GZDoom Tip: Taking Screenshots / Photo Mode

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By Default, GZDoom lets you take in-game screenshots using the F12 key. The resulting screenshots end up in your GZDoom folder in a subfolder named “Screenshots.”

Most modern games have some sort of photo mode that lets you fly around as a spectator to take interesting shots that wouldn’t be possible during normal gameplay. Follow this tip in order to get something similar inside GZDoom so you can take great screenshots!

Step 1: Minimize Your HUD

To temporarily minimize your HUD so that your health and ammo don’t take up the screen, you can press the equal-sign / plus-sign (= / +) key on your keyboard until the HUD goes away. To reverse this press, press the negative-sign / underscore ( – / _ ) key until your HUD is adjusted the way you prefer!

Alternatively, you can go to Options > Scaling Options > Screen Size and adjust the setting all the way to the maximum of 12 to have the HUD disappear completely.

Step 2: Hide Your Weapon

In order to temporarily hide your weapon sprite, type the following command into your console (press the ~) button.

r_drawplayersprites = 0

Step 3: Turn the Player into a Camera

In order to finish turning ourselves into a camera, we need to use some cheat codes. Type the following codes into your console and you’ll be a flying spectator!

god //This gives us invulnerability so we aren't getting hurt by anything
noclip //This allows us to move through the walls like a ghost
notarget //This makes us invisible to all enemies
fly //This allows us to float up and down

Bonus: Bind a Photo Mode Shortcut Key

If you are going to be taking lots of photos, you can combine all of Step 2 and Step 3 into a single keypress!

Type the following code into your console to transform your “P” key on the keyboard into a “Photomode” key!

bind p "noclip; notarget; god; r_drawplayersprites = 0; fly"

Release – USQC Unloaded DM

Casey

July 1st 2020 marked the release of USQC Unloaded!!! I contributed MAP12 of the mappack. Here are the details from the project lead, Zillah:

The USQC: Unloaded Community Project is a community-made mappack for DOOM 2 DM on Zandronum, containing 24 maps and featuring countless content ranging from huge maps that rival the size and complexity of a Quake map; and smaller maps which play like your favorite 90s WADs (only the good ones of course). With such a wide array of maps, none could go hungry ever again.

Check out the Doomworld /idgames post here (includes download, information, and credits): https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/deathmatch/Ports/megawads/usqc_undm

Check out the Doomworld forum post here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/115333-usqc-unloaded-release/

UPDATED 10/12/20: Added /idgames link

Downloads

Click here to download: usqc_unloaded_1.0.wadDownload

Screenshots

Getting Started with Ultimate Doom Builder

Casey

A new community developed fork of Doom Builder 2 has been released! ZDoom community member ZZYZX has worked to take everything that made Doom Builder 2 and GZDoom Builder great and put everything into an even more improved tool called Ultimate Doom Builder.

You can check out the original forum post below. It includes features, system requirements, and more information if needed.

Original forum post at forum.zdoom.org

Downloading Ultimate Doom Builder

You can also download from here if the forum post is inaccessible:

DRDTeam Official Downloads: 32-bit / 64-bit

DoomHell Unofficial Downloads: 32-bit / 64-bit

Installing Ultimate Doom Builder

Start by running the installation. If you are running Windows 10, you might have some security prompts depending on your security settings. Just click through the first one by selecting “More info” and “Run anyway”.

Click “More info”
Click “Run anyway”

You may get another UAC prompt. Just click Yes.

Now click through the installation. Decide where you want the installation destination to be and if you want a desktop shortcut or not.

Congrats! UDB is now installed.

Easily Update Ultimate Doom Builder to the Latest Version

Software that automatically updates software for you is the best. Thankfully, if UDB has admin rights, it will automatically do it for you.

Right-click your UDB icon and select “Run as administrator” and select “Yes.”

UDB will automatically know it has Admin privileges and prompt you to update to the latest version. Press the “Update” button.

Congrats! Happy mapping!

Hanging Gardens DM Map – Before and After (Screenshots)

Casey

I’ve been making Doom maps since 2009 and it’s always interesting looking at my past work and admiring how much I’ve improved since then. It’s also fun seeing the hidden gems I made. I decided to take a deathmatch level I created in May 2016 and update it to make it look and play better. It was originally called “Ruined Garden” but I decided to add a little play on words with “Hanging Garden” because of the foliage and gore decorations.

This level will made available in the future with an upcoming deathmatch map pack I will be releasing.

Here are before and after screenshots with commentary!

Original – Inside Hall
Updated – Inside Hall – Has a much better ceiling, added some water and a waterfall, and the area is much bigger. Many of the updated areas are bigger because the original was very claustrophobic.
Original – Chaingun/dirt room – This room always reminded me of a barn and I decided to change that.
Updated – Chaingun/Dirt Room – Weapon pickup areas are more detailed, the stairs are much easier to traverse. Added some cover on the upper portion as well.
Original – Outside Corner – I always loved this area but it seemed kind of tight.
Updated – Outside Corner – Now with a pond! It’s a lot more fun to fight in this little area now.
Original – SSG Slope – I always liked this area too. Not much going on here.
Updated – SSG Slope – There is now a cliff over the SSG just to added some detail.
Original – Center Rocket Launcher Area – For being an area with a rocket launcher it was always super small and made it a little unfair.
Updated – Center Rocket Launcher Area – Bigger, more detailed, and more fairness. There still isn’t any cover here but we don’t want to make the rocket launcher too safe to acquire.
Original – Entrance to Cave and Slope – I always thought the original cave was boring and ugly.
Updated – Entrance to Cave – Now the cave looks like a cave!
Original – Split Level Inside Area – Too small and the items sucked.
Updated – Split Level Inside Area – Better items, new grenade launcher area, hidden armor that makes you a target if you slow down to grab it, and a much bigger area to play.
Original – Vine Fence – I love this area but looking back it had a lot of room for improvement.
Updated – Vine Fence- Much prettier now and has a more “garden” feel to it.
Original – Boring Sloped Ceiling
Updated – Awesome ceiling made with sectors. This took a couple hours to complete one morning where I couldn’t sleep. I wanted a cool ceiling and couldn’t use slopes because of the added floor detail in this area.
Original – Clever barn door idea but interrupted deathmatch gameplay because it was a small door and you could easily get stuck on the edge of the doors.
Updated – Still wanted to use the door texture because it looks cool but made them into pocket doors I guess lol

Lisk DM – Single Deathmatch Level

Casey

This is a single deathmatch level created in 5 days for a coworker who was leaving to start a different career. We both enjoyed video games so I decided a fitting parting gift would be a deathmatch level dedicated to them. Enjoy the Linkin Park midi 🙂

  • Title: Lisk Deathmatch
  • Filename: lisk_dm_v1.1.pk3
  • Author: Casey Warrer
  • Source Port: Zandronum
  • Players: 2-8
  • GameModes: Duel/Deathmatch/Instagib
  • Maps: MAP01
  • 3D Floors and Slopes: Yes
  • Base: New from scratch
  • Build Time: 5 days
  • Editors Used: GZDoomBuilder, Slade3, GIMP
  • Credits: Linkin Park for the Papercut midi, Quake 3 for the jump pad sfx

Changelog:

  • v1.1: Fixed grate that allowed easy access to BFG unintentionally

Download:

lisk_dm_v1.1.pk3Download

Video:

Screenshots:

Doom Builder Tip – Help! Doom Builder Crashed and I Lost Some Data!

Casey

Doom Builder 2 is pretty stable and works great most of the time, but sometimes it does lock up and crash. If you are experiencing a crash and need to recover some lost progress, try following these steps!

This guide was adapted from This Forum Post from jmickle66666666

Try avoiding closing Doom Builder before you start this process. We don’t want it accidentally messing up the files we are going to be accessing in this guide.

Step 1: Make hidden items visible in Explorer

If you don’t already have hidden files and folders visible in Windows, enable them through Folder Options or simply open a new File Explorer window and go to the View tab on the ribbon and check the Hidden items checkbox. (see screenshot)

Step 2: Navigate to your AppData folder

This should be something like C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp

You can also type the directory in manually if you’d prefer.

Step 3: Find the Doom Builder temp folders

You should have a lot of different things in this folder (mostly unrelated to Doom Builder). Doom Builder should create some folders that are 8 characters long. Mine were lowercase. Here’s a screenshot of mine:

Step 4: Find the one that is most recent

Check the Date created and Date modified on each folder to find the one that you are trying to cover.

Step 5: Recover the files

Inside the folder, there should be some files. Locate the .tmp files and copy them somewhere safe. If you can’t tell which ones are the right ones, copy them all.

Step 6: Rename the files

Now take those files you copied and change the file extension to .wad. Try to open each one up in a separate Doom Builder window to make sure you got the one you wanted.

Step 7: Cleanup

You may need to rename the file to something normal and maybe even add the current date. You will have to add any additional external resources to your map again on your configuration page.

Conclusion

Alright! We recovered from a crash and didn’t lose too much progress! Doom Builder creates these .tmp files every time you change the level so recovering this way is pretty safe usually.

Remember to save often!

Doom Builder Tip – Why Did the GZDoom Features Stop Working in Visual Mode???

Casey

One minute you’re working in GZDoom Builder’s Visual Mode, you fumble some keys accidentally, and now skies, dynamic lights, slopes, and 3d floors are all gone!!! What the heck!!! I would do this every once in a while and not know how to turn it back on. After some digging, I found that the TAB key toggles these features being rendered or not in Visual Mode.

Hopefully this info helps you out!

Doom Builder Guide – 3D Floors

Casey

GZDoom’s 3D floors add a lot of functionality to your maps if you’re looking to stray away from the limitations of classic Doom and expand your maps to something more like Quake level design.

This tutorial is aimed at Intermediate mappers that understand sectors, linedef actions, dummy sectors, Visual Mode, and 3D space.

Download Example .WAD

Start with a basic level with raised platforms

I created a simple map that adds some verticality that we can work with and create 3D Floors for. Here are some screenshots.

I’m going to start by making a simple bridge over the two platforms that are 128px high. To do this we need to create a Dummy Sector. Dummy sectors are sectors that are outside the map that are unreachable and not part of the actual level. They let us set the heights of the dummy sector, and using a linedef action, those heights will translate to a tagged sector as a 3D floor.

I usually make my dummy sectors triangles because they cost one less linedef than a square. Set the lindef action on one side of the dummy sector to 160 – Sector Set 3D Floor. I set the tagged sector to 1.

Now I’m going to draw where I want my bridge and tag that sector as 1.

Now if we test in Visual Mode, we should see this…

This is not a bridge… yet! Adjust the floor and ceiling heights of the dummy sector in Visual Mode and watch as your bridge adjusts with it. The ceiling of the dummy sector affects the top of the 3D floor and the floor of the dummy sector affects the bottom of the 3D floor. Similarly, the texture of the dummy sector floor and ceiling also affect the textures of the 3D floor. The texture of the linedef that has the 3D floor action assigned to it affects the side of the 3d floor’s texture.

You can also change the brightness of the area underneath the 3D floor by changing the brightness of the dummy sector.

Create more dummy sectors and tag different destination sectors to create 3D stairs. You can reuse the same dummy sector for multiple destination sectors too. Tagging destination sectors with multiple tags allows you have multiple 3D floors as well!

To demonstrate the multiple tags idea, I created a nukage river in the middle of the map that runs through multiple 3D floors. I’m going to make a see-through 3D floor over it without having to make a ton of dummy sectors to compensate.

I’m going to use the Opacity argument on the dummy sector’s action linedef to make a glass-like floor over the nukage. We can also make the area under the glass colored to give a cool effect like so.

Textures that have transparency can also be used as grates, which can be extremely useful and aesthetically pleasing.

Sloped 3D floors are covered in my Slope tutorial, but you can use sloped 3D floors to added interesting architecture and details as well.