Creating 3D environments in Doom for artwork

[FractalBeast]

I've been watching some videos of people running these absurd and frankly (IMO) hilariously insane detailed extreme (GZ?)Doom mods. Lots of normal mapping, or bump mapping. Fancy modern dynamic light. I'm no expert.
Anyway, that got me thinking about this plan I've had for a while, making 3D spaces in some map editor so I can use them as a basis for artwork in a comic. It'll help set up complicated action if there's a "physical" place where it all happens, where I can see the space from all kinds of angles etc. Now, I don't really need the ability to place rooms over rooms for this, now, do I? Even if I would create a complicated setup that would technically require rooms over rooms, I could just draw it like that - since the actual spaces made in Doom are basically visual aids to help trace artwork.

Why not make these 3D environments in Doom with those bump mapping textures, and dynamic light? I don't think getting those modern methods into Doom will exactly be easy, but once that's all done, I can assume that Doom map editors are probably the easiest and fastest to work with among all the dozens of game map editors around?

[Dark Pulse]

Well, because the simple fact of the matter is that there's only a few engines that handle textures of that sort - basically those that can handle PBR (Physically-Based Rendering) textures and dynamic lights.

 

That's not just above and beyond what's needed merely for "mapping for Doom," it's obviously far more advanced than Doom's regular renderer ever aimed to be.

 

There are map editors that will let you preview in 3D (such as Ultimate Doom Builder or Doom Builder X, both of which were forked off of Doom Builder 2) or Eureka, but they won't have that full-on texture detail because, well, the editor doesn't need it.

 

But you can certainly have your textures set up, create your room in the editor (textures and all), do a minimal GAMEINFO lump so that you have a playerclass defined that has no weapon, hide the HUD, and start taking screenshots as you see fit, absolutely.

 

As for easiest/fastest, probably not. Tile-based editors are generally easier; Doom lets you draw arbitrary lines, after all. But compared to a modern 3D editor, once you understand the quirks of Doom mapping, yeah, it's not that hard.

[Ed]

I used Gzdoom for film composition for a few different applications.

 

Still image, broken up into layers to give the camera some depth when panning in. The layers were set to mid-textures and set up in a forced perspective array. It could have been done in Blender, but not nearly as fast. The back layer was all solid green, full bright to composite the mid/character in on a green screen. Everything else was After Effects after the fact. 

 

I wanted a tight shot of the painting in the frame. This was built with sectors and a PBR texture. You can see GZDoom's Ambient Occlusion on the frame edge. 

 

Coffin was built in GZDoom. The ground was a still photograph set as a floor texture. All the hue was added in AE, as well as the body. 

 

It takes a bit of trickery (a lot of trickery, actually), but if you're working with fixed angles, you can get away with a lot. Sometimes, if I just want a quick thing, or I want to have something I can attach some camera tracking to after the main filming is done, I can make a scene to gussy up in AE a lot faster in GZD than in Blender. Plus, being able to control the camera in real time and from a first person perspective is pretty useful. 

[Artman2004]

1 hour ago, Ed said:

snip

Now THAT is impressive. I couldn't even tell that the first two screenshots were even in GZDoom. Great job, man.

[Ed]

2 hours ago, Artman2004 said:

Now THAT is impressive. I couldn't even tell that the first two screenshots were even in GZDoom. Great job, man.

Well, the first one is basically composite photo rigging. There isn't any kind of sector geometry aside from projecting layers of a chopped up photograph towards the camera. The pan in was very subtle. Anything more than a few units would give away the effect. The second one, that's all sector built. 

 

There used to be a user here, gggmork. He released a level set of all sector art years ago and it was absolutely mind-bending. If anyone has a copy of that kicking around, it'll throw you through a loop. 

[Dark Pulse]

On 7/9/2022 at 2:31 AM, Ed said:

Well, the first one is basically composite photo rigging. There isn't any kind of sector geometry aside from projecting layers of a chopped up photograph towards the camera. The pan in was very subtle. Anything more than a few units would give away the effect. The second one, that's all sector built. 

 

There used to be a user here, gggmork. He released a level set of all sector art years ago and it was absolutely mind-bending. If anyone has a copy of that kicking around, it'll throw you through a loop. 

I would be very curious to play this now, if anyone does have it, because just these shots alone were amazing stuff.

[FractalBeast]

@Dark Pulse@Ed

Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I did consider tile-based map editors - since I own the Grimrock games, they have fancy modern lighting and come with a map editor, but it... all very square. You can't get funky.

And Ed, that stuff is seriously impressive.