Remake of e2m4 is RELEASED! Details inside!

[real_trisk]

I'm not messing with the puzzles much. I was very frustrated by KDiZD myself...I hate "figure out what the developer was thinking" puzzles. They are just never fun. You'd think people would LEARN form Hexen, not copy it. As such, puzzles will largely stay the same as in the original level. In the couple of variations I'm making, I will clearly point "where to go." e.g. if you come on a blue key door and don't have the blue key, you'll get a message stating that the blue key is in the control room. The way to the control room will be clearly marked by a sign off the main hall of the level...like Doom 3, actually. I'm adding new rooms, but they are extraneous secrets not required to complete the level.

To put it another way, I'm staying true to the id level, not trying to modify it and make it act like a non-Doom level just because I can.

As for rendering speed, fill rate is the greatest inhibiting factor when the graphics get this complex. My "Low end" test laptop is equipped with a GeForce 7400, whose fill rate is alot poorer than a 6600. It won't run acceptably at 1440x900, the laptop's main resolution, but runs fine simply by dropping down to 1280x800. So any card over a 6600 should run it fine, and if it lags a bit, just drop resolution a step and the framerate shoots up surprisingly. Anything Geforce 8600 and above should run it smooth as silk at most any resolution.

There is a team doing Doom Episode 2? Bummer, didn't know that. Oh well, mine will be out first. ^_^v

Anyway, 'nuff babbling, time to go work on finishing up the architecture. I close by enjoying a glass of penetrating wood finish!
Ben

(Download finished levels at http://www.prodigal-game.com/doomwads.html now!)

[DavidB1000]

1440x900, the laptop's main resolution,

Damn, you only need 1024x768, any more, and you're just crazy! Not the OP, the people who make graphics like that.

I don't like puzzles that much myself, but I loved Hexen. I need to play KDIZD again.
Oh, yeah, it looks awesome. Keep us updated, because yeah, my desktop can run this at 800x600 easily.
Offtopic Side-Note: Larger than 1024 x 768 graphics are just kind of silly. Honest, who wants to run Crysis at 2048x2048 anyway? I mean, if your computer and monitor can do that, you should be able to render a 4,000 (not a typo) minute video in about 40 seconds.

[CaptainToenail]

Haha those spinning tesla coil things look great

Keep up the good work!

[Maelstrom]

This truly is awesome, congrats on this, can't wait to try it, looks so much fun. I can't see E2M4 in it whatsoever though, it truly looks nothing like it, you could probably get away with calling it something completely different (but i haven't seen the whole thing yet so I can't be sure).

[Remmirath]

It says it all...

[Xaser]

This is perhaps the best looking anything I've seen in the Doom engine in my life.

Just make sure it plays as nice as it looks. ;P

[esselfortium]

The first shot looks great. The style and atmosphere of it is really nice.

I'm not digging the second shot at all, though. It looks to me like a bunch of 3D models trying to cover up a completely flat, squarish room. Also, flat20 abuse alert

[real_trisk]

I don't like puzzles that much myself, but I loved Hexen.

Sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate that I don't love Hexen. I do love it very much. It's just every time I play it, I have to use a walkthrough 'cause the puzzles are so crazy. "A door has opened somewhere?" riiight...

I can't see E2M4 in it whatsoever though,

It's just a lack of context on the images. Here's a comparison shot of my map on the left and the original on the right:

Look it over and you can see that playing this is going to be very familiar. I didn't want to totally change the level layout; I redesigned it with the "Nuclear Waste Reclamation" theme and made modifications that made sense to rooms that made no sense.

For fun, here's the teleporter that mine replaces:

It's in the same place, activated the same way. Just looks a heckofa lot better.

Anyway, it's mapping time! Thank you all SO MUCH for the kind words! Makes me want to finish it up and get it out to you! I've had alot of fun working on Doom again, as I've never stopped playing it. It's fun to get involved in the community whose awesome maps inspired me to make this contribution!

Cheers!
Ben

[daimon]

Good lord.

Simply impressive work, real_trisk!

I love too the "Deimos Lab", and centuries ago i've made a nice remake of that level in the doomworld forums.

[MephistoII]

You just... just...
It looks... no, it IS great!!
I would like to see this finished

[Ryan Cordell]

Has an eerie JDoom feel to it.

[Sagittaire]

WOW!

...Computerized beauty. Literally.

Man, It'll be ages before I reach that level of quality editing.
Kudos, and I await the demo.

[jallamann]

Well, I'd say it doesn't look like crap. Also I had a hard time figuring out how the hell it'd relate to E2M4 until I saw the 2D editor shot.

[corysykes]

im relly confuzed you make a map from doom 1 and put it into the halflife 2 engine .... lol na man that looks freken awsom when i saw it first i didnt think it was doom keep it up!!

[hnsolo77]

holy shit! now that looks damn awesome

though in defense of ZPack i must say we intended it for ZDoom but kept it GZDoom compatible... mostly *E3M5 causes massive lag in GZDoom*