water in doom
Apr 9, 2023 20:05:59 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Apr 9, 2023 20:05:59 GMT -5
in the 2000s, i really admired game engines that emulated realistic water physics. I really liked seeing ripples, reflections, and a refracting background under the waters surface. GZDoom does some pretty cool liquids in PBR materials. Despite this, Ive had to unfortunately accept that theres not a lot of space for cool water related animation in vanilla Doom.
I use liquids a lot in my maps but liquids are really boring in vanilla Doom. I realize not a lot can be done, but when i play modern doom maps, ANY innovation made to turn water into more than just a 4-image slideshow on the floor is a delicious treat.
Doom liquids most often damages the player and comes in a few different color varieties. theres no depth, no splash sound when you land in it, no warping effects or reflections or anything.
Some mappers use brown slime, blood or nukage as non-damaging water. In my opinion it makes the most sense if it is similar to the sky color. Blue water is really only blue in real life when its reflecting the sky anyway.
Lots of Doom wads with new textures and other doom adjacent 90's first person shooters have animating water textures but they're all just different flavors of blue ripples and I havent seen any that really beat out Doom's in any significant way.
Theres a bunch of map/texture related things the mapper can do to make maps feel extra hydrated. Most mappers like using waterfall sidedef textures around their bodies of water for the extra motion and wetness. Ive seen a bunch of other cool water-related mapping effects in vanilla doom too but many of them have a limited application and sometimes cannot be used in conjunction with one another. Heres some examples:
- lowered self referencing dummy sectors so players can wade around in a pool for knee-level depth. (best works outside with a sky above, not so good in an area with changing ceiling heights)
- extended liquid animations with a slower/smoother animation (e.g. DBP29 Morbid Autumn)
- ambient noises, i.e. waterfalls, babbling brooks, or cave-like water drips
- static brick wall textures animated with refracting light ripples on them e.g. those sewer textures in Duke Nukem 3D
- dithered middle textures submerged around the borders of a body of water to simulate depth e.g. KDiKDiZD (maybe with an animated warbling effect this could look really cool...?)
- vertically flipped textures/decorations to simulate reflections. in the water.
- The Duke Nukem 3D map High Times has an alternate water texture with yellow spots, resembling little flares of light reflections on it. I think this looks pretty good in your peripheries but also looks like communion wafers floating in the water if you stop to look at it.
- I played a deathmatch map once that used the platform stop sound as a water splash sound effect, and then enclosed each body of water in linedef actions that moved a nearby floor to the same height. That way it made a splash every time you crossed it. Cool effect but you have to plan to not use any lifts or moving floors to use it which is lame.
I think about adding some kind of special use water texture with most DBPs but i often discard the idea because they'd waste animation slots just for a niche use that most mappers would probably use wrong anyway. In my experience it seems to make the more sense to design such textures for the map than to attempt to apply them to a map already designed.
What are your favorite examples of water done right in a Doom map/wad?Have you seen any great, rarely-used innovations in vanilla Doom water effects? Which color water makes the best water in your opinion? Blue? Brown? Gothic gray? Which texture pack or game has the best water animations? Do you have any ideas for textures/flats or other effects that would be useful for making better water in Doom?
I use liquids a lot in my maps but liquids are really boring in vanilla Doom. I realize not a lot can be done, but when i play modern doom maps, ANY innovation made to turn water into more than just a 4-image slideshow on the floor is a delicious treat.
Doom liquids most often damages the player and comes in a few different color varieties. theres no depth, no splash sound when you land in it, no warping effects or reflections or anything.
Some mappers use brown slime, blood or nukage as non-damaging water. In my opinion it makes the most sense if it is similar to the sky color. Blue water is really only blue in real life when its reflecting the sky anyway.
Lots of Doom wads with new textures and other doom adjacent 90's first person shooters have animating water textures but they're all just different flavors of blue ripples and I havent seen any that really beat out Doom's in any significant way.
Theres a bunch of map/texture related things the mapper can do to make maps feel extra hydrated. Most mappers like using waterfall sidedef textures around their bodies of water for the extra motion and wetness. Ive seen a bunch of other cool water-related mapping effects in vanilla doom too but many of them have a limited application and sometimes cannot be used in conjunction with one another. Heres some examples:
- lowered self referencing dummy sectors so players can wade around in a pool for knee-level depth. (best works outside with a sky above, not so good in an area with changing ceiling heights)
- extended liquid animations with a slower/smoother animation (e.g. DBP29 Morbid Autumn)
- ambient noises, i.e. waterfalls, babbling brooks, or cave-like water drips
- static brick wall textures animated with refracting light ripples on them e.g. those sewer textures in Duke Nukem 3D
- dithered middle textures submerged around the borders of a body of water to simulate depth e.g. KDiKDiZD (maybe with an animated warbling effect this could look really cool...?)
- vertically flipped textures/decorations to simulate reflections. in the water.
- The Duke Nukem 3D map High Times has an alternate water texture with yellow spots, resembling little flares of light reflections on it. I think this looks pretty good in your peripheries but also looks like communion wafers floating in the water if you stop to look at it.
- I played a deathmatch map once that used the platform stop sound as a water splash sound effect, and then enclosed each body of water in linedef actions that moved a nearby floor to the same height. That way it made a splash every time you crossed it. Cool effect but you have to plan to not use any lifts or moving floors to use it which is lame.
I think about adding some kind of special use water texture with most DBPs but i often discard the idea because they'd waste animation slots just for a niche use that most mappers would probably use wrong anyway. In my experience it seems to make the more sense to design such textures for the map than to attempt to apply them to a map already designed.
What are your favorite examples of water done right in a Doom map/wad?Have you seen any great, rarely-used innovations in vanilla Doom water effects? Which color water makes the best water in your opinion? Blue? Brown? Gothic gray? Which texture pack or game has the best water animations? Do you have any ideas for textures/flats or other effects that would be useful for making better water in Doom?
