[MetHy]

Making a map is a long process while time is scarce and precious.

What do you do to build faster?

Please share your protips whether it's the use lesser known eduke32 features or commands, or with other things while making a map (whatever that may be: pen and papper? printed charts with all SE and Sound lists?)

I'm sure we can help each others and everybody can learn something new if we all share our ways.

As for myself, I use Dukeroch to be able to find sounds I'm looking for. You have the name of the soundfiles, their numbers in the editor, and you can listen to them one by one and even do a name search.
When I'm looking for a specific texture which I can't remember where it is or can't find, sometimes I remember where that texture is in an original duke3D map, and load that map to copy the texture. It might not sound like a gain of time but when sometimes you have to go through the entire texture set several times just for that one texture you can't find it's faster to get it from another map...

Also, I guess most people know this but copy-pasting stuff in mapster now also copy-pastes their hi-tag and low-tag.

[Hendricks266]

Use ',' and '.' to auto-align walls.

[Forge]

not exactly a speed tip, but when i make a section, i already have in mind what texture combos i'm going to use.
i'll texture the ones i know where they're at right off, but i'll dump a 0 sprite in the middle of the room, use V on it, cycle to the next texture i want, then change the sprite to that texture, copy and paste where i want it used - repeat.
it keeps me from having to sort all the way through from the beginning every time when i can just pick up where i left off instead

[Stabs]

only a fool makes 2 sides to a symmetrical object.

[Jblade]

You can press F2 to preview any sound in the game in Mapster's 2D mode. It'll show you a long list, and best of all it actually works with mods so it's been a huge help for me.

[DavoX]

I've found that using the Unreal editor camera makes mapping so much faster... I think that pressing CTRL and the right mouse button lets you raise or lower things faster, Don't really remember any combinations as I do everything by instinct. Sometimes I don't remember my passwords but my hands can type them anyway


Whenever I can I use copy paste of sectors even for spritework. If I make a chair and I want to turn it around I will make a sector around it, turn it red with alt+s and then spin the sector it's in or just mirror it.

[MetHy]

DanM, on 10 January 2014 - 11:05 AM, said:

only a fool makes 2 sides to a symmetrical object.

You mean there is a feature to automatically build the symmetry of a sector? how?

James, on 10 January 2014 - 11:10 AM, said:

You can press F2 to preview any sound in the game in Mapster's 2D mode. It'll show you a long list, and best of all it actually works with mods so it's been a huge help for me.

Nice, had no idea. I'm probably 10 years late with some of my techniques... Reading the maspter32 wiki would probably be a good idea

[Daedolon]

I never really thought about this proper so my answers are rather generic, but I hope at least one of them helps someone to validate this post.

Consistency

• I base same textures I use in a single (or even multiple) map(s) on a single room in that map, so I can go there and copy the textures and keep the same ceiling heights.
  
• I do the same for shading, since I use the same "default" shading values for each four walls (or angles). Then apply additional shading per-room or per-light basis.
  
• These are most apparent/useful with air ducts.

Building

• I'm not afraid to use the mouse to move the floors/ceilings/textures around when creating new areas, since I can always go back to an old room to make sure it matches.
  
• Copying sectors when it's more cost-efficient. Especially for square or trapezoid sectors I just create void sectors and copy the finished sector over it ("Insert" adds additional sectors while "AltGr" adds the last one).
  
• Not being afraid to use Alt+Mouse1 for positioning sector floors or ceilings. I oftentimes memorize the height I want (for duplicate sectors, like slopes of pillars or something similar), so I can just raise the sector to the right height really fast.
  
• Also using Alt+Mouse1 for raising/lowering sprites, they seem to lock to "grid" better than sectors/textures so usually you never even have to worry about manually fixing them afterwards. If building multiple sprite -based structures, this is really useful. There's also Shift+Mouse1 for X/Y positioning but I never found this too useful except for random decorative sprites.
  
• If I need to be more accurate with sprite building (ie. multiple levels and multiple sprites per levels), I literally build sector platforms at desired heights, use the S key there in 2D mode and move the sprites into position without having to worry about Z positioning at all. Delete the sector(s) after you're done and voila.
  
• For Sector Effectors, I'm not afraid of going into a map with a working effect and blatantly copying the sector effectors and other related sprites to my own map, only changing the lotags/hitags where needed. After the first one I just copy the one from my own map whenever required. I think it's much faster worrying about actual level design than learning lots of effects (that you never necessarily even use) by memory.

Texturing

• Using Shift+Mouse1 to test texture positions. It's very fast and ugly, which is why I just estimate what I want and manually fix it in position with the numpad to make sure there aren't any wrong pixels at the top or bottom of the ceiling.
  
• Obviously using texture auto aligning. When having a room that has a texture that wraps around it. I usually create a dummy wall sector with a different texture (say, the warning stripe) so I can keep correcting the texture at will without having it mess anything up.
  
• I also don't memorize individual texture positions, though I do have a general idea of where everything is in the art files. I usually just quickly check up the tileset where I remember the artwork being in, if I can't find it within a few seconds, I just usually end up loading a map where I know it is since it's almost as fast as scrolling through the list of textures.

Lighting

• I'm generally boring and do all my lights in 45 degree angles outdoors, or otherwise base them on the edges of lights for ease of building. This way I always know how I build and it becomes faster for me to create nice looking hard or soft shadowing based on the level lighting.

This is all I can come up with short notice. There's also a lot of key shortcuts not everyone seems to be aware of, you (everyone) should totally check out the wiki for some extra keys you might not know.

Something I'd love to have is the ability of changing the firstwall of a sector without having to point at it, is there no way to cycle through them?

[Daedolon]

MetHy, on 10 January 2014 - 11:29 AM, said:

You mean there is a feature to automatically build the symmetry of a sector? how?

I think he just means sector copying, could be wrong though.

[DavoX]

For symmetry I've always use copy paste + mirroring

[Helixhorned]

Daedolon, on 10 January 2014 - 11:46 AM, said:

Something I'd love to have is the ability of changing the firstwall of a sector without having to point at it, is there no way to cycle through them?

What's the use case for that? Normally, you know which particular wall you want to make the pivot for a sector ceiling/floor, no?

[Daedolon]

Sometimes it's a sector that's so small there's literally no room for the player on either side (so I can't really move it either).

[Kyanos]

I gotta mention mapster scripting in this thread. It's pretty simple to learn and is by the far the most powerful tool available. I will highlight sectors and adjust things in large groups or batches.
For example, if a sector has this ceiling picnum then switch it to a different one, or I can set the height of some group of sprites like this "do for i selsprites { set sprite[i].z ### }" just remember to "include samples/a" first to initiate variables.

Hell, here are a few other scripts I have used.
a general wall picnum switch
do for i allwalls { ife wall[i].picnum ### set wall[i].picnum ### }
or switch hitags of certain sprites in a group
do for i selsprites { ife sprite[i].hitag ### set sprite[i].hitag #### }

Edit: For any n00bs: all these scripts are typed into the console. Open it using ~

[Daedolon]

Another obvious fast thing is to use CTRL+ENTER to replace all walls in the same sectors with the same texture or all the parallaxed ceilings with the selected ones.

[Stabs]

DavoX, on 10 January 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

For symmetry I've always use copy paste + mirroring

pretty much that

[Micky C]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned my speed mapping guide yet, it's got pretty much all I know about lesser known mapster features and tips on how to build faster: https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing

Although maybe I should update it a bit. For instance, another great tip which isn't so obvious to beginners is "always build on larger grid sizes when possible". This stops things from getting very messy later on when you have to switch to smaller grid sizes for finer details; so if you start off on a small grid size, you're going to end up with a really small grid size which will just take forever to work with.
Not to mention that on the larger grid sizes, you pretty much automatically create rooms and details which can be perfectly aligned with floor/ceiling textures, since the wall sizes are multiples of 256.

Also, when copying and pasting to make long chains of things, it's a lot faster when you copy all that you've done so far, rather than one at a time, since your construction will be built exponentially faster each step, but that's obvious I'd imagine.

[Mark]

I'm waiting to see someone mention "slammin down" a can of Redbull before mapping.

And thanks for the F2 key tip.

[MetHy]

Daedolon, on 10 January 2014 - 01:24 PM, said:

Sometimes it's a sector that's so small there's literally no room for the player on either side (so I can't really move it either).

Yeah, that has happened to me. What I do is that I make the sector bigger, to be able to change the angle of the slope, and put it back to its normal size. A bit annoying but it works.

[Micky C]

I'm confused, you people do know that you can change the firstwall in 2D mode?

Also, not really a speed tip, but sometimes when I want to get some mapping done, but don't actually feel like mapping, I put the mapster window to one side and watch TV shows on the other. Multitasking is such a great way to get things done

[Mark]

For me its just the opposite. I want no distractions while mapping. Not even music in the backround.

[Daedolon]

Plain Simple Garek, on 11 January 2014 - 06:00 AM, said:

I'm confused, you people do know that you can change the firstwall in 2D mode?

Sure, but then again, you can't slope sectors in 2D mode.

[Daedolon]

What was the shortcut for scaling selected sectors, and does it work on SHIFT selected (just points) ones so I can scale regular red sectors?

Also a bit offtopic, but can you do a one-time, player-triggerable (no switch / touchplate) moving sector (S 25) or do I just have to bite the bullet and tie it to an activator?

[Forge]

Daedolon, on 11 January 2014 - 10:26 AM, said:

Sure, but then again, you can't slope sectors in 2D mode.

?
F7 - hand type in the number

[Kyanos]

Daedolon, on 25 January 2014 - 08:49 AM, said:

What was the shortcut for scaling selected sectors, and does it work on SHIFT selected (just points) ones so I can scale regular red sectors?

Also a bit offtopic, but can you do a one-time, player-triggerable (no switch / touchplate) moving sector (S 25) or do I just have to bite the bullet and tie it to an activator?

'F for scaling,
Scaling redwalls sounds cool, but I'm not sure if it's possible. ATTN: Helix!!!!

I don't think i even understand that last part... but if i do then ya you need an activator

[Loke]

Mark., on 11 January 2014 - 08:07 AM, said:

For me its just the opposite. I want no distractions while mapping. Not even music in the backround.

I put on Cannibal Corpse or Meshuggah if I want shit to get done fast.

[Daedolon]

Drek, on 25 January 2014 - 09:08 AM, said:

I don't think i even understand that last part... but if i do then ya you need an activator

You make any kind of door, say SE 20, and have it only rise up and get locked in position without adding any activators or lockers.

[Helixhorned]

Daedolon, on 25 January 2014 - 08:49 AM, said:

What was the shortcut for scaling selected sectors, and does it work on SHIFT selected (just points) ones so I can scale regular red sectors?

Drek, on 25 January 2014 - 09:08 AM, said:

Scaling redwalls sounds cool, but I'm not sure if it's possible. ATTN: Helix!!!!

There's this obscure feature that I call "interactive point scaling/rotation", maybe that's what you're looking for? It's at the bottom of the "2D Mode: Mouse" list.

[Kyanos]

Helixhorned, on 25 January 2014 - 11:57 AM, said:

There's this obscure feature that I call "interactive point scaling/rotation", maybe that's what you're looking for? It's at the bottom of the "2D Mode: Mouse" list.

AMAZING!!!

[Daedolon]

Nice!

[Micky C]

I've slowly been getting more and more of the hang of mapster scripting, which has virtually unlimited potential for time saving. It's just so god damn powerful and incredibly useful for repetitive actions. I've been using it for simple things like changing certain properties of specific sprites (for example, hitags or lotags of effects) or sectors with great precision and flexibility. I'm aware it can do much more, but at the moment my understanding is quite limited, however what little I currently know has indeed saved me loads of time and will no doubt save me countless hours in the future.

IMO every serious mapper should try to get a fundamental understanding of mapster script.