[Release] Waterlab GZD

[Enjay]

Waterlab GZD (AKA Too Much Metal...like waaay too much).

A medium to large map for GZDoom 2.4.0* inspired by and partly based on Waterlab for Doom Legacy.

(*It's in ZDoomHexen format because I'm a luddite but it does use one or two newer features and was only properly tested with the 2.4.0 pre-release builds.)

Screenshots?

---

Download link.
https://www.aspectsweb.co.uk/enjay/doom/njwlgzd.pk3
~29.5 MB

Background

---

As some of you will know, for a long time I've been interested in a feature that existed for a few versions of Doom Legacy and then vanished. The feature was translucent water that warped the view through the water giving a more convincing effect than is usually seen in Doom. There was also a demo map that showcased the feature. As demo maps often are, it was a simple affair with no real gameplay.

There was a minor fault with the map so I fixed it up so that I could record a video of it:

---

but then I got to thinking "what if I made the map worth playing properly".

I started working on it but after a while, the limits of such an old version of Legacy and some rendering bugs with the feature that I was specifically editing for (the water effect) started to make things creak around the edges. Specifically, as the map became bigger, it became easier and easier to find places where the water surface would be drawn in front of sprites that were supposed to be in front of the water.

So, I cut my losses and jumped ship to GZDoom and an approximation of the water effect using 3D floors. Once I'd made the move to GZDoom, my lack of restraint meant that it was no longer going to be an almost-vanilla (except for the water effect) map. So expect to find dynamic lights, custom bad guys and all the usual GZDoom stuff.

The original map and a version of Legacy that can play it can be found in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=55037

Theme

---

Originally, when the map was going to be small and vanilla-ish, I wanted to retain the basic aesthetic of the demo; i.e. a METAL2 walled tech base. I stuck with that but with the map being medium to big in size, there's a lot of metal textures. I have mixed things up a bit. I've made a few custom combinations myself, leaned heavily on work that Cage uploaded to the custom textures thread but I tried to make things look a bit more interesting by adding a bit of noise to most of the textures. Not sure if that worked or not, but it's too late now.

The palette is intentionally a bit desaturated/washed out with a slight blueish hint to the greys in particular to go with the mood I hoped to create in the map. Although the textures are all in PNG format, they basically comply with this palette (more or less). I also converted as many downloaded sprites as possible to ye olde Doom format so that they would auto-use the new palette. The only ones that were left as PNGs were ones where I wanted the original colours of the sprite or colours otherwise outwith the game palette (e.g. one monster with a pale blue shirt was edited so his skin (and other parts) used colours from the palette but I kept his shirt pale blue and so a PNG is required).

Sprites/Enemies

---

The mod includes quite a few Realm 667-sourced enemies. A lot of sprite editing was done to the basic human/zombie enemies. Although many of the sprites were great already, I wanted to tweak a few either to fix minor problems or to make new combinations. For example, one zombie only has one arm, but only used 5 rotations so he kept swapping which arm he'd lost. I added rotations for him. I made a few variations and alternative versions of enemies, basing their actions on existing DECORATE (usually tweaked) but given a new appearance. The UAC, as far as is possible, is now much more of an Equal opportunities employer. Racially they still show some bias but most of the military zombies have male and female variants. The only one I got stuck with was making a female chaingunner (I didn't just want to do a Gretel Grosse-like enemy but my skills aren't up to much else so I didn't do anything.

Sounds

---

The PSX-based sound pack in this mod is based heavily on the PSX edition Sound Caulking Project file by Jaxxoon R.

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/ ... n-idgames/

However, it is not merely a copy of it. Quite a number of the sounds have been replaced with ones that are more to my own taste. Others were given simple edits to make them fit the enemies appearance more closely (IMO) including tweaking sound durations to better match animation sequences and so on. Some further sounds were added/created to expand the "caulking" concept a bit further.

Although we have probably all downloaded the PSX sounds many times over in various mods, I wanted to include them with this map as I thought that they fitted the theme quite well and I created the map while using the sounds so it sounds weird using vanilla PC sounds with it to me.

If anyone wants a stand-alone version of the sound pack to use with other WADs, here you go:

http://www.aspectsweb.co.uk/enjay/doom/NJ_PSXTra.pk3
~7.3 MB

Music

---

The main theme used throughout the map is a track by James 'Jimmy' Paddock and is an ambient tune that sounds almost like a collection of sound effects rather than a midi track. When the map was going to be for Legacy, this allowed great atmosphere in a port that couldn't use ogg files (etc). However, I liked the effect so much that I kept it even after switching to GZDoom and decided to keep the other incidental music as midi-format tracks too.

Credits

---

General Credits

Denis Fabrice & Boris Pereira for Doom Legacy v 1.28 and (probably) the demo map WATERLAB.WAD that served as the inspiration for this.

Credits to Randi Heit, Graf Zahl and all members of the GZDoom dev team for making this possible.

Cage lots of textures.

abbuw and possibly others for more textures obtained via the Custom texture thread on the ZDoom forum. If you see something that's yours and uncredited, please let me know.

Many resources downloaded from Realm 667 credit files included. Special mention for Eriance's sprite work.

Jimmy for the main music track used throughout the map.

Other music tracks from Doom, Descent, TES Arena, Heretic, Wolfenstein 3D

Jaxxoon R for the PSX sound caulking project used heavily as a base for my own sounds mod.

Enjay, mapping, DECORATE, spriting, textures, sound editing, music editing, models, other associated stuff.

Credits files for all the resources downloaded from Realm667, and any new enemies I created/edited are included in the PK3.

idgames-like text file

---

Code: Select all

===========================================================================
Advanced engine needed  : GZDoom 2.4.0+
Primary purpose         : Single play
===========================================================================
Title                   : Waterlab GZD
Filename                : NJWLGZD.WAD
Release date            : 19 March 2017 
Author                  : Nigel Rowand (Enjay)
Email Address           : enjay001@hotmail.com
Other Files By Author   : Quite a few.
Misc. Author Info       : Not the real Slim Shady. 

Description             : A map inspired by a feature (and demo map) that
			  originally appeared in/for Doom Legacy v1.28
			  
			  Far too much metal texturing.

Additional Credits to   : See credits folder inside the PK3 or the forum thread.
			  
			  I don't think I forgot anyone, but if I did, let me know.
===========================================================================
* What is included *

New levels              : MAP01
Sounds                  : Yes
Music                   : Yes
Graphics                : Yes
DECORATE      		: Yes
Models			: Yes (not many)
Demos                   : No
Other files required    : none


* Play Information *

Game                    : Doom2
Map #                   : MAP01
Single Player           : Designed for
Cooperative 2-8 Player  : Player starts present.  Should work but has not been blanaced.
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : No - probably too big and not really suited to it generally
Difficulty Settings     : Yes


* Construction *

Base                    : Small Demo map called WATERLAB used to showcase a feature 
			  in Doom Legacy v1.28
			 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I2RNWQDD5w )
Build Time              : Not sure.  3-4 weeks I think.  
Editor(s) used          : DeePsea, Slade, Paint Shop Pro, GoldWave, Audacity, 
			  Misfit3D, Milkshape3D, Anvil Studio, Textpad. 
Known Bugs              : Nothing I know of. 
May Not Run With        : Anything other than GZdoom 2.4.0+

Tested With             : GZdoom 2.4.0 pre releases

* General information *

* For a long time I've been interested in a feature that existed for a few 
versions of Doom Legacy and then vanished. The feature was translucent water 
that warped the view through the water giving a more convincing effect than 
is usually seen in Doom. There was also a demo map that showcased the feature. 
As demo maps often are, it was a simple affair with no real gameplay. 

There was a minor fault with the map so I fixed it up so that I could record a 
video of it (link above) but then I got to thinking "what if I made the map 
worth playing properly". I started working on it but after a while, the limits 
of such an old version of Legacy and some rendering bugs with the feature that 
I was specifically editing for (the water effect) started to make things creak 
around the edges so I cut my losses and jumped ship to GZDoom and an 
approximation of the water effect using 3D floors. Once I'd made the move to 
GZDoom, my lack of restraint meant that it was no longer going to be an 
almost-vanilla (except for the water effect) map.

* Jumping and crouching?  Sure, why not?  There shouldn't be anything that needs 
either of these features.  Jumping may make a few areas a bit easier to reach 
and ducking may save your skin at some point but nothing should be inaccessible 
if you don't jump or duck.

* Copyright / Permissions *

Anything that I (Enjay) have produced for this is up for grabs if you want to 
use it (credit would be nice). Anything else, ask the original authors.

Secrets

---

Yeah, there's quite a lot and many are Easter Eggy.


Video - warning there be major spoilers ahead...

---

Anyway, that'll do.

[Orangewaggs]

Nice to see a new release from you, always enjoyed your previous releases so I can't wait to see the is.

[Gez]

The famous Waterlab! One day, there might be a shader for that effect.

[Zanieon]

And Enjay came back to activity.

I remember few bits of that ol' Waterlab (been ages away from Doom Legacy), but i downloaded it already, going to play it this week after finish my stuff for HM.

[Tormentor667]

Wohoo, a new Enjay release, my evening is saved

[Nash]

The famous Waterlab! One day, there might be a shader for that effect.

[everyone in the room turns to look towards dpJudas...]



I've never played this WAD before and never got to try whatever Legacy version that supported this feature. If it were ever to be implemented into GZDoom, I wonder how would the effect be defined? Perhaps binding the shader to a texture in GLDEFs?

There is a fancy water shader in the Total Chaos mod, but it doesn't distort the pixels behind the texture. It just distorts the texture itself (which does look quite cool itself IMO)

[Rachael]

Am having a bit of fun playing around with this one. Quality Enjay release - as per usual.

[leodoom85]

I'll play this one. Enjay equals quality

[leodoom85]

I'm not finished the level yet, killed all the monsters though. But, this map is amazing, fantastic and atmospheric. 15/17 secrets found and those easter eggs are priceless (no cheats involved btw). One thing involving the plasma gun zombies...when they die, they "shoot" a plasma projectile.

[zrrion the insect]

This looks super good. Always wonderful when Enjay releases things.

[Tormentor667]

Played it - loved it - archived it

Thanks kindly for the release Nigel, this is solid work and somehow reminded me of Kurt Kessler's early KZDoom releases in some terms, just better. The choice of custom monsters was very good and did feel right and not "just for the sake of having'em". What I really loved were the numerous eastereggs After you mentioned them, I wanted to look closely and was searching for them - guess I found them all but...

---

...dude, the final battle was a bit over the top

[Enjay]

Thanks for the kind comments. Much appreciated. I'm glad that people seem to be enjoying it. I actually meant to include a Doom Legacy Easter egg and completely forgot about it but I'm glad people are enjoying those too.

Regards your spoilered comment Torm...

---

I was actually worried that was going to be too easy. Obviously I know which powerups are available and when/where they appear. As a result I can usually complete the final battle from start to finish without taking a single point of damage.

15/17 secrets

Although some are pretty obvious, that's really pretty good going with no cheats. I'd be interested to find out which ones gave you difficulty. I'm never that confident about setting up secrets so it'd be good to get feedback.

[leodoom85]

Enjay, about the secrets...Few of them was pure luck (could be 4 or 5). One of them, I had to do a rocket jump, probably not the way intended. And the rest was not that obvious but I knew that could be a secret, like a different texture or even the lighting texture used for that.

[Enjay]

Definitely no rocket jumping (or jumping at all [edit] Actually, one requires a little jump[/edit]) required for the secrets.

[Tormentor667]

powerups

Erm what?! ... no need to wonder anymore why it felt hard to me

By the way, the inly gripe I actually have with the map is the usage of SHAWN/SILVER-alike textures here and there (e.g. at the beginning the water tanks). The whole map has this rusty and dirty design, so the clean shawn textures feel like a foreign matter. Maybe you would like to replace them with something else that fits better to the rest of the look?