAP01.

Once again, cheers for the bug reports, and indeed the encouragement! :) The issues in MAP01 have been addressed, I've made the yellow key plinth taller and I'm working on the passable wall insets.

Now for the windows. :D I'm loathe to say "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" as that would probably show me up for the newbie that I am. However, PSX Doom had this exact same issue - some examples are MAP09, MAP13 and MAP36. It is odd, I know, but I wanted to stay as true as possible to the PSX way of thinking. That said, if there was a simple "block projectile" flag in Doom Builder I'd use it, as the only issue with "block everything" is that it stops monsters from being alerted to you altogether. When I posted this over on the ZDoom forums one guy suggested making them breakable - for me this isn't really an option. For a start it deviates a bit too much from what I'm aiming for and secondly it would mean having to completely redesign some of the later levels (MAP05 in particular). This leaves me with three options:

1. Leave them as they are
2. Leave them as they are, but remove the translucent textures, E1M7 style
3. Use the "block everything" flag and re-jig the monster placement to compensate.

I'm open to opinions on this.

And, yes, the Doomsphere is a Quad-style powerup ;)

Thanks for linking me to those sprites. I couldnt load the wad :O
I got a long list in the startup menu of long unpatched textures and whatnot. Maybe its my version of GZDOOM?

Im using psxmusic, psxsounds, brightmaps, lights, and nashgore. Whenever i load ToP, i get the TITLEPIC and everything but it just takes me to Doom2 Map01. Help?

First up, you don't need psxsound.wad, psxmusic.wad or lights.wad. ToP has its own set of dynlights and the PSX sounds are already in there. The correct music pack is linked to in the first post. Nashgore is NOT recommended! The brightmaps shouldn't be an issue, though.

Ignore the unknown texture messages, that's just down to my crappy attempt at a WAD cleanup job. It doesn't affect the game.

As for the levels not loading, that's strange. Try updating your GZDoom version. Also, are you using a launcher? If you are, just try dragging topdemo.wad and PSXTCMUS.PK3 onto the exe.

Ah, alrighty then. Time to get rid of nash for a while, and im using the r375 gzdoom release. I'll update shortly.

Some new shots from MAP05:





Also, after a lot of testing and a bit of monster rejigging I've decided to block off the translucent windows, as it turns out that the gameplay isn't affected as much as I thought it would be. Simply undeafening the monsters which were causing the problem did the trick.

MAP06 is underway and will be the last tech/base level. Also, thanks to the DRD Team's webhosting service I will be including all the music in the final version. There will be an /idgames version for low-bandwidth users, too.

Feedback welcome, as always.

That Afrit (sp) looks out of place in base style level. I recommend not throwing random bestiary monsters in where they don't fit.

That flesh growth aesthetic in the second pic is nice. I liked that a lot in Doom 3.

Looks ace

Dang. Just played through the demo. Queue fond memories of me playing PSX Final Doom circa 1999 and being spooked by the lost souls and cacodemons.

I was a little off-put by the presence of Bestiary monsters too, but the nightmare imp and nightmare specter were nice touches.

Speaking of Playstation Doom, you know what would REALLY make it feel like the PSX port? Run all the textures through a sharpen filter.

Heh, I hear you! :D I'm useless with Photoshop, mind :P

As for the inclusion of Bestiary monsters, I understand where there would be question marks but I figured that we already have a PSX TC (courtesy of fenderc01) which is deadly accurate, and I'm really only trying to emulate the look and overall atmosphere of PSX Doom in the context of a new game, though I must admit the inclusion of the Nightmare Cacodemon was meant as a little nod to the D64 TC.

Glad to be invoking a few memories all the same. I hope you'll stick around for the Hell levels ;)

this loooks GOOD!

tell me when its ready


wanna see what crux i have made to the E1? :D
http://musho.org/gargwads/

How's this going, scalliano? Your fans request an update :)

Development has been a bit slow of late due to some Real-Life™ developments which I won't go into on a public board, but I only have about 1½ maps left to do. There have been a few graphical tweaks and such, too, and I'm at the stage where I can get back into working on it. So, hopefully, not too long now. In the meantime, here's a few more shots:

It's out. Check the first post.

scalliano said:

UPDATE: It's out. Grab the fully playable beta here:
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/u6ulAmOvzu/scl-top.zip

:D *downloads*

this wad is being made in doombuilder right?

but what doom type is it? would like to use colored lights too, im thinking of converting some of my wads to the format this wad is in.

might makes light

ZDoom in Hexen format. You need an open script on your map using Sector_SetColor specials for all of the coloured lights you want to use.

I'm halfway through level 9, and I gotta say that this is one hell of an awesome WAD. The creepy ambient music, colored lighting, epic battles, and Doom 64 sound effects make me think of "Threshold of Pain" as a Doom 2 version of "Doom 64: Absolution." It's not a bad thing at all as I really enjoyed D64 for its creepy atmosphere, haunting music, and tough game play. The colored lighting is what makes "Threshold of Pain" so successful, though, I think, because it adds so much character to the maps. It's a more realistic approach to lighting than just the standard light and dark.

You say this is your first proper WAD release. Well, I think it's great, definitely one of the best releases of 2010 for me. :)

Thanks, FMV, that's encouraging :)

I'm still working out the bugs, though - I hope to have an updated version out in the next few days. No major gameplay changes, just fixing a couple of previously undisovered glitches :P Hopefully then it will be ready for submission to /idgames.

Really cool wad from what I have played... Always nice to see zdoom features being put to such good use which is a rarity.

ONly played the first level, but I enjoyed it a lot. Great stuff.

Also, scalliano, I love your new avatar.