Map Editors

Codeimp's Doombuilder2 MaxEd's GZDoombuilder

NOTE: To use a map editor you must have an IWAD of a registered DOOM family game you want to map for.
If you do not own one of the games, then you can buy it off STEAM or possibly Ebay.

At present, since Deepsea, SlumpEd, Wadauthor, Zeth, etc. have not been updated with all the new ZDoom features and the map editor of Slade3 is still in development, Doombuilder2, and more recently GZDoombuider, have become the defacto map editors for idtech1 DOOM engine maps.



Doombuilder2
GZDoombuider

To run either Doombuilder2 or GZDoombuider successfully, the computer must meet these requirements:



Add to these requirements also SlimDX and .NET Framework 3.5 or later.




GZDoombuilder 1.13 (r1493 to r1684) is based on Doombuilder r1553.
GZDoombuilder 1.14 (r1685 and up) is based on Doombuilder r1604.
As the name implies, it has support for the advanced features found in GZDoom:


  • Dynamic lights (all types) are rendered in Visual modes.
  • Dynamic lights defined in GLDEFS are rendered in Visual modes.
  • Animated lights.
  • Enhanced scripting workflow.
  • Custom linedef colors.
  • More complete TEXTURES support.
  • Multiple engines per game configuration support.
  • Textures browser shows Folder/PK3/PK7 folder structure.
  • Partial GLDEFS and (Z)MAPINFO support.
  • Fog rendering (including colored fog in maps in UDMF format).
  • MD2 and MD3 models rendering in 2D and 3D modes.
  • Draw Rectangle, Draw Ellipse and Bridge modes.
  • Ability to move, cut, copy, paste, insert and delete Things in Visual modes.
  • Sector and Sidedef info panels show additional info if a map is in UDMF format.
  • Event lines.
  • "Test Map from current position" feature.
  • "Sync camera position between 2D and 3D modes" feature.
  • "Place Things at cursor position in Visual Modes" feature.
  • JPG, TGA and PNG image format support.
  • PK7 archive format support.
  • UDMF Controls plugin.
  • Tag Explorer plugin.

While the name is GZDoombuilder, it does not mean that it is restricted to working with GZDoom. In fact, it is an upgrade to Codeimp's Doombuilder2. Many features have been added and many made more robust, so that it is now the preferred map editor.



Installation

1. The official version Doombuilder2

The official version Doombuilder2 r1553 can be downloaded from the following link,

Codeimp's website

During installation of the official Doombuilder2 a connection to the Internet is required. This process creates the proper links into the Windows Registry, and also installs two additional apps :

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
if a newer version is not installed already
SlimDX Runtime .NET 2.0 (January 2012)



2. The SVN versions

Thanks to Tiger, who provides the SVN compilations for both, Doombuilder2 and GZDoombuilder, the latest versions can be downloaded from the

DRDteam SVN website

As of this writing, Codeimp's Doombuilder2 is at r1630, and
MaxEd's GZDoombuilder, which is updated quite frequently, is at r1685.

To check what the latest versions are, visit these development sites, for Doombuilder2 and GZDoombuilder, respectively.


SVN versions are provided as 7zip files, to be extracted into a folder of your choice. As such, it is assumed that the official version had been installed previously. However, if you do not want to go through the installation of the official Doombuilder2 first, you must install SlimDX separately. If .NET Framework is not up-to-date, there is a file dotnetfx35setup.exe in the Setup folder.



Setup - Preferences

The setup procedure is the same for either editor.



Press F5

Here Doombuilder2 can be customized to your individual settings:





Setup - Game Configurations

Because not every default is enabled, some items must be set up manually before using the editor.


Press F6

Resources

For each map format select the Iwad.


Note:
GZDoombuilder will, by default, show only two formats: GZDoom: Doom (Hexen format) and GZDoom: Doom(UDMF).
Other formats can be retrieved from the \Configurations\Configs for other games folder.

Nodebuilder

ZDoom and GZDoom have the ability to generate nodes on the fly when a pwad does not have nodes present. Therefore this can be left as is or select (do not build nodes), it's your choice.


Testing

Select the game port with which the map should be played.


Textures

If one wanted to, this is the place to group textures into categories. This is already done for stock textures.


Modes

I believe this is the most overlooked menu. Some Modes are not enabled by default, so here for example, the GZDoom Visual Mode, besides other modes which may come in handy, can be enabled.


Note (this applies only to Doombuilder2 and older GZDoombuilder builds):
Although there will be an icon on the toolbar when GZDoom Visual Mode is enabled in the Modes menu, it does not have a hotkey. Probably because, unlike Visual Mode which is build right into Doombuilder2 itself, it is added as a plugin. This is easily remedied through F5 - Controls. A perfect key would be Q, since W and Q are right next to each other.



Compiler

From time to time the Action Script Compiler (ACC) is updated out of sync with Doombuilder2. If that happens, simply extract the new version of ACC and overwrite the files in ../Compilers/ZDoom/.

The easy method of checking which version of ACC.EXE is currently installed is to run cmd.exe and drag acc.exe onto it and append with a space and -h, like so


update: The latest version is 1.53


And one more item: Plugins

A number of plugins have been developed for DB2, which make mapping a lot easier.

Some are accessible through the icons on the toolbar, some through keyboard shortcuts.

Most plugins will be included in the DB2 version, some will have to be added separately. But, because of bug fixes etc, the latest version of DB2 or GZDB may not be compatible with some older plugins. If a problem crops up, then browse the internet for the latest version.

Warning:

GZDoomEditing.dll is no longer used by newer builds of GZDoomBuilder and should be removed from "Plugins" folder!



Bug Reporting

No matter how carefully a program is tailored, there is always some potential to have an installation go awry. If you find a bug, then, please, report it at the Doombuilder Forum, so that Codeimp or Boris can take a look at it.



Troubleshooting

Doom Builder 2

While installation is straightforward, several people have reported problems with running DB2r1553. As DB2 is now considered mature, those problems could usually be traced back to the user having missed a step or two, or the computer hardware was insufficient.

If it happens that Doombuilder2 does either not work for you or, after it had been working and now no longer behaves as expected, then the first thing to check is Builder.log, which is generated every time the program is started.

This log file can be found in

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Application Data\Doom Builder\
Windows Vista or Windows 7
C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Doom Builder\

In most cases, after reading the log file, the cause of the problem becomes obvious.

The second thing to check are the programs in Windows Control Panel -> Programs, which should be installed.


Doom Builder 2.1 is self explanatory.
If Windows had not been updated, then .NET Framework may be an older version, possibly 2.0. Upgrade to 3.5 or above.
The version of SlimDX, which is installed during the full installation process, is usually the latest version available.

If you cannot find Builder.log and Builder.cfg in the above mentioned location, or if Doombuilder2 does not show in the installed programs window Control Panel - Programs, then definitely something went wrong. Try to re-install Doombuilder2.

GZDoombuilder

If you simply downloaded one of Tiger's compilations, then you will see an error notification such as this:

The reason, most likely, will be that SlimDX or Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 cannot be found.

Now you could go through the trouble of installing everything manually, but an easy solution would be to have the heavy lifting done by the installation of the official Doombuilder2 by Codeimp.

General

If the Editor started up okay, and it generated the Builder.cfg and Builder.log files, but maps cannot be loaded or some feature does not work, then ask for help in one of the forums.

Doombuilder Forum      Doomworld Forum      ZDoom Forum

However, a vague description of the problem will result in a guessing game, so, be specific and provide as much information as possible, for example:



Texture Alignment

It was mentioned several times in various forums that mappers could not align textures when using the GZDoom Visual Mode.

Trying to align textures in a map designed for Doom in Hexen format, using the GZDoom Visual Mode plugin will not work. That plugin was created to be used for maps in UDMF format only.

To visually align textures in maps designed for Doom in Hexen format, the regular Visual Mode must be used.


Addendum
Texture Alignment with GZDoombuilder

MaxEd has found a way to overcome the above limitation with the release of GZDoombuilder r1645.

Revision 1645 - Directory
Listing
Modified Thu Nov 22 13:12:35 2012 UTC by m-x-d
Doom/Hexen map formats: texture offsets of walls can now be edited properly in GZDoom Visual mode.

And also this:

Revision 1649 - Directory Listing
Modified Tue Nov 27 21:12:20 2012 UTC by m-x-d
Merged Visual mode and GZDoom Visual mode into GZDB Visual mode. GZDoomEditing.dll is no longer required.

Now, that the two visual modes have merged, from GZDoombuilder r1682 on, MaxED has implemented the auto alignment of texture on 3D constructs as well. This works for GZDoom: Doom (Hexen format) and GZDoom: Doom(UDMF) maps.

Revision 1682 - Directory Listing
Modified Thu Jan 10 15:08:43 2013 UTC by m-x-d
Auto align textures: 3D floors in Hexen map format need to be aligned as well...


Have fun creating your maps.

Kappes Buur
updated 14 Jan 2013