Oblige'd! First impressions (v6.20)

So... I just tried out version 6.20 of Oblige, a level generator for various versions of Doom.

Quick pic of the UI.

Screenshots taken with GZDoom 1.8.2 and Brutal Doom v19

And to be honest... color me super impressed. Keep in mind, these levels were all generated, and it took less than a minute to make the whole wad. This wad was generated using close to the default settings (I did use the GZDoom engine setting, which is why some screenshots have bridges), so it goes to show both how far this level generator has evolved, and it shows the potential for procedural generation in 3D (Two-and-a-half D out of Three D isn't bad).

Keep in mind, this generator does have pitfalls: The difficulty curve spikes very quickly when making episodes with it, the actual enemy placement is a bit questionable (even blindly random), and larger levels start to show the big box they were generated inside. It will also sometimes leave inaccessible geometry lying around, the secret areas are hard to find (sometimes failing to even give a hint to the player by placing the hint on the wrong side of a wall), and trap areas can vary from fair to near unplayable with how many secret doors can be hidden in one single room.

Part of this could be because I was playing Brutal Doom instead of vanilla Doom and this level generator doesn't really account for the extra difficulty, but most times Brutal Doom actually complements the generated levels.

Not sure why the generator saw fit to include a cyberdemon in the first mission of Episode 3, but there it is.

Given that Oblige (and formerly Slige) get general hate from the Doom community (and most level generators get similar hatred) for the fact that better level generators make it harder to tell when someone is uploading generated content as their own, I still think it's a fun tool if you want the nostalgia for Doom, but don't want to play the same levels from the original game over and over again.

I recommend.

You can download the generated wad used for screenshots here or you can create it yourself using this config file in Oblige (version 6.20). You can download the latest version of Oblige at it's SourceForge site here:

http://oblige.sourceforge.net/