DEU For Dummies!!

Credits:
Written by: David Biggs
DOOM was created by, and is a trademark of: id Software
Translated to HTML by: Piotr Kapiszewski

Well here is it... DEU for Dummies that I posted ages ago with a few changes to make it look extra pretty. I also poated this to Infant called DEU4DUMY.TXT in the incoming directory but I'm sure it will be moved to the DEU directory soon enough.

NOTE: If the diagrams look really ugly with ascii characters etc them this is probably because your using a unix reader. When you download the file to dos if shoud be all nice and pretty ascii lines with any luck. Well Here it....Hope it helps....

DEU 4 Dummies!

This little tutor was written by me, David Biggs in just a few hours and I reackon it's heaps better that other tutors around cos it's real simple and graphical. Just go through step by step and soon enough you'll be creating your own mega levels.

Contact me at dbiggs@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au for coments or whatever.

Making a small level with DEU 5.21

This is a guide to making a simple level With the Doom Editor Utility or DEU. It will show you how to make 2 rooms with a door and a table in one room.

Okay, first of all, you can't have a single-sector wad (I don't think you can, but just in case...). So make lets make the first sector. Go to the "Misc" menu select "Make recangle". When the dimension box comes up make the room 256 * 256. This a reasonable sized room considering the average corridor is about 128 wide. The purple cirular display the appears shows dimension with each circle being 128, 256 and 512 units wide, this helps to get the right scale of your level. To change use Tab to change the second number. Your level should look like this

                   /É\ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ>»
                    º         |        º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º--              --º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º         |        v   <--- arrow head
                    È<ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
If is is really small use "+" and "-" to zoom.

Now if you press "S" for sector mode the box should turn yellow, this means the sector is defined. If it is undefined then it will be in thin Red lines.

Now lets add another small sector to the level. Add some vertices to the level by pressing "v" for vertice mode. Add the vertices like this.......x represants a vertice.

                    ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍx  x
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  x  x
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
     
Now select each vertice with the left mouse button in this order.

                    ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍx1 x2
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  x4 x3
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    º                  º
                    ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ

Then press insert and lines will be placed between the vertices. Now you make sure those things hanging on the right side of the line point inwards

The lines should be like this

                            ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍx------>x
                                      º   |  |
                                      º     -|
                                      º   |  v
                                      x------>
                                      º
They must point inwards into the sector because when you make lines into a sector, the editor will add a texture on that right side of the line with the small line. This side is called the "first side def"

Now go to line mode and by pressing "L" and select all the 4 lines of the new box with the mouse then press insert. This makes the lines into a new sector.

It should look like this

            ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍ» 
            º          º 1 º
            º          º   º
            º          ÌÍÍͼ
            º     0    º
            º          º
            ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
The level is almost ready to try. Add a player one postion by pressing "T" for Thing mode. Press insert for the start position somewhere in the big room. Then click on the item and press Enter to modify the thing. Change it to a player 1 start position.

Now you should be able to try the thing out. But first press F10 and do all the checks and it should be fine.

Now save you level and exit. There will be some messages concerning Multiplayer starts and deathmatch level start but we don't need them yet. Say yes when it asks to rebuild nodes etc so you can try you level.

Then quit back to dos and load you level by typing

Doom -file whatever.wad

It should work fine.

Now lets add another room and a door

Go to vertice mode and put in 3 more vertices like this

            ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍ»        x  
            º          º   º
            º          º   º
            º          ÌÍÍͼ
            º          º
            º          º
            ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ   x        x
And select the vertices in this order and then press insert to make the lines.

            ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍx1       x2  
            º          º   º
            º          º   º
            º          ÌÍÍÍx5
            º          º
            º          º
            ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ   x4       x3
Then it should look like this.

            ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍ»ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
            º          º   º          ³
            º          º   º          ³
            º          ÌÍÍ͹          ³
            º          º   ³          ³
            º          º   ³          ³
            ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ   ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Go to line mode and select all the lines of the new box including the line attached to sector #1 and press insert to make it a sector and you will have 3 sectors like this.

            ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
            º          º 1 º          º
            º          º   º          º
            º    0     ÌÍÍ͹    2     º
            º          º   º          º
            º          º   º          º
            ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ   ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
Do the checks again with f10, save your level again and check it out. It sould all be working just fine.

Adding a door

Now let's add a door, press "s" for sector mode and select the centre sector, Number 1

GO to the menus and select "create door from sector" and wallah!..you have a door and 2 rooms......It's that easy! But When you make your own, make sure you have rooms on each side of the door firsat otherwise it will have errors.

Save again and check the door.......

A table in a room

Firslty insert a rectanlge in the second room. Do this by Zooming in and centring the second room on the screen. Then selecy "make rectangle" and lets make it about 64*56 just for fun.

it should be like this

            ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
            º          º   º          º
            º          º   º   ÉÍÍ»   º
            º          ÌÍÍ͹   º  º   º
            º          º   º   ÈÍͼ   º
            º          º   º          º
            ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ   ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
then select each line of the new box and press insert again to make it a sector. This is because so far it is only attached to the outer sector. You need to define the inside as well.

now press s for sector mode and select the sector you just made.

press enter to modify the sector and change the floor height to be equal to the height you want. The ceiling hieght is probably 128 so make the floor around 35.

Now press "L" for line mode. Now look at a line of this new table sector. You will notice that they have written in red "Lower texture". in the "first side def" section.

In red means that you need to assign a texture here but haven't, so select all the lines of the pillar sector and press "Enter" to modify them. Go to "Edit first side def" and change the lower texture to what ever you want.

And you're all set expept we need an enemy don't we. How can we play doom without killing something.

Press "T" for thing mode. press insert where you want to add and enemy soldier then enter to modify the "thing". Change it to a soldier or demon or what ever you want by going to "enemy" but remenber unless you cheat you'll only have a pistol.

Don't place it 1/2 way into a wall though as it will get stuck in the wall.

Now you should be able to try the level out. But first press F10 and do all the checks and it should be fine.

Now try out you level and It should be fine.

You've created your first level!

Side defs

Now I'll explain Side defs.

You would have noticed all the lines look like this

                ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>              
                        ³
     
The side with the bit sticking out is the "1st side def" and the other is the "2nd side def". Like this

                   2nd side def
                ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>              
                        ³ 1st side def
The bit is always on the same side of the line. If you are only ever going to see one side of a normal wall it must be the 1st side. That's why you select the vertices in that order. So all first side defs will be pointing in.

Textures!

You will notice that each side def has "Normal", "Upper" and "lower" textures. Now a "normal" texture is just for and wall etc with no strange bits...just yor average wall.

An "upper" texture is used for doors and places where the ceiling height changes between sectors and also for doors.

A "lower" texture is for places where the floor changes in height between sectors such as stairs.

For example......I you have a room with floor height 0 and ceiling 128 and another beside it with floor 20 and ceiling 100 then you have a difference in floor and ceiling.

So it would look like this if you looked from one tall sector into the smaller one

                ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
                ³               ³
                ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
                ³               ³
                ³               ³
                ³               ³
                ³               ³
                ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
                ³               ³
                ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
                
Now the textures are like this

                ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
                ³upper texture  ³
                ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
                ³               ³
                ³normal texture ³
                ³               ³
                ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
                ³ lower texture ³
                ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
But You would have no normal texture as you want to see through this pat of the wall.

Now that about covers all the easy stuff there is to explain. Once you've figured out this much and can confidently apply it to your own level you should have enough skill to do any thing you want. But remember to do the check with F10 and if you have probs..Fiddle a bit. You'll learn a lot just by fiddling around with different things and experimenting. But if all else fails, Bang you head against the monitor then mail to alt.games.doom or get on #doom IRC for freindly (most of the time) advice. See me there under the nick of "HotFat". I'll do my best to help you out. Or email me at the address above.