What pre-defined shapes or tools do you use most when mapping?

[JadingTsunami]

I'm curious what mappers use most or find their favorites as far as shape tools.

 

Rectangles? Ellipse? Or do you free-hand draw everything?

 

Do you use linedef "arc" features, or stair-builders?

 

Right now, I find I use these tools very rarely except for ellipses which are difficult to freehand. But perhaps the community knows of better methods.

 

What are your thoughts?

[ViolentBeetle]

Imagine using something called "shapes"

 

This post is made by DB2 gang.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I honestly free-hand everything.  Still snapping to the grid of course, but yeah, all done by hand.  Even my 3d floors and slopes.

[boris]

Draw line, draw rectangle, draw ellipse, curve linedefs, draw grid mode, stair builder, all of them. Whatever is best for the situation. Doing it all manually is just a waste of time. It's like saying you're not doing copy and paste or still doing manual texture alignment because reasons.

[TheHambourgeois]

Curve linedefs is the only one I really use and even then I only use it in like tech bases that I want to be really immaculate. I like to make pretty lo-fi maps so I like a lot of my "curves" to look clunky.

[Doomkid]

I tend to draw a lot of weird bootleg rhombuses and trapezoids and slap them together, then spend the actual time turning my “Doom Builder ink blot” into a real map.

[VanaheimRanger]

I find that I often use a ton of rectangles and then cut the corners off of them...so, I guess technically...octogons?

[Bridgeburner56]

Using the tools leads to greater efficiency. I use them as much as possible. The ones I use most commonly are draw ellipse, curve line and stair builder (the Holy trinity). I even made a speed map without using the grid at all using those those tools almost exclusively. The tools in UDB are potent. 

[VanaheimRanger]

34 minutes ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Using the tools leads to greater efficiency. I use them as much as possible. The ones I use most commonly are draw ellipse, curve line and stair builder (the Holy trinity). I even made a speed map without using the grid at all using those those tools almost exclusively. The tools in UDB are potent. 

Does UDB have that 3D floor tool built in?  Or do you need to download it somewhere?

[boris]

3 hours ago, guitardz said:

I find that I often use a ton of rectangles and then cut the corners off of them...so, I guess technically...octogons?

 

You can use the bevel feature of Draw Rectangle Mode in GZDB-BF/UDB to quickly draw stuff like that (press F1 while drawing in Draw Rectangle Mode to see full help):

 

 

44 minutes ago, guitardz said:

Does UDB have that 3D floor tool built in?  Or do you need to download it somewhere?

 

It's built in.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

I'd say the linedef and ellipse tools are my work horses, with the stair builder mode not being far behind. With UDMF projects though, I've started using the 3D floor mode, slope handles, and arch tool quite regularly. The "curve linedef" tool sees quite a bit of use as well, actually.

 

I feel like I could get more use out of the "draw curve mode" tool, but, anything I'd use it for I generally prefer to free-hand. I remember Tango saying it was helpful for creating mountainous terrain, cliff walls, etc., I'm just terminally addicted to free-handing those in linedefs mode.

 

  

Edited August 5, 2020 by RonnieJamesDiner

[VanaheimRanger]

29 minutes ago, boris said:

 

You can use the bevel feature of Draw Rectangle Mode in GZDB-BF/UDB to quickly draw stuff like that (press F1 while drawing in Draw Rectangle Mode to see full help):

 

 

 

It's built in.

You just cut hours off my workload! (Probably slightly exaggerated but yea)

[Doom_Dude]

On 8/2/2020 at 5:18 AM, Remilia Scarlet said:

I honestly free-hand everything.  Still snapping to the grid of course, but yeah, all done by hand.  Even my 3d floors and slopes.

 

Yeah, I do the same pretty much. Old habits and all that. Only shaping tool I seem to use is the curve. I don't even copy and paste anything, unless it's a light or something like a crate.

[CBM]

On 8/2/2020 at 10:18 AM, Remilia Scarlet said:

I honestly free-hand everything.  Still snapping to the grid of course, but yeah, all done by hand.  Even my 3d floors and slopes.

same here. Also I feel it gives me more control of the 3D floors and portals

[Remilia Scarlet]

4 hours ago, Doom_Dude said:

 

Yeah, I do the same pretty much. Old habits and all that. Only shaping tool I seem to use is the curve. I don't even copy and paste anything, unless it's a light or something like a crate.

I'll copy-paste, but I don't use any of the tools. For me it's partially stylistic (I prefer a blockier look to curves), and partially habit (I used DEU until 2004-ish). I've tried the tools, though.