Hi everybody! The UnOfficial Duke Nukem 3D Editing FAQ is still in the 'beta' stage, thus the version number 0.4. As soon as I can explain all sector effectors and finally include the Museum (see below), I'll bump the version number to v1.0. Since it's quite certain that this project is to be continued, we've now passed the RFC stage ;) In v0.4, the following improvements can be found: * Added 'Preliminary information'. * Added 'Planning and designing a level'. * Added 'A walkthrough to creating a simple level' . * Added 'The Build Editor'. * Added info on adding/converting DOOM maps and graphics. * Added more how-tos. * Lots more info included. Plans for v0.5: * Extending the reference section in chapter 10. * Adding more how-tos. * Release the first version of the Museum. I've received quite a lot of feedback - please keep it up! I'm also very interested in any ftp or www sites as well as any maps. Here some questions for you: * Anybody who can send me info, tips and tricks to be included here? All ideas, tricks, etc which make it into the FAQ will, of course, be fully attributed. * Anybody started some serious .CON file hacking or has any other CON-info I could put into here? * I'd especially appreciate it if anybody could point out errors in this FAQ. * Anybody who can think of questions which should be included in this FAQ? * Lots of open questions in the FAQ - the most pressing ones IMO are marked '##'. The endresult would come in two parts: 1) This FAQ. 2) An uuencoded map called 'MUSEUM', demonstrating _all_ tips and tricks explained in the FAQ as well as containing all textures, sprites, etc for easy reference. (Yes, I've started and, yes, it's a lot of work :) The FAQ will be posted monthly (or bi-weekly, if you prefere) to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action and alt.games.duke3d. Ciao, Klaus So here's v0.4 of the FAQ: THE UNOFFICIAL DUKE NUKEM 3D EDITING FAQ [need ASCII logo here - anyone?] Release v0.4 Last Updated: May 20, 1996 Written by: Klaus Breuer (sz0759@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de) Contents Chapter 1 Happy lawyer dept. 1.1 Disclaimer 1.2 Trademark information 1.3 Copyright notice Chapter 2 Introduction 2.1 *A word from Klaus Breuer* 2.2 *About the "UnOfficial" DUKE NUKEM 3D EDITING FAQ* 2.3 [Getting the "UnOfficial" DN3DE FAQ] 2.4 (Adding to the FAQ) 2.5 (The DN3D EDITING mailing list) 2.6 (The DN3D EDITING ftp site) 2.7 (WWW sites) 2.8 (Acknowledgments) 2.9 Accurate information 2.10 [Help with new levels] Chapter 3 *Preliminary information* 3.1 *Intended audience for this chapter* 3.2 *The basics* 3.2.1 *Differences between the Build and DOOM engines* 3.2.2 *Useful cheats for testing levels* 3.2.3 *What a map consists of* 3.2.3.1 *Sectors* 3.2.3.2 *Walls* 3.2.3.3 *Textures* 3.2.3.4 *Sprites* Chapter 4 *Planning and designing a level* 4.1 *Before starting* 4.2 *Pros and cons of using real-world maps* 4.2.1 *Advantages* 4.2.2 *Disadvantages* 4.3 *Using DOOM maps* 4.4 *Once your level is done* Chapter 5 *A walkthrough to creating a simple level* 5.1 *Planning* 5.2 *Getting ready* 5.3 *Creating a new map* 5.4 *The 2D screen* 5.4.1 *Map* 5.4.2 *Message window* 5.4.3 *Data window* 5.4.4 *Info window* 5.5 *Moving about* 5.6 *Creating a room* 5.7 *3D mode* 5.8 *Raising the roof* 5.9 *Textures* 5.9.1 *The floor* 5.9.2 *The roof* 5.9.3 *Flying about* 5.9.4 *The walls* 5.10 *Building the house* 5.10.1 *The house sector* 5.10.2 *Fixing the house sector* 5.10.2.1 *The carpet floor* 5.10.2.2 *Nice walls* 5.10.2.3 *Finally, the roof* 5.10.3 *Saving your work* 5.10.4 *Building a doorway* 5.10.5 *Adding a window* 5.10.6 *Glass* 5.10.7 *The sloped roof* 5.11 *Trying it out* 5.12 *Decorations* 5.12.1 *The flower pot* 5.12.2 *The picture* 5.12.3 *A hanging lamp* 5.12.4 *The burning barrel* 5.13 *The enemy appears* 5.14 *The other players* 5.15 *Taking it from here* Chapter 6 *The BUILD Editor* 6.1 *2D Mode* 6.1.1 *The Screen* 6.1.1.1 *The map* 6.1.1.2 *The Message window* 6.1.1.3 *The Data window* 6.1.1.4 *The Info window* 6.1.2 *The mouse* 6.1.2.1 *Move* 6.1.2.2 *Left button* 6.1.2.3 *Right button* 6.1.3 *The keyboard* 6.1.3.1 *Esc* 6.1.3.2 *Cursor keys* 6.1.3.3 *NumIns and NumDel* 6.1.3.4 *Spacebar* 6.1.3.5 *NumEnter* 6.1.3.6 *RightShift* 6.1.3.7 *Control-RightShift* 6.1.3.8 *RightAlt* 6.1.3.9 *Ins* 6.1.3.10 *Del* 6.1.3.11 *RightControl-Del* 6.1.3.12 *A and Z* 6.1.3.13 *G* 6.1.3.14 *L* 6.1.3.15 *J* 6.1.3.16 *Alt-S* 6.1.3.17 *S* 6.1.3.18 *B* 6.1.3.19 *C* 6.1.3.20 *T* 6.1.3.21 *H* 6.1.3.22 *Alt-T* 6.1.3.23 *Alt-H* 6.1.3.24 *E* 6.1.3.25 *< and >* 6.1.3.26 *Shift-< and Shift->* 6.1.3.27 *[ ]* 6.1.3.28 *'-M* 6.1.3.29 *'-3* 6.1.3.30 *F1* 6.1.3.31 *F2* 6.1.3.32 *F3* 6.1.3.33 *F4* 6.1.3.34 *F5* 6.1.3.35 *F6* 6.1.3.36 *F7* 6.1.3.37 *F8* 6.1.3.38 *F9* 6.1.3.39 *F10* 6.1.3.40 *F11* 6.1.3.41 *F12* 6.1.3.42 *TAB* 6.1.3.43 *Alt-TAB* 6.1.3.44 *ScrollLock* 6.1.3.45 *Ctrl-T* 6.1.3.46 *Enter* 6.2 *3D Mode* 6.2.1 *The screen* 6.2.2 *The mouse* 6.2.2.1 *Move* 6.2.2.2 *Left button* 6.2.2.3 *Right button* 6.2.3 *The keyboard* 6.2.3.1 *Cursor keys* 6.2.3.2 *CapsLock* 6.2.3.3 *PgUp and PgDn* 6.2.3.4 *V* 6.2.3.5 *Alt-V* 6.2.3.6 *NumCursor keys* 6.2.3.7 *Shift-NumCursor keys* 6.2.3.8 */* 6.2.3.9 *.* 6.2.3.10 *F* 6.2.3.11 *Alt-F* 6.2.3.12 *P* 6.2.3.13 *G* 6.2.3.14 *E* 6.2.3.15 *R* 6.2.3.16 *O* 6.2.3.17 *B* 6.2.3.18 *T* 6.2.3.19 *M* 6.2.3.20 *Shift-M* 6.2.3.21 *1* 6.2.3.22 *2* 6.2.3.23 *H* 6.2.3.24 *TAB* 6.2.3.25 *Enter* 6.2.3.26 *Ctrl-Enter* 6.2.3.27 *Shift-Enter* 6.2.3.28 *Ctrl-Shift-Enter* 6.2.3.29 *'-ENTER* 6.2.3.30 *'-R* 6.2.3.31 *'-D* 6.2.3.32 *'-W* 6.2.3.33 *'-G* 6.2.3.34 *'-Y* 6.2.3.35 *'-T* 6.2.3.36 *-H* 6.2.3.37 *'-S* 6.2.3.38 *'-Y* 6.2.3.39 *'-C* 6.2.3.40 *'-Del* 6.2.3.41 *F1* 6.2.3.42 *F2* 6.2.3.43 *F3* 6.2.3.44 *F4* 6.2.3.45 *F5* 6.2.3.46 *F6* 6.2.3.47 *F7* 6.2.3.48 *F8* 6.2.3.49 *F9* 6.2.3.50 *F10* 6.2.3.51 *F11* 6.2.3.52 *F12* 6.3 Typical mistakes to avoid 6.3.1 Crossed lines 6.3.2 Overlaying lines Chapter 7 (How to...) 7.1 (Extracting the original maps) 7.2 (Abbreviations) 7.3 (Glass panes) 7.4 *Doorways* 7.4.0.1 (Notes) 7.5 (Windows) 7.6 (Air ducts) 7.6.1 *Notes* 7.7 (Angled surfaces) 7.7.1 *Notes* 7.8 Secret places 7.9 (Multiplayer sprites) 7.10 (Level-end button) 7.10.1 (Notes) 7.11 (Level-end sector) 7.12 Cameras 7.12.1 *Setup* 7.12.2 *Notes* 7.13 Blastable walls (user control) 7.13.1 Setup 7.13.2 (Notes) 7.13.3 *Tips* 7.14 Blastable walls (triggered) 7.14.1 Setup 7.14.2 Notes 7.15 (Conveyor Belts) 7.15.1 (Setup) 7.15.2 *Notes* 7.16 (Mirrors) 7.16.1 (Notes) 7.17 Light switches 7.17.1 Setup 7.17.2 7.18 *Permanently rotating sector (gears)* 7.18.1 *Setup* 7.18.2 *Notes* 7.19 Doors 7.19.1 Standard hinged 7.19.1.1 Notes 7.19.2 (DOOM-type door, remote control) 7.19.2.1 (Setup) 7.19.2.2 (Notes) 7.19.3 (DOOM-type door, local control) 7.19.4 (Sliding sideways) 7.19.5 (Star Trek door) 7.19.5.1 (Setup) 7.19.5.2 *Notes* 7.19.6 (Four-way door) 7.19.6.1 (Notes) 7.19.7 (Teeth doors) 7.19.8 (Auto-closing doors) 7.20 Shrinking sector (remote control) 7.20.1 (Setup) 7.21 (Elevators) 7.21.1 (Setup) 7.21.2 (Notes) 7.22 Teleporters 7.22.1 Setup 7.22.2 7.23 Swimming pools 7.23.1 Setup 7.23.2 7.23.3 Tips 7.24 {The Grapplers} 7.25 (Overlapping sectors) 7.25.1 (Notes) 7.26 *Hiding switches* 7.27 *Bridges and Shelves* 7.27.1 *Notes* 7.28 {Morphing ramps} 7.29 (Vehicles) 7.29.1 Setup 7.29.2 *Notes* 7.30 (Attacking Vehicles) 7.30.1 *Notes* 7.31 *Water waves* 7.31.1 *Setup* 7.31.2 *Notes* 7.32 *Engine piston* 7.32.1 *Setup* 7.32.2 *Notes* 7.33 *Edge walls* 7.33.1 *Setup* 7.34 *Code switches* 7.34.1 *Setup* 7.34.2 *Notes* 7.35 *The pool table* 7.35.1 *Setup* 7.35.2 *Notes* 7.36 *Tips and tricks: New and interesting effects* Chapter 8 {Programming the .CON files} Chapter 9 *Utilities and add-ons* 9.1 *Editing utilities* 9.1.1 *BUILD* 9.1.2 *EditArt* 9.1.2.1 *Changing graphics* 9.1.2.2 *Adding new graphics* 9.1.2.3 *Using DOOM I graphics* 9.1.3 *Wad2Map utilities* 9.1.3.1 *WAD2ART* 9.1.3.2 *WAD2MAP* 9.2 {Data files} 9.2.1 {Graphics} 9.2.2 {VOC files (Sounds)} 9.2.3 {MID files (Music)} 9.2.4 {.CON hacks} 9.2.5 {Demos (Recordings)} 9.2.6 {New levels} 9.2.6.1 GRP Authoring Template v0.1 9.3 *Future add-ons* 9.3.1 *Add-on software wish list* 9.3.2 Add-on software in the making Chapter 10 *Troubleshooting* 10.1 *Common questions* 10.1.1 *My 3D mode messes up* 10.1.2 *I'm using Windoze/Win95, and...* 10.1.3 *I can't select sprites* 10.1.4 *How do I show the wall data?* 10.2 *Bugs in the game* 10.2.1 Remote switch triggering 10.2.1.1 (Bug) 10.2.1.2 (Workaround) 10.2.2 *Crash on shattering objects* 10.2.2.1 *Bug* 10.2.2.2 *Workaround* 10.2.3 *Phantom bullet-holes* 10.2.3.1 *Bug* 10.2.3.2 *Workaround* 10.3 *Bugs in BUILD* 10.3.1 Selecting long lines 10.3.1.1 Bug 10.3.1.2 Workaround 10.3.2 *Splitting a sector* 10.3.2.1 *Bug* 10.3.2.2 *Workaround* 10.3.3 *Selecting sprites* 10.3.3.1 *Bug* 10.3.3.2 *Workaround* 10.3.4 (Autoaligning textures) 10.3.4.1 (Bug) 10.3.4.2 (Workaround) 10.3.5 *Displaying memory info* 10.3.5.1 *Bug* 10.3.5.2 *Workaround* 10.3.6 *Function keys in 3D mode* 10.3.6.1 *Bug* 10.3.6.2 *Workaround* Chapter 11 (Reference lists) 11.1 *List of tiles* 11.1.1 *Control tiles* 11.1.2 *Weapon sprites* 11.1.3 *Ammo sprites* 11.1.4 *Item sprites* 11.1.5 *Special sprites* 11.1.6 *Parallax (sky) textures* 11.1.7 *Lights* 11.1.8 *Switches* 11.1.9 *Doors* 11.1.9.1 *Technical doors* 11.1.10 *Floors* 11.1.11 *Walls* 11.1.12 *Technical-looking items* 11.1.13 *Often-used special textures* 11.1.14 *Diverse* 11.1.15 *Unclassified (please assist!)* ## 11.2 *List of Palettes* 11.3 {List of Sector Effectors} 11.4 {List of sounds} 11.5 *Dimensions* 11.5.1 *Units* 11.5.2 *The map* 11.5.2.1 *Walking about* 11.5.2.2 *Weapons* Chapter 12 Miscellaneous 12.1 (Conclusion) 12.2 *Revision history* Chapter 1 Happy lawyer dept. 1.1 Disclaimer This FAQ is to aid in informing the public about creating additional levels for the Game Duke Nukem 3D, by 3DRealms. In no way should this promote your killing yourself, killing others, or killing in any other fashion. Also, it should not promote the building of real-world death-traps :) Additionally, Klaus Breuer claims NO responsibility regarding ANY illegal activity concerning this FAQ, or indirectly related to this FAQ. The information contained in this FAQ only reflects 3DRealms indirectly, and questioning 3DRealms regarding any information in this FAQ is not recommended. 1.2 Trademark information All specific names included herein are trademarks and are so acknowledged: 3DRealms, Duke Nukem, DOOM, IBM, Microsoft, Windows and MS-DOS. Any trademarks not mentioned here are still hypothetically acknowledged. 1.3 Copyright notice This article is Copyright 1996 by Klaus Breuer. All rights reserved. You are granted the following rights: 1. To make copies of this work in original form, so long as 1.1. the copies are exact and complete; 1.2. the copies include the copyright notice and these paragraphs in their entirety; 1.3. the copies give obvious credit to the author, Klaus Breuer; 1.4. the copies are in electronic form. 2. To distribute this work, or copies made under the provisions above, so long as 2.1. this is the original work and not a derivative form; 2.2. you do not charge a fee for copying or for distribution; 2.3. you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright notice, this paragraph, the disclaimer of warranty in their entirety and credit to the author; 2.4. the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or within computer software (prior explicit permission may be obtained from Klaus Breuer); 2.5. the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article to the best of the knowledge of the distributor; 2.6. the distributed form is electronic. You may not distribute this work by any non-electronic media, including but not limited to books, newsletters, magazines, manuals, catalogs, and speech. You may not distribute this work in electronic magazines or within computer software without prior written explicit permission. These rights are temporary and revocable upon written, oral, or other notice by Klaus Breuer. This copyright notice shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. If you would like additional rights beyond those granted above, write to the author at "sz0759@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de" on the Internet. Chapter 2 Introduction 2.1 *A word from Klaus Breuer* Well, here's the v0.4 version of the FAQ! I've had lots of feedback and got pointed into a lot of interesting directions - thanks to everyone who helped out so far! A word of caution for those of you who'ld like to print this FAQ: the table of contents alone takes up 6 pages on my printer. You're probably better off reading the whole thing with an ASCII editor. Personally, I use the most excellent LIST program from Vernon Buerg (no, I'm not affiliated, just a happy user). 2.2 *About the "UnOfficial" DUKE NUKEM 3D EDITING FAQ* Welcome to the release v0.4 of the "UnOfficial" DUKE NUKEM 3D EDITING FAQ. What does that mean? Version 0.4 is the fourth release of the FAQ, "UnOfficial" means absolutely nothing, DUKE NUKEM 3D is the name of the game, Editing is what the FAQ is all about and FAQs are [F]requently [A]sked [Q]uestions. Here's how revision classification works. If a new version of the FAQ only has a small amount of information changed or added, the version number is increased by 0.1. This is called a "minor revision." If a new version of the FAQ has a substantial amount of new information changed or added, the version number is increased by 0.5. This is called a "standard revision." If a new version of the FAQ has a huge amount of added or changed information, major parts of the FAQ are rearranged, or major parts of the FAQ are rewritten, then the version number is increased by 1.0. This is called a "major revision." Currently we're still in the 0.x stage, meaning a very preliminary FAQ. As soon as we have amassed sufficient info in here, I'll update the version number to 1.0. You may be wondering why chapter headings are enclosed in either {}'s, []'s, ()'s, or **'s. The definition of these is as follows: {} Chapters enclosed in curly brackets haven't been written yet. [] Chapters enclosed in brackets mean that the information contained in the chapter has not been updated in this or the previous FAQ. () Chapters enclosed in parenthesis mean that the information contained in the chapter has not been updated since the previous FAQ. ** Chapters enclosed in asterisks means that the information contained in the chapter is new or has been updated for the current version of the FAQ you are reading. Also, ##'s are at times found in the text - these denote questions I urgently need help on, and any feedback is especially appreciated. 2.3 [Getting the "UnOfficial" DN3DE FAQ] The "UnOfficial" DN3DE FAQ is posted every month (or earlier if a new version is released) on the following Usenet groups: (1) comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (2) alt.games.duke3d The "Subject:" line of the post will be "'UnOfficial' DN3D EDITING FAQ v??.??" where "??.??" is the version number of the FAQ. New releases of the "UnOfficial" DN3D EDITING FAQ will be uploaded to internet ftp sites as soon as I find suitable sites. The file name of the upload will be "dnefaq??.faq" where "??" is the version number of the FAQ. ATTENTION: ALL BBSes, Compuserve, America Online, GEnie, and all other information services. PLEASE conform to the naming standard of the "UnOfficial" DN3D EDITING FAQ when placing this file on your system. 2.4 (Adding to the FAQ) If you want something added to the FAQ, please send E-mail to "sz0759@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de" (no quotes), explaining what your addition is. It will be reviewed, and if accepted, added to the next FAQ version. In the E-mail, please supply your name and E-mail address. Please note that all submissions to the FAQ become the property of the author (Klaus Breuer) and that they may or may not be acknowleged. By submitting to the FAQ, you grant permission for use of your submission in any future publications of the FAQ in any media. The author reserves the right to omit information from a submission or delete the submission entirely. 2.5 (The DN3D EDITING mailing list) Ginger (lattav@vnet.net) has set up a mailing list! Mail to duke3d-edit@oozoo.vnet.net or duke3d-edit-digest@oozo.vnet.net to get the 30k digested version. 2.6 (The DN3D EDITING ftp site) We now have an ftp site where everything for editing duke maps will be found. The address is ftp.vnet.net/pub/duke3d. 2.7 (WWW sites) So far, I know of the following WWW sites which contain info about map editing (in no particular order): http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~cwong/myindex.html http://www.servtech.com/public/duke3d/ http://www.newreach.net/~avenger/ http://www.ea.ucla.edu/~kd/Duke3D/index.html http://fluffy.neb.net/Duke http://www.salamander.net/~avenger/msques.html http://www.whiterock.com/kinglink/duke3d.html 2.8 (Acknowledgments) I'd like to thank 3DRealms for bringing out such an astonishing game! After two years, we finally seem to have a DOOM killer. Also, it's real nice of you guys to add the BUILD program into the package! We've never had an editor out so fast :) Thanks to Allen H Blum III, Richard "Levelord" Gray and Kenneth Silverman for writing the Build docs. We all know you were in a big hurry and the docs nearly didn't make it to the CD, so we especially appreciate your work! ALPHABETICAL ORDER: Brett Gmoser (gmoser@gramercy.ios.com) Wrote a long tutorial covering all kinds of things. Cho Yan Wong (aka Tempest) (pwong@pobox.leidenuniv.nl) Wrote several very good tutorials. Ginger Latta (lattav@vnet.net) Has agreed to set up a mailing list, even including a digested form. She's also setting up an ftp site for us! Jim (jek19@ios.orci.com) Help on rotating doors. Nigel Hughes (ngh94@aber.ac.uk) Converting the FAQ to HTML format. Thomas Mueller (tsmuelle@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de) He found out lots of basic workings like Teleporters, Swimming Pools, etc and put me on the right track in regard to sector effectors. THANK YOU! If, for some reason, I did miss you, PLEASE send me e-mail! Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who reads this FAQ, you are what the FAQ is for! 2.9 Accurate information An attempt has been made to make the information in this FAQ as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the game was recently released, and updates, add-ons, and new information are being worked on each second, it's hard to keep up. 2.10 [Help with new levels] If you are building a new level and are experiencing trouble, feel free to contact me about it. Chances are that you are not the only one with this problem, and I can add it to the FAQ. Also, your particular difficulty could be an interesting side- effect of something else, and others might want to hear about it as well. However, *please* read the FAQ fully before asking me about anything :) Chapter 3 *Preliminary information* This chapter explains some of the background behind creating add-ons for Duke Nukem 3D. 3.1 *Intended audience for this chapter* I guess all of you have heard of the game DOOM by id Software :) Well, many of you have created add-on maps for DOOM. You know how a door works, what a sector is, what to look out for while creating a level. While Duke3Ds BUILD engine is much more powerful than id's (see below for a list of differences), it is similar enough for all the experts to skip this chapter. What? You've never created a DOOM map? Never heard of DEU? Don't know that a DOOM-style door works by raising it's ceiling off the floor? Ok, this chapter here's for you. First off, let me explain that I've created quite a few DOOM maps. Thus if I take some things for granted you don't know about, please write me and ask! That way I'll be able to work it into this chapter, making it easier to understand. 3.2 *The basics* Let's start by taking a look at the basics behind map building. Do yourself a favour and don't skip this section! I know many of you have met computers through Windoze or some other GUI toy and don't know much about the underlying intricacies of your system, but please - the more you know about how Duke3D works, the better your maps will be. Besides, it's fun to learn things :) 3.2.1 *Differences between the Build and DOOM engines* Those of you who don't know DOOM (gasp!), feel free to skip this section. The Build engine is the system used to create Duke Nukem 3D. Here's a list of the improvements over DOOM: * Looking up and down Finally, you can accurately shoot an RPG through an upper-story window without needing a target in the window. * Rooms above rooms (even if you can't display them) Build real spiral staircases and crossing corridors. * Mirrors See your enemies around corners. * Multi-colored lights Great ambience effects. * Moving/rotating sectors This is in my opinion (no, it's not humble) the best improvement. It allows you to build subways, real doors, moving stairways, squeeze through rotating gears, survive (?) earthquakes, drive around in vehicles...the possibilities are simply endless. * Transparent sprites Build ghosts and proper windows. * Flying via jetpack Fly about, attack your opponents from above. Very useful as a long drop can now kill you. * Underwater diving The obvious extension to the flying capability. Explore an underwater world, fight sharks :) * Sloping floors and ceilings This adds no end of realism! Finally, we can have sloping corridors, pyramid-shaped buildings, real domes... * Rotated sprites Doesn't seem like much, but a rotated sprite marked as 'blocking movement' can be used as a floor - and thus we can fake bridges! * Blastable walls A very nice touch - it allows you to blow (predefined) holes in walls. * SVGA support If your system can take it. Looks good, but in my eyes not so important. * Highly customizable Very nice, this. You can write your own opponent-AI, very easily add new sounds and graphics, and change the weapons simply by editing an ASCII file. 3.2.2 *Useful cheats for testing levels* Read the Duke Nukem FAQ for a list of all cheats. Here are just the codes I find myself using while testing a level: DNKROZ Toggle God mode. DNUNLOCK Unlock all doors on the level. DNWEAPONS Give all weapons but no items or keys. DNCLIP Toggle clipping. This will kill you if you walk into empty space, so use it only to quickly walk through doors and the like. 3.2.3 *What a map consists of* Maps are made up of sectors (rooms), walls and sprites. 3.2.3.1 *Sectors* The map itself is basically just a collection of sectors. A sector is a room consisting of a floor, a ceiling and walls. Imaging a square column, looking like this: __________ |\ \ | \ \ | \__________\ \ | | Top block: Roof . \ | | . \|__________| . . . . . . . . ___________ . Player area |\ . \ . | \ . \ . | \__________\ \ | | \ | | Bottom block: Floor \|__________| The lower block is the floor, the upper block is the roof, and the player moves about in the missing bit in the middle. The edges are walls, although it's possible to make a wall intangible to the player, allowing him to cross it into another sector. Sectors can share borders with other sectors, and can include other sectors as well. Thus a room with a crate standing in the middle would consist of two sectors: The room itself, with a square sector (the crate) inside it. The crate sector would have the same ceiling height as the room, but with a slightly raised floor (forming the crate): the player can hop onto the crate, but he can't walk below it. The walls of the sector making up the crate would be intangible (invisible and not blocking player movement), otherwise it would look like a column instead. This also explains why we can't have real bridges: if we raise the floor of the bridge sector high enough, the bottom block will elongate upwards until we have a wall instead. Of course, seen from above sectors can have any shape: square, rectangular, round or kidney-shaped. 3.2.3.2 *Walls* Walls come in two flavours: one-sided and two-sided. Imagine carving a dungeon out of a mountain. So far you have dug two rooms, connected by a tunnel. This would translate into three sectors; two big ones connected by a smaller one: _________________________ / | _______________ / .______. | | * <- The player . . | \ .------. | \ | |_______________| \________________________| (seen from above) Obviously, the outer walls have only one side, since they consist of solid rock. But the borders between the two big sectors and the small one are two-sided walls - you can walk on both sides of them. 3.2.3.3 *Textures* Textures are what a wall, a floor or the ceiling actually looks like. They make the difference between a wall looking like a brick wall or a steel slab. You can also texture a floor or the ceiling. Duke has quite a lot of textures for us, ranging from plush red wall-towall carpeting to green alien slime. Some textures are even animated, meaning they look as if they were moving - water is a nice example of this. Textures always make me feel a bit like a magician - with a wave of my wand (ok: mouse) I can change a wall from flimsy straw to solid steel and back. 3.2.3.4 *Sprites* Sprites are all the objects in Duke3D: the flower pot in the corner, the switch on the wall, the alien lurking behind yu - even the player is a sprite. A sprite is always flat and two-dimensional, like a piece of paper. Even a 3D-looking alien is just a sprite: Duke3D simply shows you different sprites according to from where you're looking at the alien. Sprites exist in three forms: Standing up This sprite always faces you, looking nice and solid. A flower pot or a bottle is a typical example. Flat This sprite actually behaves like a painted piece of paper. They look weird standing in the middle of a room, so they are usually pasted on the walls (like switches or posters). Lying down These sprites are also flat, but they're lying on the ground (or hanging on the roof) instead. An example are the magazines scattered on the ground in the Red Light District (E1L2). Chapter 4 *Planning and designing a level* This chapter looks at designing a level with BUILD.EXE, the editor supplied on the CD (in \GOODIES\BUILD). 4.1 *Before starting* I know you're eager to start building the level (why else are you reading this FAQ?), but there are several things you should do before firing up the editor and designing away: Play the game Play the whole Duke Nukem 3D game from start to finish. All three episodes. This will give you lots of ideas on what is possible and what you'ld like to do. Look critically at how things happen: doors opening, aliens suddenly appearing, lights changing, gears rotating... View the maps Use the editor to have a close look at the existing maps. How do these doors open? What kinds of tricks were used to work around the limitations of the Build engine? Have a theme Please. Don't build yet another red light district with a sleazy bar and some dancers. We've got one already! Try to think of something original and take some time to really think about what you're trying to do: the New York traffic? A nuclear power station? An underwater base? A barren planetoid surface? Draw a map Take some graph paper and draw the whole map first. Believe me, your level is going to be lots better this way. You'll be able to take your time and think about everything you want to include. Less is more Zen, yes. Also known as the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Remember that you have lots of tools and tricks to create a map - don't use them all! Don't include, for example, dancers just because you can. Don't use the trip mines in a non-futuristic level. Leave out the security cameras in a medieval castle (time travelling theme?). Don't include yet another alien sitting on the toilet (it's only funny the first time round). And so on. Rather build several levels, each based on one or two ideas. Keep it small Beginners usually make the mistake of designing cyclopian buildings. Massive forecourts, towering walls, huge gloomy halls - all empty. Rather keep the rooms small and full of detail - they will be more interesting and the game will run faster. Time You'll need loads of it. Much more than you think. Especially the shading and testing will take days. Weeks. Have a look at the original levels and see just how much time and care has been spent on them. Don't post a level which is substantially below the niveau of 3DRealms levels - nobody will like it. Read this FAQ Don't jump into drawing your level half-way through reading this FAQ - wait until you have a good idea just what is possible with the Build engine. Your first level Face it. Your first level is going to be something you'll be ashamed of after designing your third level. Don't post it. 4.2 *Pros and cons of using real-world maps* There are lots of levels based on maps of the real world. Maps of your campus (hello, first years!), maps of your dorm, your apartment, your house. The question is, should you use them? 4.2.1 *Advantages* Real-world maps are drawn by professionals (ok, ok, I've also seen houses designed by blind idiots) who know what they are doing. They don't forget to make the outer walls thicker than the inner ones. They don't forget the kitchen or the storage space. The halls are of the right width...in short, the whole map is realistic and believable. Also, it's real quick creating a level from such a map since you don't have to think and design as much. 4.2.2 *Disadvantages* Such maps are also boring. Believe it or not, but most architects didn't design their block of flats for gun-toting maniacs chasing each other through the corridors. There are too few places to hide and the map typically has a simple, utilitarian look. Remember that it's great fun for yourself to run through a virtual representation of your house - but others who don't know you might find such a map terribly boring. And the biggest disadvantage of all: you don't think enough about your level. The more time you spend mentally planning your world, the better it will become. 4.3 *Using DOOM maps* With the Wad2Map program (see further below), it is now possible to convert DOOM maps to Duke3D maps. Do everybody a favour: don't. And here's why: * We've _seen_ the DOOM maps already. * They aren't designed to take advantage of the Build engine. * They aren't designed to work with the new monsters. * It's a heck of a lot of work checking a level after conversion, and it's easy to mess things up and even forget textures. 4.4 *Once your level is done* A finished level is far from finished - lots of things remain to be done: Shading Shade your level! See how efficiently 3DRealms used light and shade in their levels? Do the same - carefully shade every single room. Add lamps and (colored) lights. Sunlight streaming through the windows. Shadows behind columns and buildings. Shade plays a major part in how realistic (and thus, how good) a level will look. Doing it well takes ages. Textures Well, we won't see the HOM (Hall Of Mirrors) effect from DOOM anymore. But make sure your textures are aligned. It's so easy to do using Build, please make sure they look alright! Nothing worse than seeing the brick texture break on the edge of a wall, clearly showing it to be fake. Use the [.] key a lot, make sure you know how it works (and save before you do, it crashed a couple of times on me). Also, don't use too many textures - the have to fit your theme and the game runs faster on fewer textures. Details 'All those tiny little details...' The TV in the corner. The discarded bottle on the street. Blood on the walls. The camera turning by just the right amount. The perfect ambience sound in the perfect place. Realism Your map must be totally convincing. As said, shade plays a large part in this, but so does the map itself: are the walls thick enough? Are they too thin? Does that texture belong here? Is it too noticable that this sprite always seem to turn to face you? Testing Lots! Play the level on your own. Play in in coop. DukeMatch it for hours (if you can't play in it for hours, something's wrong). Fine-tune it: is the window at just the right height? Is that elevator positioned in the perfect place? Testing is really important - let your friends play with your level (without you being present) and listen to their comments. Jokes 3DRealms added lots of in-jokes: the doomed space marine, Indiana Jones, the Terminator, the alien on the toilet... All these are jokes you can't use again: they're old now. Invent your own! Chapter 5 *A walkthrough to creating a simple level* This chapter will guide you to designing your first level. It's very much written like a cook-book - you don't have to understand exactly what you're doing; if you follow the instructions, it'll work out ok :) Details about working with BUILD can be found in the next chapter. 5.1 *Planning* Remember: we have to plan the map first. For our first map we'll build a very simple map: a storage house on a street. It will include a door, a window and have a sloped roof. 5.2 *Getting ready* If you're still in Windoze, get out. It'll do you good, and both Duke3D and Build run better under DOS. I'm assuming that you've installed Duke3D on your hard drive on C:\GAMES\DUKE3D and that your duke CD is in drive F. So now you'll have to copy the editor into your Duke3D directory as well: CD C:\GAMES\DUKE3D XCOPY F:\GOODIES\BUILD\*.* Now start up BUILD.EXE. A screenfull of legalese will pop up (in effect it says that you can't copy BUILD and should only design maps for the commercial version of Duke3D - obvious). Press ENTER to get rid of it and -voila!- you're in the 2D mode. 5.3 *Creating a new map* Press [Esc]. On the bottom, a small menu will pop up: (N)ew, (L)oad, (S)ave, save (A)s, (Q)uit Press [N]. Asked 'Are you sure you want to start a new board?', you press [Y]. Note to non-US users: the program reads your keyboard directly and thus expects you to press the key right next to [T] - for ze Germans, this would be [Z]. The new map will automatically be called NEWBOARD.MAP - overwriting any file with that name in your directory. So be sure to use 'save (A)s' the first time you save your map. 5.4 *The 2D screen* The screen in front of you now is the 2D mode, where you'll be doing all the rough work like laying out your rooms and corridors. You are currently viewing your map from above. (Changing room heights, textures, etc are done in 3D mode, so be patient). The screen consists of several parts: 5.4.1 *Map* Most of the screen is given over to the map itself. Currently it's just displaying a grid. All line endpoints and all sprites will automatically align themselves with the grid (making it easy to design rectangular rooms, for example). You can change the grid size by pressing [G] several times: try it now. You'll see the grid size shrink and then disappear (meaning the grid is switched off and you can draw anywhere). Keep pressing [G] until you see the biggest possible grid. The biggest (meaning coarsest) grid has points which are 1024 units (that's 256 pixels) apart. To see the maximum possible size of your map, use the [A] and [Z] keys to zoom your map in and out. Try it, and then zoom back to a comfortable distance. The map also shows a red cross (your mouse cursor) and a white arrow (your current position). 5.4.2 *Message window* The message window is the bit just below the map: on the left it shows the text 'DUKE NUKEM BUILD V041996 BUILD by Ken Silverman' (the version from April 1996). The right part of the message window currently just shows a red line - that's where the program will display messages and ask you for any info it needs. 5.4.3 *Data window* The data window displays info about currently selected objects (like sectors, walls or sprites) and can also show some help texts. Right now it should be empty. 5.4.4 *Info window* The info window also consists of two parts: on the left is your current (x,y) position in units as well as your viewing angle. On the right it shows how many resources you have used up already. Interesting, because it shows you the limits imposed by the Build engine: you can have a maximum of 1024 sectors, 8192 walls and 4096 sprites. 5.5 *Moving about* As said, the white arrow is your position and heading on the map. You can move about in two ways: Cursor keys Like in the game, these move your forward and backwards. You can also rotate your heading. Interestingly, it also prohibits you from walking through blocking walls - this way you can see if the player will actually be able to walk everywhere he should be. Mouse The red cross is your mouse cursor and therefore (surprise!) moved with your mouse. Pressing the right mouse button transports your position to the mouse cursor - try keeping the button pressed and moving your mouse to see what happens. 5.6 *Creating a room* So, let's start by building the street first. Move your position somewhere into the middle of the map and zoom in until you're at a nice comfortable distance (three squares of the grid should be about an inch in length). Now point the mouse at the bottom left of your currently visible map and press the spacebar. A small green square appears on a grid point and the message window displays 'Sector drawing started.' And so it has - try moving the mouse about on the screen. See that white line? That's your first wall. Move it straight up by exactly seven squares and press the spacebar again. Another green square has appeared, and you've begun drawing a new wall. Move it exactly 14 squares to the right and press the spacebar again. Draw the next wall seven squares straight down and press the spacebar. The last wall you'll end exactly on the first point created, thus forming a neat rectangle. When you pressed the spacebar for that last square, the lowest wall started flickering. This means that it's the currently selected wall. Press [Alt]-[Tab] to get some info on the wall. Don't worry about what all that stuff means - the only thing of interest right now is the Wall number: the one on the bottom is wall number 4. Move the cursor near the other walls and note how the other walls get selected. The info at the bottom, however, is not automatically updated, so you'll have to press [Alt]-[Tab] for each wall again. Just press [Tab] now and have a look at the sector info. All that stuff is explained later in the FAQ, it's not important right now. 5.7 *3D mode* Make sure the white arrow is inside this room and press the [NumEnter] key. This is the Enter key on the bottom right of the numeric keypad (the big one in the middle won't work for us). Wow! 3D! You're now inside your room. It's still somewhat narrow and has walls consisting of ugly gray stone. In 3D mode, two things are of particular interest: The mouse The mouse cursor has changed into a white cross - you use it to point at the things you want to change: walls, sprites...anything. FPS On the top left is the FPS (Frames Per Second) counter. This is the speed at which the screen is being redrawn. This number is terribly important while designing your level: if it drops too low (below 10), the level will play jerky and you won't enjoy it. The FPS are connected to the complexity of the displayed image - the more walls, sprites and textures the computer has to show on a single screen, the lower the FPS count will be. As the Levelord says: "Framerate is God!". So keep an eye on it. You can move about in 3D mode with the cursor keys. Don't use the cursor keys from the numeric keypad but the ones in the middle. You can jump back and forth between 2D and 3D mode by pressing the [NumEnter] key. 5.8 *Raising the roof* This is supposed to a street scene, right? So the first thing we'll need to do is raise the roof. Point at the ceiling and press [PgUp]. You can see it move upwards a bit, pulling the walls with it. Point at the wall in front of you and press [PgUp] again. That's another way to raise the ceiling. Raise the roof until you reach a height you feel more comfortable with. The room should now resemble a small aircraft hangar. 5.9 *Textures* Now for some magic: let's change the appearance of the walls and floor. 5.9.1 *The floor* The floor is first: we'll change it from a simple and ugly stone to a street. Point at it and press [V]. The screen clears, showing the current texture at the top left and the number '0' at the bottom left. This screen contains all floor textures you have used on your map so far, and the number '0' is the number of the currently selected texture. Press [V] again: now you'll see a list of _all_ textures in the game, including things which are actually sprites (like the weapons), but can be usd as textures if you want (although they'll usually look weird). You can move your cursor (the white box) about with the cursor keys - try it. Have a look at all the possibilities. Now press [G] (meaning Goto). The program will ask you 'Goto tile:' on the top left. Use the backspace key to erase the currently shown number and type '815'. Press [Enter]. Voila! The floor changed its appearance and now looks more like a street. 5.9.2 *The roof* Now for the roof. The street has sky above it, right? So, using [V] again we'll select tile number 89. This looks weird, not like the sky at all. So we parallax it: point at the roof and press [P]. Much better! Move around a bit, using [Ctrl]-[A] and [Ctrl]-[Z] to look up and down. (Yes, if you look too high, the texture will mess up - it's the reason most outside areas are so high and narrow in the game. Keep your eyes low for now :) 5.9.3 *Flying about* There are three movement modes available to you in the 3D view: Game Mode Here you walk around like the player in the game. Use [A] to jump and [Z] to duck. Height Lock In this mode, you're always at the same height above the floor. Use [A] and [Z] to raise and lower yourself. Float Mode You're completely unaffected by the floor and can smoothly change your height with the [A] and [Z] keys. Use the [CapsLock] to change between these modes. 5.9.4 *The walls* Currently we're still sitting in a walled-in box. Let's make this look even more like street. Point at the west wall and give it the texture number 794. Now this looks more like a house. However, I bet the windows are not perfectly aligned with the ground and you only have half the lowest row showing. So let's change the orientation of the wall texture. Point at the houses and press [O]. Hmm, the texture now hangs from the roof instead of the floor. Still not good enough. Press [O] again and raise the ceiling until you have three rows of windows, looking just right. Walk up close to it, making sure it looks ok. Now we'll copy this texture to the other four walls: Point at the west wall again and press [Tab]. This copies the texture into memory, causing some text to appear: 'Lo = 0/hi = 0/USED= 1/MEM = 8192'. (Of interest is only the 'USED' value - it shows how often we have used this texture already). Point at the three gray walls in turn and press [Enter] on each. Much better. Now we're standing on a street (or a courtyard). Note how neatly the textures fit together in the corners? That's because we stuck to the grid while designing this room in 2D mode. All textures have width and height in a multiple of 8, same as the grid. So stick to the grid, and you'll be ok. Last thing to do now is to make our house stand out. The street is on the north edge of our house, so point at the south wall and give it the texture number 723. This changes our house to a darker, more brooding one. 5.10 *Building the house* So far we have a street but no house. To design the house, we first drop back into 2D mode: press [NumEnter]. 5.10.1 *The house sector* Press [G] again, making the grid a bit smaller (exactly by half, in fact). This is now the second-biggest grid available to us. Point on the grid just below the lower left point of the street and press [Spacebar]. Don't draw on the point itself, but one grid unit below it - if you made a mistake, press [Backspace] and try again. Draw a line to the right parallel to the street, along its whole length. Press [Spacear] under the bottom right point of the street. That's the first inside wall of the house. The next wall goes straight down by 8 grid units. Keep going until you have a rectangle defining the inside of your house. 5.10.2 *Fixing the house sector* Move the white arrow inside the house sector with the mouse (notice that you can't move from the street to the house with the cursor keys, as there's a thin line of nothing (solid rock) between the street and the house) and switch into 3D mode. Yuck, there's the gray stone again. Again, we first raise the roof to a comfortable height (don't make it too high - look at the room you're in now to get an idea of the proper height). Now that we have a (somewhat long and narrow-looking) room, we fix the floor first. Let's make a red carpet on a wooden floor, like the one we saw in the Bank Roll level. 5.10.2.1 *The carpet floor* Point at the floor and give is texture number 749. Hmm, the floorboards look a bit wide. Point at them and press [E] (toggles between enlarged and normal floor). Now the wood looks better. Now how will we do the carpet? After all, we don't want wall-to- wall carpeting, we want the wood to peek out at the edges. Since a sector can only have one floor texture, the answer is to create a second sector inside the house sector. A smaller one, with the same roof and floor height as the first one, but a different floor texture. So we pop back into 2D mode and design a second sector inside the house. It looks just like the house sector, but is a bit smaller (one grid unit distance to the walls). Place the white arrow in the middle of our new sector and press [NumEnter]. Whoops! A message appears: 'Arrow must be inside a sector before entering 3D mode'. What happened? Place the arrow in the narrow space between the old house sector and the new one and press [NumEnter] again. Whooo - tight! You see, the old sector is now doghnut-shaped - we've created a solid block of stone right in the middle of it. Go back into 2D mode. Point inside the new sector and press [Alt]-[S]. The walls now turn red, and the message window says 'Inner loop made into new sector.'. Back in 3D mode we see that everything is ok now - we have our original house back. No sign of the new sector, though. That's because the new sector automagically has the same floor and ceiling of the original sector. Point at the middle of the floor, press [V] and select texture number 899. See? There's our carpet. Play about raising and lowering the roof and floor of the carpet sector to get a good understanding of what we've done just now. When you're done, set the floor and roof of the carpet sector to the same as the house sector and give all four walls a nicer texture: 783. Remember that you can use [Tab] and [Enter] to make life easier. 5.10.2.2 *Nice walls* Hmmm. The walls are suposed to have a wooden toe-rail along the bottom and a dark stripe near the ceiling, and currently they look wrong. Looks like we'll have to shift the texture up a bit: point at one of the walls and press [Shift]-[Num2] (that's the '2' key on the numeric keypad). See it move up a bit? Keep pressing [Shift]-[Num2] until the wooden toe rail is exactly right on the floor (walk up close to the wall to make sure no single line of brighter pixels is peeking underneath the wood). Now the wall is so high that the texture repeats on the upper part, so we'll lower the roof a bit. Sinve the texture is attatched to the roof, this lowers the whole wall into the floor. Point at it and press [O] (for Orientation). Move the roof again and note that the texture is now attached to the floor, not moving with the roof. Make the texture look good again by using [Shift]-[Num2]. Then lower to roof until the wall looks just perfect. Don't forget to lower the roof of the carpet sector by the same amount, otherwise it won't look right. If the other walls are not looking ok, point at the wall you've been working on and press [.]. This auto-aligns the textures of all walls (you might have to press [O] on the other three walls as well). 5.10.2.3 *Finally, the roof* The roof also isn't looking to good so far. Give it the texture number 182. And change the roof texture of the carpet sector to match, of course :) 5.10.3 *Saving your work* Nice. Now just so we don't loose everything, go back into 2D mode, press [Esc] and [A] (save As). Erase the name 'NEWBOARD' with [Backspace], type [DEMO] and press [Enter]. Now no matter what happens, we won't loose our work so far. 5.10.4 *Building a doorway* The house is well and good, but we're missing something important: a doorway out to the street. To create one, we'll need to be in 2D mode and create a sector connecting the street and the house. Move to the right of the house and zoom in a bit so you can see the grid very clearly. Move the cursor just underneath the white line defining the top edge of the house. See that little black dot on it just above the red cross? Move the cross until the dot is exactly three grid squares from the right edge of the white house sector and press [Ins]. A small green square appears: we've inserted a point on the white line, splitting it in two. Insert another point on the same line, two grid squares to the left of the first one. Now do the same thing to the bottom part of the street sector: insert two points just above the points on the house sector. These four new points will now define our doorway sector. Notice that the doorway will share two lines: the bottom one will also belong to the house, while the top one will connect to the street. Now build the door sector: point at the bottom left point and press [Spacebar], starting a new line. Point at the point on the bottom right and press [Spacebar] again. Keep doing this with the top right and the top left point. End the final line on the bottom left point, creating a rectangle which will immediately turn partly red. That's our new doorway sector. Look at it: the top and bottom lines are red (two-sided lines) and the left and right ones are white (one-sided). Let's view this in 3D: place the arrow on the street and switch into 3D mode. Doesn't look too good so far, does it? The doorway reaches all the way into the sky, appearing all wrong. So let's make it lower: walk into the doorway, point at one of the walls and keep pressing [PgDn] until the roof comes into view. The roof looks a mess because it's still parallaxed (the doorway took on the setup of the street sector - notice the floor is asphalt), so press [P] on it. Take a few steps backwards into the street and change the height of the doorway until you're happy with it (it should end just at the top of the dark windows). The walls look a bit messy, both over the doorway and inside it. That's because their textures are attached wrong - press [O] on them. Much better. Also change the doorway sectors floor, roof and wall textures to 773. Now we have a house which we can leave through a doorway and walk into the street! 5.10.5 *Adding a window* So, what's a window? Easy: just like a doorway, but with a raised floor and some glass in it. Since you now know how to build a doorway between the street and the house, go ahead and build another one somewhere to the left of the first doorway. Got two alike doorways next to each other? Textures looking ok? Right, step into the street. Point at the floor of the second doorway and press [PgUp] to raise it right up to the bottom of the black windows (looks better). All right! You've got yourself a window! However, it still doesn't look good - it's too high up, we can't look out comfortably. So, lower the roof and floor of the window sector until you can easily look into the house. Better, but now it doesn't fit the texture on the street as neatly anymore. So we'll use [Shift]-[Num8] to shift the wall texture down until it looks right. Notice how you're only shifing the wall texture over the window? Each section of a wall (separated by a point) can have its own texture, so you'll have to shift each walls texture. Remember that you can use [.] to auto-align textures for you (it auto-alignes all walls to the right of the one you pointed at, so shift the texture on the leftmost wall). 5.10.6 *Glass* Now we only need to add some glass into the window (so we can shoot it, yaaay!). Still in the street, point on the wall below the window and press [M]. The window will be walled closed with the ugly gray stone texture again. Point at it and give it the texture number 503. Voila! A glass pane! However, the white reflections on it loks wrong. Press [T] twice to make the window more transparent. You can also use [F] (Flip) and [Num4] as well as [Num6] to change the appearance of the window. (Of course, you can use these keys on any wall texture). If you make a mistake, you can reset the wall be pressing [/]. Remember to fix both sides of the glass pane. Now, all we have to do is make the glass breakable: point at it and press [B] (blocking movement) and [H] (hitscan on, meaning it can be shot). A glass pane on the very outside doesn't look to good, though - it should be in the exact middle of the window sector. Besides, it'll mess up the street texture when shattered. So, first we'll define a line where the glass will be: in 2D mide, insert a point in the middle of the left and right walls of the window sector. Point at the first point and (using [Spacebar]), draw a line across to the second point. The message 'Sector split.' will appear - the window sector is now made up of two separate sectors, and we'll put the glass on the line dividing them. But first, press [B] at the new line in 2D mode until it looks a normal red. Do the same for the upper line (where our glass is right now). Back in 3D mode, we'll remove the old glass pane by pressing [M] at it and insert the new pane by pointing just inside the window sector and pressing [M] again. Fix the window up using [Num4] and [Num6] and don't forget [T], [B] and [H]. 5.10.7 *The sloped roof* Remember we wanted to slope the ceiling of the house so it looks a bit like an A-frame? Well, of course each sector can only be sloped one way, so we'll have to split the house sector (and the carpet sector!) again: Insert a point in the middle of each horizontal wall in the house (the house walls and the carpet sector walls) so you get four points underneath each other. From the top point, draw a line to the one just below it. The message window will say 'Loops joined.'. Keep going: connect the two points on the carpet sector ('Sector split.') and the lower two points ('Sector split.'). Now, still in 2D mode, we define the 'hinges' of the sloping ceiling. We'll hinge the roof in the middle, so first point inside the carpet sector just to the left of the new line and press [Alt]-[F]. Tis makes the selected line (the blinking one) the first line in the sector the mouse cursor is in. Do the same for the second carpet sector (the one on the right) and with both house sectors. Now switch to 3D mode, point at the roof and press '[' and ']' to tilt the ceilings. (You'll have to raise the ceiling a bit - use [.] to realign the walls afterwards). If the ceiling tilts wrong, you've messed up the [Alt]-[F] bit. Make sure you've selected the right line at try again. You can use [/] to make a ceiling straight again. 5.11 *Trying it out* Let's try our new level out. Place the arrow in the street and press [ScrollLock] to set the dim red arrow which shows your starting point in the game. Caution: if the starting point is outside a valid sector, the game will crash if you try to run the map! In 2D mode, press [Esc], [Q] [Y] [Y] to exit the editor, saving your map. Now start up Duke3D by typing DUKE3D -map DEMP.MAP Fun! Walk through your creation, smash the window, look about. However, it sure gets old fast - plain walls with no decorations, and where are the enemies? 5.12 *Decorations* Let's keep our decorations simple: a flowerpot in the corner, a picture on the wall, a lamp on the ceiling and a burning barrel in the street. First call up Build again: BUILD DEMO.MAP (press [Enter] twice quickly) We find ourselves in 3D mode, at the player starting point. Walk inside the house, point somewhere at the floor and press [S] (insert sprite). Again, we're confronted with the ugly gray wall, this time standing upright on the floor. Try walking around it - note how it always faces you? Press [R] at it and see how it changes into a flat piece of paper. You can change its heading in 2D mode by pointing at the sprite (the small circle with the tail sticking out of it) and pressing [<] and [>]. Back in 3D mode, press [R] at it again - now it's flat on the floor. 5.12.1 *The flower pot* Make the sprite stand up again with [R] and press [V] to select a different sprite (number 1025). The wall changes into a flower pot! By the way, notice that sprite 1025 looked differently in the selection list? The pink bits will be transparent when the sprite is used. Now shift the flower pot into a corner: in 2D mode, make the grid a bit finer, point at the flower (now called BOTTLE7 by the program) and move it about by pressing and holding the left mouse button (you can shift the endpoints of walls in the same way, btw). All right! Now we have a flower pot in the corner of the room. Press [Tab] at it and use [S] in 3D mode to place some more pots on the floor. They will automatically shatter when hit, by the way. In 2D mode, the sprite appears pink - this means that the 'block moveemnt' flag has been set, and you can't walk through it. If for some reason you want to allow the player to walk through a sprite (fire, for example), press [B] at the sprite and watch it change color. 5.12.2 *The picture* The next sprite will be a picture on the wall. Point at the south wall and press [S] again. The flower pot appears again, but since we placed it on a wall, it's automatically flat already. Use [V] to change it into sprite number 1075 - a framed picture. Use [PgUp] and [PgDn] to position it on the wall. 5.12.3 *A hanging lamp* Next we'll hang a lamp from the ceiling. Point at the middle of the floor and press [S]. Change it into sprite number 979 (a hanging lamp). Well, not exactly hanging yet. So point at it and press [Ctrl]-[PgUp] to move it right up to the ceiling (yes, [Ctrl]-[PgDn] will place a sprite on the floor). 5.12.4 *The burning barrel* Finally, we'll place a burning barrel on the street. Walk outside and place a sprite number 1240 somewhere on the street. Note that this sprite will automatically animate to look like a burning barrel. If you had chosen one of the other three animation frames (sprites 1241 to 1243), it wouldn't have worked - the flames would appear 'frozen' (try it). By the way, you can remove a sprite by pointing at it and pressing [Del]. You might also want to play around with the [Num2], [Num8], Num[4], [Num[6] and [/] keys. 5.13 *The enemy appears* The last thing missing is the enemy. So, go back into the house and place a sprite number 2000 in the middle of it. Ah, a PigCop! Try walking around it - note how you're always shown the correct side of the monster? Place another one next to the first one, but as number 2001. This one isn't moving, and the program calls it PIGCOPSTAYPUT (check it in 2D mode). All monsters have a STAYPUT frame - it means that they will walk around normally, but never change the sector they started in. Great for setting up ambushes. It also means that our second PigCop won't dare to leave the carpet :) Here's a cute trick: try making one of the cops transparent [T] to create a ghost :) Start the game up again, switch to God mode (type DNKROZ in the game) and watch the different behaviour of the two monsters. Note that you can place monsters in different poses to have them start up in them. For example, you can place a PigCop number 2045 (lying down) behind a low wall... 5.14 *The other players* All that's missing now is to set up the coop and DukeMatch starting positions of the other players. You'll need seven of each (the red arrow is the eight one for both coop and DukeMatch positions). Simply place sprites number 1405 (called APLAYER) everywhere you want a DukeMatch starting spot (be fair!). To differentiate the coop starting positions (which are usually all in a bunch somewhere) from the DukeMatch spots, point at them in 2D mode, press [Alt]-[T], [1] and [Enter] to give them a lo- tag of 1. 5.15 *Taking it from here* All right! Your first level! It's still a bit simple, so read through the next chapter and play around (save it first). The trick is to experiment as much as possible! Chapter 6 *The BUILD Editor* This chapter is intended as a reference to the BUILD editor, included on the CD. A big thanks to 3DRealms for giving us the very editor they used to design their levels! ## I've taken most of the info in this chapter from the build docs. I hope to extend this with lots of tips and tricks to the individual commands - so if you know anything, let me know! In this chapter, I'm describing the BUILD editor V041996 from 9/23/95. Press [F1] in 2D mode to see what version you've got. The program consists of two parts: 2D mode and 3D. 6.1 *2D Mode* 2D mode is used to design the sectors and place sprites accurately, much like a blue print. 6.1.1 *The Screen* The screen is split into four parts: 6.1.1.1 *The map* Most of the screen is taken in by the map. Shown on it are: The grid Made up of dark gray lines, the grid has 8 settings (7 magnifications and Off). All objects snap to the grid as they are places or moved. Sprites Small circles with a line indicating its facing. At high enough magnification, they will also display a tag: X Y NAME where X is the hi-tag, Y the lo-tag and NAME the name of the sprite as given in the NAMES.H file. A pink sprite is flagged as impassable. Points End points of lines are shown as small green squares. Walls Two types of walls are possible: one-sided walls are white, two-sided walls are red. Two-sided walls with the 'blocking movement' bit set are shown as pink, and glass (with the 'hitscan' flag set in addition) is a thick pink line. A wall can also display a ractangular sign at high enough resolution, showing the wall tags. Sector A sector is bounded by walls, and is not displayed as such (pity - DEU did a very good job of this, very useful). But if it is tagged, you can see a sign with the tag numbers on it, same as for walls and sprites. Mouse The mouse cursor is a red cross if grid locking is on and a white one if grid locking is off. Observer The observer (your position in 3D) is a white arrow. 6.1.1.2 *The Message window* This window shows the text 'DUKE NUKEM BUILD V041996 BUILD by Ken Silverman' (current version from April 1996). The right part is reserved for prompts like the Esc-menu. 6.1.1.3 *The Data window* The data window displays info about currently selected objects (like sectors, walls or sprites) and can also display some help texts. 6.1.1.4 *The Info window* The info window also consists of two parts: on the left is your current (x,y) position in units as well as your viewing angle. On the right it shows how many resources you have used up already. Interesting, because it shows you the limits imposed by the Build engine: you can have a maximum of 1024 sectors, 8192 walls and 4096 sprites. 6.1.2 *The mouse* Most of the time you'll have your right hand on the mouse and the left one on the keyboard. 6.1.2.1 *Move* Moves the mouse cursor (really!). Is also used to shape the selection box together with the [RightShift] and [RightAlt] keys. 6.1.2.2 *Left button* Used to drag a selected object or group of objects. 6.1.2.3 *Right button* Places the player at the mouse position. 6.1.3 *The keyboard* All keys named NumXXX are keys from the numeric keypad. 6.1.3.1 *Esc* Pops up the Esc-menu: (N)ew, (L)oad, (S)ave, save (A)s, (Q)uit. New starts a new map (after confirming with you). (L)oad pops up a selection list of all .MAP files (Caution! It doesn't ask you if you're sure, so save first before loading a new level. If necessary, abort the selection process with [Esc]). (S)ave saves the map under its current name, overwriting any map with the same name on the disk without comment. New, unnamed levels are automatically called NEWBOARD.MAP. save (A)s asks you for a name to save the current map under. All new maps should first be given a name this way. Beware that it will overwrite any map with the same name without comment. (Q)uit will quit the editor after confirming with you and offering to save your current work. 6.1.3.2 *Cursor keys* Move the player position. The player is clipped, so use the right mouse button to move if necessary. 6.1.3.3 *NumIns and NumDel* These keys will pan the player position sideways. 6.1.3.4 *Spacebar* Draw new sectors. The program is bright enough to know when you're drawing a new sector or adding to an existing one. Use [Backspace] to back up to the last point plotted. 6.1.3.5 *NumEnter* Toggles between 2D and 3D mode. 6.1.3.6 *RightShift* Used together with the mouse to select a rectangular region of objects (points and sprites) to move. Press again to deselect. 6.1.3.7 *Control-RightShift* Select all points of a sector, which can them be dragged with the left mouse key and stamped with [Ins]. 6.1.3.8 *RightAlt* Use together with the mouse to select all sectors within a rectangular area. The selected sectors can then be dragged with the mouse and stamped with [Ins] or you can rotate them with [<] and [>]. If you load a new map right after selecting sectors, you can even stemp the old sectors into the new map. 6.1.3.9 *Ins* Insert something. If some objects are selected, it will insert these (points or sectors) - don't forget to drag them afterwards. If nothing is selected, it will insert a point on the current line. 6.1.3.10 *Del* Delete a sprite. 6.1.3.11 *RightControl-Del* Delete the current sector. 6.1.3.12 *A and Z* Zoom in and out. 6.1.3.13 *G* Change the grid size. 6.1.3.14 *L* Toggle grid locking. The color of the mouse cursor chages accordingly: red for locking on, white for off. 6.1.3.15 *J* Join two neighboring sectors. Press [J] in the first sector and again in the adjacent one. The adjacent one will take on all settings (ceiling height, textures, etc) of the first sector. 6.1.3.16 *Alt-S* Turn an inner sector into player space (used to create sectors within sectors). 6.1.3.17 *S* Insert a sprite. You can store a sprite in 3D mode by pressing [Tab] on it, making it the default sprite to insert. 6.1.3.18 *B* Toggle the 'block movement' flag on a line or sprite. 6.1.3.19 *C* Turn a line into a circle - move the mouse to change the circle. [+] [-] changes the number of points on the circle. [C] draws the circle. [Spacebar] aborts it. 6.1.3.20 *T* Set the sector lo-tag. 6.1.3.21 *H* Set the sector hi-tag. 6.1.3.22 *Alt-T* Set the sprite or wall lo-tag. 6.1.3.23 *Alt-H* Set the sprite or wall hi-tag. 6.1.3.24 *E* Change a sprites status list number. ## Anybody know what this does, exactly? What's a status list number? 6.1.3.25 *< and >* Change the angle of a sprite or selected sector. Use [RightAlt] to select sectors. 6.1.3.26 *Shift-< and Shift->* Change the angle of the sprite or selected sector in smaller increments. 6.1.3.27 *[ ]* This allows you to search backwards or forwards for a certain sector or wall. Select the tags to look for via [F8] (for walls) or [F9] (for sectors) and press '[' to search backwards and ']' to search forwards. If the sector or wall is found, the map will jump to it, placing the cursor at one of the points (probably the first one of the sector/wall). 6.1.3.28 *'-M* Pressing ['] and [M] together brings up a memory status window. Caution: I don't recommend using this option as BUILD gets unstable afterwards and will crash upon switching to 3D mode. Total Tiles Bytes taken up by all selected tiles? Total Sprites Bytes taken up by all selected sprites? Total Actors Bytes taken up by all actors (now what's that?) Total Memory Bytes needed for this map? Total W/Duke Bytes needed to run this map together with Duke3D? 6.1.3.29 *'-3* Pressing ['] and [3] together changes the tag display mode (very useful feature, this): 0: No tags displayed 1: Show sector tags only 2: Show wall tags only 3: Show sprite tags only 4: Show all tags 5: Show item tags only 6: Show tags of current sprite only 6.1.3.30 *F1* Shows a short help screen as well as the version number of BUILD (currently V041996). ## According to this helpscreen, [']-[1], [~], and [']-[9] should be doing something as well but they don't - anybody with more luck than me? 6.1.3.31 *F2* Increments the players x-position by one unit. Seems like a useless feature and my guess is that [F1] decremented the players position before 3DRealms turned it into a help button. 6.1.3.32 *F3* Decrements the players y-position by one unit. 6.1.3.33 *F4* Increments the players y-position by one unit. 6.1.3.34 *F5* If you are in a valid sector, this option will show some general info about your map, like its name and the number of items in it (the blue numbers mean the number of each item only found in multiplayer mode). This is particularily interesting if you want to make sure that you've got a good weapon mix with enough ammo and goodies. 6.1.3.35 *F6* If a sprite is selected, this will show a small help screen listing the numbers of all (?) sector effectors and their function. Otherwise, some more really useful info about your map is shown, this time containing the next free tag and the amount of monsters placed. 6.1.3.36 *F7* This shows a help screen listing all (?) sector tags with their function. 6.1.3.37 *F8* Allows you to search for a wall with specific hi- and lo-tags. ## I haven't yet found out how to trigger the search yet, however (and no, it isn't '[' and ']'). 6.1.3.38 *F9* As [F8], but you can search for a sector instead. 6.1.3.39 *F10* Increments the angle of the player by one unit. Looks like a singularily useless function. 6.1.3.40 *F11* Displays the message 'Grabbed wall sprite 0' - ?? ## 6.1.3.41 *F12* Takes a .PCX screen shot. Turn off the Grid before you press [F12], as it isn't shown properly. 6.1.3.42 *TAB* Show info on the current sector: Sector The number of the sector. Firstwall The number of the first wall (set with [Alt]-[F]). Interesting because: * The floor/ceiling texture orientates itself on it. * The floor/ceiling uses this line as a hinge when tilting. * Blastable walls lower the ceiling until the first lines touch - if your blastable wall has triangular holes in it, this may be why. Numberofwalls The number of walls bounding this sector. Firstsprite The number of the first sprite in ths sector. Hmmm...anybody know if the first sprite is of similar importance as the first wall? ## Tags The hi and lo tags of the sector (also shown in hex). Change with [H] and [T]. Extra Describes as 'used by the game programer only'. Usually set to -1; anybody got details? ## Visibility The visibility in this sector, usually set to 0. Pixel height The height of the room in pixels. Each [PgUp] or [PgDn] in 3D mode changes this by 4 (= 256 units). Ceiling Flags The ceiling flag, shown in hex. The flags (with the keys used to change them in 3D) are as follows (the rightmost bit being number 0): 0: Set if parallaxing [P] 1: Set if tilted '[',']' 2: Set if x and y are swapped [F] 3: Set if texture size is halved [E] 4: Set if x-flipped [F] 5: Set if y-flipped [F] 6: Set if texture aligned with first sector wall [Alt-F] (X,Y) pan The x,y amount the ceiling has been panned. Use the cursor keys for this. Shade byte The amount of shade on the ceiling. 0 is normal, < 0 is lighter, > 0 is darker. Z-coordinate The z-coodinate of the ceiling. Smaller means higher. Each [PgUp] or [PgDn] in 3D mode changes this by 1024 units (= 4 pixel). Tile number The number of the ceiling texture. Use [V] to change. Ceiling heinum Amount of tilt. Palookup number Color palette to use (0 is normal). 6.1.3.43 *Alt-TAB* Show info on the current wall or sprite. The wall info is as follows: Wall Number of the wall (note that red lines are actually two walls, so it's important which sector you're in when pressing [Alt]-[TAB]). X-coordinate X-coordinate of left side of wall. Y-coordinate Y-coordinate of left side of wall. Point2 Number of the next wall to the right in the same sector. Sector Sector the wall is in. Tags The hi and lo tags for this wall, also shown in hex. ## Anybody got a list of interesting tag numbers? Flags The flag (in hex) of this wall. The flags (together with the keys to change them) are as follows (0 is on the very right): 0: Set if wall blocks movement [B] 1: Set if wall has two different textures [2] 2: Set if tile is aligned to ceiling (0 if floor) 3: Set if x-flipped [F] 4: Set if masking wall (like window) [M] 5: Set if 1-way wall [1] 6: Set if hitscan enabled [H] 7: Set if transparent [T] 8: Set if y-flipped [F] 9: Set if reverse-transparent (?) [T] Shade The amount of shade on the walls (smaller is brighter). Use [+] and [-] to change. (X,Y) repeat Used to stretch textures. Use the [NumCursor] keys to change this, press [/] to undo any accidential changes. (X,Y) pan Used to move textures. Use the [Cursorkeys] for this. Tile number The texture number used on this wall. Use [V] to set this. OverTile number The extra texture number for 1-way walls and masked walls. ## I'm not sure how this is supposed to work. On a wall with three textures (a window with glass on the maskable wall as well as two different textures above and below it) it stayed 0. Nextsector The number of the sector on the other side of the wall (-1 if there is none). Nextwall Number of the wall on the other side (only interesting if the wall is two-sided, otherwise it's -1) Extra Usually -1, and described as 'used by the game programmer only'. Which makes it irresistable :) ## Anybody got more info? Wall length Wall length in pixels. The grid at maximum size has a square width of 64 pixels. Pixel height Height of the wall in pixels. 6.1.3.44 *ScrollLock* Set the starting position to the current players position. Caution: if this position is set to an invalid position (outside a sector), the game will crash when you try to run this map. 6.1.3.45 *Ctrl-T* Toggle tag box display on the sprites, walls and sectors. 6.1.3.46 *Enter* Displays the text 'Highlighted line pointers checked'. ## Anybody know what this means? It sure doesn't protect you from invalid lines... 6.2 *3D Mode* 3D mode is where it's at! Here you stand right in your map and can change anything: floor/ceiling height, textures, etc. It's where you'll be spending most of your time. This mode is also what really makes BUILD stand out from other editors like DEU - you can spend a long time in here, fixing up your level to look just right. No more guessing around with the alignment, easily set the height of your rooms, see what everything looks like before you fire up the game itself...lovely. 6.2.1 *The screen* The screen shows the map as viewed from the players position. Two things deserve special note: FPS meter On the top left the current fps rate is shown. Keep an eye on tis while editing and don't make a room so complex that the fps drops too low! Also remember that others may be using a slower computer than you, so lets keep the fps high, ok? Mouse Yes, the little white cross is the mouse pointer, no it doesn't change color according to the 'grid locked' status, and yes, you move it with the mouse :) Also, sprites displayed in blue (palette 1, change via [Alt]-[P]) are only available in multiplayer mode. 6.2.2 *The mouse* Again, you'll be spending your time with the right hand on the mouse and the left on the keyboard. 6.2.2.1 *Move* Believe it or not, but moving the mouse actually changes the mouse cursors position on the screen, enabling you to point at anything you can see! Yes! 6.2.2.2 *Left button* Pointing the mouse at something, pressing the left mouse button and keeping it pressed keeps that object selected, even if the mouse pointer somehow strays from it (for example, when changing the height of an object). 6.2.2.3 *Right button* ## Anybody know if the right mouse button serves any useful function? I know of none. 6.2.3 *The keyboard* Lots of funny buttons for you to press! 6.2.3.1 *Cursor keys* Moves the player around, just like in the game. Press [LeftShift] to speed up your movement. 6.2.3.2 *CapsLock* This key cycles through the three different movement modes available to you: Game Mode Here you walk around like the player in the game. Use [A] to jump and [Z] to duck. Height Lock In this mode, you're always at the same height above the floor of the current sector. Use [A] and [Z] to raise and lower yourself. Float Mode You're completely unaffected by the floor and can smoothly change your height with the [A] and [Z] keys. 6.2.3.3 *PgUp and PgDn* Allow you to change the height of the object you're pointing at: raise or lower ceilings, floors and sprites. If you point at a wall, the corresponding ceiling will change height. Press [Ctrl]-[PgUp]/[PgDn] to move a sprite exactly to the ceiling/floor. 6.2.3.4 *V* Change the selected tile or sprite. 6.2.3.5 *Alt-V* This is supposed to change something called a 'Groudraw height map'. To me it just looks like it's selecting a tile as well. ## Anybody knows what's going on here? 6.2.3.6 *NumCursor keys* On a wall, these keys change the size of the texture. This means you're able to re-use textures for many different things, scaling them exactly as needed (perhaps showing only a certain part). Using these keys on a sprite will change the size of the sprite. Very useful indeed. Finally, the textures on a ceiling or floor can only be resized using [E], so these keys just scroll the texture, enabling you to align it accurately. 6.2.3.7 *Shift-NumCursor keys* Usable only on walls and ceiling/floors (sprites will ignore the shift key and resize instead), these keys shift the offset of the texture. In effect you're moving the texture without resizing it. 6.2.3.8 */* Used to reset a texture or sprite to normal (undoes the effects of [Shift]-[NumCursor] and [NumCursor]). 6.2.3.9 *.* This key will try to auto-align all walls to the right of the selected wall if they are using the same texture. Caution: this has caused my system to crash on several occasions - save before you try this! 6.2.3.10 *F* Flips the selected floor/ceiling 8 possible ways. Walls and sprites can only be flipped 4 ways. 6.2.3.11 *Alt-F* Determines whether the ceiling or floor texture aligns to the first wall. This is especially useful for tilted floors. 6.2.3.12 *P* Toggle parallaxing on floors or ceilings. This only works well on some textures (like 89..96, the cityscapes). 6.2.3.13 *G* This is supposed to give a floor height-mapping. ## Like [Alt]-[V], this doesn't seem to work for me. 6.2.3.14 *E* Toggles the tile size of floors/ceilings between normal and enlarged. 6.2.3.15 *R* Toggle floor/ceiling tiles between relative and absolute alignment. In absolute alignment, floor and ceiling tiles are aligned to the grid itself (thus allowing you to align them neatly to the usual rectangular floors). In relative alignment mode, the tiles align themselves to the first wall (set with [Alt]-[F] in 2D mode). This is very nice for odd-shaped, rotated, or moving sectors. 6.2.3.16 *O* Changes the wall texture orientation. A wall texture can start either on the floor or on the ceiling. This is particularily useful when building windows (make sure that the wall above and below looks ok) or DOOM-type doors (make sure the texture moves with the door). 6.2.3.17 *B* Toggle the 'block movement' flag on a wall. Usually used for glass panes, force fields or sector boundaries, as a one-sided wall always blocks movement anyway. 6.2.3.18 *T* Toggle the transparency flag on a wall or sprite. There are three stages: slightly transparent, very transparent, and opaque (normal). Of course, this only works on two-sided walls. Try it on monsters to create ghosts - pity it doesn't work on players >;) 6.2.3.19 *M* Point at the floor below a sector edge and press [M] to create a maskable wall. In effect, you're giving the sector edge a two- sided wall which is most often used in creating glass panes. 6.2.3.20 *Shift-M* Make a maskable wall just like with [M], but only on one side. This way you're able to create walls where you can only see through in one direction, for example. A window created this way will only show you the glass texture from one side. And you won't be able to shoot through it from the wrong side, either: it will be marked with floating bullet-holes, instead. When shattering it from the visible side, the bullet holes stay in the air... 6.2.3.21 *1* Create 1 one-way wall. Only possible on a two-sided line, this command will create a wall which only has a texture on one side. Monsters can see through this wall and will attack you, walking through the wall (if they're allowed to). 6.2.3.22 *2* If a wall consists of two sections (a top and a bottom one, like you find with windows), pressing [2] will allow you to separately edit the upper and lower texture. 6.2.3.23 *H* Toggles the hitscan bit on a two-sided wall. If this bit is set (default is off), the wall will react to bullets (shattering if it is glass, showing bullet holes if it is normal). If you set the hitscan bit on a sprite, the sprite will block bullets even if it doesn't block you. However, turning off the hitscan bit on a destructable sprite (like a bottle) has no effect. 6.2.3.24 *TAB* This remembers the current object (sprite or texture) and places it in the buffer. According to the Build documentation, it not only remembers the tile number, shade and texture setup, but also the cstat. Whatever that is. Some text appears, showing you what you have just selected: name, lo- and hi-tag, number of times used in map (only if you point at it), and MEM (amount of low RAM free?). If the graphic toggle is on (use [']-[G]), an image of the selected texture is shown as well. Press [TAB] again on the same texture to turn that display off. Use one of the keys below to paste the object back. Note that you have to use the big [Enter] key, not the one at the numeric keypad: 6.2.3.25 *Enter* Copy the selected object to whatever you're currently pointing at (meaning you can replace sprites and textures this way). Shade and (for textures) the x-repeat values are copied as well, while the y-repeat is modified to make the pixels square. 6.2.3.26 *Ctrl-Enter* Copies the selected texture to all walls in a closed loop. Use this to change the appearance of a whole room at once. 6.2.3.27 *Shift-Enter* Copy the shade value only. 6.2.3.28 *Ctrl-Shift-Enter* This function auto-shades a sector: Make one of the walls the lightest shade and another one the darkest one. Point at the lightest wall and press [Ctrl]-[Shift]-[Enter] - all walls on the loop will be smoothly shaded. Somehow, this function never worked very well for me: wall shading is very harsh and non-smooth, so I usually shade by hand. 6.2.3.29 *'-ENTER* Pressing ['] and [Enter] copies the tile only, leaving everything else (especially the shade!) as it is. 6.2.3.30 *'-R* Toggles the FPS display on and off. This is only good for taking screenshots, as the FPS is one of the most important considerations in level design. 6.2.3.31 *'-D* This is supposed to change the skill mode, but on my system only the text '(something something) not found' flashes up and nothing changes - skill mode stays at 1. 6.2.3.32 *'-W* This toggles the sprite display between several modes: Display all Sprites No Effectors (Sprites 1..10 are not displayed) No Actors (No players or monsters are shown) None (No effectors or actors shown) This is nice if you want to do some changes to the map without being bothered by monster images. 6.2.3.33 *'-G* This toggles the display of the selected texture (via [TAB]) on and off. 6.2.3.34 *'-Y* ## Listed as 'Toggle purple background', I haven't found out what it does yet. 6.2.3.35 *'-T* Allows you to change the lo-tag of the selected object. 6.2.3.36 *-H* Allows you to change the hi-tag of the selected object. 6.2.3.37 *'-S* Allows you to directly type a shade value for the selected object. Very nice for setting the shade on goodies to 128 (= -128, as 127 is max. shade and you can't enter negative numbers) to make them very visible from far away. 6.2.3.38 *'-Y* Changes the visibility of a sector (how fast it darkens with distance). 6.2.3.39 *'-C* Changes the global shade of a sector to the shade of the object currently selected. 6.2.3.40 *'-Del* ## Sets the cstat to 0. Anybody know what a cstat is? 6.2.3.41 *F1* Shows a short help menu, listing the less-commonly used commands. Pres [F1] to remove it again. 6.2.3.42 *F2* Increments the players x-position by one unit. Seems like a useless feature and my guess is that [F1] decremented the players position before 3DRealms turned it into a help button. 6.2.3.43 *F3* Decrements the players y-position by one unit. 6.2.3.44 *F4* Increments the players y-position by one unit. 6.2.3.45 *F5* Nukes the 3D display, forcing you back to 2D. Strange function indeed :) My guess is that the system tries to display the same text it does in 2D mode and messes up the graphics along the way. 6.2.3.46 *F6* Same as [F5]. 6.2.3.47 *F7* Same as [F5]. 6.2.3.48 *F8* Same as [F5]. 6.2.3.49 *F9* Rotates the players view left a bit. 6.2.3.50 *F10* Rotates the players view right a bit. 6.2.3.51 *F11* Changes the gamma correction (makes the screen lighter). 6.2.3.52 *F12* Takes a .PCX screen shot. 6.3 Typical mistakes to avoid This section contains, in no particular order, common errors which you should avoid: 6.3.1 Crossed lines By this I mean bounding lines from the same sector crossing each other. While the game will aloow this, it usually looks bad. 6.3.2 Overlaying lines Overlaying lines very often leads to mysterious graphics glitches (a door texture suddenly spilling onto the floor is a typical example). Rather place the lines very close to each other (using Grid lock off). Chapter 7 (How to...) This chapter is intended as a cookbook: how to create different effects. If you find out something new, please let me know and I'll add it here. 7.1 (Extracting the original maps) It's a very good idea to extract the original maps for Duke3D and see how 3DRealms did things. It has the additional effect of making you realize just how much work is in these levels :) The command KEXTRACT DUKE3D.GRP *.MAP will extract all map files from Duke's group file. 7.2 (Abbreviations) In order to easily describe tags, sector effectors and the like, I use some abbreviations: Bomb A sprite with the tile number 1247 (yellow gasbottle), x-shrunken as narrow as possible. It is intangible to the player, but blows up when triggered. [x,y] The tags of a sprite or wall: x is the hi-tag, y the lo-tag. Example: [0,34] describes a hi-tag of 0 and a lo- tag of 34. (x) Tile number (refers to sprites, too). Example: (621) is the camera sprite. Controller A special sprite (tile numbers 1..10) which is not shown at game time and controls the environment in some way: S Sector effector Example: S [100,256] means to insert a Sector effector with the hi-tag 100 and the lo-tag 256. A Activator T Touchplate L Locked activator M Music and SFX L+ Locator C Cycler D Master switch R Respawn Sp Speed 7.3 (Glass panes) Glass panes are simply two-sided walls maskable walls (created by pointing on the floor in front of a two-sided line and pressing [M]) with the 'block movement' [B] and 'hitscan' [H] flags set. The texture has to be glass (503). 7.4 *Doorways* A doorway is nothing but a sector connecting two other sectors. Simply lower the roof a bit, align the textures (use [O] and [.]) and you're ready to go. 7.4.0.1 (Notes) * You can make arching doorways by splitting the doorway into several sectors and tilting the roof or even the floor. 7.5 (Windows) A window is simply a sector with a raised floor and a lowered roof which has been inserted into a normal wall. Follow these steps to insert a window into a standard wall (made up of one-sided walls): * We'll assume the wall goes from east to west. * In 2D mode, split each of the lines making up the wall twice where you want the window to be, forming a rectangle of points. * Connect these rectangles with lines; a new sector will be created. This is your window sector. * Switch to 3D mode. Raise the floor a bit and lower the roof of the window sector until the window looks about right. * If you want, insert a glass pane in the window sector. It'll look especially good if you split the window sector, adding the glass in the exact middle of the window sector instead of on the edge. * Align the textures. You can auto-align by pointing to the left-most wall and pressing [.]. 7.6 (Air ducts) Air ducts work in the exact same way as glass panes, with two differences: * You need the air vent texture (407: rotating fan, 595: metal grate) instead of glass. * You'll have to connect the air duct itself behind the wall, obviously :) 7.6.1 *Notes* * Make the duct itself nice and narrow, about as wide as the grid at maximum size (1024 units or 256 pixels). * For the duct inside, you can use the textures 342 and 343. Use 341 for a hole broken in the duct. 7.7 (Angled surfaces) To tilt a sector surface (roof or ceiling), point at it and press the '[' and ']' keys. 7.7.1 *Notes* * The surfaces will always use the first line of the sector as hinge. To set the first line, point at it in 2D mode and press Alt-[F]. * To undo your changes, press [/]. 7.8 Secret places To mark a sector as secret, just tag it [0,32767]. A player will be credited for finding it as soon as the sector is entered. 7.9 (Multiplayer sprites) To make an object appear only in multiplayer (coop or DM) play, use Alt-P to give it a palette of 1. 7.10 (Level-end button) Also called the nukebutton, this sprite (142) is used to end the level. Tag it [0,x], where x can be: 32767 End level, go to status screen and then on to the next level. 1..11 End level, go to level 1..11 (eg. [0,10] would take the player to the (secret) level 10). 7.10.1 (Notes) * To get the secret-level color on the nukebutton, set its palette to 14. 7.11 (Level-end sector) Tag a sector [0,65535] to end the level when a player enters this sector. 7.12 Cameras You can place cameras around the map, which will relay an image to one or more viewscreens. 7.12.1 *Setup* The security network consists of three objects: Channels A channel transports the video data from the camera(s) to the viewscreens. It is just a number. Cameras (621) [Channel,Mobility] They have to be sprites, and can be placed anywhere in a room, facing in any direction. Using the lo-tag, you can even set the camera mobility: higher numbers allow the camera to move through a wider arc. Some example numbers: 0: Immobile 128: Very jerky (too short) - not recommended 256: Normal panning Viewscreens (502) [Channel,0] Viewscreens have to be sprites, too. 7.12.2 *Notes* * If several cameras share a channel, the viewscreen connected to this channel can cycle through all connected camera views. * It is advisable to hide the viewscreen behind armored glass (84 or 663), to cause the well-known purple circles when it's being shot at. 7.13 Blastable walls (user control) Such walls can be blown up by detonating something close to them (a pipebomb, RPG, etc). 7.13.1 Setup * First build the wall with the hole already in it (usually consisting of several sectors with angled floors and ceilings). * In each of these sectors, place an S [Channel,13]. On the wall to be blasted, place a (possible semi- transparent) crack [Channel,0] (546-549), facing the player. Fire extinguishers (916) can be used, too. * If you want, place bombs on both sides of the wall for realism [Channel,DelayUntilExplosion]. A delay of 8 is very short, while 2000 takes ages before it explodes. 7.13.2 (Notes) * A wall with a crack on each side will blow ok, but the other crack will remain hanging in mid-air. * Blastable walls retain no bullet holes until they blow. * Here the first line of a sector is important again - the floor and ceiling are moved together until the first wall sides touch. So if your wall shows some triangular holes, this is where to look. * If you give the crack a palette number of 1, it can only be blown in multiplayer games. 7.13.3 *Tips* * Use texture 852 (blasted concrete) on the inside of the hole. * Carefully align the wall textures. Especially the sideways alignment is important, as the wall looks real bad if this is not done properly - use the [.] key. 7.14 Blastable walls (triggered) The work just like user-controlled blastable walls, except that they can only be blown by program control, not by the user. They are triggered by a T [0,Channel], and you can even add a time-delay from the moment T is activated to the explosion of the wall. 7.14.1 Setup * First build the hole just as outlined above. However, you won't need to place a crack. * In just one of the hole sectors, add a D [Delay,Channel]. Delay ranges from 0 to 255, 255 being longest. * Place at least a bomb [Channel, Delay] in the same sector as D. Delay ranges from 8 (blow right away) to over 2000 (take ages, can be used for nasty traps) with typical values being 8,16 or 32. For realism, place some of these on both sides of the wall as well. * Place a T [0,Channel] in any sector. It will go off as soon as the player enters the sector. 7.14.2 Notes * You can blow several walls open simultaneously, but don't use different delays - the world shakes, but the holes only appear when the highest-numbered D blows. 7.15 (Conveyor Belts) Conveyor belts are sectors which will transport any sprite on them in a certain direction. 7.15.1 (Setup) * S[0,24] in the conveyor belt sector, facing in the direction the belt should move. * Optionally, add a Sp[0,BeltSpeed] to change the belts speed. 7.15.2 *Notes* * You might have to rotate the sectors floor to make it look right - I've had a belt going one way and the texture scrolling another way... * To create running water, just set the sector tag to [0,1]. * Typical conveyor belt tile is (1156). 7.16 (Mirrors) Mirrors are interesting in that they require a rather large room behind the mirror (check E1L1 for example). This room must be able to contain any part of the room visible in the mirror. A mirror is in effect a masked wall (created by pointing on the floor in front of a two-sided wall and pressing [M]) with the texture 560. Then make the mirror single-sided by pointing at it and pressing [1]. Finally, point at it and press [B] and [H] to set the 'block movement' and 'hittable' flags. 7.16.1 (Notes) * You can make the mirror unbreakable by now setting the 'block movement' and 'hittable' flags. * If the 'mirror room' is too small, weird graphic glitches can occur. * If you set clipping and walk through the mirror, you: - will die if you leave the mirror room, - get stuck if you deactivate clipping, and - notice graphic glitches underneath the mirror (viewed from inside). 7.17 Light switches Light switches turn the light in one or more sectors on and off ('on' is very bright, 'off' is the original light level). 7.17.1 Setup * Place a switch (eg 164) [0,Channel] sprite anywhere. * The sectors to light up need an S [Channel,12]. 7.17.2 * You can use several switches on the same channel, they operate simultaneously. * Switches work just fine if used on their own - perhaps this could be used by players to communicate? 7.18 *Permanently rotating sector (gears)* You can set up a sector to keep rotating around a midpoint, like the gears in E1L3. 7.18.1 *Setup* First, build your sector. If the floor is to be visible, make sure that you're set the texture alignment to 'relative' (use [R]) so it rotates with the sector. You'll need these tags: S [Channel,0] Defines a rotating sector. S [Channel,1] Defines the sector rotating axis. The direction defines the rotation: up is clockwise, down is counterclockwise. Sp [0,Speed] Default rotation is rather fast, so you might want to add an Sp[0,64] for slower movement. M [HearingDistance,SoundNumber] The distance obviously depends on the size of your rotating sector - try 8000. Good SoundNumbers to use are 87 (grinding gears) or 89 (machine at work). 7.18.2 *Notes* * The two S must be on top of each other, as the sector will behave strangely otherwise. I've had gears rotating around an arbitrary midpoint causing a HOM when moving over you. * M is usually placed on the pivot point, too. * A gear will pick you up if it sweeps towards you. To make pushing/squashing gears, raise the floor of the rotating sector all the way up to the ceiling. 7.19 Doors Ignoring simple doorways, real doors come in several flavours, consisting of one or more moving sectors, sector tags and some controllers. Note that all controllers must be inside the door sector(s), not right on the edge (turn off grid locking ond place it real close to the edge, if necessary). 7.19.1 Standard hinged A hinged door opens by rotation 90 degrees sideways. The door sector [0,23] contains three special sprites: S [11,Channel] The location of the sector effector defines the rotation axis, the direction the rotation direction: up counterclockwise turn down clockwise turn Sp [0,Speed] Speed ranges from 8 (very slow) to over 1000 (real fast). ## I think you can leave this sector away for a default speed, but I'm not sure about this. M [Sound2,Sound1] Sound1 is the sound number to play when the door is opened, Sound2 when it's closed. Usually, these sounds will be the same. 7.19.1.1 Notes * The doors floor texture doesn't rotate, but the ceiling one does. * Make sure that the door doesn't rotate out of its original sector (for example, into a room with a higher ceiling) as the graphics will mess up. Thus the sector containing the door sector has to be large enough. * You can open/close several doors simultaneously (building double doors, for example) by allocating each door the same channel. 7.19.2 (DOOM-type door, remote control) This door opens by remote control (a switch) by raising the ceiling from the floor, delays a moment, and lowers the ceiling onto the floor again, closing the passageway. 7.19.2.1 (Setup) * Switches (132) [0,Channel] can be placed anywhere. Must be sprites. * The door sector [0,20] contains 4 controllers: M [ClosedSound,MovingSound] (eg 0,167) Sp [0,Speed] (eg 0,88) S [OpenDelayTime,Channel] A [0,Channel] 7.19.2.2 (Notes) * Switches can be hidden by letting the sprites face the wall and adding another sprite facing the player on top of it (as done in the toilet of E1L2 with the blowdryer). * If the door is half-open at game start, it will close automatically. * Don't make OpenDelayTime (the time to wait after closing the door again) too short! A door with a value of 128 will close real quick. If the time passes before the door has fully opened, it will malfunction (could be used by design, though). 7.19.3 (DOOM-type door, local control) These work in the exact same way as the remote-controlled version, but you don't need a switch to open them - just press on the door itself. Simply build the door as above, leaving the S and A controllers out. 7.19.4 (Sliding sideways) This door works by moving/shrinking a sector sideways. A perfect example of this can be found in E1L3 (Death Row), just to the right of your starting point. Building this door is easier to do than to explain, so bear with me :) As soon as I have a better idea as to what exactly is happening, I'll be able to explain this better... Let's assume the door slides from the right into the left wall when opening. We build the door in stages: * The Entrance Sector, which contains the doorway. First, we assign a sector (eg, connecting two rooms) which we'll call the Entrance Sector. We're actually moving a sector containing a one-sided wall, so the whole visible height will move. This means that a sliding door is typically found in a low passage, connecting two higher rooms. * The Moving Sector. Insode the Entrance Sector, insert two points below each other on the left wall. From these, you now build a sector extending into the Entrance Sector (in effect, the Entrance Sector will split into an U-shaped Entrance Sector and a narrow moving sector) [0,25]. * The door. The door is actually made up of one-sided walls: insert two points on the left wall inside the Moving Sector and pull them to the right, creating the door itself. You'll actually want to insert three points, creating a pointed door which doesn't cover the Moving Sector completely but leaves two wedge-shaped pieces open into which we'll add some tags: * The tags. S [Channel,15], facing right M [DoneSound,MovingSound] * The left wall Insert two points on the left wall of the Entrance Sector: one above the Moving Sector (call it P1) and one below it (call it P2). Now take the two inner points (the ones connecting the left wall with the Moving Sector) a straight towards the left (not too far), extending the Moving Sector in the process. Finally, move P1 onto the upper line of the door and P2 ontoo the lower one. Phew! Looks weird, because so many unconnected lines and points are overlaying each other (obviously, you should work with Grid Lock on) but it should work. (Notes) * A typical sliding door texture is 447. * So far, I've only gotten this door to open half-way ##. Evidentially, there's an additional, flat sector involved (see E1L3), but I haven't gotten it to work yet. * Changing the heading of the sector effector produces interesting (and usually, buggy) results. 7.19.5 (Star Trek door) This door slides sideways, compressing its texture as it does so. The door is activated by pressing against it. 7.19.5.1 (Setup) This door works just like the sliding door above, except that it opens all the way :) Let's assume your doorway goes from north to south and the star trek door thus slides east/west: * Create the sector containing the doorway. * Using horizontal lines, split this sector into three sectors. * Extend the doorway sectors walls into the middle sector of the doorway, forming the doors themselves. Let the doors meet in the middle. * Now tag the middle sector: [0,9] * Add two sprites to the middle sector: M[0,Sound] (eg. [0,259]) Sp[0,OpeningSpeed] (eg. [0,64]) And that's all! 7.19.5.2 *Notes* If you extend the middle sector straight to the east and west (like the sliding door), the door texture will be longer although part of it will be hidden. This will make sure that you can haddly see the compressing effect while the door opens. 7.19.6 (Four-way door) These doors open in both directions (up/down and left/right) at the same time when activated. Simply build a star trek as above, but let the floor and ceiling of the middle sector meet in the middle and give the middle sector a tag of [0,26]. These doors look very nice indeed :) 7.19.6.1 (Notes) * It is possible to get these doors to misbehave: try triggering a low, long door again while it is already opening. The roof will start to close again while the walls are still opening. Now the door will be difficult to navigate: as the roof opens, the walls close and vise versa. Of course, this can be fixed by triggering the door again in quick succession, but it interesting to know. * The above bug can be used for special doors - simply design the walls to be open at the start, and the door will react as above. You can get through it if you run, though. 7.19.7 (Teeth doors) ## I've found some info on building teeth doors, but I didn't get them to work. The BUILD docs say that teeth doors weren't tested in the game and might make trouble in multi-play. 7.19.8 (Auto-closing doors) Simply add an S[DelayTime,10] in the door to auto-close. 7.20 Shrinking sector (remote control) This will shrink a sector (for example a curtain) by on the press of a button. ## I haven't gotten the sector to regrow, however. 7.20.1 (Setup) * Place one or more switches anywhere [ActivationSound,Channel]. * Inside the sector to shrink [0,27], place three controllers: S [Channel,20] facing the movement direction. A [0,Channel] Sp [0,Opening Speed] 7.21 (Elevators) Elevators come in two kinds: those where just the floor moves (open elevator) and those where the ceiling moves as well (closed elevator). Both rely totally on sector tags: except for the sound, no controllers are used. 7.21.1 (Setup) An elevator is simply a sector that moves from the nearest low floor to the nearest high floor. Thus the only important thing really is setting the floor heights of the adjacent sectors properly (yes, it sounds obvious that the floor z-coordinate of the lower floor should be larger (lower) than the floor z- coordinate of the upper level, but I've fallen for it already while building overlapping sectors). Tag the sector according to the desired elevator type: [0,16] Open elevator [0,18] Closed elevator 7.21.2 (Notes) * You can set an elevator at the top or the bottom to start with, it doesn't make a difference. You can even set it at half-way. * There are two more sector tags available to elevators: [0,17] (open elevator) and [0,19] (closed elevator). They're supposed to control the starting position of the elevator, but _you_ do that already simply by placing the elevator at the desired starting height. ## Anybody know what's going on? 7.22 Teleporters Teleporters move players instantly between any two points. 7.22.1 Setup Teleporters are not sectors, just sector effectors. They do need the floor tile 626, though. S [7,Channel], facing is the same the arriving player should face. 7.22.2 * A teleporter without a floor tile 626 only act as receivers. * A single teleporter without a destination will kill the player. * When usgin more than two teleporters on the same channel, you always land on the teleporter with the lowest sprite number. If teleporting from the lowest sprite number, you end u on the next-highest one. * Teleporters don't work if you fly over them. * ## I've had strange effects when firing rockets into two teleporters set up in a line - the rocket reappeared _behind_ me, angled slightly to the right (thankfully :) Any ideas? 7.23 Swimming pools Swimming pools allow the player to jump into the water and dive around under the water surface. 7.23.1 Setup A swimming pools consists of at least two sectors: one is the room above the water, one is the room below it. An teleporter secretly moves the player (and any other objects, like pipebombs) between the levels as required. The sectors sharing the water surface have to be the exact same size and shape (of course). The teleporter connecting them needs a unique channel number. Above-water sector [0,1] S [Channel,7] Below-water sector [0,2] S [Channel,7] 7.23.2 * The floor/ceiling types for the water surface don't matter - all objects will always be transported correctly, water will splash, etc. This allows you to generate hidden traps, mud, etc. * If you split a pool into several sectors (for example in order to create a pool with a shallow and a deep end), you have to split the above-water sector as well and add a sector effector in each new sector. 7.23.3 Tips * Nothing to stop you from adding sector to the below-water sector, forming an underwater tunnel leading somewhere else; perhaps even surfacing in a different pool. 7.24 {The Grapplers} 7.25 (Overlapping sectors) While DOOM was 2.5D because of its strictly 2D map, Duke3D is 2.75D: while the data structure allows you to design several sectors over each other, the graphic engine can't display more than one wall and one floor over each other at a time. This means you can't: * Build a real bridge. * Build two windows over each other. * Build a house missing a wall, showing several floors over each other. * Build a house with two stories above each other, as long as the windows are on opposite sides of the house. However, you can: * Build a house where you can actually walk on the roof (as long as the house doesn't have windows). * Build corridors crossing over and under each other. Building overlapping sector is easy: Just draw the first sector, move floor and ceiling where you want them, then draw another sector overlapping the first one. Try it! 7.25.1 (Notes) * Two overlapping sectors cannot share a double-sided wall, but you can connect them with a separate sector (for example, a sloping tunnel or an elevator). * Don't use overlapping sectors unless you have to! Editing them is very little fun indeed, as the 2D editor has trouble differentating between the sectors and it's hard joining sectors, etc. 7.26 *Hiding switches* To hide a switch, simply turn its facing towards the wall. It is advisable to place a different sprite facing the player over it, so he knows where to press (unless you _really_ want to hide it). 7.27 *Bridges and Shelves* We actually cheat a bit in order to build a bridge: it's made up of sprites! Take the sprite, rotate it flat to the floor, mark it as 'blocks movement' and then raise it into the air - you'll be able to walk on and underneath it. So far, I have found two typical bridge sprites, but any sprite will work: 513 Stone bridge, as found in E1L1. 609 Metal bridge with holes in it, found in E1L6. 7.27.1 *Notes* * Building a solid-looking bridge (one having width) actually takes some time, as you have to mess around with the side walls too (also sprites) which can take ages. * It's possible to make a bridge droppable (try using a pipebomb on the bridge in E1L1) by tagging the sprites [254,0]. * Keep in mind that the visible overlapping of sprites is calculated by looking at the sprite center. Thus if you place several small sprites (bottles) on a single large sprite (a wooden board), the board will overlap some bottles when viewed diagonally. Thus you should build larger objects of several small sprites. * It's perfectly possible to create a multilevel building out of nothing but sprites. It's a hell of a job, however. 7.28 {Morphing ramps} 7.29 (Vehicles) Vehicles (simply a sector with a raised floor) can be set up to travel from their original position to a pre-determined closed path, which they will follow. 7.29.1 Setup * The vehicle sector requires an S [0,6]. The position of this controller determines the rotation center when turning, and its direction the facing of the vehicle. * Mark the route with several L+ [Pause,VisitingOrder]. A Pause of 0 means smooth movement, a 1 means a short pause at the _next_ L+. The controllers are visited in their VisitingOrder, starting from 0. * Use [R] on the vehicles floor texture to make it move with the vehicle. 7.29.2 *Notes* * The vehicle must start in the same sector as its route, as the game will refuse to run otherwise. Thus you can't, for example, cause a car to come out of a low garage and circle around outside afterwards. * You can have several vehicles following the same route. * You can also design a vehicle using several sectors, but they will rotate individually at each L+. Rather use a 'bounding' sector, containing the S. * You can only have one route defined per map. 7.30 (Attacking Vehicles) To make a vehicle attack any visible player with rockets (like the space fighter at the start of E2L1), just parallax the ceiling of the vehicle. 7.30.1 *Notes* * Since a parallaxing ceiling makes a vehicle aggressive, we can't have harmless cars driving around in open streets. 7.31 *Water waves* It's possible to have the floor of a sector move up and down. Several of these sectors in series can give the effect of a travelling water wave. 7.31.1 *Setup* A wave sector actually changes its floor tilt value. Thus, simply define several 4-walled sector in a row, adding a single S [WaveHeight,29] in each. 7.31.2 *Notes* * Wave sectors must be four-sided. * The floor tilts along the first line of each sector, so make sure you've set it properly (use [Alt]-[F]). * WaveHeight ranges from 0 to 2048. 7.32 *Engine piston* In designing machines, you often want a piston moving up and down, squashing anything wandering underneath. 7.32.1 *Setup* Simply add an S [0,25] in the sector. 7.32.2 *Notes* * This effector moves the ceiling down to the height of the S and back up. * You can add an Sp or M to taste. 7.33 *Edge walls* The end of the playing map in an outdoors setting is always a problem - how to avoid simply using a very tall building and instead closing off with an (impassable) low wall? 7.33.1 *Setup* * Build a low wall around your world. Use any texture you like. * Set the ceiling texture to the same as your main ceiling. Usually, this will be 89 (LA). * Parallax it. If your main ceiling is already parallaxed, the upper part of the wall will disappear. * Lower the ceiling to the floor. 7.34 *Code switches* Code switches are buttons which have to be pressed in a certain way before activating something. An example is the 3-way dip switch used to unlock the red gate in E1L2. 7.34.1 *Setup* Set up the switches anywhere, tagging them [Status,Channel]. Status is the required state for activation: 0 (off) or 1 (on). Channel is the same for all code switches belonging together, and is used as the lo-tag of the A or L tags activating whatever is supposed to happen. 7.34.2 *Notes* * Personally, I find these boring. I just cycle through them in order and the door or whatever opens real quick. * You can place the switches all over the level, if you like. Not a nice thing to do :) 7.35 *The pool table* Everybody (myself included) was very impressed with the pool table in E1L2. It's easy to make your own, and perhaps you can use this to design other toys. Reading this, I also realize why 3DRealms didn't answer our request for a reset button :) 7.35.1 *Setup* The table itself is just a table with a raised wall around it. The trick is in the sprites used: just add balls (901 and 902) and (flat) pockets (903). 7.35.2 *Notes* * The balls will move nicely when pushed. They will remain at the same height, floating through the air if necessary. * Use different palettes on the balls to create different colors. 7.36 *Tips and tricks: New and interesting effects* It is often the case that users find new and interesting effects for sector functions that the designers never thought of. If anybody finds something like that, please let me know and I'll put it here. Chapter 8 {Programming the .CON files} Chapter 9 *Utilities and add-ons* 9.1 *Editing utilities* This section contains all programs which can be used in editing somehow. 9.1.1 *BUILD* The BUILD program is currently the only Duke3D .MAP editor in existence. Personally, I don't think that it will be replaced anytime soon :) Documentation to it are in the file BUILDHLP.EXE (press [F2] while viewing and give a filename to create an ASCII file instead of printing all that stuff) and in this FAQ. 9.1.2 *EditArt* EditArt is also included on the Duke3D CD and allows you to change the graphics included in Duke3D. You'll first have to extract the .ART files using the command KEXTRACT DUKE3D.GRP *.ART Watch out, though: this will create the files TILES000.ART to TILES014.ART, taking up nearly 15MB of space on your drive. If you just want to change part of the graphics, try extracting a single .ART file: KEXTRACT DUKE3D.GRP TILES000.ART Documentation to EditArt are in the Build Docs; here are just some notes: 9.1.2.1 *Changing graphics* To extract a tile from a .ART file to a .PCX file, use [PgUp] and [PgDn] to select the tile. You can also use [V] or [G] (Goto). Press [F12] to create a CAPT0000.PCX file in your directory, containing just the tile. Edit this tile with your favourite graphic tool. While EditArt can also edit graphics (as the name suggests), I prefere to use something like NeoPaint or somesuch. Then go back into EditArt, select the tile again and press [U] to import the .PCX file. After selecting the image, use the mouse to drag the rectangle over the whole image (grabbing all of it) and press [Enter]. Voila! Now all you have to do is keep the changed .ART file in your Duke3D directory, and the game will load the new graphics automatically on starting. 9.1.2.2 *Adding new graphics* Adding new graphics is fun and easy: simply modify the TILES0014.ART file. It contains only a single tile, called 'user art'. You can replace this and all others in the .ART file using the above method. Now you can access the graphics like any other tiles in BUILD. 9.1.2.3 *Using DOOM I graphics* Adding DOOM graphics is less easy - here's a step-by-step account on how to do it (there's probably an easier way, but I haven't found it yet): * Extract TILES0014.ART from DUKE3D.GRP, as explained above. * Back up your PALETTE.DAT and NAMES.H files, preferably by copying them in their own directory (I use the same one I backup my .CON files into). * Convert the DOOM graphics (you'll need the original DOOM.WAD): WAD2ART D:\GAMES\DOOM\DOOM.WAD (You'll find WAD2ART in the \GOODIES\WAD2MAP directory on your Duke3D CD) This'll take a while, but you only need to do it once. * You now have three new files in your directory: NAMES.H, PALETTE.DAT and TILES000.ART. * Call up EditArt and select the graphics you want to convert (tiles start at number 462). Press [F12] to make a screendump of each. * Rename TILES000.ART to something else in case you want to convert more DOOM art later. Best to place it in its own directory, together with the new NAMES.H and PALETTE.DAT. * Restore your original NAMES.H and PALETTE.DAT files. * Call up EditArt, select an empty tile and import the DOOM .PCX screens as explained in 'Adding New Graphics' above. * The sprites are going to need a fair amount of retouching. 9.1.3 *Wad2Map utilities* The Wad2Map programs (included on the Duke3D CD) allows you to convert your DOOM .WAD pages to .MAP format, as well as converting the graphics. You will need the original DOOM.WAD file (called an IWAD file). I very highly recommend copying the WAD2EXE directory into its own subdirectory on your hard drive, as you'll be overwriting some of your files (PALETTE.DAT and NAMES.H) from Duke3D otherwise. In any case, make a backup of your original PALETTE.DAT and NAMES.H files. The utilities consist of two parts: 9.1.3.1 *WAD2ART* Converts the DOOM textures (I've only tried this with DOOM I so far) to TILE*.ART format. Usage: WAD2ART D:\GAMES\DOOM\DOOM.WAD (or wherever your DOOM.WAD file is). This will create three files in your current directory: TILES000.ART A huge file containing all the DOOM graphics. NAMES.H The names of all the new tiles. PALETTE.DAT The original DOOM palette. ## Does anybody know how to renumber tiles? I would love to simply rename TILES000.ART to TILES0014.ART and take it from there - if I do that right now, all the textures at the beginning are overwritten :( 9.1.3.2 *WAD2MAP* Here's what we all want: a program to automatically convert the DOOM maps to Duke3D maps! Unfortunately, the system crashes when trying to convert a PWAD (add-on WAD file) for DOOM. We get around this by using DEU (Doom Editing Utility) or a similar tool to change the first level of the original DOOM (the IWAD) to the PWAD. To find out how to do this, read the DEU docs. There are two ways to make a .MAP from a .WAD: with conversion (trying to convert the DOOM walls and objects to Duke3D walls and objects - the recommended method) or without conversion (for those brave souls who want to try to run everything on DOOM graphics and can face reprogramming every single sprite). With conversion: WAD2MAP D:\GAMES\DOOM\DOOM.WAD E1M1 DUKE.TXT Without conversion: WAD2MAP D:\GAMES\DOOM\DOOM.WAD E1M1 The DUKE.TXT file is an ASCII file listing the things to be converted. You're very welcome to mess around in it and try to improve it. If you create a perfect one, let me know! Note that there's still plenty of work to be done on a fully converted .WAD. You'll have to load it into BUILD and check every single object, sector, texture (the HOM is back!) and wall. I've had some walls crash on me after conversion, and I haven't yet found out why. If you did the WAD->MAP without conversion, you'll have to use DOOMs PALETTE.DAT (automagically created for you) _and_ you'll have a lot of work in front of you: not only do none of the doors etc work, but you'll have to shift the graphics for the sprites around, as they don't fit anymore either. But you'll be able to play DOOM maps with DOOM textures in Duke3D (wheeee). 9.2 {Data files} 9.2.1 {Graphics} 9.2.2 {VOC files (Sounds)} 9.2.3 {MID files (Music)} 9.2.4 {.CON hacks} 9.2.5 {Demos (Recordings)} 9.2.6 {New levels} 9.2.6.1 GRP Authoring Template v0.1 Note that I've simply taken and modified the v1.4 of the "Official" WAD Authoring Template - ## any objections? For all of you map authors out there, here is the "Official" GRP Authoring Template v0.1. When you release your map, please fill this form out and place it in the information file you create about your new map. This way we'll easily be able to compare submissions. Thanks to Steve Bareman (bareman@hope.cit.hope.edu) for creating a WAD about file standard. GRP Authoring Template V0.1 (Clip this line) ================================================================ Title : Filename : xxxx.MAP Author : Your name here Email Address : Misc. Author Info : Description : Set the mood here. Additional Credits to : ================================================================ * Play Information * Episode and Level # : ExMx (,ExMx,...) Single Player : Yes/No Cooperative 2-8 Player : Yes/No Deathmatch 2-8 Player : Yes/No Difficulty Settings : Yes/Not implemented New Sounds : Yes/No New Graphics : Yes/No New Music : Yes/No New Programming : Yes/No Demos Replaced : None/1/2/All * Construction * Base : New level from scratch/Modified ExMx/xxx.MAP Editor(s) used : Known Bugs : * Where to get this map * FTP sites: BBS numbers: Other: 9.3 *Future add-ons* This section contains a list of vapour-ware :) Both software users are wishing for and projects currently in the making are listed here. 9.3.1 *Add-on software wish list* Attention programmers! Here is a wish list, created by the DN3D players, of add-on software that should be made for DN3D. If you would like to make an addition to this list, please send me E- mail. Additionally, if you are planning on creating one of these utilities, tell me, and I'll move it to the "Add-on software in the making" chapter. * A DEU-like pre-editor for the rough work (to be fine-tuned later by BUILD.EXE). Ideally, this preeditor would be network-capable to allow several people to work on a level simultaneously. * A program to renumber the tiles in the TILESxxx.ART files (changing localtilestart and localtileend - see ARTFORM.TXT for details). This one should be easy, but I haven't got the time for it. * Automatic .CON file patcher to allow easy inclusion of .CON modifications. * Lots of additional graphics, allowing the building of realistic 'normal' street and house maps. 9.3.2 Add-on software in the making This chapter tells about add-on software which is being currently worked on. If you are working on something that is not in here, please send me E-mail so I can put it in. In this section, you can also request help on creating some add- on software. Chapter 10 *Troubleshooting* 10.1 *Common questions* 10.1.1 *My 3D mode messes up* A common lament. You've forgotten that the entire \GOODIES\BUILD directory has to be copied into your Duke3D directory. The 3D mode requires the DUKE3D.GRP or the TILESxxx.ART files to work properly. 10.1.2 *I'm using Windoze/Win95, and...* Tough luck. Use DOS. 10.1.3 *I can't select sprites* If you can't seem to select a sprite, there are two possible reasons: * Two sprites are overlapping each other. In this case, the sprite _is_ blinking, but you aren't seeing it. Try to move the sprite anyway. * You've switched the grid off. Sprites can only be selected if a grid is shown on the screen. 10.1.4 *How do I show the wall data?* If lots of sprites are real close to a wall, it can be difficult showing the wall data with [Alt]-[TAB]. Press [G] several times to turn off the grid - now you'll only be able to select walls. 10.2 *Bugs in the game* The game itself contains some interesting bugs, none of them serious. 10.2.1 Remote switch triggering 10.2.1.1 (Bug) If a switch is placed on a thin wall, you can trigger it from the other side of the wall. 10.2.1.2 (Workaround) Place switches on thicker or even outside walls. 10.2.2 *Crash on shattering objects* 10.2.2.1 *Bug* If you break too many objects at the same time (I shot an RPG into a very well-stocked bar) the game will crash. 10.2.2.2 *Workaround* Don't place too many breakable objects near each other while designing a map. ## Anybody found out the limit? 32? 64? 10.2.3 *Phantom bullet-holes* 10.2.3.1 *Bug* If you design a one-sided glass wall and shoot at it from the wrong side, bullet-holes will appear in the glass. If you then shatter if from the right side, the bullet holes will stay in mid-air. 10.2.3.2 *Workaround* Who cares? 10.3 *Bugs in BUILD* Like any complex CAD software, BUILD has some bugs as well. Some of them we have to be aware of, most are just weird. 10.3.1 Selecting long lines 10.3.1.1 Bug If a line is too long, you can't select it anymore by moving the cursor near it. Thus you also can't insert new points on it, for example. 10.3.1.2 Workaround Keep the lines short by inserting points on too long olines: shorten the line, insert a point, lengthen the line again, move the newly inserted point into the middle of the line. 10.3.2 *Splitting a sector* 10.3.2.1 *Bug* Splitting a sector containing another sector (like a door) is often a bad idea. I've had lots of sectors disappear on me already. 10.3.2.2 *Workaround* None known so far. Save your work first. 10.3.3 *Selecting sprites* 10.3.3.1 *Bug* If several sprites are exactly over each other, they don't start to flicker as they are selected. 10.3.3.2 *Workaround* Be aware of this, try to move the sprite anyway. 10.3.4 (Autoaligning textures) 10.3.4.1 (Bug) When pressing [.] in 3D mode to autoalign textures, the system hangs at times. 10.3.4.2 (Workaround) I don't know of any workaround to this. Save before your press [.], and don't use it needlessly. 10.3.5 *Displaying memory info* 10.3.5.1 *Bug* When pressing [']-[M] to display the memory info, the system will be unstable, crashing when returning to 3D mode. 10.3.5.2 *Workaround* None known. Don't use this function, you don't need it anyway. 10.3.6 *Function keys in 3D mode* 10.3.6.1 *Bug* In 3D mode, the function keys [F5], F[6], F[7] and F[8] evidentially try to display the same help screens as they do in 2D, messing up the graphics in the process. 10.3.6.2 *Workaround* Simply press [NumEnter] twice to jump to 2D mode and straight back into 3D. Chapter 11 (Reference lists) This chapter contains useful reference material which you might even want to print out and keep handy while designing levels. 11.1 *List of tiles* This section contains a list of all tiles in the game, sometimes with a short explanation. A number like x,y or x..z denotes an animation sequence. 11.1.1 *Control tiles* 0 Ugly wall texture Default texture when creating new maps - is used as a marker to tell you to fix the textures. 1 Sector Effector Is invisible at game time, and is used to manipulate sectors and cause all kinds of special effects. Is usually placed inside the sector to effect. See list further on. 2 Activator Invisible at game time, use together with switches or touchplates to activate sector effectors in the same sector. 3 Touchplate Invisible at game time, it triggers an activator or masterswitch when a player enters the sector the touchplate is in. 4 ActivatorLocked Invisible at game time. It can be used to toggle a sectortag effect (meaning you can, for example, toggle the underwater flag of a sector by pressing a switch). 5 MusicAndSFX Invisible at game time, it handles music and sound play. 6 Locator Invisible at game time, it's used to define movement paths. 7 Cycler Invisible at game time, it pulses the light level in a sector. 8 MasterSwitch Invisible at game time. Triggered by a touchplate, it activates the sectortag function or a sector effector. 9 Respawn Invisible at runtime, it teleports in sprites when triggered by a touchplate. 10 GPSpeed Invisible at runtime, it sets movement speeds (for example, speed of closing doors). 11.1.2 *Weapon sprites* 21 The pistol. 22 The chaingun. 23 The RPG launcher. 24 The freezer. 25 The shrinker. 26 The pipebomb. 27 The tripbomb. 28 The shotgun. 29 The devastator. 11.1.3 *Ammo sprites* 37..39 Freezer ammo. 40 Pistol ammo. 41 Chaingun ammo. 42 Devastator ammo. 44 RPG ammo. 46 Shrinker ammo. 47 Box of pipebombs. 49 Shotgun ammo. 11.1.4 *Item sprites* 51 Small medkit. 52 Large medkit. 53 Portable medkit. 54 Armor. 55 Steroids. 56 Scuba gear. 57 Jetpack. 58 Spacesuit. This was evidentially planned as an item, but now we can just use it as decoration. 59 Night vision goggles. 60 Access card. Change the palette to set the cards color. 61 Protective boots. 100..115 Atomic health. 11.1.5 *Special sprites* 513 Bridge sprite Used to create a walkable bridge like in E1L1 near the exit. 11.1.6 *Parallax (sky) textures* Note that parallaxed space textures will make the relevant sector lethal to the player. 80,82,83 Moon surface. Can also be used as plain wall texture. 81 Moon surface with earth. Can also be used as plain wall texture. 84 Stars. Can also be used as plain wall texture. 85..87 Earth from space. Can also be used as plain wall texture. 88 Bright star with moon. Can also be used as plain wall texture. 89 Dark city scape. 90 Dark city scape, red windows. 91 City scape, lots of lit windows. 92 City scape with advertising (?) sign. 93 Just like 90. (Anybody know why? ##) 94 Solid red color. 95 Stars, like those over a desert. 96 City scape with many many lit windows. This texture seems messed up - some pink stripes are seen. 11.1.7 *Lights* 120 Vertical oval technical light, shootable. 121 Broken version of 120. 122 Horizontal oval technical light, shootable. 123 Broken version of 122. 124 Horizontal rectangular light (two neo tubes), shootable. 125 Shot version of 124. 126 Square technical light in four sectors. 127 Wavy technical light. 128 Rectangual technical light, consisting of 3 lamps. 11.1.8 *Switches* 130 Locked access switch (requiring card). 131 Open access switch. 132,133 Horizontal slot switch. 134,135 Vertical slot switch. 136,137 Rotating switch. 138,129 90 degree switch. 140,141 Massive power switch. 142..145 Endlevel switch with animation. 146..149 Multiswitch. 161,163 Red button switch. 164,165 Flat square switch. 166,167 Rotating lit switch. 168,169 Circular lit switch. 170,171 Access switch 11.1.9 *Doors* Doors consisting of two tiles are usually splitting doors. 11.1.9.1 *Technical doors* 150 Rising door with red panel. 151 Door side wall, fits 150. 152,153 Dark door, light row at top and bottom. 154,155 Door with circular pattern. 156 Modern dark blue door. Nice multipurpose tile. 157 Sliding door with nuke pattern on it. 158 Solid metal door with cross on it. 159 Narrow steel door with blue grip. 11.1.10 *Floors* Obviously, these textures can be used for ceilings, walls and even sprites, but they _look_ like floors. 181 Smooth modern stone with circle pattern on it. 182 Dark gray tile. Useful for kitchen walls. 183 Dark gray tile with grid pattern. 184 Gray modern lined, looks like columns behind bars. 191 Scruffy ractangular tiles. 11.1.11 *Walls* While these textures can be creatively used for anything, they sure look like walls to me. 185 Four gray machines with an indirect light above them. 186..190 Green pipes on tiles. Use 191 for same background without the pipes. 192 Like the tiles from 186, but lit by a single lamp. 11.1.12 *Technical-looking items* 11,12 The floating demo recording camera. 160 Steel pistons with green slime. 11.1.13 *Often-used special textures* 70 Broken mirror. This texture is set automatically when a mirror is broken. 161 Dark door tracks. 852 Broken concrete Typically used inside blasted holes or damaged walls. 11.1.14 *Diverse* 20 A hollow frame, used in the status bar of the game. 30 The health box from the status bar. 31 The ammo box from the status bar. 33 The inventory box from the status bar. 11.1.15 *Unclassified (please assist!)* ## 62 Small red sphere. 63 Small yellow sphere. 64 Small green sphere. 11.2 *List of Palettes* Textures and sprites can be set to their own palette via [Alt]-[P]. The palette info (together with distance shading and translucence effects) is stored in PALETTE.DAT. Here's a list of all useful palettes found so far: 0 Default The standard palette. Used on a key, it defines a blue keycard. 1 Blue A sprite with this palette will only appear in multi-player mode. 2 Red 7 Yellow 8 Green Changes water to green slime. 14 Secret level Set the nukebutton palette to 14 to have it show up in the proper 'secret level button' color. 21 Red card Defines a red keycard. 22 Yellow card Defines a yellow keycard. 11.3 {List of Sector Effectors} This section will explain all sector effectors in detail. 11.4 {List of sounds} This section will list all sounds, together with info whether they can be used as ambient sounds. 11.5 *Dimensions* Here are some facts on the dimensions of Dukes world: 11.5.1 *Units* All (x,y,z) coordinates are in units; irritatingly, it seems that the (x,y) units are different to the (z) units. At a rough estimate, I would say that 16 (z) units = 1 (x,y) unit. 2 (x,y) units = 1 pixel (normal texture) 8 (x,y) units = 1 pixel (shrunk using [E]) 128 (z) units = 1 pixel (normal texture) Floors are raised by 1024 units every time [PgUp] or [PgDn] is pressed. Viewing Duke via [F7] in a narrow corridor, I would estimate 1024 units to be about 2.6m in the real world (meaning 1m is roughly 400 units). If I remember the weirdo US units correctly, 1 foot would be about 128 units. 11.5.2 *The map* Maximum grid width is 1024 units. In the following paragraphs, height values are shown as z- coordinate difference, with the number of [PgUp]-keypresses in square brackets behind it: 11.5.2.1 *Walking about* 3072 [3] Max. height difference for stairs. 6144 [6] Min. sector height to enter while ducked. 10240 [10] Min. sector height to enter (will duck automatically for 10). 16384 [16] Height of standard sector created. 20480 [20] Max. jumpable height. 11.5.2.2 *Weapons* Numbers in brackets mean that only some of the shots will make it. 3072 [4096] (3 [4]) Max. height of floor to shoot over while ducked. 4096 (4) Min. height to place tripbomb on when ducked. 5192 [4096] (5 [4]) Max. height of ceiling to shoot under while ducked. 6144 (6) Max. height of ceiling to shoot RPG under while ducked. 8192 [9216] (8 [9]) Max. height of floor to shoot over while standing. 10240 [9216] (10 [9]) Max. height of ceiling to shoot under while standing. 1024 (10) Min. height to place tripbomb on when standing. 11264 (11) Max. height of ceiling to shoot RPG under while standing. Chapter 12 Miscellaneous 12.1 (Conclusion) Phew! Well, that is all I have! I hope this FAQ proves to provide a good resource for DN3D Editing information. If you have any suggestions, questions, additions, or comments for the FAQ, send me e-mail at "sz0759@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de". Thanks for reading the FAQ! -Klaus Breuer SUPPORT YOUR SHAREWARE COMPANIES! REGISTER YOUR SHAREWARE! 12.2 *Revision history* v0.1 First release of the DN3D EDITING FAQ as an RFC. (16. May 1996) v0.2 RFC II, added how-tos and changed the format a bit. (20. May 1996) v0.3 RFC III, added more how-tos, extended reference list. Released to the mailing list only. (24. May 1996) v0.4 First non-RFC release, added lots of info, including a beginners tutorial and BUILD reference. Plenty of typos fixed. (27. May 1996) --- Klaus Breuer, Rudelsweiher Str. 6b, 91054 Erlangen, Germany "Geez, I need a *reason* for everything?" -- Calvin "Should I or shouldn't I? Too late, I did!" -- Hobbes