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 Sadly, there are far too few Doom WADs that actually take full advantage of these enhancements. I hope to post my own levels, as well as any I can find that take full advantage of the enhancements in GZDoom. MY WADS: My first level in 15 years, "Redux E2M4" is a remake of Doom 1's E2M4, my favorite map of the original Doom. I think it was maybe the spooky music or something, but I played this level a TON and truly felt like it was a real place. This remake attempts to enhance the level as far as I can take it with my harmonica skills. You'll need a beefy computer to run this! At least a GeForce 6600 and a 2GHZ Pentium IV! Requires Doom 2 IWAD and GZDoom 1.4.6 or later.  This park is all indoors and is fertilized with recycled nuclear waste! Note the use of particle grass and trees, which is a first for GZDoom, as far as I know.  Teleporter machinery swirls and humms as the pad awaits far above. Note the use of dynamic lighting instead of Doom's static sector lighting, which gives the scene a more realistic feel. Download Redux E2M4 for GZDoom now! (15.4Mb) My current work in progress is temporarily named "Jungle." I am going to attempt to push GZDoom's particle system farther than it has ever been pushed before. That means particle grass, particle leaves on trees, and as organic an outdoor landscape as I can make GZDoom render. To enable this level of detail I'll be trying to split off each area/room of the levels into a separate level to speed rendering and loading, a la Half-Life. Here are a couple screenshots from the first area, my proof of concept. Comparing this to Crysis isn't fair. Compare it to the original Doom and you'll be impressed.  Looking up at the sky over the water. Notice the lens flair on the sun, which shifts and moves as you turn and look around.  A nice shot of the inland, showing off the gobs of particles in play. Note the early morning mist you can see gently softening the image. This mist slowly shifts and swirls around the island.  The swamps. Oppressive fog shifts and swirls along the water while the last vestiges of light fade from the sky. Stars twinkle overhead and swamp frogs chirp all around you. Particle trees create a dense canopy of slimy green foliage as you wend your way through vines and muck. Monsters shoot at you from out of the fog, while Demons try to sneak up on you from all sides. Your gun creates a blinding flash of light in the fog that futher obscures your vision. You truly have to see this area to believe Doom can make such visuals.  Oh. My. Gosh. This was the hardest render I've ever done for any game. This structure is INSANELY complex! There are nearly TWO HUNDRED 3D floor control sectors building this thing. And the sectors building it? Over ONE THOUSAND of them! It looks amazing to see it in game, and to climb it. Support beams and stair boards all line up perfectly. My head was dizzy it was so hard to keep it all straight, but it is the single coolest looking structure in Doom EVAR! :)  I probably lost a little bit of realism by changing the grass texture and hue yesterday, but I think the level looks even more impressive with this new pallette. This is the latest area I'm working on. You've moved through the caves and are deep into the level by this point, far from the ocean. Note the particle trees. Nice place for a picnic, eh?  I have no idea what's happening here, but it sure is cool! Remember in the late nineties when lense flairs were a novelty in games? Well, here's an orgy of 'em! I can't remember; has Doom ever done this before? OTHER AWESOME GZDOOM WADS Have you made a cool Doom WAD that takes advantage of GZDoom? Show it to me and if it's good, I'll host it here! I'd like to have a repository for REALLY GOOD GZDoom WADs on the net, since I haven't been able to find one anywhere when I've been lookin'. This one is called BGPA Missions : Liberation, and was made by Enjay. Enjay has been an immeasurable help to me in learning modern level design within Doom. His levels are also what inspired me to make my levels in the first place, so I owe him quite a bit. He's a genuinely nice guy and a mapping wizard! I don't really get the back story of this WAD...something about it being inspired by a real life adventure game some of his friends partook in or something. What I can tell you is it is a fun set of levels with lots of GZDoom enhancements like true rooms above rooms, 3D models everywhere, and a great soundtrack taken from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. (The best WWII game ever made, and the best videogame soundtrack ever made, IMHO.) There is lots of scripting and level altering techniques at play here, and the levels are a blast to play. Warning though, they are HARD! I played this on easy mode and STILL had to creep and save to survive! Those Incas are vicious!  Approaching a bunker  A view of one of the skylines in the level. I love the clever design that makes this feel like a real place. Download BGPA Missions: Liberation now! (40.4 Mb) |
