[WIP] Randomly Generated Dungeon! [Revived]

[NeuralStunner]

OH NO THEY GOT DANCSO!

Hey Nash, any idea how to utilize the new either-side line triggers now?

[ZDG]

Some suggestions:

Add more monsters! Having only the pinkies is boring.
Add more weapons, i have some Fantasy-themed weapons on my page.
Doors would make sounds , AND NOT INSTA-OPEN.
That's all, good luck.

[InsanityBringer]

some people tend to forget that this thing is a demo and nowhere near complete...

[Nash]

Graf said monsters can't trigger the backside lines so I'm still not sure how to make use of it...

Time for some news. Engine has been changed a lot, the code is getting bigger and harder to read... been spending the last few days fixing all kinds of bugs in the generator.

I also just finished modeling the enter and exit stairs - these are decorative actors that the player has to use to enter/exit the dungeon. I've tweaked the engine so that whichever room the start stairs spawn in, the room's structure dynamically changes (the stairs leads to a door which is high up in the ceiling, complete with decorative spawns around it like torches and stuff) and for the exit stairs, the stairs are actually "carved" into the floor (floor gets lower at the exit point). It's hard to describe in words, but you'll see what I mean once I get the next demo out in a few days. Need to fix a couple more bugs with door spawning and finish some enemy models (I'm doing a skeleton right now).

One thing that really excites me while coding this dungeon generator is how versatile the room generator can be - it not only generates rooms of random position and dimension, but it allows me to decorate them in lots of ways. The engine knows a lot about the roomes it randomly creates (all created rooms are stored in a room list) and I can retrieve all kinds of information from these rooms like width and height, position, even room "angle". With this set of powerful features, I have a lot of control on how a room can be "designed". So even though the rooms are random, they actually can have some "logical design" built into them, as opposed to just randomly scattered decorations/objects/monsters/etc in the rooms. I can also alter the height of any of the cells (or the entire room if I want to) at will, which should allow me to make some height variation so not everything is at the same height.

What remains to be improved is the corridor code. Currently it can only build straight corridors. Sometimes I might get lucky and corridors might intersect so it may LOOK like the corridors are winding but they aren't really. I added a crude hack that attempts to wind the corridors somewhat but it doesn't look too impressive. Since it's not really not my code, it's a little difficult to understand. I was so tempted to delete everything and write everything from scratch but I was too tired to think about coding. So I just kept patching the engine, adding things here and there, and before I knew it, it grew into this huge monster... :P

tldr version: Lots of bug fixes and new features to the room generator, new and proper models (no more placeholder models), demo coming in a few days (need to fix some bugs and finish the skeleton model)

EDIT: In case people are wondering... this is a "tech demo"/proof of concept. I won't be using any existing Doom monsters and most of the graphics will be done from scratch. Monsters will be models and not sprites. It'll be set in a fantasy setting.

[Dancso]

Awesome.
I've never really tried modelling beside making a few simple static models then sprite ripping them, so I've no idea how much work would be needed to make your own monsters.. but I'm guessing it could take a lot of effort.. sure, if you've got the motivation, then let nothing stop you!

[NeuralStunner]

Graf said monsters can't trigger the backside lines so I'm still not sure how to make use of it...

Dang...

I was so tempted to delete everything and write everything from scratch but I was too tired to think about coding. So I just kept patching the engine, adding things here and there, and before I knew it, it grew into this huge monster...

I've seen much worse software that was like that.

BTW, I'm hoping you've seen Sitters' models?

[Nash]

inb4 PICS OR IT DIDN"T HAPPEN

Thought I'd throw in some pics...



The starting room. Notice the elevated ceiling (all starts rooms will have these 3x3 sections in the middle which are elevated). Stairs and door direction is randomly chosen. BIGDOOR5 texture is only a placeholder to see if the engine is correctly changing textures dynamically. Stairs are modeled in 3ds Max and is still WIP - will add more detail later.





Random door types (implemented as models)! Currently only 2 modelled... a wooden door and a portcullis. And they are animated smoothly as they open/close! There will be more door types so you don't see the same door over and over again.



A neat unintended feature I discovered. Observe the overlay carefully. This is what happens when the player is given an AllMap powerup. It actually makes the rooms easier to see on the automap! Works in fullscreen map as well. Also, a randomly display of eerie corridors in the background... and also map icons. :P



Torches randomly spawn in either lit or unlit state. Megaspheres are placeholders meant to pinpoint the location of random treasure spawns.



The exit stairs leads down into the darkness... again, door texture is a placeholder.



WIP enemy model of a skeleton. I've set a polygon budget of around 3000-4000 per monster. This should be enough to make the models not-so-angular/pointy, while also retaining a stable FPS. I will need people to test this once lots of monster start running around, though... I hope I don't have to lower the poly count too much as I'm trying to avoid pointy models.

[Project Shadowcat]

It's quickly coming along, Nash, keep up the good work!

[qwerqsar]

OMFGs, this is getting sooo cool. Keep on working, it will be a grand proyect to wait for!!!

[printz]

if you need sounds, here are some ominous sounds. I found them in a sound library where my account lets me download for free a few files per month: monster growl sounds

[InsanityBringer]

Looking good. It'd be fun to have a hack-and-slash dungeon crawling game from doom. Perhaps there could be modeled objects such as archways, columns, and all of that for extra detail.

[Dancso]

Looking good. It'd be fun to have a hack-and-slash dungeon crawling game from doom. Perhaps there could be modeled objects such as archways, columns, and all of that for extra detail.

And dust fog, occasional small rats, spiders running around, bats flying by

[NeuralStunner]

bats flying by

As long as all they do is fly by. Just what this mod doesn't need is friggin' killer bats!

[BouncyTEM]

As long as all they do is fly by. Just what this mod doesn't need is friggin' killer bats!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... damnedBats

Like the ones talked about here?

[NeuralStunner]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... damnedBats

Like the ones talked about here?

Preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecisely!