Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch > Tutorial Collection
[TUTORIAL] Getting started with Doom Builder 2 (making maps)
CutmanMike:
This tutorial is out of date (and imageshack ate all my tutorial images :( )
Check out a more updated tutorial here!
(click to show/hide)Introduction
Creating your own maps for MM8BDM (and doom in general) is relatively easy now thanks to Doom Builder 2. Depending on how good you are at reading tutorials or figuring things out for yourself, depends on how easy you'll find Doom Builder 2. Chances are if you've edited maps in modern games before, this will be a walk in the park.
But the first step can always be the hardest, in this case setting the bugger up!
Download
First thing you'll need is to download Doom Builder 2. Grab it here:
http://www.doombuilder.com/index.php?p=downloads
Setting up DB2 for MM8BDM editing
Once installed, run DB2. You'll be presented with the main screen of the editor. The first thing we need to do is tell DB2 what port and game we're going to be editing for. Since MM8BDM isn't standard, you'll have to tell DB2 it's Skulltag in hexen format.
To do this, hit Tools and then Game configurations (or just hit F6)
In this window you need to select Skulltag (Doom in Hexen Format) from the left. Then you need to hit Add Resource button. Another window will pop up, asking you to browse for a WAD file. You need to browse for megagame.wad, which is included in the MM8BDM installation. Hit OK.
You also need to add the PK3 file, so hit Add Resource again. Hit the "From PK3" tab and browse for the MM8BDM pk3 file and click OK
When you're done, the list should look something like this:
Lastly hit the Testing tab. Here you'll want to browse for Skulltag.exe (NOT MM8BDM.EXE). Change the skill level to 4 because lowering it alters the in game damage levels.
Now check the Customize Parameters box and paste the following over the old parameters:
-iwad "megagame.wad" -skill "4" -file "%AP" "%F" +map %L %NM
It should look something this when you're done:
Once that's out of the way, hit OK and exit the game configurations window. You only need to do all this once. Now DB2 is ready to make some new maps!
Starting a new map
Now let's try making a bare bones new map. Hit the new map button at the top left of the screen.
A new window will pop up. You'll need to select the game configuration you just set up (Skulltag (Doom in Hexen format)) and provide a level name. It can be anything, but for now let's go with TEST01.
When you hit ok you'll be presented with a blank canvas. This is where you start drawing your map, adding objects (known as things) and all that good stuff. You may want to spend a moment to get familiar with everything.
There are different modes of editing. If you haven't touched anything you should still be in vertices mode (it tells you at the bottom). You can change mode by using the toolbar at the top with these icons:
In order they are:
Vertices mode - Used for selecting vertices and start drawing new sectors.
Linedefs mode - Used for quickly selecting walls and editing their properties.
Sector mode - Used for selecting sectors and editing their properties.
Brightness mode - Used for quickly editing light levels (I never use this)
New sector mode - Used for quickly making new sectors within linedefs.
Things mode - Used for selecting or creating things (weapons, playerstarts etc)
So let's draw our first room. While in vertices mode, right click on the canvas to draw a square (or any shape you like). Make sure you return to to first vertex you created to create the sector (for future reference, you can right click to stop drawing lines).
Your first sector should be created. It's blue because the default textures are Air Man's, but you can change them later so don't worry. As we're just doing the bare bones, let's add some "things". We'll add a weapon, a deathmatch start and a singleplayer start just in case. First change over to things mode. Then right click anywhere in the new sector.
From here you can see all the things in a list. It's already at the player starts section so let's add those first. Click Player 1 start and then hit OK. Then right click elsewhere in the sector and do the same for Player Deathmatch Start. You should now have two player starts in your sector.
Now we'll add a weapon. Right click in the sector again. You may be baffled to find none of the MM8BDM weapons under the weapons section of the list of things. All the MM8BDM exclusive stuff is tucked away in it's own section called Decorate. You should see it at the bottom of the whole things list.
Select AtomicFireWep and hit OK. You should now have 3 things in the map. Phew. Let's save all our hard work so far! Hit the save button at the top left. You can call it anything, but make sure to save it as a .wad (DO NOT OVERWRITE ANY OF THE MM8BDM FILES).
Done! To try it out, just hit the play (test map) button on the tool bar. If everything was set up correctly, it should load MM8BDM and start you in your new maps. Congratulations! You're one step closer to making your own cool MM8BDM maps! Browse around the interweb for more DB2 tutorials to find out how to use the editor and all it's functions.
Tips for making MM8BDM styled maps
Here's a few pointers on how to make authentic looking MM8BDM maps.
Floors and ceilings are are 32x32 - You may notice that every map in MM8BDM is fixed to a 32x32 grid in a way. Every floor matches the Mega Man tiles. You should try your best to level out your maps so that they follow a 32 pixel height format. To understand what I'm talking about, when you raise a ceiling or floor you get the red ! textures. Use these !'s as a guideline to know how low/high a ceiling/floor is to match the tiles, as they happen to be 32x32 map pixels.
255 lighting - While you can change the light levels, MM8BDM uses full brightness to keep consistent 8-bit colors. It can look a little strange when sectors are darker, especially with such bright colors on the characters, but it's up to you.
More to come!
Mr. X:
Skulltag won't let me test the stage. It just brings me to "Find your Doom2 wad file" and MM8BDM won't work. Also how would we use a server with our custom stages?
RainsLikeSnow:
can someone come up with a way to host with these
Mr. X:
Thanks to Tornado, I've found out that you can put stages in the skins folder and have them appear in game. However, that doesn't allow custom music and I have a feeling that's not the right way to do it.
P.S. - I've finished updating my maps and will release them as soon as I know how the correct way to put them in game.
CutmanMike:
The launcher needs updating, but for now you can do this:
Go to the host tab.
Under custom parameters put the following: -file whatever.wad
whatever being the name of the wadfile. Make sure it's in the same folder or you may have to put the whole path to the file.
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