Coloured Lighting Trick in Boom Mapping Format

[Al-Faris M]

Hello everyone, although this is my first post on this forum, I have a lot of knowledge about Doom and it's community, it's one of my favorite FPS games. I discovered this mapping trick that is an awesome lighting effect where you make light sources have color or look foggy. I know colored lighting has been done before in some advanced mapping formats or done by the use of completely recolo^uring textures, but I found it using the Boom mapping format, which doesn't have the ability of scripting in maps iirc (except for MAPINFO). If you're really good at Doom modding you can skip most of the steps, but if you're a newbie you should follow all of them. Now, here's how you implement it using the Boom mapping format:

Step 1: Go to a graphics editing program and create a solid/gradient colo^ured image (or use an existing texture from a texture pack).


This step is obvious. I advise you to change the image's vertical size to something ranging from 256p to 1024p if you want to use the effect on tall spaces where light originates. When you are done you can save it and add a name to it.

Step 2: Go to a Doom editor like SLADE3 or XWE and create a wad file, insert the image, convert it's palette to Doom and put the image between P_START and P_END markers.


If you don't know how to convert an image's palette, you'll need to click on the image, and click on 'Convert to..', then change the Converted Graphic's palette to Doom. To create a P_START/END marker, you can simply click on the New Entry button, add the two markers' names and choose Create.

Step 3: Add the image to TEXTUREx to turn it into a texture.


You can add the image to TEXTUREx by right-clicking the image file, a menu may appear telling you to create or import a texture list, click Yes, another menu appears which contains the texture formats and source, choose the source to be Import from Base Resource Archive (you can choose the Base Resource by going to the editor's settings), click OK, save the wad file and now you're done with this step.

Step 4: Go to a map editor like SLADE3 or Ultimate Doom Builder and open your map, select the light source you've made in your map and change its linedef(s)' middle texture(s) to the custom texture you've created in the last step.


Note: a middle texture can only be added if the linedef(s) for the light source you've made is/are between two sectors.

Step 5: Change the linedef(s)' Action properties to 260 'Translucent (Middle Texture)'.
[Same image as step 4]

This step is also obvious.

Step 6: Select the light source's sector and change it's brightness level to whatever you like.
Note: the brighter the brightness level, the less translucent the effect becomes, this occurs on Doom's software rendering but I'm not sure if this also occurs on OpenGL rendering (all of the source ports I use crash when using OpenGL because I have an outdated graphics card).

That's it! You've implemented the colo^ured/foggy lighting trick in Boom. It looks very stunning.



More screenshots of the effect:

Spoiler

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Al-Faris M

[Drywtler]

Help! My Doom game got flooded with cheese!
 
It's cool, but COLORMAP tricks with Fake Ceiling/Floors are the fancy way to do these.

Below's an example, from a map that I have completed but not released on the CP. Boom provides an underwater COLORMAP but you can create custom ones.

I didn't, just grabbed the red one from Crucified Dreams
 

Spoiler