REMOVE the MAP entirely

[AshHouswares]

I have been reading the map articles on the wiki but I can't seem to find a solution. I want the map to be completely invisible on the entire game. I do not want players to be able to see where they are. I know a few methods.... either make all lines invisible on map and sectors invisible on automap, but that is not ideal. Also, there is a method to make the map draw itself in black, making it "seem" invisible. But again, these are not the most ideal methods. I want the entire map screen gone. By that, I mean pressing TAB (or whatever you have set for map) either does nothing or does something entirely different, overwriting it's original map screen. Any help please? I cannot seem to figure this out.

[Caligari87]

This isn't really meant to be possible in GZDoom, by design. Part of the port philosophy is that the player generally have access to whatever tools and overrides they need to enjoy the game their way. Much like the stance against save-blocking, this is unlikely to change.

If you really need it for a standalone game, probably the only to completely block/disable the map is to roll a custom fork of GZDoom with that capability. There may be other workarounds but they're not supported or intended and may be subject to "fixes" in the future.

[Jarewill]

Might be worth noting that doing this is considered bad practice here and for a good reason.
Maps are a very valuable tool in navigating even the simplest levels, for example when trying to figure out where to backtrack to once you pick up a key.

However for making the TAB key simply not doing anything the best way to do it is to simply not bind it to anything.
If I recall correctly you are making a standalone game, so simply modifying the DEFBINDS file to not bind TAB to anything should do the trick.

[RKD]

I guess the solutions above should be enough, but in case they weren't, I'll ask if you have checked how other modders have done what you're looking for. Ashes Afterglow has an invisible map in one of its secret levels, just to give an example. If I wanted to do something like that, I'd open maps like that on UDB or SLADE to figure them out, or contact the modder(s) itself and ask them.

[AshHouswares]

Ok. Then the DEFBINDS option I'll have to take then. In regards to this, preventing the developer from disabling maps and saves is, in my view, far worse practice than those who wish to disable these features. If the player does not enjoy having these features missing, then quiet simply, they should choose not to play that particular GZDOOM engine game. There should never be anything that prevents a developer from being creative with their own projects.

A developer should have full freedom to do whatever they wish with their own projects. If, for example, I choose to make a GZDOOM engine game that only allows saving at designated save points, then that is my decision as a developer of my own game. If I choose to make maps obsolete, that is also my decision. If the player does not like these changes, then do not purchase my game. My issue with this is pretty deep, because this is not a doom mod. This is a standalone, completely unique game experience. I may decide I only want my game saveable between levels. I'm not here to tailor to fans of DOOM itself, because, while my game may use the same engine (albeit heavily modified), I, as a developer, do not need to be under pressure to make it work the same way as DOOM in case the players do not like it. If they do not like it, then I will find out about it another way. Because people will not play it.

A Map, and also the ability to save anywhere is extremely harmful to my game project. I do not want the player saving in the middle of a level right before a difficult challenge. If I wanted that, and thought it was justified, I would place a checkpoint there. This is control over someone elses game, and I do not agree with it whatsoever.

UNLESS I am making a game that DELIBERATELY HARMS YOUR COMPUTER, then there should be no restrictions whatsoever on what I can create. And no. I will not change to a different engine, because I have read topics on here before where the defence is "if you want to make a game like that then use a different engine". No. We will not. Our project was always meant to use the DOOM Engine. And like other games that use the engine in the golden era, like HEXEN, HERETIC and so on, we should not be obligated to follow DOOM and its functions exactly.

Heretic, in fact, had DOOM CHEATS KILL THE PLAYER. And correct me if I'm wrong, but changing the CHEAT CODES in our projects is ALSO prohibited. Hm. Surely that should have applied to HERETIC too? No, it did not because it's it's own game, the way it should be, using the engine. Not a MOD of DOOM. You could argue that was their own customised version of the DOOM engine, and not GZDOOM but the point still remains. These restrictions are terrible. It is up to the developer how they want their game to work, GZDOOM or not. And up to the player if they wish to buy or play that game, if it appeals to them. Not the developers of the ENGINE itself. We currently have DOOM cheats active in our completely unrelated, standalone game because someone decided they did not want us able to remove or replace them. It's terrible.

Because of all these restrictions, our game has been delayed 2 years. That is an astronomical delay while we struggle to find workarounds for a practice that shouldn't even be forced onto the developers to begin with.

[Caligari87]

This discussion has been had probably hundreds of times over many years.

Nothing is stopping you from adding these kinds of features to a fork of GZDoom if you are planning to ship a game. Indeed, that is the recommended option by far. They just won't be added to mainline GZDoom, because GZDoom is a Doom engine meant for playing Doom. It's not meant to cater to your needs as a standalone game developer. The fact that it's possible to ship standalone games with GZDoom is a bonus, not a feature.

[AshHouswares]

I have in fact looked into the forking option. I may be the worst coder in the world, but I cannot figure out a way to even pull this off. Cheats, saves and maps etc. or how to change these things through editing of the main engine itself. But I'm not the best coder, I'm just the one helping on this particular project so it is down to me, if anyone.

[yum13241]

MyHouse uses mapinfo overrides, but the user can turn those off. Happy modding.

[ramon.dexter]

Umm, have you considered the simplest solution? Just mark all linedefs as "not shown on map". BAM! Player will still be able to open map, but the map will show nothing. Sometimes the easiest solutions are the best ones.

[yum13241]

He/She/It/They/Whatever already has/have. The problem is that's tedious if you ever change the map.

[ramon.dexter]

He/She/It/They/Whatever already has/have. The problem is that's tedious if you ever change the map.

Sorry, what?

[yum13241]

Everytime you add a new sector kr line you'll need to repeat the same process.

[ramon.dexter]

Yeah, or you once in a time select all linedefs and check the flag. Not that hard. And also much better than breaking the engine or hacking in a way to disable auto map.

[AshHouswares]

He/She/It/They/Whatever already has/have. The problem is that's tedious if you ever change the map.

Biological born male. I am a he.
I think I may just do this method though. I can highlight every single thing on the map in one go and just check "not shown on map", which I may just resort to doing. Then I can probably (I know this is possible) make the map screen completely black. I want to remove the map because of two reasons. 1. The player is not supposed to know where they are and 2. because the levels use tons of portal lines to create 3D floor illusions and rooms above other rooms.

I did see MyHouse, very masterful piece of creative work. I would like to think I can pull of the same level of skill and creativity, but it is a very impressive piece of work.

[ramon.dexter]

Doom automap automatically correctly display of floor portals.

But checking 'not shown on map' fixes the need to not display map. Map will be displayed, but blank. Also, so could create an entirely redefined menudef for the controls section without automap button defined.

Or other possibilitym check the Total Chaos TC for gzdoom, the author had pretty the same intention as you, and someway achieved to hide the automap. So, download it and check how it's done.