Need Help Getting Started with Doom Mapping and UDMF
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Before asking on how to use a ZDoom feature, read the ZDoom wiki first. If you still don't understand how to use a feature, then ask here.
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IzaiahConn
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2025 9:47 pm
- Operating System Version (Optional): Windows 11
- Graphics Processor: nVidia (Legacy GZDoom)
Need Help Getting Started with Doom Mapping and UDMF
Hi everyone, I'm new to mapping for Doom using ZDoom and GZDoom, and I'm trying to create my first custom map. tunnel rushI would appreciate any advice or resources on how to get started, particularly with scripting and using UDMF (Universal Doom Map Format). Are there any tutorials or best practices that you would recommend? Thank you in advance for your help
Last edited by IzaiahConn on Thu Apr 24, 2025 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Need Help Getting Started with Doom Mapping and UDMF
As universal reference books (sites) that you need at hand:
1. https://doomwiki.org
2. https://zdoom.org/wiki/Main_Page
Doom Builder: An Illustrated Guide (2004, quite old but still usable):
3. http://www.doombuilder.com/files/doombuilder1guide.pdf
Doom Builder: Tutorials (But this is an old builder, now you need to use UDB https://ultimatedoombuilder.github.io/)
4. http://doombuilder.com/index.php?p=tutorials
Although something may be useful. The main thing is to understand the formats for different Doom ports right away, so as not to waste time.
Guides focused on the ultimate doom builder
5. https://doomhell.com/index.php/category/guides/
1. https://doomwiki.org
2. https://zdoom.org/wiki/Main_Page
Doom Builder: An Illustrated Guide (2004, quite old but still usable):
3. http://www.doombuilder.com/files/doombuilder1guide.pdf
Doom Builder: Tutorials (But this is an old builder, now you need to use UDB https://ultimatedoombuilder.github.io/)
4. http://doombuilder.com/index.php?p=tutorials
Although something may be useful. The main thing is to understand the formats for different Doom ports right away, so as not to waste time.
Guides focused on the ultimate doom builder
5. https://doomhell.com/index.php/category/guides/
Re: Need Help Getting Started with Doom Mapping and UDMF
Forgot about slide3. This editor is necessary for editing textures, levels and other lumps.
6. https://slade.mancubus.net/index.php?pa ... =Tutorials
6. https://slade.mancubus.net/index.php?pa ... =Tutorials
Re: Need Help Getting Started with Doom Mapping and UDMF
I wouldn't go as far as to say that Slade was necessary for those things. Given that most lumps can be edited with text editors, or graphics editors (which IzaiahConn may already have personal preferences for) and thrown into a zip/pk3, and textures can just be put into a textures folder in the zip and work as well.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Slade isn't useful - it is. It's very good for setting sprite offsets, doing colour translation and palette related stuff, working with the PNAMES, TEXTURE1 and TEXTURES lumps, handling lumps inside WAD files and so on. It has many uses, and it's good at them. I use it all the time. So, I'm not saying it's not a useful tool by any means. I'm just sating that it isn't an absolutely essential one and it might not be something that someone needs when setting out to make their first mod. Sooner or later though, they may well want to use it.
I've also noticed that it isn't unusual for an inexperienced modder to make PK3s with odd internal structures, repeated lumps and strange marker files that make the files difficult to read (especially problematic when someone trying to help them reads their file with their own utils). It's my pet theory that these files are sometimes the result of a modder not entirely knowing what they are doing, using Slade and feeling their way while making mistakes along the way - not fatal mistakes, not "bad format" mistakes. Indeed, the modder often confirms as much at some point if they are posting about trying to debug something in their mod. Slade is quite a technical tool and it's quite easy to make messy file with it (which may, or may not, still be functional) if you are unsure what you are doing.
Of course, if IzaiahConn wants to make a totally WAD-based mod (i.e. more than just the map file(s)), rather than a PK3 one, then a tool for handling WAD files will be far more important and Slade would be the tool of choice for most people.
If you do have additional resources in your mod, I sometimes find that a good way is to simply use a folder. Inside the folder are other folders with the correct structure for a PK3 file and I just dump all the resource files into those folders. This makes it nice, quick and easy to browse and open any files simply by using Windows explorer. Both GZDoom and UDB can open folders like this and use them just as if they were PK3 files too. When I'm done, the structure is already there and I can just zip up the contents of the folder, rename ZIP to the accursed PK3 extension and I'm done.
https://zdoom.org/wiki/Using_ZIPs_as_WAD_replacement
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Slade isn't useful - it is. It's very good for setting sprite offsets, doing colour translation and palette related stuff, working with the PNAMES, TEXTURE1 and TEXTURES lumps, handling lumps inside WAD files and so on. It has many uses, and it's good at them. I use it all the time. So, I'm not saying it's not a useful tool by any means. I'm just sating that it isn't an absolutely essential one and it might not be something that someone needs when setting out to make their first mod. Sooner or later though, they may well want to use it.
I've also noticed that it isn't unusual for an inexperienced modder to make PK3s with odd internal structures, repeated lumps and strange marker files that make the files difficult to read (especially problematic when someone trying to help them reads their file with their own utils). It's my pet theory that these files are sometimes the result of a modder not entirely knowing what they are doing, using Slade and feeling their way while making mistakes along the way - not fatal mistakes, not "bad format" mistakes. Indeed, the modder often confirms as much at some point if they are posting about trying to debug something in their mod. Slade is quite a technical tool and it's quite easy to make messy file with it (which may, or may not, still be functional) if you are unsure what you are doing.
Of course, if IzaiahConn wants to make a totally WAD-based mod (i.e. more than just the map file(s)), rather than a PK3 one, then a tool for handling WAD files will be far more important and Slade would be the tool of choice for most people.
If you do have additional resources in your mod, I sometimes find that a good way is to simply use a folder. Inside the folder are other folders with the correct structure for a PK3 file and I just dump all the resource files into those folders. This makes it nice, quick and easy to browse and open any files simply by using Windows explorer. Both GZDoom and UDB can open folders like this and use them just as if they were PK3 files too. When I'm done, the structure is already there and I can just zip up the contents of the folder, rename ZIP to the accursed PK3 extension and I'm done.
https://zdoom.org/wiki/Using_ZIPs_as_WAD_replacement