INTRODUCTION

OBLIGE is a random level generator for the classic FPS games 'DOOM' and 'HERETIC'. The goal was to produce high quality levels which are fun to play.

See the About page for more information.

STATUS

OBLIGE is no longer being developed.

Version 7.70 was the final stable version.

NEWS

A final bug-fix release of OBLIGE has been made, version 7.70. This fixes two serious bugs, and also integrates support for Heretic, which was previously a separate add-on. My thanks go out again to everyone who helped the development of OBLIGE. It has been an interesting journey, my only regret is that OBLIGE never reached my vision of what a great random level generator could be.

I am happy to announce that version 7.666 of OBLIGE has been released. The user interface got a major revamp in this version. There are now two scrolling columns for modules, and some of the panels are now fully defined in the Lua code (previously they were hard-coded in the C++ code). Also the main window can be vertically resized now. The default save filename is based on the generated titlepic name. There is also an option to change settings using the mousewheel. Another significant change is the new "Park" rooms, which are naturalistic outdoor areas with trees, liquid pools, etc.... Hallways have made a come-back in this version, as well as a larger variety of window shapes, and rooms are decorated with barrels, blood and corpses sprinkled around. There is a new "Ramp Up" and "Bosses" buttons in the UI for extra control over monsters, some levels have triple-key doors and remote-switched doors, and the sky generator is making better looking mountains. For the full list of changes, please see the Change Log. On a sadder note, this is probably the last release of OBLIGE from me. I have been working on this program for over 12 years now, and I have grown very tired of it. So I would like to thank everyone who contributed to OBLIGE, all the people who tested things and provided feedback, it has all been very helpful. THANKS EVERYONE!

I am delighted to announce that version 7.50 of OBLIGE has been released! This version is a major rework compared to 6.20, introducing a new system of generating levels based on the concept of Shape Grammars. Part of the reason this release took so long is that I wanted it to reach feature parity with V6, though there are some regressions (no hallways and a lack of 3D floors, to cite two examples). I feel that this is definitely the best version of OBLIGE so far, and I hope everyone enjoys playing the levels it can generate.

It is almost one year since the 6.20 version was released, and believe it or not I am still plugging away on this project...... The V7 code has shifted to a new room construction algorithm based on the concept of Shape Grammars. The system which I am developing is somewhat rudimentary, only applying on a coarse scale (the basic grid) and cannot be used for fine details. However the results so far seem very promising. Another major thing which has changed is the basic grid size, which used to be 192x192 units but is now 128x128 units (which coincidentally is also the grid size of DOOM's automap). That was a hairy decision, as most the existing prefabs were designed for the larger grid size and will need to be reworked or replaced. Nevertheless the new size is working quite nicely in the generated maps, and offers more flexibility for the sizes of rooms, hallways, closets etc... All in all, I am happy where V7 is going, and hopefully the next public release will not take another year :-)

Work continues in the new V7 version of OBLIGE, and I am hoping to have a proper release by the end of the year..... I have recently changed tack too, no longer using the "weird" shape generator, instead I am now exploring the much more traditional approach of "growing" a set of rooms, branching off earlier rooms.

Version 6.20 of OBLIGE has been released. Changes include some basic monster closets, diagonal walls were re-implemented, a module to disable monsters in the start room, finer grained control over many settings, an ability to set the random seed, plus several bug fixes.

I have been working on a new method of generating maps, using an algorithm for generating "weird" shapes which are then used for the rooms, hallways and scenic areas of the level. This work will become the next major version of OBLIGE, namely V7, although it is going to take a long while before it gets into a truly usable state. P.S. The SVN repository has been replaced with a GIT repository (on SourceForge). Merry Christmas everyone!

OBLIGE 6.10 has been released! It is hard to summarize this release, there have lots of improvements and lots of bugs fixed since the 6.05 version. Perhaps the most outstanding new feature is support for 3D floors. The user interface has changed quite a bit too: there is a new 'Weapons' setting, the 'Powerups' setting actually works now, and there is a built-in 'Config Manager' tool for inspecting / saving / loading of config settings. The most controversial change would be the removal of the 'Seed' setting, which I feel is no longer useful or necessary. What I hope to do next is have a holiday :-). But afterwards I plan to implement traps and other kinds of closets, make the general shape of rooms more interesting (less square), finish the rework of the layout code, and whatever else in the TODO which takes my fancy. One thing I am not planning to do anytime soon is get the other games working again, there is still so much needed for DOOM yet.... See the full list of changes here: Change Log