Design and Shaping of Areas

This is an overview of designing and shaping a level. Review each command for specific instructions.

There are two ways to create areas in DeePsea: Linedrawing and Prefabricated Tools. Both can be used to save you time. This really depends on the type of object and your own personal preferences.

Any intricate design is made usually made in Line Drawing mode. Line Drawing mode can be entered at any time by pressing Ctrl+D or quick Double Right mouse click and select Drawing mode from the popup menu that appears. If you are in Vertex mode, a quick Double Left Mouse click also works as well as pressing the Ins key.

Draw clockwise to make 2-sided lines inside an existing area and counter-clockwise to make1-sided lines inside an existing area – unless you are surrounding an existing object, then do the opposite. See Drawing Tool for a breakdown of all the combinations.

Intelligent Inference Drawing (IID) examines the context of the area you draw in. When it does this, most of the details, such as Sectors and SideDefs are made for you as you progress.

In the next stage you start tuning your level by changing the heights of floors and ceilings. At this step, you have to add textures for the walls that are exposed from differences in heights. DeePsea can automatically supply missing textures, but this is only for beginners. It has no idea what the scene should look like, so use the check instead and make it as you intended.

Predefined (prefabricated) Shapes

You can also create predefined shapes such as rectangles, polygons, stairs and teleports using the F9 (Object) menu. This is called TOOL mode. There are also Pools, Pedestals/Boxes, Windows and Teleport pads available.

TOOL mode is productive for both the beginner and the expert. It gets rid of the busy work for complicated objects (such as stairs) and gets you to the creative part of your design quicker! Use the TOOLs in LineDef mode for automatic LineDef merging.

In TOOL mode, the objects can be drawn to size and dragged placed anywhere by using a combination of mouse buttons and keys. The interactive feature of all the Tools makes it easy to create the object where and how you want it. As you start to create the object, it’s easy to change the size and move it around the level for proper placement.

Press F9 to bring up the Tool popup menu. From this you select the type of object and then you select the object attributes. You can also double right click bringing up a similar popup menu.

There are two types of Tool selections. One has the command followed by (direct) and the other says (prefab).

The first type (direct) has no dialog. This is typically used for creating areas with no textures, using the same sector height as the area drawn in – thus you have1 or 2-sided LineDefs (depending on the object). This is usually used for creating different lighting areas, but it depends on youl If you use this tool outside an existing area, it creates a standard 1-sided object with textures.

The second type (prefab) brings up a specification dialog. Here you enter the object type and specifications. You can also alter the textures assigned for the object. Depending on the object, it is 1 or 2 sided and has textures assigned to the SideDefs. This is usually used for creating things like stairs or buildings inside an area, but the exact application depends of course on you.

Please see Prefab Menu Options (Rectangle, Stairs, Teleports) for more prefab tool information.

Press F1 help when using the Tool for commands specific to the tool used.

Objects made using the (prefab) selection are meant to be SEEN and have most of the required textures when created. You may have to supply additional textures depending on the final heights of everything. The check menu can do this automatically.

Rectangles and polygons made from the (direct) selection are meant to supply floor and ceiling textures for Room effects. They are created as 2-sided with no textures when made inside an existing Sector.

These can be made into objects if you change the floor and ceiling heights and add the required textures.

Design and shape areas after they are made by dragging the vertex points (using the right mouse button) to any location. This is the most flexible.

Areas can be shaped and dragged in any of the modes: Vertex, LineDef or Sector. You can select multiple objects in whatever mode you are in and all those objects will be dragged. In LineDef mode lines are dragged and in Sector mode areas are dragged and shaped. Vertex mode lets you drag as many vertexes as you selected to fine tune your level.

You should have a PLAN before you start drawing. This will minimize the amount of work you have to do. Even for first time users, decide what area you are going to modify and your goal.

Guidelines

We suggest modest goals and don't try to immediately make doors and teleports. Instead, make a room larger and extend the walls some. Learn about the difference between walls with only 1 side and those with 2 side. For example, on 1-sided walls you can use any of the textures, but on 2-sided walls use only the textures that say Transparent until you get a good idea of what works.

Note: There are always exceptions. They only work using special construction tricks. For now, keep it simple. If you discover a level that violates the rules, first make sure that it really works, then try it yourself. If it fails, the other guy was lucky or you forgot to do it EXACTLY the same.

You can change your mind, but it's like building a house. If after you build a house and you decide the bathroom doesn't belong there, you have to tear it all down along with some adjoining structures, so you can see the mess you might get into!