Let's Make a Level for Duke Nukem 3D, Part 11

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Last time, we detailed the jumping puzzle area somewhat. Here's what it looked like when we left off:

Spiffy. Only problem is, there's no detail on the floor or ceiling. There's an easy solution to that however, which will look nice in this setting.

There, that looks suitable for this room. I've had to move around loads of platforms to build that ceiling stuff (remember what I said about not neglecting ceiling details?) so I have to move them back to fix the jumping puzzle. But then after that, I need to make the entry room to the underwater maze.

That looks...adequate. Really just the room's basic structure and texturing is done, I don't know what the lighting situation is going to look like yet. It's a complex room so lighting will, once again, be a bitch. I could have kept it simple to make my life easier when it came time to add shadows, but I don't want to let down the design in any area.

See that itty bitty room way out there? That's the underwater sector. Now I gotta explain how water works in this game. It's a ruse. A heckin' bamboozle, friends! It's just a type of teleporter.

When you duck while standing waist deep in an above water sector (lotag 1) you are silently, instantly teleported to just below the ceiling of the corresponding underwater sector (lotag 2) linked to it by a pair of sector effector sprites with identical hitags, and a lotag of 7.

Here it is. Where you submerge to when you dive into that pool in the floor. This will be the beginning of our underwater maze. That's why it's so far from the rest of the map, so there's room to branch out.

Distance doesn't matter much since you teleport there instantly, although if the distance is very large, on bigger complex maps that tax the processor, there will be a small delay when submerging.

Here I've given all surfaces a palette of 1 (blue) to further reinforce the feeling that the player is underwater. The typical slight blue tint doesn't cut it in my book. If you disagree and prefer it the other way, let me know. I'm gonna end it here and start expanding the underwater base in earnest next time.

Until then, feast your eyes on some screenshots of this map using the High Resolution Pack enabled:

WOOOAAHHH SUPER 1998 LEVEL GRAPHICS!!! CAN YOU HANDLE IT???

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^{Stay Cozy!}