1995 called. They want their Doom levels back.

[Zylinderkatze]

Next page, please. Thank you x3

[Zylinderkatze]

Breaking News:

 

+++ E1M8.wad just breached the 1MB size mark +++ Only E1M2 and E1M5 managed to do that, before it +++

 

We now return you to your regular scheduled program.

[wrkq]

Ooof. Took a bite there. A very large one.

[Zylinderkatze]

Already? Aw.

 

^{And that's after removing 2 windows to the surrounding area, already.}

 

I'll just have to close that section in the upper left off, I suppose.. but that was the plan anyways ^^; There's a wall there already, only that it's shoulder-height right now. I'll just make a passageway from it and that should be that. Fingers crossed :)

[Zylinderkatze]

After some extensive remodeling and cleaning up..

 

..this is the result of the main room:

 

^{A lot if stuff was removed, some stuff was added. Vague? Yes.}

 

I like how it turned out. 

 

Since I took that screenshot I also added some additional detail and.. hold on, I'll just show you.

 

Here:

 

^{First attempt of making the bricks in the back on the right look broken}

 

Not sure if I'll leave the broken bricks like that. I have a feeling it will take too much detailing (i.e. too much detail for vanilla to handle) to make it look the way I would want.. this was just a first venture towards that concept where I added a few sectors and raised / lowered and textured them and it's already pushing the limits as it is.

 

I didn't go into too much detail though because I assume this part will still change some more before it's done and I didn't want to build a whole detailed bit and then have to throw it away xD

 

That already happens too often as it is ^^;

 

Because of that, some of the bricks aren't correctly aligned, either. I'll make sure that more of the borders align with wall edges, once I consider the layout "final".

 

Also not sure what design I'll stick with for the border of the NUKE floor.

 

But this is good progress for today :3

 

I think I'll "park" this level for the day.

 

Take care!

Edited October 25, 2020 by Zylinderkatze

[Zylinderkatze]

Hear ye, hear ye!

 

It has been a secret long enough- the time has come to bring this unholy alliance out into the open..

 

::faded sound of drums rising::

 

There will be a music wad to accompany and compliment this "maps only" abomination of mine.

 

I am pleased and even a little proud to announce that the very talented and motivated @tam has joined me in my perfidious endeavours and will publish, in time, a WAD with music tailored to the mood of each of the maps I made. It will go along very nicely with the maps I am working on and I recommend it to everyone who is planning on using a port that supports audio files other than MID / MUS.

 

More details will follow in due time.

 

Stay tuned!

Edited October 25, 2020 by Zylinderkatze

[tamara mochaccina]

Hi yes I am, as a matter of fact, doing music for this project

[Zylinderkatze]

Another example of "overdoing it"

 

Adding height steps and aligning textures of an area no one will ever see.

 

^{I couldn't not align this, though. I would know it's there.}

 

You can rest assured when you play this level, that even unseen areas are appropriately aligned :3

[Zylinderkatze]

What.

 

^{I spent a lot of time on stuff that was already circled green previously ^^;;}

 

That "purple-marked" area in the lower left is still very.. rudimentary and still requires a bunch of love. Don't we all? 

 

But check out how much it changed since the last "official update" view.

 

 

Here's a "current" view of it:

 

^{It already looks okay but it still needs a bunch of "location adjustments"}

 

This area is the "new" one that I had to create to relocate some key structures.. because the main area was getting too large and I still needed a good place for the Rocket Launcher.

 

Look at it, all majestic.

 

If you look closely, you can see that open window area behind it.. that's just a very early "stuff goes here" reminder for myself. There's still a few tiny rooms (not pictured) which are way too small to do justice to the purpose they serve (containing a switch for opening up the exit).. so that will have to be made more impressive ^^;

 

But yeah.. good progress for one weekend :3

[Zylinderkatze]

Thoughts.

 

More for myself ("feeling cute, might delete later") ..the pedestal with the Rocket Launcher (from the previous post) has a switch on the back to lower it (the pedestal, not the switch).. I'm contemplating turning the whole block around 90° or even 180° so you see the switch, right when you walk into that area. 

 

On the other hand it might be better if you need to walk around it to see that there is a switch at all. Add some "need to explore / reward of discovery". I'll play around with that when I get back to it later today.

[Zylinderkatze]

11 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

turning the whole block around 90° or even 180° so you see the switch

 

Original:

 

Turned 90°:

 

..not sure which one I like better. I'll let the idea fester for a little longer wehile I build the rest of this side-area ^^;

[Zylinderkatze]

So!

 

Leaving it like this for now. Also there's a switch that.. uh.. tantalisingly teases you to find access to it ^^

 

^{"The way to access it requires a switch elsewhere~"}

 

I think I am on a good way!

[Zylinderkatze]

Why is there no border?

 

Wait.. you don't mean..

 

^{Done, functionally. Yes, all of it.}

 

It's true. I'm pretty much done. If I didn't miss anything, you should now be able to finish the whole thing, start to finish. I didn't test that as a whole, yet.

 

The next 4 days will be play-testing, along with the ensuing "overlooked misalignments" fixes and some mandatory "thing balancing". But I don't think I will change too much about the layout anymore. Yay!

 

Also, it's 11pm so.. goodnight!

[tamara mochaccina]

FUCK NOW I GOTTA FINISH THE MUSIC QUICKER

(Here's a WIP of the exposition song, the one that plays when the episode ends, and the first taste you guys are gettin from the OST ^-^)

Edited October 27, 2020 by tam

[Zylinderkatze]

1 hour ago, tam said:

FUCK NOW I GOTTA FINISH THE MUSIC QUICKER

 

Hey what did I say about cursing! Always make it BOLD.

 

 

1 hour ago, tam said:

Here's a WIP of the exposition song

 

I feel exposed O///o

[Zylinderkatze]

Oh.. uhm..

 

^*plat*

 

Good thing I am thoroughly testing the whole level ^^;;

[tamara mochaccina]

FUCK

[wrkq]

2 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

Good thing I am thoroughly testing the whole level ^^;;

You just added one more plat, vanilla engine then went splat...

Edited October 27, 2020 by wrkq

[Zylinderkatze]

8 hours ago, wrkq said:

You just added one more plat, vanilla engine then went splat...

 

^{As if they weren't already angry enough!}

 

Actually, though, it was just the result of a "this door should be a lift instead" transformation that wasn't seen through to the end because I was working on too many things at once ^^; The sector already had it's floor and ceiling height adjusted but I didn't adjust the line action (or give it a sector tag) and that was too much. 

 

It's fixed now. Along with some other things like a missing DOORTRAK here and a wrong ceiling flat there..

 

I'll do some more testing today :)

[Zylinderkatze]

9 hours ago, tam said:

FUCK

 

All joking aside, though, I *clears throat* fucking love that track :3

[Zylinderkatze]

Oh hey, just a heads up:

 

When you get to this room, maybe save your game. Jus' sayin'~

 

^{No particular reason.}

[Zylinderkatze]

2 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

When you get to this room, maybe save your game. Jus' sayin'~

 

Same goes for this room..

 

^{It's the before-mentioned "mean room". It's mean.}

[Zylinderkatze]

Random question time!

 

Maybe I should actually ask this in its own thread or spend more time that I did (it was a few minutes) on finding the answer on the forum.. but since I am knee deep in the dead of my E1M8, I figured I might as well:

 

Is there a way to prevent the "idle sound" of something upward of 40 monsters in a holding area to travel throughout the map and kind of.. hijack the sound channels of vanilla? 

 

I think I read somewhere that two sound-blocking lines around the area will prevent the sound from traveling but I'm not sure how that applies.. or if it's true.

 

Would it help to just split the monsters into several individual "waiting rooms" whose sound will dissipate more easily and evenly? Or am I just out of luck?

 

I won't mind if you just point me towards a link without any comment, either ^^;

[Zylinderkatze]

So tempted.

 

I could probably publish the level today. I think it is done.

 

But I will give it one more evening of playtesting tomorrow.

 

Stay tuned!

[Rainne]

8 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

Is there a way to prevent the "idle sound" of something upward of 40 monsters in a holding area to travel throughout the map and kind of.. hijack the sound channels of vanilla? 

 

I think I read somewhere that two sound-blocking lines around the area will prevent the sound from traveling but I'm not sure how that applies.. or if it's true.

Imagine you have a bunch of separate rooms, each separated by a single layer of sound-blocking lines. A sound in one room will be heard in that room, and in neighboring rooms, but not beyond that. If the rooms are separated by two layers of sound-blocking lines (such as defining both sides of a door as sound-blocking), it will completely block the sound.

 

UDB, ever useful, has a Sound Propogation Mode in the sidebar; the icon looks like an ear. (You can also find it in the Mode menu.) This will show the map divided into sound regions, with sound-blocking lines as their borders. Put the cursor inside one of these regions and it will show you where sounds originating in that region will go: throughout that region (green) and all neighboring regions (ugly yellow), but not beyond that (gray). You can also left-click on linedefs to toggle their sound-block flag.

Edited October 29, 2020 by Rainne

[Zylinderkatze]

Several thanks, @Rainne! You managed to describe it in a way that explains it concise and in simple terms without making me feel dumb. That's an achievement! ^^

 

I do / did use the Sound Propagation mode before, actually- even have it mapped to a key for easy switching ("p" because I'm simple and "s" is already "sector mode"). Through using it I found out that- back in 199X I often set the "blocks sound" flag even to 1-sided outer sector lines, too.. I guess I was either thorough or (more likely) uninformed xD

 

I'll have to check (and double-check) whether I am using more than one "layer" of sound-blocking lines between the room connected to the monster waiting room.. and the rest of the level. I think I do but from your description it more sounds like I probably don't / didn't ^^;

 

I also looked into the reasons for sound cutoffs because I was wondering if it might be because it's so many monsters waking (and then idling) at once.. but that, too, should be handled / blocked by the correct use of sound blocking lines, I gather? Meaning that once I'm on the other side of those lines, those enemy objects just wouldn't emit sounds anymore / not affect any sound handling routines. Correct?

 

I think that I'll still reduce the number of enemies in that waiting room anyways, though, to be on the safe side. There's about 10 enemies in the room the player is in.. and 60-ish in the waiting room on the other side of a sound tunnel. They'll all wake up at the same time if the player makes a sound and that's a bit overwhelming. I'll switch it to a few smaller rooms instead :)

 

I'll be back with the conclusion later today when I'm at my own PC~

Edited October 29, 2020 by Zylinderkatze

[taufan99]

3 minutes ago, Zylinderkatze said:

reasons for sound cutoffs

Pardon me, but....

Fandom link!? Use DoomWiki.org next time, that's the real current Wiki made by former staff of the Fandom wiki with more updates, accuracy, and whatnot.

Once again, I apologize. I just had to. Otherwise, carry on.

[Zylinderkatze]

25 minutes ago, InDOOMnesia said:

Otherwise, carry on.

 

O_o;  *goes back to fix it* 

[Rainne]

Also, that Sound Cutoff page is about how the engine sends sounds to your speakers, not how monsters officially hear them.

 

Also, peripherally related: the "Ambush" flag makes it so monsters will only wake up and come after you on sight but won't react to sound alone; useful for enemies hidden around corners or otherwise to ensure the player can't easily draw everything out of a room without at least entering the room first, without having to carefully embroider the map with sound-block lines to control who exactly hears the player's noisy fists. (Technically it's more complicated than that but that's the basic idea.)

[wrkq]

23 minutes ago, Rainne said:

Also, that Sound Cutoff page is about how the engine sends sounds to your speakers, not how monsters officially hear them. 

 

I thought ZK's problem is not "I need monsters to not hear gunshots" but "when I wake up a monster closet they make a gigantic racket behind the wall which overflows the vanilla 8 channels, and I would like the player to not hear that"?

Do "sound block lines" actually silence the sound played, or are they only relevant to waking monsters up and the actual noise is dependent only on distance between player and source? I was thinking it's the latter, tbh...