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[General] Doom Modding Fundamentals |
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Tuesday, 17 March 2009 |
Considering the age of Doom now, it's some kind of a miracle to me that there are still new people arriving at the modding communites and starting to work on their own projects. Not that it is a bad thing, it's quite the opposite as those people get some new ideas into this fucking old egoshooter. Though, starting off from zero is a hard thing considering all the different applications and programs you can work with. This article is supposed to be a collection of tools that are a useful base if you want to work effectively on a new ZDoom/GZDoom project without having too much trouble or spending too much time on looking for them. I will also try to keep this up-to-date as soon as new programs are availabe, so just to let you know that this isn't outdated in the next few weeks  So, let us not waste even more time and read on!
The Map Editor
"Easy and fast - it's DoomBuilder 2"
 Since almost ten years, I am an active mapper in the community and therefore I had the chance (or out of necessity) to use a large variety of different editors, like WinDeu, Deth, Zeth, WadAuthor and Zeth but none of them has been as advanced, as fast and as easy to learn as DoomBuilder and the all new DoomBuilder 2. The reason for this is definitely CodeImp, the creator of DoomBuilder. He is still actively working on improvements for his masterpiece mapeditor and what's even more important: He is working together with this on members from the community in terms of beta tests, bug tracking and feature suggestions. So, in a certain way, the new Doom Builder is a coproduction that aims exactly at the needs of us mappers. Additionally it's always up to date in terms of ZDoom/GZDoom compatibility (e.g. reading resources PK3s), and with it's countless possibilites and features, it's the primary choice for every Doom mapper out there. Nothing is better, nothing is faster, nothing is easier than Doombuilder. That's no hint, it's an assignment 
Download
DoomBuilder 1 | DoomBuilder 2
The Lump Editor / Organizer
"Combining SLumpEd & XWE"
 The trouble with up-to-date lump editors is that there are no up-to-date lump editors. And as of now, there are only two in question as all the others (like WadMan or WinTex) are even older and too limited to work efficienty with today's needs. The two editors that I have in mind are SLumpEd and XWE and you won't around using both of them in combination as each of them misses one or two features that the other one has. In my case, I am using XWE the most time, mainly for organizing WAD files, importing graphics and textures, editing lumps and aligning paletted sprites. But as soon as I come to think of easily converting paletted sprites into paletted transparent PNGs, aligning PNGs or working with PK3 files without extracting them, SLumpEd is going to be your friend. XWE's latest update lies back some more time than SLumpEds so it's lacking several new features of both ZDoom and GZDoom. On the other hand, SLumpEd's latest final version (that's old as well - I guess it's time for someone creating a new lump edtor  ) is not as stable as XWE so it's better to not use it too often I guess. You see, there is no clear and definite solution as there is with the map editor but my tip to have something that works is: Use XWE as often as possible, but for PNG operations launch SLumpEd. There is only one thing you have to take care of (thx to esselfortium for pointing that out): If you are working with TEXTURE1 and PNAMES for texture organisation instead of TX_ markers, stick only to one of the programs when making changes. Somehow, editing these lumps with XWE and then with SLumpEd (and vice versa) breaks the file and fills the entries with garbage data, and we won't do that, will we?
Download
XWE | SLumpEd
The DECORATer
"DecX - It doesn't only extract"
 As of now, there is one single tool that can help you with all kinds of DECORATE needs that you could come up with. It's called DecX, standing for Decorate Extractor but in this case, that's only an understatement. DecX is a great decorate editor with all kinds of nifty features like syntax highlighting for actor and weapon codepointers, general decorate code and it is also capable of directly testing actors in a testing environment (weapons & monsters). For newbies, this is the perfect program to work and learn with. Unfortunately, it has some limitations. Nya didn't work on this for a long time now, so the syntax highlighting and possible codeointers isn't up to date and that's somehow a problem. The only way to avoid this, is Cutman Mike's latest application (yes, the man can do more than Ghouls  ) DECORATE Assistant. The application simply pastes code for action functions and actor flags with the parameters ready to be changed, you only need to click on the system tray icon and choose the function you need and it appears in your editor or your clipboard if you prefer that. These two programs in combination and all your wishes are fulfilled.
Download
DecX 2 | DECORATE Assistant
And that's all you need I guess Sure, that's my personal preference and it's possible that other Doomers recommend other tools or even some more programs, but for me the ones that I've mentioned have been enough to create the Ultimate Torment & Torture, City of the Damned : Apocalypse and my ZPack submissions. So I think if you have these on your hd, most of the aspects you will encounter in mapping and modding for Doom will be covered.
-Tormentor667
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