BEN - Random Deathmatch Map Generator for Quake2

[Yendor]

Greetings~  Been playing on Tasty for awhile now (usually as Baby Harp Seal).  I love you guys!  Ha, honestly, it's good to see a vibrant Q2 community still happening.

Submitted for the perusal of all who want to trash a few good hours out-of-game, a random map generator for Q2 that I wrote a very long time ago ... last millennium to be exact.

The name of the program is "Ben," after the movie, as this program arose from a random maze generator that I made a few years earlier.   The core of this program is the map generator itself, which is far better than the only other "random map generator" that I've ever found, which was mainly a 2-d generator.  BEN works in a 3D grid, carving hallways and rooms, and places lifts and stairways to assure there are no inescapable "pits of boredom."  In-game item placement is very rough (ok, it's pretty much crap-random), and the maps themselves are perfectly bare and without character as far as textures and style is concerned.   But they are fully playable, and sometimes quite entertaining, once you learn to appreciate maps for layout rather than pretty colors.  The parameters of the generator engine can be changed, affecting the style of map that is made (big open room with bridges, or sprawling hallways, etc.).  There are very rudimentary manual controls, which means that Ben can technically be used as a rudimentary map editor (a pathetically limited one though).

This program was originally written for use at LAN parties, where it can be setup to generate a series of maps and distribute them to shared folders on everyone's computer.  While the first map is being played, the map server (PC running Ben) then continues to create and compile maps, distributing them to all players (hopefully) before the match in the first map completes.  This continues forever or until all players run out of caffeine :)

I'm posting it here mainly to get some reactions, and if anyone has an interest in developing it any further.  It is a very simple MFC/VC++ (Dev Studio 6), dialog-box based project (one of my first).

The rar file (~500k), includes all the goodies to make it go.  Make sure to put it all in a folder of it's own, and that the colomap.pcx file is in a subfolder called 'pics' (this is for the id compilers). 

Link to download the rar file...
http://www.nubiandivas.com/ben2.rar

Curious to know what y'all think!  Keep on killin'!

[Kyper]

Heh, this makes me want try creating a roguelike. I just made a map without tinkering with any settings and took a few screenies to show how it looks. You'd definitely want to make sure you've enough items, but the geometric design looks pretty good and playable for a couple rounds of FFA.

This map had a spawn right under an elevator, and one weapon required a double jump to reach. I guess your luck may vary!

[X'tyfe]

now this is cool

it will never beat a real person making a map, but its still interesting

[peewee_RotA]

now this is cool

it will never beat a real person making a map, but its still interesting

I don't know..

How much of the source code do you have, and would you be interested in a project called Quiablo?

 

[The Happy Friar]

this in real time would be awesome.  Was done in doom 3, no reason it couldn't be done in q2. 

[[BTF] Reflex]

impressive,  Thankyou kyper for the screenies

[Yendor]

this in real time would be awesome.  Was done in doom 3, no reason it couldn't be done in q2. 

It's ever so cool to see (positive) responses to my little Ben.  Not sure what you mean by "real time".  Don't know if Q2 could be made to be played in a map while it's being created - but that would be way cool - Q2 meets Dark City!

What was done in Doom3?  A random generator?  Haven't heard of it, but I only recently got a computer capable of running anything better than Q2, so I'm a little behind  the times on the newer games (Yes I know Doom3 is no longer a new game )

I do have all source code, since I wrote the darned thing from scratch.  I haven't even looked at it in about 8 years!  I used to have delusions of grandeur that I could sell the base algorithm to someone, as it is better than anything else I saw out there (last time I looked).   It's done in MS Visual Studio 6, using C++ and MFC.  A very rudimentary project, since I'm an electronics engineer, not a software guy.

The screen shots are cool!  Awesome to see it through someone else's eyes...

[zndkw1n]

this in real time would be awesome.  Was done in doom 3, no reason it couldn't be done in q2. 

Yea, i didnt understand what you meant either.  And, is there a random map generator for doom 3 too?

[Yendor]

zndkw1n - Great pic of Osama Been Forgotten...  kinda makes me want to make a "Caves of Afghanistan" map, complete with spider holes, a full underground hospital with dialysis machine, and CIA communications station with ATM machine

[zndkw1n]

zndkw1n - Great pic of Osama Been Forgotten...  kinda makes me want to make a "Caves of Afghanistan" map, complete with spider holes, a full underground hospital with dialysis machine, and CIA communications station with ATM machine

dont forget bush bobble heads too!!  And, oh yea, as music for the map, put the portal song, "Still alive", specially the last verses:

"and believe me i am still alive, and I feel fantastic and im still alive, and when youre dying Ill be still alive, and when youre dead I will be still alive, still alive, still alive."

[peewee_RotA]

"and believe me i am still alive, and I feel fantastic and im still alive, and when youre dying Ill be still alive, and when youre dead I will be still alive, still alive, still alive."

Feel the city breakin and everybody shakin,
...
Ah, ha, ha, ha, WTF, WTF?

[QwazyWabbit]

This looks very cool indeed. I tried a few maps and they all have the same flavor and from a tournament standpoint it would be a very nice tool. Everyone is seeing the maps for the first time and they all learn them at the same time. I've never mapped before and it's interesting to see how it's done from this point of view.

[[BTF] Reflex]

See what ya mean about having plenty of items,

I did the 'one of everything',  damned if I could find em though

[Yendor]

This looks very cool indeed. I tried a few maps and they all have the same flavor and from a tournament standpoint it would be a very nice tool. Everyone is seeing the maps for the first time and they all learn them at the same time. I've never mapped before and it's interesting to see how it's done from this point of view.

Yes, Ben maps do have a particular look and feel that is quite homogeneous, since the .MAP generator is quite rudimentary.  You'll always have the squareness, the floating stairs and barbecue-grill lifts

However, you can get quite a wide variety of map types by tweaking the parameters under "Settings" just under the Maze Button.  An explanation of the parameters:

Total Moves is generally, the size/Complexity of the Map.  One "Move" is a movement of the cursor (red "X") in one of 8 random orthogonal directions.  The length of the Move will be a random number between the Min and Max Hallways Length.  If it chooses a vertical move (UP or DOWN), the engine "rolls the dice" once again and actually makes that move on the percentage in the "Vertical Probability".  A 100% in vertical probability simply means that for any given move, it has an equal change of going in any of the 8 directions.  Less than 100% will result in more horizontally-oriented maps.

At the end of each move, the "dice" are rolled again, and, according to the probability percentage in the "Room Probability", a "Room" will be created about the current cursor location.  The size of the room is random (surprise!), within the min/max settings for the 5 directions in "Room Size".

The number of Total Moves is divided by thge number of Branches.  After this subset number of Moves, the cursor is forced back to the starting position (wherever it was when the "Maze" button was clicked.   This multiple branching scheme makes maps that tend to have a centralized area, which makes for much funner killins'...

Another important setting for map character is the set of Cell Size under Map Build Settings in the Settings under Play Map.  Ben works in a simple 3D grid.  When this imaginary Grid is translated into a Map File, the sizes of each Row, Column, and Layer in this grid are assigned a random size in "game pixels".  The minimum size recommended is 82, since below that players won't fit around a stairway or elevator in some areas.   The very same Ben map compiled with smaller versus larger Cell Sizes do indeed feel much different.  In the "virtual-reality" that is Quake2, one Game Pixel is about one inch in the real world (ie. you player is something like 62 pixels tall and 22 wide - this is from very old memory;  some more recently-experienced mappers may have more correct numbers).

By changing these settings you can get a variety of map styles, from lots of hallways and little rooms (like Lost Hallways Q2DM4), to larger arena areas with balconies and bridges (like Warehouse Q2DM7).

[QwazyWabbit]

Suggestions and comments:
1. A setting for pointing to custom quake2 executable. Default is quake2.exe, it would be nice to be able to launch user choice of binary like r1q2, q2ace, etc.
2. Maybe a mod setting while you're at it to allow launch into mods for testing the map under that mod.

I noticed on a big map, 100 moves, 12 branches, 4 x 4 on all rooms settings and 5% prob. that there were some vertical railing posts on some platforms. No horizonals railing attached.