Cobra Utilities for Doom & Doom II/Cobra Utilities For Doom & Doom II - Disc 1.iso/files/level/dmdesfaq/design11.faq

Text File | 1994-06-12 | 33.1 KB | 755 lines

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
  DESIGN11.FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions about DOOM Level Design
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Version 1.1, 13 June 1994.      Editor: Tom Neff <[e-mail]>


INTRODUCTION
------------

  This is a FAQ for DOOM level design in general, not how to use a
particular editor.  If you want to know about playing DOOM rather than
designing new levels for it, read the DOOM FAQ (see Appendix B).

  Designers should also get the Unofficial DOOM Specs (see Appendix B).

  Contributions to this document are welcome (see Appendix C).

  The sections below are: EDITORS, WALLS, SECTORS/ROOMS/FLOORS/CEILINGS,
DOORS, TAGS/TRIGGERS/EFFECTS, MONSTERS/THINGS, LEVEL MAPS,
GRAPHICS/SOUNDS, and OTHER ERRORS.  The Appendices are: THE 10 MOST
COMMON DESIGN ERRORS, GETTING ESSENTIAL FILES, CONTRIBUTING TO THIS
DOCUMENT, and LEVEL DESIGN SOFTWARE LIST. Questions and paragraphs are
numbered for reference.


1. EDITORS
----------

  [1-1] What's the best level editor?  Where can I get Editor X?

  A. Try them out and decide for yourself.  See Appendix D for a list of
the current popular editors.  They are all found on the primary DOOM FTP
sites, which are listed in Appendix B.


2. WALLS
--------

  [2-1] I flagged a two-sided wall Impassable, but monsters and players
can still shoot through it.  What's wrong?

  A. Two-sided walls don't stop bullets/fireballs, no matter what flag
bits you set.  To stop shots, you need either one-sided lines (void
space) or a floor-ceiling mismatch high enough to block the line of
sight.  "Impassable" only refers to motion by monsters or players.

-----

  [2-2] I set "Blocks Sound" on the lines surrounding a room, but monsters
still seem to hear me.  What's wrong?

  A. A sound you make will activate non-deaf monsters if they can hear it.
Your sound fills your sector completely (even if it has non-contiguous
"extents" - a potentially useful effect), then travels to sectors that
are are adjacent to the one you're in, and then to sectors adjacent to
those, and so on.  Sound will stop at one-sided lines, it will stop at
closed doors or other floor/ceiling cutoffs, and it will be "diminished"
at two sided lines which have the "blocks sound" bit set.  It takes TWO
(2) lines with "blocks sound" to stop the sound.  (This is confirmed by
the comments in ID's released DOOMBSP code.)

  So - place a thin "buffer sector" next to your room, with both lines
flagged "Blocks Sound," and monsters on the other side of the buffer
sector won't hear you.

             -- with material from Richard Krehbiel <[e-mail]>

-----

  [2-3] OK, I understand how sound blocking works and my monsters work
properly, but why can *I* can still hear everything (monsters, shots,
lifts, etc), even across "Blocks Sound" lines?

  A. Sound blocking only affects monsters.  Human players can hear
everything possible (if there is a physical sound path) without regard
to line flags.  Sound does attenuate with distance, e.g., a distant lift
will sound faint to you, a near one loud.  (Monsters hear perfectly at
any distance.)

-----

  [2-4] I wanted to make a doorway that LOOKS like a wall, by taking a
passable two-sided line and giving it a Normal texture on one or both
sides.  Then you could walk/shoot through it, hide behind it, etc.  But
when I loaded my level and walked up to the secret wall, it looked like
weird colored strings, and my PC slowed to a crawl.  What's wrong?

  A. We call this the Medusa Effect - it looks like snakes and you turn
to stone. :-)  It happens because you used a *multi-patch* texture on
the Normal of your passwall.  A fuller explanation of patches and
textures can be found in the Unofficial Specs (see Appendix B), but
briefly, each texture (like STARTAN3) is built from one or more graphic
"patches" (like SW19_1 and SW19_2); and for some reason, DOOM's engine
can only draw SINGLE-patch textures on passable walls.  Examples of
single-patch textures (which you could use) are BROWNGRN, SKINTEK2, and
ASHWALL.  Examples of multi-patch textures that won't work are STARTAN3,
COMPBLUE, and WOODSKUL.  A complete list (TEXPATCH) of textures and the
patches that make them up is available on major DOOM archive sites (see
Appendix B).

-----

  [2-5] I got some strange colored dots and lines on some of my walls, but
I wasn't trying to make anything secret or strange.  My PC seems to run at
full speed and the walls function normally, but they look funny.  What
did I do?

  A. We call this Tutti Frutti effect (TFE).  It happens for one of two
reasons: either you used a short texture (less than 128 high) on a
taller wall, or you used a transparent texture (like MIDGRATE) on an
Upper or Lower surface, instead of the Normal surface.

  The "short texture TFE" happens because textures are only *vertically*
tiled on 128 pixel boundaries.  If your wall is taller than your texture
and the texture is less than 128 high, DOOM fills in the extra pixels
with quasi-random garbage, hence the colored tutti frutti.  You often
see this when designers put "STEPx" on 20-24 high steps.

  The "upper/lower holes TFE" happens because Upper and Lower surfaces
actually have *nothing* behind them, so DOOM has nothing to show through
the holes; hence random garbage or tutti frutti.

-----

  [2-6] A wall in my level looks strange - it seems to flash rapidly
with lots of overlapping textures and pictures from elsewhere in my
viewscreen.  What did I do wrong?

  A. This is the infamous Hall Of Mirrors (HOM) effect.  You probably
omitted a necessary texture: either the Normal of a one-sided line, or
the Upper/Lower of a side whose upper/lower surface is exposed to air.
Many editors will catch this nowadays, but you can still run into it
when a lift or floor/ceiling movement exposes a surface that was
"originally" covered in the editor.
  Note that there is another way to get Hall Of Mirrors, from too many
lines in view: see [9-1].

-----

  [2-7] There is a place in my level where the whole screen flashes for
a moment, usually in random hash but sometimes in a pattern.  If you
keep walking, it goes away.  Am I hallucinating?

  A. That's the "Moire'" or "Flash Of Black" error.  It's another
DOOM bug/limit, triggered by getting close to a wall in a very tall
room.  The effect first kicks in at about 559 units high, and gets worse
(you see it farther from the wall, and stay in it longer) as the room
gets taller.  (The "pattern" you see is actually your old room's ceiling
texture, repeated forever at a great distance above and below you, as
though you were floating in some vast Stargate.  Cosmic, man!)

  If you don't really NEED the tall room, get it below 559 high.  (Some
people make F_SKY1-ceiling exteriors very tall, for example, because
they figure "why not?"  Answer: moire' error is "why not.")  If you must
have it, accept the (harmless) error, or else work your way down to
below 559 high with steps up (constant ceiling) before exiting the room.

  This is supposedly fixed in 1.4.

-----

  [2-8] Some of my level's walls behave strangely.  If you stand on the
edge, or in the corner, of this *big* room I built, you can SEE the wall
sort of "jump" and slide around.  If you shoot from there, the bullets
sometimes stop right in front of your face!  What did I do?

  A.  This is the Long Wall Error (LWE).  Your wall is thousands of units
long, right?  That gives the DOOM engine fits with round-off error
when it tries to compute and display the wall's position relative to
you.  The blocked shots are from the "real" wall right in front of your
face!  The solution is simple: break up long lines.  Keep them under
1024.  If you choose 768 or 512 unit long "segments," you will never
have a problem with X offsets in the texture tiling.


3. SECTORS/ROOMS/FLOORS/CEILINGS/STAIRS
---------------------------------------


  [3-1] Is it possible to make a two-story area, where you could walk
over or under another player?

  A. Not really - that's a limit of the DOOM engine.  Only one sector can
occupy a given spot on the (2-D) map.

  You can do some fairly convincing imitations, though.  Two- or
three-"story" buildings have been done, with transporters placed in the
middle of the "up"/"down" staircases or lifts.  Criss-crossing mazes on
two or three levels (see OCTAGON) have been done, where you jump over
"trenches" while running the upper levels.

  You can also make things that LOOK like floating platforms, even
though you can't go both over and under them.  Judicious use of F_SKY1,
uppers and lowers does the trick.

-----

  [3-2] I set a sector's type to Light Pulsates Smoothly, but it doesn't.

  A. First, some versions of some editors got the pulsating sector type
wrong.  It is type 8.  Second, the smooth pulsing goes from the initial
brightness level *DOWN TO* the lowest adjacent brightness, and then back
up.  If the type-8 sector is at or below the brightness of all adjacent
sectors, nothing will happen.

-----

  [3-3] I made a Teleporter, but I can't get the "pentagram" floor
texture to line up properly with the teleporter pad.  Aren't there X and
Y offsets for floor textures?

  A.  No, floors and ceilings are tiled on a fixed 64x64 grid throughout
the level, regardless of where you draw your lines.  In order to make
the various patterns align properly, you need to build your ceilings,
telepads, etc, *on* the 64x64 grid or some multiple thereof.  Most
editors have some kind of grid overlay that can make this easier.

-----

  [3-4]  How do I make stairs?

  A.  Consult your editor's documentation: some have canned procedures
for this, and some do not.  In general, stairs must be shallow enough to
climb and wide and tall enough to fit through.  Remember that the HIGHER
step riser's floor must be at least 56 units below the LOWER adjacent
ceiling, or you won't fit.  You can only climb up 24 units at a time.


4. DOORS
--------

  [4-1] How do I make a door?

  A. Your editor's documentation probably covers this, including whatever
specific keys, buttons, menu selections (and so on) that you need to use
to do it.  But in general, for the simplest, "classic" Door you need to
have a sector lying between two other sectors.  The Door sector itself
should have its Ceiling set down to equal its Floor.  The two "door
face" lines should be two-sided, with their right (first) sides facing
outward; those right sides should have no Normal texture, but an Upper
texture of something "doorish" like BIGDOOR2.  The Door face lines
should have a "Door" Type number like 1, and Tag of 0.
  The other two ("door jamb") lines should be one-sided (void space
behind them), with a Normal texture like DOORTRAK and the "Unpeg
Upper" flag set.  (This holds the DOORTRAK still while the door goes up
and down.)  The lowest of the adjacent sectors' ceilings must be at
least 64 higher than the highest adjacent floor, or you will not be able
to walk through the door.  (The rising door stops 8 below the lowest
adjacent ceiling, and you are 56 high.) There are many more complicated
kinds of door and door-like features, but this is the simplest.

-----

  [4-2] I built a door in a high-walled room, and now the door texture
"repeats" all the way to the ceiling.  It's very ugly.  How do I get
rid of it?

  A. Recess the door.  Add a mini-"hall" leading from your main room,
with a lower ceiling height to match the texture height of your door, and
place the door in that.

        |
        +-+-+-------
        : |d|
  room  : |o|  hall
        : |o|
        : |r|
        +-+-+-------
        |

-----

  [4-3] I added a door but when I play the level, the door is already open,
and it makes an opening noise but it won't close.  What gives?

  A. It's hard to get this to happen.  You may have a Tag number set to
something inappropriate: for most Door types, it should be zero.  Make
sure the activating lines face "outward" (right side facing the player).
Most doors start out closed (floor = ceiling), but they don't have to.

  Note: Even if a door starts out partly open, it will still close all
the way (floor=ceiling).

-----

  [4-4] How can I keep monsters from opening a door?

  A. One way is by requiring one of the Keys (red/blue/yellow) to open
the door.  Monsters don't have keys.  This is the only simple way to
keep monsters out or let them in under *your* control.  If you want to
keep them out of a door, period, you could put a thin high step in front
the door, or mark one of the door lines with the BLOCKMONSTERS flag.


5. TAGS/TRIGGERS/EFFECTS
------------------------

  [5-1] I can't get my Tags to work right.  I put the sector number I
wanted into the Linedef...

  A. Hold it right there!  :-)  Tags are perhaps the most misunderstood
DOOM feature.   Tags are NOT sector numbers and they are NOT line
numbers!  They are *arbitrary* numbers, 1 to 32767, that are *shared* by
one or more lines and sectors, as a way of identifying the sectors as a
group.  It's just like being assigned a "box number" when you place a
newspaper classified ad.  You say, Here's my ad, and they give you Box
78, which happened to be unused.  78 bears no relationship to you
personally, it's just the place where replies to your ad will be sent.
Similarly, if you set up an effect like "lights out," with a walk-over
line to trigger it and a set of one or more sectors whose lights you
want to go out, the actual *numbers* of the lines and sectors don't
matter.  You pick an unused Tag number out of thin air -- say #7 is free
-- and you plug that Tag number into *both* the trigger line (or lines)
and the affected sector (or sectors).  Then later, when you walk over
that line, DOOM says oh, that had Tag #7, now where are all the Tag #7
sectors?  and when it finds them, whatever their actual sector numbers,
it turns out their lights.

-----

  [5-2] Then what's a Platform?

  A. Nothing -- as far as DOOM is concerned, that is.  This isn't an
editor-specific document, but one package added somewhat to the Tag
confusion by (mis-)renaming them "Platforms" (which sounds like a raised
floor, but isn't) and giving them textual descriptions, as if "Lava
Lift" were all you needed to know.  But Tags can be used in complex and
interesting ways: several groups of lines can perform different effects
on the same group of Tagged sectors, for example.  If your editor limits
how you can use the powerful Tags facility, ask the author to change it.

-----

  [5-3] I set a line to turn the lights out on a sector, but when I walk
across it, almost ALL the lights go out in my level!  What in the world
have I done now?

  A. You forgot to set the Linedef Tag number (and the affected Sectors)
to something NONZERO. If DOOM sees a Tag of zero (0) on a trigger
line, it will find all the sectors with the SAME (0) Tag (i.e., most of
the sectors on your level) and do the action on all of them.

  There is some confusion about when and how Tags should be used.  There
are only TWO kinds of trigger lines that don't require a Tag: "true"
Doors (types 1, 26, 31, etc - see the Unofficial Specs) and the End Level
group.  Every other kind of special linetype WILL use the Tag stored in
its Linedef.

-----

  [5-4]  I have a lift in front of a door, and sometimes I can't get the
door to open.  What's wrong?

  A. When two trigger lines are in front of you, DOOM always chooses
the closer of the two.  What's probably happening is that your lift is
so narrow that its trigger line blocks the door's.  Try setting the lift
well back from the door, or using a separate wall switch for the door.

  Of course, this can be an advantage too: to keep people from pressing
the "back" of a switch (in a cooperative exit, for instance), surround
it with innocuous special linetypes that do something like open a door
or turn the already-bright lights up.

  [5-5]  How do I make a teleporter?

  A. This is covered in a lot of tutorials and editor manuals, but
briefly: You need at least one departure Line, one arrival Sector and
one destination Thing.  The line can be anywhere, must be two-sided, and
must have its linetype set to 39.  Its Tag number should be set to match
the Tag of the arrival sector.  The sector can be anywhere, should be
tall enough to accomodate a player, must share the same Tag number and
must be the only Sector with that Tag (although there can be as many
Lines as you like).  Inside the arrival Sector must be exactly one Thing
of type 14 (Teleport exit).
  With those pieces in place, you're set: a player or monster walking
from Right to Left (1st side to 2nd side) across the line will be
teleported onto the Thing in the destination Sector.  The Direction of
the destination Thing will be the direction you face on arrival.

-----

  [5-6] I wanted to make a sector that moves and changes texture, using
one of those exotic linetypes my editor tells me about.  But when I hit
the switch, the sector gets the wrong texture!  How do I fix that?

  A. Most "change texture" triggers modify the tagged (target) sector
floors to match the texture on *side 1 of the line where the switch is*.
Put the texture you want on that side, and the tagged sector will follow
suit.


6. MONSTERS/THINGS
------------------

  [6-1] I built a hallway/room that my monsters refuse to enter.  They
stamp around at the entrance but that's it.

  A. Make sure your hall is wide and tall enough!  The Unofficial
Specs [4-2-1] have a list of monster heights and widths.  What's more, if
a hall is *just* wide enough for a monster, it's less likely to enter
than if it's *plenty* wide enough.

  Also be careful about step-downs and step-ups.  Monsters will not step
up/down too far onto narrow steps.  If you want a monster to go up or
down more than 16, make sure there's plenty of room on both sides of the
riser line.

  And of course, make sure you didn't accidentally mark the entrance
with BLOCKMONSTERS or something, by accident in the editor.

-----

  [6-2]  I put some demons in a room but they don't move, they just stand
there and twitch, although they scream when I shoot them.  How did that
happen?

  A. You probably placed them too close together when you laid out your
level.  Monsters have to be separated from each other (AND from nearby
walls) by at least their own width, or they freeze in place.  (If you
kill all of a monster's too-close neighbors, it will usually free the
monster to attack you.)

  The other possibility is that your ceiling is too low.  See the
Unofficial DOOM Specs (Appendix B) for monster widths and heights.

-----

  [6-3]  There's this great "zoo room" I built with a hundred demons in
it!  What a blast to mow your way through so much alien flesh.  But it's
weird, like some of the monsters "flicker" in and out of view.  Should
that be happening?

  A. DOOM can only keep track of 64 sprites in your view at once.  If
you have more than that, some will fail to display in each frame,
effectively at random.  (This includes things like torches and barrels.)
The more sprite overload, the greater the chance that any given sprite
will be "invisible" at a given moment.  Put 200 imps in a room and each
one will be "gone" 2/3 of the time.

  The workaround is, quite simply, to design your level in a way that avoids
sprite overload.  Instead of 100 troopers in a room, use 50 and keep the
hanging corpses to a minimum in that area... etc.

                                    -- with material from Vesselin Bontchev


7. LEVEL MAPS
-------------

  [7-1] When I play my level and switch to Map mode, it only shows me a
little bit of the local area I'm in, even when I hit "-" a lot or "0" to
Zoom Out.  The Id levels seem to work OK and some of the levels I've
downloaded do too.  What am I doing wrong?

  A. The culprit is the resource called BLOCKMAP.  It is described in
the Unofficial Specs [4-11].  Some editors don't build a good one.  You
can usually overcome this by creating a few dummy "sectorlets" or just
linedefs out at the "corners" outside of your real level map area.
Otherwise, you'll have turn Follow off and scroll around the map.

-----

  [7-2] I designed a level that's about as complicated as one of the
original ID levels - roughly the same number of rooms, monsters, etc.
But mine plays much *slower* than the originals!  What's wrong?

  A. Remember that DOOM only loads PWADs when it needs them, so there
will be some inevitable disk overhead when your level first starts,
and occasionally thereafter if DOOM needs to refer to other entries in
your WAD file.  (If you have enough memory, DOOM actually improves with
about 1 Megabyte of disk cache, something that's not widely known.)

  More importantly, there is a resource called REJECT that quickly tells
DOOM whether sectors can "see" each other, allowing many expensive
line-of-sight checks to be skipped.  Without REJECT, DOOM must
constantly check each monster to see whether it has a line of sight to
your location.  On a level with a lot of monsters, this can be time
consuming.

  As of this writing, no DOOM level editor generates a real REJECT
resource, although two standalone programs (IDBSP and REJECT10) will
attempt to build one for your level.  See Appendix D.


8. GRAPHICS/SOUNDS
------------------

  [8-1] Some of these DOOM levels I download have custom graphics.  How
can I do that?

  A. If you can create or find a GIF file of the right size, there is a
utility called DMGRAPH (see Appendix D) that will insert it into your
WAD file.  You are on your own as far as picking a Windows or DOS based
graphics editor -- there are a lot of them, preferences vary widely, and
if you've never made a picture before, you're probably not ready to use
them in your DOOM levels.  Once you have a picture, the DMGRAPH
documentation tells you more about how to use it.

-----

  [8-2] I wanted to change STARTAN3, but when I ran the DMGRAPH utility,
it said "entry not found."  What's wrong?

  A. As described in the Unofficial Specs (see Appendix B), textures are
built out of graphic "patches."  DMGRAPH 1.1 (the latest version at this
writing) only deals with patches, which have their own names.  STARTAN3
is a texture name.  A few textures are composed of exactly one "patch,"
allowing you to do a full substitution, but others are built of three or
five or more "patches."  A future version of DMGRAPH may (or may not)
address this situation.

-----

  [8-3] I can change the wall graphics just fine, but when I try to
change a floor or ceiling, DOOM crashes.  What am I doing wrong?

  A. Not much, unfortunately.  As the DMGRAPH documentation points out,
only some kinds of graphic patches can be supplied in PWAD files.
Floors, ceilings and sprites (Imp, Torches etc) cannot.  The only thing
you can do is patch them in the *original* DOOM.WAD file.  You could
supply the GIFs, a copy of DMGRAPH and a batch file along with your
custom level, so that the user can insert the graphics him/herself, but
many users don't like patching their main WAD file.

-----

  [8-4] I got a utility (DMAUD) that replaces DOOM sounds, but I don't
know what numbers go with what sounds, and the Unofficial Specs don't
say.  What are the various sound names?

  A. Ask DMAUD: just type "dmaud -l" at the command prompt, and you'll
see a list of them.


9. OTHER ERRORS
---------------

  [9-1] I have a level that passes all my editor's consistency checks, and
looks clean to me, but when I play it, I get strange flashing effects on
a few of the walls, what I think they call "Hall of Mirrors."  What's
wrong?

  A. First, make sure you built a good node tree with the BSP utility.
(See Appendix B for where to get it.) If you used BSP and it still
happens, and you're *sure* you didn't omit any required textures, you
may have hit a DOOM engine limit.

  The limit has to do with how many lines DOOM can show you at a time.
If you have too many lines in sight at once (128 in DOOM 1.2, to be
increased to 192 in DOOM 1.4) the extra sides will not be drawn, and you
will tend to see the Hall of Mirrors (HOM) effect somewhere in the room.
It will probably be somewhere in the distance.  If you hit this limit,
find a way to simplify your room's layout or interpose some void space
(one-sided lines) so you can't see so many lines at once.

  [9-2] Some of my level's walls seem to "jump around"...

  A.  It might be Long Wall Error.  See [2-8].


APPENDIX A.  THE 10 MOST COMMON DESIGN ERRORS
---------------------------------------------

Some of these are show-stoppers, i.e., DOOM will crash if you try to run
the level; others will let you run DOOM but game play is screwed up;
others are just ugly; and a few are common stylistic complaints.  All
are encountered often in user-written levels, or asked about in
discussion forums, or both.  There is no particular order.

  [A-1] Bad Wall Effects.  This includes HOM (Hall Of Mirrors), caused
by missing textures (see [1-7]); Medusa Effect, caused by incorrect
Normal textures on 2-sided walls (see [1-5]); Tutti Frutti, caused by
short Normal or transparent Upper/Lower textures (see [1-6]); Long Wall
Error, from superlong lines; and Moire Error, caused by ceiling changes
near tall rooms (see [1-8]).

  [A-2] Wall Pegging.  Wall faces exposed by rising/lowering ceilings or
floors (including door side tracks) should usually have the Unpegged
Lower/Upper bits set in their Linedef.  This keeps the side textures
from "following" the adjacent rising/lowering sector.  Many, many user
level designers forget to unpeg their door tracks.  Just cosmetic, but
contributes to the sense of realism or lack thereof.

  [A-3] Lines/Vertexes that Cross or Coincide.  A show-stopper.  If two
or more vertexes occupy the same position, or if two or more lines
cross or lie "on top of" one another, DOOM's engine will crash trying to
work out the sector math.  Several editors are capable of checking for
this; if you get crashes, use one.

  [A-4] Slowdown from Monster/Two-Sided Line Glut.  Not a crash but a
playability issue.  See [6-2].  Designers should try their levels on
less powerful PC's and/or at full screen resolution to see whether some
rooms are unacceptably slow.

  [A-5] Unaligned Textures, both X and Y.  Just cosmetic, but important
for realism.  If your X textures are properly aligned and you split a
line or drag vertexes around, you will probably need to re-align.  A
tedious job, but some editors help automate it for you.  (But note: It's
considered polite to offset secret door textures a little bit -- say 2
pixels -- just enough so that an attentive player might notice it.)

  [A-6] Missing Player Starts, Insufficient Sectors.  Another
show-stopper.  Every level must have a minimum of two (2) sectors.  It
must also have a Player 1 Start if you are going to play non-Deathmatch;
Players 2-4 Start if you will be playing Cooperative multiplayer; and
four (4) Deathmatch starts if you will be playing Deathmatch.  Otherwise
DOOM will crash.

  [A-7] Floor/Ceiling Mismatch.  Usually caused by raising/lowering a
floor but forgetting the associated ceiling, or vice versa.  Sometimes
caused by accidentally "including" an unintended sector in a
floor/ceiling change, under editors that support multi sector
"gang" operations.  Unless the ceiling is at least 56 higher than the
floor, you either can't enter or (if you are already there, via
teleport, floor/ceiling movement or start of play) you will be stuck.
This is sometimes an issue on stairs: the LOWER ceiling must be at least
56 higher than the HIGHER floor, or you cannot pass between two sectors.

  [A-8] Missing/Wrong Tag Numbers.  When tagged operations like Lights
Out or Raise Floor get the tag number wrong (in the activating Linedef),
the results are usually awful.  The whole level "rises" or crushes or
something else you don't want.  This can be tough to spot at first in
gameplay.  Ideally, editors should check for this.

  [A-9] Monsters Too Close To Each Other or to Walls.  See [5-2].   You
must also be careful to place Deathmatch and multi-player Start points
far enough from walls, or arriving players will be immobilized.

  [A-10] Dead Ends.  Designers sometimes leave out an EXIT switch, which
makes it hard to play a level in Deathmatch or as part of a larger
episode.  Also, perhaps this is a stylistic argument, but at least be
AWARE of which places (if any) on your level have "no escape" for the
unwary user who enters.  ID's original levels do have a couple of these,
but many users don't like them.


APPENDIX B.  GETTING ESSENTIAL FILES
------------------------------------

  The most essential document for level designers is the Unofficial DOOM
Specs (currently 1.3, to be updated to 1.4 after DOOM 1.4 is released),
written by Matt Fell ([e-mail]) and distributed by Hank
Leukart ([e-mail]).  The next most important is the
DOOM FAQ itself, also from Hank Leukart, and currently at 5.6.

  Both documents are widely distributed on the various DOOM BBS's,
Usenet newsgroups, game boards of online services, and anonymous FTP
sites supporting DOOM players.  The Unofficial Specs are usually stored
as DMSPEC13.ZIP and the DOOM FAQ is DMFAQ56.ZIP.  Some services may use
slightly different names.

  Other useful documents include TEXPATCH.ZIP, a list of texture names
and the graphic patches that make them up.

  A list of WAD editors and utilities appears in Appendix D.

  Where to get this stuff?  Try one of the following FTP sites:

    infant2.sphs.indiana.edu  /pub/doom/wad_edit
    wuarchive.wustl.edu       /pub/msdos_uploads/games/doomstuff
    ftp.uwp.edu               /pub/incoming/id
                              /pub/msdos/games/id/home-brew/doom


APPENDIX C.  CONTRIBUTING TO THIS DOCUMENT
------------------------------------------

  If you have a correction, contribution or suggestion, please mail it
to me, the editor, at one of these addresses:

    [e-mail]           (Internet)
    uunet!panix!tneff             (UUCP)
    >INET:[e-mail]   (CompuServe)

or any other Internet mail gateway you can reach.  I will
read all submissions and (if I use them) credit the author.

  Remember, this is a level design FAQ for things that users really ask
about.  It is not for product advertisements, jumbo ASCII graphics,
opera librettos, or other noise.  If you have discovered something new
and interesting about DOOM, mail it to Matt Fell for the next Specs.  I
only want material that answers frequent design questions.

  I am grateful for the numerous contributions this document has already
received from generous readers.  Where their material led directly to an
entry or enhanced one, I have mentioned them by name.  I would also like
to thank the "Doom Design Elders" for your patience and support.


APPENDIX D: LEVEL DESIGN SOFTWARE LIST
--------------------------------------

These are in alphabetical order.  No endorsement of any particular
product over its competitors is intended.

  [E-1] BSP11.ZIP/BSP11W.ZIP/BSP11X.ZIP -- BSP 1.1 by Colin Reed.  Takes
WAD files and builds a NODES structure to make the level playable with
DOOM. Needed after many editors for best playability.  BSP11W is the
Windows version, and BSP11X is a GCC+DOS-based version that uses a DOS
extender to process huge WAD files fast.

  [E-2] DEU521.ZIP/DEU521GCC.ZIP -- Doom Edit Utility 5.21 by Raphael
Quinet and Brendon Wyber.  A DOS-based level editor.  The GCC version
edits bigger levels but doesn't run under Windows or OS/2.

  [E-3] DE_260B4.ZIP -- DoomEd 2.60 Beta 4, by Geoff Allan.  A
Windows-based level editor.  (Apparently 3.0 is nearing release.)

  [E-4] DMAPED30.ZIP -- DMapEdit 3.0 by Jason Hoffoss.  A DOS-based
level editor.

  [E-5] DMAUD11.ZIP -- DOOM Audio Editor 1.1 by Bill Neisius.  Extracts,
replaces, and adds sound effect samples.

  [E-6] DMDUMP09.ZIP -- DOOM Dump 0.9 by Steve Simpson.  Dumps levels
out to text.

  [E-7] DMGRAP11.ZIP -- DOOM Graphic Editor 1.1 by Bill Neisius.
Extracts, replaces and adds graphic images.

  [E-8] DMMUS10A.ZIP -- DOOM Music Editor 1.0a by Bill Neisius.
Extracts, replaces and adds MIDI songs.

  [E-9] DOOMBSP.ZIP -- Source for ID's own BSP Nodes builder.  Useful
for seeing how they think.

  [E-10] DOOMVB42.ZIP -- DOOMCAD 4.2 by Matt Tagliaferri.  A Windows
based level editor.

  [E-11] EWT.ZIP -- WAD Extended Tools by VeLS.  Views resources.

  [E-12] MDE90B1.ZIP -- My DOOM Editor 0.90 by Patrick Steele.  A
DOS-based level editor.

  [E-13] MOVELEV2.ZIP -- Move Level 2.0 by Steve Simpson.  Displays and/or
changes the episode and level of one or more WAD files.

  [E-14] VNB1050.ZIP -- a node builder by Robert Fenske.

  [E-15] WADED117.ZIP -- WadEd 1.17 by Matthew Ayres.  A DOS-based level
editor.

  [E-16] WADHAK.ZIP -- Wad Hacker by Roger Hayes.  A Windows-based
resource viewer.

  [E-17] WADSUP11.ZIP -- Wads_Up 1.1 by Gary Whitehead.  A Windows-based
level editor.

  [E-18] WT100.ZIP -- WAD Tools 1.0 by Jeff Miller.  A DOS-based WAD
resource viewer/export/import utility.


                       * * * END OF FAQ * * *