
                     Sacrifice - Doom II Tutorial

               Doom Editing : Tips, hints, and rules...



1       Practice Makes Perfect

   The first lesson to be learned from SACRIFOR.WAD is to NEVER upload
your first level!  When I first wrote Sacrifice late in 1995, I thought
it was great.  When I checked it out again almost a year later, I realised
it was complete shit!
   People spend time and money downloading WADs from FTP.CDROM.COM and its
mirrors, and they don't want to waste that time on loading a level that is
full of errors...
   I made five WADs before I did one that I thought was good enough to
upload.  By the time I released Hall of The Mountain King, I was pretty
good, and people didn't flame me for uploading it.  In fact, I even got
some e-mails from people saying that they had actually liked it, and could
I send them some more!


2       Know Thine Editor

   The choice of level editor is important, and when you've got it you
should make damn sure that you know how to use it properly!  When I wrote
Sacrifice, I was using a relatively primitive editor that left the level
full of errors.  Since then I've switched to the more user friendly
Doom Construction Kit (DCK).  One of the great features that this, and most
other good editors, share, is some sort of 'error checker'.
   Back in '95 I didn't know about error checkers, as a result of which my
first level was full of pretty basic mistakes.  When I ran the error checker
on Sacrifice for the first time earlier today there were so many problems
that the program crashed!
   If you have an error checker, use it!  There is nothing more irritating
than downloading a level only to find its full of broken sectors and missing
textures.  Running an error checker on your level will only take a few
seconds, and you should ALWAYS do this before uploading your level.
Preferably you should check for errors once an hour or more...


3       Variety Is The Spice Of Life

   The wall, floor and ceiling textures you use will give the level its feel.
Using a mish-mash of bright textures will only serve to hurt the eyes of the
person playing it, and is usually not a good idea.  On the other hand,
making a whole level using only two textures is likely to result in a boring
looking level...
   If you look at Sacrifice, you'll see that its pretty monotonous in places.
SACRIFOR manages to be monotonous and bright at the same time, and has some
pretty weird choices of floor and ceiling textures in places that don't
really work very well...
   Ultimately its up to you what textures you use, but be aware that although
all textures are equal, some are more equal than others!  The pipes I used in
SACRIFOR are pretty ugly, and look terrible when you put lots of them
together.  The bricks in SACRIFCO work much better en masse.  The only way to
learn this is through experience.  Keep trying until you find something that
looks good!


4       Framed!

   In general, doors look much nicer if you put them in a door frame.  It
works in real life, so why not in Doom?  Door frames are especially handy
if you're using a door (such as DOOR1, DOOR3, or BIGDOOR6) that is less
than 128 units high, or putting a door in a room or corridor more than
128 units high.
   SACRIFOR doesn't use door frames at all.  SACRIFCO has a few.  To see
an example of how to build a door frame, compare the door to the corridor
where the yellow key is in the two WADs.  SACRIFOR doesn't have a frame
there.  SACRIFCO has a sector on either side of the door.  This sector that
straddles the door is the frame, and should generally be lower than the
room/corridor on either side...


5       Suicide Is Painless (?)

   Although some strange deviants enjoy the challenge of a level which is
almost certain to kill them within ten seconds, most people find that this
'really pisses them off'.  Easy levels can still be good levels, but levels
where the first room you enter contains a dozen cyberdemons are generally
shit, however well built the level is.  There is a reason why Doom only had
one cyberdemon in it.  Any more is suicide!


6       Lighting

   Neither SACRIFCO nor SACRIFOR is particularly good when it comes to
lighting effects.  See my Doom II levels GARDENSD or MAGNUMOP to see what
makes for really good light and shadow effects...
   Basically, you shouldn't usually design a level where every sector has
the same light level, especially not if its 255 (maximum), or 0 (minimum).
Light levels should vary through a level, and should be used intelligently.
   For example, in SACRIFOR, one of the darkest rooms in the whole level is
one of only two that has an obvious light source.  This looks pretty
silly.  If you look at SACRIFCO, you'll notice that the light level is
slightly higher closer to the torches than it is elsewhere in the room.
After practicing you can do some pretty amazing stuff with light sources
and shadows, and this really adds to the atmosphere of a level.
   Generally, light sources should throw shadows, and rooms should get
darker the further they are from a light source.  Just use common sense...


7       Common Problems

   a       Unclosed Sectors

        PROBLEM:  In SACRIFOR you'll see a lot of these.  Basically, if
        the light, floor and ceiling settings from one room spill into
        another you've got an unclosed sector.  You will usually see a
        triangular patch on the floor and ceiling that moves around as
        you do.

        SOLUTION: Check that there aren't any lines outside of the room
        that have the same sector number as those inside the room.  If
        you select 'Sector Mode', click on the room with the problem, and
        zoom out, any problem lines should appear in red.  If you have an
        error checker it will give something along the lines of:
                Sector 88 is not closed at LineDef 624
                  To correct this, just find line 624 and give it the
        correct sector number...  Also, check the lines on either side
        of it if line 624 looks OK.  Make sure that it joins with the
        lines on either side.  Sometimes you'll also find that there
        are two lines overlying each other.

   b       Hall Of Mirrors Effect (HOM)

        PROBLEM: A HOM is where part of a sector blurs as you move, seeming
        to leave a trail on the screen.  It may also flicker as you look at
        it.

        SOLUTION: HOMs occur for a variety of reasons.  One common one is
        that you've got an unclosed sector (see above).  Missing textures are
        also a common cause of HOMs.  Check that the wall where the HOM
        occurs has all the textures it needs.
                  Sometimes HOMs also occur because a level is too detailed
        for Doom to handle.  If your computer crashes with a 'Visplane
        Overflow' after the HOM occurs, it means that you're using too many
        lines in the room that you can see through.  The only way to get
        round this one is to reduce the number of transparent lines in the
        room.  I've had a lot of problems with this cause of HOM when I've
        tried to make the lighting and shadows of a room too detailed.

   c       Tutti-Frutti Effect

        PROBLEM: Lots of strange coloured bits appear on your walls...

        SOLUTION: This problem occurs for one of two reasons:
                  The most common reason is that the texture you're using
        is less than 128 units high.  For example, some of the doors in
        SACRIFOR have this problem.  The most obvious is the doors in the
        largest of the rectangular rooms, which have bits of 'tutti frutti'
        as horizontal lines across them.  To solve this, build a door frame
        the same height as the door (see point 4 above).  Otherwise, just
        use a different texture.
                  If the 'tutti frutti' is really bad, it probably means
        you're trying to use a transparent texture (MIDBARS or MIDSPACE
        for example) for an upper or lower texture.  Doom doesn't allow
        this.  Choose a texture that doesn't have any holes in it...


FINAL NOTE:

  If you have any other questions or problems not explained here, please
e-mail me at jb54@le.ac.uk.  I'll be glad to help you, and if you've got
a really good question, I'll update this file and the HTML version, which
you can find at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/8666/tutorial.html

  This is V1.0 of "Sacrifice - Doom II Tutorial".
  Last updated 17.09.96.
