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Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:43 am
by boris
UDMF has been around for quite some time now. But are you actually using UDMF when mapping?

Of course I'm also interested in the reasons why or why not you are using it (the why not part in particular).

[edit] added the "No, I don't know what it's good for." option.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:47 am
by Cutmanmike
I haven't had the need to yet, although I probably will after MM8BDM just to get into a good habit of using it. I also still haven't seen a full list of why I should be using it yet.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:53 am
by Gez
Yes for any project aimed solely at ZDoom or derivative.

@Cutty: the main draw is that many things are easier -- just set a property instead of going through line specials to do so. In addition, any new feature that can't be added to the existing binary formats (such as new linedef flags for example) will be exclusive to UDMF from now on.

You also get to have more control over various things, such as different thing filters for each difficulty setting (instead of lumping ITYTD and HNTR together, as well as UV and NM).

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:57 am
by CodeImp
Also no more SetLineThisOrThat and SetSectorThisOrThat ACS scripting for that which can be set directly on any map element (vertices/lines/sides/sectors/things), such as colored sector lighting, flat and texture scaling, rotating and offsets, silent sectors, fog, etc. Just set the property on the object and you're done.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:10 am
by sirjuddington
As soon as I implement the SLADE3 map editor and it's UDMF support I'll be using it :P

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:13 am
by Zippy
Can't think of a reason not to use it...

Not that I'm incredibly prolific on mapping or anything. But I use UDMF when I do.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:40 am
by Phobus
No, simply because I'm not.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:44 am
by DavidPH
[shamelessplug]I use it because my level compiler supports it natively.[/shamelessplug] That and it does everything and does so unambiguously. (No more, "gosh, what does port X use for this bit of flags?")

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:54 am
by Gez
There's still "gosh, what does port X use for this line special?" and "gosh, what does port X use for this mobj?" but yeah. It wouldn't have been possible to get everyone to agree on the same names for those.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:58 am
by DavidPH
I may not know what will spawn there, but it will be translucent! :P

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:52 am
by Xaser
I haven't, but only because everything I've mapped since was already in Hexen format (not sure what the status on conversion tools are now) or for something non-ZDoom. I'm hoping to try it eventually but I'd better not take on any new projects at the moment.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 1:26 pm
by Skippy
Getting these properly documented would go a long way towards improving UDMF adoption, I think. They seem self-explanatory, in fairness.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:05 pm
by esselfortium
I'm using UDMF for every ZDoom-related project I currently have in progress. I hated working with Hexen format (I'd even consider Doom format preferable in a lot of ways), and honestly can't imagine any possible reason to not be using UDMF for a ZDoom project now. It's made a lot of design and experimentation easier and possibly changed the way I map.

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:14 pm
by Ceeb
I definitely am... It was a bitch but I converted all my in-progress maps from Doom-In-Hexen to UDMF, and whenever I start a map, it's in UDMF. I find it infinitely useful that I can have line tags and arguments in astronomical numbers (which helps reduce overall clutter) and if I want to, say, make an entire area foggy, I just mass-select everything, right click, and set the fade with no fuss and no muss. :P

Re: Are you using UDMF?

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:21 pm
by Nash
I've totally switched to UDMF. There aren't even any Hexen-format configs left in my DB2 configs folder (I moved them all into an "unused" folder. As to why - everyone who's outlined the pros in this thread pretty much sums it.

Also, it's very convenient if I want to make a really quick and trivial edit. Just open the TEXTMAP lump in Notepad++ and make my change in there. I have (G)ZDoom set to build nodes on runtime.