PSX Doom: The Lost Levels - New Pre-Beta Available courtesy of Salahmander2

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When the team at Williams Entertainment ported the classic Doom games to the PlayStation, they created what many of us considered the definitive versions of Doom. While it may have run in a slightly lower resolution, the port took full advantage of the hardware it was running on and was easily superior to every other console version available at the time. Its visuals were darkened, colored light and translucency effects were added, it had a new set of sounds and creepy ambient music by Aubrey Hodges, making it one of the most atmospheric games available on the console, in stark contrast to the brighter PC version.

With the recent release of version 2.0 of the PSX TC, which adds the full set of levels from the PSX version of Final Doom, there has been some talk of porting even more official levels to the TC. PSX Doom: The Lost Levels is a community project that will do just that, attempting to make authentic conversions of maps from all of the classic Doom games.

This will be released as an add-on for the TC and not integrated as a part of it. Level progression is undecided at this time; it can either override the existing progression, adding the new conversions seamlessly, or it can be a standalone episode. If you have a preference, please make it known in the thread.

Converting Maps

This is a little guide for converting a map to PSX style. First up, your final map's format must be ZDoom's Doom in Hexen or UDMF. See the ZDoom wiki for information on these formats and conversion tools if you're not familiar with them. Use whichever you're most comfortable working with, neither has any major advantage over the other for this project and the TC uses both formats. You'll need an editor capable of loading png graphics from .pk3 files to use the PSX resources.

BaronOfStuff explains how to convert a Doom format map to Hexen format and from that, optionally, UDMF:

BaronOfStuff said:

First convert to Hexen format with ZWADCONV found here.

Usage: zwadconv <source.wad> <output.wad>


Then convert that to UDMF with WAD2UDMF found here.

Usage: wad2udmf -input <source.wad> -output <output.wad>


This will save you a hell of a lot of time!

As Gez put it, this is sort of a "Doom the Way Williams Did", and we're aiming for authenticity. Unfortunately, since we can't target the original engine, we can't be 100% certain our conversions would have run on it. None-the-less, below is a quick list of things that you'll want to ensure your map complies with, to give it the feeling that it could've been an official map.

Nuxius has written an excellent guide on some of the less known PSX engine limitations. Be sure to read this:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1128807#post1128807


Texturing

I hope your editor of choice has a find and replace option. The PSX version has plenty of textures which are equivalent to the PC textures (or more specifically, patches in most cases), however all of them use different names. All maps should use PSX textures exclusively, as many of them have added dithering, contrast, or other changes compared to the PC textures. In the event that the PSX version has no equivalent texture, turn to the existing maps for inspiration on how to retexture your map. Keep in mind that the E4, Doom 2, and Final Doom maps rarely had significant texture changes, compared to the original Doom maps ported from the Jaguar version, but there were limits on how many unique textures could be used in each map:

• Only 16 unique flats can be used in a map. Animated textures only take up one space, no matter how many frames they used.
  
  
• The maximum width of all wall textures used in a map combined can't exceed 1536 pixels. This includes the sky texture, which adds 256 unless the map is using the fire sky, which is only 64 wide in the original engine.
  
  
• While animated textures still only take one slot each, switch textures take two. This explains why less switch variety is used in the PSX maps.
  

Level Geometry, Sector Heights and Exploits

Try to keep wall architecture simple. If an area seems to be using an excessive amount of vertices and you can cut some without changing the overall shape of the wall, do so.

Don't hesitate to remove windows looking into complicated areas.

The PSX renderer would only tile a wall texture once - walls taller than 256 units would have their texture stretched instead, which is something the devs tried to avoid. In areas where the height of the surrounding walls could not be brought bellow 256, zero height sectors were utilized to split the wall into two halves, bypassing the issue.

Likely as a result of the wall tiling issue, extreme sector heights were often toned down for the PSX version. See The Crusher (MAP06/MAP36) as an example of this. The PSX seems to use heights in the 300s at maximum. The PSX renderer could not exceed 512 without having to utilize a non-zero height surrounding sector, and that's something that was never done in the original games.

Excessive floor height variation was also toned down; this usually applies to staircases. If the map you're converting uses a lot of 8 tall stairs, merge two of them together into a 16 tall stair.

Nuxius posted an excellent comparison image which shows a number of changes made to Unto The Cruel for the PSX version:

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/7986/psxe4m8.png

Red areas are sector mergers/height changes, pink are simplified walls, and blue are zero height sectors inserted to avoid the wall tiling issue.

Self-referencing sector tricks were removed; chances are the PSX engine wasn't capable of reproducing them. Either remove these entirely, replace them with something else (an invisible bridge replaced by a visible bridge, for example) if they're vital to the level's gameplay.

Try to avoid areas where a taller sector can be seen from a lower sky sector. You can sometimes see the taller sector through the sky of the lower sector. An example of this can be seen in MAP08. Open the door leading to the exit teleporter, then step back into the large open area. You can see the walls of the exit area through the sky of the open area. (A similar quirk in its renderer was used to make the "3D" architecture in Doom 64 believable.)


Monsters

The PSX had limited RAM, and a consequence of this is that the monster variety was often reduced in Doom 2 and Final Doom maps. Try to limit the number of unique monster types in the maps, for example a map which original used barons, hell knights, revenants, and mancubi might only use hell knights and revenants in the PSX version.

On the other hand, some Doom 2 monsters were added to the Ultimate Doom maps on skill 4, and you have access to the nightmare spectre (actor 3000), which originally reused the demon's frames and as such took up no additional space in RAM.

No arch-viles, unfortunately. They've been replaced by a bloody chain sprite, so be sure to replace their actor with something more fitting in your conversions if necessary.

Nuxius posted a handy monster value chart in his post about PSX limitations:

Demon/Spectre/Nightmare Spectre - 4 points
Imp - 2.5 points
Trooper - 2 points
Sergeant - 2 points
Chaingunner - 3.5 points
Lost Soul - 1 point
Cacodemon - 3 points
Pain Elemental - 3.5 points
Arachnotron - 6 points
Hell Knight - 4 points
Baron of Hell - 4 points
Revenant - 8 points
Mancubus - 6.5 points
Cyberdemon - 12 points
Spiderdemon - 22 points

Don't exceed more than 26 points in your map. If you have a large number of detail sprites, you might want to drop your total lower.


Lighting

PSX light values are significantly darker than the PC version. This is because the PSX renderer handles lighting differently, and lower values are much brighter than their PC software renderer equivalents. Look at the existing PSX maps and compare them with their PC counterparts for examples of the values you should be using. In general, sectors are about 1/2 to 3/4 as bright in the PSX version, although these values sometimes need adjustments based on the light color being used.

For colored lighting, the TC includes an ACS library which corresponds to the PSX version's LIGHTS lump. Kaiser made an html page showing these lights, which I've fixed up and uploaded to my webspace here:

PSX Color Chart

Simply add 1000 to the light # listed there, use it as a sector tag and that sector will automatically be colored. For sectors which already have tags, you will need to write your own script to color them. Alternatively, you can add the color directly to the sector properties if you're using UDMF. In either case, be sure to only use colors that were available in the LIGHTS lump.

Sector light fade effects need to be done in ACS. Here is an example script from MAP03:

script 501 open {
	while (1) {
		Light_Fade (17,0,140);
		Light_Fade (2135,0,140);
		delay(140);
		Light_Fade (17,200,140);
		Light_Fade (2135,200,140);
		delay(140);
	}
}

As pointed out by Megamur, maps with the fire sky typically have their light levels set to 255.

Reverb

In order to add reverb to the interior areas of your map, add two 9048 - Sound Environment things to your map. Tag one 1515 and the other one 1516. Set 1515's argument 1 to the number of the reverb you wish to use. An ACS library in the TC will take over from there and apply reverb to any sector which isn't open to the sky. If you wish to have reverb in a sector open to the sky or to have interior areas without reverb, you'll need to do a little more work. fenderc01 sums up the differences between reverb effects and how to change the reverb of individual areas better than I could hope to:

fenderc01 sums this up much better than I can:

There are 3 different effects that are used in the PSX version, depending on which level you are on. I used 3 different effects in GZDoom that closely resemble those from the PSX version. I used 14 0 (Alley), 5 0 (Stone Room), and 7 0 (Concert Hall). Alley has the shortest reverb and is typically used for smaller or close quarters levels. Concert Hall has the longest reverb and is typically used for large or wide-open levels. Stone Room is somewhere in the middle. I can't say for sure if these rules apply the all levels, but it seems to be a good guideline to follow.

Also, like I mentioned before, there are areas with a ceiling that do not have reverb and areas with a sky that do have reverb. For areas that need to be isolated, close off the entire area using linedef action number 121 (Line Identification) and set flag 1 (Sound boundary). Add a sound environment thing to the closed off area if applicable.

Here is a list of maps from the original PSX Doom using each reverb effect:
Alley: 3, 5, 8, 11, 23, 26, 28, 35, 39, 49, 52, 53
Stone Room: 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13-16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 32-34, 38, 40-42, 44-48, 50, 51, 54, 55
Concert Hall: 1, 2, 12, 17, 20, 29, 31, 36, 56-59
None: 37, 43

Bugs

Small map bugs were occasionally fixed in the PSX version. Things like stuck monsters, missing textures, etc.


Use Your Best Judgment

Lastly, there's no hard written rule here, but these maps are targeting a platform from 1995, which was in some ways more limiting than the PCs the games original ran on. If something seems like it would've been too complex, don't be afraid to make alterations.

Map List

Claimed maps have the mappers name in parenthesis, bold maps are completed, italics may not be included.

Ultimate Doom
Forsaken Keep [Hell Keep PC] - (NoneeLlama)
Slough of Despair - (NoneeLlama)
Dis - BaronOfStuff
Warrens - (NoneeLlama, Salahmander2)
They Will Repent - (fenderc01)
Against Thee Wickedly - (DeXiaZ)
And Hell Followed - (Avoozl)
Fear - (fenderc01)
Sewers - (BaronOfStuff)

Doom 2
Downtown - (DeXiaZ)
Industrial Zone - (DeXiaZ)
Gotcha! - (DeXiaZ)
The Chasm - (fenderc01 & Salahmander2)
The Spirit World - (Salahmander2)
The Living End - (Dragonsbrethren)
Icon of Sin - (BaronOfStuff)
The Castle [Wolfenstein] - (BaronOfStuff)
The Escape [Grosse] - (BaronOfStuff)
Betray - (DeXiaZ)

Master Levels
Titan Manor - (DeXiaZ)
Trapped on Titan [TTRAP.WAD] - (DeXiaZ)
The Garrison [GARRISON.WAD] - (DeXiaZ)
Black Tower [BLACKTWR.WAD] - (DeXiaZ)
Bloodsea Keep [BLOODSEA.WAD] - (Dragonsbrethren)
Mephisto's Maosoleum [MEPHISTO.WAD] - (DeXiaZ)
paulcorfiatis.com/psxteeth.wad]The Express Elevator to Hell [TEETH.WAD MAP31] - (pcorf)
Bad Dream [TEETH.WAD MAP32] - (BaronOfStuff)

TNT
Power Control - (Dragonsbrethren)
Hanger - (DeXiaZ)
Open Season - (Avoozl)
Prison - (DeXiaZ)
Metal - (DeXiaZ)
Stronghold - (Salahmander2)
Redemption - (BaronOfStuff)
Storage Facility - (DeXiaZ)
Steel Works - (pcorf)
Dead Zone [secret exit to Pharaoh] - (Salahmander2)
Mill - (DeXiaZ)
Shipping/Respawning - (DeXiaZ)
Central Processing - (DeXiaZ)
Administration Center - (pcorf)
Habitat - (DeXiaZ)
Baron's Den - (Avoozl)
Mount Pain - (DeXiaZ)
River Styx - (Cryo)
Last Call - (BaronOfStuff)
Pharaoh [secret exit to Caribbean] - (Eris Falling)
Caribbean - (DeXiaZ)

Plutonia
Well of Souls - (Dragonsbrethren)
Caged - (Dragonsbrethren)
Caughtyard - (Eris Falling)
Realm - (Salahmander2)
Abattoire - (Salahmander2)
Hunted - (DeXiaZ)
Speed - (DeXiaZ)
The Crypt - (Salahmander2)
Genesis - (Salahmander2)
The Twilight [secret exit to Cyberden] - (DeXiaZ)
The Omen - (DeXiaZ)
Compound - (Salahmander2)
Neurosphere - (Eris Falling)
NME - (Salahmander2)
Slayer - (Salahmander2)
Impossible Mission - (DeXiaZ)
Tombstone - (BaronOfStuff)
The Final Frontier - (Salahmander2)
The Temple of Darkness - (Salahmander2)
Bunker - (DeXiaZ)
Anti-Christ - (Salahmander2)
The Sewers - (DeXiaZ)
Odyssey of Noises - (Nuxius, DeXiaZ)
The Gateway of Hell - (BaronOfStuff)
Cyberden - (BaronOfStuff)
Go 2 It - (BaronOfStuff)

Excellent, its official now.

About the Arch-Viles, Aubrey Hodges did create sounds for him. If those are still around and get released, there might be an excuse to use him. Hunted wouldnt feel the same without him afterall.

For Wolfenstein and Grosse, those were replaced by The Mansion and Club Doom in PSX Doom, and as such there arent any textures for them (Remember that level 15 was cut. You access these from Level 16 instead and their the only secret level in the Doom 2 portion). Would they be redone using normal textures? There was enough bitching over the BFG Edition edits to these levels to satisfy global laws, and that was just removing the imagery from the walls and replacing the Nazis with zombiemen. I suggest using Sewers and Betray from the Doom 3 port on the Xbox instead, they are afterall now classed as official console excusive levels. Both arent amazing quality, but editing them for PSX Doom could make them worthy. Betray in particular is kind of surreal in its overuse of coloured liquids, which screams coloured lighting and maybe some transparency effect too.

I wouldn't mind including the arch-vile in Hunted, like I mentioned in the thread for the TC. I hadn't really considered the Wolfy levels too much - if those are included, they'll need to be the exception to the PC texture rule. I don't see much point in including them, but this is a community project and if there's demand then they will be.

The XBox bonus stuff would be cool, Dr. Sleep's other non-Master Levels Inferno maps, etc. like we were discussing before. As those get converted I'll add an other category to the OP.

Dragonsbrethren said:

PSX Color Chart

Hey, that's the chart I made years ago!

Hmm, I think I'll do Against Thee Wickedly. Never done a PSX style map before. (Even if this is just converting)

Heh, interesting. It's Lost Episode in reverse. :P

Quick, someone PSX-ify Logos Anomaly! It'll be funny!

Don't forget Carol St. Station, Xaser. ;)

I see what you did there Xaser.

...I REALLY have to play that.

What about music choices for each map?

For one of them I was thinking PSXDoom track 13 would go well with E4M7 as it has that evil feel like E4M7's original track "Sinister" has, but this is just a mere thought of mine for one of them.

Avoozl said:

What about music choices for each map?

I am absolutely convinced that PSXMUS08 (the same track as heard during 'Phobos Anomaly') fits a (my) PSX-ified 'Dis' perfectly. Just thought I'd throw that out there (although I suppose PSXMUS20 works well too...).

PSXMUS07 for Bloodsea Keep. Just a dumb coincidence; Bloodsea.wad uses the MAP07 slot, MAP07's PSX music really fits the level. (Speaking of that, I ended up cutting the tag 666 behavior and just implemented a switch for the secret area instead.)

I figure everyone can just pick out their own music. If we end up hearing the same track too often we can always mix it up a bit later.

Oh my god. I cannot wait for this...11 years of PSX Doom, most of which I didn't even know a load of levels had been missed. Will be great to see how they turn out.
I hope Aubrey can release those Arch-vile sounds. I agree Hunted wouldn't be the same without the AV.

Holy resounding thunderous fat person falling face-first down concrete steps, Batman! I'd LOVE to contribute, but wouldn't be able to do this justice.

I'm not thrilled about many of the levels that are going to be converted to the PSX version, there is probably more than one good reason why they were left out, but I will still play them!

Good luck to the team!

PS Mephisto's Mausoleum might work with the "Tell Me Why" song.

Also, if we're going to add Dr Sleep's maps, why not just port every good map across... the project would just get bogged down when we can simply play those maps with PSXMUS.WAD and PSXSNDS.WAD. Although if you did remake Crossing Acheron for example, the Toxin Refinery music would be perfect.

EDIT: Arch-Vile noises for PSX Doom? Can someone provide a source for this revelation so I can geek out?

MajorRawne said:

EDIT: Arch-Vile noises for PSX Doom? Can someone provide a source for this revelation so I can geek out?

Click the link to Aubrey Hodges in the OP. Confirmed by the man himself.

MajorRawne said:

Holy resounding thunderous fat person falling face-first down concrete steps, Batman! I'd LOVE to contribute, but wouldn't be able to do this justice.

Come on, go for it. Pick a smaller level if you're concerned with getting overwhelmed. It's not very hard; hardest part is probably doing the lighting. Maybe retexturing until you get familiar with the PSX texture names. If I were a better coder, I'd probably try writing a program to automate the retexturing, light levels, and reverb (those things alone give the levels a PSX feel, even without colored lights or the other features.)

Death Egg: Filled you in for Against Three Wickedly. Overlooked your post before.

This is from that link to Aubrey Hodges at the top of the post. The main man himself posted a link to his album Journey Into The Dark Places. I recon we should use the tracks for some of the new levels.

http://aubreyhodges.bandcamp.com/album/journey-into-the-dark-places

They are very close to his Playstation doom score, they would fit right in.

oh yeah, more psx!!

Okay, got some WIP screenshots. Keep in mind that these look incredibly bare because:
A) I'm not done just yet.
B) It's 'Dis', hardly a map containing much to work with.
C) A PSX-ified map would possibly have even less to show than the original.

Anyway, here they are:

Twitching guy replaced with everyone's favourite meathook.


Initial corridor shortened to reduce distance, added nonsense to the sides to add some atmosphere.


Still not happy with this particular sector colour, it just doesn't quite seem 'orangey' enough. I'll have another look at the colour chart later. In the distance, you can see the central chamber is now made of marble blocks in lieu of the missing 'skintek' (or whatever it is called) texture. Also, much of the texturing on the outside sector has been reworked to look a tiny bit less bland and crap than E3M8.


This colour is fine though as far as I am concerned. Because armour jackets make rooms change colour!


Gratuitous action shot. Can again see here that the 'arena' floor isn't as low down as E3M8, in order to give that Baron Of Hell some chance at hitting idle players instead of the side of the walkway.


New exit room added, much like PSX Tower Of Babel.


I was originally going to have the rest of the map coloured a blue/green shade, but it just seemed way too forced and gimmicky. Instead I turned the sector brightness down. Looks okay.

Dis looks pretty good actually. Like the glass hallway at the beginning and the flaming sky just adds a lot more to the tone of the level.

Also, where is the new exit located? On the back wall?

Yep, directly opposite the start area, opening once the Mastermind is killed. I was going to have it on one of the side walls, but in my mind that just made no sense.

BaronOfStuff said:

Yep, directly opposite the start area, opening once the Mastermind is killed. I was going to have it on one of the side walls, but in my mind that just made no sense.

That fifth screenshot is just pure epicness.

Eris Falling said:

That fifth screenshot is just pure epicness.

I was just mashing PrtScr at random intervals. Got lucky with that one really.

I need to get in on this. I'd love to help!

BaronOfStuff said:

In the distance, you can see the central chamber is now made of marble blocks in lieu of the missing 'skintek' (or whatever it is called) texture.

I think you should replace SKINTEK1/2 by SKIN01/02/03. It's what they tended to do (compare Mount Erebus for example).

It might be good for the entry corridor too.

Alright, I'll mess around with it some more later on and post some comparison shots.

Been playing DOOM original episodes from version 2.0 of the PSX TC a bit and I applaud the work that's been put into it. Never played the actual PSX version but this is quite a unique experience from the PC versions that I've played & replayed. Only one gripe: it seems MUCH easier than the PC versions even with chaingunners & phantom spectres , but that's certainly not the fault of the authors of this TC. I think I may need to turn auto aim off to make it even slightly challenging. Thanks for all the hard work, boys.

I started converting Slough of Despair.

http://imageshack.us/a/img694/7648/e2m3psx01.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img818/8600/e2m3psx02.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img23/6646/e2m3psx03.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img5/3092/e2m3psx04.png

Does this green color looks right? Looks a bit weird with the flaming sky, but hey, it's Hell.

cacomonkey said:

Only one gripe: it seems MUCH easier than the PC versions even with chaingunners & phantom spectres

Yes, enemy animations are slower and some enemies are weaker (lost souls dispatched in a single shotgun shot, for example). This was probably done originally so as to make it easier to play with a controller.

NoneeLlama said:

Does this green color looks right? Looks a bit weird with the flaming sky, but hey, it's Hell.

I think Slough of Despair is a purple level, what with the FIREBLU2 craters in the original version. Try light colors 245 to 250, maybe?

Right, here are the texture edits/changes Gez suggested, and I've got to say that it makes things look a lot better:


The SKIN textures here look a lot better than inexplicable glass use in the middle of Hell. But that colouring looks shit now that the green marble has been replaced.


Ah, there we go. The light in these two sectors fades in/out, and can actually look pretty creepy if you just watch the endless skulls and body parts slowly sinking down.


Central column looks much, much better like this. I had to lower a few other sectors to get the vertical tiling to not look lazy and shit, but it's barely noticeable and has in turn made the marble walls look better anyway.


Another gratuitous action shot, where I seem to be playing like an absolute retard by standing out in the open.

Dis is looking really good.

Slough of Dispair with green light is interesting, but looks a bit odd with that fire sky overhead.