COLOURMAPS

Stored in colmap.ddf or in the DDFCOLM data lump

Colmap.ddf allows you to modify how colourmaps are used in the game, and are useful for creating interesting lighting and other special effects such as fog.

Each entry describes a "colourmap" and consists of a unique name, enclosed in square brackets, followed by a series of commands that specify a sequence of "coltables". A coltable is a single 256 byte section of a colourmap lump (such as the "COLORMAP" lump in EDGE.WAD), which maps a set of 256 palette colours to another set of palette colours.

The name should be descriptive of the effect it creates and is used in other DDF files to refer to that particular colourmap. See also the sectors.ddf and lines.ddf pages.

To edit colourmap lumps you can use a program such as inkworks (available from most doom ftp sites). Alternatively, TeamTNT (the guys who made the boom engine) created a nifty little colourmap editor called cmaptool. It is packaged up in a tools/utility package on the TeamTNT web site.
 

COMMANDS

The following is a list of the commands that are accepted by each colourmap entry:

COMMANDTYPEEXPLANATION
LUMP[string] The lump name which contains this colourmap.
START[integer] The offset into the lump where this colourmap begins, in terms of whole coltables (0, 1, 2, etc).
LENGTH[integer] The number of coltables in this colourmap. Defaults to 1 if omitted.
GL_COLOUR[hex] Specify a colour directly without needing any lumps.
Example: GL_COLOUR = #FF9030; //Orange
SPECIAL[special] A comma separated list of special flags. See below.
 

SPECIALS

These allow some control over the ways the colourmap is used.

SPECIALEXPLANATION
NO_FLASH Usually when the player fires a weapon, there is a brief flash of light. When using a fog effect (for example), this flash can look weird. This flag disables the gun flash for all sectors using this colourmap.
 

EXAMPLES

The following is an example of a complete colourmap entry:

[WATER]
LUMP=WATERMAP;
START=0;
LENGTH=32;
SPECIAL=NO_FLASH;

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DDF docs written by Andy Baker and Ziggy Gnarly, with updates by Andrew Apted, Andy Brewood and Luke Brennan.
Problems with the docs, errors and comments should be directed to the EDGE team.

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