Just this Monday, I disocovered a new (for 2007) Doom random map generator called OBLIGE (alternate link). I feel this map generator is a good deal more advanced than SLIGE and SLUMP. Unlike SLIGE/SLUMP, it supports:
- Real outdoor areas
- Balconies
- More detailed rooms
- No "null" quests: If you go somewhere and fight monsters, you will get some prize for your bother (such as a good weapon or a power-up)
- Heretic and Hexen support, in addition to real FreeDoom and Plutonia/Evilution support
- Real deathmatch and coop support
- A GUI interface
Unlike SLIGE, which codes everything in C, OBLIGE uses a scripting language called Lua for the map building core. The code is larger than SLIGE--my Windows zipfile of SLUMP, complete with node-builder is only 100k in size; OBLIGE is about six times larger. It's also slower; I can make a 32-level small megawad in SLUMP/SLIGE (complete with the nodes being built with BSP) in about a second; a megawad with the same size takes between 30 seconds and a minute to make in OBLIGE.
The nice thing about the Lua core is that it is far easier to customize the map generator. Indeed, I have done exactly that, and have made the following updates to OBLIGE:
- Smaller levels, especially when making deathmatch maps and when selecting a "small" level size.
- Allowing smaller levels caused some bugs to pop up, which I have addressed.
- It is now possible to finish an episode in Doom 1 or Heretic; E#M8 is now a normal level with a normal exit (no boss arenas though)
- Heretic fixes: No more doors that you can't open; you can now go to the secret level
- Build fix: If a level is unable to place a staircase, instead of crashing and burning, the generator will discard the level and try again.
Some MaraDNS support issues: An automatically generated Debian bug saying it's hard to automate getting a new version of MaraDNS; one of the root servers has changed. Now that I've had fun making my ObHack fork of OBLIGE, I will work on these this afternoon.
