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Doom3 Modding Is Fun!


AndyBear

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I just got DOOM3, so instead of playing it, I went out and checked what kind of stuff there is out there for the game. Now of course I knew about The Dark Mod before, you can find 2 of my posts here, as a guest, but I have been watching this project for a few month now, began visiting the site about 2 month or so after the Thief 2D project was promoted through the TTLG forums (ya I know I got weird ways of orientation in time). Anyhow I got DOOM3 for 2 reasons, (1) This mod, and SScar, even though it now looks as if it is going through some rough times(hope SScar team will make it through to finish the project), and (2) to maybe start learning how to mod.

 

I was always a "Quest" game fan, games like Monkey Island, or the more recent The Longest Journey. And so today while watching stuff to get inspired with for something I might try do make after getting through the basics, I found this really cool thing, it had lots of "Interaction Points" of various types, I began thinking about MYST, a game I have never played, but just seen a few video reviews, and screens.

 

So anyhow, after seeing what can be done with the engine, I decided to try and map my first room. As someone who's most "codeing" was making a +/- calculator in Flash ActionScript, and work with 3D environments was about nothing (tried looking at the DeusEx unreal 1.0 based MODing tools, but it was to much for me, to much stuff to remember...), I expected it would take me some time to make my first "map". but it was not so, I was able to make my first room in less then 20 minutes, using a video tutorial form Trepaning.com, and when I got an error during BSP it was so well laid out in the console window, in such nice human like syntax, I was able to understand my error and fix it.

 

I am now pretty sure I was right when I was saying you should stick to TDE when I posted a week ago. Especially after seeing what can be done with it, apart from the DOOM3 Demo.

 

As always I apologize for any inconvenience caused by my poor English, I used a word processor this time, so I hope I don’t have many mistakes. If you believe a mistake of mine stands out to much, and makes it hard for you to read my posts, please point it out, preferably in a PM. (this kind of thing happens a lot when you chat with people with Masters in all kinds of languages, so I am just being careful as it happens too me a lot)

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I expected it would take me some time to make my first "map". but it was not so, I was able to make my first room in less then 20 minutes, using a video tutorial form Trepaning.com, and when I got an error during BSP it was so well laid out in the console window, in such nice human like syntax, I was able to understand my error and fix it.

Yeah. Getting first results is pretty easy. But it's the making it look god thing that will be harder. :) Anyway. Nice to hear that there is a prospective new mapper on it's way. :)

Gerhard

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Yeah, learning to map is an ongoing process, sorta like chess it's easy to learn but hard to master.

 

Once you learn how to make basic rooms you'll wanna start moving up to more complicated styles of architecture and then learning the best ways to optimise your maps. Course if you enjoy doing it then every moment you spend making a map will (usually) be a joy..specially when you see the end results turn out just the way you wanted em to.

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I saw some of your screen shots on the site, and I was wondering. Do you have a texture pack ready? I am just asking as I would like to ask you for it, I know this sounds as if I am invading the teams "territory", but if you do have a "texture pack" with normal, unDOOMlike textures, I will be glad if you could release it, and I am sure the whole community would. Would you consider this? pretty please? :unsure:

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Bummer, ok then, is there any place I can get a "medieval" themed texture pack for DOOM3ed? I am trying to understand the way this thing works, but the DOOM3 textures freak me out, all look the same, and I need some brick, and maybe wood, textures. Any place I should look at? I have no idea about this stuff so you can tell me if this is a stupid question.

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There are quite a few brick and wood textures in the hell directory you can get ahold of.

 

As for downloading textures, there are tons for other games but I can't think of any packs for Doom 3 off the top of my head. Best you can do for the moment is just make your own...cept for the normalmaps (which can be a pain in the ass) it's not too hard to do once you get the jist of it.

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Yay I have found the spoken Hell textures, and so I am a step closer to being done with my 1st "room". (One step out of a million)

 

Want to see what I got done? Sure you don't, but if you do, here is a Link to a screen shot. It's supposed to become a high poly/high res replica of This. What do you think any resemblance? What are the most obvious mistakes? Is it any good at all?

 

It took me about 20 minutes or so for the basic structure and stuff, and then 10 more of optimizing (like deleting unwanted brushes and starching others to fit their place), and 20 minutes to find the right textures, and then like 5 to apply them where I need them, and apply the caulk texture where it should be.

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I run High on my Radeon 9800 Pro 128 meg too. It doesn't mean that it'll run like crap just because you don't have a 256 meg card, it just means that you'll get the optimal experience with one...IE you won't get the occasional hiccups when the game loads new textures and whatnot.

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I have the same card as you Renzatic, just that when I did try to run Doom 3 under High settings, there would always be this split second blip when something major happened, ex. After getting Bioscanned at the beginning, the door into the facility would open with a hiccup, but the general frame rate was quite good.

Loose BOWELS are the first sign of THE CHOLERA MORBUS!
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RE to sparhawk: I am just trying to see what I can do with the mapper, I am not too good with it right now, and so I was thinking that the best thing would be to use what I do know (making "curves"; basic optimizing) and what I did not know yet, but learned pretty fast (like the X sided brush), to make a map that needs just these things.

 

And I didn't want a map that was a cube room with curves around the edges, and just stuff standing in the middle as detail (i.e. I didn't want this to look like any other 1st map). So what I have done was going to a place with screens of games (Gamespot) and choosing a nice screen that looked like it used the things I know, and then I began to replicate it.

 

I am doing this just too see what I can do, and to get some experience, so I can some day make stuff.

 

As I have once said here I am a hobby designer of stuff (websites, small games, homes(especially mine), other stuff...) so when I saw DOOM3, which is an engine with so many features that I can use to make something look "cool", and with such flexibility so I can actually include stuff other engines won’t allow (like the in-game computers, it's a key to make a game "Immersive"), I deiced that this would be the time to start working with games, and maybe making MODs.

 

So yes, if I will get to a point at which I will be able to make good looking, functional maps, I would probably try to remake some thief maps (actually my plan is to make maps that have the same fell, and some of the same features, but are set in a shiny (i.e. "futuristic") or gloomy (i.e. "horror"/ lovecraftian style) world, with either lots of new challenges, or a different atmosphere, like people that are always spooked, and maybe different sets of events, as the world mechanics are different.

 

One problem I do find with this is the fact that I suck at everything right now, and I also have no textures, and of course I have no idea how to make new ones (the first step is the hardest). But I will learn and in the end I will probably make something, especially when TDM comes out.

 

------------------------------

 

I believe my computer is a bit below the minimum requirements of the game(i.e. I got only 256 RAM), But I have a GF3 equivalent GPU, so the game runs at about 40-50 FPS most of the time, but I guess the textures and other stuff are pretty much on the lowest setting (I still have all the advance options on, but I get a 3-5 sec "lag" time when entering a map, but that's it, I play the game with no other slowdowns)

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Don't worry about making your first map look ultra cool, just get used to the editor first and spend that time to learning how to do lots of architectural detail.

 

Your first map is gonna be the worst map you make by default. Don't worry about making something playable, just use it to practice and get the feel of everything.

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I am not trying to make a "good" map, I just think that after making the cube map, I should put myself to the test, not something hard, but something I would like to do, and that will give me a challenge.

 

When I made the cube room it took me about 2 minutes, including the texturing, "optimizing", and compilation. So making more of these is kind of like standing on the same spot. I follow the saying that "Innovative thinking works best in a confined environment with few visible possibilities"

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lol, I actually spent alot of my time making box maps when I first started mapping..I made sure that each map was cooler looking than the last, but it stuck me in a rut for awhile.

 

If you wanna go for something a little more challenging, try to make a map with multiple levels and a more spacious roof. If you really want to get crazy try and make some pipes that curve around stuff and bend upwards into a hole in the ceiling and make 45 degree angled walls. They're hard as hell to do, but if you can get em done you'll have a great start on mapping.

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I can tell you how to do it right fast.

 

go to doom3/base and make 2 new folders named textures and materials.

 

Under base/textures make another folder and call it whatever. I'll use andybear for the sake of conversation

 

take the texture you wanna add and throw it in the textures/andybear folder.

 

Open up wordpad and copy this entry in (mytexture is obviously used in place of the actual textures name)

 

textures/andybear/mytexture.tga

{

    qer_editorimage  textures/andybear/mytexture_ed.tga

 

    diffusemap        textures/andybear/mytexture_d.tga       

    specularmap      textures/andybear/mytexture_s.tga

    bumpmap          textures/andybear/mytexture_local.tga   

}

 

Once you get that, save it as a text document, then rename it to custom.mtr (you'll have to be able to see your file extentions in the OS). Throw this into your base/materials folder.

 

Now when you open the editor and go to your texture list you'll see a new andybear catagory..that's where your texture will be.

 

Oh, and while you have to have an editor image and a diffuse (basically a regular colored texture), you don't have to have a specular or bumpmap (normalmap) to get it ingame. The diffuse and editor image can be the same image, so just make a copy of one and change the tags on the end.

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Thank you very much. I was really in need of this information.

 

I am woundering, I am now trying to replicate this, as I can not continiue the other thing until I get the textures done, which may take me quite some time. But as the basic DOOM3 texture packs got some industrial textures in them, I can pretty much mess around with this, + I don't need to find models for the light sources (as DOO3 has hanging lights, but no Theiflike street lamps). So I am woundering, will it be ok if I post my "progress" here? I will not be offended if you do not wish me to do so, but I do not wish to ganerate any "SPAM" by posting topics/posts that people here do not wish to see.

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