PNG2WAD, or: How i stopped worrying and started converting PNG's to maps

[Redneckerz]

Note: Not my work.

Note 2: Please move to appropiate section if needed.

 

Introduction:

PNG2WAD (Formerly Pixels of Doom) is a C# (.Net/Mono) command line tool to turn PNG images to Doom maps. It uses BSP on Windows for node generation, on macOS/Linux you will have to build these manually.

 

This makes a great tool for rapid iteration of maps and provides a rather unique way of level design: Simply craft a level with visual graphs, export as PNG, and the tool will handle the rest.

Depends on two other open source projects you can find in on Agar's GitHub:

• ToolsOfDoom to create Doom maps and wad files
• INIPlusPlus to load Preferences.ini

 

Features:

• Any bitmap size
• Supports doors, secret passages, special sectors, entrances, exits, variable floor/ceiling height.
• Theme configuration to create maps with various feelings and textures (hell, tech base, sewers...)
• Can generate maps in the Doom 1 (ExMx) or Doom 2 (MAPxx) name format.
• Optional things generation to create immediately playable maps filled with monsters and items. Or you can disable the thing generator and populate the map yourself using a map editor such as Doombuilder.
• Includes Bsp for node generation on Windows. On macOS/Linux you'll have to build nodes manually using a third-party node builder before you can play your maps.

 

Usage:

Spoiler

Using the command-line

Syntax is: PNG2WAD.exe SomeImage.png [SomeOtherImage.png] [YetAnotherImage.png]...

 

From the GUI

Drag and drop one or more PNG files on PNG2WAD.exe

 

Output

Output file will always be generated in the directory where PNG2WAD.exe is located and will have a the name of the first PNG file with a wad extension. For instance, if you create a file from SomePlace.png, SomeOtherPlace.png and AThirdPlace.png, the output file will be named SomePlace.wad.

If Doom 1 format has been selected in Preferences.ini, first map will be named ExM1, then ExM2, etc (Where x is the number of the episode as defined in Preferences.ini). Maps beyond ExM9 will be ignored. If Doom 2 format has been selected in Prefrences.ini, first map will be named MAP01, then MAP02, MAP03, etc. Maps beyond MAP99 will be ignored. Default format is Doom 2.

 

Creating images

Run your favorite image edition tool and create a new PNG of any size. Each pixel is a 64x64 tile on the map.

 

Theme

The upper-left pixel is always a wall. Its color is ignored and used to select the map theme, as defined in the Preferences.ini file. You can add more themes by editing the file.

Available themes are:

• Red (255, 0, 0): hell
• Any other color: tech base (default)

 

Links:

PNG2WAD

Latest releast at itch.io

Download

Edited June 29, 2023 by Redneckerz
Added itch.io page due to recent interest

[Dark Pulse]

But can it map Crysis?

[Eric Claus]

7 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

But can it map Crysis?

 

You missed the real question here...Can it run Doom?

 

Also this is a cool thing and might be a good way for people to get map inspirations.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Eric Claus

[Dexiaz]

Joke about Rule 34 works...

[Eric Claus]

Just now, Deⓧiaz said:

Joke about Rule 34 works...

 

Turn Rule 34 into a Doom map? Could it be done? Probably.  The real question though is...should you?

[Dexiaz]

1 hour ago, Eric Claus said:

The real question though is...should you?

 

Well...I've already did this (nsfw) many years ago without special converters...shame on me.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Deⓧiaz

[Eric Claus]

14 minutes ago, Deⓧiaz said:

 

Well...I've already did this many years ago without special converters...shame on me.

 

Edit: This quote indeed is NSFW...

 

Well at least you are honest...Underhalls indeed...

Edited September 20, 2020 by Eric Claus

[Blastfrog]

Shouldn’t there be a NSFW warning there?

[AtticTelephone]

Can't wait to play the Stock Image Megawad.

[Eric Claus]

10 minutes ago, AtticTelephone said:

Can't wait to play the Stock Image Megawad.

 

Much of the game sound is stock sounds! It is only fitting we have stock images defining our levels as well!

[Argent Agent]

Time for Clip Art Doom

[Pseudonaut]

2 hours ago, Deⓧiaz said:

 

Well...I've already did this (nsfw) many years ago without special converters...shame on me.

 

Future Cacoward winner detected. Goes well with HDoom.

[Captain Toenail]

What happens if you convert a map of a street or building floorplan into black and white and run it throught this thing? Hmmmm....

[Eric Claus]

5 minutes ago, Captain Toenail said:

What happens if you convert a map of a street or building floorplan into black and white and run it throught this thing? Hmmmm....

 

 

Do it.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Eric Claus

[Chip]

That's really interesting. You can now draw a map on a piece of paper, and make a level! That's awesome!

[URROVA]

time to put the SOMEMONG texture on this thing xD

[URROVA]

i see this metod for making maps from pixels more appropiated for generating Wolf3d maps than DooM maps 

[Doomkid]

Damn, if only I’d kept those BMPs I drew of Doom levels before I learned how to actually make them in an editor.. I could retroactively receive legitimate “90’s mapper street cred”. Missed it by that much!

 

This is an amazing tool, by the way. I remember myself and Tom Kachel of all people (the DRE author) lamenting the fact that you couldn’t just draw lines and import them into an editor, before Doom Builder came out which finally allowed you to just draw shapes.

 

So glad to see this being made, I’m actually shocked it hadn’t been done years ago!

[kwc]

Pretty neat, I could see myself using something like this when drafting a layout. I imagine it would have some issues translating a rasterized image into vertices and lines what with anything outside of a 90 degree angle.
I'm sure there may be clever and cute ways to get around this. Hope it gets built upon.

[M_W]

This is a dangerous thing you've let out into the world.

[Sir Hattington]

I'm sure great creations will come of this.

[Gokuma]

19 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Damn, if only I’d kept those BMPs I drew of Doom levels before I learned how to actually make them in an editor.. I could retroactively receive legitimate “90’s mapper street cred”. Missed it by that much!

 

This is an amazing tool, by the way. I remember myself and Tom Kachel of all people (the DRE author) lamenting the fact that you couldn’t just draw lines and import them into an editor, before Doom Builder came out which finally allowed you to just draw shapes.

 

So glad to see this being made, I’m actually shocked it hadn’t been done years ago!

I'm going have to dig in my dad's attic and see if I have any resemblance of a map I drew in the 80's and convert a picture of it!

[mankubus]

damn i remember being a kid and drawing maps on my notebook. this would have been dope back then when i had no idea how to even open DCK

[DynamiteKaitorn]

"Using the command Line"

"Syntax is: PixelsOfDoom.exe SomeImage.png [SomeOtherImage.png] [YetAnotherImage.png]..."

"From the GUI"

"Drag and drop one or more PNG files on PixelsOfDoom.exe"

 

Unless I'm a complete moron (Which is usually the case) the .exe file isn't included in the GitHub page(s)...

 

[URROVA]

44 minutes ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

"Using the command Line"

"Syntax is: PixelsOfDoom.exe SomeImage.png [SomeOtherImage.png] [YetAnotherImage.png]..."

"From the GUI"

"Drag and drop one or more PNG files on PixelsOfDoom.exe"

 

Unless I'm a complete moron (Which is usually the case) the .exe file isn't included in the GitHub page(s)...

 

Emmm yes, i cannot found a .exe to run :( I have to compile this manually?

[plums]

Seems like. I can't get it to compile on Linux, so maybe it needs some work still...

[Redneckerz]

5 hours ago, plums said:

Seems like. I can't get it to compile on Linux, so maybe it needs some work still...

Its now rebranded to PNG2WAD and relies on two other progs by the user. There is a extended explanation, but im on mobile.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Redneckerz

[plums]

On 9/24/2020 at 12:43 AM, Redneckerz said:

Its now rebranded to PNG2WAD and relies on two other progs by the user. There is a extended explanation, but im on mobile.

Seems to be updated enough now that I got it to work. I don't know if my builds made on Linux will work for other people on Windows, but I think they should, so:

png2wad.zip

(You still want at least Preferences.ini from the release folder on GitHub.)

 

Anyhow this is pretty cool, but 64x64 per pixel is very blocky. It would be nice if there was some sort of interpolation between the image and the map, so that you could get angled walls. Of course it's probably not too hard to just increase the resolution of the converter.

 

svg2wad would be the next great step forward...

Edited September 25, 2020 by plums

[Redneckerz]

11 hours ago, plums said:

Seems to be updated enough now that I got it to work. I don't know if my builds made on Linux will work for other people on Windows, but I think they should, so:

png2wad.zip

Many thanks for this, Plums. And on that note, ill just post Agar's latest updates.

 

Check the OP for extended info!

Latest update:

Depends on two other open source projects you can find in on Agar's GitHub:

• ToolsOfDoom to create Doom maps and wad files
• INIPlusPlus to load Preferences.ini

Features

• Any bitmap size
• Supports doors, secret passages, special sectors, entrances, exits, variable floor/ceiling height.
• Theme configuration to create maps with various feelings and textures (hell, tech base, sewers...)
• Can generate maps in the Doom 1 (ExMx) or Doom 2 (MAPxx) name format.
• Optional things generation to create immediately playable maps filled with monsters and items. Or you can disable the thing generator and populate the map yourself using a map editor such as Doombuilder.
• Includes Bsp for node generation on Windows. On macOS/Linux you'll have to build nodes manually using a third-party node builder before you can play your maps.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Redneckerz

[Dexiaz]

BTW, I think your tool would be extremely useful for such projects. We can save the automap image and just reuse your tool. Of course, after that mapper must fix heights (not a big problem for the DoK, because it's mostly the Wolf3D-like) and textures, but it's like Map2Wad tool (from Duke to Doom).

 

P.S.: @FoxPlays, you might find this useful for DoK2/DoK3 (if you're interested in this, eh)

Edited September 26, 2020 by Deⓧiaz