Chapter 4: The Thok Barrier and Open Air Levels.
Okay, take a stroll through our level as Sonic again, and thok through a wall. Remember
that? Okay, here's how we fix it, and also make the level much prettier.
Create a sector (If you haven't noticed this, you can only do this in Sectors or Linedefs
mode.) around the outside of our level. It can be a simple square if you want, but keep in
mind that it needs to surround the entire level. Once you do this, the nice little Sector
box will pop up. Set the floor and ceiling heights to 256.
Wait, why do we need to do this?
Well, if you've run around a bit, you'll see that the camera gets screwed up a lot.
There's no real way to fix it, because the camera automatically goes through one sided
linedefs. In addition, Sonic can thok right through a one sided linedef, and Knuckles
can't climb on them right. The only way to fix this is to make sure that the player never
comes into contact with one sided linedefs. This is accomplished by setting a sector to be
on the outside of the level with the same floor and ceiling heights
*WADAUTHOR* Once again, WadAuthor has a little quirk here. You'd have to do a bunch of
joining and splitting of linedefs here, and generally much insanity, and still the thok
barrier wouldn't be perfect. However, in DoomBuilder, you just need to surround the
outside of the level, and the appropriate linedefs will be auotmatically edited. Easy as
pie.
Now, there's just one thing to keep in mind here. Can you figure it out? Yes, our new
sector, Sector 4, has a higher floor than the rest of the area (It also has a lower
ceiling, but we don't need to worry about that-you'll see why)
so we can see under it. That means we need to set below textures. Go through every single
linedef, and set a below texture as GFZROCK.
You: Wait, isn't there an easier way?
Well, there is. First, look at your map. Look at all the linedefs that used to be one
sided. Notice that little line on them? That means that side is the front side. That is
the side we will be seeing through. So, select every linedef that is a border for Sector
4, and right click on them. Go to the sidedefs menu, and in the box that says Front Side,
set the Below texture (It's the one on the far right) to GFZROCK.
*SIDENOTE* I should point out that in DoomBuilder, you don't need to hold control or
anything. Selecting objects is additive by default, which makes things easier.*ENDNOTE*
Click okay, and you'll be back in the map view. Let's see how this works
*TEST*
Well, it looks better, but there are still some problems. First of all, as Tails, fly up,
and you'll see we can see the layout of the entire level. Second, our spin obstacle looks
weird. The only way to fix that is to set the ceiling of it to F_SKY1, and that will look
even weirder (The wall will go back to being invisible). However, run around as Sonic. Try
to thok through the wall. You can't. Run around as Knuckles and try to climb on the wall.
You can. So, some good was done. The first problem, however, is easy to fix.
*ENDTEST*
Remember how to place a vertex on a line? We're going to be quite a bit of that. What you
need to do, is split the linedefs on Sector 4 enough so you can make is surround the level
exactly. It will be some units out, but it will be the same shape as the rest of the
level. When you're done, test it.
*TEST*
Looks much better, doesn't it. Run around some more if you wish
*ENDTEST*
Now, we're going to add some more things