Yadex 1.7.0 (2021-07-24)
3D Level Preview
What's it for
The 3D level preview function lets you get a rough idea of what
your level looks like, quickly, without all the hassle of saving,
building nodes and starting DOOM. It is activated by pressing the
`R' key while editing a level, and draws the player's view that
you would see within DOOM (with some limitations). While the
rendering window is up, you can move around the level using the
cursor keys and toggle things like texturing and sprites on/off.
Key bindings
- [Left]
[Right]
- Turn the view left or right. Use the SHIFT key to
turn a greater amount.
- [Up]
[Down]
- Move the view forward or back. Use the SHIFT key to
move a greater distance.
- [n]
[m]
- Move the view sideways left or right (strafing). Uppercase `N'
and `M' (i.e. with the SHIFT key) will move a greater distance.
- [c]
[d]
- Move the view upwards or downwards (flying). Uppercase `C' and
`D' (i.e. with the SHIFT key) will move a greater distance. Note
that you cannot move up or down when "walking" mode is enabled.
- [t]
- Toggle texture mapping. When disabled (the default), all walls,
ceilings and floors are drawn with solid (somewhat random) colours.
- [s]
- Toggle sprites.
- [w]
- Toggle walking mode. When enabled, the view height is always
above the current floor. For example, if you move forward over a
cliff, the view will drop down. When disabled (the default), you can
fly about the level at any height.
- [Esc]
[q]
- Exit the 3D level preview. The current viewing state (position,
direction, etc) are remembered, and will be used next time the 3D
preview is activated (unless the player object has been moved, or a
different level was loaded).
Features
- No BSP (nodes) required !
- Textures and flats are drawn exactly like DOOM, including X/Y
offsets and upper/lower unpegging flags.
- Sky is handled just like in DOOM (but drawn in solid blue).
Limitations
- No lighting, the level appears full-bright all the time.
- No mid-masked textures (rails, gratings) are drawn.
- Thing sprites (especially monsters) are always drawn facing
you, even when their direction is away from you.
- Sprite positioning may be inaccurate, because their X and
Y offsets are not honoured.
- Things that are supposed to hang from the ceiling
(hanging body parts, chandeliers, etc) will appear on the floor.
- There are some glitches in the current renderer, which look like
"slimetrails" (vertical lines).
Caveats
One last thing. The 3D preview function can use a huge amount of
memory when texturing and sprites are both enabled (and a large amount
even when texturing and sprites are both disabled). If your computer
has a very low amount of memory (e.g. less than 16 MB), then Yadex may
crash with an out of memory error. I think you are unlikely to hit
this problem, but if in doubt, save your work first.
AJA 2021-07-24