[mrthejoshmon]

(Sorry if I post this in the wrong section of the forum)

Greetings, I am extremely new to these forums as well as map editing for Duke Nukem 3D but not mapping in general, I know how to use Doombuilder (1 and 2) as well as Hammer Editor but I am finding it extremely difficult for Duke Nukem 3D. I have a few problems when it comes to creating maps for Duke that I hope there are some answers for:

1. I am running off of some old hardware (Late 2002 to 2003 to be exact), it can run Duke Nukem fine (JFDuke3D being my favorite port for it, it can still run eduke32 though) as well as many other games (Doom, Quake, all Worms games up until World Party and Half-Life are runnable). The problem however is that the some of the most important keys on the keyboard for Mapster32 and BUILD are missing: The number pad.

I have resorted to using GLBuild as it can toggle on and off of 3D and 2D modes via a drop down menu. Is there a way to rebind keys in Mapster32 or BUILD?

2. When I tried to make my first map the scale was way too large (I used the usual 128 unit height I would normally use in Doombuilder) and everything was way too large. What is the optimal units for Duke Nukem 3D maps? is it along the lines of Doom where a certain multiple of 8 is optimal (32, 64, 128) for room size?

3. This is going to sound a little stupid, but how are enemies, weapons, obstacles and items placed in a map? Is it like Doom where I place an interchangeable "thing" in the map or is it something else?

4. Is there any tutorials for GLBuild?

Hopefully, once I figure out what I am doing I could hopefully contribute something worthwhile... Hopefully.

Thanks for your time.

[Mark]

In 3D mode press the S button to place a sprite. Then aim at the sprite and press V to bring up a tile menu. Press V again and all the tiles available will show up and you can scroll to choose what you want and press enter.

[mrthejoshmon]

 Mark., on 24 July 2014 - 03:00 PM, said:

In 3D mode press the S button to place a sprite. Then aim at the sprite and press V to bring up a tile menu. Press V again and all the tiles available will show up and you can scroll to choose what you want and press enter.

So if a change a sprite into a certain tile it will act in a certain way?

Say if I put down the sprite and changed it into a Pig Cop, the sprite would replaced by a hostile Pig Cop in game?

Thanks, I will take a look into it now and see if that is the case.

[Kyanos]

At the bottom of mapster32.cfg is a remap section with instructions. I remap keys for my laptop it's easy.

[Cage]

Doom's things are a selection of stuff which have specific use/behaviors, while in Duke, a sprite (Or wall texture for that matter) can use any graphic available in game. If that graphic has a code associated with it, it will initiate it in game (For example tile #2000 will be a PigCop), if not, it will end as a static sprite.

Here's a list: http://infosuite.duk...pecial_textures

Also remember about using R to make flat sprites, wall or floor based.

As for dimensions - In game units are very small and a little cumberstone to use, so in build we usually stick to "page up/down" units - page up/down keys are used to raise/lower floors, ceilings and sprites. Ctrl+PageUp/Down will behave like 4 times there normal unit while wth shift you'll get a quarter IIRC. Ctrl+PageUp/Down on sprites will align them to the floor or ceiling level.

In general - the default room made in build is 4ctrl+pgup units (16) tall and that makes a decent hallway. Duke is somewhere around 11-12, 6 works for things half as tall as him. 4 is the highest height Duke can step on IIRC.

Using this scale, most texture will require scaling (numpad keys), generally I recommend you scale them to their half and go from there. If you want to a full texture to fit in nicely height wise, dimensions like 4, 8, 16 tall work best. Floors can be panned but have only two sizes (use E to change between them)

[MetHy]

Unlike in Doom where I heard people like to stick to a single grid size, I think Duke3D mappers constantly switch the size of the grid depending on what they are making. At least it's what I do, and I'm sure that's what most people do, too. The difference is that Duke mapping is more versatile, in Doom you 'have' to stick to that one scale because you can't move floor/ceiling textures around, and for instance if you want to make a ceiling light, you have to build it according to the grid (according to how the texture fit with the grid).

As for tutorials, you can check the infosuite : infosuite.duke4.net
Then, this thread has a few mapping tips (some of which only work with mapster32) : http://forums.duke4....o-build-faster/

I recommend to try using mapster32 (the editor coming with EDuke32) rather than GLBuild since mapster32 has tons of small features that make mapping more convenient and faster. You can make vanilla maps with mapster32, too, (if that's your goal), just make sure to test your map in vanilla if you come up with more advanced "effects" to make sure they work properly in vanilla since EDuke32 can make a few things behave a little differently.

You CAN remap keys like Drek said, but I recommend getting a keyboard with a numpad.

Mapping with a Build engine editor requires you to learn quite a lot of keys and key combinaisons. I recommend Building with a page of the command next to you as a start. Once you get that out of the way, it'll be faster to make stuff.
A main difference you'll find between mapping for Doom/HL and with Duke3D is shading. In Doom and HL shading can be really fast, but in Duke3D you'll have to manually shade every surface (each wall + floor + ceiling). It's more time consuming but it gives you more freedom than Doom's shading system for instance.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask.

[mrthejoshmon]

Thank you all for the advice and help!

I'm finally on my way to making the "myfirstmap.map", I'm now getting the hang of Mapster32 (after rebinding some functional keys to less useful keys) and have already made the first room. I should be able to figure out the rest from here by using tutorials and trail and error. Thanks again for your help.

[Cage]

Actually, to speed up the shading, you can shade all the surfaces of the sector at the same time, once you select the desired sector(s) with alt in 2d mode (You can shade them all afterwards in 3d mode). Same works for selecting sprites with shift. Up/Down values too!

[MetHy]

Hmm yes, I use that when I need to as well but, in 99% cases you're going to want a different shade value on the adjacent walls of a same sector to give the 3D feel ; while you don't need to bother with that in Doom. That's what I meant.