[TUTOR] Doombuilder and You: Mapping Essentials 20XX

[Rozark]

SO YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO MAP EH?
ARE YOU READY TO INVEST HOURS UPON HOURS OF YOUR LIFE DRAWING LINES, RAISING FLOORS, AND APPLYING TEXTURES?
IF SO, THEN YOU'VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE!

Thanks to Zandronum 2.0 and UDMF, the old topic had become outdated. Rather than trying to correct things, I've taken the liberty of creating this tutorial on the craft of mapping and some basic design questions that are frequently asked. This tutorial uses GZDoombuilder, a more up to date and cleaner version of Doombuilder 2. Key features involve being able to see your slopes and 3D floors in realtime using visual mode along with easily being able to adjust texture offsets. A link to both has been provided in the list of links below. This tutorial also uses Lego's resource pack, which removes a small amount of setup hassle. The resource pack also correctly lists teamspawns, organizes weapons by weapon category, properly fixes ammo and health for 8BDM mapping purposes, fixes loads of editor errors (thus improving load time) that were created by V5C, and plenty more. I highly recommend it. This tutorial is organized into three major sections. The "Core" section is meant to be the initial beef and walkthrough for someone new to the editor. The "Mechanics" section writes as if you have already gone through the "Core" section or already have previous editor experience. It's meant to be used as a reference for specific items. The "Slade" section is not a full tutorial on Slade, by any means. It simply goes into a few important details and functions that are used in MM8BDM mapping and adds onto your other skills as a developer.

///LINKS///
GZDoombuilder Link: https://devbuilds.drdteam.org/gzdbbf/
SLADE Link: https://slade.mancubus.net/index.php?page=downloads
MM8BDM Resource Pack Link: https://pastebin.com/LJGfUdgE
Tutorial Map Link: https://mega.nz/file/keJhQK5J#JU2Zy4ZyOF_3FQv9o4Me0Bfio0SkcfIfwhIqbEb0S9c
Old Topic Link: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=841.0
CMM's Mapcard Information: https://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=10772.msg338766#msg338766

If anyone has anything else to add (or correct), feel free to post it below and I (or someone else) will link the piece of information here. Let's begin!

///CHANGELOG///
July 13 2020: Updated tutorial to primarily use GZDoombuilder and Slade. Chapters have now been organized in a modular fashion for ease of updating. Added chapters for water, treadmills, crushers, thunderclaw pegs, yoku blocks, gravity wells, custom textures, music, and mapcards.

April 12 2015: Initial Post

///TABLE OF CONTENTS///
Core:
Chapter C1 - Setting up
Chapter C2 - Drawing a Room/Applying Textures/Brightness/Saving
Chapter C3 - Walkable Stairs
Chapter C4 - Railings
Chapter C5 - Ladders
Chapter C6 - Ramps
Chapter C7 - Death Pits
Chapter C8 - 3D Floors
Chapter C9 - Skybox
Chapter C10 - Things

Mechanics:
Chapter M1 - Jump Pads
Chapter M2 - Teleporters
Chapter M3 - Water
Chapter M4 - Treadmills
Chapter M5 - Crushers
Chapter M6 - ThunderClaw Pegs
Chapter M7 - Yoku Blocks
Chapter M8 - Gravity Wells

Slade:
Chapter S1 - MapInfo
Chapter S2 - Custom Textures
Chapter S3 - Music
Chapter S4 - Mapcards

Misc:
Chapter EX - Tips and Other Tutorials

///CHAPTER C1 - SETTING UP///

So you just installed the latest and hip level editor that is "The Doombuilder". First we're going to need to get you set up. Open Doombuilder and press F6. You'll be brought to the screen shown.

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Select Zandronum (Doom2) in UDMF format. Next you'll want to add resources.

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Locate and add your Megagame.wad file and your MM8BDMv##.pk3 file. (Where ## is the version number/letter) Add those in and make sure "exclude this resource from testing parameters" is left unticked.

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If you're using the resource pack, it's a little different. Add the resource pack but make sure "exclude this resource from testing parameters" is ticked.

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Head over to the Testing tab and under application select the location to your zandronum.exe. The skill level is 4. If you're not using the resource pack, copy/paste the text below into the parameters field:

-iwad "megagame.wad" -skill "4" -file "%AP" "%F" +map %L %NM -deathmatch

If you ARE using it, use these parameters instead:

-iwad "megagame.wad" -skill "4" -file "MM8BDM-v5d.pk3" "%AP" "%F" +map %L  %NM -deathmatch

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Press F5 and head to the Controls tab. The only thing I've changed is Q->W for Visual Mode, but you can adjust your settings however you want.

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Head to the Appearance tab. Make sure Anisotropic filtering is set to "None". Adjust other settings how you want.

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Finally, it's time to start a new map. Go to File->New Map to be greeted to the screen in the above screenshot. Make sure your game configuration is set to Zandronum (Doom 2) UDMF. The Level name presented here is the map code, not the actual map name. If you're making a pack, usually it'll be your letter identifiers followed by numbers ## (For example, in Rozpack I use the codes Roz## and Ark##).
If it stays as MAP01, you're going to get an unfriendly Sniper Joe and accidentally replace Light's Lab. Make sure to change it.

///CHAPTER C2 - THE BASICS///

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Once open, familiarize yourself with at least these things:
Blue box (Top to Bottom): Vertices Mode, Linedef Mode, Sector Mode, Things Mode, Make Sectors Mode
Red box (Left to Right): New Map, Open Map, Save Map, Script Editor
Purple box (Left to Right): Cut, Copy, Paste
Pink box (Left to Right): View Wireframe, View Brightness Levels, View Flooring Texture, View Ceiling Texture
Green box (Left to Right): Snap to Grid, Dynamic Grid Size, Snap to Geometry
Next to the Help tab (Left to Right): Copy Properties, Paste Properties, Paste Properties Special (In Linedef Mode, the word Linear appears on this row. To the immediate right of that is a string with two blue dots on the end. This is Curved Linedefs Mode.)
The following shortcuts are also of major use:

Ctrl C - Copy
Ctrl V/Mouse wheel click - Paste
Shift + J - Join Sectors
Insert - Place a vertex/start drawing a line
Delete - Deletes desired thing
E - Edit
F - Flip Linedef
W - Enter Visual Mode
F3 - Texture/Thing Search
F4 - Error Analysis
F9 - Testing
(Moving in Visual Mode)
E - Forward
D - Backward
S - Left
F - Right
G - Toggle Gravity

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Here's the grid. By default each square is 32 units and each "Blue" square is 64 units. This game uses a "Rule of 32" and you should
scale correctly towards that. Notice the 32mp at the bottom of that screenshot? That tells you what gridmode you're in.
There's a few exceptions we'll mention later on, for now just stick to the blue lines when possible. The orange crosshair is the "center of the map". If you wish to grab everything when you're finished and readjust it to the center, feel free to do that but in no way is it mandatory.
Got all that? Good! Let's make a box!
Enter linedef mode and press insert to start the process of drawing a line. Click around and you'll draw lines. Draw a box. Woo.

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Head to sector mode and right click the box to be brought to this screen, sort of. You need to hit the Surfaces tab first. This is where you'll manage what texture a surface is and any texture offsets they might have.
If you see any orange ! anywhere, those are "Missing Textures". Make sure your map doesn't have any of those. Click on the big gray squares.

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From here, you'll be able to select any texture loaded in. Use the filter at the bottom to specifically look for a texture.

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You can do the same with linedefs, not just ceilings or floors. Linedefs have front and back sides while also being divided into three sections - Upper, Middle, and Lower.

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Heading back to the Properties tab, you should see a screen similar to the above screenshot. This screen gives you access to special properties, tags, and a slew of other stuff.
Note the Brightness parameter towards the bottom. For MM8BDM mapping, this number should be at 255 at all times. This is "Max Brightness" and is set this way for gameplay/visibility reasons.

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If you wish to edit an existing vertex, linedef, or sector, simply select what you need and press "E". You'll enter edit mode and be able to adjust any mistakes or shapes you created.

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I stretched the sector I made and divided it into two sectors. If you wish to join the two sectors, select both of them and hit Shift-J. This will rejoin them together.

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Enter Visual Mode by pressing Q or whatever you bound your visual mode key to earlier. Feel free to navigate around in this 3D space, but notice the crosshair. Whenever it's pointed at something, that thing lights up. You can right click your selection to edit it in Visual Mode.

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If you hold shift then click, you'll select almost everything connected to that surface. Useful for mass texturing or adjusting a wall.
If you wish to control it a bit more, select the beginning (far left) and end (far right) of the surface you want, then shift click. The selection will only take whats in between the two points.

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I mass replaced the entire default texture wall with something more suitable.

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If you select a floor or ceiling, you can use your scroll wheel to raise or lower it without having to use the ceiling height/floor height properties in the Properties tab.

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Hit ctrl-S or navigate to the Save Map icon at the top. Make sure the type is a .wad file and the filename is something relevant to the map you're making. This still isn't where you choose your map name, but a common practice to do is to save your map as the map name you'll end up using.

///CHAPTER C3 - WALKABLE STAIRS///

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Create a few sectors that you desire to be stairs.

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Enter Visual Mode and select all of the sectors that you just made.

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Raise them to the absolute highest point that you wish to make.

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From there, lower the sectors down in increments of 16. This will make them walkable, thus not requiring the player to jump while climbing up them.

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Clean up your new staircase with some textures that aren't default or gross.

///CHAPTER C4 - RAILINGS///

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Sometimes, you'll want railings. They look neat and, when constructed properly, can block shots from other players while still giving visibility.
Enter 16 map units and draw two squares. These will be the posts of where your rail will go. Posts are not necessary, but can make the rails logistically make more sense to exist.

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Draw a line between the two of them. This is your rail.

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Right click to edit the linedef. Make sure "Lower unpegged" and "Walkable middle texture" are ticked.

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Proceed to the Front and Back tabs. This is where you're going to add your rail texture. Select the middle box and choose a texture. Do the same for the other side that you didn't do.

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Raise up your post by about 32 units. You'll need to add textures all around them, as currently they're missing.

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A completed and textured rail, all set to save you from dying (or just to look cool)

///CHAPTER C5 - LADDERS///

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Ladders give access to more vertical areas. Enter 16 map units and draw a line covering two squares (16 units in length).
Take note of which direction the linedef is facing. You can tell by which way the orange line sticking out of the line. Make sure that faces towards the direction you want the player to climb the ladder on.

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Right click this line to enter the Properties tab. In the lower right corner of the red box shown, there is another box. This will open a "table of contents" of all the special actions you can apply to that line.
Click it, scroll down to the "Thing" header, open that, and find "Thing Thrust Z". This is the action we're going to use.

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Head back the Properties Tab and make sure you set your Force to 15. This is the standard speed that players climb ladders in MM8BDM.
As for the Activation requirements, tick "Repeatable Action", "When Player Bumps", and "Front Side Only".
See, the logistics behind this is that the player is running repeatedly into a wall, which the player is thrusted up at a speed of 15, on the front side of the ladder.

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If you get an offset, just fix it by readjusting the texture offset value to 0. You want your ladder to look right, after all.

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There we have it, a completed ladder.
There's one more important thing to note about ladders. If an upper wall is directly above the ladder (They share the same linedef), then you'll also be able to climb the wall, which is usually unintended. To remedy this, simply push the ladder or the overhang out so that they no longer share the same linedef.

///CHAPTER C6 - RAMPS///

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Ramps are a little tricky at first but are a neat tool we can use to make our sectors look a bit blocky.
Start by drawing two sectors close to each other like the above screenshot.

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Enter Visual Mode and raise one of the sectors to the max height you want the ramp to be.

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Head back to Builder View and select the linedef that both sectors share. Make sure the linedef is pointing from the higher sector to the lower sector. In my case, I raised the top sector, so my linedef points down towards the lower sector.

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Right click the line to enter the Properties tab. In the Actions Menu, scroll down to the "Plane" header and choose "Plane Align Slope".

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Exit back to the Properties Tab and adjust "Align Floor" to "Front". If you wish to ramp up the ceiling, simply choose ceiling instead of floor.

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Enter Visual Mode and you may notice that the textures on the ramp are skewed in size a little bit. You can fix this by adjusting the "Texture Scale" option in the Surfaces tab when you right click the sector.

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Wow it's a completed ramp doesn't it look so slick.

///CHAPTER C7 - DEATH PITS///

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Draw the pit sector.

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Lower the pit sector and give the floor a black texture. The illusion is now ruined.

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I added a slick border around my pit but you do whatever you want

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Right click it and enter Properties. At the bottom exists tags. Give the pit sector a new tag, in my instance, 1.

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Enter the Script Editor. Create a new script (Make sure #include "zcommon.acs" exists) and add Sector_SetDamage.
The values for this are as follows: The tag (my tag is 1 so the value here is 1), the damage (this is set to 255 do not change this), and MOD_FALLING.
This last part has a few other values you could use. All it does is change the obituary, except for MOD_ICE, which freezes you before breaking into smaller bits.
Your pit is now complete. Nice job.

///CHAPTER C8 - 3D FLOORS///

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Draw the sector for your 3D floor.

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Right click the new sector and give it a new tag. For me, this value is 2.

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Now, for this next part, you'll want to create a small sector in unplayable space. This is known as a "Dummy Sector" and will be the control unit for our 3D floor.
Right click any of the linedefs on this Dummy Sector and enter Properties.

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In the Actions Menu, scroll down to the "Sector" header and choose "Sector Set 3D Floor".
Give this linedef the tag you gave your desired 3D floor sector earlier, for me, 2.
Leave the Type as 1. If you wish to have a more transparent 3D floor, feel free to mess with the Opacity settings. Most transparent 3D floors look decent at 150, in my opinion.

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Enter Visual Mode. If you mess with the height of the ceiling and floor of the Dummy Sector, it readjusts and conveys those heights to the actual sector you want a 3D floor in.
For the purposes of 3D floors, the ceiling height is the bottom of the 3D floor while the floor height is the top of the 3D floor.

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I added some poles underneath the 3D floor so logistically it looks like the floor is being held up. You don't have to do this.
The 3D floor is complete.

///CHAPTER C9 - SKYBOX///

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While not always necessary, especially if the map is indoors and only needs a ceiling skybox, windows help present skyboxes.
I created the following sectors to mimic a cheap and easy window.

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Enter Visual Mode and apply textures, raise/lower heights, and just rearrange your window. If you want to put a 3D floor glass wall here to sell the idea of a window, go for it.

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Select all sides that you want to display the skybox. Right click and head straight to textures. You'll want to apply F_SKY1. Do the same for any ceilings or floors.

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Enter the Properties tab, head to Actions, and scroll down until you find "Line Horizon". Apply this on any walls (not ceilings or floors) that are going to display the skybox.

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Now that our window is set up, create a Dummy Sector in out of bounds territory. Select all four sides of the sector and click the curved icon shown by the red square.

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Your square sector will now curve inwards or outwards, depending on the direction the linedefs were facing. If you need to fix or reinvert them, select the flip curves button highlighted by the red square.
Adjust the Angle to 90 and, generally, increase the amount of vertices to something like 16 or 32.

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Head over to our Dummy Sector and apply the skybox textures you desire. If the wall textures aren't aligned, don't worry. Shift+Click to select all of them, followed by pressing the "a" key. This will auto-align the textures.
Do note that this won't always 100% realign them, so you may have to do manual texture offset adjustments if needbe.
To remove the darker and lighter portions of the skybox, remember to always have every sector be at 255 lighting!

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An example of how I completed my skybox. I stretched the ceiling and floor in order to get more of the texture shown.

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Insert a "Thing" in the dead center of the circle.
Enter Things Mode. Scroll down to "Cameras and Interpolation" to find the "Skybox Viewpoint" thing. That eye creeps me out.

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Once placed, you can move the viewpoint up or down. At the very least, always move it up at least 32 units. This view will be the position of the skybox.

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This is how the skybox will look in game. You don't want players entering the skybox in most circumstances, so make sure to make the linedefs around your windows "Impassable", found in the Properties tab.
There's one more important thing you should probably know about skyboxes. A line horizon wall takes whatever ceiling and floor it has immediately connected to it and stretches it out. What this means is that should you not use F_SKY as your ceiling or floor texture near line horizon walls, the line horizon will take and stretch infinitely whatever texture you instead use. In most instances, this is not a desired effect someone would want. To remedy this, make a small 16 or 32 unit incision near the wall and raise it up (or down) a slight bit. By using F_SKY in your newly created sector, you'll have both the cutoff of the original ceiling and have a regular line horizon skybox.

///CHAPTER C10 - THINGS///

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Enter Things Mode. I'm going to go over a few common "Things" that are commonly used in this game.
Player starts are, well, important. 32 Deathmatch starts are mandatory in every map while the team spawns are used for modes that use them.
Due to using the resource pack, all four team spawns appear correctly. However, if you aren't using the resource pack, the King and Cossack spawns may be missing.

To fix this, change the value in the "Type" box to any of the values below to get the corresponding spawns:

5080 is Team Light Spawn
5081 is Team Wily Spawn
5082 is Temporary Spawn
5083 is Team Cossack Spawn
5084 is Team King Spawn

They will look gray in the editor, but in game, should properly function as their corresponding team starts.

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The MM8BDM stuff should be located towards the bottom.
When you place a thing, remember that you can adjust its height. However, this doesn't really work on any type of spawn thing.
The resource pack has the weapons organized by slot value.

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One of the folders of things we use that aren't MM8BDM related is from the ZDoom folder. In here, The "Map Spot" thing is commonly
used to place actors or other custom objects into the map. We don't really use any of the other ones. We also use the "Teleport" folder, but that has its own section in this tutorial.

///CHAPTER M1 - JUMP PADS///

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First you draw a square.

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Then you add a thing (Actor hits floor).

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Next you edit that thing, give it "Thing Thrust Z", and add whatever force you want (in the example, it's set to 25).
Note that this is a very, very, very low bounce. More often than not, you'll probably be in the 80 to 120 range.

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Make sure to give it appropriate textures and raise it either 32 or 16 units - depending on whether or not you want easier access.
This comes at a tradeoff. Lowering it down means players can accidentally run into it if they aren't being aware, but ultimately, it's up to you to decide.

///CHAPTER M2 - TELEPORTERS///

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Make two sectors as shown and apply a teleport floor texture to it. Depending on the location of the sector you'll need a different texture offset. Make sure the floor is raised 32 units, or don't.

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Insert a thing>Teleports>Teleport Destination. Adjust the facing angle off to the side.
If it's a two way teleporter, you'll have to do this twice. If it's one-way, well, only place one.
Make sure to give them different tags in the tags tab. In this example, I set the left one to "3" and the right one to "4".

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Add two more things and make them "Actor hits floor". Head over to the action tab afterwords.

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For both of the bottom things, you will want to give them "Action 226 - Script Execute Always". Make the script number "973". In the "Script Argument 1" Box, you will want the teleport destination tag of the exit.
I highlighted the links (red goes to red and purple goes to purple) between my things. For example, because I want the left thing to teleport to the right destination, and the right destination's tag is 4, I put a 4 in the "Script Argument 1" box. Do the same for the other pair.

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I've split this image into two parts. Take each vertical half and push them over to your teleporter. Then, place that pair of things on top of each other and over the teleporter. It's done. The magic is done.

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The completed product.

Now, if you want, you can have the player come out of the ceiling, but not into it, instead of the setup here.
To accomplish this, flip the teleporter to a ceiling and raise the height of the "Teleport Destination" thing.
Then, switch the "Teleport Destination" thing to a "Teleport Z Height" thing.
Voila, it is done.

This can only work on 1-way teleporters, so the "Actor hits floor" thing is only used on the entrance, which, should definitely be on the floor.
I have included an example of this in the .wad if you wish to check it out. An image of it is below.

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///CHAPTER M3 - WATER///

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Draw out your swimming pool.

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There's a lot here, so hang with me. Make a dummy sector outside of the map to make a 3D floor. Set the sector tag to the tag of the pool as you would a normal 3D floor. Set the "Type" to 3 (to make it non-solid) and set the "Opacity" to 150 (to let players see through the water plane). Make both the floor AND the ceiling EQUAL in height, then lower (or raise) it to the height you want the 3D floor at. One of the arguments is "Water Direction" and the default option is down. Mess with it if you want. Try to make the water line about 16 units below the nearby surface level - it just looks cleaner in my opinion.

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Here's how all of this looks in visual mode. The dummy sector that holds our "visual water trick" is just a paper thin 3D floor.

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Introducing: The 8BDM Water Sector Thing. You can slap down one of these things and give it the same tag as you gave your sectors (in my instance, everything is "6"). Make sure it's inside the 3D floor. Done.

As a closing point, most maps that feature underwater segments have their own underwater textures. Filters are generally frowned upon. Be sure to include your own underwater textures for a better theming bonus.

///CHAPTER M4 - TREADMILLS///

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Design your treadmill. Give the sector it's in a new tag.

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Enter the Script Editor and make a new script.
The values for this are as follows: The tag (my tag is 7 so the value here is 7), the horizontal scrolling speed (use a positive value for right and a negative value for left), the vertical scrolling speed (use a positive value for up and a negative value for down), and the type of scroll.
There are three main types of scroll, and depending on what you want, this value can change. Use 0 to scroll the floor texture. Use 1 to push objects but not scroll the floor texture. Finally, using 2 does both (Push and Scroll). Due to the texture I chose being animated, I only needed the push mechanics and not the texture to scroll, so I used 1 in the last position.
When you're done, make sure to compile your scripts. Treadmills complete.

///CHAPTER M5 - CRUSHERS///

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Get your crusher pit or sector ready. This is usually a 128x128 sector due to the core textures, but if you provide your own, can be however big you want. Make sure to give the sector a new tag.

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Raise your crusher to the max height you want it to go. This is the height it always raises to after it has smashed the ground.

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Open up the Script Editor and make a new script.
The values for this are as follows: The tag (my tag is 8 so the value here is 8), the speed it travels (23, change if you want), the damage (256, do not change this), and the mode.

There are a few different types of mode and the variable you put here will reflect that. Using a 0 will throw the crusher into compatibility mode. Using a 1 will enter it in Doom mode with no slowdown upon crush. Use 2 for the default, Hexen mode. Finally, use a 3 to enter it in Doom mode with slowdown upon crush. For us, simply keeping this at a 2 will be more than sufficient. Compile your scripts to finish creating your death ceiling.

///CHAPTER M6 - THUNDERCLAW PEGS///

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These things are easy. Place down a new thing and make the type 10632. This will give you a Thunderclaw Peg. Give it a new, unused tag.

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Adjust the height in visual mode. In visual mode, it will appear floating, but once you test in-game, the chain will appear from the ceiling to the peg itself. Done.

///CHAPTER M7 - YOKU BLOCKS///

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Place down a map spot for each block you want to have. Make sure to give each individual map spot a new, unused tag and raise them to the height you want.

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Open up the Script Editor and make a new script.
When adding in a delay, remember that there are 35 tics for 1 second. Then, Spawnspot "Vblock" followed by the tag of the map spot, as shown in the picture. The restart at the end will keep the process running indefinitely. Compile the script and you're good to go.
(Yes, I know I could've condensed the delays to a 70, but for the purposes of explaining things, I kept them separate).

///CHAPTER M8 - GRAVITY WELLS///

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Draw sector.

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Change gravity to -1. If you want to decorate the sides, give both sides of the linedefs midtextures and tick "Wrap midtexture" under the Properties tab. Then, give them Action 208, or "Translucent Line". Adjust the transparency as desired.

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An image of my completed gravity well. The texture I used was 9W3LITE.

///CHAPTER S1 - MAPINFO///

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All maps come with a MAPINFO lump that defines important map credentials such as name, music, and the proper physics. You will have to create and define this lump yourself. What is shown are the essentials to a MAPINFO. I have copied them below:

map DEMO "Map Tutorial"
{
   next = "DEMO"
   sky1 = "BLACK", 0
   music = "DEMOMUS"
   aircontrol = 0.5
   forcenoskystretch
   clipmidtextures
   evenlighting
}


Replace the first DEMO with the mapcode of your map. The "Map Tutorial" part is the proper name of the map. The second DEMO is the mapcode of the next map which is useful for a map pack.

///CHAPTER S2 - CUSTOM TEXTURES///

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Before I begin this section, look at the above 256 colors. When making your own custom texture, you are restricted to four colors AND can only use colors found on that above image. I'm not about to go into color theory or proper texture design, but I figured that I would at least mention those important rules.

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To add your custom texture, add two lumps: PP_START and PP_END. Between these lumps, you will place your textures.
Name them something arbitrary and special to the map, but nothing specific yet. I named my frozen water texture DEMO1.
The name of this reference texture must be no greater than 8 characters in length or it will break.

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Add a TEXTURES lump. Inside, follow the formatting below for each texture that you wish to add:

texture TUTWAT, 64, 64
{
   XScale 0.5
   YScale 0.5
   Patch DEMO1, 0, 0
   WorldPanning
}

This patches in DEMO1, which we named earlier. As for the actual texture name that we find inside the editor, I have chosen TUTWAT. This is shorthand for "Tutorial Water" and nothing else. Just like the patch name, the max character length of this is 8.
Make sure the dimensions of the texture match the dimensions listed. The texture I chose is 64x64, so the dimensions listed are 64, 64.
Save everything. Mission complete.

Try to get into a specific naming habit for textures. Let's say you have four different rock textures to add for a mountain map. Really get into the specifics of it so the textures don't conflict with textures used by other maps. Let's make this mountain a coal mine. For the actual texture names, I would use something like COALRK01, COALRK02, COALRK03, and COALRK04 while I could likely leave the patch names as just COAL01, COAL02, COAL03, and COAL04. Have the first six char slots be relevant to the texture while the last two are reserved for numbers.

///CHAPTER S3 - MUSIC///

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Drop that tune right in your file. Make sure the max character length doesn't exceed 8 and that it matches the name of the song in MAPINFO.
MM8BDM's common form of music filetype is a .ogg. As for "genre", famitracker or chiptune is generally accepted among the community. 2A03, VRC6, MMC5 - to list a few examples of the common chips used.
If you're having trouble picking something out, ask around and someone will certainly assist you.

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MM8BDM has a little special something for music. There exists a "boss music" and a "final music". Boss music generally plays when there are 3 frags left in DM or 1 person is left alive on a team in TLMS. Final music plays in TLMS when both teams are tied for points and each team only has 1 player remaining. Finally, there is a victory tune. This, of course, plays when the round is over.

To activate these, plop them into your map file and name them something special. I'm using the same song for all of these in my example but I have named them differently to illustrate the type of naming scheme you should have.
To actually use those songs in a map, please refer to Chapter S4.

///CHAPTER S4 - MAPCARDS///

Map cards show up for a few seconds at the beginning of each map to display information about the map.

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Open up Script Editor and copy the following down into its own script. Make sure its the last script in the map:

Script 3 OPEN
{   
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_creator", "NAME");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_icon", "MAPCARDI");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_background", "MAPCD10");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_musicname", "MUSICNAME");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_musiccomposer", "MUSICAUTHOR");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_musicgame", "MUSICGAME");

SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_bossmusic", "DEMOBOSS");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_victorymusic", "DEMOVIC");
SetCvarString("mm8bdm_map_intensemusic", "DEMOBOSF");
}

Replace "NAME" with your name. Replace "MUSICNAME" with the music name. Replace "MUSICAUTHOR" with music author. Replace "MUSICGAME" with the game the music comes from. Finally, replace the three DEMO songs with the songs you've chosen.

To see how it looks in the script editor, I have left the proper credentials for this demo map in the script editor.
As for MAPCARDI and MAPCD10, those are the defaults for the icon and map card itself. If you wish to change them, please refer to the mapcard topic created by CMM, which is linked at the top of the page. Compile the script and see the result for yourself.

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The mapcard as it is shown in-game.

///CHAPTER EX - TIPS AND OTHER TUTORIALS///
- 32 Deathmatch Starts are mandatory.
- Team spawns are recommended as follows: 16 for Light, 16 for Wily, 8 for Cossack, and 8 for King.
- Unfortunately, unlike non-MM8BDM titles, MM8BDM strictly sticks to 255 brightness.
- Keep grid snap on and work in the mindset of 32x32. 16x16 can be used for detail while 8x8 can be used for super detail, but try not to shrink the grid any further than that.
- Unless it's a hallway, the majority of rooms should aim to have at least 3 entrances/exits in order to promote flow and decrease the chances of having a negative chokepoint.
- Fix texture offsets to the best of your ability. Please. Yes it takes an extra few minutes but your map will look so much nicer because of it.
- Take frequent breaks if you begin to feel a creative block. Don't demotivate yourself out of it.
- Don't put a wall texture on the floor, don't put a railing texture on the floor, etc.
- Don't be too concerned about where the texture originated from. If it matches the overall feel or segment of a map you wanted to do, then use it.
- Need to replace a thing or texture? Hit F3!
- Once you're finished with your map, hit F4. Run the analysis and it'll pick up any errors you might have missed. If none show up, congrats! Your map is finished.
- It's acceptable (and recommended) to have only about 8 unique weapons per map. Buster upgrades count towards this. The max that it should probably ever be is 10. Any more weapons than 10 and you're creating a mess. Duplicating weapon tokens is highly recommended.
- Walkable stairs or jump stairs? Both have their own position and usage. If you want speed and free mobility, use walkable stairs. If you want to hold up an area of the map or to slow things down a bit, use jump stairs.

General Architectural Do's and Don'ts: http://www.wired.com/2004/03/15-rules-f ... the-world/
Mendez's Video Tutorials: http://www.cutstuff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=10315#p329324

Good Luck, have fun, and enjoy your new hobby or profession!

[Jdude330]

Yay

Now i'm less screwed

thanks Rozark

[Rui]

>New tutorial

rozark you have done great for the world

I'm so glad this exists!!! I'm totally going to take the time to follow this step-by-step :D

[NemZ]

Dude, awesome job!

[MatyuX320]

how to change the textures of the vertices of the walkable stairs in the part lower?

[Russel]

You don't change the text of a vertex, you change the texture of a linedef.
Right click on the line you want to change the texture of in linedefs mode to open the properties menu. You can change the textures under the sidedefs tab.

[Jonnyloko280]

Hey! I wanted to know if its possible to make a house where i can walk in the roof...

[Rozark]

Yea it's possible, but you would need to make the roof flat or a completely solid house/can't enter the house due to sloped 3D floors being pain for software users.

Unless "in" wasn't a typo and you meant literally inside the roof. In that case, good luck with roping a bunch of 3D floors to format the roof.

[Mendez]

Technically, sloped 3d floors can exist, but only in OpenGL rendering. When you try to render sloped 3d floors in Software, they simply don't appear. Yet again another reason to drop software renderng off the face of the earth and stick exclusively to OpenGL (._. )

[Mendez]

I made a tutorial similar to this one, but using GZDB instead of Doombuilder 2. Hopefully it covers as much as needed for people to start mapping. I'll make another video covering water/teleporters/scripts when I find the time.

[Mendez]

Sorry for the triple post, but here's another video that goes over even more aspects of mapping that weren't included in the basic tutorial. If you want to look at everything inside GZDB, here's the map file as well.

[TheRealRoyale]

for the sloping stuff, mine skips from 115 to 200. what i do?
EDIT: problema resuelto

[Mendez]

Do you have a screenshot to explain what you're talking about? That always helps. I'm going to assume you're talking about the action numbers. If you type in "181" into the box right next to the word "Action", then you should see "Plane Align (Slope)" pop up next to the number 181. Then you should be able to follow the tutorial from there.

[TheRealRoyale]

How do i make chatting props? like cutman in dr light labs

[MetalMasher]

Nice tutorial! but when i make windows, in the celling rate, when i put 32 the celling rate bugs and stays that red icon, how i make windows without that happen?