Another Newb Has Appeared with Questions

[KashKey]

Hey there. I'm pretty sure you guys must have seen this tired old question hundreds of times by now, but I feel compelled to ask it.

So, I'm a new user that has been playing Doom WADs for a while now, and I can't help but wonder how I get into making some. I tried doing a little research and just found myself lost in a sea of information, so I find myself asking... Where do I start? Saying I'm new to the whole thing is a painful understatement, and while I know some of the basics of programming, beyond that I'm completely lost. Again, I'm sure you guys have seen this hundreds of times by now, and if you think I should take this post down, feel free.

[Caligari87]

It's a broad subject, so I'll just give general answers. Once you have more specific questions (such as "why are my sprites halfway in the floor?" or "how do you give the player an item?") we can help with more specific answers

Best place to start is the Wiki: https://zdoom.org/wiki/Main_Page

For map-making, GZDoombuilder-Bugfix is the current gold standard (and it can make maps for more than just GZDoom too).

Slade is the all-around go-to for general lump management and scripting, plus has a decently capable map editor.

Pull apart your favorite mods and just start looking at how they do things. Slade can open wad files and pk3 files (among many others), or you can just unzip pk3s directly.

Overall though, pick a simple idea and figure one thing out at a time. Don't go full Brutal Doom or TC megawad as your first project. Good luck!

[KashKey]

Thanks. I think I'll start seeing what I can do then! I've always wondered how Demonsteele functions, so that should be interesting to pick through. Figure I'll just start with something basic like fiddling with weapons. I appreciate it, and look forward to seeing what I can do.

[Zan]

Well, for start, you're going to need SLADE. This is essentially the software you're going to manage your game file (a.k.a. pk3 archive) with. This is where both resources (sprites, 3D models, textures, sounds etc.) and .txt files with code will be stored.
You can download it here - http://slade.mancubus.net/index.php?page=downloads

You will also need GZDoom Builder in order to either build your own maps, or test what you're making.
You can download it here - https://devbuilds.drdteam.org/gzdbbf/ (just get the latest version I guess)
The Builder will need to be configured with paths to where it should load its' resources from. For this, you'll generally need an iwad (freedoom.wad is a good choice because it's free), gzdoom.pk3 which is in the engine download and your own pk3 with resources.

There's plenty of videos and stuff teaching how to use the Builder, it's fairly simple to get a hold of. Here are some of the original tutorials (they are for Doom Builder, which is a much older version, but work just fine for GZDoom Builder too) - http://www.doombuilder.com/index.php?p=tutorials


Now, to be able to use SLADE, you'll have to familiarise yourself with the ZDoom Wiki and the lumps (i.e. .txt files with code) that go into the .pk3 archive you will be making.
You are going to have a set of folders, most of which can be seen in a table here - https://zdoom.org/wiki/Using_ZIPs_as_WAD_replacement
As you can see, you'll create folders in SLADE named: sprites, flats, textures, sounds, music etc. This is where your assets are going to be stored.
Then, you will need the code to link the assets to something (i.e. create a monster that uses some sprites you have, create an ambient sound to place in a map and so on). For this you will need lumps like DECORATE, SNDINFO, MAPINFO and so on. This is where ZDoom Wiki kicks in.

You should start working on DECORATE first, as it is where you'll be defining your actors, so it's arguably the most important part.
Here's the Wiki tutorials - https://zdoom.org/wiki/tutorials
New user's guide to editing with DECORATE - https://zdoom.org/wiki/New_User%27s_Gui ... h_DECORATE


Anyway, hope this gets you started for now, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[KashKey]

Oh, wow. Thanks Zan. More useful info. I'll get this stuff downloaded as soon as possible. To clarify, actors are the objects for the individual objects in the game, correct?

[Zan]

Yes, be it monsters, props, weapons and so on. Basically whatever you place in a map.

[Zen3001]

start with creating spme vanilla maps in doom2 format, get into udmf(ultimate doom mapping format) later which will get you into acs(a scripting language for mapping)

Look up DECORATE i'ts a simple way to create decorations, monsters, pickups and other stuff.
Try downloading monsters and weapons other people created and use them for your own maps(a lot of stuff can be found here: https://realm667.com/index.php/en/repository-18489)

if you get stuck somewhere just google your quistions and problems

after that you'll be at the same point where I am and you will probably know what to do next.