Doom Mapping Crash Course [Absolute beginner mapping workshop]

[ptrdoom]

3 minutes ago, DoomGappy said:

 

I also made a video of me mapping for RAMP 2024. This is an idea I had for a detailing guide for another project I'll lead, but I'm documenting it to help people who are new to mapping make their maps look more interesting. Here is part 1, where I laid down the basics. I think it could be useful here, even though I don't go a lot into the details of what I'm doing. 
 

 

That's good! I watched some video of Ramp back then, I'll be sure to watch this as well later. The trick with texture worked now and I'm satisfied with the results! I'll be posting soon the re-touched version of my first map.

 

Do you still plan to continue your crash course tutorials here?

Edited June 16 by ptrdoom

[DoomGappy]

18 minutes ago, ptrdoom said:

That's good! I watched some video of Ramp back then, I'll be sure to watch this as well later. The trick with texture worked now and I'm satisfied with the results! I'll be posting soon the re-touched version of my first map.

 

Do you still plan to continue your crash course tutorials here?

I will definitely maintain this thread as long as I'm a part of the community, but will also make sure to communicate how busy I am with projects better in the future. I am still learning a lot of things, most of them the hard way. 

[ptrdoom]

I've uploaded my first map on the google drive you once mentioned, you can find it there it's called first map v1.1. I changed it a bit to make it look less bland, it has some shadows, some doom cute here and there, some blinking lights and at least 3 secrets.

[DoomGappy]

1 hour ago, ptrdoom said:

I've uploaded my first map on the google drive you once mentioned, you can find it there it's called first map v1.1. I changed it a bit to make it look less bland, it has some shadows, some doom cute here and there, some blinking lights and at least 3 secrets.

The video is uploading, but this has made my night so muchn better! I am so happy and proud. There were a few problems, but overall the map was amazing to play, and it felt really good going over the familiar areas and seeing how they changed! Congratulations! Video below is uploading!
 

I uploaded the small fixes I made as 1.2. Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uy-UxEjpXh3eBwYKRi3hMRdpiudOcICt/view?usp=drive_link

Edited June 16 by DoomGappy

[DoomGappy]

Just for the sake of comparison, here is how the map looked before. I'm flabbergasted by the evolution!
 

 

[ptrdoom]

Thank you Gappy, the gun repeatable thing drove me a bit crazy because it did work but the light wouldn't turn on, nor did I find the gun once which I was looking for. Not sure why you'd end up with the barons and even the archie from the later rooms in the corridor, it never happened in my play tests at least. You only missed one secret which was in the room with the table, the small computer has a line def that you can interact with which lowers the grey  computers area revealing a super shotgun.

 

Thank you again for the review, there's still the trial which you asked me to do but it is bland compared to this one that I've made. I think it was the last map I did back then.

 

I'll be doing the changes that you showed in the video as well on my own so I learn. I'll also change the blinking in the computer room as well as I also thought it was too much, I think I'll make the room darker to compensate. I'll do the change to the computer adding some depth, I'll post some screen of it later.

Edited June 17 by ptrdoom

[DoomGappy]

32 minutes ago, ptrdoom said:

Thank you Gappy, the gun repeatable thing drove me a bit crazy because it did work but the light wouldn't turn on, nor did I find the gun once which I was looking for. Not sure why you'd end up with the barons and even the archie from the later rooms in the corridor, it never happened in my play tests at least. You only missed one secret which was in the room with the table, the small computer has a line def that you can interact with which lowers the grey  computers area revealing a super shotgun.

 

Thank you again for the review, there's still the trial which you asked me to do but it is bland compared to this one that I've made. I think it was the last map I did back then.

You don't need to worry about the trial, but as I mentioned in the video, I think this would be a good moment to join a community project. You can learn much more from interacting with other members to create a map that follows some clear rules. Or you can work on another solo map and continue posting it here, I will review everything you post.

[ptrdoom]

7 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

You don't need to worry about the trial, but as I mentioned in the video, I think this would be a good moment to join a community project. You can learn much more from interacting with other members to create a map that follows some clear rules. Or you can work on another solo map and continue posting it here, I will review everything you post.

Alright I have a couple of questions for you. You mentioned that in the computer part some kind of depth was needed so I've made a couple of changes tell me which one looks better for the depth you had in mind. The second question is how do you create space so that certain pieces are floating like in a T? I can make a rectangular shape and a square in the middle but if I were to raise them they'd be all jumbled together, not sure if I make sense?

 

Last is how do I change music? I've always selected map01 and it has that doom 2 first level ost but I'd love to use other doom soundtrack between doom 1&2 and so on.

Edited June 17 by ptrdoom

[DoomGappy]

47 minutes ago, ptrdoom said:

They all look amazing, but this is my favorite! Are you going to release this map here in its own thread?
 

47 minutes ago, ptrdoom said:

Last is how do I change music? I've always selected map01 and it has that doom 2 first level ost but I'd love to use other doom soundtrack between doom 1&2 and so on.

You can do that in a few ways.
1 - You can rename your map as the map with the slot that has the song you want from the original games. For example, you can rename your map to map02 if you want it to play The Healer Stalks. You have to inform people of the slot of your map if that's how you approach it.
2 - You can add a midi to the map and rename it as d_runnin. It will play instead of the original Running From Evil in map01. You can do this for all the songs in a wad if you want.
3 - You can use one of the MAPINFO specifications. Nowadays, UMAPINFO is probably the way to go. In this article you can read more about it, but it's a basic text lump which allows you to modify a lot of info in the game. You would create a text file with the field (music = "song"), where song is the name of the midi file with your song. A good place to start learing UMAPINFO is through JadingTsunami's tool, which will streamline the process for you.
 

 

[ptrdoom]

Thank you for the answer, yeah I didn't want to spam the thread that much with my maps so I usually upload them in the googledrive you provided, it was mostly the changes you mentioned no big changes and fixing the issue with the shootable secret. In the regard of the music,  the third method seems to be the best, can I also use doom 1 ost with the third method on doom 2 maps which are the one i've made so far?

Edited June 17 by ptrdoom

[DoomGappy]

10 minutes ago, ptrdoom said:

Thank you for the answer, yeah I didn't want to spam the thread that much with my maps so I usually upload them in the googledrive you provided, it was mostly the changes you mentioned no big changes and fixing the issue with the shootable secret. In the regard of the music,  the third method seems to be the best, can I also use doom 1 ost with the third method on doom 2 maps which are the one i've made so far?

There's no problem, this is what the thread is for. I just asked because I think it's a complete enough map that it should be released in the Wad Releases and Development subforum. 

 

You can use doom 1's ost, but you will need to extract the song you want from the doom 1 IWAD and paste it inside your wad file using slade, then create the umapinfo for that. I can help you if necessary.

[ptrdoom]

Here it is , with the changes that you've shown me in the video, so fixed the button secret, the texture on the ceiling for the lights, the lighting on the stairs near the exit, the support for the exit transition between base to outdoor, some rocks in the secret cave instead of the brown floor so that it looks different and the scrolling texture on the plasma pick up. Now I'd have to experiment with the music thing.

First Map v1.2 .7z

[DoomGappy]

On 6/17/2024 at 3:42 PM, ptrdoom said:

Here it is , with the changes that you've shown me in the video, so fixed the button secret, the texture on the ceiling for the lights, the lighting on the stairs near the exit, the support for the exit transition between base to outdoor, some rocks in the secret cave instead of the brown floor so that it looks different and the scrolling texture on the plasma pick up. Now I'd have to experiment with the music thing.

First Map v1.2 .7z

@ptrdoom why don't you make a thread on WAD Releases & Development and post your map? I think it's a good opportunity to get feedback from other members!

 

[ptrdoom]

14 minutes ago, DoomGappy said:

@ptrdoom why don't you make a thread on WAD Releases & Development and post your map? I think it's a good opportunity to get feedback from other members!

 

How does it work? You make a topic and post for feedback for the wad? Is that it?

[DoomGappy]

25 minutes ago, ptrdoom said:

How does it work? You make a topic and post for feedback for the wad? Is that it?

You basically post a map and people who are interested in it download and play it, some providing feedback. If you say it's your first map, people will probably go a bit easier on you, although I don't think anyone would raise many concerns about this map. It is still a good procedure to release maps there and get the feedback from varied people. Here is a thread about how to post your map on that subforum.

Edited June 18 by DoomGappy

[ptrdoom]

19 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

You basically post a map and people who are interested in it download and play it, some providing feedback. If you say it's your first map, people will probably go a bit easier on you, although I don't think anyone would raise many concerns about this map. It is still a good procedure to release maps there and get the feedback from varied people. Here is a thread about how to post your map on that subforum.

Sure I'll make the post soon, I just need to know exactly how do I check the format I used for my maps? I'm a bit clueless. Usually I test the map with the doom builder by pressing F9 do I also have to test them on prboom+ alone? I did set it up that doombuilder reads that but not sure if it can create false positiev or so, I'm reading the post now on how to go about making a thread.

 

On a sidenote, Gappy when you make a door that connects two areas like in the first screenshot, I guess that is not acceptable to have the texture like that? Should I divide using the texture from the door like in the second screenshot?

 

This also reminds me of the second map which I've been reworking for fun and if you remember, at the start there was the wall lowering revealing a chainsaw.

I changed it a bit but not sure how to make it look decent on both floor and ceiling (third screenshot).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 19 by ptrdoom

[DoomGappy]

I left you hanging again, @ptrdoom! Life has been chaotic. 

 

On 6/19/2024 at 3:16 PM, ptrdoom said:

Sure I'll make the post soon, I just need to know exactly how do I check the format I used for my maps? I'm a bit clueless. Usually I test the map with the doom builder by pressing F9 do I also have to test them on prboom+ alone? I did set it up that doombuilder reads that but not sure if it can create false positiev or so, I'm reading the post now on how to go about making a thread.

It's a good idea to test at least with DSDA, which is the most recently maintained PrBoom+ based source port. Some people still use PrBoom+, though. I still generally only use DSDA for cl9 testing. 
 

On 6/19/2024 at 3:16 PM, ptrdoom said:

On a sidenote, Gappy when you make a door that connects two areas like in the first screenshot, I guess that is not acceptable to have the texture like that? Should I divide using the texture from the door like in the second screenshot?

 

This is entirely personal and up to you. What I generally like to do is to always use different flats when I use different heights, and I generally use height differences to divide areas. In Boxdoom, a project I've been working on, I've decided to use a flat to divide each box, for a better transition. Even there there are exceptions, though. Ultimately, it's up to you. 
 

On 6/19/2024 at 3:16 PM, ptrdoom said:

This also reminds me of the second map which I've been reworking for fun and if you remember, at the start there was the wall lowering revealing a chainsaw.

I changed it a bit but not sure how to make it look decent on both floor and ceiling (third screenshot).

 

I have no idea, I'd have to give it a look directly on the wad. I generally use support2 or support3 as a transition between textures, and I love support3. Doortrak can also be used if it's a moving part, like a door or a lowering floor. Update me on that and I'll share my thougths with you. You could indeed bundle all your three first maps as a "miniwad". 

Edited June 22 by DoomGappy

[DoomGappy]

Oh, by the way, here is my second RAMP 2024 mapping session. I focused on developing the rest of the mechanics and starting to make the final version of each little room.